Systems and methods for providing in-band and out-band message processing

• US 7,159,039 B1
• Filed: 08/31/2000
• Issued: 01/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Laboratories Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Robbins, David C., Hahn, Mark J., Letjer, Luis D., Brophy, Kevin, Chow, Anita L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kang; Paul H.
• Application Number:
  US09/652,908
• Time in Patent Office: 2,315 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/203, 709/231, 709/230, 709/232, 709/236, 709/238, 709/246, 709/202, 709/207, 709/204, 707/3, 707/9
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A personal messaging agent (220) performs enhanced messaging services. The personal messaging agent (220) includes a user profile (310), a message filter (320), and at least one external helper (330). The user profile (310) stores user preferences for processing messages. The message filter (320) receives messages, performs in-band processing on the messages based on the user preferences, and generates at least one event for triggering out-of-band processing of the messages. The external helpers (330) perform the out-of-band processing of the messages in response to the event(s).

Claims

1. In a message arrival component, a personal messaging agent, comprising:

a user profile configured to store user preferences for processing messages;

a message filter configured to receive a message, perform in-band processing on the message based on the user preferences, and generate at least one event for triggering out-of-band processing of the message based on the user preferences; and

at least one external helper configured to perform the out-of-band processing of the messages in response to the at least one event;

wherein the user profile, the message filter and the external helper are created upon receipt of each one of the messages by the message arrival component.

2. The personal messaging agent of claim 1, wherein the message filter includes:

a message manager configured to examine the message and modify the message based on the user preferences, and

an event manager configured to send the at least one event to the at least one external helper to trigger the out-of-band processing.

3. The personal messaging agent of claim 2, wherein the message manager includes:

a tokenizer configured to read the message and reduce the message to a set of tokens.

4. The personal messaging agent of claim 2, wherein the message manager includes:

a plurality of message components corresponding to elements of the message, each of the message components being configured to recognize a specific portion of the message and modify the specific portion based on the user preferences.

5. The personal messaging agent of claim 4, wherein the message components include:

a header component configured to process a header portion of the message,

a separator component configured to process a separator portion of the message, and

a body component configured to process a body portion of the message.

6. The personal messaging agent of claim 1, wherein the message filter is further configured to generate an enhanced message from the in-band processing and transmit the enhanced message for delivery to the one or more mailboxes of the user associated with one or more message recipients.

7. The personal messaging agent of claim 6, wherein the at least one external helper is configured to further process the message after delivery of the message to the one or more mailboxes.

8. The personal messaging agent of claim 7, wherein the at least one external helper is configured to at least one of automatically generate a reply to the message, deliver the message to one or more alternate mailboxes, or notify the one or more message recipients of the delivery of the message.

9. In a message arrival component a system for providing personal messaging services, comprising:

means for storing user preferences for processing at least one message;

means for receiving a message;

means for performing in-band processing on the message based on the user preferences to create a processed message;

means for generating at least one event for triggering out-of-band processing of the processed message based on the user preferences,

means for performing the out-of-band processing of the processed message in response to the at least one event to create an enhanced message; and

means for providing the enhanced message for delivery to the user;

wherein the system is created upon each receipt of the at least one message.

10. A computer implemented method for providing enhanced messaging services, comprising:

receiving a message stream intended for a message recipient;

performing in-band processing on the message stream based on one or more preferences of the message recipient to create a processed message stream;

generating at least one event for triggering out-of-band processing of the processed message stream based on the one or more preferences of the message recipient; and

performing the out-of-band processing of the processed message stream in response to the at least one event and prior to delivery of the processed message stream to the message recipient;

wherein the in-band processing, the event generating and the out-of-band processing are created upon receipt of each message in the message stream.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the performing in-band processing includes:

examining the message stream, and

modifying the message stream based on the one or more preferences of the message recipient.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the examining includes:

reading the message stream, and

reducing the message stream to a set of tokens.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the performing in-band processing includes:

creating a plurality of message components that correspond to elements of the message stream, each of the message components being configured to recognize a specific portion of the message stream and modify the specific portion based on the one or more preferences of the message recipient.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the message components include at least a header component, a separator component, and a body component;

and

wherein the performing in-band processing further includes;

processing a header portion of the message stream by the header component,

processing a separator portion of the message stream by the separator component, and

processing a body portion of the message stream by the body component.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

transmitting the processed message stream for delivery as a message to the one or more mailboxes associated with the message recipient.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the performing out-of-band processing further includes:

processing the message after delivery to the one or more mailboxes.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the processing includes:

at least one of automatically generating a reply to the processed message stream, delivering the processed message stream to one or more alternate mailboxes, or notifying the message recipient of the delivery of the processed message stream,

18. A computer-readable medium that stores instructions executable by at least one processor to perform a method for providing personal messaging services, the method comprising:

performing in-band processing on each received message in a message stream based on one or more personal preferences of a message recipient to create a processed message;

generating at least one event for triggering out-of-band processing of the processed message based on the one or more personal preferences of the message recipient; and

performing the out-of-band processing of the processed message in response to the at least one event and prior to delivery of the processed message to the message recipient;

wherein the method is created upon receipt of the each received message in the message stream.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions for performing in-band processing includes:

instructions for examining the received message, and

instructions for modifying the received message based on the one or more personal preferences of the message recipient.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions for performing in-band processing includes:

instructions for creating a plurality of message components that correspond to elements of the received message, each of the message components being configured to recognize a specific portion of the received message and modify the specific portion based on the one or more personal preferences of the message recipient.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions for performing out-of-band processing includes:

instructions for processing the processed message after providing the processed message for delivery to the message recipient.

22. A message arrival system, comprising:

a server configured to receive a plurality of message streams from a plurality of message senders, each of the message streams being destined for one or more message recipients;

a plurality of personal messaging agents configured to receive the message streams from the server, perform in-band and out-of-band processing of the message streams based on preferences of the one or more message recipients to create enhanced message streams, and output the enhanced message streams wherein one of the plurality of personal messaging agents is created each time a message in its respective one of the plurality of message streams is received by the message arrival system; and

a local delivery agent configured to receive the enhanced message streams and deliver the enhanced message streams as enhanced messages to one or more mailboxes of the one or more message recipients.

23. The message arrival system of claim 22, wherein the local delivery agent is further configured to generate status messages that indicate whether the deliveries of the enhanced message streams were successful.

24. The message arrival system of claim 23, wherein the personal messaging agents are further configured to receive the status messages from the local delivery agent and provide the status messages to the server.

25. The message arrival system of claim 22, wherein the personal messaging agents are configured to further process the enhanced messages after the local delivery agent delivers the enhanced messages.

26. An e-mail system, comprising:

a message arrival component including;

a server configured to receive an e-mail message from an e-mail sender and destined for one or more e-mail recipients,

a personal messaging agent configured to receive the e-mail message from the server, perform in-band and out-of-band processing on the e-mail message based on preferences of the one or more e-mail recipients to create a processed e-mail message, and output the processed e-mail message wherein the persoanl messaging agent is created upon receipt of the e-mail message by the server, and

a local delivlery agent configured to receive the processed e-mail message and store the processed e-mail message in one or more mailboxes associated with the one or more e-mail recipients; and

a message retrieval system configured to retrieve the processed e-mail message from the one or more mailboxes and deliver the processed e-mail message to the one or more e-mail recipients.

27. The e-mail system of claim 26, wherein the personal messaging agent is configured to further process the processed e-mail message after the local delivery agent stores the processed e-mail messages in the one or more mailboxes.

28. The e-mail system of claim 26, wherein the personal messaging agent is configured to separate processing of the e-mail message into the in-band processing the and out-of-band processing.

29. A method for performing personal e-mail services, comprising:

storing e-mail processing preferences for an e-mail recipient;

receiving an e-mail message stream from an e-mail sender and destined for the e-mail recipient;

performing in-band and out-of-band processing on each e-mail message in the e-mail message stream based on the e-mail processing preferences wherein capability for the in-band and out-of-band processing of each e-mail message is created upon receipt of the each e-mail message; and

providing the e-mail message for delivery to the e-mail recipient after performing at least a portion of the in-band and out-of-band processing.