U.S. patent application number 13/412166 was filed with the patent office on 2012-06-28 for e-mail proxy.
This patent application is currently assigned to Research In Motion Limited. Invention is credited to Eran Fuchs, Erez Halahmi.
Application Number | 20120166567 13/412166 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 24635453 |
Filed Date | 2012-06-28 |
United States Patent
Application |
20120166567 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Halahmi; Erez ; et
al. |
June 28, 2012 |
E-Mail Proxy
Abstract
In one embodiment, a method for processing an e-mail message
addressed to an e-mail client is disclosed. The method comprises
receiving at a mail server an e-mail message addressed to the
e-mail client, the e-mail message including an attachment which is
characterized by a size; reducing the size of the attachment to
create a reduced size attachment; preparing a formatted message,
which includes the reduced size attachment and a link to the
attachment, wherein the attachment is downloadable from the mail
server using the link; and delivering the formatted message to the
e-mail client for display on a computational device.
Inventors: |
Halahmi; Erez; (Petach
Tikva, IL) ; Fuchs; Eran; (Kfar Saba, IL) |
Assignee: |
Research In Motion Limited
Waterloo
CA
|
Family ID: |
24635453 |
Appl. No.: |
13/412166 |
Filed: |
March 5, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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12927089 |
Nov 8, 2010 |
8156191 |
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13412166 |
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10368011 |
Feb 19, 2003 |
7856476 |
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12927089 |
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09657001 |
Sep 7, 2000 |
7039678 |
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10368011 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
709/206 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 51/08 20130101;
H04L 29/06027 20130101; H04L 51/22 20130101; H04L 51/066 20130101;
H04L 51/18 20130101; H04L 67/02 20130101; H04L 51/04 20130101; H04L
65/4069 20130101; H04L 67/28 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
709/206 |
International
Class: |
G06F 15/16 20060101
G06F015/16 |
Claims
1. A method for processing an e-mail message addressed to an e-mail
client, the method comprising: receiving at a mail server an e-mail
message addressed to the e-mail client, the e-mail message
including an attachment, the attachment characterized by a size;
reducing the size of the attachment to create a reduced size
attachment; preparing a formatted message, the formatted message
including the reduced size attachment and a link to the attachment,
wherein the attachment is downloadable from the mail server using
the link; and delivering the formatted message to the e-mail client
for display on a computational device.
2. The method according to claim 1 further comprising apportioning
the e-mail message into two or more portions, wherein at least a
first portion comprises text-only from the e-mail message and a
second portion comprises the at least one attachment.
3. The method according to claim 2 further comprising receiving
user preferences from the e-mail client and apportioning the e-mail
message according to the received user preferences.
4. The method according to claim 2 wherein the formatted message
further comprises the first portion comprising text-only from the
e-mail message.
5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the formatted message is
delivered to the e-mail client in a streamed manner.
6. The method according to claim 1 further comprising providing a
Web browser for interacting with the e-mail client.
7. The method according to claim 6 further comprising displaying
the at least one attachment by the Web browser, such that
downloading the at least one attachment by the e-mail client is
performed according to HTTP.
8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the e-mail server has an
e-mail proxy associated therewith.
9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reduced size
attachment is selectable to engage the link.
10. An e-mail server for processing an e-mail message addressed to
an e-mail client, the server comprising: logic structure for
receiving at the e-mail server an e-mail message addressed to the
e-mail client, the e-mail message comprising an attachment, the
attachment characterized by a size; logic structure for reducing
the size of the attachment to create a reduced size attachment;
logic structure for preparing a formatted message, the formatted
message comprising the reduced size attachment and a link to the
attachment, wherein the attachment is downloadable from the mail
server using the link; and logic structure for delivering the
formatted message to the e-mail client for display on a
computational device; wherein the logic structures are stored on a
tangible computer-readable medium.
11. The e-mail server according to claim 10 further comprising
logic structure for apportioning the e-mail message into two or
more portions, wherein at least a first portion comprises text-only
from the e-mail message and a second portion comprises the at least
one attachment.
12. The e-mail server according to claim 11 further comprising
logic structure for receiving user preferences from the e-mail
client and apportioning the e-mail message according to the
received user preferences.
13. The e-mail server according to claim 11 wherein the formatted
message further comprises the first portion comprising text-only
from the e-mail message.
14. The e-mail server according to claim 10 wherein the formatted
message is delivered to the e-mail client in a streamed manner.
15. The e-mail server according to claim 10 further comprising a
Web browser for interacting with the e-mail client.
16. The e-mail server according to claim 15 wherein the at least
one attachment by the Web browser is displayable on the Web
browser, such that downloading the at least one attachment by the
e-mail client is performed according to HTTP.
17. The e-mail server according to claim 10 further comprising an
e-mail proxy associated therewith.
18. The e-mail server according to claim 10, wherein the reduced
size attachment is selectable to engage the link.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 12/927,089, filed on Nov. 8, 2010, which is a continuation of
U.S. application Ser. No. 10/368,011, filed on Feb. 19, 2003, now
U.S. Pat. No. 7,856,476, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S.
application Ser. No. 09/657,001, filed on Sep. 9, 2000, now U.S.
Pat. No. 7,039,678, which is related to PCT Application No.
PCT/IL01/00804, filed on Aug. 28, 2001. Each of the foregoing
patent applications is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention is of a system and a method, for
enabling e-mail (electronic mail) messages to be received more
quickly and efficiently by the user.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Currently, most computer users (hereinafter also referred to
as "users") receive e-mail messages through a connection between a
computer and an e-mail server. The e-mail server holds the received
e-mail messages for the user, and may be installed at an ISP
(Internet Service Provider), for example. Such servers usually
operate according to the POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) protocol or
alternatively according to the IMAP4 (Internet Message Access
Protocol, version 4) protocol. The computer of the user must
operate an e-mail client, which is a software program for
communicating with the e-mail server in order to download the
e-mail messages, and then for displaying these e-mail messages to
the user. The e-mail client communicates with the e-mail server
according to the POP3 or IMAP4 protocol for receiving e-mail
messages, and SMTP (Simple Message Transfer Protocol) for sending
(or forwarding) e-mail messages.
[0004] The e-mail messages are typically encoded in the standard
MIME multi-part message format, which enables the message to
optionally also include one or more attachments, for example. Each
part of the multi-part message may be separately and differently
encoded, for example for plain text messages, as opposed to
attached word processing documents, image files, video data, audio
data and so forth. Such a multi-part message may be very large
because of the size of the attachment(s).
[0005] Unfortunately, the e-mail client currently downloads the
unite multi-part e-mail message when connected to the e-mail server
for receiving messages. Since such a multi-part message may be very
huge, the process of downloading each message may require a
significant period of time. Furthermore, the user cannot view each
message with attachment(s) if any, until the entire message has
been downloaded. If the computer of the user is connected to the
e-mail server through a relatively slow, low bandwidth connection,
such as a dial-up modem for example, then this process can be
frustratingly slow.
[0006] The process is further slowed by the requirement for
encoding the attachments in BASE64, in order to prevent the
exposure of any control characters in the attachments to any
servers which pass the e-mail message the Internet. The BASE64
encoding method represents every 24 bits of the attachment with 32
bits, thereby increasing the size of the encoded attachments by
about one third. Thus, the currently available mechanism for
downloading e-mail messages clearly has a number of drawbacks.
[0007] An improved solution to this problem would enable the user
to review e-mail messages before downloading them, or at least
before downloading the complete multi-part message with
attachment(s), as text-only e-mail messages are relatively small
and quick to download. The uses would still be able to download
attachments of interest. In addition, the improved solution would
provide for a streaming process for downloading e-mail attachments,
in order for the user to be able to view the e-mail message as it
is being downloaded. Unfortunately, such a solution is not
currently available.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] The background art does not teach or suggest the use of a
system and method for more efficiently transmitting attachments,
such that user can optionally select particular attachments to
download and such that the attachments can be downloaded
separately. The background an also does not teach or suggest the
implementation of such a system and method with an e-mail proxy
that is separate from an e-mail server, nor does the background art
teach or suggest such an implementation with the functionality
embedded with the e-mail server. The background art also does not
teach or suggest a system and method which would also optionally
and preferably enable the e-mail attachments to be downloaded in a
streamed manner, for increased speed and efficiency of
downloading.
[0009] The present invention overcomes these disadvantages of the
background art by providing a system and method for providing email
messages to a user in a more efficient manner. Specifically, the
system and method of the present invention enable attachments to be
downloaded separately from the body of the e-mail message, which is
typically text-only end which therefore requires less bandwidth to
download. Instead, these attachments are represented by links in
the message which is downloaded to the e-mail client of the user,
such that the user can "click on" or otherwise select a link in
order to retrieve the attachment. Preferably, the attachment is
downloaded to the computational device of the user in a streamed
manner, for example according to the HTTP (HyperText Transfer
Protocol) protocol.
[0010] The present invention may optionally operate with an e-mail
proxy, which would optionally and mom preferably be implemented as
a separate server from the e-mail server. Alternatively, the
present invention may operate in combination with the e-mail
server, for example optionally by implementing the present
invention as a software module for being operated by the e-mail
server. Alternatively, the functionality of the present invention
could optionally be integrated within the functions of the e-mail
server, for example by integrating software. Other implementations
of the present invention are also possible and are also considered
to be within the scope of the present invention.
[0011] According to preferred embodiments of the present invention,
the attachment is preferably transmitted with a streaming
transmission that has already been decoded. The text is preferably
transmitted separately.
[0012] According to the present invention, there is provided a
method for selectively downloading a multi-part e-mail message to
an e-mail client operated by a user from an e-mail server, the
multi-part e-mail message including an attachment, the method
comprising the stages of (a) retrieving at least attachment
information for the multi-part e-mail message from the e-mail
server; (b) preparing a formatted message for sending to the e-mail
client, the formatted message containing at least a link to the
attachment, such that the attachment is not sent to the e-mail
client; (c) sending the formatted message to the e-mail client; and
(d) displaying the formatted message to the user by the e-mail
client.
[0013] Accenting to another embodiment of the present invention,
there is provided a system for selectively downloading a multi-pant
e-mail message for a user, the multi-part e-mail message including
an attachment, the system comprising: (a) an email server for
receiving the multi-pan e-mail message; (b) an e-mail proxy in
communication with the e-mail server for receiving at least
attachment information about the multi-part e-mail message, and for
preparing a formatted message containing a link to the attachment;
and (c) an e-mail client in communication with the e-mail proxy for
receiving the formatted message and for displaying the formatted
message to the user, such that the attachment is displayed to the
user after the user selects the link.
[0014] Hereinafter, the term "network" refers to a connection
between any two or more computational devices which permits the
transmission of data.
[0015] Hereinafter, the term "computational device" includes, but
is not limited to, personal computers (PC) having an operating
system such as Windows.TM., OS/2.TM. or Linux: Macintosh.TM.
computers; computers having JAVA.TM.-OS as the operating system;
graphical workstations such as the computers of Sun
Microsystems.TM. and Silicon Graphics.TM., and other computers
having some version of the UNIX operating system such as AIX.TM. or
SOLARIS.TM. of Sun Microsystems.TM.; or any other known and
available operating system, or any device, including but not
limited to: laptops, hand-held computers, PDA (personal data
assistant) devices, cellular telephones, any type of WAP (wireless
application protocol) enabled device, wearable computers of any
sort; and any device which can be connected to a network as
previously defined and which has an operating system. Hereinafter,
the term "Windows.TM." includes but is not limited to
Windows95.TM., Windows NT.TM., Windows98.TM., Windows CET.TM.,
Windows2000.TM., and any upgraded versions of these operating
systems by Microsoft Corp. (USA). It is understood that the team
"computer", as used herein, may refer to substantially any
computational device.
[0016] For the present invention, a software application could be
written in substantially any suitable programming language, which
could easily be selected by one of ordinary skill in the art. The
programming language chosen should be compatible with the
computational device according to which the software application is
executed. Examples of suitable programming languages include, but
are not limited to, C, C++ and Java.
[0017] In addition, the present invention could be implemented as
software, firmware or hardware, or as a combination thereof. For
any of these implementations, the functional stages performed by
the method could be described as a plurality of instructions
performed by a data processor.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] The invention is herein described, by way of example only,
with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0019] FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary system
according to the present invention;
[0020] FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an exemplary method according to
the present invention;
[0021] FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of another exemplary
system according to the present invention; and
[0022] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of another exemplary method according
to the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0023] The present invention is of a system and method for
providing e-mail messages to a user in a more efficient manner.
Specifically, the system and method of the present invention enable
attachments, if present, to be downloaded separately from the
e-mail message, which may be text-only and which therefore requires
less time to download. In any case, preferably only the text-part
of the e-mail message is downloaded for multi-part messages, for
greater efficiency of downloading. Rather than being downloaded
directly with the remainder of the message, these attachments are
optionally and preferably represented by links in the message which
is downloaded to the e-mail client of the user, such that the user
can "click on" or otherwise select a link in order to retrieve the
attachment.
[0024] According to a further preferred embodiment of the present
invention, the attachment is downloaded to the computational device
of the user in a streamed manner. For example, the attachment could
be downloaded according to the HTTP protocol, and than displayed by
a Web browser or other suitable display software which is operated
by the computational device of the user. Of course, other types of
streaming protocols could optionally be used for downloading the
file, along with any suitable display mechanism provided by the
computational device. This has the advantage of enabling the user
to view the attachment as it is being downloaded, rather than being
required to wait for the entire attachment to be downloaded before
viewing any part of it. Optionally, the attachment could also be
downloaded to the e-mail proxy in the background, as a separate
procedure from the downloading of the text-part, or even "on the
fly" according to the request of the user, depending upon the
e-mail protocol which is used.
[0025] The principles and operation of the present invention may be
better understood with reference to the drawings and the
accompanying description. The present invention is operative with
any email protocol, including but not limited to, IMAP4 and POP3
protocols for receiving e-mail messages. The POP3 protocol is
explained in RFC1725, while the IMAP4 protocol is explained in
RFC2060, both from the Network Working Group, although of course
the scope of the present invention is not limited to operation with
these protocols.
[0026] Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a schematic block
diagram of a system according to the present invention for more
rapidly and efficiently retrieving e-mail messages, particularly
multi-part messages. A system 10 features a user computational
device 12 which operates an e-mail client 14, and optionally also
operates a Web browser 16. E-mail client 14 can optionally be
implemented as any type of software program and/or other type of
functionality which is able to communicate according to standard
e-mail messaging protocols, such as POP3 and IMAP4 for example. A
non-limiting example of such a software program is the Outlook.TM.
program (Microsoft Corp., USA). The user is able to interact with
e-mail client 14 and optionally with Web browser 16. User
computational device 12 is connected to a network 18, such as the
Internet for example, through which user computational device 12 is
in communication with an e-mail proxy 20. E-mail proxy 20, in turn,
is in communication with an e-mail server 22.
[0027] When the user wishes to retrieve one or more e-mail
messages, the user activates talent 14. According to the background
art, e-mail client 14 would communicate directly with e-mail server
22. However, according to the present invention, e-mail proxy 29
first communicates with e-mail server 22, in order to retrieve one
or merit, remail messages for the user, either in their entirety or
as a portion thereof. E-mail proxy 20 then processes these
messages. If an attachment is present, e-mail proxy 20 preferably
processes the message by removing any attachment(s) and staring
them if the entirety of the message is downloaded. Alternatively,
if only a portion of the message is retrieved, for example for a
multi-part message, preferably the text-part is retrieved, and
e-mail proxy 20 then downloads the attachments), if present, in the
background for storage.
[0028] E-mail proxy 20 then preferably substitutes a link to the
storage location of the attachment in the e-mail message, and
passes this modified e-mail message to e-mail client 14 at user
computational device 12. The modified e-mail message is much
smaller, and so can be downloaded much more quickly by user
computational device 12.
[0029] The user may optionally decide to view one of the
attachment(s), if the message has an attachment, at which point the
user preferably "clicks on" or otherwise selects the appropriate
link in the e-mail message through e-mail client 14. User
computational device 12 then downloads the attachment from e-mail
proxy 20. More preferably, the attachment is downloaded to user
computational device 12 in a streamed manner, such that the user is
able to start viewing each portion of the attachment as it arrives
at user computational device 12. Optionally, such streamed
downloading is achieved by activating Web browser 16, such that the
attachment is then downloaded according to the HTTP protocol, and
is displayed to the user through Web browser 16. In any case, in
order to increase the speed and efficiency of downloading the
attachment, the attachment is most preferably decoded, for example
from BASE64 encoding, before being downloaded.
[0030] FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an exemplary method according to
the present invention for retrieving an e-mail message,
particularly a multi-part e-mail message. It should be noted that
for the description below, the e-mail messages are assumed to be
multi-part messages, for the purposes of explanation only and
without any intention of being limiting.
[0031] In stage 1, the user enters a command to the e-mail client
which is operated by the computational device of the user, in order
to read the e-mail "inbox" of the user. According to the background
art, in stage 2, the e-mail client would communicate with a
background e-mail server, for example at an ISP through a dial-up
modern connection.
[0032] According to the present invention, however, in stage 2, the
e-mail client communicates with an e-mail proxy, described with
regard to FIG. 1 above. The e-mail proxy of the present invention
communicates with the background art email server in order to
receive at least a portion of the multi-part e-mail messages. As
explained in greater detail below, according to the POP3 protocol,
the complete multi-part e-mail messages, with attachments (if any),
are downloaded. Alternatively, according to the IMAP4 protocol,
optionally only the header information for the attachments is
downloaded, while the attachments themselves are downloaded at a
later point (for example, in the background).
[0033] The first part of this process occurs in stage 3, when the
e-mail proxy "logs into", or gains access permission for, the inbox
of the user on the e-mail server. According to the POP3 protocol,
the process of "logging in" involves the establishment of a TCP
connection between the e-mail proxy and the e-mail server, through
a handshake procedure (see for example RFC1725 from the Network
Working Group for a description of this protocol). Once the
connection has been established, the e-mail server sends a greeting
to the e-mail proxy, after which commands may be exchanged for
retrieving e-mail messages. These commands typically include
sending information from the e-mail proxy to the e-mail server for
the purposes of authorization, such as a user name for identifying
the inbox and a password, as well as transaction commands for
actually receiving the e-mail message(s).
[0034] The remainder of the method is explained separately with
regard to the POP3 protocol and the IMAP4 protocol. IMAP4 has the
advantage of supporting commands such as "SEARCH", which enable the
e-mail server to return only e-mail messages of interest, such that
the e-mail proxy does not need to parse the headers of the e-mail
messages in order to determine which e-mail message(s) are of
interest IMAP4 also supports the ability to retrieve only part of
the e-mail message directly, with the "FETCH" command. A complex
request for part of an attachment can also be sent with the "FETCH"
command.
[0035] In stage 4, if stage 3 is successful, the e-mail proxy sends
at least one command to the e-mail server to read the inbox of the
user. First, the e-mail proxy could send the "STAT" command to
determine the total number of message and the total size of these
messages. The e-mail proxy then sends the "LIST" command to the
e-mail server in order to receive a list of e-mail messages. The
received list includes the message identification numbers. The
e-mail proxy then downloads the complete multi-part message for the
POP3 protocol, but alternatively downloads only the header or
headers for the e-mail message(s) by using the "fetch" command for
the IMAP4 protocol. More preferably, for the IMAP4 protocol, all of
the headers of all of the message-parts for all of the messages are
retrieved, such that complete information about all of the messages
is obtained, but not the message content.
[0036] Stage 4, or any part thereof as required, is preferably
refereed as necessary such that in stage 5, the e-mail proxy
receives at least one, but preferably all of the attachments for
the e-mail messages which are in the inbox.
[0037] Alternatively, the e-mail proxy could download the entirety
of each e-mail message, with attachments if any, by sending the
"RETR" command to the e-mail server, thereby combining stages 4 and
5 into a single stage if all of the e-mail messages are to be
retrieved at once, as according to the POP3 protocol.
[0038] Regardless of which type of downloading method is preferred,
the e-mail proxy preferably provides some type of identification
information, in order for the user to be able to determine which
e-mail messages are of interest, for example in order to download
the attachment(s) of the e-mail message, if any. The method now
splits to two branches. For the left branch, which is performed
according to the IMAP4 protocol, the attachment information
preferably only features certain header information, while the
attachment itself is optionally retrieved separately. For the right
branch, which is performed according to the POP3 protocol, the
entirety of the multi-part e-mail message is retrieved, with the
attachment. In either case, more preferably the user is presented
with at least a portion of the actual text e-mail message, which is
not an attachment.
[0039] As shown in the left branch, in stage 6a, the e-mail proxy
optionally and preferably parses the headers of the message, more
preferably according to at least one user preference. For example,
the user could request to see only the identity of the sender and
the subject of the e-mail message. As described with regard to
RFC822 and RFC2045 (Network Working Group), the e-mail message has
a predefined structure, such that a multi-part message has a main
header, followed by the body. The body itself may have a plurality
of headers and bodies for each part of the multi-part message, for
example for the text-part, as well as for each attachment. The main
header includes fields, which are indicated according to a
predefined lexical structure.
[0040] In stage 7a, the e-mail proxy optionally and preferably
prepares a formatted message containing the information of interest
to be sent to the user computational device for display to the
user. In particular, the formatted message preferably contains the
text-part, as well as a link to each attachment which is added to
the message in the place of each attachment. This stage is
preferably repeated until all attachments have been replaced by
links in the formatted message.
[0041] In parallel, in stage 8a, the e-mail proxy optionally and
more preferably starts to download each attachment from the e-mail
server, most preferably as a background process. Alternatively, the
process of downloading each attachment may he performed "on the
fly" upon receiving a request from the user, as described in
greater detail below. Once the attachment has been received, it is
preferably decoded, as described in greater detail below.
[0042] Turning now to the right branch, which is performed
according to the POP3 protocol, the e-mail proxy receives the
entirety of the multi-part e-mail message, including all
attachments. In stage 6b(1), the e-mail proxy parses the multi-part
message to determine the boundaries of each portion. In stage
6b(2), when an attachment is found, the header and body of each
attachment is removed from the multi-part message, and the
attachment itself is stored at a particular location on the e-mail
proxy. More preferably, this stage also includes the stage of
decoding each attachment, for example from BASE64 coding.
[0043] The actual method applied for decoding the attachment data
depends upon the type of encoding method which was used, as
described in RFC2045. For example, BASE64 Content-Transfer-Encoding
transforms 24-bit groups of input bits into strings of four encoded
characters as the output, according to a table given in RFC2045.
Decoding reverses the procedure, and takes every four encoded
characters for transformation back to the original data according
to the correspondence which is given in the table. After decoding,
the data is in the original content type, such as text for
example.
[0044] In stage 7b, a short one-link to the storage location on the
e-mail proxy is added to the multi-part message, in place of the
attachment. Stages 6b(2) and 7b are preferably repeated as
necessary in order to replace all such attachments. In stage 8b,
the formatted message is prepared from the text-only portion of the
e-mail message and the links to the location for storing each
attachment, which in this case has already been received and stored
by the e-mail proxy.
[0045] In stage 9, the e-mail proxy sends the formatted message to
the user computational device, preferably including the text-part
of the message with link(s) to any attachment(s).
[0046] Optionally and snore preferably, the e-mail proxy sends the
formatted message to the user computational device in a streamed
manner. By "streaming" it is meant that the formatted message is
sent without encoding, such that the user computational device can
immediately begin to display the formatted message as soon as any
portion of it is received. If streaming is used to send the
formatted message, then the formatted message is more preferably
transmitted according to HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)
commands, such that the formatted message is optionally prepared as
an HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language) document for example.
[0047] In stage 10, the user computational device displays the
formatted message, after which the user is able to determine which
additional information is to be retrieved front the e-mail proxy.
If the formatted message contains one or more links to an
attachment, then in stage 11, the user can choose to download an
attachment by "clicking on" the link with a mouse or other pointing
device, or otherwise selecting the link.
[0048] In stage 12, the attachment is preferably downloaded in a
streamed manner, optionally and more preferably by activating a Web
browser. The Web browser can then download the attachment through
HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) streaming. Downloading the
attachment in a streamed manner allows the user to view the
attachment through the Web browser as the attachment is being
downloaded, in stage 13. Such a streamed manner is particularly
useful for large media files which are designed to be played to the
user in a streamed manner, such as video and audio files.
Furthermore, the amount of time which is required to download these
files is also reduced by first decoding the files, such that the
BASE64 encoding is removed from the data, as such encoding tends to
add a third of the size of the data, as previously noted.
[0049] FIG. 3 shows another exemplary embodiment of the present
invention, in which the functionality of the e-mail proxy of FIG. 1
is preferably located at the e-mail server itself. The components
of the system are otherwise similar to those of FIG. 1.
[0050] An e-mail processor 30 is now preferably located at e-mail
server 22. E-mail processor 30 preferably performs those functions
required for processing multi-part e-mail messages, particularly
those messages which contain attachments, for more efficient
transmission to e-mail client 14 at user computational device 12.
As for FIG. 1, when the user wishes to retrieve one or more e-mail
messages, the user activates e-mail client 14, which communicates
directly with e-mail server 22. E-mail server 22 then preferably
retrieves one or more e-mail messages for the user, either in their
entirety or as a portion thereof. E-mail server 22 may then
optionally and preferably break the messages into portions, more
preferably for multi-part messages. For example, e-mail server 22
may optionally and preferably store an attachment separately from a
text-part of the message. E-mail server 22 then optionally and
preferably constructs an e-mail message to be sent to the user (or
more preferably, to be retrieved by the user). This constructed
e-mail message preferably contains a portion of the original e-mail
message, and more preferably contains only a portion of the
original e-mail message, most preferably the text-part.
[0051] For this preferred embodiment, e-mail processor 30 then
preferably inserts a link to the attachment in the constructed
e-mail message, providing the location in which the attachment is
stored with regard to e-mail server 22.
[0052] Alternatively, e-mail processor 30 then processes these
messages, preferably by removing any attachments and storing them
if the entirety of the multi-part message is downloaded.
Alternatively, if only a portion of the multi-part message is
retrieved, preferably the text-part, e-mail processor 30 then
preferably causes the attachments to be downloaded in the
background for storage. E-mail processor 30 optionally and
preferably processes the attachment with the attachment
information, or alternatively processes the attachment separately
from the attachment information. E-mail processor 30 then also
preferably substitutes a link to the storage location of the
attachment in the e-mail message.
[0053] E-mail server 22 preferably passes this modified e-mail
message to e-mail client 14 at user computational device 12. The
modified e-mail message is much smaller, and so can be downloaded
much more quickly by user computational device 12.
[0054] The user may optionally decide to view one of the
attachments, at whir' h point the user preferably "clicks on" or
otherwise selects the appropriate link in the e-mail message
through e-mail client It User computational device 12 then
downloads the attachment from e-mail server 22. More preferably,
the attachment is downloaded to user computational device 12 in a
streamed manner, such that the user is able to seat viewing each
portion of the attachment as it arrives at user computational
device 12. Optionally, such streamed downloading is achieved by
activating Web browser 16, such that the attachment is then
downloaded according to the HTTP protocol, and is displayed to the
user through Web browser 16. In any case, in order to incense the
speed and efficiency of downloading the attachment, the attachment
is most preferably decoded, for example from BASE64 encoding,
before being downloaded.
[0055] With regard to the method described in FIG. 2, a similar
method may optionally be performed with the system of FIG. 3, but
with some alterations (the exemplary method is described with
regard to FIG. 4 below). For example, the earlier stages (1-6) of
FIG. 2, which are concerned with having the e-mail proxy "log in"
to the e-mail server, are preferably not performed. Instead, the
e-mail processor is preferably located at the e-mail server and is
actually preferably embedded within the server. Otherwise, as
described below, many of the processing functions of the e-mail
proxy are preferably performed by the e-mail processor.
[0056] As shown with regard to FIG. 4, which shows a flowchart of
an exemplary method for operating the system of FIG. 3, the method
may optionally be performed according to one of two branches. It
should be noted that the e-mail messages are assumed to be
multi-part messages, for the purposes of explanation only and
without any intention of being limiting. For the left branch, which
is performed according to the IMAP4 protocol, the attachment
information preferably only features certain header information,
while the attachment itself is optionally retrieved separately. For
the right branch, which is performed according to the POP3
protocol, the entirety of the multi-part e-mail message is
retrieved, with the attachment. In either case, more preferably the
user is presented with at least a portion of the actual text e-mail
message, which is not an attachment.
[0057] As shown in the left branch, in stage 1a, the e-mail
processor optionally and preferably parses the headers of the
message, more preferably according to at least one user preference.
Alternatively, such parsing could optionally be performed by the
e-mail server itself. For example, the user could request to see
only the identity of the sender and the subject of the e-mail
message. As described with regard to RFC822 and RFC2045 (Network
Working Group), the e-mail message has a predefined structure, such
that a multi-part message has a main header, followed by the body.
The body itself may have a plurality of headers and bodies for each
part of the multi-part message, for example for the text-part, as
well as for each attachment. The main header includes fields, which
are indicated according to a predefined lexical structure.
[0058] In stage 2a, the e-mail processor optionally and preferably
prepares a formatted message containing the information of interest
to be sent to the user computational device for display to the
user. Alternatively, such a formatted message could optionally be
constructed by the e-mail server itself. In particular, the
formatted message preferably contains the text-part, as well as a
link to each attachment which is added to the message in the place
of each attachment. This stage is preferably repeated until all
attachments have been replaced by links in the formatted
message.
[0059] In parallel, in stage 3a, the e-mail processor optionally
and more preferably decodes each attachment from the e-mail server,
as described in greater detail below. Alternatively, the e-mail
server may performing the decoding process.
[0060] Turning now to the right branch, which is performed
according to the POP3 protocol, the e-mail server receives the
entirety of the multi-part e-mail message, including all
attachments, if any are present In stage 1b(1), the e-mail
processor (or alternatively, the e-mail server) parses the
multi-part message to determine the boundaries of each portion. In
stage 1b(2), when an attachment is found, the header and body of
each attachment is removed from the multi-part message, and the
attachment itself is stored at a particular location. More
preferably, this stage also includes the stage of decoding each
attachment, for example from BASE64 coding.
[0061] The actual method applied for decoding the attachment data
depends upon the type of encoding method which was used, as
described in RFC2045. For example, BASE64 Content-Transfer-Encoding
transforms 24-bit groups of input bits into strings of four encoded
characters as the output, according to a table given in RFC2045.
Decoding reverses the procedure, and takes every four encoded
characters for transformation back to the original data according
to the correspondence which is given in the table. Alter decoding,
the data is in the original content type, such as text for
example.
[0062] In stage 2b, a short one-link to the storage location,
optionally on the e-mail server is added to the multi-part message,
in place of the attachment. Preferably, the e-mail processor adds
the link to the formatted message. Stages 1b(2) and 2b are
preferably repeated as necessary in order to replace all such
attachments. In stage 3b, the formatted message is preferably
prepared from the text-only portion of the e-mail message and the
links to the location for storing each attachment.
[0063] In stage 4, the e-mail server sends the formatted message to
the user computational device, preferably including the text-part
of the message with link(s) to any attachment(s), if any arc
present.
[0064] Optionally and more preferably, the e-marl server sends the
formatted message to the user computational device in a streamed
manner. By "streaming" it is meant that the formatted message is
sent without encoding, such that the user computational device can
immediately begin to display the formatted message as soon as any
portion of it is received. If streaming is used to send the
formatted message, then the formatted message is more preferably
transmitted according to HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)
commands, such that the formatted message is optionally prepared as
an HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language) document for example.
[0065] In stage 5, the User computational device displays the
formatted message, after which the user is able to determine which
additional information is to be retrieved from the e-mail
processor. If the formatted message contains one or more links to
an attachment, then in stage 6, the user can choose to download an
attachment by "clicking on" the link with a mouse or other pointing
device, or otherwise selecting the link.
[0066] In stage 7, the attachment is preferably downloaded in a
streamed manner, optionally and more preferably by activating a Web
browser, although alternatively according to any suitable protocol
for streaming downloads. The Web browser can then download the
attachment through HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) streaming.
Downloading the attachment in a streamed manner allows the user to
view the attachment through the Web browser as the attachment is
being downloaded, in stage 8. Such a streamed manner is
particularly useful for large media files which are designed to be
played to the user in a streamed manner, such as video and audio
files. Furthermore, the amount of time which is required to
download these files is also reduced by first decoding the files,
such that the BASE64 encoding is removed from the data, as such
encoding tends to add a third of the size of the data, as
previously noted.
[0067] While the invention has been described with respect to a
limited number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many
variations, modifications and other applications of the invention
may be made.
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