EXTENSIBILITY FEATURES FOR ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20120290945A1
• Filed: 05/09/2011
• Published: 11/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gregg, Ryan Edward, Salamatov, Andrew, Ouliankine, Oleg, Byrne, Warren Randall, Mahood, Justin Bradley, Henderson, Jason Todd, Claux, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,524,531 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/60 Business processes related to postal services shipping G06Q10/083; franking apparatus G07B17/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

An extensibility model is used to provide active and interactive functionality in communication items, but the embodiments are not so limited. A computer system of an embodiment includes components configured to identify one or more activation triggers that operate to activate gadget code using an isolated code execution environment as part of injecting content into an email communication. A method of one embodiment provides an extensibility framework for using defined gadget triggers and associated gadget functionality as part of automatically injecting content inline with a mail message.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

parsing a source communication to produce a parsed output;

using triggering criteria as part of identifying an extension trigger in the parsed output of the source communication; and

implementing an extension as part of interacting with the source communication including executing extension code using an isolated code execution environment after identifying a corresponding extension trigger for the extension as part of providing active content features for the source communication.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying an email message without the extension absent identifying a proper extension trigger.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a solution package that includes corresponding extension code and a manifest for each extension.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising storing the solution package as part of one or more of remote and local computer storage.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising executing an email application locally as part of using the isolated package with a source email message.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising executing a web-based email application as part of using the isolated package with a source email message.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a solution package using one or more of markup language, style sheet language, and scripting language features.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing the extension code based in part on parsing of a source email message, locating a body tag, and injecting a gadget script in relation to the body tag.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising using an extensibility model as part of providing inline content for a selected email message that includes injecting a markup stream into a viewable portion of the selected email message automatically upon identifying a corresponding gadget trigger in a parsed email portion.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising using at least one regular expression as the gadget trigger to activate gadget code from an isolation sandbox.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising running extensibility code in isolation based on one or more extension triggers as part of injecting different types of content inline as part of an email message view.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inspecting an email communication to determine if activation conditions are met;

unpacking a compressed package that contains scripting code and markup language content if the activation conditions are met;

loading the scripting code in an isolation sandbox; and

returning a markup language stream for display with a selected email message.

13. A system comprising:

processor and memory resources;

one or more available gadgets that provide extended email functionality and are configured according to one or more solution packages;

an isolated code execution environment;

a parsing engine configured in part to parse selected email messages and identify one or more activation triggers, wherein each identified activation trigger causes execution of associated gadget code using the isolated code execution environment; and

an interface to display a selected email message and any associated extension functionality provided by an activated gadget.

14. The system of claim 13, the interface further comprising an email application interface that displays extension features based in part on the use of isolated scripting code to return a markup stream as part of displaying content inline with a selected email message.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein each gadget includes a corresponding solution package that is based in part on a manifest file and a script, wherein the manifest file defines at least one gadget trigger to cause the script to execute and embed active content in the selected email message.

16. The system of claim 13, the interface configured to receive use user input as part of interaction with an email message before use of the parsing engine to identify activation triggers declared for the one or more gadgets.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein each gadget can include third party code and communicate with other resources to populate an identified portion of the selected email message with active content according to parsed content that triggers an associated activation trigger.

18. Computer storage, including instructions which, when executed, provide extensible communication features by:

examining a selected electronic communication item to identify one or more gadget triggers, including parsing portions of the selected electronic communication item to provide parsed portions and using a manifest to identify the one or more gadget triggers in at least one parsed portion; and

executing code from an isolated environment upon identifying a corresponding gadget trigger as part of providing active content features inline with the selected electronic communication item.

19. The computer storage of claim 18, including instructions which, when executed, provide extensible communication features by executing scripted code associated with an activated gadget to communicate and pull data from a communication network to provide additional functionality inline with a selected email message portion.

20. The computer storage of claim 18, including instructions which, when executed, use regular expression triggers to inject interactive content inline with an email message portion.