Patent Application
20160357724
Tabular data management systems are computer-based techniques for managing information in table formats. Such systems commonly organize information into one or more worksheets (also known as “spreadsheets” or “sheets”), with each worksheet including data in cells organized into a set of rows and a set of columns. Some tabular data management systems also provide additional interpretation of data stored in cells. One example of such a tabular data management system is Smartsheet, developed and provided by Smartsheet.com, Inc. Smartsheet is an interactive, hosted computer environment for managing and sharing information in a tabular format, including information related to projects and tasks. Within a sheet in Smartsheet, a user can edit tabular data to define, assign, schedule, edit and comment on tasks; incorporate documents and emails related to the task into the tabular data; and request updates to the tabular data that represent updates to tasks from other users. Although the term ‘task’ is used herein, within Smartsheet the term refers to a concept broader than a work assignment per se. A sheet may reference, edit, and provide status information upon a variety of items related to a project or user—including without limitation lists, calendar items, documents, sequences of actions (as may be displayed in a Gantt chart), email items, notes and comments, discussions, notifications, organizational structure and visualizations; dependencies between and priorities on such items; and information about uses in the system, their interactions with each other, with projects, and with documents and other communications. Smartsheet is only one example of a tabular data management system, and though its described functionality can be seen as an example of the functionality of a tabular data management system, it should not be seen as limiting.
Email is frequently used to communicate updates to be stored in tabular data, such as providing status information, updating files (via links or attachments), and scheduling information for projects represented in tabular data. However, information appears ad hoc in an email, having only the context of the email thread (such as the body text, header, subject line, date, and addressing information) to associate it with a specific project or activity. Moreover, there are inefficiencies relating to the use of separate email and project management tools such as tabular data management systems to manage projects. Editing information in an email into a spreadsheet often requires either attaching the email to a cell in a sheet row, or cutting and pasting information from the email into the sheet manually, using a separate tabular data management user interface.
Therefore, it would be desirable to create systems and methods for managing tabular data and email that permit flexible, automated transfer of context (such as defined information about a task appearing in a project sheet), content (such as email text, schedule dates, and attachments) and/or status information (such as schedule changes, completion status, and respondent name) from email messages to sheets of tabular data, adapting to any sheet's project management database schema. It would also be desirable to provide an ability to create a tabular data editing form on the fly to match an existing column structure in a tabular data sheet, its data types and formatting, and to be able to use that form to edit tabular data without leaving an email client interface and without requiring manual creation of a form to match different column structures in different sheets. It would further be desirable to provide the ability to selectively copy and move data from an email message to selected columns within a tabular data sheet within a combined email and tabular data interface. Creating new tabular data rows and/or to update existing tasks represented as rows of tabular data, with data from an email message within an email client interface would also be desirable. The ability to search for sheets and documents within a tabular data management system directly within an email client interface would also provide technical benefits.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identify key features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for concurrently managing data from an email server and a tabular data server using a combined interface is provided. An email application executing on a computing device retrieves an email message from the email server. The email application generates an email interface for presenting the email message. The email application extracts information from the email message. The email application obtains tabular data from the tabular data server using the extracted information. The email application presents the tabular data, wherein the tabular data is presented in a supplemental interface within the email interface generated by the email application.
In some embodiments, a system for combining the display of email data and tabular data from different sources into a single interface is provided. The system comprises an email server system; a tabular data management system; and an end user computing device. The end user computing device includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processors of the end user computing device, cause the end user computing device to present a user interface. The user interface includes a list of email messages stored by the email server system; a body of a selected email message from the list of email messages; and a form interface for retrieving and presenting tabular data relating to the selected email message.
In some embodiments, a computing device configured to store and present tabular data is provided. The computing device is further configured to provide a data store for storing tabular data. Presenting tabular data includes presenting a plurality of rows, wherein each row has a row height and a plurality of columns, wherein each column of the plurality of columns has a column width, and wherein each intersection of a row and a column is a cell; receiving a command to insert image data into a given cell; retrieving the image data based on the command; storing the image data in the data store; and presenting an image within the given cell using the image data.
The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same become better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The technical goals and benefits described above, as well as others, may be accomplished by embodiments of the present disclosure through the integration of a supplemental interface for manipulating tabular data into an email client interface. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, rapid accumulation of information from one or more emails into a tabular data management system is provided through a simple, integrated interface.
In some embodiments, the email server system 108 may be any type of email server system. The email server system 108 may provide functionality typical of email servers, including but not limited to transmitting and receiving email messages via SMTP or other standard protocols; providing access to stored email messages and other information to stand alone client applications via protocols such as POP3, IMAP, MAPI, WebDAV, ActiveSync, LDAP, Active Directory, or any other suitable protocol; providing webmail access to email messages stored by the email server system 108, and/or any other email functionality. The email server system 108 may be implemented using one or more computing devices. Though an email server system 108 is illustrated and described herein, the basic model for the contextual integration of tabular data manipulation in a communications program is not limited to email. In some embodiments, discussion groups, blogs, unified communications or collaboration environments, RSS readers, SMS clients, social media platforms, and/or the like could be used instead of or in addition to the email server system 108.
In some embodiments, the tabular data management system 110 is also provided by one or more computing devices. The tabular data management system 110 includes a tabular data store in which information is stored in a tabular format. As understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, a “data store” as described herein may be any nontransitory computer-readable medium configured to store data for access by computing devices. Typically, a data store may include data stored in an organized manner in a volatile or nonvolatile memory. One other non-limiting example of a data store is a highly reliable, high-speed relational database management system (DBMS) executing on one or more computing devices and accessible over a network. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that separate data stores described herein may be combined into a single data store, and/or a single data store described herein may be separated into multiple data stores, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
One or more computing devices of the tabular data management system 110 provide access to the information in the tabular data store via one or more interfaces. The interfaces may include a web-based interface through which users may manipulate the tabular data via a web browser. The interfaces may also include an application programming interface (API) that provides access to the data, such that rendering of the data in a tabular format may be provided by the end user computing device 102.
In some embodiments, the end user computing device 102 is any suitable computing device for use by an end user, including but not limited to a desktop computing device, a laptop computing device, a tablet computing device, a mobile computing device such as a smartphone, a wearable computing device, and/or the like. The end user computing device 102 is configured to provide at least an email client interface 104 and a supplemental interface 106. A description of additional components common to most suitable computing devices is provided below with respect to
The email client interface 104 provides functionality for retrieving and presenting email messages stored by the email server system 108, as well as for creating and sending new email messages using the email server system 108. In some embodiments, the email client interface 104 may be a stand-alone desktop application such as Microsoft Outlook, IBM Notes, Mail on OS X from Apple, Mozilla Thunderbird, and/or the like. In such embodiments, the email client interface 104 may be generated entirely by computer-executable instructions stored on and executed by the end user computing device 102. In such embodiments, the email client interface 104 communicates with the email server system 108 using one or more protocols provided by the email server system 108 as described above, including but not limited to POP3, IMAP, MAPI, ActiveSync, WebDAV, LDAP, Active Directory, SMTP, or any other suitable protocol. In other embodiments, the email client interface 104 may be a webmail interface such as Microsoft Outlook 365, Gmail, and/or the like. In such embodiments, functionality of the email client interface 104 may be split between the email server system 108 and the end user computing device 102. For example, the email client interface 104 may be generated at least partially by the email server system 108, and may be transmitted to the end user computing device 102 for rendering by a web browser.
The supplemental interface 106 provides functionality for retrieving and manipulating data within the tabular data management system 110, as discussed further below. The supplemental interface 106 may also extract information from other sources to assist in manipulating the tabular data. For example, the supplemental interface 106 may extract information from email messages, either using an API provided by the email client interface 104, or by directly accessing the email server system 108 using a standard protocol. As another example, the supplemental interface 106 may extract information from other sources, including but not limited to an address or contact list provided by the email server system 108 or stored locally by the email client interface 104.
The supplemental interface 106 is presented as an integrated part of the email client interface 104. In some embodiments, this integration may be achieved by installing an application in the email client interface 104. In some embodiments, such as an embodiment wherein the supplemental interface 106 is integrated into an installable version of Microsoft Outlook or a web-hosted version of Microsoft Outlook, the supplemental interface 106 may be embodied in an “app” that is added to Outlook from the Office Store. In some embodiments, other software architectures such as a COM-based add-in architecture, a browser plug-in, or any other suitable technique for integrating the supplemental interface 106 into the email client interface 104 may be used. In some embodiments, the email client interface 104 provides functionality to the supplemental interface 106 that allows the supplemental interface 106 to extract information related to email messages selected within the email client interface 104. In some embodiments, once the integration into the email client interface 104 takes place, an email application executing on the end user computing device 102 may be considered to be providing both the email client interface 104 and the supplemental interface 106.
The method 200 then proceeds to block 204, where the email client interface 104 retrieves an email message from the email server system 204. The email message may be an email message from a mailbox, such as an inbox or some other folder into which email messages are organized. In some embodiments, the email message may be retrieved and presented by the email client interface 104 after being selected from a list of email messages presented by the email client interface 104. In embodiments wherein the email client interface 104 is a webmail interface, “retrieving” may include the email server system 108 retrieving the email message from a data store, and transmitting at least some of the information from the email message to the end user computing device 102 for presentation. In some embodiments, the email message may include information such as body text, headers with addressing information such as to addresses, a from address, CC addresses, and/or the like; headers that include metadata such as a subject; one or more file attachments; one or more in-line images or other in-line data files; and/or other types of structured or unstructured information.
Next, at block 206, the supplemental interface 106 obtains email information from the email message. As discussed above, the supplemental interface 106 may use an API provided by the email client interface 104 to obtain the email information, or may obtain the email information directly from the email server system 108. The email information obtained may be any portion of the contents of the email message, or the entirety of the email message.
At block 208, the supplemental interface 106 uses the email information to retrieve associated tabular data from the tabular data management system 110. In some embodiments, a portion of the email information, such as the subject, may be used to find a matching portion of tabular data to be retrieved. For example, the subject may match a tabular data worksheet name, such that the associated worksheet is retrieved. As another example, the subject may match an entry in a column of a given worksheet, such that the row associated with the entry is retrieved. In some embodiments, a portion of the email information may directly indicate the associated tabular data using a sheet name and row/column combination, a unique identifier of a portion of tabular data, and/or any other suitable technique.
In some embodiments, the supplemental interface 106 may extract the information from the email message and use it for something other than indicating associated tabular data to be retrieved. For example, the supplemental interface 106 may use the extracted information to automatically modify tabular data that was retrieved via the supplemental interface 106 in some other way. As some non-limiting examples of other ways the tabular data may be retrieved if the information extracted from the email message is not used to do so, in some embodiments, the retrieval of tabular data may be performed using a Search function provided by the supplemental interface 106 to list available sheets by name, topic, user, organization, project, and so on, and selecting the sheet to retrieve from the list. In some embodiments, a sheet may be selected from a list of Favorite Sheets, Recently Opened Sheets, or All Sheets to which the user has access. In some embodiments, a sheet may be retrieved by the supplemental interface 106 because it is presently open on the end user computing device 102 in another application, or by the user on a different computing device. The supplemental interface 106 may determine which sheets are opened in other applications or on other devices by requesting such information from the tabular data management system 110. In some embodiments, a completely new sheet could be created on the fly to be presented by the supplemental interface 106. Within the selected sheet, the appropriate row for update may be selected by browsing or searching the rows in the selected sheet using the supplemental interface 106. Alternately, a new row could be added to the selected sheet using the supplemental interface 106.
At block 210, the supplemental interface 106 creates a form based on content of the retrieved tabular data and presents the form within the email client interface 104. In some embodiments, sheets of tabular data stored by the tabular data management system 110 may include sheets with different combinations of columns. Accordingly, a custom form may be automatically created by the supplemental interface 106, with prompts or labels matching a name of each column, and entry fields for accepting entries matching a data type of each column. In some embodiments, all columns of the sheet will be included in the generated form. In some embodiments, less than all of the columns of the sheet will be included, either by a user configuration made within the tabular data management system 110, or automatically based on information within the email message. Such automatic form creation allows for the presentation of forms for differently configured sheets without requiring configuration by a user. As illustrated below, presenting the form within the email client interface 104 may refer to displaying the form within the supplemental interface 106, which is itself presented as part of the email client interface 104.
Typically, the generated form may represent column titles or names in labels next to row fields to be filled in. Alternatively, the generated form might present the titles in labels above the fields. Once the form is generated, the supplemental interface 106 may automatically fill in at least some of the fields of the form using the email information (such as automatically copying attachments, email addressing, subject headers and/or body text directly into appropriate form fields, or by copying other data from the email message to the form where the supplemental interface 106 can find a correspondence between identifiers in the sheet and the email information. In some embodiments, the supplemental interface 106 may search the email information for suitable form content based on information associated with the columns. For example, if a column is associated with a “currency” data type, the supplemental interface 106 may search the email information for a dollar sign (or other symbol representing a currency) next to a number, and may use such a number as an automatic entry for the column. As another example, if a column is associated with a “date” data type, the supplemental interface 106 may search the email information for a date string using a pattern matcher or other suitable technique, and may use a date that is found as an automatic entry for the column.
Next, at block 212, the supplemental interface 106 receives updates to the tabular data through the form within the email client interface 104. Again, receiving the updates through the form within the email client interface 104 may refer to displaying the form within the supplemental interface 106, which is itself presented as part of the email client interface 104. The updates to the tabular data may include, but are not limited to, edits to an existing data row; adding a new data row; deleting existing data rows; attaching one or more files to data row; adding one or more image files or image data to be displayed within a cell as described below; and/or any other types of updates.
In some embodiments, edits may be received through interface elements configured for receiving data of a type of each column. For example, a column of a text data type may use a text input interface element, a column of a date data type may use a calendar picker interface element, a column of a type with a limited set of options may use a drop-down list interface element, and/or the like. In some embodiments, an interface element may pull data from the email message or from the email server system 108 to aid in data entry. For example, a column configured to store contact information may use an interface element that queries the email server system 108 or the email message headers for contacts to be selected.
At block 214, the supplemental interface 106 transmits the updates to the tabular data to the tabular data management system 110. The supplemental interface 106 may use any suitable technique for transmitting the updates, including but not limited to submitting the updates to an API provided by the tabular data management system 110, submitting the updates to a web service provided by the tabular data management system 110, and/or the like. After the updates have been transmitted, the sheet may still be displayed within the supplemental interface 106, so that another row may be added to the tabular data. The supplemental interface 106 may also allow the user to go back to the search results and choose a different sheet or row to edit based on the same search term or an updated search term.
In some embodiments, data may also be stored regarding the association of one or more specific sheets with the email message for later purposes. In some embodiments, the email message may be transmitted to the tabular data management system 110 in its entirety to be attached or linked to a portion of tabular data. In some embodiments, the supplemental interface 106 may maintain records or metadata associating one or more edited sheets associated with the email message. In this way, the edited sheets may be automatically presented by the supplemental interface 106 the next time the email message is opened by the email client interface 104. In some embodiments, such records or metadata may be added by the supplemental interface 106 to the email message itself.
The method 200 then proceeds to an end block and terminates.
The labels and interface elements of the form in the supplemental interface 300 match the configuration of columns of an associated sheet.
In its most basic configuration, the computing device 600 includes at least one processor 602 and a system memory 604 connected by a communication bus 606.
Depending on the exact configuration and type of device, the system memory 604 may be volatile or nonvolatile memory, such as read only memory (“ROM”), random access memory (“RAM”), EEPROM, flash memory, or similar memory technology. Those of ordinary skill in the art and others will recognize that system memory 604 typically stores data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or currently being operated on by the processor 602. In this regard, the processor 602 may serve as a computational center of the computing device 600 by supporting the execution of instructions.
As further illustrated in
In the exemplary embodiment depicted in
As used herein, the term “computer-readable medium” includes volatile and non-volatile and removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology capable of storing information, such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. In this regard, the system memory 604 and storage medium 608 depicted in
Suitable implementations of computing devices that include a processor 602, system memory 604, communication bus 606, storage medium 608, and network interface 610 are known and commercially available. For ease of illustration and because it is not important for an understanding of the claimed subject matter,
While illustrative embodiments have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated that various changes can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/141,627, filed Apr. 28, 2016, which claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 62/153,813, filed Apr. 28, 2015, the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62153813 | Apr 2015 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 15141627 | Apr 2016 | US |
| Child | 15242279 | US |
