Graphical mobile E-mail

• US 8,774,845 B1
• Filed: 12/21/2011
• Issued: 07/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Kalamkar, Abhijit, Gil, Elad, Coleman, Keith J., Slee, Mark, Shamis, Zhanna
• Primary Examiner(s): VIANA DI PRISCO, GERMAN
• Application Number:
  US13/333,131
• Time in Patent Office: 930 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/231, 709/217
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/145 related to small screens
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

A method for providing messaging-related information to a mobile device is discussed. The method includes receiving from the mobile device a request for messaging-related information, using the request to identify a device-type indication for the mobile device, identifying one or more presentation parameters for presenting the messaging-related content properly on the mobile device, and transmitting the messaging-related content to the mobile device in a format corresponding to the one or more parameters.

Claims

1. A server system implemented using one or more data processing devices, the server system comprising:

a communications interface configured to receive incoming requests for data;

a request processor arranged to obtain the incoming requests from the communications interface and process the incoming requests, the processing including parsing received user agent strings included in the incoming requests;

memory configured to store a plurality of predefined user agent strings and a plurality of predefined presentation capabilities of client devices that use the plurality of predefined user agent strings, the memory organized in a hierarchical arrangement that includes;

a plurality of user agent nodes that store data that characterizes the plurality of predefined user agent strings, and

a plurality of presentation capability nodes that store data that characterizes the plurality of predefined presentation capabilities of the client devices,

wherein the plurality of presentation capability nodes are superior to the plurality of user agent nodes in the hierarchical arrangement; and

a device classifier configured to receive, from the request processor, the received user agent strings and define a correlation of the received user agent strings with presentation capabilities of those of the client devices from which the incoming requests were received, the correlation based at least in part on partial matches between the received user agent strings and the plurality of predefined user agent strings characterized in the plurality of user agent nodes and traversing up the hierarchical arrangement to assign presentation capabilities characterized in those of the plurality of presentation capability nodes to the incoming requests.

2. The server system of claim 1, wherein:

the incoming requests for data are incoming requests for message data; and

the server system comprises a message delivery engine configured to deliver the message data responsive to the incoming requests, the delivered message data formatted in accordance with the presentation capabilities assigned to the incoming requests.

3. The server system of claim 2, further comprising a text-to-audio file conversion component to convert textual message data to audio files responsive to assignment of audio presentation capabilities to the incoming requests.

4. The server system of claim 2, wherein the message delivery engine is further configured to produce documents that include user interface control features responsive to the presentation capabilities assigned to the incoming requests.

5. The server system of claim 2, wherein the message delivery engine is further configured to produce documents that include icons responsive to the presentation capabilities assigned to the incoming requests.

6. The server system of claim 2, further comprising an image re-rendering component to re-render message image data responsive to assignment of the presentation capabilities to the incoming requests.

7. The server system of claim 1, wherein the device classifier is further configured to receive identifiers of communication networks from the incoming requests and define a correlation of both the communication network identifiers and the received user agent strings with the predefined presentation capabilities of the client devices from which the incoming requests were received.

8. The server system of claim 7, wherein the device classifier comprises heuristic rules for defining the correlation of the communication network identifiers and the received user agent strings with the predefined presentation capabilities of the client devices from which the incoming requests were received.

9. A server system implemented using one or more data processing devices, the server system comprising:

a communications interface configured to receive incoming requests for data;

a request processor arranged to obtain the incoming requests from the network interface and process the incoming requests, the processing including parsing user agent strings included in the incoming requests;

memory configured to store a plurality of user agent strings and a plurality of presentation capabilities of client devices that use a plurality of predefined user agent strings, the memory comprising;

data that characterizes the plurality of predefined user agent strings, and

data that characterizes the plurality of predefined presentation capabilities of the client devices, wherein the data represents the presentation capabilities in a hierarchical arrangement in which data that characterizes the plurality of predefined presentation capabilities is superior in the hierarchical arrangement to data that characterizes the plurality of predefined user agent strings; and

a device classifier configured to receive, from the request processor, the received user agent strings and identifiers of communication networks, and define a correlation of the received user agent strings and the communication network identifiers with presentation capabilities of those of the client devices from which the incoming requests were received, the correlation based at least in part on partial matches between the received user agent strings and the predefined user agent strings stored in the memory and traversing up the hierarchical arrangement to assign presentation capabilities stored in the memory to the incoming requests.

10. The server system of claim 9, wherein:

the hierarchical arrangement includes;

a plurality of user agent nodes that store the data characterizing the plurality of predefined user agent strings, and

a plurality of presentation capability nodes that store the data characterizing predefined presentation capabilities of the devices.

11. The server system of claim 9, wherein the device classifier comprises heuristic rules for defining the correlation of the communication network identifiers and the received user agent strings with the predefined presentation capabilities of the client devices from which the incoming requests were received.

12. The server system of claim 9, wherein:

the incoming requests for data are incoming requests for message data; and

the server system comprises a message delivery engine configured to deliver the message data responsive to the incoming requests, the delivered message data formatted in accordance with the presentation capabilities assigned to the incoming requests.

13. The server system of claim 12, further comprising a text-to-audio file conversion component configured to convert textual message data to audio files responsive to assignment of audio presentation capabilities to the incoming requests.

14. The server system of claim 12, wherein the message delivery engine is further configured to produce documents that include user interface control features responsive to the presentation capabilities assigned to the incoming requests.

15. The server system of claim 12, wherein the message delivery engine is further configured to produce documents that include icons responsive to the presentation capabilities assigned to the incoming requests.

16. The server system of claim 12, further comprising an image re-rendering component to re-render message image data responsive to assignment of the presentation capabilities to the incoming requests.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a system, incoming requests for data;

parsing, by the system, a plurality of user agent strings included in the incoming requests;

correlating, by the system, the plurality of received user agent strings from the incoming requests with presentation capabilities of client devices that use a plurality of predefined user agent strings and from which the incoming requests were received, the correlating including;

accessing a memory that includes a hierarchical arrangement of a plurality of user agent nodes that store data characterizing the plurality of predefined user agent strings and a plurality of presentation capability nodes that store data characterizing predefined presentation capabilities of the client devices, wherein the presentation capability nodes are superior to the user agent nodes in the hierarchical arrangement,

identifying partial matches between the received user agent strings and the predefined user agent strings characterized in the user agent nodes, and

traversing up the hierarchical arrangement to assign presentation capabilities characterized in those of the plurality of presentation capability nodes to the incoming requests.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein:

the incoming requests for data are incoming requests for message data; and

the method further comprises formatting the message data responsive to the incoming requests in accordance with the presentation capabilities assigned to the incoming requests.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein formatting the message data comprises converting textual message data to audio files responsive to assignment of audio presentation capabilities to the incoming requests.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises producing documents that include user interface control features responsive to the presentation capabilities assigned to the incoming requests.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises producing documents that include icons responsive to the presentation capabilities assigned to the incoming requests.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises re-rendering message image data responsive to assignment of presentation capabilities to the incoming requests.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving, by the system, identifiers of communication networks from the incoming requests; and

correlating both the communication network identifiers and the received user agent strings with the presentation capabilities of the client devices from which the incoming requests were received.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, further comprising applying heuristic rules when correlating the communication network identifiers and the received user agent strings with the presentation capabilities of the client devices from which the incoming requests were received.