System and method for enabling an external-system view of email attachments

• US 8,805,934 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2005
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dargahi, Ross, Schemers, Roland J. III, Dharmaraj, Satish
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Rupal
• Assistant Examiner(s): MCKENZIE, MARCUS A
• Application Number:
  US11/128,558
• Publication Number:
  US 20090100073A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,377 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-207
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments

Abstract

A method and system for enabling viewing of email attachments through a system external to the email application itself In one embodiment, the email application creates categories and the email attachments are accordingly categorized. These categories are mapped into a format understandable by the external system, and provided to the external system in such format. In one embodiment, the email application appears as a file system to the operating system of a user'"'"'s computer. The created categories are provided to the operating system as the “folders” in the file system. In one embodiment, the file system seen by the external system is a virtual file system, and any sub-categories and/or email attachment themselves are provided to the external system upon a specific request.

Claims

1. A method for enabling a view of categorized email attachments using a system external to an email application that stores and processes emails, the method comprising:

receiving, by the email application, an email comprising one or more email attachments, wherein the email and the one or more email attachments are stored in a message store accessible by the email application;

creating, based on the one or more email attachments, categories upon which to categorize the one or more email attachments and the email separately in an email system;

categorizing the one or more email attachments separately from the email in accordance with the categories, wherein the one or more email attachments remain within the message store;

in response to receiving a request from the external system for email attachments associated with one of the categories, identifying any email attachments under the one category by reverse mapping the requested one category to a format applicable to the email application, mapping the email attachments associated with the one category to file names, and using the external system to display the file names as contents of the one category; and

in response to a request for an email attachment corresponding to one of the file names, providing the external system contents of the email attachment that corresponds to the one of the file names.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the external system is an operating system and wherein the email application appears as a file system to the operating system.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising mapping one or more of the categories into a format understandable by the external system for category information and providing such mapped categories to the external system in such format, wherein the mapped categories are used for creating a virtual filing system and wherein the mapped categories are provided to the operating system as folders in the file system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the external system is a web server.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one or more of the created categories correspond to metadata in a message header of the email.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by sender.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by file type.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by date.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by domain name of senders.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by domain name of recipients.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the created categories include at least one user-created category.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the created categories are based on fields and terms of metadata in headers of email messages that have email attachments.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein categorizing the one or more email attachments comprises indexing the one or more email attachments according to fields and terms of metadata in the email corresponding to the one or more email attachments.

33. The method of claim 1, in response to a request to access an email attachment, presenting the categories as folders in a file system.

14. A method, implemented by an email application, for enabling a file-system view of email attachments on a computer having an operating system, wherein the email application appears as a file system to the operating system, the method comprising:

receiving, by the email application, an email comprising one or more email attachments, wherein the email and the one or more email attachments are stored in a message store accessible by the email application;

creating, based on the one or more email attachments, categories upon which to categorize the one or more email attachments separately from the email;

categorizing the one or more email attachments and the email in accordance with such categories;

receiving a request from the operating system for contents of the file system;

mapping the categories into folder names and providing the folder names to the operating system;

receiving a request from the operating system for contents of a select folder having one of the folder names;

in response to receiving a request from the external system for email attachments associated with one of the categories, identifying any email attachments under the one category by reverse mapping the requested one category to a format applicable to the email application, mapping the email attachments associated with the one category to file names, and using the external system to display the file names as contents of the one category;

mapping a folder name of the select folder to one of the categories;

identifying each email attachment under the one of the categories;

mapping each of the identified email attachments to file names and providing the file names to the operating system as the contents of the select folder; and

in response to receiving a request from the operating system for a file having one of the file names, mapping the file name to a corresponding email attachment from the message store and providing contents of the email attachment to the operating system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein folders corresponding to a highest-level of categories are provided first as the contents of the file system and folders corresponding to subcategories under higher-level categories are provided, when requested by the operating system, as the content of higher-level folders wherein the file system is a virtual file system, and

wherein at least one or more of the categories correspond to metadata in a message header of the email.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by sender.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by file type.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by date.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by domain name of senders.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by domain name of recipients.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein the categories includes at least one user-created category.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein the categories are based on fields and terms of metadata in headers of email messages that have email attachments.

23. The method of claim 14, wherein categorizing the one or more email attachments comprises indexing the one or more email attachments according to fields and terms of metadata associated with the one or more email attachments.

24. A method, implemented by an email application, for enabling a file-system view of email attachments on an external computer having an operating system, wherein the email application appears as a file system to the operating system, the method comprising:

receiving, by the email application, an email comprising one or more email attachments, wherein the email and the one or more email attachments are stored in a message store accessible by the email application;

creating, based on the one or more email attachments, categories into which to categorize the one or more email attachments separately from the email;

categorizing the one or more email attachments and the email in accordance with the categories;

providing the categories to the operating system as folders in the file system, wherein the files system is virtual;

in response to receiving a request from the external system for email attachments associated with one of the categories, identifying any email attachments under the one category by reverse mapping the requested one category to a format applicable to the email application, mapping the email attachments associated with the one category to file names, and using the external system to display the file names as contents of the one category;

in response to a request to access an email attachment, presenting the categories as the folders in the file system;

in response to a request for contents of one of the categories, providing, from the message store, each email attachment under the requested category.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the categories are based on fields and terms of metadata in headers of email messages that have email attachments.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein categorizing the one or more email attachments comprises indexing the one or more email attachments according to fields and terms of metadata associated with the one or more email attachments.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by sender.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by file type.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by date.

30. The method of claim 24, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized by domain name of senders.

31. The method of claim 24, wherein the one or more email attachments are categorized based on content within the one or more email attachments.

32. A method for enabling an email attachment to be tracked separately and viewed separately from a corresponding email using a system external to an email application that stores and processes emails, the method comprising:

receiving, by an email application, an email comprising an email attachment, the email further comprising a header that includes metadata corresponding to the email and the email attachment;

creating a first file comprising the email and the metadata corresponding to the email;

assigning a first identifier to the first file;

creating, based on the email attachment, a second file comprising the email attachment and the metadata corresponding to the email attachment;

assigning the first identifier to the second file and a second identifier to the second file; and

in response to receiving a request from the external system for email attachments associated with one of the categories, identifying any email attachments under the one category by reverse mapping the requested one category to a format applicable to the email application, mapping the email attachments associated with the one category to file names, and using the external system to display the file names as contents of the one category;

storing the first file and the second file in a memory area accessible by the email application such that upon receiving a request from the external application to view the email attachment without viewing the email, mapping the second identifier and the metadata corresponding to the email attachment and providing the contents of the email attachment to the external application without the email.