Method for automatically implementing special forms in an e-mail system
First Claim
1. In an electronic mail system for transmitting an item, the item including a plurality of properties, a computer-implemented method for transmitting custom form data as part of the item, comprising:
- obtaining the custom form data, the custom form data including at least one field for displaying field data stored in at least one of the plurality of properties and control data values for controlling the layout of the at least one field upon application of the control data values to a general form generation procedure of a recipient computer without requiring a custom form stored on the recipient computer prior to the application of the control data values; and
storing the custom form data in one of the plurality of properties in response to obtaining the custom form data.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In an electronic mail system environment, a system and method for providing message flags, providing custom forms, and providing an autoresponse feature. The e-mail system notifies a recipient when a due date is approaching or when a follow-up action is past due. A custom forms feature allows a user to create and share custom forms without requiring the form to be published or installed by other users. The custom form'"'"'s attributes are transmitted to the recipient as an element of the e-mail message. An autoresponse feature allows a sender to create a message that includes voting buttons corresponding to the possible responses to a query. A recipient replies by selecting one of the voting buttons. The recipient'"'"'s vote is automatically tallied in the sender'"'"'s copy of the message, thus allowing the sender to view a vote tally, a list of recipients, and their response.
82 Citations
13 Claims
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1. In an electronic mail system for transmitting an item, the item including a plurality of properties, a computer-implemented method for transmitting custom form data as part of the item, comprising:
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obtaining the custom form data, the custom form data including at least one field for displaying field data stored in at least one of the plurality of properties and control data values for controlling the layout of the at least one field upon application of the control data values to a general form generation procedure of a recipient computer without requiring a custom form stored on the recipient computer prior to the application of the control data values; and storing the custom form data in one of the plurality of properties in response to obtaining the custom form data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. In an electronic mail system for receiving an item, a method for displaying an item comprising:
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receiving the item at a receiving computer, the item including a plurality of properties; determining whether the item includes a form property for a custom form, wherein the custom form is not stored on the receiving computer; in response to a determination that the message item includes the form property, retrieving form data stored in the form property; and otherwise, retrieving form data from a form registry. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6)
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7. A computer storage medium on which is stored a computer program for transmitting custom form data as part of an item, the computer program comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, perform the steps of:
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adding a form property to the item; obtaining the custom form data, the custom form data including at least one field for displaying field data stored in at least one of a plurality of properties and control data values for controlling the layout of the at least one field upon application of the control data values to a general form generation procedure of a recipient computer without requiring a custom form stored on the recipient computer prior to the application of the control data values; storing the custom form data in the form property in response to obtaining the custom form data; receiving the field data from the at least one field as input; and storing the field data in the at least one of the plurality of properties. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. A computer storage medium on which is stored a computer program for displaying an item in the context of a form, the computer program comprising instruction which, when executed by a computer, perform the steps of:
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receiving the item at a receiving computer, the item including a plurality of properties; determining whether the item includes a form property that includes custom form data for a custom form, wherein the custom form is not stored on the receiving computer; in response to a determination that the item includes the form property, retrieving the custom form data stored in the form property; and otherwise, retrieving form data from a form registry. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification