System and method for extending a message schema to represent fax messages

• US 8,370,436 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2004
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Vaschillo, Alexander, Rachamadugu, Raghavendra, Van Hoof, Bert
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Ian N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Towfighi, Afshawn
• Application Number:
  US10/938,169
• Publication Number:
  US 20050088704A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,070 Days
• Field of Search: 709/230, 709/202, 709/206, 709/228, 358/402, 358/425, 358/443, 358/445, 358/305
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00209 Transmitting or receiving image data, e.g. facsimile data, via a computer, e.g. using e-mail, a computer network, the internet, I-fax
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32064 Multi-address calling
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32128 attached to the image data, e.g. file header, transmitted message header, information on the same page or in the same computer file as the image for information embedded in the image H04N1/32144
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32368 Functions of a still picture terminal memory associated with transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32379 Functions of a still picture terminal memory associated with reception
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0027 Adapting to communicate with plural different types of apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0065 Converting image data to a format usable by the connected apparatus or vice versa
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3212 of data relating to a job, e.g. communication, capture or filing of an image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3219 of a job status, e.g. successful execution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3225 of data relating to an image, a page or a document
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3243 of type information, e.g. handwritten or text document
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3249 data relating to a linked page or object, e.g. hyperlink
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, computer program products, and data structures for efficiently storing and accessing electronic messages representing fax transmissions. The messages are extended according to a fax schema that defines formats for adding fax protocol specific and/or or fax application specific data fields to an electronic message. According to the fax schema, the messages have relationships with other data fields stored using other schemas that define the accounting services, message content, and message participants associated with the fax transmission. The fax schema promotes efficient storage and access of electronic messages representing fax transmissions, while also facilitating integrating messages received by fax transmission with other types of existing message protocols and message applications.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

creating, in a network-connectable computer system, a message item from a fax message, the message item representing the fax message in accordance with a message schema, the message item having one or more general properties that are common to at least one of a plurality of different types of message protocols and message applications, wherein the message schema includes data fields that point to information in other data fields in connection with another schema in a schema hierarchy, wherein the message item is configured to enable more than one fax protocol extension and more than one fax application extension to be included in the message item together to enable the message item to be sent to each of a number of applications without duplication of the message item between the applications, each fax protocol extension comprising one or more data fields specific to a protocol associated with the fax protocol extension and each fax application extension comprising one or more data fields specific to a fax application associated with the fax application extension; and

linking one or more content portions of the fax message to the created message item, the one or more content portions of the fax message representing at least one of a cover page and a body of the fax message.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the fax message is a broadcast fax message to a plurality of recipients, and the one or more content portions each represent a different cover page as rendered for each of the plurality of recipients of the broadcast fax.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

assigning one or more fax protocol extensions to the created message item, each fax protocol extension representing a recipient of the fax message and linking to a fax transmission item representing details about a fax transmission of the fax message to the recipient in accordance with a fax protocol extension schema, the fax transmission item adding one or more protocol specific properties to the created message item so as to promote compatibility between the one or more linked content portions and a specified fax transmission protocol.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the fax transmission item represents details about the fax transmission of the fax message to one of the plurality of the recipients in accordance with the fax protocol extension schema for the specified fax transmission protocol used to transmit the fax message to the recipient.

5. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the one or more protocol specific properties added to the message item by the fax transmission item include a name of a device used to transmit the fax message to the recipient.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the one or more protocol specific properties added to the message item by the fax transmission item include a called station identifier of the device used to transmit the fax message to the recipient.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the one or more protocol specific properties added to the message item by the fax transmission item include a transmitting station identifier of the device used to transmit the fax message to the recipient.

8. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the one or more protocol specific properties added to the message item by the fax transmission item include a status of the fax transmission to the recipient.

9. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the one or more protocol specific properties added to the message item by the fax transmission item include an extended status of the fax transmission to the recipient, the extended status including a description the extended status represented by at least one of a code and a text string.

10. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the one or more protocol specific properties added to the message item by the fax transmission item include a number of retries made to transmit the fax message to the recipient.

11. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the one or more protocol specific properties added to the message item by the fax transmission item include a number of retries associated with the fax transmission.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein fax message is an outgoing fax message and the number of retries associated with the fax transmission includes a number of times a destination number associated with the recipient was called.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein fax message is an incoming fax message and the number of retries associated with the fax transmission includes a number of attempts to route the fax message to the recipient.

14. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the one or more protocol specific properties added to the message item by the fax transmission item include a unique identifier associated with the fax transmission.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the unique identifier uniquely identifies the fax transmission from other fax transmissions on a particular fax server.

16. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the one or more protocol specific properties added to the message item by the fax transmission item include a time stamp indicating when the fax transmission commenced.

17. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the one or more protocol specific properties added to the message item by the fax transmission item include a time stamp indicating when the fax transmission ended.

18. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the one or more protocol specific properties added to the message item by the fax transmission item include a number of a page of the fax transmission currently being transmitted.

19. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

assigning one or more fax application extensions to the message item, each fax application extension representing an application with which the fax message is processed and linking to a fax message item representing details about the fax message in accordance with a fax application extension schema, the fax message item adding one or more application specific properties to the created message item so as to promote compatibility between the one or more linked content portions and a specified application.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the fax message is an incoming fax message and the one or more application specific properties added to the message item by the fax message item include an identifier of a calling device from which the fax message was transmitted.

21. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein the identifier of the calling device from which the fax message was transmitted is a caller ID containing a telephone number of the calling device.

22. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more application specific properties added to the message item by the fax message item include a display name of the fax message.

23. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the fax message is an outgoing fax message and the one or more application specific properties added to the message item by the fax message item include a schedule type of the fax message, the schedule type indicating whether the transmission of the fax message is one of sent now or deferred to a later time.

24. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the schedule type indicating that the transmission of the fax message is deferred to a later time includes the schedule type indicating that the later time is one of a specific time and a time period during which discount rates apply.

25. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the fax message is an outgoing fax message and the one or more application specific properties added to the message item by the fax message item include a delivery receipt type of the fax message, the delivery receipt type indicating whether a receipt has been requested.

26. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein the delivery receipt type indicates the receipt has been requested to be delivered by one of email and instant message.

27. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the fax message is an outgoing fax message and the one or more application specific properties added to the message item by the fax message item include a delivery receipt type parameter, the delivery receipt type parameter indicating a destination to which to deliver the receipt, the destination including an email address.

28. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the fax message is an outgoing fax message and the one or more application specific properties added to the message item by the fax message item include a group broadcast receipt flag, the group broadcast receipt flag indicating whether one of a separate receipt for each recipient and a summary receipt for all recipients of the fax message has been requested.

29. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the fax message is an outgoing fax message and the one or more application specific properties added to the message item by the fax message item include an attach fax to receipt flag, the attach fax to receipt flag indicating whether to attach the fax message to the receipt has been requested.

30. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more application specific properties added to the message item by the fax message item include a number of pages of the fax message, the number of pages including the cover page.

31. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more application specific properties added to the message item by the fax message item include a broadcast identifier of the fax message, the broadcast identifier uniquely identifying a broadcast fax message broadcast to more than one recipient.

32. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more application specific properties added to the message item by the fax message item include a link to a fax cover page item, the fax cover page item including additional application specific properties to add to the message item, the additional application specific properties describing the cover page.

33. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more additional application specific properties added to the message item by the fax cover page item include a name of the cover page, the name containing a relative file name when the fax cover page was created with a fax service, and an absolute file name when the fax cover page was created on a client, the absolute file name specifying a pathname of the file in which the fax cover page is contained.

34. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more additional application specific properties added to the message item by the fax cover page item include a note field of the cover page, the note field containing a value of a note appearing on the fax cover page.

35. One or more computer-readable hardware storage having stored thereon a data structure representing a fax message, the data structure comprising:

a general properties field representing properties of an electronic message that are common to at least one of a plurality of different types of message protocols and a plurality of different types of message applications;

a type specific property field indicating that the electronic message is a fax message; and

a content specific property field referring to a content portion of the data structure, wherein the content portion of the data structure includes at least one cover page content field representing a cover page associated with each recipient of the fax message, and at least one body content field representing a body associated with the fax message;

wherein the data structure is configured to be used in connection with a message schema that includes data fields that point to information in one or more other data fields in another schema in a schema hierarchy, and

wherein the data structure is configured to enable more than one protocol extension to be included in the data structure together, each protocol extension comprising at least one data field specific to a protocol associated with the protocol extension.

36. The one or more computer-readable hardware storage having stored thereon a data structure representing a fax message, as recited in claim 35, the at least one data field specific to a protocol associated with the protocol extension comprising:

at least one fax protocol specific property field, the at least one fax protocol specific property field representing one or more protocol specific properties that correspond to a specific fax protocol used to transmit the fax message to a recipient of the fax message, the specific fax protocol being selecting from among the plurality of different types of message protocols.

37. The one or more computer-readable hardware storage having stored thereon a data structure representing a fax message, as recited in claim 35, the data structure further comprising:

at least one application specific property field, the at least one application specific property field representing one or more application specific fax message properties that correspond to a specific message application, the specific message application being selected from among a plurality of different types of message applications with which the fax message can be processed.

38. One or more computer-readable hardware storage having stored thereon a data structure representing a fax account, the data structure comprising:

an ID field representing an identifier that identifies a fax account within a fax service, the fax account being associated with a transmission of a fax message;

a Type field representing an identifier that identifies a type of the fax account within the fax service, the type including one of a local modem account, an MFP account, a shared fax service account, an exchange server account, and an Internet FSP account; and

a Name field representing a user name associated with the fax account;

wherein the data structure is configured to be used in connection with a message schema that includes data fields that point to information in one or more other data fields in another schema in a schema hierarchy, and

wherein the data structure is configured to enable more than one protocol extension to be included in the data structure together, a protocol extension comprising more than one data field specific to a protocol associated with the protocol extension.

39. The one or more computer-readable hardware storage having stored thereon a data structure representing a fax account, as recited in claim 38, wherein the fax account data structure is further comprised of:

a Mode field representing a flag indicating whether the fax account is in one of an offline mode and an online mode;

a Billing Code field representing an entity to which costs associated with the transmission of the fax message are assigned;

a Cover Page Name representing a name of a default cover page used in the transmission of the fax message;

a Server Based field representing a flag indicating whether the default cover page is server based;

an Instant Message address field representing a default instant message address for sending a delivery receipt for the transmission of the fax message; and

an Email Address field representing a default email address for sending the delivery receipt for the transmission of the fax message.

40. One or more computer-readable hardware storage having stored thereon a data structure for representing a fax message, the data structure comprising:

an ID field representing an identifier that identifies a fax message within an message database; and

at least one MessageContents relationship field representing links to one or more portions of content corresponding to the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field, the one or more portions of content including a cover page for each of one or more recipients of the fax message and a body of the fax message as transmitted to each of the one or more recipients of the fax message;

wherein the data structure is configured to be used in connection with a message schema that includes data fields that point to information in one or more other data fields in another schema in a schema hierarchy, and

wherein the data structure is configured to enable more than one protocol extension to be included in the data structure together, a protocol extension comprising more than one data field specific to a protocol associated with the protocol extension.

41. The one or more computer-readable hardware storage having stored thereon a data structure representing a fax message as recited in claim 40, further comprising:

a fax message data structure representing an application with which the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field is processed, wherein the fax message data structure is comprised of;

a CallerID field representing an identifier of a device used to initiate a transmission of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to the one or more recipients of the fax message;

a DeliveryReceiptType field representing a type of delivery receipt that was requested to be sent to confirm delivery of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to the one or more recipients of the fax message, the delivery receipt including an email delivery receipt, an instant message delivery receipt and no delivery receipt;

a DeliveryReceiptTypeParameter field representing a type of delivery receipt parameter for the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to the one or more recipients of the fax message, the delivery receipt parameter including an address to which the delivery receipt is sent, the address including an email address when the type of the delivery receipt requested is one of an email delivery receipt and an instant message delivery receipt;

a GroupBroadcastReceipts field representing a flag indicating one of whether a separate delivery receipt is requested for each of the one or more recipients of the fax message to whom the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field was delivered, and whether a summary delivery receipt is requested for all of the one or more recipients to whom the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field was delivered;

an AttachFaxToReceipt field representing a flag indicating whether to attach the fax message to the delivery receipt when the delivery receipt is requested for each of the one or more recipients to whom the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field was delivered;

a BroadcastID field representing an unique identifier with which a service may identify the fax message on a particular server;

a Recipient field representing one or more links to a transmission data structure, wherein each of the links to the transmission data structure represents one of the one or more recipients of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field; and

a CoverPageInfo field representing a link to a fax cover page data structure, wherein the fax cover page data structure is comprised of;

a CoverPageName field representing one of a relative file name of the file containing the fax cover page when the fax cover page was created with a fax service, and an absolute file name when the fax cover page was created on a client, wherein the absolute file name specifies a pathname of the file containing the fax cover page;

a ServerBased field representing a flag indicating whether the cover page was generated by a fax server, and a Note field representing text appearing in a note section of the cover page.

42. The one or more computer-readable hardware storage having stored thereon a data structure representing a fax message as recited in claim 41, wherein the fax message data structure is further comprised of:

a DocumentName field representing a display name to display whenever the application displays the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to a display device; and

a ScheduleType field representing a type of delivery schedule used to transmit the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to the one or more recipients of the fax message, the delivery schedule including delivering the fax message at a specified time, delivering the fax message at a time when discount transmission rates apply, and delivering the fax message immediately.

43. The one or more computer-readable hardware storage having stored thereon a data structure representing a fax message as recited in claim 41, wherein the transmission data structure represents a transmission of the fax message to the one or more recipients of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field, and wherein the transmission data structure is comprised of:

a DeviceName field representing an a name of a device used to transmit the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to one of the recipients represented in the Recipient field;

a DeviceCsid field representing a called station identifier of the device used to transmit the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to one of the recipients represented in the Recipient field;

a DeviceTsid field representing a transmitting station identifier of the device used to transmit the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to one of the recipients represented in the Recipient field;

a Status field representing an indication of a current transmission status of a transmission of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to one of the recipients represented in the Recipient field;

a Retries field representing a number of retries made during the transmission of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to one of the recipients represented in the Recipient field; and

a TransmissionID field representing a unique ID used to identify the transmission of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to one of the recipients represented in the Recipient field.

44. The one or more computer-readable hardware storage having stored thereon a data structure representing a fax message as recited in claim 43, wherein the fax transmission data structure is further comprised of:

an ExtendedStatusCode field representing a code describing an extended transmission status of the transmission of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to one of the recipients represented in the Recipient field;

an ExtendedStatusString field representing a text string describing the extended transmission status of the transmission of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to one of the recipients represented in the Recipient field;

TransmissionStart field representing a time when the transmission of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to one of the recipients represented in the Recipient field started;

a TransmissionEnd field representing a time when the transmission of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field to one of the recipients represented in the Recipient field ended; and

a CurrentPage field representing a number of a page of the transmission of the fax message identified by the identifier represented in the ID field currently being transmitted to one of the recipients represented in the Recipient field.