Routing instant messages using configurable, pluggable delivery managers

• US 7,412,490 B2
• Filed: 01/18/2005
• Issued: 08/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Trend Micro Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Matsa, Moshe M. E., Quiaot, Julius Q., Vincent, Christopher R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jacobs, LaShonda T
• Application Number:
  US11/037,857
• Publication Number:
  US 20050125499A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,302 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/205, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Configurable, pluggable delivery managers are responsible for routing instant messages to intended recipients. A delivery manager is selected for a particular message, and that delivery manager defines, at runtime, a delivery policy to be used to route the instant message to an intended recipient of the message. The delivery policy is based upon a configuration of the delivery manager, a user configuration of the intended recipient, and one or more available delivery mechanisms. The delivery manager routes the instant message using the delivery policy.

Claims

1. A method of routing instant messages, said method comprising:

selecting a delivery manager from a plurality of available delivery managers, via a client application to route an instant message to an intended recipient of the instant message, wherein said delivery manager is pluggable;

configuring, said delivery manager at runtime via the client application wherein the configuring comprises selecting a configuration for said delivery manager from plurality of configurations, using content of the instant message;

querying, by the delivery manager, a user configuration database of the intended recipient to determine one or more available delivery mechanisms supported by the intended recipient;

querying, by the delivery manager, a delivery mechanism database to determine the active delivery mechanisms of the client application available for routing the instant message;

identifying, by the delivery manager, one or more delivery mechanisms that are common to a result of the querying of the user configuration database and the querying of the delivery mechanism database to yield one or more possible delivery mechanisms;

selecting, by the delivery manager, from the one or more possible delivery mechanisms, at least one delivery mechanism supported by the delivery manager; and

routing, by the delivery manager, the instant message to the intended recipient using the at least one delivery mechanism.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one delivery mechanism supported by the delivery manager is included within the configuration of the delivery manager.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said routing comprises dispatching, by the delivery manager, the instant message to one or more delivery mechanisms of the at least one delivery mechanism in accordance with a policy specified by said configuration of the delivery manager.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one available delivery mechanism of said one or more available delivery mechanisms is pluggable.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the delivery manager comprises a routing logic module.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating an instance of the delivery manager based on the selected particular delivery managers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting the configuration based on content comprises selecting the configuration based on priority of the instant message to be routed.