Methods and apparatuses for managing external approval provisioning and external messaging communication requests in a group-based communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11271891-B2
Application number	US-202117317427-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 11, 2021
Priority date	Mar 17, 2020
Publication date	Mar 8, 2022
Grant date	Mar 8, 2022

Abstract

Various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a group-based communication system that is configured to more efficiently manage resource sharing requests. In particular, in some embodiments, the group-based communication system is configured to enable admin users to use an external service, such as an external approval provisioning service, that is separate and distinct from the group-based communication system to manage group-based communication resource sharing requests. In other embodiments, the group-based communication system is configured to allow communication with external users and to trigger new user onboarding protocols through the ingestion of external user directories associated with a sponsor user.

First claim

We claim:

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method of transmitting a group-based communication system message to an external user, the method comprising the steps of:
displaying, on a sending user interface, a recipient entry field for receiving a plurality of member identifiers associated with a group-based communication system and a plurality of non-member identifiers;
receiving, from a sending user and by the recipient entry field, the plurality of member identifiers and the plurality of non-member identifiers associated with message data of the group-based communication system message,
wherein each of the plurality of member identifiers is associated with one or more organizations in the group-based communication system,
wherein each of the plurality of non-member identifiers is not associated with the one or more organizations of the group-based communication system;
transmitting the message data to an external messaging resource address associated with each non-member identifier of the plurality of non-member identifiers for display by an external messaging resource; and
transmitting the message data to the plurality of members for display in a messaging interface in the group-based communication system.

2. The media of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises the steps of:
suggesting one or more recipient identifiers based on a received portion of a recipient identifier in the recipient entry field;
receiving a selection of the recipient identifier from the suggested one or more recipient identifiers; and
sending the message data to a message recipient associated with the selected recipient identifier.

3. The media of claim 2 , wherein the suggested one or more recipient identifiers is based on a previously ingested user contacts list associated with the sending user.

4. The media of claim 3 , wherein the user contacts list comprises the plurality of member identifiers and at least one non-member identifier of the plurality of non-member identifiers.

5. The media of claim 4 ,
wherein the at least one non-member identifier is an email address, and
wherein the messaging interface is a group-based direct messaging interface.

6. The media of claim 1 , wherein the messaging data sent to the message recipient includes an invitation to join a group-based communication organization of the one or more organizations.

7. The media of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises the step of generating a new member identifier associated with the non-member such that the non-member can access the group-based communication organization.

8. A method of transmitting a group-based communication system message to an external user, the method comprising the steps of:
displaying, on a sending user interface, a recipient entry field for receiving a plurality of member identifiers associated with a group-based communication system and a plurality of non-member identifiers;
receiving, from a sending user and by the recipient entry field, the plurality of member identifiers and the plurality of non-member identifiers associated with message data of the group-based communication system message,
wherein each of the plurality of member identifiers is associated with one or more organizations in the group-based communication system,
wherein each of the plurality of non-member identifiers is not associated with the one or more organizations of the group-based communication system;
transmitting the message data to an external messaging resource address associated with each non-member identifier of the plurality of non-member identifiers for display by an external messaging resource; and
transmitting the message data to the plurality of members for display in a messaging interface in the group-based communication system.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising the steps of:
suggesting one or more recipient identifiers based on a received portion of a recipient identifier in the recipient entry field;
receiving a selection of the recipient identifier from the suggested one or more recipient identifiers; and
sending the message data to a message recipient associated with the selected recipient identifier.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the suggested one or more recipient identifiers is based on a previously ingested user contacts list associated with the sending user.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the user contacts list comprises the plurality of member identifiers and at least one non-member identifier of the plurality of non-member identifiers.

12. The method of claim 11 ,
wherein the at least one non-member identifier is an email address, and
wherein the messaging interface is a group-based direct messaging interface.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the messaging data sent to the message recipient includes an invitation to join a group-based communication organization of the one or more organizations.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising the step of generating a new member identifier associated with the non-member such that the non-member can access the group-based communication organization.

15. A system for transmitting a group-based communication system message to an external user, comprising:
a data store;
a sending user device;
at least one processor; and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method of transmitting the group-based communication system message to the external user, the method comprising the steps of:
displaying, on the sending user interface, a recipient entry field for receiving to receive a plurality of member identifiers associated with a group-based communication system and a plurality of non-member identifiers;
receiving, from a sending user and by the recipient entry field, the plurality of member identifiers and the plurality of non-member identifiers associated with message data of the group-based communication system message,
wherein each of the plurality of member identifiers is associated with one or more organizations in the group-based communication system;
wherein each of the plurality of non-member identifiers is not associated with the one or more organizations of the group-based communication system;
transmitting the message data to an external messaging resource address associated with each non-member identifier of the plurality of non-member identifiers for display by an external messaging resource; and
transmitting the message data to the plurality of members for display in a messaging interface in the group-based communication system.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises the steps of:
suggesting one or more recipient identifiers based on a received portion of a recipient identifier in the recipient entry field;
receiving a selection of the recipient identifier from the suggested one or more recipient identifiers; and
sending the message data to a message recipient associated with the selected recipient identifier.

17. The system of claim 16 ,
wherein the suggested one or more recipient identifiers is based on a previously ingested user contacts list associated with the sending user and,
wherein the user contacts list comprises the plurality of member identifiers and at least one non-member identifier of the plurality of non-member identifiers.

18. The system of claim 17 ,
wherein the at least one no

Assignees

• Slack Tech Inc
• Slack Tech Llc

Inventors

• Jamison Britton
• Venkatesh Smruthi
• Barnes James
• Morris Ryan

Classifications

• H04L51/56 Primary

  Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM] · CPC title

• G06Q10/107

  Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing] · CPC title

• H04L67/146

  Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding · CPC title

• H04L51/212

  using filtering or selective blocking · CPC title

• H04L67/1044

  Group management mechanisms  (management of multicast group membership H04L12/185; reconfiguring of node membership in a computing system to eliminate errors G06F11/1425) · CPC title