Communication interface for non-communication applications

• US 8,490,119 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2010
• Issued: 07/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Leung, Yiu-Ming, Liang, Rui, Shao, Yu, Farjalla, Marcelo, Zhang, Li, Solano, Danilo Perez, Osobov, Sergei
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Lechi
• Application Number:
  US12/967,770
• Publication Number:
  US 20120151500A1
• Time in Patent Office: 945 Days
• Field of Search: 719/328
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Software applications are enabled with multimodal communication capabilities and features associated with enhanced communication systems through a communication application programming interface (API). Applications for document processing, scheduling, audio/video data processing, and/or business operations can exchange communication system data and parameters bi-directionally with components of an enhanced communication system, initiate communication sessions through the application'"'"'s user interface, and preserve post-communication updates.

Claims

1. A method executed at least in part by a computing device for enabling non-communication applications with enhanced communication capabilities, the method comprising:

exposing a rich communication application programming interface (API) provided by an embedded user interface to a non-communication application, wherein the exposure allows the non-communication application to integrate with enhanced communication systems to achieve rich presence information and perform communication related tasks;

receiving communication-related data from an enhanced communication system through the API;

publishing data to the enhanced communication system through the API; and

enabling facilitation of multimodal communication sessions employing a communication user interface integrated to a user interface of the non-communication application through the API, wherein the non-communication application data is accessed through a thin client and exchanged bi-directionally with the communication system;

upon establishment of the communication session that includes application sharing, activating one of an embedded and the attached user interface for facilitating the application sharing.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon completion of a communication session, preserving modifications to non-communication application data and -related data at the non-communication application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

employing the received communication-related data and a plurality of parameters in initiation of a communication session.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication user interface is one of embedded and docked to the non-communication application user interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-communication application is one of locally installed and hosted.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-communication application provides functionality associated with at least one from a set of:

document processing, spreadsheet processing, presentation, analysis, calendaring, scheduling, audio data processing, video data processing, and graphics processing.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the multimodal communication sessions include at least one from a set of:

an audio modality, a video modality, a data sharing modality, an application sharing modality, white boarding modality, a text messaging modality, an email exchange modality, and an online conferencing modality.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the communication-related data includes at least one from a set of:

contact information, presence information, and modality information.

9. A computing device executing a non-communication application and capable of connecting to an enhanced communication system, the computing device comprising:

a memory storing instructions;

a communication server, the communication server managing conversations between users over at least one network;

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing the non-communication application and exposing a communication application programming interface (API) to the non-communication application in conjunction with the instructions stored in the memory, wherein the communication API is configured to enable the non-communication application to;

receive communication-related data from the enhanced communication system;

manage the users computing device capabilities, applications capabilities, and network capabilities, including one or more of processing power and available memory;

publish data to the enhanced communication system;

employ the received communication-related data in initiation of a multimodal communication session;

facilitate the multimodal communication session employing a communication user interface integrated to user interface of the non-communication application; and

preserve a conversation history, newly created data, and modified data during the multimodal communication session,

wherein the communication API includes a communication client object as a root entry point for the non-communication application, a contact manager, a conversation manager, and a device manager.

10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the contact manager manages at least one from a set of:

individual contact objects, contact group objects, search objects, and subscription objects.

11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the conversation manager manages conversation objects that enable the non-communication application to create conversations, modality objects that enable one of starting a modality and accepting-a the modality, participant objects that enable one of addition and removal of participants, an audio channel object for starting and audio conversation, and a video channel object for starting a video conversation.

12. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the device manager manages registered audio and video devices to facilitate multimodal communications.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the API further includes a self class to manage permissions objects representing granted permissions for other contacts to access a user'"'"'s published information and a publication object to enable the non-communication application to publish the users contact information to the enhanced communication system.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the API further includes one or more extensibility classes that manage an automation object for enabling a user to start conversations through an API call, a conversation window object to enable docking and undocking of a conversation user interface, and a registration object for registering application packages to be used for extensibility.

15. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the API further includes an object representing the computing devices'"'"' capabilities, another object representing the non-communication application'"'"'s capabilities, and a further object representing network capabilities.

16. A computer-readable memory device with instructions stored thereon for enabling non-communication applications with enhanced communication capabilities, the instructions comprising:

exposing a rich communication application programming interface (API) provided by an embedded user interface to a non-communication application, wherein the exposure allows the non-communication application to integrate with enhanced communication systems to achieve rich presence information, start a conversation, join a conference, start and communicate with participants with different modalities, and perform communication related tasks;

receiving communication-related data from an enhanced communication system;

publishing data to the enhanced communication system;

receiving a request from a user to initiate a multimodal communication session through a communication portion of an application user interface enabled by the communication API;

employing the received communication-related data in initiation of a multimodal communication session;

facilitating the multimodal communication session employing a communication user interface integrated to a user interface of the non-communication application; and

upon completion of the multimodal communication session, preserving a conversation history, newly created information, and modifications to non-communication application data and the communication-related data at the non-communication application;

wherein the instructions comprise;

employing the received communication-related data for at least one inherent function of the non-communication application.

17. The computer-readable memory device of claim 16, wherein the non-communication application user interface is one of a rich client user interface associated with a locally installed application and a browser for accessing a hosted non-communication application.