UNIVERSAL MESSAGING SYSTEM PROVIDING INTEGRATED VOICE, DATA AND FAX MESSAGING SERVICES TO PC/WEB-BASED CLIENTS, INCLUDING A CONTENT MANAGER FOR RECEIVING INFORMATION FROM CONTENT PROVIDERS AND FORMATTING THE SAME INTO MULTIMEDIA CONTAINERS FOR DISTRIBUTION TO WEB-BASED CLIENTS

• US 6,430,177 B1
• Filed: 06/09/1998
• Issued: 08/06/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Inventors: Raddatz, Curt, Meyer, Daniel P., Luzeski, Nicholas M.
• Primary Examiner(s): LUTHER, WILLIAM A
• Application Number:
  US09/093,593
• Time in Patent Office: 1,519 Days
• Field of Search: 370/350, 370/354, 370/355.04, 370/356, 709/206, 709/200, 709/217, 364/DIG.1, 364/DIG.2, 379/900, 379/67.1, 379/88.1, 379/88.11, 379/88.12, 379/88.13, 379/88.14, 379/88.17, 379/88.22, 379/88.23, 379/88.25
• US Class Current: 370/356
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4509 Unified messaging with single point of access to voicemail and other mail or messaging systems unified messaging in packet switching networks H04L51/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53 Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages , i.e. mailbox systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5307 for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0054 where the data service is an electronic mail service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/128 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables

Abstract

A Universal Messaging system provides e-mail, voice-mail and fax-mail services to subscribers that may utilize the Internet to access their messages. The system integrates an e-mail messaging system with a voice/fax messaging system on a messaging platform computer. E-mail messages are stored in an e-mail message store, and voice and/or fax messages are stored in a separate store controlled, e.g., by a Voice Mail Message Manager (VMMM). Subscribers can access messages from a personal computer via the Internet using a standard Web browser with an applet that present each subscriber with a “universal inbox” that displays all of that subscriber'"'"'s voice, fax, and e-mail messages. A Web platform controls the Web browser interface to the messaging platform, accepting requests from the Web browser (such as a request to read an e-mail or listen to a voice mail) and passing prescribed types of information back to the Web browser. The Web platform interfaces with the messaging platform via a generic TCP/IP interface/router. A Session Manager application manages the Web browser'"'"'s “session” with the messaging system. A CMC layer in the messaging platform provides the “glue” to enable communication and control between and among the different message stores. The CMC layer provides an industry standard mechanism for providing a standard API through which access to proprietary message stores can be made.

Claims

1. A Universal Messaging system, comprising:

(a) a messaging platform; and

(b) a content manager application, operatively coupled to said messaging platform, for receiving information from a content provider and formatting said information into multimedia containers to be distributed to remote clients via a wide area communications network operatively coupled to said messaging platform, wherein said multimedia containers are characterized by a message portion and an attachment portion, said attachment portion comprising a plurality of fields each of which is used in a predefined manner.

2. A Universal Messaging system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a Web platform supporting said content manager application, wherein said Web platform includes or is operatively coupled to a first database containing e-mail advertisements and a second database containing news-type information from said content provider.

3. A Universal Messaging system as recited in claim 2, wherein said Web platform further supports:

an applet server for providing software applets to said remote client; and

an Internet server operatively coupled to said messaging platform.

4. A Universal Messaging system, comprising:

(a) a messaging platform supporting an e-mail messaging system and a voice/fax messaging system; and

(b) content manager means, operatively coupled to said messaging platform, for receiving information from a content provider and formatting said information into multimedia containers to be distributed to remote clients via a wide area communications network operatively coupled to said content manager means;

wherein said content manager means provides multimedia containers for delivering multimedia content to one or more clients, wherein each of said containers comprises;

(1) a message portion; and

(2) an attachment portion having associated title, type and filename fields, each of which is used in a predefined manner.

5. A Universal Messaging system as recited in claim 4, wherein said message portion is characterized by a message type field and a corresponding predefined set of message type definitions;

a predefined use of a subject field; and

a predefined structure for a text-note field.

6. A Universal Messaging system as recited in claim 5, wherein said text-note field is used for communication between the content manager means and the client(s).

7. A Universal Messaging system as recited in claim 4, wherein all content is carried in the attachment portion via a pointer in the filename field.

8. A Universal Messaging system as recited in claim 4, wherein only one type of content, either audio, text, HTML, or graphics, is used per attachment.

9. A Universal Messaging system as recited in claim 4, wherein the filename field is used to contain pointers to objects, including a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

10. A Universal Messaging system as recited in claim 5, wherein the text-note field of the message portion is used to carry instructions relating to presentation and management of the content, and the actual content is referenced by pointers using attachment structures.

11. A Universal Messaging system, comprising:

(a) a messaging platform supporting an e-mail messaging system and a voice/fax messaging system; and

(b) content manager means, operatively coupled to said messaging platform, for receiving information from a content provider and formatting said information into multimedia containers to be distributed to remote clients via a wide area communications network operatively coupled to said content manager means;

wherein said content manager means provides multimedia containers for delivering multimedia content to clients, wherein each of said containers comprises a message portion and an attachment portion having associated title, type and filename fields;

wherein said message portion is characterized by a message type field and a corresponding predefined set of message type definitions, a predefined use of a subject field, and a predefined structure for a text-note field;

wherein said text-note field is used for communication between the content manager means and the clients;

wherein all content is carried in the attachment portion via a pointer in the filename field;

wherein only one type of content is used per attachment;

wherein the filename field is used to contain pointers to objects; and

wherein the text-note field of the message portion is used to carry instructions relating to presentation and management of the content, and the actual content is referenced by pointers using attachment structures.

12. A Universal Messaging system as recited in claim 11, further comprising a Web platform supporting said content manager means, wherein said Web platform includes or is operatively coupled to a first database containing e-mail advertisements and a second database containing news-type information from said content provider.

13. In a Universal Messaging system, a method for delivering multimedia information to remote clients, comprising the steps of:

receiving information from a content provider;

formatting said information into multimedia containers; and

distributing said multimedia containers to the remote clients via a wide area network operatively coupled to said Universal Messaging system;

wherein each of said multimedia containers comprises a message portion and an attachment portion having associated title, type and filename fields, each of which is used in a predefined manner.

14. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein said message portion is characterized by a message type field and a corresponding predefined set of message type definitions;

a predefined use of a subject field; and

a predefined structure for a text-note field.

15. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein said text-note field is used for communication between the content manager means and the client(s).

16. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein all content is carried in the attachment portion via a pointer in the filename field.

17. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein only one type of content is used per attachment.

18. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein the filename field is used to contain pointers to objects.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein the text-note field is used to carry instructions relating to presentation and management of the content, and the content is referenced by pointers using attachment structures.