AUTO CONVERT MEETING LINK TO JOIN BUTTON IN CHAT

• US 20180253215A1
• Filed: 03/03/2017
• Published: 09/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Powell, Brian C.
• Granted Patent: US 10,445,410 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A method is provided to simplify the connection to a meeting service based on a link presented in a text-based communication session. The method involves monitoring the text-based communication session among at least two participants and detecting in the text-based communication session a text string that represents a link to a meeting service. The text string is converted to a graphical user interface element that indicates a connection to the meeting service. The graphical user interface element is displayed in association with the text-based communication session.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

monitoring a text-based communication session among at least two participants;

detecting in the text-based communication session a text string that represents a link to a meeting service;

converting the text string to a graphical user interface element that indicates a connection to the meeting service; and

displaying the graphical user interface element in association with the text-based communication session.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting comprises:

parsing text in the text-based communication session to detect a text-string that is a universal resource locator; and

pattern matching of the universal resource locator with respect to known meeting services to determine that the universal resource locator refers to a meeting service.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein detecting further comprises:

expanding the universal resource locator by following all redirects associated with the universal resource locator to produce a resolved universal resource locator;

wherein pattern matching is based on the resolved universal resource locator with respect to a database of the known meeting services.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the meeting service to which the text string is a link allows retrieval of information associated with a meeting supported by the meeting service; and

if it is determined that the meeting service allows retrieval of information, retrieving for the meeting one or more of;

start time and duration, identities of participants, identity of meeting host, or status.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising displaying the information associated with the meeting.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein displaying the information associated with a meeting includes displaying identity information of participants of the meeting.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein displaying the information associated with a meeting includes displaying identifiers of participants already in the meeting.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the text-based communication session is one of a:

chat session, email communication, or text-messaging session.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring, detecting, and converting are performed by a server supporting the text-based communication session, and wherein the displaying is performed by a client application running on a user device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring, detecting, converting, and displaying are performed by a client application running on a user device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the link is for a meeting already in progress, an ad-hoc meeting, or a scheduled meeting to be conducted in the future.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a network interface unit configured to enable network communications;

a processor coupled to the network interface unit, wherein the processor is configured to;

monitor a text-based communication session among at least two participants;

detect in the text-based communication session a text string that represents a link to a meeting service;

convert the text string to a graphical user interface element that indicates a connection to the meeting service; and

cause display of the graphical user interface element in association with the text-based communication session.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to detect by:

parsing text in the text-based communication session to detect a text-string that is a universal resource locator; and

pattern matching of the universal resource locator with respect to known meeting services to determine that the universal resource locator refers to a meeting service.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to:

expand the universal resource locator by following all redirects associated with the universal resource locator to produce a resolved universal resource locator; and

perform the pattern matching based on the resolved universal resource locator with respect to a database of the known meeting services.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine whether the meeting service to which the text string is a link allows retrieval of information associated with the meeting supported by the meeting service; and

if it is determined that the meeting service allows retrieval of information, retrieve for the meeting one or more of;

start time and duration, identities of participants, identity of meeting host, or status.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the display of the information associated with the meeting.

17. One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:

monitoring a text-based communication session among at least two participants;

detecting in the text-based communication session a text string that represents a link to a meeting service;

converting the text string to a graphical user interface element that indicates a connection to the meeting service; and

displaying the graphical user interface element in association with the text-based communication session.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 17, wherein the instructions operable for detecting include instructions operable for:

parsing text in the text-based communication session to detect a text-string that is a universal resource locator; and

pattern matching of the universal resource locator with respect to known web-based meeting services to determine that the universal resource locator refers to a meeting service.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 17, further comprising instructions operable for:

determining whether the meeting service to which the text string is a link allows retrieval of information associated with the meeting supported by the meeting service; and

if it is determined that the meeting service allows retrieval of information, retrieving for the meeting one or more of;

start time and duration, identities of participants, identity of meeting host, or status.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 17, further comprising instructions operable for displaying the information associated with the meeting.