Electronic calendar with group scheduling and asynchronous fan out method

• US 6,085,166 A
• Filed: 06/19/1998
• Issued: 07/04/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines SA (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Banks-Binici, John, Beckhardt, Steven Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel Todd
• Assistant Examiner(s): Morgan, George D.
• Application Number:
  US09/100,132
• Time in Patent Office: 746 Days
• Field of Search: 705/9, 705/8, 705/1, 345/963, 700/99, 700/100, 708/110, 708/111
• US Class Current: 705/7.18
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/963 Calendar or scheduling

Abstract

A system for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users comprises a database, associated with one or more server means, for storing a profile for potential invitees of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user. A remote workstation comprises a request generating system that is connected over a network to the server means and that generates a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees. At the server, a busy time determination system gathers the profiles for the one or more requested invitees using asynchronous fan out requests to the one or more databases storing the profiles and determines whether those invitees are available during the requested time interval.

Claims

1. A system for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users comprising:

database means, associated with one or more server means, for storing a profile for potential invitees of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user;

request generating means, connected over a network to the server means, for generating a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees;

busy time determination means for gathering the profiles for the one or more requested invitees using asynchronous fan out requests to the one or more databases storing the profiles, and for incrementally determining whether those invitees are available during the requested time interval as the profiles for each of said one or more requested invitees are gathered using said asynchronous fan out requests.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the asynchronous fan out requests request the profiles from the one or more servers.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the asynchronous fan out requests pass the profiles to the busy time determination means for determining whether those invitees are available without waiting for responses from the one or more servers.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the asynchronous fan out requests dynamically create at least one busy time file based on the responses received from the one or more servers.

5. A system for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users comprising:

one or more databases, associated with one or more servers, which store a profile for potential invitees of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user;

one or more user workstations, connected over a network to the one or more servers, operating a calendaring system which permit a user to request allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees; and

wherein the calendaring system gathers the profiles for one or more requested invitees using asynchronous fan out requests to the one or more databases storing the profiles and incrementally determines whether those invitees are available during the requested time interval as the profiles for each of said one or more requested invitees are gathered using said asynchronous fan out requests.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the asynchronous fan out requests request the profiles from the one or more servers.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the asynchronous fan out requests pass the profiles to the calendaring system for determining whether those invitees are available without waiting for responses from the one or more servers.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the asynchronous fan out requests dynamically create at least one busy time file based on responses received from the one or more servers.

9. A process for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users connected over a network to a plurality of servers comprising:

storing a profile for potential invitees of the system on one or more databases associated with one or more servers, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user;

receiving a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees from a remote workstation connected over a network to the one or more servers;

gathering the profiles for the one or more requested invitees using asynchronous fan out requests to the one or more databases; and

incrementally determining whether those invitees are available during the requested time interval as the profiles for each of said one or more requested invitees are gathered using said asynchronous fan out requests.

10. The process of claim 9, wherein the step of gathering comprises the step of requesting the profiles from the one or more servers.

11. The process of claim 10, wherein the step of gathering comprises the step of passing the profiles to the busy time determination means for determining whether those invitees are available without waiting for responses from the one or more servers.

12. The process of claim 11, wherein the step of gathering further comprises the step of dynamically creating at least one busy time file based on the responses received from the one or more servers.

13. A processor usable medium having processor readable code embodied therein for enabling group calendaring between a plurality of users on a system, the system comprising one or more databases, associated with one or more servers, which stores a profile for each potential invitee of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user, the processor readable code in said processor usable medium comprising:

processor readable code for causing a server to receive a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees from a remote workstation connected over a network to the server;

processor readable code for causing the server to gather the profiles for the one or more requested invitees by using asynchronous fan out requests to the one or more databases; and

processor readable code for causing a processor to incrementally determine whether those invitees are available during the requested time interval as the profiles for each of said one or more requested invitees are gathered using said asynchronous fan out requests.

14. The medium according to claim 13, wherein the asynchronous fan out requests request the profiles from the one or more servers.

15. The medium according to claim 14, wherein the asynchronous fan out requests pass the profiles to the processor readable code for causing a processor to determine whether those invitees are available without waiting for responses from the one or more servers.

16. The medium of claim 15, wherein the asynchronous fan out requests dynamically create at least one busy time file based on the responses received from the one or more servers.