Remote read-write access to disparate data stores

• US 20070130108A1
• Filed: 12/02/2005
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Simpson, Russell, Van Eaton, James
• GRANTED PATENT: US 7,853,590 B2
• Time in patent office: 0 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24556 Aggregation; Duplicate elimination
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation, e.g. computer aided management of electronic mail or groupware electronic mail protocols H04L29/06 ; arrangements for user-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, e.g. e-mail or instant messages, H04L41/00; Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting organizing, planning, scheduling or allocating time G06Q10/06

Abstract

Providing a rich user experience on a network client in which personal information management (PIM) data from a plurality of data sources is aggregated and displayed to the user. An aggregation system connects to data sources and maps attributes of PIM data in the data sources to a common object model. An object of aggregated PIM data is created according to the mapped attributes. The aggregation system generates user interface data representing the created object and sends the user interface data to the network client for rendering.

Claims

1. A computerized method comprising:

connecting to a plurality of data sources each providing attributes corresponding to personal information management (PIM) data;

accessing the attributes from the plurality of data sources;

mapping each of the accessed attributes to an object model;

creating an object of aggregated PIM data as a function of the mapped attributes;

generating user interface data representing the created object; and

sending the generated user interface data to a network client for display.

2. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising communicating with the network client to modify the created object.

3. The computerized method of claim 2, further comprising updating at least one of the plurality of data sources based on the modified object.

4. The computerized method of claim 2, wherein communicating with the network client to modify the created object comprises communicating with the network client to modify the created object responsive to a drag-and-drop operation performed by a user on the network client.

5. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the plurality of data sources comprises binding to a mailbox object.

6. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request from the network client to copy particular data from one of the plurality of data sources to another of the plurality of data sources in response to user input;

copying the particular data from the one of the plurality of data sources to the other of the plurality of data sources responsive to receiving the request;

updating the created object responsive to copying the particular data;

creating updated user interface data; and

sending the updated user interface data to the network client for display.

7. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the generated user interface data represents a single view of calendar data merged from a plurality of data sources.

8. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the plurality of data sources comprises connecting to the plurality of data sources via a plurality of communication protocols.

9. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein one or more computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions for performing the computerized method of claim 1.

10. A computer-implemented system comprising:

a memory area storing an object model having a plurality of object model attributes corresponding to personal information management (PIM) data, said memory area further storing schema maps each being associated with at least one of a plurality of data sources providing PIM data, wherein each of the schema maps correlates the plurality of object model attributes to data source attributes associated with each of the data sources; and

a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

connecting to the plurality of data sources;

mapping the data source attributes from the plurality of data sources to the object model attributes as a function of the schema maps stored in the memory area;

creating an object of aggregated PIM data as a function of the mapped data source attributes;

generating user interface data representing the created object;

sending the generated user interface data to a network client for display; and

updating the created object and at least one of the plurality of data sources responsive to user input on the network client.

11. The computer-implemented system of claim 10, wherein the network client comprises one or more of the following:

a computing device, an application program, a personal digital assistant, a wireless device, a telephone, and a laptop computer.

12. The computer-implemented system of claim 10, wherein the PIM data comprises one or more of the following:

calendar data, contacts data, task data, documents, and electronic mail.

13. The computer-implemented system of claim 10, wherein the created object comprises an Exchange Server Object.

14. The computer-implemented system of claim 10, wherein the generated user interface data comprises one or more of the following:

hypertext markup language data, presentation data, and extensible markup language data.

15. The computer-implemented system of claim 10, wherein the generated user interface data comprises calendar data merged from a plurality of data sources.

16. The computer-implemented system of claim 10, further comprising means for providing remote read-write access to the plurality of data stores via the created object.

17. The computer-implemented system of claim 10, further comprising means for mapping the data source attributes from the plurality of data sources to the object model attributes as a function of the schema maps stored in the memory area.

18. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components, said components comprising:

a network component for connecting to the plurality of data sources providing PIM data;

a schema component for mapping attributes from the plurality of data sources to an object model;

an aggregation component for creating an object of aggregated PIM data as a function of the attributes mapped by the schema component;

a presentation component for generating user interface data representing the object created by the aggregation component, wherein the network component sends the user interface data generated by the presentation component to a network client for display; and

a manipulation component for updating the created object responsive to user input on the network client, wherein the manipulation component further identifies and updates at least one of the data sources associated with the user input.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the user input includes a command to copy PIM data from one of the plurality data sources to another of the plurality of data sources.

20. The computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the PIM data comprises electronic mail data, and wherein the aggregation component merges electronic mail data from one of the plurality of data sources with electronic PIM data from another of the plurality of data sources.