The present invention relates generally to the field of electronic message transmission systems, and in particular to systems and methods for downloading multiple documents attached to a displayed document.
Email messaging is widely used for communicating information over the Internet. Besides the information in its message body, an email message often includes one or more attachments, e.g., photo images or text documents, that provide additional information related to the information in the message body. A recipient of the email message can download an attachment and view its content using an application program. However, when an email message has many attachments, the recipient has to repeat the tedious download operation many times, one for each attachment. Therefore, there is a need for systems and methods that make it easier for a user to download all attachments to an email message.
A system for fetching multiple documents associated with a document from a server computer displays the document with an embedded document fetching icon on a client computer's monitor. In response to a single user selection of the document fetching icon, the system downloads from the server computer all the associated documents in a user-specified format to a user-specified location in the client computer.
The aforementioned aspects of the invention as well as additional aspects will be more clearly understood as a result of the following detailed description of the various embodiments of the invention when taken in conjunction with the drawings. Like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
A client-server based email service system 100 as shown in
In one embodiment, user A at client 102-1 writes an email message 110 addressed to user B using a client application 103, the message including multiple attachments. The email message and its attachments are delivered to the servers 130 at which user B has an email account. The servers 130 notify user B, who logs into the servers 130 from the client 102-2, of the arrival of the email message 110. If user B is interested in the email message, he may download the message from the servers 130 to the client 102-2 and read the downloaded message through a client application 104, which may or may not be the same as the client application 103.
When the email message is downloaded to the client 102-2, its attachments are not downloaded together with the email message to reduce the traffic on the network 120. Instead, the email message displayed at the client 102-2 includes a download-all-attachments icon corresponding to all the attachments associated with the email message. The displayed email message may also include separate icons for each of the email message's attachments. If user B is interested in getting a copy of all the attachments, he may do so by selecting the download-all-attachments icon. As a result, the client application 104 sends a document fetching request to the servers 130 for all the attachments. The servers 130, upon receipt of the document fetching request, locate all the attachments therein, process them in accordance with the document fetching request and send them back to client 102-2. If user C is another recipient of the email message 110, he may get the same message and its attachments from the servers 130 in the same manner. Note that the servers 130 may include multiple email servers, each having different sets of email accounts, and user B and user C may or may not be associated with the same email server.
In particular,
Next, the email message is displayed by a client application on a computer monitor associated with the client computer. This procedure may include first displaying the message body and other relevant information (202) and then checking if the email message has any attachments (203). If there is no attachment (203—No), no further operation is required. Otherwise (203—Yes), the client application may display a download-all-attachments icon if the message has more than one attachment (204). Optionally, the client application may also display a document identifier for each individual attachment (205). In some embodiments, the email message is in the form of an HTML file and the client application is a web browser software.
The email server also checks if the email message has any attachments (212), and if so, determines how many attachments are associated with the message (214). For each attachment, the email server may optionally create a document identifier (213). If the email message has more than one attachment, the email server creates a download-all-attachments icon for the email message (215). Finally, the email server inserts into the email message the download-all-attachments icon and, optionally, the document identifiers (216) and conveys the email message to the requesting client computer (217). In some embodiments, the email server is associated with a web server. The client request is first interpreted by the web server before reaching the email server and the email message created by the email server is converted into an HTML file by the web server before being delivered to the client computer. In some other embodiments, the email server assumes the functions performed by the web server. Therefore, it is able to directly process the client request, generate an HTML version of the requested email message and deliver the message to the requesting client computer.
If the user would like to have a copy of all three attachments, the user may download the three attachments separately by clicking each individual download icon, once for each attachment. For each download session, the user needs to specify a location in the client computer for storing the downloaded attachment. Alternatively, the user may attain the same result in a more straightforward fashion by clicking the download-all-attachments icon. As described in more detail below, a single user click on the download-all-attachments icon initiates the downloading of all attachments to the email message. Clicking on the download-all-attachments icon is also herein called user selection of the download-all-attachments icon.
In some embodiments, there are typically two download formats, “compressed” and “uncompressed”. The “compressed” format may include multiple data compression schemes, e.g., some schemes designed for text compression and some schemes designed for image compression. In some embodiments, the user is allowed to choose different compression schemes for different types of documents. An “uncompressed” format may be selected by the user for storing all the attachments into a file folder. Since compressed files are typically smaller than the “uncompressed” files, downloading email attachments as compressed files requires less time and network bandwidth than downloading the attachments as uncompressed files. On the other hand, when downloading compressed files, the user must have access to additional decompression utilities to restore the attachments to their original uncompressed format before viewing them. In some embodiments, the user does not need to specify a file download format and location, and instead the attachments are downloaded in a default or previously identified format to a default or previously identified location.
After user selection of the download-all-attachments icon, and optionally after user selection of a download location and/or a download file format, the client computer submits to the email server a document fetching request for downloading all attachments (302) and waits for the email server to deliver the downloaded attachments (303). Finally, the client computer stores the downloaded attachments at a location designated by the user (or optionally at a default or previously identified location) (304).
In some embodiments, at 301 the user specifies one or more applications or printers as destinations for the downloaded attachments. For example, if the downloaded attachments are two uncompressed documents, one in PDF format and the other in MS-WORD format, the user may directly specify that the two documents are to be opened by their respective application programs on the client computer. In some other embodiments, the user may specify that each attachment is to be directly submitted to a default printer or to a user specified printer and printed out by a respective printer driver on the printer. In these embodiments, at 304 the client computer directs each attachment to a respective application or printer driver.
In some embodiments, if the user clicks the OK button, another window 330 pops up, prompting the user to specify a location in the client computer to store the ZIP file. In the example shown in
It is apparent to one skilled in the art that the aforementioned client- and server-side operations as well as schematic screenshots are only for illustrative purposes. Some of the operations described above may be executed in a different order. Some of the operations described above are optional, and thus not included in some embodiments, and some embodiments may include additional operations.
In some embodiments, the email server engine 420 further comprises:
Each of the above identified modules or programs corresponds to a set of instructions for performing a function described above. These modules and programs (i.e., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise re-arranged in various embodiments. In some embodiments, memory 412 may store a subset of the modules and data structures identified above. Furthermore, memory 412 may store additional modules and data structures not described above.
Although
Each of the above identified modules and applications corresponds to a set of instructions for performing one or more functions described above. These modules (i.e., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise re-arranged in various embodiments. In some embodiments, memory 612 may store a subset of the modules and applications identified above. Furthermore, memory 612 may store additional modules, applications and data structures not described above.
Although some of various drawings discussed above illustrate a number of logical stages in a particular order, stages which are not order-dependent may be reordered and other stages may be combined or broken out. While some reordering or other groupings are specifically mentioned, others will be obvious to one ordinary skill in the art and so do not present an exhaustive list of alternatives. Moreover, it should be recognized that the stages could be implemented in hardware, firmware, software or any combination thereof.
The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings.
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