Internet e-mail bridge
First Claim
1. A method for retrieving e-mail messages from a plurality of Internet e-mail accounts to a mail server of a local area network, the Internet e-mail accounts being at a plurality of Internet e-mail servers supporting different e-mail access protocols, the method comprising:
- retrieving, for each of the Internet e-mail accounts, an e-mail account record identifying an e-mail access protocol to be used for downloading e-mail messages from said each Internet e-mail account;
instantiating a connector object having logic for downloading e-mail according to the e-mail access protocol of said each Internet e-mail account; and
invoking the connector object for said each Internet e-mail account to download e-mail messages in said each Internet e-mail account.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An Internet mail bridge is provided for downloading e-mail messages from Internet mail servers supporting different email protocols, such as the Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) and Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (Web DAV) protocol, and delivering the downloaded messages, which are in different formats, to a mail server on a local area network. The Internet mail bridge has a mail manager that is independent from particular e-mail protocols or e-mail formats. For each e-mail account, the mail manager instantiates a mail connector object that contains logic for downloading e-mail according to the e-mail access protocol of that account, and invokes the mail connector object to download e-mail messages from that account. The mail manager then instantiates and invokes mail deliverer objects tailored for handling different message formats to deliver the downloaded messages to the local mail server.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for retrieving e-mail messages from a plurality of Internet e-mail accounts to a mail server of a local area network, the Internet e-mail accounts being at a plurality of Internet e-mail servers supporting different e-mail access protocols, the method comprising:
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retrieving, for each of the Internet e-mail accounts, an e-mail account record identifying an e-mail access protocol to be used for downloading e-mail messages from said each Internet e-mail account; instantiating a connector object having logic for downloading e-mail according to the e-mail access protocol of said each Internet e-mail account; and invoking the connector object for said each Internet e-mail account to download e-mail messages in said each Internet e-mail account. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A system comprising:
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at least one processor; and memory encoding computer executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method of retrieving messages from a first account and a second account, the method comprising; retrieving a first message from the first account supporting a first protocol, wherein the first message is retrieved by invoking a first method having logic for retrieving the first message according to the first protocol; retrieving a second message from the second account supporting a second protocol, wherein the second protocol is different from the first protocol, and wherein the second message is retrieved by invoking a second method having logic for retrieving the second message according to the second protocol; and storing the first and second messages locally, wherein the first and second messages are accessible using a single application. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of retrieving messages from a first account and a second account, the method comprising:
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retrieving a first message from the first account supporting a first protocol, wherein the first message is retrieved by invoking a first method having logic for retrieving the first message according to the first protocol; retrieving a second message from the second account supporting a second protocol, wherein the second protocol is different from the first protocol, and wherein the second message is retrieved by invoking a second method having logic for retrieving the second message according to the second protocol; and storing the first and second messages locally, wherein the first and second messages are accessible using a single application. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification