Selective transmission of an email attachment

• US 20050108335A1
• Filed: 11/13/2003
• Published: 05/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Naick, Indran, Wilson, Jeffrey Kenneth
• Granted Patent: US 7,409,425 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Methods, devices, systems, and media are disclosed for replacing an email attachment with a call, and forwarding the email with the call to a user for selective display of the attachment by making a call. One embodiment includes receiving an email on a mail server, wherein the email has the email attachment, and removing the email attachment from the email to produce a stripped email. The embodiment further includes storing the email attachment on a server, adding the call to the stripped email, and forwarding the stripped email with the call for displaying to a recipient.

Claims

1. A method for replacing an email attachment of an email with a call, the method comprising:

removing the email attachment from the email, thereby producing a stripped email;

storing the email attachment;

adding the call to the stripped email, wherein the call is configured to retrieve the email attachment upon activation by a recipient of the stripped email; and

forwarding the stripped email with the call to the recipient.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for transmission of the email attachment in response to activation of the call; and

transmitting the email attachment to the recipient in response to the request.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising authenticating the request prior to transmission of the email attachment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein further comprising partitioning a mail server to create the attachment server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein storing comprises storing the email attachment in storage associated with an attachment server, the attachment server being configured to transmit the email attachment in response to activation of the call by the recipient.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein adding the call comprises adding code to the email, the code being configured to automatically execute upon display of the email via an email client associated with the recipient, to request transmission of the email attachment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein adding the call comprises adding a hyperlink to the email, wherein the hyperlink is configured to initiate code associated with the email attachment to transmit the email attachment to the recipient.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the hyperlink, upon activation, initiates access to an Internet protocol address associated with the email attachment.

9. A device for replacing an email attachment with a call, the device comprising:

a detacher to remove the email attachment from the email to create a stripped email;

storage coupled with the detacher to store the email attachment; and

a call incorporator to add the call to the stripped email based upon the storage, the call being configured to retrieve the email attachment upon activation by a recipient of the stripped email.

10. The device of claim 9, further comprising a router protocol coupled with the call incorporator to format the email to forward to the recipient.

11. The device of claim 9, wherein the detacher comprises a data gatherer to determine authentication data to associate with the email attachment, the authentication data to be verified in response to activation of the call and prior to transmitting the email attachment to the recipient.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein the storage is associated with an attachment server, the attachment server being responsive to a request associated with activation of the call to transmit the email attachment to the recipient.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the attachment server comprises a request interpreter to associate the request with the email attachment.

14. The device of claim 12, wherein the attachment server comprises a request authenticator to verify a request associated with activation of the call before transmitting the email attachment to the recipient.

15. The device of claim 9, wherein the call incorporator comprises a call generator to generate a hyperlink based upon an address associated with the storage, wherein the call is the hyperlink.

16. The device of claim 9, wherein the call incorporator comprises a call generator to generate code based upon an address associated with the storage, the code being configured to automatically transmit a request for the email attachment in response to execution of the code by an email program associated with the recipient, wherein the code is the call.

17. A machine-accessible medium containing instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations, comprising:

receiving an email with the email attachment;

removing the email attachment from the email, thereby producing a stripped email;

storing the email attachment;

adding the call to the stripped email, wherein the call is configured to retrieve the email attachment upon activation; and

forwarding the stripped email with the call to a recipient.

18. The machine-accessible medium of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise instructions for:

receiving a request for transmission of the email attachment in response to activation of the call; and

transmitting the email attachment to the recipient in response to the request.

19. The machine-accessible medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise instructions for authenticating the request prior to transmission of the email attachment.

20. The machine-accessible medium of claim 17, wherein storing comprises storing the email attachment in storage associated with an attachment server, the attachment server being configured to transmit the email attachment in response to activation of the call by the recipient.