Dynamic set operations when specifying email recipients

• US 8,606,864 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2010
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Brian K. Buchheit
• Original Assignee: Brian K. Buchheit
• Inventors: Buchheit, Brian K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gee, Jason K.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ullah, Sharif E
• Application Number:
  US12/983,022
• Publication Number:
  US 20110099239A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,075 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/204, 715/751, 715/755, 455/410
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

A method for specifying email recipients that includes specifying a first set of email recipients, a second set of email recipients, and a set operation. A third set of email recipients can be automatically is generated by performing the set operation upon the first set and the second set. Email can then be sent to this automatically generated third set of email recipients.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at least one of one or more computing devices providing an electronic message user interface;

at least one of the one or more computing devices identifying an electronic message to be sent by a user to a plurality of recipients, each of the plurality of recipients being uniquely identified with a recipient address to a recipient account for receiving electronic messages, wherein sent ones of the electronic message are stored within a non-transitory storage medium and are thereafter accessible by a corresponding one of the plurality of recipients;

at least one of the one or more computing devices receiving user input into two different designation sections from the user via the electronic message user interface, said user input for a first one of the two different designation sections specifying a list name of a predefined list for a first set of two or more recipients, a user specified set operator, and a second set of one or more recipients, wherein said predefined list is maintained specifically for the user by an electronic messaging system to which the electronic message user interface is linked, wherein said user input for a second one of the two different designation sections including a third set of one of more recipients;

at least one of the one or more computing devices mathematically evaluating the first set and the second set using the set operator to dynamically generate a replacement set, wherein the mathematically evaluating causes at least one recipient of the first set to be excluded, whereby the replacement set includes fewer recipients than a quantity of recipients included in the first set, wherein the at least one excluded recipient of the first set include one recipient referred to as a first-designated-section-excluded-recipient, wherein the third set includes the first-designated-section-excluded-recipient;

at least one of the one or more computing devices creating a new predefined list from the replacement set;

saving the new predefined list for future reuse by users, who are able to thereafter specify the new predefined list by name within the electronic message user interface, wherein the new redefined list consists of the replacement set of recipients, wherein the saving saves an expression by an expression name, wherein the expression comprises the name of the predefined list name for a first set of two or more recipients, the set operator, and the second set of one or more recipients, wherein the saved expression is thereafter able to be utilized to define the replacement set, wherein whenever the predefined list for the first set of two or more recipients is changed, the expression used after the new predefined list is dynamically evaluated as a new replacement set different from said replacement set by virtue of the change to the predefined list for the first set of two or more recipients; and

at least one of the one or more computing devices receiving from the user a user selection of a send option from the electronic message user interface, wherein election of the send option causes the electronic message to be conveyed the replacement set of recipients as specified in the first one of the designation sections, wherein election of the send option also causes the electronic message to be conveyed to the third set of recipients as specified in the second one of the designation sections, wherein the first-designated-section-excluded-recipient is sent the electronic message but is not indicated in the sent electronic message as being included in the first one of the designated sections, and wherein if the first-designated-section-excluded-recipient was not included in the third set then the first-designated-section-excluded-recipient would not have been sent the electronic message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic message is an email message, wherein the electronic message user interface is an email user interface, wherein each recipient address is an email address, wherein the predefined list is an email distribution list.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic message user interface comprises a plurality of different designation sections for designating message recipients, wherein the replacement set defines recipients for a single one of the different designation sections, wherein other ones of the designation sections are unaffected by mathematically evaluating the user specified set operation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user specified set operation, the list name, and the second set of one or more recipients are typed into one of a plurality of different designation sections of the electronic message user interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user specified set operation is an intersection operation, wherein the replacement set is an intersection of the first set and the second set.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input does not expressly enumerate a list of recipients of the replacement set, said method further comprising:

at least one of the one or more computing devices presenting within the electronic message user interface an enumerated list of recipients of the replacement set.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one of the one or more computing devices providing the electronic message user interface that presents an option for a user to save a new predefined list for the replacement set.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user specified set operation is a subtraction operation, wherein the replacement set is a set-theoretic difference of the first set and the second set also referred to as the relative complement of the second set in the first set.

9. A method comprising:

receiving at an email server an email message from a remotely located computing device;

determining a set of email recipients from a header of the email message, wherein said header specifies different groups of email recipients, one of the different groups being a TO group, wherein each of the different groups are evaluated by the email server independent of evaluations of other ones of the different groups;

during the determining, ascertaining that one of the different groups specifies a distribution list, a set operator, and either a different distribution list or a recipient set of one or more email addresses;

determining a replacement set of recipients by evaluating the distribution list name, the set operator, and the different distribution list or the recipient set, wherein the replacement set includes fewer recipients than those included in the distribution list;

creating a new distribution list from the determined replacement set;

saving the new distribution list for future reuse by users, who are able to thereafter specify the new distribution list by name within a TO, CC, or BCC section of an email user interface, wherein the new distribution list consists of the replacement set of recipients, wherein the saving saves an expression by an expression name, wherein the expression comprises the distribution list name, the set operator, and the different distribution list or the recipient set, wherein an email client or the email server thereafter permits the saved expression to be utilized to define the replacement set, wherein whenever the distribution list is changed, the expression used after the distribution list change is dynamically evaluated as a new replacement set different from said replacement set by virtue of the change to the distribution list; and

sending the email message to each of the set of recipients in the replacement set, wherein at least one of the receiving, the determining of the set of email recipients, the ascertaining, the determining of the replacement set, the saving of the new distribution list, and the sending are performed by a computing device executing program instructions stored in a non-transitory storage medium.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one of the different groups specifies the distribution list, the set operator, and the different distribution list, wherein the determining of the replacement set evaluates the distribution list name, the set operator, and the different distribution list.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the one of the different groups specifies the distribution list, the set operator, and the recipient set, wherein said recipient set explicitly specifies a set of email recipients by email addresses, wherein the determining of the replacement set evaluates the distribution list name, the set operator, and the recipient set.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the set operator is an operation representing that recipients in the different distribution list or the recipient set are to be excluded from the replacement set, wherein the replacement set includes a set of recipients from the distribution list that are not included in the different distribution list or the recipient set.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the set operator is an operation representing only those recipients included in the distribution list and included in the different distribution list or recipient set are to be included in the replacement set, wherein the replacement set includes a set of recipients from the distribution list that are also included in the different distribution list or the recipient set, wherein recipients in the distribution list that are not in the different distribution list or recipient set are excluded from the replacement set.

14. A method for establishing a set of a plurality of email recipients comprising:

at least one of one or more computing devices receiving user input specifying a distribution list, a set operator, and either a different distribution list or a recipient set of one or more email addresses,

at least one of the one or more computing devices determining the replacement set of recipients by evaluating the distribution list name, the set operator, and the different distribution list or the recipient set, wherein the replacement set includes fewer recipients than those included in the distribution list, wherein the set operator is an exclusion operator or an intersection operator, wherein the exclusion operator is an operator representing that recipients in the different distribution list or the recipient set are to be excluded from the replacement set, wherein the intersection operator is an operator representing only those recipients included in the distribution list and included in the different distribution list or recipient set are to be included in the replacement set;

at least one of the one or more computing devices creating a new distribution list from the determined replacement set that results from the user input being evaluated; and

at least one of the one or more computing devices saving the new distribution list for future reuse by users, who are able to thereafter specify the new distribution list by name within a TO, CC, or BCC section of an email user interface, wherein the new distribution list consists of the replacement set of recipients, wherein the saving saves an expression by an expression name, wherein the expression comprises the distribution list name, the set operator, and the different distribution list or the recipient set, wherein an email client or an email server thereafter permits the saved expression to be utilized to define the replacement set, wherein whenever the distribution list is changed, the expression used after the distribution list change is dynamically evaluated as a new replacement set different from said replacement set by virtue of the change to the distribution list.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the saving occurs responsive to a user selecting a save button from the email user interface, wherein the saving of the new distribution list does not require a user of the email user interface to enumerate the replacement set except by providing the user input.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein after the new distribution list has been saved for future reuse, the replacement set of recipients of a saved version of the new distribution list dynamically and automatically changes, in response to changes to the distribution list, wherein the changes to the distribution list occur after a first time the new distribution list was saved.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein after the new distribution list has been saved for future reuse, the replacement set of recipients of a saved version the new distribution list dynamically and automatically changes in response to changes to either the different distribution list or the recipient set, wherein the changes to the distribution list occur after a first time the new distribution list was saved.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

after the new distribution list is saved and maintained by the email server, detecting a change in one of the distribution list or the different distribution list if a different distribution list is used to represent the replacement set;

responsive to the change, automatically determining a new replacement set by evaluating distribution list or the different distribution list in a post change form as they exist after the change was detected; and

responsive to determining the new replacement set, updating the new distribution list maintained by the server so that the updated version of the new distribution list includes only the set of recipients in the new replacement set.