Message waiting alerting method
First Claim
1. A method of providing automatic message waiting alerting for principals of stations served by a telephone system, in which the system contains arrangements for allowing the generation of messages intended for ones of the stations by other ones of the stations, message waiting indicators associated with each of the stations and a database, said method comprising the steps ofstoring messages, including identities of the stations for which the messages are intended, in the database in response to generation of the messages,activating the message waiting indicators associated with the stations for which messages are stored,marking a said message in the database as accessed in response to an accessed signal by an authorized party during a message retrieval operation for a principal one of the stations,searching the database at the end of the retrieval operation, andextinguishing the message waiting indicator associated with said one principal station in response to the last-mentioned searching step if all messages in the database intended for said one station are marked as accessed.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Reexamination
Accused Products
Abstract
An automatic message waiting alerting arrangement in a telephone switching system. Messages for parties served by the system are automatically and manually generated and stored in a database. A message waiting indicator associated with a station is automatically activated only when the database contains an unaccessed message for the station, even though other accessed messages may be retained in the database for the convenience of the station owner. An "accessed" indicator included with each stored message is set to an "unaccessed" state when the message is initially stored. The indicator is set to an "accessed" state when the corresponding message is accessed by an authorized party. At the termination of an access session, the data base is searched for unaccessed messages for the station and the message waiting indicator is activated only if at least one unaccessed message for the station is found.
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Citations
5 Claims
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1. A method of providing automatic message waiting alerting for principals of stations served by a telephone system, in which the system contains arrangements for allowing the generation of messages intended for ones of the stations by other ones of the stations, message waiting indicators associated with each of the stations and a database, said method comprising the steps of
storing messages, including identities of the stations for which the messages are intended, in the database in response to generation of the messages, activating the message waiting indicators associated with the stations for which messages are stored, marking a said message in the database as accessed in response to an accessed signal by an authorized party during a message retrieval operation for a principal one of the stations, searching the database at the end of the retrieval operation, and extinguishing the message waiting indicator associated with said one principal station in response to the last-mentioned searching step if all messages in the database intended for said one station are marked as accessed.
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5. A method of providing automatic message waiting alerting for stations served by a telephone system, in which the system contains message waiting indicators associated with each of the stations, an applications processor for controlling the storage of messages for the stations and a database for storing the messages, said method comprising the steps of
storing a message record in the database in response to receipt of a message for a principal one of the stations, said record containing an identification of the principal station and the text of the message, setting a message accessed indicator in the message record to a message unaccessed state, activating the message waiting indicator associated with the principal station, searching the database for message records stored for the principal station in response to receipt of a request from an authorized one of the stations to access messages stored for the principal station, transmitting the message text in a message record found for the principal station to the requesting station, setting the accessed indicator in the found message record to an accessed state in response to a message accessed signal from the requesting station, searching the database for message records stored for the principal station in response to a message retrieval end signal from the message requesting station, and extinguishing the message waiting indicator associated with the principal station in response to the last-mentioned searching step if no message record is found having the accessed indicator set to an unaccessed state.
Specification