Internet e-mail bridge
First Claim
1. A computer storage medium encoding computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method at an email bridge for providing an e-mail service at a local mail server, the method comprising:
- employing a processor executing computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium to implement the following acts;
retrieving a first message from a first Internet mail server having a first Internet e-mail account, wherein the first message and the first Internet mail server support a first e-mail access protocol, wherein the first message is retrieved by instantiating a first connector object having logic for downloading e-mail according to the first e-mail access protocol of the first Internet e-mail account;
retrieving a second message from a second Internet mail server having a second e-mail account, wherein the second message and the second Internet mail server support a second e-mail access protocol, wherein the second e-mail access protocol is different from the first e-mail access protocol, and wherein the second message is retrieved by instantiating a second connector object having logic for downloading e-mail according to the second e-mail access protocol;
invoking a first deliverer object to deliver the first e-mail messages to the local mail server, wherein the first deliverer object supports the first e-mail access protocol; and
invoking a second deliverer object to deliver the second e-mail message to the local mail server, wherein the second deliverer object supports the second e-mail access protocol, and wherein the first and second messages are accessible to a user associated with the local mail server.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An Internet mail bridge is provided for downloading e-mail messages from Internet mail servers supporting different e-mail access protocols, such as the Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) and Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (Web DAV) protocol, and delivering the downloaded messages, which are in different formats, to a mail server on a local area network. The Internet mail bridge has a mail manager that is independent from particular e-mail protocols or e-mail formats. For each e-mail account, the mail manager instantiates a mail connector object that contains logic for downloading e-mail according to the e-mail access protocol of that account, and invokes the mail connector object to download e-mail messages from that account. The mail manager then instantiates and invokes mail deliverer objects tailored for handling different message formats to deliver the downloaded messages to the local mail server.
21 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A computer storage medium encoding computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method at an email bridge for providing an e-mail service at a local mail server, the method comprising:
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employing a processor executing computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium to implement the following acts; retrieving a first message from a first Internet mail server having a first Internet e-mail account, wherein the first message and the first Internet mail server support a first e-mail access protocol, wherein the first message is retrieved by instantiating a first connector object having logic for downloading e-mail according to the first e-mail access protocol of the first Internet e-mail account; retrieving a second message from a second Internet mail server having a second e-mail account, wherein the second message and the second Internet mail server support a second e-mail access protocol, wherein the second e-mail access protocol is different from the first e-mail access protocol, and wherein the second message is retrieved by instantiating a second connector object having logic for downloading e-mail according to the second e-mail access protocol; invoking a first deliverer object to deliver the first e-mail messages to the local mail server, wherein the first deliverer object supports the first e-mail access protocol; and invoking a second deliverer object to deliver the second e-mail message to the local mail server, wherein the second deliverer object supports the second e-mail access protocol, and wherein the first and second messages are accessible to a user associated with the local mail server. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A computer-implemented e-mail service, comprising:
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a processor a computer-readable storage medium operationally coupled to the processor and storing computer executable instructions, the computer executable instructions, when executed by the processor, implement components comprising; an e-mail retrieval component located on a local area network that retrieves e-mail messages from e-mail accounts located at a plurality of Internet e-mail servers supporting different e-mail access protocols; a plurality of e-mail connectors, each e-mail connector having logic for downloading e-mail according to one of the e-mail access protocols, wherein the plurality of e-mail connectors comprise; a first e-mail connector supporting a first e-mail access protocol; and a second e-mail connector supporting a second e-mail access protocol, where in the second e-mail access protocol is different from the first e-mail access protocol; a plurality of e-mail deliverers, each e-mail deliverer having logic for delivering downloaded messages in one of e-mail formats associated with the e-mail access protocols to the e-mail server on the local area network, wherein at the plurality of e-mail deliverers comprise; a first e-mail deliverer supporting the first e-mail access protocol; and a second e-mail deliverer supporting the second e-mail access protocol; a download manager programmed, via the processor, to retrieve protocol information identifying an e-mail access protocol used for each Internet mail account and invoke one of the e-mail connectors corresponding to the e-mail access protocol of each Internet mail account to download e-mail messages from each Internet mail account from each respective Internet email server; and a delivery manager programmed to select, via the processor, for each downloaded e-mail message, a mail deliverer corresponding to a message format of each downloaded e-mail message and invoke the selected mail deliverer to deliver each downloaded e-mail message to the mail server of the local area network. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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8. A method for providing an email service comprising:
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employing a processor executing computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium to implement the following acts; retrieving, at least one or more e-mail messages from a plurality of Internet e-mail accounts supporting different e-mail access protocols located on a plurality of Internet email servers to a mail server of a local area network, where each of the Internet email accounts provides an e-mail account record identifying an e-mail access protocol to be used for downloading e-mail messages from each Internet e-mail account; instantiating a connector object having logic for downloading e-mail according to the e-mail access protocol of each Internet e-mail account, wherein a separate connector object is instantiated for each Internet e-mail account, and wherein each separate connector object supports a specific e-mail access protocol for the Internet e-mail account; invoking the connector object for each Internet e-mail account to download e-mail messages in each Internet e-mail account from each respective Internet email server to the mail server of the local area network. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An Internet email bridge comprising:
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a processor a computer-readable storage medium operationally coupled to the processor and storing computer executable instructions, the computer executable instructions, when executed by the processor, implement components comprising; a mail manager for managing email messages from a plurality of Internet email servers, each operating in accordance with a different email access protocol; a plurality of mail connector objects, instantiated and invoked by the mail manager, each of a mail connector class having logic for downloading email messages according to an associated email protocol, wherein the plurality of mail connector objects comprises; a first e-mail connector object supporting a first e-mail access protocol; and a second e-mail connector object supporting a second e-mail access protocol, where in the second e-mail access protocol is different from the first e-mail access protocol; and a plurality of mail deliverer objects, instantiated and invoked by the mail manager, each of a mail deliverer class having logic for delivering the downloaded email messages to a local mail server of a local area network, wherein the plurality of mail deliverer objects comprises; a first e-mail deliverer object supporting the first e-mail access protocol; and a second e-mail deliverer object supporting the second e-mail access protocol. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification