Enhancements to unified communications and messaging systems

• US 8,555,178 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2009
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Software Hothouse Limited
• Original Assignee: Software Hothouse Limited
• Inventors: Blair, Christopher Douglas
• Primary Examiner(s): SONG, DAEHO D
• Application Number:
  US13/002,858
• Publication Number:
  US 20110126126A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,677 Days
• Field of Search: 715/752, 715/753, 715/758
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• 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 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/60 logging of communication history, e.g. outgoing or incoming calls, missed calls, messages or URLs logging of telephone numbers H04M1/56, H04M1/57

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for handling a plurality of communications between parties. In an aspect, the presentation of both real-time and “store and forward” interactions are presented in a way to make it easier for a user of the system to read and understand what is being communicated, by whom, and to whom.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

identifying address data for an interaction, the address data defining participant addresses for a plurality of participants in the interaction;

categorizing a first set of one or more participant addresses according to each participant'"'"'s role in the interaction as belonging to an initiator category or to one or more other participant role categories;

associating a first graphical attribute with the initiator category;

associating a further graphical attribute with each of the one or more other participant role categories;

wherein a viewer of the display space is a participant in the e-mail message;

wherein each graphical attribute causes its associated display text to be displayed in a manner indicative of the participant role category to which the participant address associated with the display text belongs;

wherein participant addresses are also grouped into a plurality of domain groups so that those participant addresses within a local domain group have a common domain name identical to the domain name of the participant address associated with the viewer and those participant addresses having domain names other than the domain name of the participant are grouped into a plurality of non-local domain groups; and

displaying the corresponding display text for each address according to its corresponding graphical attributes, each graphical attribute indicating each participant role category, within a common display space wherein each domain group of participants corresponding to a specific domain name is displayed in a common area of the common display space with the local domain group being displayed together with the viewer'"'"'s participant address, the display space displayed as a single user interface element within a representation of the interaction.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, for each participant address, associating a corresponding third graphical attribute with the display text of the participant address, each corresponding third graphical attribute indicating whether the interaction has been determined to have been received at the participant address.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

categorizing a second set of one or more participant addresses as belonging to a second addressing category that does not include the initiator category; and

using a common further graphical attribute for each of the one or more participant addresses in the second set for display within a display space defined by a second boundary that is separate from the first boundary.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein categorizing the second set of one or more participant addresses as belonging to the second addressing category that does not include initiator category comprises grouping all participant addresses that do not include the domain name identical to the domain name of the participant address associated with the viewer.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein categorizing the second set of one or more participant addresses as belonging to the second addressing category that does not include the initiator category comprises grouping all participant addresses that include a common domain name that is different from the domain name of the participant address associated with the viewer.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein categorizing a first set of one or more participant addresses according to each participant'"'"'s role in the interaction as belonging to an initiator category or to one or more other participant role categories comprises grouping all participant addresses that belong to a company to which a participant address associated with the viewer belongs.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a receipt time of the interaction;

determining a current time; and

displaying a difference between the current time and the time of receipt of the interaction.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the interaction is a constituent interaction within a thread of related interactions, and further comprising:

identifying a plurality of other constituent interactions of the thread;

for each other constituent interaction;

identifying address data for the constituent interaction, the address data defining participant addresses for a plurality of participants in the constituent interaction;

categorizing a first set of one or more participant addresses according to each participant'"'"'s role in the interaction as belonging to an initiator category;

associating a first graphical attribute with the initiator category;

associating a further graphical attribute with each of the one or more other participant role categories;

wherein each graphical attribute causes its associated display text to be displayed in a manner indicative of the category to which the participant address associated with the display text belongs; and

displaying the corresponding display text for each address according to its corresponding graphical attributes within a common display space, the display space displayed within a representation of the interaction; and

displaying the corresponding representations of the constituent interactions in chronological order, the chronological order being defined by the times at which each constituent interaction was received.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the interaction is an e-mail message, the initiator category is a sender category, and the one or more other categories are recipient categories.