Presentation and user selection of timeslots

• US 8,892,741 B2
• Filed: 08/30/2011
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Lipari, Nicola, Abdukalykov, Rolan
• Primary Examiner(s): Doan, Duyen
• Application Number:
  US13/221,773
• Publication Number:
  US 20130054805A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,176 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226, 705/5, 705/7.12, 705 718- 719
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1091 Recording time for administrative or management purposes

Abstract

In an embodiment, a method of facilitating presentation and user selection of at least one timeslot, such as for an appointment, is presented. In this method, a request for available timeslots within a time period is received from a user device. In response, timeslot data identifying the available timeslots is retrieved from a scheduling system. An identifier key for each of the available timeslots, as well as graphical display data indicating the available time slots, are generated based on the timeslot data. The keys and the graphical display data are transmitted to the user device. A selection of at least one of the identifier keys is received from the user device. In response to receiving the selection, the at least one available timeslot corresponding to the selection is determined and forwarded to the scheduling system to reserve the at least one corresponding available timeslot.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a server system, from a user device via a communication network, a request for available timeslots within a first time period;

retrieving, at the server system, from a scheduling system in response to receiving the request, a set of timeslot data corresponding to a set of available timeslots within the first time period;

generating, by the server system, a set of identifier keys for the set of available timeslots, each identifier key corresponding to one available timeslot, each identifier key comprising less data than the corresponding timeslot data;

generating, by the server system, graphical display data indicating the available timeslots of the first time period based on the timeslot data;

transmitting, via the communication network to the user device, the identifier keys and the graphical display data;

receiving, from the user device via the communication network, a selection of at least one of the identifier keys;

determining at least one of the available timeslots corresponding to the selection of the at least one of the identifier keys; and

forwarding an identity of the at least one corresponding available timeslot to the scheduling system to reserve the at least one corresponding available timeslot.

2. The method of claim 1, the timeslot data comprising a starting timestamp and an ending timestamp for each of the available timeslots of the first time period.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the identifier keys is a unique integer within the set of identifier keys.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a data structure comprising the identifier keys for the available timeslots within the first time period and the timeslot data identifying the available timeslots within the first time period, each of the identifier keys being associated in the data structure to the timeslot data identifying the available timeslot corresponding to the identifier key.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

updating the data structure and the graphical display data based on the selection of the at least one of the identifier keys;

storing the updated data structure and the updated graphical display data;

receiving, from the user device via the communication network, a second request for data identifying available timeslots within a second time period; and

transmitting, via the communication network to the user device, the updated graphical display data and the identifier keys from the updated data structure based on the second time period comprising the first time period.

6. The method of claim 5, the updating of the data structure comprising removing from the data structure the at least one selected identifier key and a portion of the timeslot data corresponding to the at least one selected identifier key.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining unavailable timeslots based on the timeslot data identifying the available timeslots within the first time period.

8. The method of claim 1, the first time period comprising a plurality of time sub-periods, each of the plurality of time sub-periods comprising a subset of the available timeslots, the data structure comprising an identifier for each of the plurality of time sub-periods.

9. The method of claim 8, the first time period comprising a week, and each of the plurality of time sub-periods comprising a day.

10. The method of claim 1, the timeslot data being expressed in a first time zone, the method further comprising converting the timeslot data from the first time zone to a second time zone prior to generating the graphical display data.

11. The method of claim 1, each of the available timeslots representing an available timeslot for scheduling an appointment.

12. The method of claim 1, the communication network comprising a cellular phone communication network.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the identifier keys generates the identifier keys based on month and day portions of a date of the timeslot concatenated with a starting or ending time of the timeslot, and wherein the generating of the identifier keys is not based on a year portion of the date of the timeslot.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting of the identifier keys and the graphical display data does not include transmitting other timeslot data.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the set of identifier keys includes hashing a date and time associated with each timeslot of the set of available timeslots to generate the corresponding identifier key.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a user device via a communication network, a request for available timeslots within a time period;

retrieving, from a scheduling system, in response to receiving the request, a set of timeslot data corresponding to a set of available timeslots within the time period;

generating a set of identifier keys for the set of available timeslots within the time period, each identifier key corresponding to one available timeslot, each identifier key comprising less data than the corresponding timeslot data;

generating graphical display data indicating the available timeslots of the time period based on the timeslot data;

transmitting, via the communication network to the user device, the identifier keys and the graphical display data;

receiving, from the user device via the communication network, a selection of at least one of the identifier keys;

determining, in response to receiving the selection of the at least one of the identifier keys, at least one of the available timeslots corresponding to the selection of the at least one of the identifier keys; and

forwarding an identity of the at least one corresponding available timeslot to the scheduling system to reserve the at least one corresponding available timeslot.

14. A system comprising at least one processor and a plurality of modules comprising instructions executable by the at least one processor, the modules comprising:

a communication module to communicate with a user device to receive a request for available timeslots within a first time period;

a timeslot data access module to retrieve from a scheduling system timeslot data corresponding to available timeslots within the first time period in response to receiving the request;

a key generation module to generate a set of identifier keys for the available timeslots within the first time period, each identifier key corresponding to one available timeslot, each identifier key comprising less data than the corresponding timeslot data; and

a graphical display data generation module to generate graphical display data indicating the available timeslots of the first time period based on the timeslot data;

the communication module to transmit to the user device the identifier keys and the graphical display data, and to receive from the user device a selection of at least one of the identifier keys; and

the timeslot data access module to determine the at least one of the available timeslots corresponding to the selection of the at least one of the identifier keys in response to receiving the selection, and to forward an identity of the at least one corresponding available timeslot to the scheduling system to reserve the at least one corresponding available timeslot.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein:

the timeslot data access module is to update the identifier keys and the graphical display data based on the selection of the at least one of the identifier keys, and to store the updated identifier keys and the updated graphical display data; and

the communication module is to receive from the user device a second request for data identifying available timeslots within a second time period, and to transmit to the user device the updated graphical display data and the updated identifier keys based on the second time period comprising the first time period.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the timeslot data access module is to update the identifier keys by deleting the at least one selected identifier key and a portion of the timeslot data corresponding to the at least one selected identifier key.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the graphical display data comprises data identifying both the available timeslots of the first time period and unavailable timeslots of the first time period.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the graphical display data generation module is to determine the unavailable timeslots based on the timeslot data identifying the available timeslots within the first time period.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the first time period comprises a plurality of time sub-periods, each of the plurality of time sub-periods comprising a subset of the available timeslots, the key generation module to generate a second identifier key for each of the plurality of time sub-periods.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the timeslot data is expressed in a first time zone, and the timeslot data access module is to convert the timeslot data from the first time zone to a second time zone prior to generating the graphical display data.