Phone application state management mechanism

• US 7,376,740 B1
• Filed: 06/13/2000
• Issued: 05/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Porter, Brandon William, Walther, Eckart, Ellerman, Erik Castedo, Luong, Daphne Huetu
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn; Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): BOUTAH, ALINA A
• Application Number:
  US09/592,321
• Time in Patent Office: 2,898 Days
• Field of Search: 709225-227, 709202-203, 709217-219, 709/229, 370/352
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0024 Services and arrangements where telephone services are combined with data services arrangements which combine a telephonic equipment and a computer H04M7/0012

Abstract

A phone application state management mechanism is described. The mechanism adopts the state storage format widely known as “Cookies” to store information in a cross-application standard format. Cookies for multiple users are stored on a single machine that retrieves phone applications using a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Suitable state information for a particular user is automatically retrieved in connection with HTTP requests. Further, by phone based applications can set the values of suitable cookies. An enforced access policy can be used to prevent an application provided by a first legal entity from accessing state information stored by an application provided by another legal entity. The approach can also be used to reduce the passing of telephone identifying information between applications for user identification purposes.

Claims

1. A method of preserving state information for applications over a telephone interface using a voice application computer, the method, performed by the voice application computer, comprising:

receiving a call over the telephone interface;

identifying a user profile of a plurality of user profiles stored by the voice application computer based on telephone identifying information associated with the call;

identifying state information associated with the user profile, the state information comprising a plurality of cookies retrieved from other computers over a web interface and resulting from at least one telephone session, the voice application computer storing the user profile and the state information associated with the user profile;

storing policies to control accessing of the plurality of cookies and storing of new cookies;

automatically and selectively providing, by the voice application computer, a subset of the plurality of cookies to an application based on the policies;

storing a new cookie with the plurality of cookies based on the policies;

identifying a user associated with the user profile during a telephone session;

determining a confidence level indicating an extent to which the user has been identified;

creating a cookie associated with the telephone session;

persistently storing the created cookie when the confidence level matches a first predetermined level; and

deleting the creating cookie at an end of the telephone session when the confidence level matches a second predetermined level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the policies are dependent on at least one of needs of the voice application computer, first decisions made by at least one operator of the voice application computer, or second decisions made by users of the voice application computer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the application has a corresponding uniform resource indicator (URI) and wherein the subset of the plurality of cookies is selected according to applicability of each cookie in the plurality of cookies to the URI.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the applicability of a cookie for inclusion in the subset is determined according to IETF RFC 2109.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the new cookie is received from the application as part of a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request for a uniform resource indicator (URI).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the policies are based on IETF RFC 2109.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing the new cookie occurs responsive to verification of the new cookie by the voice application computer based on the policies.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising verifying a password for the user profile prior to identifying the state information associated with the user profile.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the user profile comprises creating the user profile on the voice application computer.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

permitting a user to manage the state information associated with the user.

11. An apparatus for preserving state information for applications over a telephone interface, the apparatus implemented within a voice application computer, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving telephone identifying information over the telephone interface;

means for identifying a user profile of a plurality of user profiles stored by the voice application computer based on the telephone identifying information;

means for identifying state information associated with the user profile, the state information comprising a plurality of cookies retrieved from other computers over a web interface and resulting from at least one telephone session;

means for storing policies for accessing and storing cookies;

means for storing a new cookie with the plurality of cookies based on the policies;

means for automatically and selectively providing a subset of the plurality of cookies to an application based on the policies;

means for identifying a user associated with the user profile during a telephone session;

means for determining a confidence level indicating an extent to which the user has been identified;

means for creating a cookie associated with the telephone session;

means for persistently storing the created cookie when the confidence level matches a first predetermined level; and

means for deleting the created cookie at an end of the telephone session when the confidence level matches a second predetermined level.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus supports a second application, the application provided by a first legal entity and the second application provided by a second legal entity.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the plurality of cookies includes at least a first cookie set by the second application, and wherein the subset of the plurality of cookies does not include the at least a first cookie.

14. A computer system to preserve state information for applications over a telephone interface, the computer system comprising:

a first interface including a first program to access a second computer system via a web interface, the second computer system including an application;

a second interface to send and receive audio signals to and from a telephone and to receive telephone identifying information corresponding to the telephone;

a control subsystem to control the first interface and the second interface, the control subsystem including a second program for identifying a user profile according to the telephone identifying information, the user profile having corresponding state information,

the state information comprising a plurality of cookies retrieved from other computer systems via the web interface, generated based on at least one telephone session, and stored in the computer system; and

at least one policy being stored by the computer system to control access to the plurality of cookies and storing of new cookies,

wherein the computer system is configured to;

identify a user associated with the user profile during a telephone session,

determine a confidence level indicating an extent to which the user has been identified,

create a cookie associated with the telephone session,

persistently store the created cookie when the confidence level matches a first predetermined level, and

delete the created cookie at an end of the telephone session when the confidence level matches a second predetermined level.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the at least one policy is dependent on at least one of needs of the computer system, first decisions made by at least one operator of the computer system, or second decisions made by users of the computer system.

16. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the application has a corresponding uniform resource indicator (URI) and wherein a subset of the plurality of cookies is selected according to applicability of each cookie in the plurality of cookies to the URI.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the applicability of a cookie for inclusion in the subset is determined according to IETF RFC 2109.

18. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the new cookies are received from the application as part of a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request for a uniform resource indicator (URI).

19. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the at least one policy is based on IETF RFC 2109.

20. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the storing new cookies occur responsive to verification of the new cookies by the computer system based on the at least one policy.

21. The computer system of claim 14, further comprising verifying a password for the user profile prior to identifying the state information associated with the user profile.

22. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the identifying the user profile comprises creating a user profile on the voice application computer.