Actionable email documents

• US 7,734,670 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2004
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Balsara, Cyrus R, Lucovsky, Mark H., Poozhiyil, Suraj T, Bould, Jason A, McDowell, Richard Shawn
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hwa; Shyue Jiunn
• Application Number:
  US11/012,866
• Publication Number:
  US 20060129592A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,001 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/608
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A received reply email document enables some action to be effectuated using data included in the email document responsive to field identifiers associated with the data and corresponding to fields of metadata. The associated field identifiers that correspond to known fields of the metadata provide some expectation as to the semantic meaning and/or syntactic constraints of the data to which the field identifiers are associated. In a described implementation, an actionable email documents module creates an email document having blocks that are mapped to fields of metadata. The email document is transmitted to one or more recipients. Each recipient adds data to the blocks so that the data becomes mapped to the fields of the metadata. The recipients return a reply email document having the field-mapped data. Upon receipt, the module can effectuate some action using the field-mapped data responsive to the mappings.

Claims

1. One or more processor-accessible storage media comprising processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computing device to perform acts comprising:

creating an email document by an actionable email documents module, the email document comprising a body, a data collection form, and a linkage identifier, the data collection form comprising at least one block for data population that is associated with a field identifier, the field identifier corresponding to a field of metadata, wherein the linkage identifier maps to the metadata, and the data collection form is in the body of the email document;

setting one or more reply email processing options for reply email documents, wherein the one or more reply email processing options comprise a limit to a selectable maximum number of reply email documents eligible for processing;

processing a reply email document that comprises the at least one block that is associated with the field identifier, the at least one block populated by data, the data entered by a recipient of the email document into the data collection form; and

effectuating an action using the data populating the block of the reply email document and responsive to both the field identifier and the linkage identifier, wherein the action comprises inserting, by the actionable email documents module, the data populating the block into the field, of the metadata, the field corresponding to the field identifier and the field belonging to a database corresponding to the linkage identifier.

2. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the action is selected from a group comprising:

inserting the data populating the block into a spreadsheet,

transferring the data populating the block to another email document,

producing another file with the data populating the block,

managing one or more workflows,

validating the data populating the block,

forwarding at least one of the data populating the at least one block of the email document, and

uploading contents of the email document based on the metadata.

3. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the actionable email documents module comprises:

an email document creation module that creates the email document; and

a collected data insertion effectuator module that inserts the data populating the block into the field of the metadata that corresponds to the field identifier.

4. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 3, wherein:

the email document creation module comprises part of a database program; and

the collected data insertion effectuator module comprises a plug-in of the email program.

5. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the actionable email documents module comprises a mapping module that implements a mapping between (i) the block for data population that is associated with the field identifier and (ii) the field of the metadata using the linkage identifier.

6. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more reply email processing options comprise a deadline for arrival of one or more reply email documents, wherein each of the one or more reply email documents comprises the at least one block that is associated with the field identifier, the at least one block populated by data, the data entered by a recipient of the email document into the data collection form.

7. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more reply email processing options further comprise a setting for processing reply email documents from recognized originating addresses.

8. A device comprising:

at least one processor; and

one or more media including processor-executable instructions that are capable of being executed by the at least one processor, the processor-executable instructions direct the device to perform acts comprising;

creating an email document comprising a data collection form and a body, wherein the data collection form is in the body of the email document;

establishing a mapping between metadata and blocks of the email document, wherein the establishing comprises adding field identifiers to the email document in association with respective blocks of the email document, the blocks capable of accepting data from a recipient of the email document, wherein respective field identifiers correspond to respective fields of the metadata;

including a linkage identifier with the email document that links the email document to the metadata;

setting one or more reply email processing options for reply email documents, wherein the one or more reply email processing options comprise a limit to a selectable maximum number of reply email documents eligible for processing;

transmitting the email document via an email mechanism, wherein the data collection form and blocks are transmitted in the body of the email document;

setting a deadline for arrival of an email document reply;

in response to receiving the email document reply prior to the deadline;

effectuating an action using received data populating the blocks and responsive to both the field identifiers and the linkage identifier, wherein the action includes;

inserting the received data populating the blocks within the email document reply into respective fields of the metadata, the fields identified by the field identifiers.

9. The device as recited in claim 8, wherein the establishing action further comprises:

storing the linkage identifier in association with the metadata at the device.

10. The device as recited in claim 8, wherein the linkage identifier comprises a globally unique identifier (GUID).

11. The device as recited in claim 8, wherein the processor-executable instructions direct the device to perform further actions comprising:

enabling a user to indicate at least one destination address for the new email document; and

enabling the user to select one or more fields from the metadata for inclusion in the data collection form.

12. The device as recited in claim 8, wherein the effectuating action comprises:

effectuating an action selected from a group comprising;

inserting the data populating the blocks into a spreadsheet,

transferring the data populating the blocks to another email document,

producing another file comprising the data populating the blocks,

managing one or more workflows,

validating the data populating the blocks,

forwarding at least a portion of the contents of the email document using the data populating the blocks, and

uploading contents of the email document based on the metadata.

13. The device as recited in claim 8, wherein the effectuating action comprises:

receiving a new mail event notification upon receipt of the reply email document;

accessing a linkage table to extract a database using the linkage identifier of the reply email document; and

ascertaining the metadata from a table of the extracted database.

14. The device as recited in claim 8, wherein the metadata comprises at least one of (i) a schema, (ii) a data source, or (iii) one or more instances of a workflow state.

15. The device as recited in claim 14, wherein the data source comprises at least a portion of a database.

16. A method comprising:

adding blocks that are capable of accepting data to a body of an email document;

adding field identifiers in association with the blocks to the body of the email document, the field identifiers corresponding to respective fields of metadata;

adding a linkage identifier to the body of the email document, the linkage identifier linking the email document to the metadata;

setting one or more reply email processing options for reply email documents, wherein the one or more reply email processing options comprise a limit to a selectable maximum number of reply email documents eligible for processing;

transmitting the email document toward a destination email address via an email mechanism, the blocks being transmitted in the body of the email document;

rendering the blocks for data population when rendering the email document;

populating at least one of the blocks with data;

receiving a reply email document via the email mechanism, the reply email document comprising the body, the body comprising the linkage identifier and the field identifiers associated with the blocks, the blocks being populated with data; and

effectuating an action using the data populating the blocks in the body of the received reply email document responsive to both the linkage identifier and the field identifiers of the reply email document, the effectuating comprising inserting the data into respective fields of the metadata that correspond to respective field identifiers that are respectively associated with the blocks.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising:

enabling a user to select the fields of the metadata, each selected field being represented in the email document by a corresponding included field identifier and an associated added block, and wherein the blocks in the reply email document are populated by data entered by the user.

18. The method as recited in claim 16, the method further comprising:

appending current data values from the fields of the metadata to the body of the email document.

19. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising:

appending a hints section to the email document, the hints section indicating an expected content format of data that is to populate one or more of the blocks, or an expected content and format of the expected content.

20. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein the effectuating comprises:

effectuating an action selected from a group comprising;

inserting the data populating the blocks into a spreadsheet, transferring the data populating the blocks to another email document, producing another file with the data populating the blocks, managing one or more workflows, validating the data populating the blocks, forwarding contents of the email document using the data populating the blocks, and uploading contents of the email document based on the metadata.

21. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein the effectuating comprises:

ascertaining the metadata using the linkage identifier of the reply email document;

determining the fields of the metadata using the field identifiers of the reply email document; and

inserting the data populating the blocks of the reply email document into the fields of the metadata based on the determining.

22. One or more processor-accessible storage media comprising processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computing device to perform acts comprising:

receiving input by a database program, the input including a database table, a field within the database table, a recipient, an operation associated with the email, the operation indicating an insertion or an update, and a type of data collection;

in response to the input, the database program performs the following;

in response to determining the type of data collection corresponds to email, the database program creates an email, the email comprising a table identifier associated with the database table and a field identifier associated with the field within the database table;

sends the email to the recipient;

processes a reply email from the recipient in accordance with the email processing option, the reply email comprising the field identifier, the table identifier and received data, the processing including;

in response to determining the operation associated with the email indicates an insert, inserting the received data into the field of the database; and

in response to determining the operation associated with the email indicates an update, updating data associated with the field of the database with the received data.