Method for tagging and tracking non-hypertext markup language based e-mail

• US 7,558,830 B2
• Filed: 10/04/2005
• Issued: 07/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cama, Karl
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung; Zarni
• Application Number:
  US11/242,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20070079009A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,372 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/207, 709/217, 709/218, 379/93.24
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for tagging and tracking non-hypertext markup language based e-mail. An e-mail is converted from a non-hypertext markup language format to an encoded format. An item is identified in the e-mail. A tag is added to the item in the e-mail. The e-mail is converted from the encoded format back to the non-hypertext markup language format.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for tagging and tracking non-hypertext markup language based e-mail, the computer implemented method comprising:

selecting an e-mail for tracking, wherein the e-mail is based in non-hypertext markup language and the e-mail is created using Lotus Notes;

converting the e-mail from a non-hypertext markup language format to an encoded format, wherein the encoded format is extensible markup language (XML);

identifying an item in a set of items in the e-mail, wherein the item comprises at least one of hyperlink, attachment, or grouped content, wherein the grouped content has a plurality of sections, wherein a section is expandable to present additional content associated with the section, and wherein each section comprises a summary level and a full text level;

adding a tag to each item in the set of items in the e-mail, wherein the tag tracks an action associated with the item by a recipient of the e-mail; and

converting the e-mail from the encoded format back to the non-hypertext markup language format, wherein the e-mail includes the tag added to the item in the e-mail, and wherein converting the e-mail from the encoded format back to the non-hypertext markup language further comprises;

utilizing Domino Extensible Language (DXL) in Lotus Notes to convert the encoded format back to the non-hypertext markup language.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying the item comprises:

loading a user preference file; and

identifying the item based on the user preference file.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the tag contains information about at least one of a recipient, a sender, and the e-mail'"'"'s content.