Methods of managing and accessing e-mail

• US 8,626,719 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2004
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Shaw, Timothy C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ng, Amy
• Application Number:
  US10/985,389
• Publication Number:
  US 20060101099A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,344 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/1, 707/200, 707/673
• US Class Current: 707/673
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments

Abstract

Methods and systems for managing e-mails involve an e-mail server that maintains a data set identifying e-mails, and that implements a shortcut feature whereby at least a portion of an e-mail identified in the data set is identified by a shortcut identifier, so that the at least a portion of the e-mail is not stored in the data set. One method involves replicating a copy of at least some of the e-mails onto the client computer when the client computer is coupled to the e-mail server. Another method involves accessing a full copy of an e-mail while a client computer is not in communication with the e-mail server. Another method involves maintaining the shortcut identifier for an e-mail in the data set so that the data set is not updated with a full copy of the e-mail when a user requests the e-mail.

Claims

1. A method of managing e-mails in a computer system comprising at least one e-mail server, at least one other server and at least one client computer, wherein the e-mail server maintains a data set identifying a plurality of e-mails managed by the e-mail server, wherein at least some of the plurality of e-mails are individually identified in the data set by an associated shortcut identifier, and wherein the attachments are stored by the other server, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the client computer, requests to access at least some of the plurality of e-mails to the at least one e-mail server, wherein the requested e-mails are intercepted if the e-mails individually include having an attachment identified in the data set by the associated shortcut identifier;

receiving individually, at the client computer in response to the requests, full copies of the at least some of the plurality of e-mails having attachments thereof identified in the data set by the associated shortcut identifiers, the full copies of the at least some of the plurality of e-mails comprising all of the content of the e-mails, including the attachments stored in the other server such that the attachments replace the shortcut identifiers at the client computer in the full copies of the at least some of the plurality of e-mails; and

storing, by the client computer, the full copies of the at least some of the plurality of e-mails, including the attachments that were received at the client computer in response to the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the full copies of the at least some of the plurality of e-mails stored by the at least one client computer is are associated with an account of a user that logs into the at least one client computer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting, by the client computer, a the requests is not in response to a user of the client computer accessing the at least one e-mail.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the full copies are received via the at least one e-mail server or the at least one other server.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least partial copies of at least some of the plurality of e-mails received at the client computer do not comprise the shortcut identifiers.

6. A method of accessing at least one e-mail in a computer system comprising at least one e-mail server and at least one client computer, wherein the e-mail server maintains a data set identifying a plurality of e-mails managed by the e-mail server, wherein at least some of the plurality of e-mails are individually identified in the data set by an associated shortcut identifier, wherein full copies of the identified e-mails are stored remotely from the data set by at least one other server, wherein the e-mail server and the other server are separate servers, wherein the e-mail server is in communication with the other server over a network, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the client computer, requests to access at least some of the plurality of e-mails to the at least one e-mail server, wherein the requested e-mails are intercepted if the e-mails individually include having an attachment identified in the data set by the associated shortcut identifier;

receiving individually, at the client computer, the full copies of the requested e-mails via the other server, the full copies of the requested e-mails comprising all of the content of the e-mails, including the attachments identified in the data set by the shortcut identifiers such that the attachments replace the shortcut identifiers at the client computer in the full copies of the e-mails; and

accessing the full copies of the requested e-mails, including the attachments that were received at the client computer in response to the requests, from the client computer while the client computer is not in communication with either the e-mail server or the other server.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the full copies of the requested e-mails stored by the at least one client computer corresponds to e-mails assigned to an account of a user that logs into the at least one client computer.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising storing the full copies of the requested e-mails on the at least one client computer when the at least one client computer is coupled to the at least one e-mail server and/or the at least one other server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein storing the full copies of the requested e-mails is performed not in response to a user of the at least one client computer accessing the at least some of the plurality of e-mails, and wherein the full copies replace shortcut identifiers associated with the full copies.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein transmitting, by the client computer, requests to access the at least some of the plurality of e-mails are performed in response to an application program executing on the at least one client computer.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the transmitting, by the client computer, a requests to access at least some of the plurality of e-mails is performed prior to the receiving, at the client computer, the full copies of the at least some of the plurality of e-mails, and wherein the at least one other server comprises at least one extension server supporting the at least one e-mail server.

12. A method of managing e-mails in a computer system comprising at least one e-mail server, at least one other server and at least one client computer, wherein the e-mail server and the other server are separate servers, wherein the e-mail server is in communication with the other server over a network, wherein the e-mail server maintains a data set identifying a plurality of e-mails managed by the e-mail server, wherein at least some of the plurality of e-mails are individually identified in the data set by an associated shortcut identifier, and wherein the attachments are stored by the other server, the method comprising:

receiving, at the e-mail server, requests to access at least some of the plurality of e-mails having attachments individually identified in the data set by the associated shortcut identifier;

sending in response to the requests, via the e-mail server, the attachments to the client computer; and

maintaining, by the at least one e-mail server, the shortcut identifiers for the e-mails in the data set so that the data set is not updated to include the attachments.

13. The method of claim 12 comprising:

after the receiving, at the e-mail server, a requests to access at least some of the plurality of e-mails having attachments identified in the data set by the shortcut identifiers, determining that the e-mail server is attempting to send the shortcut identifiers to the client computer; and

upon the determination, preventing the shortcut identifiers from being sent with the at least some of the plurality of e-mails to the client computer.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the sending in response to the requests, via the e-mail server, the attachments to the client computer comprises:

sending, with the attachment to the client computer, the at least some of the plurality of e-mails to the client computer, wherein the at least some of the plurality of e-mails sent to the client computer does not comprise the shortcut identifiers.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the receiving, at the e-mail server, the requests to access at least some of the plurality of e-mails having attachments identified in the data set by the shortcut identifiers comprises:

determining whether the requests originated from a user of the at least one client computer or an agent software component of the e-mail server,

wherein the sending, in response to the requests, the attachments to the client computer is based on a determination that the requests originated from the user of the at least one client computer, and

wherein if a determination is that the requests originated from the agent software component of the e-mail server, not sending the attachments.

16. A method of managing e-mails in a computer system comprising at least one e-mail server, at least one other server and at least one client computer, wherein the e-mail server maintains a data set identifying a plurality of e-mails managed by the e-mail server, wherein at least some of the plurality of e-mails are individually identified in the data set by an associated shortcut identifier, and wherein the attachments are stored by the other server, the method comprising:

receiving, by the client computer, at least partial copies of at least some of the plurality of e-mails identified in the data set, the at least some of the plurality of e-mails comprising the at least one e-mail, wherein the at least partial copies of the least some of the plurality of e-mails received by the client computer comprises the attachments that are identified in the data set by the shortcut identifiers, wherein the attachments are received automatically and not in response to a user of the client computer accessing the e-mails; and

storing the partial copies by the client computer.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving at the client computer the at least partial copies, wherein the at least partial copies are received on a predetermined schedule.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving the at least partial copies by the client computer transmitted by the at least one e-mail server.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving the at least partial copies by the client computer transmitted by the at least one other server.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the receiving, by the client computer, at least partial copies is performed in response to execution of an application program on the at least one client computer.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one other server comprises at least one extension server that supports the at least one e-mail server.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one extension server provides the at least one e-mail to the client computer in accordance with a predetermined policy.

23. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with a plurality of instructions that, when executed, perform a method of managing e-mails in a computer system comprising at least one e-mail server, at least one other server and at least one client computer, wherein at least some of the plurality of e-mails are individually identified in the data set by an associated shortcut identifier, and wherein the attachments are stored by the other server, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the client computer, requests to access at least some of the plurality of e-mails to the at least one e-mail server, wherein the requested e-mails are intercepted if the e-mails individually include having an attachment identified in the data set by the associated shortcut identifier;

receiving individually, at the client computer in response to the requests, full copies of the at least some of the plurality of e-mails having attachments thereof identified in the data set by the associated shortcut identifiers, the full copies of the at least some of the plurality of e-mails comprising all of the content of the e-mails, including the attachments stored in the other server such that the attachments replace the shortcut identifiers at the client computer in the full copies of the at least some of the plurality of e-mails; and

storing, by the client computer, the full copies of the at least some of the plurality of e-mails, including the attachments that were received at the client computer in response to the request.

24. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with a plurality of instructions that, when executed, perform a method of accessing at least one e-mail in a computer system comprising at least one e-mail server and at least one client computer, wherein the e-mail server maintains a data set identifying a plurality of e-mails managed by the e-mail server, wherein at least some of the plurality of e-mails are individually identified in the data set by an associated shortcut identifier, wherein a full copies of the identified e-mails are is stored remotely from the data set by at least one other server, wherein the e-mail server and the other server are separate servers, wherein the e-mail server is in communication with the other server over a network, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the client computer, requests to access at least some of the plurality of e-mails to the at least one e-mail server, wherein the requested e-mails are intercepted if the e-mails individually include having an attachment thereof identified in the data set by the associated shortcut identifier;

receiving individually, at the client computer, the full copies of the requested e-mails via the other server, the full copies of the requested e-mails comprising all of the content of the e-mails, including the attachments identified in the data set by the shortcut identifiers such that the attachments replace the shortcut identifiers at the client computer in the full copies of the e-mails; and

accessing the full copies of the requested e-mails, including the attachments that were received at the client computer in response to the requests, from the client computer while the client computer is not in communication with either the e-mail server or the other server.

25. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with a plurality of instructions that, when executed, perform a method of managing e-mails in a computer system comprising at least one e-mail server, at least one other server and at least one client computer, wherein the e-mail server and the other server are separate servers, wherein the e-mail server is in communication with the other server over a network, wherein the e-mail server maintains a data set identifying a plurality of e-mails managed by the e-mail server, wherein at least some of the plurality of e-mails are individually identified in the data set by an associated shortcut identifier, and wherein the attachments are stored by the other server, the method comprising:

receiving, at the e-mail server, requests to access at least some of the plurality of e-mails having attachments individually identified in the data set by the associated shortcut identifier;

sending in response to the requests, via the e-mail server, the attachments to the client computer; and

maintaining, by the at least one e-mail server, the shortcut identifiers for the e-mails in the data set so that the data set is not updated to include the attachments.

26. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with a plurality of instructions that, when executed, perform a method of managing e-mails in a computer system comprising at least one e-mail server, at least one other server and at least one client computer, wherein the e-mail server maintains a data set identifying a plurality of e-mails managed by the e-mail server, wherein at least some of the plurality of e-mails are individually identified in the data set by an associated shortcut identifier, and wherein the attachments are stored by the other server, the method comprising:

receiving, by the client computer, at least partial copies of at least some of the plurality of e-mails identified in the data set, wherein the at least partial copies of the least some of the plurality of e-mails received by the client computer comprise the attachments that are identified in the data set by the shortcut identifiers, wherein the attachments are received automatically and not in response to a user of the client computer accessing the e-mails; and

storing the partial copies by the client computer.