Schemas for a notification platform and related information services

• US 20030097485A1
• Filed: 03/14/2002
• Published: 05/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric J., Fang, Lijiang, Lucovsky, Mark H., Wu, Winnie C., Pierce, Shaun D., Steckler, Paul A.
• Granted Patent: US 6,980,993 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/335 for accessing specific resources, e.g. using Kerberos tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6236 between heterogeneous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6272 by registering files or documents with a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2115 Third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2117 User registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2119 Authenticating web pages, e.g. with suspicious links
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 : Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 : Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 : Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 : Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 : Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 : Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 : Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Described is a schema-based notification platform that provides regularized notification handling including user control and normalization of the operation of policies across different information types and contexts. Information-service schemas and services are combined to build a content-sensitive and context-sensitive information service to communicate information to recipient devices of users that subscribe to those services. An information agent service collects the information, and based on various criteria, determines if, when, and how to send and render the information, and to which subscribing client device or devices. The set of schemas include a notification schema that represents the subscription of a service to an information source and details about that information, and a device schema that represents information about user devices. The information agent service accesses criteria including user preferences and user contextual information, including presence information, location information, and schedule information along with people and groups data and extended-context data. Preferences about subscriptions and information handling policies may be stored and used at notification sources or in more central preference encodings. Access to multiple preferences is maintained, and a user interface is provided that allows users to inspect and control multiple subscriptions in one conceptual place.

Claims

1. In a computer network, a method comprising,

receiving a notification directed to a client from an information source, the notification regularized according to a notification schema, and determining whether the user should receive the notification based on user preference and context data, and if so, determining a selected device to receive the notification and sending the notification to the selected device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, obtaining information about the selected device from a device service, and modifying data of the notification based on the information about the selected device before sending the notification output to the selected device.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the device service provides the information about the selected device in a data structure regularized according to a device schema.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, accessing the context data from a service, the context data regularized according to a context schema.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, at the context service, accessing the context data from at least one other service, including a presence service, a location service or a schedule service.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the presence service provides data regularized according to a presence schema, the location service provides data regularized according to a location schema, and the schedule service provides data regularized according to a schedule schema.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, accessing the context data from at least one service, the context data regularized according to at least one of a presence schema, a location schema or a schedule schema.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the preference data is regularized according to a preference schema.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the preference data is regularized according to a source preference schema.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising, determining at the information source that the user should receive the notification, based on source preference data regularized according to the source preference schema.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the preference data is regularized according to a main preference schema.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising, before sending the notification output to the selected device, modifying data of the notification based on main preference data regularized according to the main preference schema.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the preference data comprises source preference data regularized according to a source preference schema for access by the source, and main preference data regularized according to a main preference schema for access by an information agent where the notification is received, and further comprising, determining at the information source that the user should receive the notification based on source preference data, and modifying data of the notification at the information agent based on the main preference data before sending the notification output to the selected device.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising, receiving the context data regularized according to an extended context schema.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising, receiving the context data regularized according to a people and groups schema.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising, receiving the context data regularized according to a client computing context schema.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein it is determined that the user should not receive the notification based on user preference and context data, and further comprising, discarding the notification.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein it is determined that the user should not receive the notification based on user preference and context data, and further comprising, storing the notification.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising, performing a later determination on whether the user should receive the notification based on user preference and context data, and if the later determination indicates the user should receive the notification, determining a selected device to receive the notification and sending the notification to the selected device.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the preference data comprises source preference data accessible to the source and regularized according to the source preference schema, and further comprising, editing the source preference data.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises an independent message emitted by the information source.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises a message emitted by the information source that accompanies other communicated data.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises a subset of the total notification data that the notification schema is capable of representing.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises rendering preference data.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification includes rendering and fidelity information, and wherein determining a selected device comprises, evaluating the rendering and fidelity information ability with respect to available devices.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein a device that is not currently available is selected as the selected device, and further comprising, waiting for the selected device to be available before sending the notification.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein a device that is currently available is selected as the selected device, and further comprising, modifying content in the notification into an approximate version of the content before sending the notification.

28. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises multiple types or components of content for rendering, and further comprising, determining capabilities of the selected device, and modifying the notification content based on capabilities of the selected device before sending the notification to the selected device.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the order of data that comprises the content establishes a preference for sending the content to a device.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein the notification includes fidelity information that corresponds to the multiple types or components of content type in the notification.

31. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises multiple types or components of content for rendering, and further comprising, receiving the content at the selected device, and determining content to render based on the capabilities of the selected device.

32. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification includes rendering and fidelity information, and wherein determining a selected device comprises, evaluating the rendering abilities of available devices and available bandwidth data for sending the notification.

33. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

34. In a computer network having an information source and a device set comprising at least one client device configured to receive notifications, a system comprising, an information agent service that receives a notification from the information source directed to a client, the notification comprising data regularized in accordance with a notification schema, the information service accessing client criteria to determine conditions for communicating the notification to the client and communicating the notification to at least one client device of the device set based on the conditions.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the device set comprises a plurality of devices, and wherein the information agent determines a selected device of the set to send the notification to based on the client criteria.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the information agent accesses device data corresponding to the selected device, and modifies data in the notification to match the device data of the selected device.

37. The system of claim 34 wherein the client criteria comprises client presence data.

38. The system of claim 37 wherein the client presence data is regularized according to a presence schema.

39. The system of claim 34 wherein the client criteria comprises client location data.

40. The system of claim 39 wherein the client location data is regularized according to a location schema.

41. The system of claim 34 wherein the client criteria comprises client schedule data.

42. The system of claim 41 wherein the client schedule data is regularized according to a schedule schema.

43. The system of claim 34 wherein the client criteria comprises people and groups data regularized according to a people and groups schema.

44. The system of claim 34 wherein the client criteria comprises extended context data regularized according to an extended context schema.

45. The system of claim 34 wherein the client criteria comprises client computing context data regularized according to a client computing context schema.

46. The system of claim 34 wherein the device receives the message, and further comprising local device policy and a local notification manager, the local notification manager determining whether to output the notification based on the local device policy and metadata of the notification.

47. The system of claim 34 wherein the client criteria comprises client preference information.

48. The system of claim 47 wherein the client preference information is regularized according to a preference schema.

49. The system of claim 48 wherein the client preference information comprises source preference information accessible to the information source.

50. The system of claim 48 wherein the client preference information comprises main preference information accessible to the information agent service.

51. The system of claim 50 wherein the information agent service modifies data of the notification based on the main client preference information.

52. The system of claim 34 wherein the client criteria comprises source client preference information regularized according to a source preference schema for access by the information source, and main client preference information regularized according to a main preference schema for access by the information agent service, and wherein the information source sets notification data based on the source client preference information and the information agent service modifies the notification data based on the main client preference information.

53. The system of claim 34 wherein the client criteria comprises source client preference information regularized according to a source preference schema for access by the information source, and main client preference information regularized according to a main preference schema for access by the information agent service, and further comprising, a subscription process configured to enable editing of the source preference information via a pointer or path from the main client preference information.

54. The system of claim 34 wherein the notification comprises an independent message emitted by the information source.

55. The system of claim 34 wherein the notification comprises a message emitted by the information source that accompanies other communicated data.

56. The system of claim 34 wherein the notification includes information about preferences for rendering of content.

57. The system of claim 56 wherein the notification includes preferences for rendering different approximations of the content.

58. The system of claim 34 wherein the notification includes content to be rendered comprising multiple components.

59. The system of claim 34 wherein the notification includes content to be rendered comprising multiple types of information

60. The system of claim 59 wherein the order of the content indicates a preferred rendering order.

61. The system of claim 59 wherein the notification includes fidelity information corresponding to the content to be rendered.

62. The system of claim 34 wherein the order of the content indicates a preferred rendering order.

63. The system of claim 62 wherein the order of the content indicates a preferred rendering order.

64. The system of claim 62 wherein the notification includes fidelity information corresponding to the content to be rendered.

65. The system of claim 34 wherein the notification includes encoded preferences with respect to content in the notification for different devices that may handle the rendering of the content.

66. The system of claim 34 wherein the notification includes information about the ability to render and the fidelity of rendering needed by devices.

67. The system of claim 34 wherein the information agent service modifies the notification based on the information in the notification with respect to a capability of the device to render content.

68. The system of claim 34 wherein the notification comprises a subset of the total notification data that the notification schema is capable of representing.

69. In a computer network, a method comprising,

receiving a notification from an information source directed to a user;

accessing criteria including user preferences and context information to select a device of the user for receiving the notification;

adjusting data in the notification based on the capabilities of the device selected; and

sending the notification to the device.

70. The method of claim 69 wherein adjusting data in the notification comprises, determining properties of the device selected, and modifying the notification data to match the properties of the device.

71. The method of claim 70 wherein the notification includes multiple types of content, wherein the properties of the device include data indicative of at least one type of content the device can handle, and wherein adjusting data in the notification comprises modifying the notification data based on the type of content the device can handle.

72. The method of claim 70 wherein modifying the notification data to match the properties of the device includes evaluating device-related preference information contained in the notification.

73. The method of claim 69 wherein the notification includes multiple types of content ordered in a preference order, wherein the capabilities of the device comprise data indicative of at least one type of content the device can handle, and wherein adjusting data in the notification comprises modifying the notification data based on the type of content the device can handle and the preference order.

74. The method of claim 69 further comprising, accessing a device service to determine properties of the device selected.

75. The method of claim 74 wherein the device service provides regularized device data based on a device schema.

76. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 69.

77. In a computer network, a method comprising,

determining at an information source that a notification is to be sent;

accessing source preference information to set information in the notification;

receiving the notification from the information source;

accessing main preference information to modify information in the notification; and

sending the notification including the information modified therein.

78. The method of claim 77 wherein the notification information is regularized according to a notification schema.

79. The method of claim 77 wherein the notification, source preference information and main preference information are each regularized according to a notification schema, source preference schema and main preference schema, respectively.

80. The method of claim 79 wherein the source preference schema and the main preference schema comprise a common schema.

81. The method of claim 77, further comprising, selecting a device to which the notification is to be sent, and further comprising, further modifying information in the notification based on properties of the device.

82. The method of claim 81 further comprising, determining the properties of the device by communicating with a device service, the device service providing property data regularized according to a device schema.

83. The method of claim 81 wherein the notification includes multiple types of content, wherein the properties of the device include data indicative of at least one type of content the device can handle, and wherein the information modified in the notification is based on the content types with respect to the content that the device can handle.

84. The method of claim 81 wherein the notification includes content comprising multiple components, and wherein the information modified in the notification is based on the content components with respect to the content that the device can handle.

85. The method of claim 81 wherein the notification includes multiple content types or components ordered by preference information, wherein the properties of the device include data indicative of at least one type of content the device can handle, and wherein the information modified in the notification is based on the content types, the preference information and the content that the device can handle.

86. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 77.

87. A computer-readable-medium having computer executable instructions comprising:

receiving a notification directed to a client from an information source, the notification regularized according to a notification schema;

accessing user preference and context data to obtain criteria for sending the notification to the client, and sending the notification to the client based on the criteria.

88. The computer-readable-medium of claim 87 wherein the criteria indicates that the notification should be sent to a particular client device.

89. The computer-readable-medium of claim 87 wherein the criteria indicates that the notification should be modified to correspond to a capability of a particular client device.

90. The computer-readable-medium of claim 87 wherein the criteria indicates that the notification should be preserved for later sending, and wherein sending the notification to the client comprises transmitting the notification to the client at a later time.

91. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a notification regularized according to a notification schema, the notification including;

a first set of data comprising notification identification information;

a second set of data comprising notification content; and

a third set of data comprising requirements for sending the notification to a client;

and

wherein a notification service receives the notification and analyzes the third set of data against client-related criteria to determine conditions for sending the notification to the client.

92. The data structure of claim 91, wherein the first set of data includes information identifying the source of the notification.

93. The data structure of claim 92 wherein one of the types of content comprises text data.

94. The data structure of claim 92 wherein one of the types of content comprises graphics data.

95. The data structure of claim 92 wherein one of the types of content comprises text data.

96. The data structure of claim 92 wherein one of the types of content comprises audio data.

97. The data structure of claim 92 wherein one of the types of content comprises video data.

98. The data structure of claim 91, wherein the third set of data includes data corresponding to bandwidth requirements.

99. The data structure of claim 91, wherein the third set of data includes data corresponding to media rendering requirements.

100. The data structure of claim 91, wherein the third set of data includes data corresponding to user interaction requirements.

101. The data structure of claim 91, wherein the third set of data includes data corresponding to backchannel requirements.

102. The data structure of claim 91, wherein the third set of data includes data corresponding to at least one device-specific hint.

103. The data structure of claim 102, wherein at least one device-specific hint corresponds to device rendering capabilities.

104. The data structure of claim 102, wherein at least one device-specific hint corresponds to a device fidelity value.

105. The data structure of claim 102, wherein at least one device-specific hint corresponds to a device fidelity value.

106. The data structure of claim 102, wherein the third set of data includes condition data that can be matched to the client-related criteria.

107. The data structure of claim 91, further comprising a fourth set of data, the fourth set of data comprising notification volatility information.

108. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a notification regularized according to a notification schema, the notification including;

a first set of data comprising notification content;

a second set of data comprising requirements for sending the notification to a client; and

a third set of data comprising notification volatility information; and

wherein a notification service receives the notification and analyzes the second set of data against client-related criteria to determine conditions for sending the notification to the client, and if the notification can presently meet the conditions, the notification is sent to the client, and if the notification can not meet the conditions but can meet the conditions later, the notification is maintained until sent when the conditions are met or until the volatility information expires the notification.

109. The data structure of claim 108 wherein the notification can presently meet the conditions by modification of the notification to meet the requirements before sending.