Methods and systems for non-interrupting notifications

• US 7,827,228 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2003
• Issued: 11/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Wright, Richard Bernard, Emberton, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn; Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Siddiqi; Mohammad A
• Application Number:
  US10/510,196
• Publication Number:
  US 20060259537A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,775 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-207, 709/224, 705/40, 705 34- 35
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A method of processing notifications issued by computer processes, each notification notifying the user of a business event that requires the user to take an action. The notifications are received and links may be displayed to notifications that are selected according to selected characteristics. When the user selects a displayed link, the corresponding notification may be displayed. The user may take an action relative to the displayed notification without accessing the computer process that issued the notification and a reply that includes an indication of the action taken by the user may then be generated and sent.

Claims

1. A method of processing notifications issued by a plurality of computer processes, at least some of the notifications notifying a user of a business event that requires the user to make a decision, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a notification server, coupling the notification server to the plurality of computer processes and enabling a user device of the user to couple to the notification server over a network, the notification server being configured to receive the notifications from the plurality of computer processes;

receiving the notifications in the notification server over the network;

providing a notification application running on the notification server, the notification application being configured to process the received notifications and enable user interaction with the processed notifications over the network via the user device;

filtering, by the notification application, the received notifications to identify those of the received notifications that require a decision from the user;

coupling the user device to the notification application;

causing links to the identified notifications to be displayed on the user device by the notification application;

receiving a user interaction from the coupled user device indicating a selection by the user of one of the displayed links to the identified notifications;

displaying, on the coupled user device, the received notification that corresponds to the selected link;

requesting that the user make a decision relative to the displayed notification and sending the decision from the user device to the notification application over the network;

generating a reply to the displayed notification within the notification application and according to the decision made by the user;

formatting the generated reply according to the computer process of the plurality of computer processes that issued the displayed notification, and

sending, over the network, the formatted reply from the notification application to the computer process that issued the displayed notification, without requiring the user to log onto the computer process that issued the displayed notification.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the link displaying step displays the links in a portal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the link displaying step is carried out with the user device being a mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the link displaying step displays a link to each of the received notifications.

5. A computer system for processing notifications issued by a plurality of computer processes, at least some of the notifications notifying the a user of a business event that requires the user to make a decision, comprising:

a network;

a notification server coupled to the network and configured to receive the notifications from the plurality of computer processes over the network;

a user device configured to couple to the notification server over the network;

a notification application running on the notification server, the notification application being configured to process the received notifications and enable user interaction with the processed notifications over the network via the user device;

a plurality of processes spawned by at least one of the notification server and the user device, the processes including processing logic for;

receiving the notifications over the network;

filtering, by a notification application running on the notification server, the received notifications to identify those of the received notifications that require a decision from the user;

causing links to the identified notifications to be displayed on the user device by the notification application;

receiving a user interaction from the coupled user device indicating a selection by the user of one of the displayed links to the identified notifications;

displaying, on the coupled user device, the received notification that corresponds to the selected link;

requesting that the user make a decision relative to the displayed notification and sending the decision from the user device to the notification application over the network;

generating a reply to the displayed notification within the notification application and according to the decision made by the user;

formatting the generated reply according to the computer process of the plurality of computer processes that issued the displayed notification, and

sending, over the network, the formatted reply from the notification application to the computer process that issued the displayed notification, without requiring the user to log onto the computer process that issued the displayed notification.

6. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the link displaying step displays the links in a portal.

7. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the displaying step is carried out with the user device being a mobile device.

8. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the link displaying step displays a link to each of the received notifications.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having data stored thereon representing sequences of instructions which, when executed by a computing device, causes said computing device to process notifications issued by a plurality of computer processes, at least some of the notifications notifying the user a user of a user device of a business event that requires the user to make a decision, by performing the steps of:

coupling the computing device to the plurality of computer processes over a network and enabling the user device to couple to the computing device over a network;

configuring the computing device to receive the notifications over the network;

receiving the notifications in the computing device;

filtering, by a notification application running on the notification server, the notifications received by the notification server to identify those of the received notifications that require a decision from the user, the notification application being configured to enable user interaction with the filtered notifications over the network via the user device;

causing links to the identified notifications to be displayed on the user device, by the notification application;

receiving a user interaction from the coupled user device indicating a selection by the user of one of the displayed links to the identified notifications;

displaying, on the coupled user device, the received notification that corresponds to the selected link;

requesting that the user make a decision relative to the displayed notification and sending the decision from the user device to the notification application over the network;

generating a reply to the displayed notification according to the decision made by the user;

formatting the generated reply according to the computer process of the plurality of computer processes that issued the displayed notification, and

sending, over the network, the formatted reply from the notification application to the computer process that issued the displayed notification, without requiring the user to log onto the computer process that issued the displayed notification.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the link displaying step displays the links in a portal.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the user device is a mobile device.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the link displaying step displays a link to each of the received notifications.

13. A method for a mobile device to process notifications issued by a plurality of computer processes, at least some of the notifications notifying a user of the mobile device of a business event that requires the user to make a decision, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a notification server that is selectively accessible to the mobile device over a network and that is configured to receive and process the notifications from the plurality of computer processes over the network;

receiving, by the notification server, the issued notifications;

providing a notification application running on the notification server, the notification application being configured to process the received notifications and enable user interaction with the processed notifications over the network via the mobile device;

filtering, by the notification application, the notifications received by the notification server to identify those of the received notifications that require a decision from the user;

causing links to the identified notifications to be displayed on the mobile device;

sending, from the mobile device to the notification application, a user interaction indicating a selection by the user of one of the displayed links to the identified notifications;

displaying on the mobile device the received notification that corresponds to the selected link;

requesting that the user make a decision on the mobile device relative to the displayed notification and sending the decision from the mobile device to the notification application over the network;

generating a reply to the displayed notification within the notification application according to the decision made by the user;

formatting the generated reply according to the computer process of the plurality of computer processes that issued the displayed notification, and

sending, over the network, the formatted reply from the notification application to the computer process that issued the displayed notification, without requiring the user to log onto the computer process that issued the displayed notification.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the link providing step displays the links in a portal accessible to the mobile device and to the user.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the link displaying step provides a link to each of the received notifications.