Managing recurring appointments

• US 8,577,959 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2010
• Issued: 11/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pandey, Prabhat Kumar, Gupta, Abhishek Kumar, Vankamamidi, Sandhya, Saha, Sutirtha, Rajasekaran, Kulo, Shutt, David Robert, Stenerson, Derik Bjorn, Yadav, Niraj, Sharma, Sharad, Pandey, Ramesh Prasad
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Hee Soo
• Application Number:
  US12/828,355
• Publication Number:
  US 20120005261A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,223 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Concepts and technologies are described herein for managing recurring appointments without losing historical data associated with the recurring appointments. In accordance with the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a recurring appointment definition can be modified without deleting the recurring appointment definition and/or losing exceptions, notes, and/or other data associated with the recurring appointment definition. Additionally, the concepts and technologies disclosed herein allow the modification of an existing recurring appointment definition without creating a new recurring appointment definition. Thus, synchronization between rules-based calendaring applications and expansion-based calendaring applications can be accomplished without creating multiple instances of related recurring appointments created due to modifications of the recurring appointment definition.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing a recurring appointment, the computer-implemented method comprising performing computer-implemented operations for:

receiving a recurring appointment definition from a client device, the recurring appointment definition comprising a definition of the recurring appointment;

applying at least one setting to the recurring appointment definition, the at least one setting defining how the recurring appointment definition is expanded to generate one or more instances of the recurring appointment;

generating the one or more instances of the recurring appointment according to at least one of the at least one settings;

storing the one or more instances at a data storage device;

receiving an updated recurring appointment definition from the client device, the updated recurring appointment definition comprising a new definition of the recurring appointment corresponding to the recurring appointment definition;

deleting future instances of the recurring appointment;

cloning the recurring appointment definition associated with the recurring appointment to create a cloned version of the recurring appointment definition;

associating past instances corresponding to the recurring appointment with the cloned version of the recurring appointment definition;

closing the cloned version of the recurring appointment definition; and

updating the recurring appointment definition to reflect the new definition of the recurring appointment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one setting comprises an initial instances parameter defining how many instances of the recurring appointment should be initially generated, a past window parameter that limits how many past instances of the recurring appointment are generated, and a future window parameter that limits the number of future instances of the recurring appointment that are generated.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the recurring appointment definition or the updated recurring appointment definition is received from a web client.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the recurring appointment definition or the updated recurring appointment definition is received from a personal computer executing a rules-based calendaring application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the updated recurring appointment definition comprises data indicating a new start date for the recurring appointment.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the new start date of the recurring appointment comprises a time at which the updated recurring appointment definition is received from the client device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein closing the cloned version of the recurring appointment definition comprises moving the end date of the cloned version of the recurring appointment definition to the new start date of the recurring appointment.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising calculating at least one future instance of the recurring appointment based upon the new recurring appointment definition.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to synchronize an updated version of the recurring appointment definition with the instances;

determining if the updated version of the recurring appointment definition specifies a recurring appointment for which at least one instance occurs during a past window or a future window; and

generating at least one instance of the recurring appointment and storing the instance at the data storage device, in response to determining that at least one instance occurs during the past window or the future window.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising skipping synchronization of the updated version of the recurring appointment definition, in response to determining that no instance of the recurring appointment occurs during the past window or the future window.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one setting specifies what aspects of the instances and the recurring appointment definition are synchronized during the synchronization.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the number of instances generated are limited by at least one of the past window or the future window.

13. A computer-implemented method for managing a recurring appointment, the computer-implemented method comprising performing computer-implemented operations for:

receiving a recurring appointment definition from a client device, the recurring appointment definition comprising a definition of the recurring appointment;

applying settings to the recurring appointment definition, the settings comprising at least one of an initial instances parameter defining how many instances of the recurring appointment should be initially generated, a past window parameter that specifies how many past instances of the recurring appointment are generated, and a future window parameter that specifies how many future instances of the recurring appointment should be displayed at any time, the settings defining how the recurring appointment definition is expanded to generate the instances of the recurring appointment;

generating the instances of the recurring appointment according to the settings, wherein the number of instances is limited by at least one of the settings;

storing the instances at a data storage device;

receiving an updated version of the recurring appointment definition from the client device, the updated version of the recurring appointment definition comprising a new definition of the recurring appointment;

deleting future instances of the recurring appointment from the data storage device;

cloning the recurring appointment definition associated with the recurring appointment to create a cloned version of the recurring appointment definition;

associating at least one of past instances corresponding to the recurring appointment or past exceptions corresponding to the recurring appointment with the cloned version of the recurring appointment definition;

closing the cloned version of the recurring appointment definition; and

updating the recurring appointment to reflect the new definition of the recurring appointment.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a request to synchronize an updated version of the recurring appointment definition with the instances;

determining if the updated version of the recurring appointment definition specifies a recurring appointment for which at least one instance occurs during a past window or a future window;

generating at least one instance of the recurring appointment and storing the instance at the data storage device, in response to determining that at least one instance occurs during the past window or the future window; and

skipping synchronization of the updated version of the recurring appointment definition, in response to determining that no instance of the recurring appointment occurs during the past window or the future window.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising synchronizing the at least one instance with the client device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein synchronizing the at least one instance comprises:

generating a recurring appointment definition for each instance of the recurring appointment; and

synchronizing the recurring appointment definitions with the client device.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the updated version of the recurring appointment definition is generated when the client device is offline.

18. A computer-readable storage medium having computer readable instructions stored thereupon that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a recurring appointment definition from a client device, the recurring appointment definition comprising a definition of the recurring appointment;

apply settings to the recurring appointment definition, the settings comprising at least one of an initial instances parameter specifying how many instances of the recurring appointment are initially generated, a past window parameter specifying how many past instances of the recurring appointment are generated, and a future window parameter specifying how many future instances of the recurring appointment should be maintained at any time, the settings defining how the recurring appointment definition is expanded to generate one or more instances of the recurring appointment;

generate the one or more instances of the recurring appointment in accordance with the settings, wherein the number of instances is limited by at least one of the settings;

store the one or more instances at a data storage device;

receive an updated version of the recurring appointment definition from the client device, the updated version of the recurring appointment definition comprising a new definition of the recurring appointment;

delete the future instances of the recurring appointment from the data storage device;

clone the recurring appointment definition to create a cloned version of the recurring appointment definition;

associate at least one of past instances or past exceptions corresponding to the recurring appointment with the cloned version of the recurring appointment definition;

close the cloned version of the recurring appointment definition; and

update the recurring appointment definition to reflect the new definition of the recurring appointment.