System and method for displaying and acting upon email conversations across folders
First Claim
1. A method for displaying an email conversation across folders comprising:
- grouping email messages into conversations, where the grouping is performed independent of folders in which the messages reside, thereby enabling conversations to span multiple folders; and
displaying at least one of the conversations, the at least one of the conversations including a plurality of messages, where, for each of the plurality of messages in the at least one displayed conversation, a folder associated with each of the plurality of messages is identified,wherein grouping email messages into conversations comprises;
determining from a subject line of an incoming message whether the incoming message is a follow-up message;
in response to the incoming message not being a follow-up message, creating an open conversation based on the subject line of the incoming message and associating the incoming message with the created open conversation;
in response to the incoming message being a follow-up message, normalizing the subject line of the incoming message and determining whether or not an open conversation exists for the normalized subject line;
in response to an open conversation not existing for the normalized subject line, creating a new open conversation for the normalized subject line and associating the incoming message with the new open conversation; and
in response to an open conversation existing for the normalized subject line, associating the incoming message with the existing open conversation, andwherein determining whether or not an open conversation exists for a normalized subject line comprises;
in response to there being an open conversation corresponding to the normalized subject line, determining whether or not the a last-received message in the open conversation was received before a certain date;
in response to determining that the last-received message was received before the certain date, closing the open conversation and determining that an open conversation does not exist for the normalized subject line;
in response to determining that the last-received message was received after the certain date, comparing header information in the incoming message with header information in the last received message in the open conversation to determine whether similarities in the header information indicates the incoming message and the last-received message are related;
in response to determining the incoming message and the last-received message in the open conversation are related, determining that an open conversation exists for the normalized subject line; and
in response to determining that the incoming message and the last received message in the open conversation are not related, closing the open conversation and determining that an open conversation does not exist for the normalized subject line.
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Accused Products
Abstract
System and method for displaying and/or acting upon email conversations across folders. In one embodiment, email messages are grouped into conversations regardless of the folders in which the messages reside. Such conversations can span multiple folders. In one embodiment, all or some messages from a conversation are displayed, along with the folder associated with each message. In one embodiment, specified actions can be taken upon all messages in a conversation regardless of the folders in which the messages reside. In one embodiment, it can be specified that an action should apply (or not apply) only to messages in select folders, or that the action should apply only to messages matching a search query. Such specifications may be a system-level indication (which may be set by the system developer or administrator) or it may be a user indication (either a default user setting or an explicit user comment).
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for displaying an email conversation across folders comprising:
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grouping email messages into conversations, where the grouping is performed independent of folders in which the messages reside, thereby enabling conversations to span multiple folders; and displaying at least one of the conversations, the at least one of the conversations including a plurality of messages, where, for each of the plurality of messages in the at least one displayed conversation, a folder associated with each of the plurality of messages is identified, wherein grouping email messages into conversations comprises; determining from a subject line of an incoming message whether the incoming message is a follow-up message; in response to the incoming message not being a follow-up message, creating an open conversation based on the subject line of the incoming message and associating the incoming message with the created open conversation; in response to the incoming message being a follow-up message, normalizing the subject line of the incoming message and determining whether or not an open conversation exists for the normalized subject line; in response to an open conversation not existing for the normalized subject line, creating a new open conversation for the normalized subject line and associating the incoming message with the new open conversation; and in response to an open conversation existing for the normalized subject line, associating the incoming message with the existing open conversation, and wherein determining whether or not an open conversation exists for a normalized subject line comprises; in response to there being an open conversation corresponding to the normalized subject line, determining whether or not the a last-received message in the open conversation was received before a certain date; in response to determining that the last-received message was received before the certain date, closing the open conversation and determining that an open conversation does not exist for the normalized subject line; in response to determining that the last-received message was received after the certain date, comparing header information in the incoming message with header information in the last received message in the open conversation to determine whether similarities in the header information indicates the incoming message and the last-received message are related; in response to determining the incoming message and the last-received message in the open conversation are related, determining that an open conversation exists for the normalized subject line; and in response to determining that the incoming message and the last received message in the open conversation are not related, closing the open conversation and determining that an open conversation does not exist for the normalized subject line. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for performing an action upon an email conversation comprising:
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grouping a plurality of email messages into a plurality of conversations, where the grouping is performed independent of folders in which the plurality of email messages reside, thereby enabling the plurality of conversations to span multiple folders; receiving an indication from a user to perform an action upon a conversation of the plurality of conversations comprising a subset of the plurality of email messages; and performing the action upon the conversation of the plurality of conversations, wherein the action is applied to all email messages in the subset of the plurality of email messages in the conversation of the plurality of conversations regardless of the folders in which the subset of the plurality of email messages reside, unless the indication from the user includes an instruction that the action should apply only to a smaller subset of email messages in the subset of the plurality of email messages in select folders, in which case the action will apply to only the smaller subset of the email messages of the conversation in the select folders. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for performing an action upon an email conversation comprising:
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grouping a plurality of email messages residing in a plurality of folders into a plurality of conversations, where the grouping is performed independent of the plurality of folders in which the plurality of email messages reside, thereby enabling the plurality of conversations to span multiple of the plurality of folders; receiving a search query from a user; performing a search for a subset of the plurality of email messages satisfying the search query; displaying search results from the search, including a subset of the plurality of conversations including the subset of the plurality of email messages satisfying the search query; receiving an indication from the user to perform an action upon at least one of the subset of the plurality of conversations; and performing the action upon the at least one of the subset of the plurality of conversations, wherein the action is applied to all messages in the at least one of the subset of the plurality of conversations satisfying the search query regardless of the plurality of folders in which all messages in the at least one of the subset of the plurality of conversations reside unless the indication from the user includes an instruction that the action should apply only to messages in select ones of the plurality of folders, in which case the action will apply to only a subset of the plurality of messages in the at least one of the subset of the plurality of conversations satisfying the search query that are in the select ones of the plurality of folders. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification