Retrieving availability information from published calendars

• US 8,843,587 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2012
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Los, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): DENNIS, GARY V
• Application Number:
  US13/368,267
• Publication Number:
  US 20130204964A1
• Time in Patent Office: 959 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/217, 726/4, 726/1
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups

Abstract

An application retrieves a published calendar from an online calendar application. The application formats the published calendar according to user status states such as “free” or “busy.” The application can also alternatively assign user status information from the published calendar to users status state levels such as “free,” “tentative,” “out of office,” “busy,” and “remotely available.” The application matches calendar owner information to a contact from a contact list of the application in order to link the formatted calendar to the contact. The application presents the linked calendar for scheduling.

Claims

1. A method executed on a computing device for retrieving availability information from published calendars, the method comprising:

determining a source for a published calendar;

retrieving the published calendar from the source;

formatting the published calendar to match a format of a calendar maintained by an application retrieving the published calendar;

extracting user status information and private user information from the published calendar;

formatting the published calendar to match a format of a calendar maintained by an application retrieving the published calendar;

evaluating a status description employed by the published calendar at a mapping engine, and mapping the status description to a corresponding status in the calendar maintained by the application at the mapping engine;

linking the formatted calendar to a contact maintained by the application by;

determining identifier information of an owner of the published calendar matching the identifier information to the contact;

presenting the linked calendar for scheduling; and

updating a status of the contact with status information from the published calendar based upon a determination of up-to-date information from the published calendar.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving the published calendar from a web calendar service provider.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

retrieving the published calendar from the web calendar service provider through an authenticated secure connection.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the secure connection employs one of a hyper-text transfer protocol (https) and a secure file transfer protocol (sftp).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein formatting the published calendar includes assigning a user status within the published calendar to a user status within the calendar maintained by the application retrieving the published calendar, the user status including one from a set of:

free, busy, tentative, out of office, and remotely available.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein linking the formatted calendar to the contact includes:

determining identifier information of an owner of the published calendar; and

matching the identifier information to the contact.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating presence information of the contact with at least one user status from the linked calendar.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating user status from the linked calendar with presence information of the contact.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the published calendar comprises:

determining a uniform resource locator (URL) address of the published calendar; and

downloading the published calendar from the URL address of a web server hosting the published calendar.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon a failure to retrieve the published calendar;

requesting authorization to download the published calendar from a web calendar service provider;

establishing access to the published calendar; and

downloading the published calendar.

11. A computing device for retrieving availability information from published calendars, the computing device comprising:

a memory configured to store instructions; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing an application in conjunction with the instructions stored in the memory, wherein the application is configured to;

determine a source for a published calendar;

retrieve the published calendar from the source;

retrieve calendar information from the published calendar including a location of one or more contacts associated with the published calendar and calendar event descriptions;

extract user status information from the published calendar;

format the published calendar at a calendar module by assigning a user status within the published calendar to a user status within a calendar maintained by the application, the user status including one from a set of;

free, busy, tentative, out of office, and remotely available;

link the formatted calendar to a contact by;

determining identifier information of an owner of the published calendar;

matching the identifier information to the contact; and

present the linked calendar for scheduling anonymously with privacy data removed from the published calendar.

12. The computing device of claim 11, further adapted to:

retrieve another published calendar associated with the contact from another source.

13. The computing device of claim 12, further adapted to:

integrate the other published calendar with the linked calendar.

14. The computing device of claim 13, further adapted to:

execute a decision engine to evaluate a conflict between the linked calendar and the other published calendar; and

overwrite a status of the contact with status information from the other published calendar upon a determination of up-to-date information from the other published calendar.

15. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the identifier information is at least one from a set of:

a name, an email address, and a user-id.

16. The computing device of claim 11, further adapted to:

utilize at least one from a set of;

secure hyper-text transfer protocol (https), hypertext transfer protocol (http), file transfer protocol (ftp), and secure file transfer protocol (sftp) to retrieve the published calendar.

17. A computer-readable memory device with instructions stored thereon for retrieving availability information from published calendars, the instructions comprising:

determining a web calendar service provider for a published calendar;

retrieving the published calendar from the web calendar service provider;

upon a failure to retrieve the published calendar;

requesting authorization from the web calendar service provider;

downloading the published calendar using an alternative method;

extracting user status information and private user information from the published calendar;

formatting the published calendar to match a format of a calendar maintained by an application retrieving the published calendar;

evaluating a status description employed by the published calendar at a mapping engine, and mapping the status description to a corresponding status in the calendar maintained by the application at the mapping engine;

linking the formatted calendar to a contact maintained by the application by;

determining identifier information of an owner of the published calendar

matching the identifier information to the contact;

presenting the linked calendar for scheduling; and

updating a status of the contact with status information from the published calendar based upon a determination of up-to-date information from the published calendar.

18. The computer-readable memory device of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise:

receiving a scheduled calendar event for the linked calendar from a client application.

19. The computer-readable memory device of claim 18, wherein the instructions further comprise:

formatting the scheduled calendar event according to parameters of the published calendar.

20. The computer-readable memory device of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise:

transmitting the formatted scheduled calendar event to the published calendar for scheduling at the published calendar.