Programmatic message partner list management

• US 9,374,334 B2
• Filed: 07/12/2013
• Issued: 06/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Allen, Lloyd W. Jr., Campbell, Steve R., Jenkins, Jana H., York, Tricia E.
• Primary Examiner(s): HIGA, BRENDAN Y
• Application Number:
  US13/941,440
• Publication Number:
  US 20130304837A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,075 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to instant messaging and real-time communications systems and provide a method, system and computer program product for automated partner list management in a real-time communications system. In one embodiment, a real-time communications data processing system can include a real-time communications server, a history log configured to record user interaction records for different users of the real-time communications server, a set of partner lists for the different users, and partner list management logic coupled to each of the real-time communications server and history log. The partner list management logic can include program code enabled to remove individual ones of the different users from a single one of the partner lists which individual ones of the different users meet at least one configurable criteria.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable storage medium having computer usable program code for managing partner lists in a real-time communications system comprising a hardware server having a hardware processor, said computer program product including:

computer usable program code for programmatically managing, by the hardware processor, said partner lists of a user in the real-time communications system relieving the user from needing to maintain an awareness of partner interactions in the real-time communication system, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code for programmatically selecting a threshold lapsed period of time;

computer usable program code for programmatically configuring, by the hardware processor, criteria for selecting a subset of users in the real-time communications system who are determined to have not logged into the real-time communications system for the programmatically selected threshold lapsed period of time;

computer usable program code for selecting, by the hardware processor, a subset of users in the real-time communications system according to said configured criteria of having not logged into the real-time communications system for the programmatically selected threshold lapsed period of time, by retrieving a multiplicity of entries in a history log recording activity of users in the real-time communications system, comparing each retrieved entry in the history log to the configured criteria to determine whether there is a match with the configured criteria, and adding a user associated with a corresponding one of the retrieved entries to the subset of users upon determining a match between the content of the corresponding one of the retrieved entries and the configured criteria;

computer usable program code for matching, by the hardware processor, users in said subset of users with users in a partner list for one of said users of the real-time communications system; and

,

computer usable program code for selectably removing, by the hardware processor, matched ones of said users from said partner list.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said computer usable program code for selecting, by the hardware processor, the subset of users in the real-time communications system according to said configured criteria, additionally comprises computer usable program code for selecting, by the hardware processor, the subset of users in the real-time communications system who have not transmitted a message through the real-time communications system in said threshold lapsed period of time.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising computer usable program code for removing, by the hardware processor, duplicate entries for one of said users from different groups in said partner list.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the computer usable program code for removing, by the hardware processor, duplicate entries for one of said users from different groups in said partner list comprises:

computer usable program code for prompting the user via a user interface as to whether the duplicate entries for the one of said users from different groups in said partner list; and

,

computer usable program code for removing, by the hardware processor, the duplicate entries for the one of said users from different groups in said partner list upon receiving a selection from the user to remove the duplicate entries.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, where the real-time communications system is an instant messaging system.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer usable program code for selectably removing, by the hardware processor, matched ones of said users from said partner list comprises:

computer usable program code for transforming, by the hardware processor, the matched ones of said users from said partner list into a visual display for presentation to the user associated with said partner list in a user interface;

computer usable program code for receiving, by the hardware processor, a selection of the matched ones of said users from said partner list from the user associated with said partner list to be removed; and

,

computer usable program code for removing, by the hardware processor, the matched ones of said users from said partner list corresponding to the selection of the matched ones of said users from said partner list from the user associated with the partner list.