Methods, systems and computer program products for performing document-inclusion operations over a network

• US 7,287,058 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2002
• Issued: 10/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Loveland, Shawn Domenic, Foxford, Rex A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Avellino; Joseph E.
• Application Number:
  US10/082,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20030163515A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,066 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-207, 709217-219, 709/238, 709/245, 709227-229, 709/236, 709/246, 707/203, 707 1- 10, 714/48
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages

Abstract

Performing operations over a low bandwidth and/or high cost networks, the operations requiring access to a document. Such operations may include sending/forwarding an e-mail with an attachment or printing/faxing a document over a network. A client, such as a mobile wireless device, sends an instruction to perform the operation to a server. The instruction identifies the document that is required to be accessed to complete the instruction, but does not include the document itself. The server then determines whether it has access to the required document. If the document is unavailable or an older version, the server requests the document from the client. The client then sends the document to the server so that the server may complete the operation requested by the document-inclusion instruction.

Claims

1. In a network environment that includes a client that is network connectable over a wireless network to a server so that the client may transmit document-inclusion operations that are intended to be carried out by the server, but wherein the wireless network may have limited throughput such that data transfer for document-inclusion operations may be unduly slow or costly, a method for reducing those instances when the document-inclusion operation transmitted to the server actually requires transmission of the document that is required by the server to complete the requested document-inclusion operation, thereby reducing instances of unduly slow or costly data transmission when performing such document-inclusion operations over the wireless network, the method comprising the following acts:

displaying to a user at the client an indication that the document is attached to a message even when the document is not attached to the message and in response to user input received at the client instructing a document stored at the client to be attached to the message such that whether or not the document is actually attached is transparent to the user;

sending from the client over the wireless network a document-inclusion instruction to the server, the document-inclusion instruction not including the document itself; and

determining that the identified document is not already stored at the server, the client then indicating to the server that a different version of the document stored at the server is acceptable, whereupon the server executes the document inclusion instruction using the different version of the document.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of the client sending a document-inclusion instruction comprises an act of the client sending an instruction to send an electronic mail, the electronic mail having the identified document as an attachment.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of the client sending a document-inclusion instruction comprises an act of the client sending an instruction to forward an electronic mail, the electronic mail having the identified document as an attachment.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of the client sending a document-inclusion instructions comprises an act of the client sending an instruction to send a meeting request, the meeting request having the identified document as a calendar item attachment.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of the client sending a document-inclusion instruction comprises an act of the client sending an instruction to send a response to a meeting request, the response having the identified document as a calendar item attachment.

6. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of the client sending a document-inclusion instruction comprises an act of the client sending an instruction to fax a document to a particular address.

7. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of the client sending a document-inclusion instruction comprises an act of the client sending an instruction to print a document at a particular printer.

8. A method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising an act of the client receiving an indication that the document identified in the document-inclusion instruction is unavailable to the server including receiving at the client an indication from the server that a version of the document identified in the document-inclusion instruction is not available at the server.

9. A method in accordance with claim 8, further comprising:

sending from the client only those changes made between the version of the document that the server has access to and the version of the document identified in the document-inclusion instruction from the client.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the document-inclusion instruction includes an identification of the document that does not depend on whether the document is actually identifiable at the server or not.

11. In a network environment that includes a client that is network connectable over a wireless network to a server so that the client may transmit document-inclusion operations that are intended to be carried out by the server, but wherein the wireless network may have limited throughput such that data transfer for document-inclusion operations may be unduly slow or costly, a computer program product for implementing a method for reducing those instances when the document-inclusion operation transmitted to the server actually requires transmission of the document that is required by the server to complete the requested document-inclusion operation, thereby reducing instances of unduly slow or costly data transmission when performing such document-inclusion operations over the wireless network, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage media carrying computer-executable instructions for the method, and wherein the method is comprised of the following acts:

displaying to a user at the client an indication that the document is attached to a message even when the document is not attached to the message and in response to user input received at the client instructing a document stored at the client to be attached to the message such that whether or not the document is actually attached is transparent to the user;

sending from the client over the wireless network a document-inclusion instruction to the server, the document-inclusion instruction not including the document itself; and

determining that the identified document is not already stored at the server, the client then indicating to the server that a different version of the document stored at the server is acceptable, whereupon the server executes the document inclusion instruction using the different version of the document.

12. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions for causing a document-inclusion instruction to be sent to the server comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for causing an instruction to send an electronic mail to be sent to the server, the electronic mail having the identified document as an attachment.

13. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions for causing a document-inclusion instruction to be sent to the server comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for causing an instruction to forward an electronic mail to be sent to the server, the electronic mail having the identified document as an attachment.

14. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions for causing a document-inclusion instruction to be sent to the server comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for causing an instruction to send a meeting request to be sent to the server, the meeting request having the identified document as a calendar item attachment.

15. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions for causing a document-inclusion instruction to be sent to the server comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for causing an instruction to send a response to a meeting request to be sent to the server, the response having the identified document as a calendar item attachment.

16. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions for causing a document-inclusion instruction to be sent to the server comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for causing an instruction to fax a document to a particular address to be sent to the server.

17. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions for causing a document-inclusion instruction to be sent to the server comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for causing an instruction to print a document at a particular printer to be sent to the server.

18. A computer program product in accordance with claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions for detecting the receipt of an indication that the document identified in the document-inclusion instruction is unavailable to the server comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for detecting the receipt of an indication that a version of the document identified in the document-inclusion instruction is not available at the server.

19. A computer program product in accordance with claim 18, wherein the computer-executable instructions for causing the document to be sent to the server comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for causing the version of the document to be sent to the server.

20. In a network environment that includes a client that is network connectable over a wireless network to a server so that the client may transmit document-inclusion operations that are intended to be carried out by the server, but wherein the wireless network may have limited throughput such that data transfer for document-inclusion operations may be unduly slow or costly, a method for reducing those instances when the document-inclusion operation transmitted to the server actually requires transmission of the document that is required by the server to complete the requested document-inclusion operation, thereby reducing instances of unduly slow or costly data transmission when performing such document-inclusion operations over the wireless network, the method comprising the following acts:

receiving at the server a document-inclusion instruction sent by the client over the wireless network, the document-inclusion instruction not including the document itself;

determining that the identified document is not already stored at the server, then determining if a different version of the identified document stored at the server may be used in completing the document inclusion instruction by checking with the client to determine if the different version of the identified document may be used in completing the document inclusion instruction; and

instruction using the different version of the identified document.