System and method for message presentation consolidation

• US 8,819,145 B1
• Filed: 10/08/2007
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Gailloux, Michael A., Kanemoto, Michael W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Viet
• Assistant Examiner(s): BELCHER, HERMAN A
• Application Number:
  US11/868,590
• Time in Patent Office: 2,514 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/203, 709/205, 707/756, 707/760, 455/412.1
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

The present disclosure includes a method for formatting messages that comprises receiving a plurality of messages that have been translated from a plurality of platform-specific message formats into a generic message format, indexing the pluralities of messages using at least one of a plurality of index fields, and threading the pluralities of messages into at least one of a plurality of threads using at least one of a plurality of threading fields.

Claims

1. A method for formatting messages, comprising:

receiving, by a database, a plurality of messages that have been translated by a consolidated message gateway stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and executed by a processor from a plurality of platform-specific message formats into a generic message format, wherein the generic message format comprises one of an extensible markup language (XML), a hypertext markup language (HTML), or a standard generalized markup language (SGML);

indexing, by the consolidated message gateway, the plurality of messages using at least one of a plurality of index fields;

receiving, by the consolidated message gateway, at least one of a plurality of threading fields;

searching, by the consolidated message gateway, the database using the at least one of a plurality of index fields and based on the at least one of a plurality of threading fields;

threading, by the consolidated message gateway, the plurality of messages in the database that have a common value in the at least one of a plurality of threading fields into at least one of a plurality of threads, wherein the at least one of the plurality of threads comprises message contents in the generic message format of each of the plurality of messages that have been translated from the plurality of platform-specific message formats into the generic message format;

sending, by the consolidated message gateway, the at least one of the plurality of threads to a client device for display in a consolidated user interface, wherein the consolidated user interface comprises a plurality of fields that are a union of a plurality of fields of each of a plurality of platform-specific user interfaces associated with the plurality of platform-specific message formats, and wherein the consolidated user interface is independent of the plurality of platform specific user interfaces; and

sending, by the consolidated message gateway, a copy of an outgoing message to each of a plurality of client devices associated with a recipient, wherein the plurality of client devices is selected by a sender, and wherein each copy of the outgoing message sent to one of the plurality of client devices is in a different message format selected by the sender.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising formatting, by a message formatter stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and executed by a processor, the plurality of messages for presentation according to a plurality of device characteristics of a client device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising marking, by a message formatter stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and executed by a processor, a first one of the plurality of platform-specific message formats with a first visual indicator and a second one of the plurality of platform-specific message formats with a second visual indicator.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the messages comprise a first message, a second message, and a third message;

wherein a first thread of the plurality of threads comprises the first message and the second message; and

wherein a second thread of the plurality of threads comprises the first message and the third message.

5. The method in claim 1, wherein indexing, by the consolidated message gateway, the plurality of messages comprises creating a plurality of message presentation columns using at least some of the plurality of index fields comprising a date time stamp, a subject title, a sender name, a message platform indicator, an importance indicator, a message size, and an attachment indicator.

6. The method in claim 1, wherein the plurality of threading fields comprises a sender identity, a sender presence, a sender location, at least one key word, a time-date stamp, an ad-hoc group designation, and a subject.

7. The method in claim 1, wherein threading, by the consolidated message gateway, the plurality of messages comprises grouping together a subset of the plurality of messages that match the at least one of the plurality of threading fields.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of platform-specific message formats comprises an email, a voice mail, a short message service (SMS), an instant message (IM), an Internet relay chat (IRC), and a really simple syndication (RSS).

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the at least one of the plurality of threads from the client device to another client device.

9. A system for formatting messages for presentation, comprising:

a processor;

an inbound message presentation formatter, when executed by the processor, configured to;

receive one of a plurality of threading fields,

receive a plurality of inbound messages that have been translated from a plurality of platform-specific message formats into a generic message format, wherein the generic message format comprises one of an extensible markup language (XML), a hypertext markup language (HTML), or a standard generalized markup language (SGML),

thread the plurality of inbound messages into at least one of a plurality of threads using the one of a plurality of threading fields, wherein the at least one of the plurality of threads comprises message contents in the generic message format of each of the plurality of messages that have been translated from the plurality of platform-specific message formats into the generic message format, and

send the at least one of the plurality of threads to a client device for display in a consolidated user interface, wherein the consolidated user interface comprises a plurality of fields that are a union of a plurality of fields of each of a plurality of platform-specific user interfaces associated with the plurality of platform-specific message formats, and wherein the consolidated user interface is independent of the plurality of platform specific user interfaces; and

an outbound message presentation formatter, when executed by the processor, configured to;

receive an outbound message in the generic message format from the client device, and

send a copy of the outgoing message to each of a plurality of client devices associated with a recipient, wherein the plurality of client devices is selected by a sender, and wherein each copy of the outgoing message sent to one of the plurality of client devices is in a different message format selected by the sender.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a client device profile database stored on a storage device configured with a plurality of the client device profiles.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of client device profiles comprises a device identity, a screen width, a screen height, a screen resolution, and a display device type.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the inbound message presentation formatter is configured to at least one of format the plurality of inbound messages for presentation at the client device using a client device profile of the client device and allow a user to sort the plurality of inbound messages using one of a plurality of index fields.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the client device comprises one of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, and a laptop computer.

14. A system for consolidating platform-specific messages, comprising:

a client device profile database configured with a plurality of client device profile records;

a message format translator configured to;

translate a first message in one of a plurality of platform-specific message formats into a second message in a generic message format for presentation at a local client device, wherein the generic message format comprises one of an extensible markup language (XML), a hypertext markup language (HTML), or a standard generalized markup language (SGML), and

translate a third message in the generic message format to a fourth message in one of the plurality of platform-specific message formats for presentation at a remote client device; and

a message presentation formatter configured to;

receive at least one of a plurality of threading fields,

thread a plurality of messages that have been translated from the plurality of platform-specific message formats into the generic message format into at least one thread based on the at least one of a plurality of threading fields for presentation at the local client device, wherein the at least one of the plurality of threads comprises message contents in the generic message format of each of the plurality of messages that have been translated from the plurality of platform-specific message formats into the generic message format,

send the at least one of the plurality of threads to a client device for display in a consolidated user interface, wherein the consolidated user interface comprises a plurality of fields that are a union of a plurality of fields of each of a plurality of platform-specific user interfaces associated with the plurality of platform-specific message formats, and wherein the consolidated user interface is independent of the plurality of platform specific user interfaces, and

send a copy of an outgoing message to each of a plurality of client devices associated with a recipient, wherein the plurality of client devices is selected by a sender, and wherein each copy of the outgoing message sent to one of the plurality of client devices is in a different message format selected by the sender.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the system is coupled with a contact database configured to map a first identity of a user associated with a first message format to a second identity of the user associated with a second message format.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the client device database contains a client device profile record for the local client device and a client device profile record for the remote client device.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the message format translator and the message presentation formatter are in two separate devices or combined into one device.