Patent Application
20090089380
Information consumers are constantly looking for ways to quickly and efficiently obtain desirable information. Web feeds can be used to provide information to an information consumer. Aggregation systems can be used to consolidate multiple feeds so that a user does not have to locate each and ever; web feed.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary, is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Embodiments are provided which include functionality to manage and control a provision of information to end users. In an embodiment, components of a system can be configured to manage and control a server-side delivery of web feed information through an information pipeline. In one embodiment, components of a system can be configured to manage and control a server-side delivery of subscription content and other information associated with a number of subscriptions to users through an email pipeline using an email framework. The email framework can be configured to use one or more serving components when managing and controlling the delivery of subscription content to end users.
These and other features and advantages will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.
Embodiments are provided which include functionality to manage and control a provision of information to end users. In an embodiment, components of a system can be configured to manage and control a delivery of web feed information through an information pipeline. In one embodiment, components of a system can be configured to manage and control a delivery of subscription content and other information associated with a number of subscriptions to users through an email pipeline. Moreover, a user, such as an administrator for example, can use features of the system to determine if users are subscribing to potentially damaging content. A user can also use features of the system to prevent others from subscribing to and gathering unauthorized content.
Components of the system can be configured according to an email framework including the associated functionality. The email framework can be configured to use one or more serving components to manage and control the delivery of subscription content to end users. Consequently, users can conveniently use an email client to interact with the delivered information. Components of the system can be used to manage and control the delivery of subscription content to an electronic mail (email) application or client. End users can interact with the subscription content using the email client. For example, a user can use an email client to receive subscription information which can be aggregated and delivered by a server-side aggregation component.
In an embodiment, a system includes aggregation, subscription, and email components which can be configured to aggregate, manage, and control a distribution of information associated with a number of subscriptions, but the system and its components are not so limited. The system can include a number of rules that can be used when managing and controlling the deliver of subscription content and other information associated with one or more user subscriptions to a user's e-mail application.
The number of rules can be used to apply and configure filters, policies, journals, and/or other control features when managing the delivery of information associated with a number of subscriptions and users. The system can also include a number of handlers which can be configured to manage various subscription types. In one embodiment, the handlers can be configured to convert subscription content to an email or some other desired format as part of delivering the subscription content to an end user.
In another embodiment, a system includes one or more serving computing devices which include aggregation, subscription, and email functionality. For example, a serving computing device can include mailbox, aggregation, subscription, and/or other applications which can be configured to aggregate, manage, and deliver information associated with a number of subscriptions to end users who receive the information via an email application. Upon receipt, a user can use the email application to interact with the delivered information. The system can be used to aggregate and control a deliver of web feed content to user email inboxes. For example, the system can be used to aggregate and deliver really simple syndication (RSS) content, wherein RSS can be described as a web feed format that may be used to publish frequently updated content such as blogs, news, pod casts, and other information. An RSS document or file can include a summary of content from an associated source, full text, or links to the content.
In yet another embodiment, a system includes a mail server and a hub server. The mail server includes a subscription application that can be configured to execute a subscription retrieval process. The hub server includes an aggregation application that can be configured to execute a content aggregation process. In one embodiment, the system can operate to aggregate information associated with a number of user subscriptions and then apply certain rules to subscription information being communicated through an email pipeline to user inboxes.
After applying any rules, the subscription information may or may not be delivered to a user's email inbox. In some cases, subscription information can be diverted, rerouted, saved, and/or not delivered. Other operations can be implemented by configuring various rules or adding new rules to control delivery and other information communications. In one embodiment: upon delivery, a user can use a web application, an email application, or other interactive application to interact with the subscription information. As part of the interaction, a user can monitor and control web feed and other subscriber information.
As described below, components of the system 100 can be configured to communicate syndicated content and other information using an email infrastructure and functionality. In various embodiments, routing features, messaging policies, content sanitization, message processing extensibility, security, spanning, antivirus, anywhere access, and/or other features and functionality can be used to provide syndicated and other content to end users of an email, messaging, or other communication system. For example, email processing rules and formats can be used to provide syndicated and other content to end users who have an email account or application. In various embodiments, information from web feeds, alternative email stores, calendars, contacts, and/or other information sources can be aggregated and provided to a user email application. In one embodiment, components of a system can be configured to enable a user to reply, using an email application, to a web feed item, wherein the reply can be communicated to a feed site or feed provider.
In one embodiment, components of the system 100 can be configured to provide information, such as published or syndicated content for example, including updated content, to a user's email account, wherein the system includes a number of rule and handler components. For example, the system 100 can be configured to provide information associated with a web feed to a user's e-mail account, wherein messaging rules can be used to apply and manage policies associated with the information, including delivery options associated therewith. Components of the system 100 can be configured to tailor information associated with a web feed, such as an RSS feed for example, such that the information appears in the context of an email message or other desired format or context. Additionally, components of the system 100 can be configured to apply and use policies, rules, and/or other constraints to all types of feeds and other information sources, including calendars, contacts, other email accounts, etc.
With continuing reference to
As shown, computing device 108 includes an email web access application 114 for interacting with a remote email source, such as a web server for example. The email web access application 114 enables a user to remotely transmit and receive email messages, but is not so limited. Computing devices 106 and 108 include email applications 116 and 118 which are resident on the respective device 106 and 108, such as the OUTLOOK® email applications. For example, computing devices 104-108 may be desktops, laptops, portable computing devices, or other computing and communication devices. To simplify the foregoing discussion, computing device 104 and email application 116 will be referred to in describing various functionality and applicability of components of the system 100.
As shown in
The subscription component 122 can be used to manage information associated with a number of user subscriptions. In an embodiment, the subscription component 122 can be used to manage a number of web feeds and associated web feed items. Subscription and associated information can be stored in storage 128. The subscription component 122 can also call on or pass information to the aggregation component 120 to aggregate subscription information. As described below, duplicate subscription information can be identified and combined so that a unique set of subscription information can be maintained in storage 128.
The subscription component 122 can also operate to monitor and/or crawl, at various times, all associated user mailboxes when locating and monitoring subscriptions. Once located, the subscription component 122 can continue to monitor the subscriptions and mailboxes to detect any subscription changes and factor any change or changes into an aggregated subscription list to maintain the unique set of subscription information. The unique set of subscription information can be used by the aggregation component 120 when aggregating content associated with the unique set of subscriptions.
The aggregation component 120 can be configured to perform aggregation and other operations. In one embodiment, the aggregation component 120 can be configured to aggregate information associated with a number of subscriptions, such as a number of web feed subscriptions for example, using the unique set of subscription information maintained in storage 128. A subscription provides information so that the aggregation component 120 can identify and retrieve content on some basis, a periodic basis for example. For example, a subscription may identify a URL, username and password, or some other identifying information that the aggregation component 1220 can use to locate and retrieve content associated with a number of web feeds.
The aggregation component 120 can access the subscription and associated information from storage 128 when preparing to retrieve subscription content from the information sources 110 and 112. As shown in
In one embodiment, the aggregation component 120 includes duplication prevention functionality which can operate to prevent duplicate subscription items from being retrieved from an information source. The aggregation component 120 can be configured to identify similar or duplicate items and then identify whether the associated content is the same or substantially similar when preventing the retrieval of duplicates. In one embodiment, a unique identifier (ID) can be assigned to a subscription item. If two items have the same ID but differing content, the aggregation component 120 treats the differing content as an update to the item based at least in part on the same ID. For example, the aggregation component 120 can operate to calculate a hash to prevent duplicate subscription items from being retrieved from an information source, such as after a crash or restart condition.
The aggregation component 120 can also be configured to aggregate information from other sources, such as additional email accounts, contact repositories, calendars, and other sources. For example, the aggregation component 120 can be configured to aggregate messages from an external mailbox for delivery to an end user's email inbox, wherein various rules can be used to apple a policy to the aggregated messages before delivery. The aggregation component 120 can be further configured to retrieve or download all subscription content, including referred to information and information pointed to by internal links, such that a user can interact with the subscription content while in an offline mode. For example, the aggregation component 120 can retrieve content associated with a hyperlink or information referred to within the context of particular subscription content.
As an example, the aggregation component 120 can retrieve or download various types of information, including multi-level data, associated with a web page which can then be provided to a user via an email account. In one embodiment, the aggregation component 120 can attach information referred or linked to as an email attachment. For example, a media file (audio, video, graphical, image, etc.) can be attached to an email message, wherein an internal link points to the media file in the subscription content. Correspondingly, a user does not have to have an Internet, Intranet, or other network connection in order to interact with subscription content since the aggregation component 120 has collected the associated content and other information.
As shown in
In one embodiment, one or more handlers can be used to create an abstraction of a subscription to encapsulate any subscription type, wherein each specific subscription type, such as web feed subscription, POP3 account, etc., can be used to extend a base type. Correspondingly, the one or more handlers can use subscription content and other subscription information when mapping to various parts of an email representation. For example, subscription content and other subscription information can be used to map to various email fields, such as: subject, from, recipient, body, and/or other email fields.
Accordingly, the handlers 126 can be used to perform conversion operations on the subscription content to format the subscription content into a desirable format, such as an email format (e.g., Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), etc.) for example. Each handler 126 can be configured to convert from a first format to a second format, corresponding to different types of content and other data structures. For example, the handlers 126 can be configured to map subscription content to fields and other parts of an email message (e.g., author to from, title to subject, published or update date to message date, full-text to body, etc.). Since the system 100 is extensible, other handlers can be added to the system 100 to provide additional handling and conversion functionality.
Once the subscription content has been converted to a desired format, a number of rules 124 can be used to manage the converted subscription content. In an alternative embodiment, one or more of the number of rules 124 can be applied before the conversion operations. For example, the number of rules 124 can be applied to a web feed to implement certain policies when communicating information associated with the web feed through an email pipeline. An enterprise may use or define certain rules according to some desired end result. For example, a corporate compliance policy may be implemented based on certain types of content being brought into the organization, and the number of rules 124 can be used to filter out certain web feeds. As further example, a company may define a rule to journal all inbound messages. Correspondingly, journaling rules can be used to journal email messages that are sent or received by individual users or by various departments within or outside an organization.
Accordingly, by using the server 102 for aggregation and subscription operations, certain policies and other features can be applied to the subscription content before delivering the subscription content to end users. In some cases, an implemented policy, defined by a rule or rule set, may prevent the delivery of subscription content or other content to certain users. In various embodiments, the number of rules 124 can be used to implement routing features, messaging policies, content sanitization features, force forwarding features, recipient copying features, security features, spamming features, antivirus features, anywhere access features, and/or other features and rule functionality.
In an embodiment, a user, such as a system administrator for example, can configure a number of rules 124 to manage and control information traveling through an information pipeline. For example, an application programming interface (API) or other user interface can be used to configure and mange the number of rules 124 to implement a routing or some other enterprise-wide policy. In one embodiment, a user can configure and apply a number of rules including a set of conditions, exceptions, and actions based in part on messages and other information traveling through an email pipeline. Conditions may be used to identify email messages to which a transport rule action or some other action may be applied. Exceptions may be used to identify email messages to which a transport rule action or some other action may not be applied, even if the message matches a condition, such as a transport rule condition for example.
Actions can be applied to email messages that match all or some of the conditions and none of the exceptions. The actions can be configured to modify some aspect of a message, the delivery of a message, and/or some other messaging feature. For example, the rules 124 can be applied to identify certain terms in email messages traveling through an email pipeline. If a certain term is identified, an associated action may be taken, such as a non-delivery action for example. The rules 124 can also be used to identify which subscription may be delivered to which user. For example, finance related rules can be used to make sure relevant financial information is delivered to a finance team.
The various computing devices and information sources can communicate with each other and other communication devices. For example, the various devices and sources can communicate over a communication network, such as the Internet. Moreover, the various components of
The system 100 includes networking, security, and/or other communication functionality to provide a secure and robust communication environment. For example, the system 100 can be implemented as part of networked, distributed, or other computing environment. A number of client computing devices, including desktop computers, laptops, handhelds, and/or other smart devices can interact with and/or be included as part of the system 100. The system 100 can also include multiple clients and is not limited to any particular configuration, wherein each client can include various functionality and other components.
As shown in
The following description describes how components of the system 200 can be used to control a delivers, of subscription content and other information, but the system 200 is not so limited. For example, an administrator may interact with the mail server 202 and hub server 204 to configure and use various rules when controlling subscription deliveries and subscription access. As further example, a user may configure a number of rules to control delivery times, delivery types, recipients, automatic forwarding, automatic journaling, etc. One or more of the number of rules may be configured based in part on the identity of a subscriber or subscribers and according to other factors, such as a company-wide subscription and distribution policy for example. Correspondingly, components of the system 200 can be used to determine if, when, and/or how subscription content and other information is to be delivered through the email pipeline 205.
If subscription content is to be delivered, a mapping application 210 can be used to package subscription content, including aggregated subscription content, which can then be delivered to user inboxes or other locations using the email and communication infrastructure. In one embodiment, the system 200 can operate to aggregate information associated with a number of user subscriptions and apply certain rules to subscription information being communicated through the email pipeline 205 to user inboxes. After applying any rules, the subscription information may or may not be delivered to a user's email inbox. In some cases, subscription information may be diverted, rerouted, saved, and/or not delivered. Other operations can be implemented by configuring various rules or adding new rules to control delivery and other information communications.
In one embodiment, upon delivery, a user can use a web application, an email application, or other interactive application to interact with the delivered subscription information. As part of the interaction, a user can monitor and control feed and other subscriber information. For example, a user can use an email application to read a subscription, reply to a subscription feed, forward/copy a subscription, etc. The user can also change aspects of a feed or feeds, such as feeds to include and feeds to exclude for example. Moreover, any aggregation errors on the server side can be propagated to an end user not only in a form of last error that can be displayed by a client, but also as part of a system message delivered to the user's mailbox, explaining any error and possible corrective actions.
In one embodiment, components of the system 200 can be used to deliver subscription content to an email application, such that the subscription content arrives in a user's inbox represented or packaged as part of an email format. In an embodiment, the mapping application 210 can be used to convert subscription content to an email format. That is, the mapping application 210 can be configured to convert or map the subscription content and associated information to an email data structure, thereby allowing the delivered subscription content to be rendered as an email. Information associated with the subscription content and/or feed can be used when mapping to an email representation.
In one embodiment, the mapping application 210 can be used to create an abstraction of a subscription to encapsulate any subscription type, wherein each specific subscription type, such as web feed subscription, POP3 account, etc. can be used to extend a base type. Correspondingly, the mapping application 210 can use subscription content and other subscription information when mapping to various parts of an email representation. For example, subscription content and other subscription information can be used to map to various email fields, such as: subject, from, recipient, body, and/or other email fields.
For example, the Table below illustrates a mapping that may be used by the mapping application 210 involving feed item properties and generated message properties. In an embodiment, the information of the Table below can be used as part of an abstraction process to create or form a normalized feed object which can be delivered to a user inbox.
With continuing reference to
A computing device 212 is in communication with the mail server 202. The computing device 212 can also be in communication with the hub server 204 and one or more information sources. The computing device 212 also includes an email application 214. In one embodiment, the email application 214 can be implemented as a web-based application and the computing device 212 corresponds to a portable computing device, such as a PDA for example. While one such computing device 212 is shown in
As described briefly above, as part of a subscription process, the mail server 202 and hub server 204 can be configured to monitor, manage, and control the delivery of subscription content to subscribers. In one embodiment, the mail server 202 can be configured to aggregate and dispatch subscription information to a selected hub server. The selected hub server can be configured for syndicated content aggregation, email conversion, and submission operations, but is not so limited. The hub server 204 can also be used to retrieve, download, or otherwise access subscription content using a number of information sources. As described below, the hub server 204 also includes an aggregation application 208 that can be used for aggregation and other processes.
As shown in
The mail server 202 includes a subscription application 206 which includes functionality to manage and control subscription information associated with a number of subscriptions and users. The subscription application 206 can be used when retrieving various subscription information as part of the managing and controlling of subscription content delivery, to subscribers, but is not so limited. As part of a subscription retrieval process, the subscription application 206 may be used to dispatch subscriptions of all types to the hub server 204 for aggregation and other operations. The mail server 202 also includes a rules engine 220, wherein a number of rules can be implemented to control a delivery of subscription content. The rules engine 220 can be used to apply routing procedures, messaging policies, sanitization, security, and other features. In an alternative embodiment, the hub server 104 can also include a rules engine to handle inbox, transport, and other rules.
As described above, more than one hub server 204 can be included in the system 200. In another embodiment, as part of the content aggregation process, the aggregation application 208 can be configured to map from a first format associated with a subscription type to a second format, such as an email representation for example. For example, the aggregation application 208 can use a dispatch table to map from a specific subscription type to a protocol handler, wherein the protocol handler can then be used to download content and convert to a message or email representation.
The subscription application 206 can store user subscriptions in an email store or other storage. Other clients can be used to provide a subscription management facility. For example, a web-based application can be used to manage various user subscriptions. In an embodiment, the subscription application 206 can be configured with duplication prevention functionality. Accordingly, the subscription application 206 can be used to prevent or limit duplicate subscription content from being retrieved, thereby reducing an amount of bandwidth and time when retrieving subscription content. In one embodiment, the subscription application 206 can be used to detect duplicated messages based in part on a client submit time and/or a message ID. The subscription application 206 can be used to generate a deterministic timestamp and an ID string for each syndicated item. Thereafter, the deterministic timestamp and ID string can be mapped to a client submit time and message ID on the corresponding email message.
Load balancing processes can be used to balance loads being managed by components of the system 200. For example, load balancing operations can be used to manage subscription loads being handled by the mail server 202 and the hub server 204. In one embodiment, load balancing operations include load balancing of subscription retrieval and load balancing of content aggregation. As part of the load balancing, subscription retrieval operations can be spread or distributed among mail servers associated with user email stores based in part on a shared state determination.
For subscriptions that do not have a shared state, like POP for example, the subscription information may be dispatched to all available hub servers for processing. For subscriptions that include a shared state, a web resource state of a web feed for example, the subscription information may be dispatched to one or more hub servers based in part on a hash of a key which a state keyed off of. For example, a uniform resource identifier (URI) includes a state that may be shared by all subscriptions that use it. The dispatching may be based on a hash of the URI to determine which hub server to send to. The affinity allows the state to be reused to increase efficiency. In case a hub server is not available (busy, down, etc.), a distribution algorithm may be used to redistribute the subscriptions to other hub servers while minimizing the affinity change.
At 300, multiple users can subscribe to receive subscription content from a plurality of information sources. For example a user can add a subscription to be received by an email client by using a subscription manager UI to add new feeds (see
At 302, the subscription component 102 operates to collect subscription information associated with a number of user subscriptions. For example, the subscription component 102 can collect subscription information from a number of enterprise users at periodic intervals. In another embodiment, users can submit subscription information to the subscription component 102. As part of the collection process, the subscription component 102 can operate to locate and discard duplicate subscription information. For example, two users may be subscribing to the same feed and the subscription component 102 can discard the duplicate while continuing to associate the intended recipients with the subscription content.
At 304, the aggregation component 120 operates to aggregate the collected subscription information. At 306, using the aggregated subscription information, the aggregation component 120 operates to collect subscription content associated with the aggregated subscription information. As part of the collection process, the aggregation component 120 can operate to interact with multiple information sources, such as a number of web feeds for example, to retrieve the subscription content. For example, the aggregation component 120 can use a number of URLs to locate various web feeds to retrieve desired content. The aggregation component 120 can also operate to retrieve other information, such as other emails from alternative email accounts, contact information, and/or calendar information for example.
At 308, the aggregation component 120 operates to aggregate the subscription content and any other retrieved information in preparing to deliver the aggregated subscription content and other information to subscribers. At 310, the aggregation component 120 uses one or more handlers 126 to convert the subscription content and other information into an email representation in preparation to deliver the subscription content and other information to a subscriber inbox.
At 311, the aggregation component 120 can apply a number of rules 124 to subscription content to be delivered to subscribers. At 312, the aggregation component 120 delivers the converted subscription content and other information to subscriber inboxes as email representations. Thereafter, a subscriber can interact with the delivered subscription content and other information using an email application including web-based email applications. In another embodiment, the subscription content and other information can be delivered as part of an instant messaging or other messaging protocol.
As described in detail above, one or more server-side components can be configured to aggregate and deliver subscription content and other information to an email application. The various embodiments can be configured to aggregate subscription information and content as part of an efficient delivery of subscription content and other information to end users. Rules, including email pipeline rules, can be used to control a delivery of subscription and other content by controlling if, how, and when subscription content is to be delivered to end users. Other embodiments and configurations are available.
Referring now to
Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, and other types of structures that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
Referring now to
The computer 2 further includes a mass storage device 14 for storing an operating system 32, application programs and other program modules. The mass storage device 14 is connected to the CPU 8 through a mass storage controller (not shown) connected to the bus 10. The mass storage device 14 and its associated computer-readable media provide non-volatile storage for the computer 2. Although the description of computer-readable media contained herein refers to a mass storage device, such as a hard disk or CD-ROM drive, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed or utilized by the computer 2.
By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other solid state memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (“DVD”), or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the computer 2.
According to various embodiments of the invention, the computer 2 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to remote computers through a network 4, such as a local network, the Internet, etc. for example. The computer 2 may connect to the network 4 through a network interface unit 16 connected to the bus 10. It should be appreciated that the network interface unit 16 may also be utilized to connect to other types of networks and remote computing systems. The computer 2 may also include an input/output controller 22 for receiving and processing input from a number of input types, including a keyboard, mouse, pen, stylus, finger, and/or other means. Similarly, an input/output controller 22 may provide output to a display, a printer, or other type of output device. Additionally, a touch screen can serve as an input and an output mechanism.
As mentioned briefly above, a number of program modules and data files may be stored in the mass storage device 14 and RAM 18 of the computer 2, including an operating system 32 suitable for controlling the operation of a networked personal computer, such as the WINDOWS operating systems from MICROSOFT CORPORATION of Redmond, Wash. The mass storage device 14 and RAM 18 may also store one or more program modules. In particular, the mass storage device 14 and the RAM 18 may store application programs, such as a word processing application 28, an inking application 30, e-mail application 34, drawing application, etc.
It should be appreciated that various embodiments of the present invention can be implemented (1) as a sequence of computer implemented acts or program modules running on a computing system and/or (2) as interconnected machine logic circuits or circuit modules within the computing system. The implementation is a matter of choice dependent on the performance requirements of the computing system implementing the invention. Accordingly, logical operations including related algorithms can be referred to variously as operations, structural devices, acts or modules. It will be recognized by one skilled in the art that these operations, structural devices, acts and modules may be implemented in software, firmware, special purpose digital logic, and any combination thereof without deviating from the spirit and scope of the present invention as recited within the claims set forth herein.
Although the invention has been described in connection with various exemplary embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art still understand that many modifications can be made thereto within the scope of the claims that follow. Accordingly, it is not intended that the scope of the invention in any way be limited by the above description, but instead be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.
