The present invention relates generally to email and, more specifically, to a system and method for soliciting and retrieving a complete email thread.
Situations often arise where an individual may have been added to an email thread late (and have missed earlier parts of the thread), or a user may have an incomplete thread (for example, if a user has been added to a thread where an attachment was removed).
The present art, such as IBM's IWMC (IBM® Workplace Managed Client) and other browser clients such as MSN's Hotmail®, Google's GMail, Yahoo® Mail, do not solve this problem of identifying threads on the specific topic of thread solicitation, aggregation, merging, or returning incomplete threads.
There is currently a need for a system and method to allow such a user to solicit and receive a complete thread from another user when permission has been sought and granted.
The system and method of the present invention allows an email user to solicit an email thread from another user (or from a server) in situations where the first requesting user may have been added to an email thread after the email thread was started, or in situations where the user may have an incomplete thread (for example, where a user is being added to a thread where an attachment was removed). The complete thread is returned to the first requesting user, after permission has been sought and granted, and after data mining and intelligent aggregation of a plurality of relevant threads in to one interleaved result is performed and returned to the first requesting user.
The illustrative aspects of the present invention are designed to solve one or more of the problems herein described and/or one or more other problems not discussed.
These and other features of the invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of the various aspects of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings that depict various embodiments of the invention, in which:
The drawings are intended to depict only typical aspects of the invention, and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope of the invention. In the drawings, like numbering represent like elements between the drawings.
The present invention provides system and method for soliciting and retrieving a complete email thread.
In
Email Client 100 has an I/F 114 for interfacing with the Network 108 and Email Server 102. Likewise, Email Clients 104, 106 have interface components for interfacing with the Network 108 and Email Server 102. Email Client 100 has a Mailbox Component 110 for providing email communications 130 with Email Clients 104, 106 through the Network 108 and Email Server 102 and for storing received emails. Likewise, Email Clients 104, 106 each has a Mailbox Component 113, 111 for providing email communications 130 with Email Client 100 through the Network 108 and Email Server 102.
The Mailbox Components 110, 111 and 113 of Email Clients 100, 104, 106 correspond to the Mailbox Components of Email Server 102 and, for some applications, the Server Mail Components replicate to the Client Mail Components so that the Client Mail Components are local to the user.
In the course of an email “discussion”, or thread, an Email Message 130 is sent to a number of parties such as Email Clients 104, 106. Email Client 104 “replies to all” with a Reply to All Message so that it is sent to all of the initial recipients and the initial sender. This creates an email thread which is characterized by a common sender/recipient list. This, of course, can occur many times causing lots of activity at a user's mailbox.
Sometimes, situations arise where an individual may have been added to an email thread later then when the email thread has begun (and the later added individual have missed earlier parts of the thread), or a later added individual may have an incomplete thread (for example, being added to a thread where an attachment was removed). The system and method of the present allows such a later added individual to solicit, or request, and receive a complete thread from the system or another user when permission has been sought and granted.
The system and method of the present invention allows an individual to solicit an email thread from another user in situations where this individual may have been added to an email thread late (and have missed earlier parts of the thread), or in situations where the user may have an incomplete thread (e.g., being added to a thread where an attachment was removed). The complete thread is returned when permission has been sought and granted, and after data mining and intelligent aggregation of a plurality of relevant threads in to one interleaved result is performed and returned to the requester.
For instance, Email Client 106 is added to an email thread in which the thread is incomplete (missing history, missing attachments, etc.). Email Client 106 identifies any individual on the thread (or number of individuals), such as Email Client 100, and, with a simple UI selection, solicits a request for a Complete Thread 132 (utilizing a “Request Thread” button located on Email Client's 106 UI). The request is transferred to the other individuals as a request that results in a message on the opposite side “Joe Bloggs has requested a complete thread on Mail XYX”. A link is embedded in the thread which the remote user (Email Client 100) can use to establish the thread that Email Client 106 is soliciting. Embedded in the request is a dialogue with a “I agree”, “I agree with comments”, “I decline”, “I decline with comments”, and “Ignore” option. Options are also available to “Return the complete thread”, “Return the complete instance of the specific part of the thread identified (which would usually mean an attachment)”. Once the remote user (Email Client 100) agrees or agrees with comments a data mining process kicks off on the mail server (Email Server 102) and parses out the complete thread from the remote user's (Email Client's 100) mail box. The complete thread is sent to the Email Client 106 along with any comments from the remote user (Email Client 100).
If the remote user (Email Client 100) agrees to return a complete thread for the specific_instance of the solicited thread then:
If the remote user (Email Client 100) agrees to return a complete thread and all possible spin-off branches associated with this thread:
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the system and method allows that a requesting user (Email Client 106) may solicit for an email thread and responses are processed as conventional email requests, and routed to mailboxes. The system and method allows that when a solicit request is opened that the email is flagged in a unique way (a special kind of email in the way that a To Do is a special kind of email, and a Calendar entry is a special kind of email) such that a trigger event is activated to permit an accept/reject response that is managed by motivating a basic UI with preferences (described above) that the remote user can select. Once the remote user (Email Client 100) affirms, a process running on the mail server (Email Server 102) receives a new event in a queue on which to act, and which has the access control to mine the remote user's mail file for relevant threads. The interleaving and removal of redundant information from the thread prior to queuing the thread up for outbound delivery can also be handled by this same process.
The system and method of the present presents a second user with a UI that allows her to forward the complete instance of the “current” thread, as well as the ability to forward a complete thread and all possible spin-off branches associated with this thread. The content forwarded and received (single thread instance or parent with child threads as branches representing spin-off threads).
The foregoing description of various aspects of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, and obviously, many modifications and variations are possible. Such modifications and variations that may be apparent to an individual in the art are included within the scope of the invention as defined by the accompanying claims.
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