Service integration into electronic mail inbox

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10645052-B2
Application number	US-201615275740-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 26, 2016
Priority date	Sep 26, 2016
Publication date	May 5, 2020
Grant date	May 5, 2020

Abstract

A connector surfaces a configuration user experience that allows a user to select notifications that a user wishes to receive from a service. The user's e-mail system has a URL endpoint identifier, and the service sends the selected notifications to the URL endpoint. The notifications are integrated into the user's inbox, as e-mail messages.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing system, comprising:
at least one processor; and
memory storing instructions executable by the at, least one processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:
surface an email user interface for user interaction by a user, to perform email functions in an email system associated with the user, wherein
the email system is configured to send and receive email messages using an email transfer protocol;

receive a data object transmitted by a service using a data transfer protocol that is different than the email transfer protocol, wherein
the service is separate from the email system and is associated with the user, and
the received data, object comprises a marked up, notification from the service that is marked up according to a predefined schema associated with the email system;

parse the marked up notification to identify an item in the marked up notification and to identify rendering information associated with rendering the item in an email inbox associated with the user in the email system;
based on parsing the marked up notification, generate a notification email message including the identified item; and
render the notification email message, using the rendering information, in the email inbox associated with the user in the email system.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the marked up notification comprises an actionable notification and the item comprises a user input mechanism that is actuatable to perform an action associated with the actionable notification, and wherein the data object identifies an API to be called to perform the action.

3. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:
surface a configuration UEX from the service, the configuration UEX exposing a user actuatable item that is actuated to identify a notification for which a notification email message is to be generated in the email inbox of the email system,
identify a set of services that are configurable by a user; and
surface a service selection user input mechanism that is actuated by the user to select the service for configuration.

4. The computing system of claim 3 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to identify the set of services as most frequently used services.

5. The computing system of claim 3 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to identify the set of services as services that the user has subscribed to.

6. The computing system of claim 1 wherein, the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:
receive the marked up notification from the service as a hypertext transfer protocol (http) post to a unique uniform resource locator (URL) endpoint corresponding to the computing system.

7. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to parse a markup that uses human readable text to transmit data objects using attribute-value pairs to identify the items in the marked up notification.

8. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:
identify whether the marked up notification is part of a conversation thread, and, if so, integrate the notification email message into the email inbox as part of the conversation thread.

9. The computing system of claim 8 wherein the marked up notification includes threading information indicative of a relationship between the marked up notification and another marked up notification, and the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to identify whether the marked up notification is part of the conversation thread based on the threading information in the marked up notification.

10. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
generating a service selection user interface that includes:
display elements that identify a set of computing services that are configurable by a user corresponding to an email inbox in the email system, and
a service selection user input mechanism that is actuated by the user; and based on actuation of the service selection user input mechanism,
selecting a particular one of the computing services for configuration, and
generating a configuration user interface that includes a service configuration user input mechanism;

based on actuation of the service configuration user input mechanism, sending to the particular computing system an indication of notification, from the particular computing service for which a notification email message is to be generated in the email inbox of the email system;
receiving, from the particular computing system based on the indication, a marked up notification that is marked up according to a predefined schema;
parsing the marked up notification to identify:
an item in the marked up notification to be rendered, the item corresponding to a user input mechanism that is actuatable to perform an action associated with the marked up notification, and
an interface identifier that identifies an interface associated with the computing service to be called to perform the action;

generating a notification email message in an email inbox of the email system, the notification email message including the user input mechanism that is actuatable to call the interface associated with the computing service to perform the action; and
rendering the notification email message in the email inbox of the email system.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 wherein generating the service selection user interface comprises:
identifying the set of services as services most frequently used by the user.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 wherein generating the service selection user interface comprises:
identifying the set of services as services that the user has subscribed to.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein the notification comprises an actionable notification and the item comprises a user input mechanism that is actuatable to perform an action associated with the actionable notification, and wherein the interface identifier identifies an API to be called to perform the action.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 wherein parsing the marked up notification comprises:
parsing a markup that uses human readable text to transmit data objects using attribute-value pairs to identify the items in the marked up notification.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 and further comprising:
identifying whether the marked, up notification is part of a conversation thread; and
if so, integrating the notification email message into the email inbox as part of the conversation thread.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 wherein the marked up notification includes threading information indicative of a relationship between the marked up notification and another marked up notification, wherein identifying whether the marked up notification is part of the conversation thread, comprises:
identifying whether the marked up notification is part of the conversation thread based on the threading information in the marked up notification.

17. A computing system, comprising:
at least one processor; and
memory storing instructions executable by the at least one processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to provide:
electronic mail (email) logic configured to generate email user interfaces for user interaction, to perfo

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Yu Lei
• Brunsch Darrell
• Boctor Victor
• Katti Jayteerth N
• Seetharaman Shivakumar
• Patel Nimeesh

Classifications

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04L51/24 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L51/22

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L51/42 Primary

  Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes · CPC title