Patent Application
20080065761
The novel features believed characteristic of the illustrative embodiments are set forth in the appended claims. The illustrative embodiments, themselves, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives, and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
With reference now to the figures and in particular with reference to
In the depicted example, server 104 and server 106 connect to network 102 along with storage unit 108. In addition, clients 110, 112, and 114 connect to network 102. These clients 110, 112, and 114 may be, for example, personal computers or network computers. In the depicted example, server 104 provides data, such as boot files, operating system images, and applications to clients 110, 112, and 114. Clients 110, 112, and 114 are clients to server 104 in this example. Network data processing system 100 may include additional servers, clients, and other devices not shown.
In the depicted example, network data processing system 100 is the Internet with network 102 representing a worldwide collection of networks and gateways that use the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite of protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of high-speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers, consisting of thousands of commercial, governmental, educational and other computer systems that route data and messages. Of course, network data processing system 100 also may be implemented as a number of different types of networks, such as for example, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), or a wide area network (WAN).
With reference now to
In the depicted example, data processing system 200 employs a hub architecture including a north bridge and memory controller hub (MCH) 202 and a south bridge and input/output (I/O) controller hub (ICH) 204. Processor 206, main memory 208, and graphics processor 210 are coupled to north bridge and memory controller hub 202. Graphics processor 210 may be coupled to the MCH through an accelerated graphics port (AGP), for example.
In the depicted example, local area network (LAN) adapter 212 is coupled to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204 and audio adapter 216, keyboard and mouse adapter 220, modem 222, read only memory (ROM) 224, universal serial bus (USB) ports and other communications ports 232, and PCI/PCIe devices 234 are coupled to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204 through bus 238, and hard disk drive (HDD) 226 and CD-ROM drive 230 are coupled to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204 through bus 240. PCI/PCIe devices may include, for example, Ethernet adapters, add-in cards, and PC cards for notebook computers. PCI uses a card bus controller, while PCIe does not. ROM 224 may be, for example, a flash binary input/output system (BIOS). Hard disk drive 226 and CD-ROM drive 230 may use, for example, an integrated drive electronics (IDE) or serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) interface. A super I/O (SIO) device 236 may be coupled to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204.
In the illustrative embodiment of
Instructions for the operating system, the object-oriented programming system, and applications or programs are located on storage devices, such as hard disk drive 226, and may be loaded into main memory 208 for execution by processor 206. The processes of the illustrative embodiments may be performed by processor 206 using computer implemented instructions, which may be located in a memory such as main memory 208, read only memory 224, or in one or more peripheral devices.
The hardware in
In some illustrative examples, data processing system 200 may be a personal digital assistant (PDA), which is generally configured with flash memory to provide non-volatile memory for storing operating system files and/or user-generated data. A bus system may be comprised of one or more buses, such as a system bus, an I/O bus and a PCI bus. Of course the bus system may be implemented using any type of communications fabric or architecture that provides for a transfer of data between different components or devices attached to the fabric or architecture. A communications unit may include one or more devices used to transmit and receive data, such as a modem or a network adapter. A memory may be, for example, main memory 208 or a cache such as found in north bridge and memory controller hub 202. A processing unit may include one or more processors or CPUs. The depicted examples in
Turning to
Application programming interface (API) 306 allows the user of the system, an individual, or a software routine, to invoke system capabilities using a standard consistent interface without concern for how the particular functionality is implemented. Network access software 308 represents any software available for allowing the system to access a network. This access may be to a network, such as a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), or the Internet. With the Internet, this software may include programs, such as Web browsers.
Application software 310 represents any number of software applications designed to react to data through the communications port to provide the desired functionality the user seeks, such as email messaging clients. Applications at this level may include those necessary to handle data, video, graphics, photos, or text which can be accessed by users of the Internet. The illustrative embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in any of the software elements of
The illustrative embodiments of the present invention provide a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for responding to rejected messages. The illustrative embodiments of the present invention allow emails that are rejected back to the sender to be tracked by extracting important information. The important information is saved in storage space allocated for email messages that would not otherwise be received because the user has exceeded a quota. The extracted information may include minimal information for determining who sent the message and when, as well as the specified subject of the email message.
Email messages are most frequently rejected for surpassing a specified quota. The quota is a rule, term, parameter, or other limitation for the email server. The most frequent reason for email rejection results from the user exceeding a storage quota. Most email servers have quotas set in megabytes. Such storage quotas may be quickly surpassed when email messages include pictures, videos, or other memory intensive attachments, files, or objects. In another example, the user may have a quota specifying the maximum number of messages that may be received in a day. The quota may also specify that certain types of files, such as executable files, are unacceptable and therefore automatically rejected. Messages may also be rejected based on questionable or inappropriate content that may include viruses or other malicious programs. There may be any number of reasons why a message is rejected in addition to those examples provided herein.
The illustrative embodiments of the present invention allow the receiver to send a correction notification according to user preferences indicating that the email server problem has been corrected. The sender may automatically resend the original email message when the correction notification is received by associating the correction notification with the original email message.
Sending client 404 and receiving client 412 may be clients, such as clients 110, 112, and 114 of
Sending client 404 and receiving client 412 may use email application 414 to send and receive messages. Email application 414 may be a program application, such as Microsoft Outlook®, Eudora®, and other commonly used email applications. Alternatively, email application 414 may be an Internet browser or similar application for accessing email application 416 of email server 408. For example, a user accessing receiving client 412 may use Internet Explorer® to access email application 416, such as Yahoo® Mail on email server 408. Email applications 414 and 416 may be software applications, such as application software 310 of
In one illustrative embodiment, email server 408 allocates a portion of quota 410 as reserve 418. Reserve 418 is an allocated amount of storage or space, such as 100 kilobytes, used to store metadata about rejected messages. Metadata is limited data about email message 402 which may specify the sender, the subject, an email identifier, an error code, and the history of email message 402, such as when email message 402 was sent, rejected, and why. Reserve 418 may be specified by the user, email server administrator, or may simply be a default setting. In one embodiment, reserve 418 is an amount of storage above and beyond quota 410.
Failure notification 411 may include portions of the metadata. Particularly, the email identifier and error code are included in failure notification 411 for allowing email application 414 to identify email message 402 and why it was rejected. The email identifier may be a sequence of numbers or characters used to identify email message 402, such as 08240600015a. The email identifier may include information regarding the date and time email message 402 was originally received. The error code identifies the problem or reason email message 402 was rejected. For example, error code 201 may be used to indicate quota 410 has been exceeded.
Reserve 418 is used to store rejected message file 420. Rejected message file 420 is information or metadata extracted from a rejected message, such as name, email address, subject line, and date and time. Rejected message file 420 includes entries for each rejected message in concise terms so that each entry consumes very little space in reserve 418.
In one example, if the quota is 10 Mb, and 100 kb is specified for reserve 418, once the quota reaches 9.9 Mb, failure notification 411 is sent back to sending client 404. The receiving party may use receiving client 412 and email application 414 or email application 416 to establish correction notification preferences as further described in
Correction notification preferences may specify information regarding the number, type, time frame, order, stagger, personalized message, and other relevant preferences for sending one or more of correction notification 422 to at least one sending client 404. Correction notification 422 includes the email identifier and the error code for indicating that the problem that resulted in the failed delivery of email message 402 has been corrected so that email message 402 may be resent.
When failure notification 411 is sent as an email response to email message 402 indicating that quota 410 is surpassed, failure notification 411 is likely sent from a specific mailer daemon address with an email identifier and error code identifying the problem. When correction notification 422 is sent from email server 408 back to sending client 404 using the same mailer daemon address with the email identifier and error code. A mailer daemon is a program that runs continuously and exists for the purpose of handling periodic service requests, such as notifying sending parties that email messages have been rejected. The mailer daemon may be part of email application 416 used to send failure notification 411 and correction notification 422.
Email application 414 associates email message 402 with failure notification 411 when failure notification 411 is received using information, such as sending time, recipient, mailer daemon address, email address, or other identifiers. Email application 414 automatically stores email message 402 in a folder, such as drafts or “auto-resend”, in response to receiving failure notification 411. At any time, the user may click a button or give an indication, manually commanding email application 414 to resend, delete, or abandon resending email message 402.
Alternatively, the user may specify auto-resend preferences for specifying the circumstances and conditions for automatically resending email message 402. Email application 414 may be configured to associate correction notification 422 with failure notification 411 and email message 402. Email message 402, failure notification 411, and correction notification 422 may be associated using an email identifier, error code, mailer daemon address, or any other information. As a result, when correction notification 422 is received, email application 414 automatically resends email message 402. As a result, even though an original email message may have been rejected, email message 402 is resent for receipt by the receiving party once the problem has been taken care of.
Correction notification preferences 500 may include section 502. Section 502 allows a user to specify whether to send out a notification for each rejected email or alternatively to send out an email for each unique email address. For example, if a single sender has sent fifteen messages that were all rejected, section 502 allows the user to stipulate that only one correction notification be sent to the single sender or that one correction notification be sent for each rejected message. Section 502 prevents the email server from being overwhelmed when sending correction notifications.
Section 504 allows the user to specify to send the correction notification to all messages or messages received within a specified time period. For example, section 504 allows the user to specify that all messages rejected be responded to or that messages rejected in a specified time period, such as eight hours, be responded to. The user may use section 504 to specifically indicate which messages receive a correction notification based on a rejection time which may be entered in days, hours, and minutes. Section 504 may allow a user to prioritize which rejected messages are most important to respond to based on time of rejection.
Section 506 allows the user to send correction notifications to only specified addresses or exclude specified addresses. For example, if the user selects “yes” in section 506, the user may be prompted to enter individual addresses that are to receive a correction notification and individual addresses that are not to receive a correction notification. Section 506 allows a user to customize which addresses receive correction notifications or are excluded from receiving correction notifications for business or personal reasons.
Section 508 allows a user to send correction notifications based on email size. For example, if the user selects “yes”, the user may select to send messages from largest to smallest or from smallest to largest based on the overall size of each message that was rejected. Section 508 allows the user to address the problem of email size and which correction notifications should be sent first.
Section 510 allows the user to stagger sending correction notifications. For example, the user may select “yes” and use section 510 to specify that one message should be sent every five minutes in order to not overwhelm an email server, such as email server 408 of
In another illustrative embodiment of the present invention, correction notification preferences 500 may allow a user to specify that only a specified number of correction notifications are sent out based on the corresponding size of the original email message. This may ensure that the quota of the email server is not immediately overwhelmed by responses to the correction notifications.
Next, the email application logs email information, sends a failure notification, and deletes the email message (process block 604). The important information may include an email identifier, error code, sender email, username, recipient, time stamp, subject, and other relevant information. The user may have established extraction preferences regarding the information extracted by the email application. The failure notification may be failure notification 411 of
Next, the email application determines whether the quota problem is corrected (process block 606). The quota or other problem may be corrected by receiving client 412 using email applications 414 or 416. If the quota problem has not been corrected, the determination of process block 606 continues to loop. Once the quota problem is corrected in process block 606, the email applications sends a correction notification based on user preferences for rejected email messages (process block 608) with the process terminating thereafter. The correction notification may be correction notification 422 of
The process begins by sending an email message (process block 702). The email message may be email message 402 of
Next, the email application associates the correction notification with the original email message and resends the email message according to auto-resend preferences (process block 708) with the process terminating thereafter. The correction notification may be associated with the original message using an identifier as described in
Thus, the illustrative embodiments provide a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for responding to reject email message. Messages sent to a user and subsequently rejected are logged, cataloged, or otherwise recorded. Important information is extracted and saved in a file within a reserve so that the information may be accessed later. Because only portions of the message are extracted, large numbers of messages may be recorded using very little memory or storage. Once the user has corrected the quota problem, a correction notification is sent to the sending party according to correction notification preferences. The sending party may automatically associate the correction notification with the original message and resend the original message based on auto-resend user preferences. As a result, the sending and receiving parties are better able to respond to rejected email messages for more effective electronic communication.
Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented entirely in hardware, entirely in software or using a combination of both hardware and software elements. In one embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, including but not being limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, or the like.
Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any tangible apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.
A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a communication medium (e.g., a system bus). The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution.
Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers.
Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.
The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention embodiments in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the invention, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
