Managing notification messages

• US 8,630,624 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2011
• Issued: 01/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Marcellino, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu, Jinsong
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nealon, William
• Application Number:
  US13/195,772
• Publication Number:
  US 20110289172A1
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• Field of Search: 455/412.1, 455/418, 455/466, 455/3.01, 709/224, 709/204, 709/206, 709/207, 709/22
• US Class Current: 455/412.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/385 of the core network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses that generate a subtopic identifier identifying a client application within a client device are described. The client application may be associated with a server application hosted in one or more application servers. Notification services may be registered with the application servers from the client application to forward identifiers associated with the client application to the server application to enable the server application to push notification messages to the client device selectively for the client application. When receiving a notification message from the application server, the notification message may be examined to forward the notification message directly to the client application without invoking other applications in the client device if the notification message carries a subtopic identifier of the client application.

Claims

1. A machine-readable non-transitory medium having instructions, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method for message notification, the method comprising:

generating a subtopic identifier identifying a client application within a client device, the client application associated with a server application hosted in one or more application servers;

registering a notification service with the application servers for the client application to forward identifiers associated with the client application to the server application to enable the server application to push notification messages to the client device for the client application, a plurality of client applications are hosted in the client device, and the plurality of client applications are registered with the notification service;

in response to receiving a notification message from the application servers, determining if the notification message carries the subtopic identifier of the client application; and

forwarding the notification message to the client application without forwarding the notification message to another one of the plurality of client applications in the client device if the notification message carries the identifier for the client application.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein a plurality of client applications are hosted in the client device and wherein the subtopic identifier uniquely identifying the client application among the plurality of client applications.

3. The medium of claim 1, wherein the identifiers include the subtopic identifier.

4. The medium of claim 3, wherein the identifiers include a device token uniquely identifying the client device.

5. The medium of claim 2, wherein the application servers are uniquely identified by a topic identifier and wherein the registration further comprising:

registering the client application for the topic identifier to listen to notifications from the application servers, wherein more than one of the client applications are registered for the topic identifier.

6. The medium of claim 5, wherein each of the more than one of the client applications corresponds to separate server application hosted in the application servers.

7. The medium of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

initiating a network connection with the application servers; and

sending the identifiers over the network connection to the application servers.

8. The medium of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving the topic identifier from the network connection, wherein the network connection is disconnected while the client application waiting for the notifications.

9. The medium of claim 5, wherein the determination comprises:

extracting the topic identifier from the notification message; and

forwarding the notification message to each client application registered for the topic string if the notification message does not carry the subtopic identifier.

10. The medium of claim 1, wherein the forwarding comprises invoking the client application if the client application is not currently active.

11. The medium of claim 10, wherein at least one of the other applications is not currently active and wherein the notification message is forwarded without invoking the at least one other application.

12. A machine-readable non-transitory medium having instructions, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method for providing message notification, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server application hosted in an application server, a registration request from a client application of a client device for the message notification, the request having identifiers including a device token identifying the client device and a client application identifier identifying the client application;

sending a server identifier for the client device to allow the client device to listen to messages pushed from the application server;

storing the received identifiers to register the client device for the message notification; and

sending notification messages to the client device to notify the client application, the notification messages identified by the server identifier and the notification messages embedding the client application identifier, wherein a plurality of client applications are hosted in the client device, the plurality of client applications are registered to receive message notifications, and the notification messages are sent to the client device to notify the client application without forwarding the notification message to another one of the plurality of client applications in the client device.

13. The medium of claim 12, wherein the registration request is received over a network connection initiated by the client device, and wherein the server identifier is sent over the network connection.

14. The medium of claim 12, wherein the client token is stored associated with an opaque data including the client application identifier, wherein opaque data is data that is passed from the server application to the client application.

15. The medium of claim 14, wherein the notification messages include the device token to identify the client device and wherein the opaque data is carried in payloads of the notification messages.

16. The medium of claim 12, wherein the sending comprises:

establish a network connection with a push server in a push service; and

sending the notification messages over the network connection to the push server, wherein the notification messages are packaged with the server identifier.

17. The medium of claim 16, wherein the server identifier is received in a certificate from an authority of the push service, and wherein the server identifier uniquely identifies the application server sharing the push service.

18. A machine implemented method for message notification, the method comprising:

generating a subtopic identifier identifying a client application within a client device, the client application associated with a server application hosted in one or more application servers;

registering notification service with the application servers for the client application to forward identifiers associated with the client application to the server application to enable the server application to push notification messages to the client device for the client application, a plurality of client applications are hosted in the client device, and the plurality of client applications are registered with the notification service;

in response to receiving a notification message from the application servers, determining if the notification message carries the subtopic identifier of the client application; and

forwarding the notification message to the client application without forwarding the notification message to another one of the plurality of client applications in the client device if the notification message carries the identifier for the client application.

19. A machine implemented method for providing message notification, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server application hosted in an application server, a registration request from a client application of a client device for the message notification, the request having identifiers including a client token identifying the client device and a client application identifier identifying the client application;

sending a server identifier for the client device to allow the client device to listen to messages pushed from the application server;

storing the received identifiers to register the client device for the message notification; and

sending notification messages to the client device via the client token to notify the client application, the notification messages identified by the server identifier and the notification messages embedding the client application identifier, wherein a plurality of client applications are hosted in the client device, the plurality of client applications are registered to receive message notifications, and the notification messages are sent to the client device to notify the client application without forwarding the notification message to another one of the plurality of client applications in the client device.

20. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory storing executable instructions including a server application;

a network interface coupled to a push network;

a processor coupled to the network interface and the memory to execute the executable instructions from the memory for the messaging services, the processor being configured to;

in response to an initiation from a client device, establishing a first network connection with the client device via the network interface,

receiving, at the server application, a registration request from the client application of a client device over the first network connection, the request having identifiers including a client token identifying the client device and a client application identifier identifying the client application,

sending a server identifier for the client device to allow the client device to listen to messages pushed from the application server,

storing the received identifiers to register the client device for the message notification,

sending notification messages to the client device over a second network connection to the push network via the network interface, the notification messages having the client token to notify the client application, the notification messages identified by the server identifier and the notification messages embedding the client application identifier, wherein a plurality of client applications are hosted in the client device, the plurality of client applications are registered to receive message notifications, and the notification messages are sent to the client device to notify the client application without forwarding the notification message to another one of the plurality of client applications in the client device.