System and method for automatically populating appointment fields

• US 7,487,456 B2
• Filed: 04/06/2005
• Issued: 02/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Flynt, David Wayne, Brooke, Timothy Lawrence
• Primary Examiner(s): HAILU, TADESSE
• Application Number:
  US11/100,674
• Publication Number:
  US 20060230115A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,399 Days
• Field of Search: 715748-759, 715/769, 715/770, 715/780, 715/963
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

A system and method for automatically populating appointment fields of an appointment template. A messaging client provides a message having message data associated with one or more fields. A field populator automatically transfers the message data associated with the one or more fields to an appropriate field of an appointment response. Time and place data is automatically transferred from a scheduler to an appropriate field of an appointment response.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for automatically populating appointment fields of a meeting request with data from a received message, the method comprising:

receiving a message that includes a recipient identifier, a sender identifier, an attachment, subject text and body text;

receiving a single input to actuate a field populator;

automatically generating a meeting request template, wherein the field populator automatically;

populates an attendees field of the meeting request template with the recipient identifier and the sender identifier of the message,

populates a subject field of the meeting request template with the subject text of the message,

populates a body field of the meeting request template with the body text of the message,

determines whether a default for indicating that attachments should not be transferred from the message to the meeting request template has been set;

in response to determining that the default for indicating that attachments should not be transferred from the message to the meeting request template has not been set, populates an attachment field of the meeting request template with the attachment of the message;

populates a time field of the meeting request template with a non-conflicting time indicated by a scheduler database in light of at least one prior meeting time associated with the sender and the recipient, and

populates a place field of the meeting request template with a non-conflicting place indicated by the scheduler database in light of at least one prior meeting place associated with the sender and the recipient.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising populating the time field of the meeting request template with a default time when a non-conflicting time is not indicated by the scheduler database.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising populating the place field of the meeting request template with a default place when a non-conflicting place is not indicated by the scheduler database.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the field populator automatically populates the body field of the meeting request template with the subject text of the message.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the field populator populates fields of the meeting request template by a copy/paste operation.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the field populator populates fields of the meeting request template by a linking operation.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the scheduler database includes at least one member of a group comprising:

scheduling information, prior meeting places, prior meeting rooms, prior meeting times, unavailable times, and future appointments.

8. A computer-readable storage medium having computer executable instructions for automatically populating appointment fields of a meeting request with data from a received message, the instructions comprising:

receiving a message that includes a recipient identifier, a sender identifier, subject text, at least one attachment, and body text;

receiving an input to actuate a field populator;

automatically generating a meeting request template, wherein the field populator automatically;

populates an attendees field of the meeting request template with the recipient identifier and the sender identifier of the message,

populates a subject field of the meeting request template with the subject text of the message,

populates a body field of the meeting request template with the body text of the message,

determines whether a default for indicating that attachments should not be transferred from the message to the meeting request template has been set;

in response to determining that the option for indicating that attachments should not be transferred from the message to the meeting request template has not been set, populates an attachment field of the meeting request template with the at least one attachment of the message;

populates a time field of the meeting request template with a non-conflicting time indicated by a scheduler database based on at least one prior meeting time associated with the sender and the recipient, and

populates a place field of the meeting request template with a non-conflicting place indicated by the scheduler database based on at least one prior meeting place associated with the sender and the recipient.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the field populator automatically determines whether the recipient of the message has set a default indicator for automatic population of attachments, wherein an attachment field of the meeting request template is populated with the attachment of the message when the default indicator provides automatic population of attachments, wherein the attachment field of the meeting request template is not populated with the attachment of the message when the default indicator does not provide automatic population of attachments.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising populating the time field of the meeting request template with a default time when a non-conflicting time is not indicated by the scheduler database.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising populating the place field of the meeting request template with a default place when a non-conflicting place is not indicated by the scheduler database.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the field populator automatically populates the body field of the meeting request template with the subject text of the message.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the field populator populates fields of the meeting request template by a copy/paste operation.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the field populator populates fields of the meeting request template by a linking operation.

15. A system for automatically populating appointment fields of a meeting request with data from a received message, the instructions comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

an appointment client stored in the memory and configured to generate a meeting request template;

a messaging client stored in the memory and configured to receive a message that includes a recipient identifier, a sender identifier, subject text and body text;

a field populator stored in the memory that is configured to receive a user input and upon receiving the user input;

populate an attendees field of the meeting request template with the recipient identifier and the sender identifier of the message,

populate a subject field of the meeting request template with the subject text of the message,

populate a body field of the meeting request template with the body text of the message,

determines whether a default for indicating that attachments should not be transferred from the message to the meeting request template has been set;

in response to determining that the option for indicating that attachments should not be transferred from the message to the meeting request template has not been set, populates an attachment field of the meeting request template with the attachment of the message;

populate a time field of the meeting request template with a determined non-conflicting time indicated by a scheduler database based on at least one prior meeting time associated with the sender and the recipient, and

populate a place field of the meeting request template with a determined non-conflicting place indicated by the scheduler database based on at least one prior meeting time associated with the sender and the recipient; and

transmit the time and place information used to populate the time field and the place field of the meeting request template to the scheduler database.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising populating the time field of the meeting request template with a default time when a non-conflicting time is not indicated by the scheduler database.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising populating the place field of the meeting request template with a default place when a non-conflicting place is not indicated by the scheduler database.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the field populator is further configured to populate the body field of the meeting request template with the subject text of the message.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the field populator populates fields of the meeting request template by a copy/paste operation.