Patent Grant
7360174
1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to user interfaces in computers and electronic devices and, more particularly, to methods, systems, and computer program products for displaying contact information corresponding to a contact management system with a user interface.
2. Background and Relevant Art
A contact management system is generally referred to in this application as a system, directory or database that contains contact information about people, groups, organizations, businesses, households, or any other identifiable entity, each of which is referred to herein as a contact.
Contact management systems are extensively used in the computer industry to store and display contact information that is pertinent to the corresponding software applications to which they belong. For example, email applications typically include directories for storing and displaying the email addresses of contacts that can be emailed. Money management applications typically include directories for storing contact information about related financial contacts, such as, for example, banks, accounting service organizations, financial planning organizations, and so forth. Other examples of software applications that utilize contact management systems include time management applications, instant messaging applications, network gaming applications, business directory applications, telephony applications, and so forth.
Contact management systems are also widely used in many hardware devices that are not considered traditional computers. For example, many telephones, facsimile devices, and photocopying devices also include contact management systems for storing contact information that may be used to perform a desired function such as initiating a telephone call, a facsimile transmission, or a telecopy transmission.
One problem encountered by existing contact management systems, however, is that the large variety of specialized and disparate contact management systems can make it difficult for a user to quickly access all available contact information for the various applications at the same time. This can be a problem, for example, when a user desires to identify all available means for making contact with a given entity because it may require the user to separately access various directories from many different contact management systems in order to obtain the desired contact information. For example, it may be necessary to access a telephone directory to obtain the home or cell telephone number for the contact, an email directory to obtain a primary email address for the contact, a business directory to obtain the business telephone number, and business email address of the entity, and so forth.
Having disparate contact management systems can also be a problem for obtaining different types of contact information about different contacts. For example, it may be desirable to view the email address of a first contact, the business telephone number of a second contact, and the cell telephone number of a third contact. If the desired contact data for each of the different entities is located in a different contact management system of different applications, then each application will have to be accessed to obtain the desired information, thereby requiring the undesirable expenditure of time and resources.
Searches and queries for specific contacts or contact information must also be performed separately on each of the various contact management systems. This can particularly be a problem when a user has forgotten in which of the contact management system directories the contact information is stored.
To overcome some of these problems, some contact management systems are configured to store more contact information then is required for the corresponding application. For example, an email directory may be configured to store the addresses, phone numbers and other information about the various contacts stored therein. However, the interfaces and limitations for displaying contact information typical vary from one application to the next, thereby making it difficult to become customized to the various contact management systems. Furthermore, it would be somewhat onerous to duplicatively enter every piece of contact information about every contact into every utilized contact management system, even if it were possible. This redundant storage would also represent undesirable and unnecessary expenditure of resources.
Another problem with existing contact management systems is that because they are so specialized, they fail to provide very extensive and rich search and view capabilities of the contact information. In particular, most contact management systems are relegated to providing only two-dimensional columns or lists of the stored data. Yet another problem with existing contact management systems is that they do not enable a user to view, create, and edit relationships between contacts. More particularly, existing systems do not enable a user to view the relationships existing between contacts or to create and edit these relationships.
Accordingly, there currently exists a need in the art for improved contact management systems and interfaces for accessing contact information.
The present invention is directed to improved contact management systems, methods for use, and corresponding computer program products and interfaces for accessing contact information from a plurality of disparate directories that are located in one or more data stores.
According to one embodiment, the contact management system includes a user interface that provides access to aggregated contact information from a plurality of local and remote data stores. The contact information may be consolidated into a single store or accessed discretely from a plurality of disparate data stores.
During use, the interface and corresponding modules of the invention enable the aggregate contact information to be comprehensively searched by search terms and to be filtered by classification. The interface also enables the aggregate contact information to be displayed in a variety of rich views that graphically illustrate existing hierarchical, organizational, chronological, social, geographical and operational patterns of the contact information.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the invention. The features and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.
In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
The present invention is directed to improved methods, systems, and corresponding computer program products and interfaces for obtaining and displaying desired contact information from one or more contact information directories. The embodiments of the present invention may comprise or be performed with a special purpose or general-purpose computer including various computer hardware, as discussed in greater detail below.
Embodiments within the scope of the present invention also include computer-readable media for carrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures and which can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. When information is transferred or provided over a network or another communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or a combination of hardwired or wireless) to a computer, the computer properly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media. Computer-executable instructions comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions.
Operating Environment
Although not required, the invention will be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by computers in network environments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures, and program modules represent examples of the program code means for executing steps of the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executable instructions or associated data structures represents examples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions described in such steps.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced in network computing environments with many types of computer system configurations, including personal computers, hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by local and remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwired links, wireless links, or by a combination of hardwired or wireless links) through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
With reference to
The computer 120 may also include a magnetic hard disk drive 127 for reading from and writing to a magnetic hard disk 139, a magnetic disk drive 128 for reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk 129, and an optical disk drive 130 for reading from or writing to removable optical disk 131 such as a CD-ROM or other optical media. The magnetic hard disk drive 127, magnetic disk drive 128, and optical disk drive 130 are connected to the system bus 123 by a hard disk drive interface 132, a magnetic disk drive-interface 133, and an optical drive interface 134, respectively. The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer-executable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computer 120. Although the exemplary environment described herein employs a magnetic hard disk 139, a removable magnetic disk 129 and a removable optical disk 131, other types of computer readable media for storing data can be used, including magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, Bernoulli cartridges, RAMs, ROMs, and the like.
Program code means comprising one or more program modules may be stored on the hard disk 139, magnetic disk 129, optical disk 131, ROM 124 or RAM 125, including an operating system 135, one or more application programs 136, other program modules 137, and program data 138. A user may enter commands and information into the computer 120 through keyboard 140, pointing device 142, or other input devices (not shown), such as a microphone, joy stick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 121 through a serial port interface 146 coupled to system bus 123. Alternatively, the input devices may be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, a game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 147 or another display device is also connected to system bus 123 via an interface, such as video adapter 148. In addition to the monitor, personal computers typically include other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers.
The computer 120 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as remote computers 149a and 149b. Remote computers 149a and 149b may each be another personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically include many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer 120, although only memory storage devices 150a and 150b and their associated application programs 136a and 136b have been illustrated in
When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 120 is connected to the local network 151 through a network interface or adapter 153. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 20 may include a modem 154, a wireless link, or other means for establishing communications over the wide area network 152, such as the Internet. The modem 154, which may be internal or external, is connected to the system bus 123 via the serial port interface 146. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 120, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing communications over wide area network 152 may be used.
During use the computing system utilizes a user interface to display desired contact information at the display device. The functionality of the user interface to display desired contact information is enabled by various computer modules, such as user interface module 230, remote store interface module 240, schema module 250 and communication module 260, each of which will now be described.
The user interface module 230 includes sufficient computer executable instructions for operably displaying a user interface at the display device and for responding to user input entered at the user interface. The remote store interface module 240 includes sufficient computer executable instructions for searching and processing contact information stored at remote devices, such as remote device 220. Remote device 220 may be a remote computer, server containing contact information.
The schema module 250 contains sufficient computer executable instructions for mapping contact information into categories and classifications that can be recognized by the user interface for display on the display device 210. The categories and classifications defined by the schema module 250 enable the contact information to be filtered and displayed into the designated categories and classifications, as described below. The schema module 250 is useful for enabling contact information from remote stores to be organized according to a single unifying schema. The schema module 250 may also be used to map and identify contact information stored in local stores, such as storage media 270.
The communication module 260 includes sufficient computer executable instructions for enabling communication between the various modules, as well as the display device 210, the remote device 220, and the storage media of the remote device 220 and computing system 200. In particular, the communication module enables the modules to access and process contact information that is stored in one or more contact information directories that may be stored locally and remotely. The communication module may be associated with a sync module for replicating data from remotes stores to local stores, as well as a query module, for enabling the computing system to perform queries to the remote stores for contact information contained therein.
The present embodiment illustrates three contact information directories, 280a, 280b, and 280c. For example, directory 280a may correspond to an email application and directory 280b may correspond to a telephony application. It will be appreciated, however, that the invention is not limited to use with any particular number of contact information directories or applications to which they correspond.
The first illustrated act includes displaying a plurality of directory links corresponding to a plurality of disparate contact information directories (act 310). Next, the method includes a step for displaying requested contact information in a desired view (step 320). According to one embodiment, step 320 includes corresponding acts of providing a frame for displaying requested contact information in a designated view (act 320) and of providing means for selectably changing the designated view (act 330). It will be appreciated, however, that step 320 may include any corresponding acts that are suitable for displaying the requested contact information in a desired view. The final illustrated acts include an act of providing means for searching for key terms existing in the aggregate contact information of the disparate contact information directories (act 340), and an act of providing means for filtering the aggregate contact information by classifications (act 350).
Although acts 310, 320, 330, 340 and 350 are shown and identified in a particular sequence, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to performing the illustrated acts in any particular order. Accordingly, the acts 310, 320, 330, 340 and 350 may be performed simultaneously or in a different sequence than presently illustrated. Each of the illustrated acts 310, 320, 330, 340 and 350 will now be shown and described with specific reference to
The list 430 of directory links may identify any number of contact information directories from which contact information may be obtained. The contact information directories may by application specific directories, such as an email application directory, or a network directory, such as a company information directory. The directories may be located on a single storage medium or disposed in a plurality of disparate storage medium. As eluded to above, in reference to
When one of the listed directories is selected, the interface 400 obtains and displays the contact information from the selected directory in the primary display frame 410. As defined herein, the term “contact” generally refers to any person, group, organization, business, or other type of identifiable entity and the term “contact information” generally refers to any information that corresponds to a contact and that may be considered relevant for contacting, accessing, corresponding or communicating with the contact. Non-limiting examples of contact information include names, aliases, telephone numbers, email addresses, images, symbols, home addresses, instant message (IM) addresses, relationships with other contacts, web addresses. Contact information can also refer to other types of information such as the status of a contact. For example, information indicating a contact is currently online, or on a telephone line may also be broadly considered as contact information.
In the present embodiment, the interface 400 displays contact information including the names, email addresses, telephone numbers, and images associated with the contacts identified in the selected directory. It will be appreciated, however, that any amount of identifiable contact information can be displayed to accommodate different needs and preferences. Accordingly, the interface may include menus (not shown) for configuring the amount of contact information that will be provided. Likewise, even though a limited number of contacts is shown, it will be appreciated that the interface 400 may display any number of contacts as desired by sizing them appropriately. If the selected directory includes more contacts than displayed in the frame 410, then traditional tools for scrolling through or expanding the list of the additional contacts may be displayed and utilized by the interface 400.
When a contact is selected, such as with a mouse pointer or any other means, the contact information corresponding to the selected contact can be displayed in the secondary frame 420. In one embodiment, the contact information displayed in the secondary frame 420 consists of the same contact information displayed in the primary frame 410, only enlarged or rearranged. According to another embodiment, the contact information displayed in the secondary frame 420 includes additional information about the contact than is displayed in the primary frame 410. The secondary frame 420 may also display tasks that can be done with that contact (e.g., send IM to the contact, send email to the contact, and so forth).
The secondary frame 410 can also be used to provide contact information about the directory links listed in list 430. By way of example, the secondary frame 410 may display the contact information, such as a business card and image, for a business that corresponds with a business contact information directory, for example.
As shown, the interface 400 also includes means for searching for key terms that may exist in the aggregate contact information of the plurality of disparate contact information directories (act 340). In particular, the search pane 440 may be used to enter a key term that may comprise part of a name, an address, or an attribute that can be used to search for desired contact information. For example, by typing the name “Jane,” one or more of the contact information directories is searched for contact information corresponding with the name “Jane.” As shown in the present embodiment, various Jane contacts from the My Contacts directory and the XYZ Corporation directory are displayed. It will be appreciated, however, that this example is merely illustrative and that a search can be performed by supplying other terms or symbols that are associated with a contact. For example, a search can be performed by supplying a telephone number and searching for one or more contacts associated with the telephone number.
It will also be appreciated that the invention extends to both embodiments in which a plurality of directories are searched, as shown, as well as embodiments in which only individually selected directories are searched. The key term that is entered may also comprise a filter term, such as an attribute characterizing a type of group or classification. For example, the key term “sales team A” may be used to identify all contacts belonging to sales team A. The types of classifications and groups that can be associated with the contacts is determined by the schema module 250, described above. Filtering can also be based on relationships between the contacts. For example, a filtered search can be performed for everyone in the same household as Contact A or who works for the same organization as Contact B, and so forth. The filters may be customizable and specifically tailored to search corresponding directories. For example, a job title filter may be provided when searching a corporate directory. Likewise, an online status filter may be provided when searching through the personal contacts directory, and so forth.
The interface 400 may also include a list 450 of filters that may be utilized with or without the search pane 450 for filtering the aggregate contact information by classification, as described above. Any number of filters may be used at the same time. The filters may be provided as links, as check box items, or as any other selectable object. The number and type of filters that may be included with the interface may be modified to accommodate any need and preference. Although the list 450 of filters, the list 430 of directories, and the search pane 440 are presently displayed with the interface, it will also be appreciated that these components may be hidden behind pull down menus so as to provide more room for the primary and secondary panes 410. The secondary pane 420 can also be hidden, if desired, to provide more room for the primary pane 410.
One example of a pull down menu object that can be used to hide available information is the view menu object 460. When the view menu object 460 is selected, a list of available views are presented for selection by the user (not shown). Each of the views that are identified by the Change View menu object 460 corresponds with a different pattern for displaying the contact information. Non-limiting examples of some views that may be utilized by the interface to display the contact information will now be shown and described with specific reference to
In the present example, the teams are organized in hierarchal order. For example, the team leaders 530, 540 and 550 are displayed on top of each grouping, with the subordinates of each team displayed below the team leaders 530. In particular, team members 532, 534, etc. are shown to be subordinate to team leader 530. Likewise, team members 542, 544, etc. are shown to be subordinate to team leader 540, and team members 552, 554, etc. are shown to be subordinate to team leader 550. When a team leader 530 is selected, such as with a mouse pointer, the interface may display the organizational or hierarchal view of the selected team, while the specific contact information of team leader 530 is isolated or displayed in the secondary frame 420, which is described above. Hovering a mouse pointer over any of the contact object cards may also display the contact information of the corresponding contact in the secondary frame 420.
Various examples of views that can be displayed by the primary frame 410 of the interface have been provided above. However, it will be appreciated that these examples are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. In particular, the invention extends to any embodiment in which an interface can display hierarchal, graphical, or other relationships existing between contacts.
By way of another example, the interface may also provide a social view configured to display a social pattern existing between at least two contacts. The interface can also display contact associations based on group, family, and any other relationships defined by the schema module 250, described above, or as defined by a user.
In summary, the methods, systems and computer program products of the invention include and interface for enabling different contact information for a plurality of different contacts to be aggregated and displayed in a variety of rich views. The to interface also enables the aggregate contact information to be searched and filtered based on existing and customized search options.
The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
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