Achieving recurring item recordings from calendaring applications over LOB systems

• US 7,711,717 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2007
• Issued: 05/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Rakesh, Kumar, Sushil, Krishnan, Arvind Kumar, Jayshankar, Shyam Sundar, Singh, Jagdish, Shah, Himesh, Chittamuru, Satish Kumar, Shankar, Sai, Singhal, Ashish Kumar, Gopal, Burra, Koronthaly, David, Salgado, Rolando Jimenez
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali; Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOLLAND, SHERYL L
• Application Number:
  US11/688,312
• Publication Number:
  US 20080235072A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,141 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/695
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Recurring appointment items in a calendaring application are synchronized and recorded in a backend Line Of Business (LOB) service. Items marked in the calendaring application for time recording are used to create a recurring bound item with extended properties. A sweeper module scans on every run the mailbox for such recurring bound items. Occurrences of bound recurring appointments, which occur between the last scan and the current scan, are determined and detached from the corresponding recurring series, such that standalone bound items, are created for such occurrences that can be recognized by an LOB application. Entries for bound items are retrieved from a client data store and synchronized it with the backend LOB service through a create, update, or delete operation request.

Claims

1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for providing synchronization between a calendaring application and a Line Of Business (LOB) service, the method comprising:

scanning records of the calendaring application;

determining recurring bound items in the calendaring application records for the synchronization;

creating an original bound item for each recurring item occurrence and each recurring item exception, wherein the original bound item comprises at least one of an appointment, a meeting, and a task in the calendaring application, the at least one of an appointment, a meeting, and a task having extended properties which are managed by the calendaring application and are related to at least one of a business process and business data associated with the LOB service, the extended properties comprising at least one of project code and a client identifier;

creating a parallel bound item for each original bound item in a client data store;

deleting the original bound item after a corresponding parallel bound item is created; and

synchronizing the bound items with the LOB service, wherein each bound item is presented to the LOB service as a standalone bound item, wherein the standalone bound item comprises a bound item which is detached from the recurring bound items in the calendaring application records for synchronization as an individual appointment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the synchronization operation includes at least one from a set of:

a delete operation, a create operation, and an update operation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the calendaring application records are scanned based on at least one from a set of:

expiration of a predefined period, a user request, and an LOB service request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the synchronization is performed employing a web-request.

5. A system for providing synchronization between a calendaring application and a Line Of Business (LOB) service, the system comprising:

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute program modules including;

an application to provide a user interface and maintain records associated with calendar items of a user, wherein a portion of the calendar items are bound items with extended LOB properties, wherein the extended LOB properties are managed by the calendaring application and are related to at least one of a business process and business data associated with the LOB service, the extended LOB properties comprising at least one of project code and a client identifier;

an interface module to enable operations on the bound items, the operations comprising creating parallel bound items for the bound items and deleting the bound items after the creation of corresponding parallel bound items;

a sweeper module to scan and record changes to the bound items as the parallel bound items; and

a client data store for storing at least the parallel bound items;

a synchronization engine to retrieve the parallel bound items and synchronize the parallel bound items with a database associated with the LOB service.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the interface module is further configured to enable one of the user and an administrator to provide at least one preference for synchronizing the bound items with the LOB service based on a credential and a permission level assigned to the user and the administrator.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein one of the user and the administrator is enabled to provide the at least one preference based on a bound item type.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the sweeper module is configured to scan changes to the bound items based on at least one from a set of:

expiration of a predefined period, a user request, and an LOB service request.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the synchronization engine is configured to synchronize the parallel bound items with the LOB database based on at least one from a set of:

expiration of a predefined period, a user request, and an LOB service request.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to provide a user interface for operations associated with the interface module, the sweeper module, and the synchronization engine as one of:

an action pane, a view tab, and a separate window in conjunction with a user interface of the application.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein the interface module and the sweeper module are arranged to perform operations independent of a connection status between the application and the LOB service, and wherein the synchronization engine is arranged to synchronize the parallel items created during an offline period upon reconnection to the LOB service.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein the client data store is one of a SQL database, a multi-dimensional data store, and a spreadsheet.

13. The system of claim 5, wherein the application is a module of a desktop application arranged to provide scheduling, calendaring, and messaging services.

14. A computer-readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon for providing synchronization between a calendaring application and a Line Of Business (LOB) service, the instructions comprising:

providing access to calendaring application records associated with calendar items of a user, wherein a portion of the calendar items are bound items with extended LOB properties, wherein the extended LOB properties are managed by the calendaring application and are related to at least one of a business process and business data associated with the LOB service, the extended LOB properties comprising at least one of project code and a client identifier;

determining changes to the bound items;

recording the determined changes as parallel items in a client data store;

deleting the bound items upon recording the changes as parallel items;

retrieving the parallel items from the client data store; and

synchronizing a database associated with the LOB service during an online period based on the retrieved parallel items.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the bound items include at least one of an occurrence of a recurring appointment and an exception to a recurring appointment.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the parallel items are presented to the LOB service as standalone items for synchronization.