Communicating an E-mail from a sender to a plurality of recipients

• US 9,578,122 B1
• Filed: 12/08/2015
• Issued: 02/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maplebear Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Steiner, Oliver, Wolafka, Rainer, Lorenz, Simon
• Primary Examiner(s): Joo, Joshua
• Application Number:
  US14/961,932
• Time in Patent Office: 441 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding

Abstract

An e-mail comprising general content is communicated from a sender to a plurality of recipients. The general content is identical for all recipients of the plurality of recipients. A definition of the plurality of recipients for the e-mail is received. The general content of the e-mail is received. A tag is inserted into the e-mail. The tag is indicative of personalized information designated for a recipient of the plurality of recipients. The e-mail is sent to the plurality of recipients. The general content is adapted with dynamically-generated content. The adaptation is based on the tag and based on the personalized information.

Claims

1. A system for communicating an e-mail from a sender to a plurality of recipients, the e-mail comprising general content, the general content being identical for all recipients of the plurality of recipients, the system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to perform a method comprising;

receiving a definition of the plurality of recipients for the e-mail;

receiving the general content;

inserting a tag into a body of the e-mail, the tag being indicative of personalized information designated for a recipient of the plurality of recipients, the personalized information further including a description of an event, the included description further providing a link to indicate attendance to the event, wherein the included description and the provided link are accessible through a remote data source made available to the plurality of recipients;

sending the e-mail to the plurality of recipients,

wherein the inserted tag of the sent e-mail provides an indication to each recipient to adapt the general content of the e-mail with dynamically-generated content, based on the personalized information, for each recipient of the plurality of recipients;

detecting that a first recipient of the plurality of the recipients has clicked the provided link;

determining, based on the detected clicked provided link, that a maximum attendance for the event has been reached;

causing, based on the detected clicked provided link by the first recipient and in response to the determined maximum attendance, the included description and the provided link to not be displayed to the plurality of recipients of other than the first recipient.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dynamically-generated content depends on a variable, the variable selected from a group consisting of a date the tag was interpreted, a date the tag was received, a time the tag was interpreted, a time the tag was received, a location the tag was interpreted and a location the tag was received.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the tag specifies the remote data source, and wherein the adapting the general content comprises querying the remote data source for the dynamically-generated content to be inserted into the e-mail.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the adapting the general content further comprises:

receiving a command instruction; and

informing the remote data source about the command instruction, the command instruction being adapted for modifying further dynamically-generated content queried from the remote data source for further recipients of the e-mail.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the e-mail comprises an encrypted data element, wherein the encrypted data element is decipherable only by e-mail clients of a subset of the plurality of recipients, and wherein the adapting the general content comprises decrypting of the encrypted data element to be added to the e-mail.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the e-mail is sent from the sender to a mail server, wherein the adapting the general content is conducted by the mail server to create a plurality of personalized e-mails comprising the dynamically-generated content, and wherein the method further comprises:

sending of the personalized e-mails to the plurality of recipients by the mail-server.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the adapting the general content is conducted by the e-mail client of a recipient upon receiving the e-mail.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the adapting the general content is selected from the group consisting of adding to the general content, deleting the general content, and replacing the general content.

9. A computer program product for processing an e-mail by an e-mail client of a recipient of the e-mail, a body of the e-mail comprising general content and a tag, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instruction instructions configured to cause, when read by a processor, a method comprising:

receiving the e-mail;

adding, based on the tag in the body of the e-mail, dynamically-generated content to the body of the e-mail, the dynamically-generated content comprising personalized information for the recipient, the tag further comprising an event location of an event, the tag further comprises instructions to utilize a navigation program; and

providing the e-mail comprising the general content and the dynamically-generated content to the recipient,

wherein the dynamically-generated content of the email comprises driving directions for the recipient to the event location by the utilized navigation program.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the dynamically-generated content depends on a variable, the variable selected from a group consisting of a date the tag was interpreted, a date the tag was received, a time the tag was interpreted, a time the tag was received, a location the tag was interpreted and a location the tag was received.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein a second tag in the body of the email specifies a remote data source, and wherein the adding is further based on the second tag, and wherein the adding the dynamically-generated content comprises querying the remote data source for the dynamically-generated content to be inserted into the e-mail.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a command instruction at the e-mail client of the recipient;

informing the remote data source about the command instruction, the command instruction being adapted for modifying further dynamically-generated content queried from the remote data source for further recipients of the e-mail.