Contact selector that facilitates granular sharing of contact data

• US 8,887,092 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2011
• Issued: 11/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Morrow, John, Pankey, Neil, Farnsworth, Michael, Bangale, Ashish
• Primary Examiner(s): WENG, PEI YONG
• Application Number:
  US13/230,403
• Publication Number:
  US 20130067404A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,156 Days
• Field of Search: 715/810, 715/711
• US Class Current: 715/810
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15

Abstract

Described herein are technologies pertaining to transmitting electronic contact data from a first application to a second application by way of an operating system without generating a centralized contact store or providing the second application with programmatic access to all electronic contact data retained by first application.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

in an operating system installed on a computing device, receiving a request from a first application for electronic contact data, wherein electronic contact data comprises data that facilitates communicating electronically with a contact of a user of the computing device;

rendering a graphical user interface on a display screen of the computing device responsive to receiving the request from the first application, the graphical user interface comprising a graphical icon that represents a second application;

receiving a selection of the graphical icon;

responsive to receiving the selection of the graphical icon, displaying, on a display of the computing device, a list of contacts retained by the second application;

receiving an indication that the user of the computing device has selected a first contact from the list of contacts retained by the second application, wherein a second contact from the list of contacts is unselected; and

providing the first application with electronic contact data of the first contact retained by the second application without providing the first application access to electronic contact data of the second contact that was not selected by the user of the computing device from the list of contacts retained by the second application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data that facilitates communicating electronically with the contact of the user of the computing device comprises at least one of an email address of the contact of the user, an instant messaging alias of the contact of the user, a telephone number of the contact of the user, or a social networking alias of the contact of the user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

instantiating an instance of the second application responsive to receiving the selection of the graphical icon from the user of the computing device, wherein the instance of the second application displays the list of contacts in a portion of the graphical user interface.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

exposing a schema to the second application that comprises a plurality of predefined fields, wherein the second application indicates by way of mappings where data in electronic contact data set forth by the second application corresponds to the plurality of predefined fields, wherein providing the electronic contact data to the first application comprises providing schematized electronic contact data to the first application.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving an indication from a third application that the user of the computing device has selected a third contact retained by the third application; and

re-rending the graphical user interface to graphically depict to the user that the first contact retained by the second application and the third contact retained by the third application have been selected prior to providing the first application with electronic contact data corresponding to either the first contact retained by the second application or the third contact retained by the third application.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving an indication from the user that the first application is to receive the electronic contact data retained by the second application and the electronic contact data retained by the third application; and

providing the first application with electronic contact data from both the second application and the third application only after the indication has been received from the user.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a plurality of graphical icons that are respectively representative of a plurality of applications, the method further comprising:

selectively arranging the plurality of graphical icons such that a graphical icon that is representative of a most recently invoked application is displayed first in the plurality of graphical icons.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the second application is installed on the computing device, the method further comprising:

during installation of the second application on the computing device, detecting that the second application retains contacts; and

including the second application in a list of applications based at least in part upon the detecting that the second application retains contacts.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating system fails to acquire electronic contact data of the second contact.

10. The method of claim 1, the first application being one of an email application, a social networking application, a message broadcasting application, or an instant messaging application.

11. The method of claim 10, the second application being one of an email application, a social networking application, a message broadcasting application, or an instant messaging application.

12. The method of claim 1, the computing device being a mobile telephone.

13. A computing apparatus, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that comprises an operating system, a first computer-executable application that executes on the operating system, and a second computer-executable application that executes on the operating system, the operating system comprising a plurality of components that are executable by the processor, the plurality of components comprising;

a request receiver component that receives a request from the first computer-executable application for access to electronic contact data, wherein electronic contact data comprises at least one of an email address, a telephone number, a physical address, an instant messaging handle, or a broadcast service handle;

a renderer component that, responsive to receiving the request from the first computer-executable application, renders a graphical user interface that comprises a graphical icon that is representative of the second computer-executable application, wherein when the graphical icon is selected, at least a portion of the graphical user interface is populated by the second computer-executable application, the second computer-executable application retains respective electronic contact data for a plurality of contacts, the at least the portion of the graphical user interface displaying the plurality of contacts;

a selection receiver component that receives, from the second computer-executable application, electronic contact data of a contact selected by the user from the plurality of electronic contacts, the selection receiver component fails to receive electronic contact data of a second contact from the plurality of electronic contacts not selected by the user; and

a transmitter component that transmits the electronic contact data of the contact selected by the user to the first computer-executable application without providing access to the first computer-executable application to the electronic contact data of the second contact from the plurality of contacts.

14. The computing apparatus of claim 13, wherein the graphical user interface rendered by the renderer component further comprises a list of graphical icons that respectively represent computer-executable applications that retain electronic contact data, the graphical icon included in the list of graphical icons.

15. The computing apparatus of claim 13 being a mobile computing device.

16. The computing apparatus of claim 15, the mobile computing device being a mobile telephone.

17. The computing apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first computer-executable application is one of an email application, a social networking application, a message broadcasting application, or an instant messaging application.

18. The computing apparatus of claim 13, wherein the transmitter component transmits electronic contact data of a plurality of different contacts selected by the user, the electronic contact data of the plurality of contacts retained by numerous computer-executable applications installed on the computing apparatus.

19. The computing apparatus of claim 13, wherein the transmitter component transmits the electronic contact data in accordance with a predefined schema.

20. A computing apparatus comprising a computer-readable medium, the computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising:

receiving a request from a first application being executed by the processor for electronic contact data, electronic contact data comprising at least one of an email address, a telephone number, a physical address, an instant messaging alias, or a message broadcasting application alias;

responsive to receiving the request, rendering a list of graphical icons that are respectively representative of applications that retain contacts, the list of graphical icons comprises a graphical icon that is representative of a second application, each application in the applications being installed on the computing apparatus;

receiving a selection of the graphical icon from the list of graphical icons from a user of the computing apparatus;

responsive to receiving the selection from the user, instantiating an instance of the second application;

providing the instance of the second application with at least a portion of a graphical user interface in which to display contacts retained by the second application such that the second application displays contacts in a format defined by the second application;

receiving an indication from the second application that the user of the computing apparatus has selected a first contact displayed in the at least the portion of the graphical user interface, the indication comprising electronic contact data corresponding to the selected contact, wherein a second contact has failed to be selected; and

transmitting the electronic contact data of the selected contact to the first application without providing the first application with second electronic contact data of the second contact.