Method and system for providing accessibility to electronic mail

• US 7,093,029 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2001
• Issued: 08/15/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Schwerdtfeger, Richard Scott, Fairweather, Peter Gustav, Detweiler, Samuel R., Tibbitts, Beth Rush, Crayne, Susan, Hanson, Vicki Lynne, Brown, Frances B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jaroenchonwanit, Bunjob
• Assistant Examiner(s): Refai, Ramsey
• Application Number:
  US09/961,920
• Publication Number:
  US 20030061288A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,786 Days
• Field of Search: 709/232, 709217-219, 709/227, 709/246
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A method and system that provide an accessibility gateway to Internet e-mail through the use of a web intermediary server. The web intermediary server preferably includes server-generated applications for modifying accessibility settings for supported client devices, registering the user for authority to use the intermediary server services, and generating mail web pages capable of allowing access and use of the Internet mail server. A request for e-mail from any mail server is sent from the client device to the intermediary server. The intermediary server retrieves the requested e-mail from a mail server, transcodes the server-based e-mail into a web-based e-mail, and applies user-defined transformations to the e-mail for accessibility, which is then sent back to the client device. If the e-mail is from a secure mail server, the intermediary server functions as a proxy for the user device to establish the requisite secure connection with the mail server.

Claims

1. A method of doing business for manipulating information retrieved from a content server on a computer network, said method comprising:

connecting an intermediary machine between a user device and a web content server;

receiving information from the web content server at the intermediary machine, said intermediary machine having access to a plurality of transcoders and a directive script database;

transcoding in the intermediary—

machine the received information from—

the web content server into a transcoded response by at least one of the plurality of transcoders according to at least one directive script from the directive script database, wherein said at least one directive script selectively defines at least one transcoding property of at least one transcoder within the plurality of transcoders;

directing, according to the at least one directive script, which of said at least one transcoder are to be run;

directing, according to the at least one directive script, what order said at least one transcoder are to be run;

sending the transcoded response to the user device;

providing a service for storing in the intermediary machine a specific user'"'"'s profile for a specific user of the user device;

providing a service for receiving at the intermediary machine an electronic mail from the specific user of the user device;

providing a service for identifying the specific user and associating the specific user with the specific user'"'"'s profile ire the intermediary machine;

providing a service for recognizing a data input error ins the received electronic mail received by the intermediary machine; and

providing a service for correcting in the intermediary machine the data input error in the received electronic mail according to instructions from a corrective program called in response to the identifying of the specific user and the specific user'"'"'s profile.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a service for transcoding a mail web page into a different format understood by the user device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the intermediary machine and the web content server are connected by a secure connection.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a service for registering in a database in the intermediary machine the specific user; and

providing a service for allowing only the registered specific user to benefit from a use of the corrective program for correcting data input errors.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a service for sending a corrected received electronic mail to a network based electronic mail server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer network is an Internet.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the web content server is a mail application web server that is service-provided.