1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for saving draft electronic communications. For example, embodiments of the present invention relate generally to methods and systems for automatically backing up a web-based e-mail while it is being drafted or composed to prevent accidental loss of its content.
2. Background
Since the advent of the Internet and other electronic data networks, electronic mail, often referred to as e-mail, has provided users of such networks with an alternative means of transmitting written communication that is easier and faster than the traditional postal mail. As known in the art, there are two primary approaches to using e-mail communication over a data network such as the Internet. The first and traditional approach is the mail-client approach, which typically involves the user installing a client e-mail program (e.g., Microsoft™ Outlook or Qualcom™ Eudora) for an e-mail account on a user's machine (e.g., a desktop or laptop PC), configuring the program to a host service (e.g., an Internet Service Provider's service) that provides access to the data network, and subsequently using the installed program to draft, send, and receive e-mails. The second approach is the web e-mail approach, which typically involves the user accessing a designated Web site with a Web browser (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer™ or Netscape™), entering a username and password to access the user's e-mail account, and using such account to draft, send, and receive e-mails. With web e-mail, the user can access his/her e-mail account wherever web access is available and without the need to carry around his/her PC.
Although Web e-mail provides users with e-mail communication on the go, one disadvantage with Web e-mail is that when the user is drafting an e-mail on a dedicated web page and wishes to navigate the Web browser away from the e-mailing web page to a different web page or site, the content of the draft e-mail will be lost if the user has not selected to save the draft. Likewise, when the user is drafting an e-mail on a dedicated web page, and the Web browser or the machine on which the user is using crashes, the content of the draft e-mail also will be lost if the user has not selected to save the draft prior to the crash. Although mail-client programs, such as Microsoft™ Outlook and Qualcomm™ Eudora, are known to provide autosave features to automatically save an e-mail while it is being drafted, such autosave features are not found in Web e-mail.
Thus, there exists a need for a method and system that provide users of Web e-mail with a capability to automatically save draft e-mails so that the users do not have to constantly remember to save such drafts for back-up purposes. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for saving draft electronic communications. For instance, exemplary embodiments of the present invention comprise a method and a computer-readable medium having encoded program code for: receiving a request to compose a web e-mail; responsive to the request, providing a web e-mail page for composing the web e-mail; receiving inputs to the web e-mail page; receiving a command to send the web e-mail; and periodically saving at least some of the received inputs prior to receiving the command to send the web e-mail.
The aforementioned embodiments are mentioned not to limit or define the invention, but to provide an example of embodiments of the invention to aid understanding thereof. Such exemplary embodiments are discussed in the Detailed Description, and further description of the invention is provided there. Advantages offered by the various embodiments of the present invention may be further understood by examining this specification.
The embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example in, and not limited to, the following figures:
Overview
As understood and referred herein, web-based e-mail or web e-mail refers to e-mail communication wherein users can use a web browser to access a web-based application to draft, send, and receive e-mails. Examples of services that provide free web-based e-mail communication include Hotmail™, Yahoo!™ Mail, and Netscape™ Mail. Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) also provide their subscribers with the convenience of web e-mail service in conjunction with the traditional mail-client service. Web e-mail should be distinguished from e-mail communication that is accessible through a Web gateway to a mail-client application in the host server system. Although such e-mail communication can be performed with a Web browser, the Web browser is actually used to access the mail-client application, and not a web-based application used by web e-mail, to facilitate the e-mail communication.
System Architecture
Various systems in accordance with the present invention may be constructed.
Referring now to the drawings in which like numerals indicate like elements throughout the several figures,
Each of the client devices 102a-n includes a memory 108, which can be a computer-readable medium (CRM), such as a random access memory (RAM), coupled to a processor 110. The processor 110 executes computer-executable program instructions stored in the client device, such as memory 108, as program code. Such processor may include a microprocessor, an ASIC, and state machines. Such processors include, or may be in communication with, media, for example computer-readable media, which stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the methods described herein. Moreover, the processor 110 can be any of a number of computer processors, such as processors from Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif. and Motorola Corporation of Schaumburg, Ill.
Client devices 102a-n can also include a number of external or internal devices such as a mouse, a CD-ROM drive, a DVD drive, a keyboard, a display, or other input or output devices. Examples of client devices 102a-n are personal computers, digital assistants, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, mobile phones, smart phones, pagers, digital tablets, laptop computers, Internet appliances, and other processor-based devices. In general, the client devices 102a-n can be any type of processor-based platform that operates on any operating system capable of supporting one or more client application programs.
The web e-mail service site 150 includes a server device 152 executing a web-based server application 158, which resides in memory 156, to provide web e-mail service to users at client devices 102a-n. Thus, a user 11a at client device 102a, for example, can use the available we c-mail service to correspond with any of the users 112b-112n at other client devices 102b-n or with the administrator at the web e-mail hosting 150. Similar to the client devices 102an-n, the server device 152 includes a processor 154 coupled to a memory 156, which can be a CRM. Examples of a server device 152 are servers, mainframe computers, networked computers, a processor-based device, and similar types of systems and devices. The server processor 154 can be any of a number of computer processors, such as processors from Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif. and Motorola Corporation of Schaumburg, Ill. In general, the server device 152 can be any type of processor-based platform that operates on any operating system capable of supporting one or more server application programs.
Embodiments of CRM for memory 156 include, but are not limited to, an electronic, optical, magnetic, or other storage or transmission device capable of providing a processor, such as the processor 110 of client 102a, with computer-readable instructions. Other examples of suitable media include, but are not limited to, a floppy disk, CD-ROM, DVD, magnetic disk, memory chip, ROM, RAM, an ASIC, a configured processor, all optical media, all magnetic tape or other magnetic media, or any other medium from which a computer processor can read instructions. Also, various other forms of computer-readable media may transmit or carry instructions to a computer, including a router, switch, private or public network, or other transmission device or channel, both wired and wireless. The instructions may comprise code from any suitable computer-programming language, including, for example, C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, Java, Python, Perl, and JavaScript.
Process
Various methods or processes in accordance with the present invention may be constructed. For example, in one embodiment, a user can access the web e-mail service site 150 to compose and send and e-mail. As the user composes the e-mail on the web site, i.e., provides inputs to the web e-mail page, the web e-mail service site 150 continuously receives the inputs and periodically provides automatic savings or back-ups of such inputs to the web e-mail page.
Referring now to the method depicted in
Thus, when the user navigates away from the e-mail compose window or page 200 to another web page or site, the last-saved draft e-mail is retained in the temporary memory of the web browser. Should the user wish to return to the e-mail compose window/page 200, the draft e-mail is automatically retrieved from the temporary memory of the web browser and appears again on the e-mail window/page 200 as originally entered by the user. The aforementioned first embodiment can be applicable for users of web e-mail services that dynamically generate e-mail compose web pages (which prevents web browsers from saving inputs to those pages), or for any other reasons that such e-mail compose web pages do not get cached in the web browsers.
In a second embodiment of the present invention as shown in
The aforementioned second embodiment can be applicable for those instances where the web browser or the client device crashes. This is because once the draft e-mail is stored in a cookie that resides on the client device, the user can subsequently access the web e-mail service site 150 again after the crash, wherein the user will be given an option to retrieve the last-saved draft e-mail from the cookie to reconstruct the e-mail composition. The second embodiment also can be applicable for backing up those e-mail messages that do not exceed the maximum allotted size for a cookie. In instances where an e-mail message may be too large for complete saving in a cookie, the autosave program application 160 will select the most valuable or important inputs for saving in a cookie. To that effect, the autosave program application 160 includes programmed rules to determine the particular inputs that are to be saved. For instance, in the event that the cookie cannot save the entire e-mail message, the rules can specify that only inputs/values in the body text 240 will be saved; in another instance, the rules can specify that the inputs/values in the body text 240, starting from the top, are saved in the cookie up to a size limit of the cookie. Thus, whatever inputs/values in the e-mail compose window/page 200 can be saved as desired via the programming of the rules contained in the autosave application 160.
In a third embodiment of the present invention as shown in
Although
In a fourth embodiment of the present invention as shown in
The above-mentioned embodiments for backing up e-mails can be implemented independently or jointly. For instance, a web e-mail service can offer one or more of the above-mentioned methods to its users when they open up or access their web e-mail accounts provided by the service, and each user can choose (or be given) one or more of the four methods that he/she prefers (or is given) to use to back up draft e-mails. When more than one of the above four embodiments are used jointly by the autosave program application 160, they can be used simultaneously to provide multiple back-ups of the same e-mail composition. Alternatively, these four embodiments can be used in a complementary fashion as described next.
In a fifth embodiment of the present invention as shown in
Similarly, in a sixth embodiment of the present invention as shown in
Referring to
General
It should be noted that the autosave program application 160 in the above methods can comprise code from any suitable computer-programming language, including, for example, C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, Java, Python, Perl, and JavaScript.
Although the invention has been described with reference to these embodiments, other embodiments could be made by those in the art to achieve the same or similar results. Variations and modifications of the present invention will be apparent to one skilled in the art based on the present disclosure, and the present invention encompasses all such modifications and equivalents.
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