Method and system for email synchronization for an electronic device

• US 7,536,440 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2004
• Issued: 05/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vulcan Portals Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Vulcan Portals Incorporated
• Inventors: Jones, Christopher W., Budd, Robin
• Primary Examiner(s): BOUTAH, ALINA A
• Application Number:
  US10/841,231
• Publication Number:
  US 20050076087A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,838 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/203, 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/206
• 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 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes

Abstract

An electronic device, such as a hand-held portable computer, is provided with client-side email capability that allows emails to be independently downloaded from a server, regardless of an operating mode of an email application and without using the standard email retrieval mechanism of the email application. The emails are periodically downloaded without attachments in response to a poll of the server and if a sufficient high-speed connection to the server is available, and then the downloaded email is locally stored in a local cache of the portable computer. Attachments associated with downloaded emails stored in the local cache can be selectively downloaded, via a background process, from the server independently of the operating mode of the email application and during any suitable power state of the electronic device. Synchronization of attachments to emails in the local cache is also independently performed, thereby bypassing synchronization that is normally performed by the email application while in the online mode.

Claims

1. A method usable for an electronic device having an email application, the method comprising:

while the email application is operating in conjunction with email content stored in a memory of the electronic device, tracking changes to the email content, wherein the tracking is performed by an email service independent of the email application;

comparing, by the email service, the tracked changes with email content stored in a server;

based on at least some of the tracked changes, updating, by the email service, the email content stored in the memory to be consistent with the email content stored in the server; and

determining if a high-speed data connection to the server is present, wherein the high-speed data connection is a connection having a bandwidth of at least x bits per second, where x is user defined,

if a high-speed data connection is present, updating the email content stored in the memory including downloading to the memory via the high-speed data connection an attachment associated with at least a portion of an email that was previously downloaded, wherein the updating is performed by the email service while the email application is in a mode wherein its default synchronization process is substantially precluded from being invoked,

deferring download of the attachment, by the email service, if either one or both of the high-speed data connection is unavailable and an available data connection is under a certain speed, and

determining whether the available data connection is under certain speed based on settings information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein updating the email content stored in the memory includes updating, by the email service, email content stored in a cache.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein downloading the attachment to the memory comprises part of a first synchronization process, the method further comprising the email service surrendering control to the email application to allow the email application to perform a second synchronization process as part of its default synchronization process while in an online mode, wherein the first synchronization process is performed by the email service while the email application is in at least one of an offline mode, inoperative mode, and online mode.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein tracking changes to the email content includes tracking, by the email service, new folder locations of the email content stored in the memory, wherein downloading the attachment associated with the email includes downloading, by the email service, the attachment to a new folder location of the email.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein updating the email content stored in the memory includes downloading, by the email service, embedded content associated with a previously downloaded email from which the embedded content was excluded during download to the memory via the high-speed data connection, and wherein downloading the embedded content includes downloading, by the email service, at least one of a link originally embedded in a body of the email, graphics, and a portion of the body of the email that was excluded from download.

6. A machine-readable storage medium comprising instruction that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

track emails partially downloaded into a memory, including emails that were downloaded absent their attachments;

determine if a high-speed data connection to a server is available, wherein the high-speed data connection is a connection having a bandwidth of at least x bits per second, where x is user defined;

synchronize the emails partially downloaded into the memory with copies of the emails at the server, independent of a synchronization process of the email application, if a high-speed data connection is available, including downloading an attachment associated with a previously downloaded email into memory and via use of the available high-speed data connection to the serve; and

defer the synchronization of the partially downloaded emails if the high-speed data connection is unavailable.

7. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the machine-readable medium further includes instructions stored thereon to surrender control to the email application after substantially completing the synchronization of the partially downloaded emails.

8. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the instructions to determine if the high-speed data connection is available include instructions to use settings information to determine if the available high-speed data connection has at least a certain speed.

9. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the instructions to track emails that were downloaded absent their attachments include instructions to track new storage locations of these emails, and wherein the instructions to synchronize the partially downloaded emails with copies of the emails at the server include instructions to download these attachments to the new storage locations.

10. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the instructions to track emails partially downloaded into the memory include instructions to track emails missing their embedded content which was originally present in their bodies.

11. An apparatus having an email application, the apparatus comprising:

a storage unit to store downloaded emails;

a first component to download at least a portion of an email to the storage unit while the email application is in a memory-access mode wherein at least some content associated with the email is excluded from the download, wherein the excluded content includes an attachment to the email;

a second component to track which emails stored in the storage unit have been downloaded and have excluded associated content;

a third component to determine if a high-speed connection to the server is available, wherein the high-speed data connection is a connection having a bandwidth of at least x bits per second, where x is user defined; and

a synchronization engine to synchronize, based on tracking information from the second unit-component and during the memory-access mode, the emails stored in the storage unit with emails stored at a server, the synchronization unit being capable to cooperate with the first component to download, excluded content associated with a previously downloaded portion of an email if, during synchronization while the email application is in the memory-access mode, a high-speed connection to the server is available, wherein the synchronization engine can download the content via the available high-speed connection to the server during the memory-access mode, and wherein the synchronization engine can defer download of the content if either or both the high-speed connection to the server is unavailable and is under a certain speed.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the synchronization engine comprises part of the first component.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the second component can track which downloaded emails have been moved to a new location in the storage unit, and wherein the synchronization engine can cooperate with the first component to download content associated with a moved email to the new location during the synchronization while in the memory-access mode.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the first component can maintain the email application in the memory-access mode to substantially preclude the email application from entry into a server-access mode while a connection to the server is available.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a synchronization process associated with the email application, the email application being capable to start the synchronization process during server-access mode, subsequent to substantial completion of synchronization by the synchronization engine.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the synchronization by the synchronization engine comprises a background process relative to, and independent of an operational state of, the email application.