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United States Patent6044205
Reed , ; et al.March 28, 2000
Title
Communications system for transferring information between memories according to processes transferred with the information
Abstract
An automated communications system operates to transfer data, metadata and methods from a provider computer to a consumer computer through a communications network. The transferred information controls the communications relationship, including responses by the consumer computer, updating of information, and processes for future communications. Information which changes in the provider computer is automatically updated in the consumer computer through the communications system in order to maintain continuity of the relationship. Transfer of metadata and methods permits intelligent processing of information by the consumer computer and combined control by the provider and consumer of the types and content of information subsequently transferred. Object oriented processing is used for storage and transfer of information. Method servers provide specialized data, metadata, and methods to providers and consumers to automate many common communications services and transactions useful to both providers and consumers.
Inventors:Reed; Drummond Shattuck (Seattle, WA), Heyman; Peter Earnshaw  (Seattle, WA), Mushero; Steven Mark  (Seattle, WA), Jones; Kevin Benard  (Seattle, WA), Oberlander; Jeffrey Todd  (Seattle, WA), Banay; Dan  (Seattle, WA)
Assignee:Intermind Corporation (Seattle, WA)
Appl. No.:609115
Filed:February 29, 1996
Current U.S. Class:709/201 709/203 709/212 709/216 709/229 707/1 707/10 707/102 707/104.1 709/200 
Field of Search:395/200.01,200.03,200.05,200.08,200.09,200.13,200.15,601,200.3-200.33 707/1,10,100-104
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Primary Examiner: Lall; Parshotam S.
Assistant Examiner: Barot; Bharat
Attorney, Agent or Firm:Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks P.C.
Claims

What is claimed is:
1. A computer-based communication system comprising:
a provider memory storing information;
a consumer memory;
association means for creating metadata and storing said metadata at said provider memory, said metadata describing association with at least a portion of said information and defining a control structure which is processed at least at the consumer memory to define a process for determining an update of an associated portion of said information in the provider memory associated with said control structure and for controlling communication of said associated portion to said consumer memory when said associated portion is updated;
transfer means for transferring and storing a copy of said associated portion and said control structure, from said provider memory to said consumer memory;
update determining means for processing said information, including said control structure, to determine when said associated portion in said provider memory has been updated;
transfer control means for processing said information, including said control structure, to transfer a copy of said associated portion from said provider memory to said consumer memory when said update determining means determines that said associated portion has been updated.

2. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein said update determining means includes:
versioning means for storing a first version value of a last update of said information in said provider memory;
comparison means for comparing a second version value of said associated portion previously transferred to said consumer memory with said first version value of said last update information.

3. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein said control structure is associated with a communications network server address and polling control data, and wherein said control structure includes an association between said communications network server address, polling control data, and said associated portion; and
wherein said transfer control means includes:
(a) polling trigger means for processing said polling control data to trigger update processing at the consumer memory based upon the process defined by the control structure,
(b) instruction retrieval means for retrieving transfer instructions from said consumer memory based upon said polling control data,
(c) access means for accessing a server at said communications network server address to request transfer of a copy of said updated information according to the transfer instructions retrieved from said consumer memory, and
(d) reception means for receiving said updated information transferred by said server in response to a request and for storing said updated information in said consumer memory.

4. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein said control structure is associated with a communications network address associated with said consumer memory, wherein said metadata includes an association between said communications network; and
wherein said transfer control means includes:
(a) instruction retrieval means for retrieving, based upon the process defined by the control structure, transfer instructions associated with said information from said provider memory,
(b) transfer means for transferring a copy of said associated portion to said communications network address according to the transfer instructions retrieved from said provider memory as updated information,
(c) access means for accessing, based upon the process defined by the control structure, said communication network address from said consumer memory to retrieve said updated information, and
(d) reception means for receiving said updated information transferred from said communications network address and for storing said updated information in said consumer memory.

5. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein said control structure includes a communications network casting address, and wherein said control structure includes an association between said casting address and said associated portion; and
wherein said transfer control means includes:
(a) provider instruction retrieval means for retrieving, based upon the process defined by the control structure, transfer instructions associated with said associated portion from said provider memory,
(b) transfer means for transferring said associated portion to said casting address according to the transfer instructions retrieved from said provider memory as updated information,
(c) consumer instruction retrieval means for retrieving based upon the process defined by the control structure said transfer instructions associated with said associated portion from said consumer memory,
(d) monitoring means for monitoring said casting address from said consumer memory to retrieve said updated information based upon said transfer instructions, and
(e) reception means for receiving said updated information from said casting address and for storing said updated information in said consumer memory.

6. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein said control structure includes notification metadata, said notification metadata including associations that are processed to control notifying a user of at least portions of the updated information; and
wherein the system further comprises notification control means including:
(a) instruction retrieval means for retrieving notification instructions associated with said associated portion of said updated information in said consumer memory based upon the process defined by the control structure;
(b) instruction execution means for executing said notification instructions to notify the user of said updated information.

7. The computer-based communication system of claim 6, wherein said notification metadata includes a plurality of information references, each information reference being associated with a portion of the updated information; and
wherein said instruction execution means includes:
(a) user preference means for receiving at least one user reference,
(b) preference comparison means for comparing said plurality of information references to said at least one user reference, and
(c) reference notification means for notifying the user of portions of the updated information associated with information references which correspond to said at least one user reference.

8. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein the control structure includes response control information for defining a second process for controlling a transfer of a copy of consumer information stored in the consumer memory to a communications network address specified by said response control information; and
the system further comprising:
consumer transfer means, associated with the consumer memory, for processing the response control information to transfer said copy of said consumer information to the communications address.

9. The computer-based communication system of claim 8, wherein the communications address is associated with the provider memory, and
the system further comprising:
reception means, associated with the provider memory, for receiving the consumer information from the communications address and storing it in the provider memory based upon the second process defined by the response control information.

10. The computer-based communication system of claim 8, further comprising:
consumer request means, associated with the consumer memory, for requesting the consumer information from a user based upon the second process defined by the response control information; and
consumer input means for receiving the consumer information input by a user and storing said information in the consumer memory.

11. The computer-based communication system of claim 8, further comprising:
update determining means for determining when consumer information in said consumer memory has been updated based upon the process defined by the control structure; and
instruction execution means for processing said response control information to transfer a copy of said consumer information which has been updated from said consumer memory to said communications address.

12. The computer-based communication system of claim 4, wherein control structure includes response control information defining a second process for controlling a transfer of consumer information stored in the consumer memory to the provider memory; and
the system further comprising:
consumer tranfer means, associated with the consumer memory, for tranferring a copy of said consumer information to the provider memory based upon the second process defined by the response control information; and
wherein said association means associates portions of said information is said provider memory with said consumer memory based upon siad consumer information.

13. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein said provider memory operates as a web server and said consumer memory operates as a client of said web server.

14. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein said information includes instructions, and said metadata includes associations with at least said instructions.

15. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein said metadata includes associations with said control structure.

16. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein said associations include hypertext links.

17. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein said control structure is embodied as a MIME object when transferred.

18. The computer-based communication system of claim 1, wherein said control structure is stored in a portion of the provider memory at a communications server separate from a portion of the provider memory storing other of said information.

19. A computer-based method for communicating updated information comprising the steps of:
creating metadata defining a control structure in a provider memory, said control structure including associations with portions of said information in a provider memory, said control structure defining a process to transfer an associated portion of said information associated with said control structure to a consumer memory; and
transferring a copy of the associated portion of said information, and said control structure, from the provider memory to the consumer memory; and
determining when the associated portion of said information in said provider memory has been updated based upon processing of said control structure; and
processing said information, including said control structure at least at said consumer memory, to transfer a copy of said associated portion of said information from said provider memory to said consumer memory when the associated portion of information in said provider memory has been determined to have been updated.

20. The computer-based method of claim 19, wherein said control structure includes notification metadata representing a process for notifying a user of at least portions of the updated information; and
the method further comprising the step of processing said notification metadata to notify the user of said at least portions of the updated information.

21. The computer-based method of claim 20, further comprising the steps of:
setting user preferences representing types of information for which a user is to be notified of updated information;
comparing updated information with said user preferences; and
notifying the user of updated information based upon the comparing step.

22. The computer-based communication method of claim 19, wherein the control structure further includes response control information, including a communications network address, for transferring a copy of consumer information stored in said consumer memory; and the method further comprises the step of:
processing said response control information to transfer a copy of said consumer information from said consumer memory to said communications network address.

23. The computer-based communication method of claim 22, wherein the communications network address is associated with the provider memory; and the method further comprises the steps of:
processing said response control information to transfer said consumer information from said communications address to said provider memory; and
receiving and storing the consumer information in the provider memory.

24. The computer-based communication method of claim 22, wherein said processing step includes:
requesting consumer information from a user; and
receiving consumer information input by a user;
storing said consumer information in the consumer memory, and
transferring a copy of said consumer information to said communications network address.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to data communications systems. More particularly, it relates to an automated communications system which coordinates the transfer and content of data, metadata, and instructions between databases in order to simplify, automate, and increase the intelligence of communications.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

All communications consist of a mechanism for exchanging information between one entity, a provider, and another, a consumer. The terms "provider" and "consumer" are used to designate separate functions in information transfers. Typically an entity, at various times, operates as both a provider and a consumer in any communication relationship. Significant work is required of both the provider and consumer simply to establish and maintain a communications relationship so that information can flow freely between them. Initially, consumers must first find the appropriate providers from whom to obtain the information they need. Then contact information (e.g., names, titles, addresses, telephone numbers, electronic mail addresses, etc.) must be exchanged between the provider and consumer. The contact information must be maintained by both parties so that future communications can be effected as needed. When the contact information changes for an entity, all consumers or providers having relationships with the entity must be notified of the changes. This involves more work for one or both parties to the relationship. Each must maintain accurate records of the other, notify the other of changes, and record changes received. This work extends to other data and records exchanged in the context of the communications relationship, e.g. orders, receipts, product numbers, invoice numbers, customer numbers, notes, brochures, reports, etc. Maintenance of this information requires significant human time involvement for receiving information, storing information, indexing information, searching for desired information, and retrieving information. The human component of record maintenance also creates a potential for error which can cause the information to be faulty or to become lost.

In addition to creating and maintaining communication relationships, information providers want to disseminate information about themselves or their products and services to consumers. Optimally, such information would be disseminated only to persons who need the information and only at the times that they need it. However, knowing who needs what information and when it is needed can be difficult. Therefore, providers typically disseminate information widely in the form of mass advertisements and mailings in order to reach all likely consumers.

Because of this broad dissemination by providers, consumers receive large amounts of information much of which is irrelevant to them. The consumer is forced to sort and filter through this information. Much of the information may be discarded. Information which is kept may not be immediately useful, but may be needed at a later time. Unless the consumer expends a great deal of work to store, catalog, and index this information, at the point the consumer needs it the information can be difficult or impossible to find. The provider, for its part, knows what information the provider has available, as well as the best way to access it. However the provider does not have any simple ways to know which consumers need what information at what times.

There is one more dimension to the communications relationship, and that is the work required for the consumer to respond to information of interest. For example, to order a product, the consumer must place a telephone call, locate a salesperson, and then manually transmit the necessary ordering information, which the salesperson must manually record. Paper or electronic product order forms can help automate this process for the provider, but these must be filled out by the consumer. Many of these forms require the same standard information from the consumer, which the consumer must enter repeatedly. All of these information transfers require human involvement and thus create the potential for data errors. On the provider's part, more work is required to perform error checking on the order, process it, and if necessary return an acknowledgment to the consumer. Many providers invest heavily in data processing and electronic communications systems for automating these functions. However, the lack of a standard communications system for exchanging common data results in largely proprietary systems, increasing the investment necessary for every provider. In addition, consumers must still interact with each these systems manually.

Therefore, a need exists for a communications system which allows providers and consumers to easily establish an automated communications relationship in which providers can easily offer the information consumers need, and consumers can easily access the information they need when they need it. A need also exists for a communications system which allows a provider to actively notify consumers of new information in which the they be interested, and which also allows the consumer to filter information being sent by one or more information providers so that the consumer is not distracted by receipt of unwanted and irrelevant information. A need also exists for a system which allows consumers to easily respond to information which interests them, and which allows both providers and consumers to automatically exchange and process incoming or outgoing communications data whenever possible.

Various computer-based systems have been created to provide mechanisms for communicating information. The Internet and World Wide Web provide a network of a large number of information sources, providing a voluminous amount of information. Computer programs exist which can be executed on Internet-connected computers to search these sources to obtain desired information. Additionally, through the medium of hypertext, providers of World Wide Web pages can create links in their pages between items of related information which can significantly aid consumers in finding desired information. However, these links to the information source are neither dynamic nor persistent; in the sense that they do not provide new or updated information once the consumer has found a topic of interest. "Bookmarks" in a Web browser program can facilitate subsequent access to a particular web page to determine if new information is present. However, if the web page referenced by the bookmark is removed, the bookmark is no longer valid. Bookmark polling programs, such as Smart Bookmarks from First Floor, Inc., can also be used to determine whether a web page has changed since the last time the consumer viewed it. In addition, Smart Bookmarks can examine a changed page and automatically transfer to the consumer a text string embedded by the author of the page informing the consumer of the nature of the change. However, Smart Bookmarks' capability is limited to single text strings on single web pages. Therefore the consumer must locate and bookmark every Web page of interest. Smart Bookmarks does not provide a way for the consumer to filter the update messages, nor does it provide the consumer with a means for responding to the changed information other than revisiting the page involved.

Online navigation or "auto pilot" software, available from various commercial online services or software companies, can add additional functionality to basic access to online service, the Internet, and other public networks. The software provided by these services or companies can include capabilities such as automatic logons, automatic navigation of the online system according to consumer preferences, file searches, uploading and downloading data, and storage of data. Some systems can also automatically download the data necessary to update their own operation. However, the navigation software available from the online services typically requires that the consumer first establish an account with the online service, and may also involve establishing accounts with specific providers on the service. In addition, these navigator programs are specifically designed to work with the architecture and communications protocols of the online service, and cannot be easily adapted to other data communications networks, thus preventing other providers from using the functionality of the online service to create and distribute data in the same manner. Finally, they also require that the consumer devote the effort to setting up and maintaining the communications relationship the consumer wishes to have with each information provider on the service. This last disadvantage also applies to online navigation programs designed to work with the Internet and other non-proprietary public data networks.

Electronic mail (e-mail) systems are another electronic communications system that provides some communications contact persistence. E-mail addresses and messages can be stored and indexed within e-mail programs, or externally in other locations. E-mail rules engines allow for some degree of automated storage or response to certain message contents. However, these rules engines are typically constrained to acting on certain known information about the messages, such as the address of the sender, or on semantic rules such as keywords which must be guessed by the sender and recipient. There is no common communications frame of reference, i.e., a structured data format and data operations methodology, against which both the sender and recipient can operate to filter, classify, and organize messages. The lack of a common frame of reference also severely limits the capability of either the sender or receiver to automatically process the contents of an e-mail message, or to provide a means for the recipients of a message to automate their response to the message other than the ability to automatically address a response to the sender of a message or to the sender plus all other recipients of a message.

E-mail systems which support electronic forms overcome some of these limitations. Electronic forms can be used to automatically or semi-automatically gather data and route it around a network. Electronic forms also allow message recipients to automate a response to the message sender which can be automatically processed by the sender. However, these forms must be received and processed by the recipient in the same manner as conventional e-mail messages, so they do not provide a means for the recipient to filter messages from different senders. In addition, while they may automate the sender's ability to process the data returned from the forms, the recipient must still manually enter information in the form. Forms also do not provide the recipient with a mechanism for automatically storing, indexing, or processing information from the sender.

Specialized e-mail systems have been developed that combine the use of electronic forms with a system-wide data processing model. Examples are The Coordinator from Action Technologies, Inc., or OVAL from the MIT Center for Coordination Science. These systems allow senders and recipients to share a frame of reference for messaging such that messages can be classified into specific categories and actions. This allows message senders and recipients to automate the routing, storage, and processing of messages based on these category and actions. However, these systems require that all senders and recipients share the same frame of reference. They do not provide a generalized means for each sender on the system to establish their own frames of reference with one or more recipients, nor a generalized means for each recipient to coordinate the frames of reference they have with different senders, while still using a generalized data storage and processing model that can be shared among all users of the system.

A different approach to the problem of automating communications is the category of software that is commonly referred to as "software agents" or "mobile agents". An example is a platform for communications applications developed by General Magic, Inc. called Telescript. The Telescript language is an object-oriented, remote programming language with three core concepts: agents, places and "go". Agents "go" to places, where they interact with other agents to get work done on a user's behalf. Agents are mobile programs capable of transporting themselves from place to place in a Telescript network. The language is implemented by the Telescript engine. The Telescript engine is a multitasking interpreter that integrates onto an operating system through a programming interface called the Telescript API. The Telescript engine operates on server computers interoperating on a communications network. Telescript agents can operate independently anywhere within these server computers to control the transfer of message data and perform programmable actions upon that message data. For example, if a message recipient is not available, the message could be rerouted to a different location, rather than being returned to the sender undelivered. Telescript is similar to other agent technologies in that the architecture is based on agents interacting with other agents on server computers running the agent "engines" or interpreters. In this architecture, the establishment of a communications relationship requires two agents: one to represent the provider and one the consumer. Although agent programming systems like Telescript provide the necessary tools for creating these agents, it is still necessary for both the provider and consumer to create and administer the necessary agents. Furthermore, Telescript does not provide a specific data model for the filtering, storage, and indexing of communications between a provider and consumer. Lastly, agent architectures require the addition of servers running agent interpreters or "engines" to the communications network in order to operate, increasing the expense and complexity of the network.

Another approach to automating communications and information transfers is shared replicated database systems such as Lotus Notes and Collabra Share. With these systems, information to be communicated is entered via a client program into shared databases which may reside locally on client computers or on network server computers. These databases are then replicated through the server computers to other server computers or local client computers throughout the system so that the data can be accessed by any other user of the system who needs the information and has the proper access privileges. Access privileges are controlled by one or more system administrators via the system servers. Some of these systems, notably Collabra Share, also allow users to "subscribe" to specific databases. These users can receive an e-mail notification when a new entry has been made in that database. These systems may also employ electronic forms and forms processing languages to structure the data being entered into a database, and to take programmable actions based on the data entered. The architecture of these systems is designed for large groups of users to share information related to specific topics, and to automate the transfer of data between different computer applications used by an organization. For this reason the basic component of the architecture is an individual database or "forum". Each forum covers a number of related interest topics under which all forum entries are categorized. All copies of any forum are synchronized throughout the system when data in one copy has been changed.

While optimal for information sharing amongst the members of a group, this architecture is not well suited for automating communications relationships among a large number of information providers and consumers. First, all the providers and consumers need to be interconnected through the system in order to communicate. This could be done by having all providers and consumers enroll in one large system in which they all had access privileges. In such a system each provider would need to have at least one forum for communicating with his/her consumers. This enormous number of forums would then need to be replicated among the large number of servers required to service the complete population of the system, which would quickly overwhelm the capacity of the servers or network to handle replication. A more realistic alternative would be to have each provider or group of providers operate and administer their own system, making their internal forums available to consumers via public data networks such as the Internet. Consumers would use the system client software to "subscribe" to the forums of each provider with which they desire to communicate. Only the forums a consumer subscribed to would be replicated on his/her desktop. This solution would spread the replication load to a large number of servers, each handling a smaller amount of traffic. However, each server would now have to manage replication for a large number of external consumers as well as internal group members. There is no way to distribute this replication load to the consumer's computer. Second, because replication is handled at the forum level, consumers cannot fully filter the incoming communications from providers; they must still scan the forums for items of interest. Providers could surmount this by creating a forum for each interest topic, but the additional administrative overhead and server replication overhead would strongly discourage this. Third, because notification of new information is handled via a separate application, e-mail, the consumer is forced to coordinate notification and data storage/response among two communications systems. Finally, because the entire system depends on server-based replication, administrative changes or reconfigurations of these servers such as system name or address changes require that all subscribing consumers be updated, a job which consumers must handle manually.

Consequently, a need exists for an automated communications system which allows providers and consumers to quickly and easily establish an automated communications relationship, simplify the transfer and storage of information between both parties, provide a common frame of reference for the automated filtering and processing of information, and flexibly adapt to the multiple communications networks or systems that may be in use by either the provider or consumer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The disadvantages of existing communications systems are significantly overcome by the present invention in which software programs being executed by a provider computer and consumer computer communicate directly in order to provide an automated transfer of information, including data, metadata, and instructions. The metadata and instructions control how the information should be processed by a program executing on the consumer computer and how responses to that information are processed on the provider computer. The transfer of information is used to control and automate the communications relationship between the provider and consumer.

In one aspect of the present invention, a communications system is used to coordinate communications between providers and consumers. Provider computers transfer information stored in the provider computer through a communications network to a consumer computer. The information includes processes for updating the transferred information in the consumer computer when the information in provider computer has changed. For "push" processes, the provider computer maintains address data necessary to transfer updated information to various consumers. For "pull" processes, the consumer computer uses information transferred from the provider to access a location where the provider information is stored to determine whether it has been updated and to retrieve it if necessary.

According to another aspect of the present invention, existing communications networks and network accessing programs are used to increase the functionality of the communications system. The Internet and World Wide Web, or similar type networks, are used to access and transfer the information. According to this aspect, information is created and maintained according to a recognized protocol, such as HTTP, MIME and HTML, which can be used to access other information. An appropriate display program, such as a web browser, is used to retrieve and display the information.

According to another aspect of the present invention, programs operating on the provider computer and consumer computer operate as state machines in connection with an appropriate display program. The programs operate to receive information requests from a display program and to generate a next display containing the requested information.

According to another aspect of the present invention, information is organized in a form which simplifies transfer of data, metadata, and instructions. Object oriented programming is be used for combining data and methods for storage and transfer. Specialized classes or types are used to provide intelligence in processing of transferred information. Elements in an transferred object can be used by the consumer computer to filter information and provide selective notification to a user of changed information. The combination of methods and data permits joint control by the provider and consumer of the information transferred, responses, acknowledgments, and update processing.

According to another aspect of the invention, a provider program is used to create, edit, and maintain data, metadata and instructions in a provider database. The provider program also controls distribution of the information to various consumers. Different information contained in the provider database can be transferred and used in communications relationships with different consumers. The provider database includes information associating the information with each potential recipient. The association information is used to selectively distribute information and updated information. The provider program also receives and uses information from the consumer computer to control encoding and transfer of information to the consumer computer. According to another aspect, the provider program uses a markup language to format the information for transfer.

According to another aspect of the invention, a consumer program is used to receive and process the transferred information. The consumer program receives information from the provider or polls a location identified by the transferred information to determine when information has been updated by the provider. The consumer program then retrieves the information from the proper source and compares it to the existing information to determine what has been updated. The consumer program maintains a database of information from different providers. When updated information is received, the consumer program executes instructions associated with the information to store the updated information, notify a user of updated information, and generate responses for the consumer. The consumer program also can transfer the information to second consumer computer. The second consumer computer can obtain updated information from the provider computer or as forwarded by the consumer computer.

According to another aspect of the invention which can be used by providers and consumers to automate various communications services desired by both tion, method servers are used to provide metadata and instructions. The metadata and instructions are received by the provider and consumer computers in the same manner as information is received by the consumer computer. The provider can include metadata and instructions transferred from the method server in the information transferred to the consumer computer. The information transferred from the method server also controls communications with the method server for both providers and consumers.

With these and other objects, advantages and features of the invention that may become apparent, the nature of the invention may be more clearly understood by reference to the following detailed description, the appended claims, and the several drawings attached hereto.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a communications system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of the provider program and consumer program of FIG. 1 as state machines.

FIG. 3 illustrates object oriented data structures for storing communications data.

FIG. 4 illustrates the lower branches of FIG. 3, and additionally a notification element instance.

FIG. 5 illustrates the use of a system ID server.

FIG. 6 illustrates object oriented data structures for storing system ID data within the system ID database.

FIG. 7 illustrates a pull method of transmission of a communications object.

FIG. 8 illustrates a push method of transmission of a communications object.

FIG. 9 illustrates operation of a provider program of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 10A and 10B are block flow diagrams of operations of the processes for form submissions and update associations.

FIG. 11 is a block flow diagram for a process for distributing a communications object.

FIG. 12 is a block flow diagram for a communications object generation and transmission routine.

FIG. 13A is a block flow diagram for a process for generating a communications object when selective page distribution is used.

FIG. 13B is a block flow diagram for a process for generating a communications object when selective page distribution and page subscription elements are used.

FIG. 14 illustrates operation of a consumer program of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 represents a form for inputting information in conjunction with an embodiment of a consumer program.

FIG. 16 is a block flow diagram for a process for receiving a communications object.

FIG. 17 illustrates method servers in conjunction with the communications system of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

System Overview

There is illustrated in FIG. 1 a first embodiment of a system of the present invention which automatically updates a database in a consumer computer with information from a provider computer. Numerous providers and consumers exist in the system of the present invention. However, since all communications can be separated into transfers between a single provider and consumer, the design and operation of the system is illustrated with only one provider and one consumer, except as otherwise noted. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a provider computer 1 includes a provider database 11 of information which it desires to disseminate or make accessible to one or more consumers. A consumer computer 2 includes a consumer database 21 of information received from providers or stored by a user. The organization structure and content of the provider database 11 and consumer database 21 are discussed below. The provider computer 1 is connected through a communications network 3 to the consumer computer 2. Any communications network 3 may be used to connect the provider computer 1 and the consumer computer, including direct network connections, server-based environments, telephone networks, the Internet, intranets, local area networks (LANS), wide area networks (WANS), the World Wide Web, other webs, and even transfers of data on physical media such as disks or computer-readable paper outputs via postal communications networks. The particulars of the communications network illustrated as preferred embodiments are not limiting features of the invention. However, the Internet and World Wide Web provide existing connection capabilities between computers sufficient to provide the necessary connections. For this reason, the description of the present invention is based on this communications medium, which should be understood to be used for purpose of illustration only. Organization and operation of the Internet and communications over the Internet are discussed generally in Kris Jamsa and Ken Cope, Internet Programming (1995) and Marshall T. Rose, The Internet Message: Closing the Book with Electronic Mail (1993), which are incorporated herein by reference. Communications over the World Wide Web are discussed generally in John December and Neil Randall, The World Wide Web Unleashed (1996), which is incorporated herein by reference. Additionally, the illustration is not limited to the specific networks known as the Internet and Wold Wide Web, but relate to internet, intranet and web networks generally. A specific feature of this invention is that it is easily adaptable to automating communications via any type of communications network. In addition, it can select an optimal communications network and message encoding format to be used for a specific communications transaction.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, there are two principal methods for data transfer in a data communications system, both of which can operate through the Internet. First, a "pushing" method transfers information from the provider computer 1 directly to a known consumer computer 2. An example of such a system is e-mail. So long as the consumer's address is known, the information can be routed through the communications network directly to that recipient. For the pushing method, the provider must know the consumers who want to receive the information. The provider must also know how to address those recipients.

The second method, referred to as "pulling", occurs when the consumer computer 2 requests and initiates a transfer of information directly from a provider computer 1 or from another server computer 32 located on communications network 3 on which a copy of the information has been placed for distribution. An example of such a distribution server 32 is when a copy of the information is placed on a web server and accessed by the consumer computer 2. In the pulling method, the provider and the provider computer 1 or distribution server 32 do not need to know ab initio, the identity or location of consumer computers 2. Rather, the consumer computer needs to know the location of the provider computer 1 or distribution server 32 and the location of the desired information to be accessed on such computers.

Basic Operation of Programs for Communications

Appropriate programs executing on the provider computer 1 and the consumer computer 2 perform the functions necessary to update data and maintain the data at both locations. A program represents a set of store instructions which are executed in a processor of the computer to process data, transmit and receive data and produce displays. The provider program 12 operates to transmit changes in data stored in the provider database 11 at the provider computer 1. When changes are made to the information and the database, the provider program 12 operates to disseminate the changed information through the communications network 3. In the pushing method, the provider program 12 transmits the changed information, for example through e-mail, to the consumer computers 2 of all intended recipients. In the pulling method, the changed information is stored on a distribution server 32, such as a web server, which then can be accessed by the consumer computer 2. The consumer program computer 22
will typically poll the distribution server 32 to determine whether the information has changed. This polling operation can be a simple as issuing a Web server HTTP file date request and comparing this with the file date of the last update. Polling is controlled by the information transferred from the provider program to the consumer program as further described below. Upon receipt of changed information, the consumer program 22 operates to perform certain functions with regard to that changed information. Principally, the information is stored in consumer database 21 in the consumer computer 2 for future reference and usage in automating communications from the consumer to the provider. Furthermore, the information may be presented to a user at the consumer location, so that the user will know of the changed information. The information can be presented in a number of manners, including display or printing by the consumer program, sending an e-mail or voice-mail message to the user, paging the user, and other notification methods. Since the provider knows what the changed information is and how consumers would likely prefer to be notified of the changed information, the transmittal of the changed information can include instructions on how the consumer program 22 should process the information for purposes of notification. For example, information from a provider may include the provider's telephone number. If the telephone number changes, the provider needs to supply everyone with whom it does business with the new number. The present invention provides a simple way for carrying out such a data transfer, and of controlling which consumers receive overt notification. When the telephone number is changed in the distribution database at the provider computer 1, the information is transferred to the consumer computer 2, through either the push or pull method. Upon receipt, the consumer program 22 will process the changed information and store the new telephone number in the consumer database 21 for later access by the user or by other programs operating on the consumer's computer 2. At the consumer computer 2, the consumer may or may not be interested in overt notification of the new phone number; this depends on the consumer's relationship with the provider and how often and in what manner the consumer makes use of the phone number. This invention provides a way for notification to be cooperatively controlled by both the provider and consumer through the use of notification elements, which is described below.

Additionally, receipt and storage of the new or updated information can trigger other actions, such as automatically forwarding the information to another consumer, exchanging information with the consumer database 21, sending an automated response to the provider, or sending a message to another software program on the consumer's desktop. Again, this invention provides a means for such actions to be cooperatively controlled by both the provider and the consumer through the use of object methods, which is discussed below.

The information stored in the consumer database 21 can also include data, metadata, and instructions to be used by the consumer program 22 for processing consumer responses to the provider. Again, because the provider of the information knows what response options are available to the consumers of the information, the provider can include the necessary data and instructions to simplify and automate specific responses from the consumer to the provider. For example, the provider can include Web URL links to other Web pages or forms on the provider's Web server. Or the provider can also include special forms to be processed by the consumer program 22 that allow the consumer to automatically or semi-automatically transfer data from the consumer database 21 back to the provider. Examples include product order forms, survey forms, customer service request forms, scheduling forms, etc.

In the most general case, because the provider knows what communications networks, network addresses, languages, encoding formats, data structures, and other communications processing data and methods are generally supported by the provider, the provider can include in the transferred information the data, metadata, and instructions necessary to automate general communications from the consumer to the provider. For example, data and instructions in the transferred information can be used by the consumer program 22 or other computer programs running on the consumer computer 2 to automatically format, compress, encrypt, address, and transmit multiple copies of a word processing document.

HTML and HTTP Server Program Format

Although any kind of data communications network and any kind of user interface can be used, the system can be constructed to work with existing Internet or World Wide Web protocols for data communications and display. In particular, the provider program and the consumer program can be designed to use HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML) for display and editing. HTML is discussed in Internet Request for Comment No. 1866, which is incorporated herein by reference. The use of HTML allows links to be made to other transmitted information or to other information accessible anywhere on the World Wide Web. Also, HTML forms can be used as an input mechanism. Standard Internet protocols for accessing the Web can also be used for accessing the information in the provider or consumer databases. To do this, the provider program and consumer program are designed to emulate a Web HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server. Then, any Web browser program conforming to the HTML/HTTP standard can generate Uniform Resource Locator (URL) requests to retrieve information from the provider and consumer programs and databases. A Web browser program is a set of instructions which causes the computer to execute information requests to servers, to receive, store and display HTML data from servers in response to requests. Protocols or formats other than HTML/HTTP can be used in the same manner, with an appropriate interface program for requesting, receiving and displaying data in accordance with the selected protocol or format. The operation of the provider and consumer programs in connection with the Web browser program is illustrated in FIG. 2. Since the provider and consumer programs operate identically in this regard, only the operation of the consumer program will be discussed.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the consumer program 22 can be constructed to operate as a state machine in connection with a Web browser program 50. The consumer program 22 generates and outputs a first HTML screen (step 53) to the Web browser. If necessary it also issues an operating system call such as a Windows DDE request or Macintosh AppleEvent to the browser to accept this HTML file. It then waits for an HTTP request from the Web browser program 50. The HTML screen can include information having one or more different types of displayed information, namely, text, graphics, hypertext links, and forms. Text and graphics refers to information which is only viewed by the user. Hypertext links associate specific text characters or graphics display locations with specific URL requests. Forms provide locations for inputting data such as text, numbers, checkboxes, and "radio buttons" to be acted upon. Hyperlinks and forms allow HTML documents to be used for all program operations including menus, editing, reports, and error messages. The Web browser program 50 displays the HTML page received from the consumer program 22 (step 54). The user operates on the displayed page in the same manner as for any information accessed through the Web browser program 50. The user can review the text or graphics, manually input a new URL request into the Web browser's URL input field, chose a hypertext link to automatically generate a URL request, or complete and submit a form. The Web browser program, typically, can also be used to move forward and backward through previously received screens. Each of the user's actions, except reviewing text and graphics, results in a URL request being generated. The URL request is sent to the consumer program 22, acting as a Web server (step 55). The consumer program processes the URL request to determine whether it refers to a document or a method (step 56). If the URL request is for a document, the consumer program generates the new HTML page and sends it to the Web browser program (step 53). If the request is for a method, then the method is executed using any additional data supplied in the URL (step 57). After the method has been executed, the consumer program generates a new HTML page based upon the results of the method.

The user enters information to be operated upon or stored by the consumer program through the use of HTML forms. If the HTML page generated by the consumer program (step 53) includes a form, then the user can enter information in designated locations in the form. When the information has been entered, the form is submitted by selecting a button on the page, and a set of program instructions designated for the form is executed to process the inputted information is processed according to a method designated for the form. Many browser programs can cache HTML documents, so that a user could have several forms open at one time. Since the consumer program works as a state machine, it expects the last form generated to be the next one returned. If the user switches the order of the forms, a state error could occur. To prevent errors, each form produced by the consumer program can be provided with a state version number. If the version number of the returned form does not match the current state of the consumer program, then an error message can be returned rather than processing the forms out of order.

Alternatively, the provider and consumer programs 12, 22 may include separate native interfaces which have many of the functions found in a browser program, as well as the ability to provide additional functionality, such as that available in advance graphical user interfaces like those of Microsoft Windows, Windows 95, and Apple Macintosh operating systems. The provider and consumer programs 12, 22 may also call other Web helper applications or "applets", such as those produced with Sun Microsystem's Java programming language or other programming languages, to provide additional interface functions.

Data Structures

Information can be stored in the provider and consumer databases 11, 21, transferred between the provider and consumer programs 12, 22, and processed by these programs in a variety of ways. The use of software objects and object-oriented databases, and in particular their ability to encapsulate data and methods for operating on that data in a single structure, provide certain degrees of functionality which are useful in the storage, transfer, and processing of information. For example, by using objects for transmission and an object-oriented database for storage, the received object can be stored by the consumer program 22 in its database 21 without having to disconnect and store the object's variables and methods independently. In addition, the data and methods of this object can be made available to other objects in the database or program for processing operations. Object oriented databases, programs and processing are generally discussed in Grady Booch, Object Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications, (2nd ed. 1994) and James Rumbaugh, Object-Oriented Modeling and Design (1991), which are incorporated herein by reference. Thus, the following description of a preferred embodiment will discuss the use of objects. However, other methods for storing, transferring, and processing information, such as relational databases, binary files, and procedural programs, could be used.

As discussed above, the provider computer 1 includes a provider database 11 operated on by provider program 12, and the consumer computer 2 includes a consumer database 21 operated on by consumer program 22 . However, since "provider" and "consumer" are merely functional distinctions, in a preferred embodiment, a single computer and computer program would be able to operate as a provider computer 1 in executing instructions of the provider program 12 and as a consumer computer 2 in executing instructions of the consumer program 22. In this instance, only a single database may be used, if desired, to hold all of the data for transmitted objects and for received objects. The database structures described below could apply to a single database, or to separate databases if the programs operated separately. For ease of reference, in describing operation of the provider program and the consumer program, separate databases will be illustrated.

FIG. 3 illustrates using a standard object-oriented notational format an embodiment of object classes in a single database 100 of the present invention. Each object class includes three parts: an identifier 111, an attribute section 112, and a method section 113. The method section 113 is used to perform operations on the attributes of the class. Class associations are shown with connecting lines. A plain line shows a one-to-one association. A line terminating in a solid dot shows a one-to-many association. A line terminating in a open dot shows a optional (zero or one) association. A diamond at the start of a line shows an aggregation association, i.e. the higher class contains the component classes. Inheritance between classes is shown with a branching line.

Class Overview

There are six principal object classes: communications objects 110, recipients 120, methods 130, pages 131, elements 132, and type definitions 133. Communications objects are the core data structure transmitted from the provider program to the consumer program to control communications between the provider and consumer. Recipients include all the consumers who receive a copy of the communications object via push distribution, or the distribution servers who receive a copy of the communications object for pull distribution. The methods, pages, elements, and type definitions classes exist to define, store, and relate the components necessary to produce an instance of a communications object. Like any software object, a communications object consists of attributes and methods. The type definitions class is used together with the elements and pages classes to specify the attributes of the communications object. The methods class is used to specify the methods of the object.

The Methods 130, Pages 131, Elements 132, and TypeDefinitions 133 classes are all special container classes of the Method 140, Page 141, Elements 142, and TypeDefinition 143 classes. These special container classes are used to facilitate the rendering of an instance of a communications object in the object markup language used for object transmission, as described further below. For this reason the descriptions following will discuss only the Method 140, Page 141, Element 142, and TypeDefinition 143 classes.

Type Definitions

The TypeDefinition class 143 is used to define the various data types which may be used in the elements of a communications object. Type definitions can be of PrimitiveType 154, AggregateType 155, or CompositeType 153. The inheritance tree for the PrimitiveType class is shown in FIG. 4. Primitive types can include the conventional bottom-level data primitives supported by most programming languages, such as dates 181, floating point numbers 182, logicals 184, integers 185, binaries 186, etc. Text 189 is shown as a constrained form of binary 186. Range 188 is a multiplicity of other primitive data types, such as array. As shown in FIG. 3, Aggregate types 155 represent a multiplicity of primitive data types 154, such as an array. Composite types 153 represent a container of primitive types 154 or aggregate types 155 that is useful in a communications context. For instance, a composite type might be PhoneNumber. A composite type 153 is composed of one or more Fields 152 which contain the primitive types 154 or aggregate types 155 included in the composite type. For example, a composite type PhoneNumber may include fields for usage, country code, area code, number, extension, and notes, each with its corresponding primitive types. A Field 152 may also contain another composite type 153. In this way composite types can be nested. For example, a composite type BusinessCard could contain composite types Identity, PhoneNumber, PostalAddress, EMailAddress, and ContactNotes. Composite types are further explained in the discussion of elements below.

Type definitions provide a powerful tool for structuring the data included in a communications object or object update. This data structure provides the common "frame of reference" for providers and consumers to automate communications between them. In addition, this structure allows other software programs to access the data and methods contained in communications objects stored in the consumer database 21 via an Applications Programming Interface (API) in order to automate their own communications operations. The use of an API will be further discussed below.

Elements

"Elements" are the attributes of a communications object. An Element 142 might be a phone number, a postal address, an e-mail address, a text field, etc. As illustrated in FIG. 3, an element has data of a composite type 153 with a corresponding composite value 163. A composite value 163 is composed of field values 162 in the same way a composite type 153 is composed of fields 152. For instance, the field values for the composite value PhoneNumber corresponding to the composite type PhoneNumber described above could be "voice, 10188, 206, 812-6000, x101, Business hours are 9-6 daily M-F". As with fields 152, field values 162 are either an aggregate value 165, primitive value 164 or composite value 163. The value class 161
represents an abstract class inherited by the aggregate value 165, primitive value 164 and composite values 163 classes. Aggregate values 165 represent a multiplicity of primitive data values, such as an array. Primitive values 164 contain the values corresponding to the lowest level primitive types. These are shown in the continuation of the class hierarchy in FIG. 4. Primitive values include date values 171, floating point number values 172, nil values 173, logical values 174, integer values 175, and binary values 176. Text values 179 are shown as a constrained form of binary values 176. Logical values branch into true values 177 and false values 178.

Many elements with defined composite data types and composite values are specifically useful in the context of communications automation. Standard element composite types can include standard types of contact information that might typically be shared between providers and consumers in the context of a communications relationship. These include names, titles, phone numbers, fax numbers, postal addresses, e-mail addresses, URLs, and customer numbers. Nested composite types, such as the business card, allow for powerful combinations of smaller composite types.

Other element composite types are useful for the storage, transmission, and display of communications content between the provider and consumer. These elements include text blocks, graphics, and HTML. HTML elements are especially useful in the preferred embodiment as they can contain standard HTML documents which the consumer program 22 can pass directly, or with minor modifications, to the Web browser 50 for display. This allows the provider to control the appearance of data on all or a portion data being displayed, and also allows the provider to include URL links to the provider's Web server or any other related Web documents. These links can be activated immediately by the consumer when viewing the communications object using the Web browser 50 just as with conventional HTML documents. HTML elements may also include the provider's own HTML forms for acquiring information from the consumer when the object is transferred.

Another important category of element composite types is link elements. Link elements within a communications object are the equivalent of URLs within a Web document. They create associations between different elements of an object, different pages of an object, or different communications objects. A link element can also be a URL, linking the element to any Web page or other resource available on the World Wide Web.

Special element composite types, called preference elements, are used by the consumer program to control communications object processing. Preference elements specify object attributes that are editable by the consumer. For instance, a preference element of a composite type RefreshInterval could govern the polling interval used for object updates using the pull method of updating. An element of type RefreshInterval consists of three fields 152: Minimum, Maximum, and Setting, all of which would be primitive integer values representing days. The Minimum field specifies the minimum refresh interval (to help reduce the load on the provider's Web server), the Maximum field specified the maximum refresh interval (to limit the total time one full object update cycle can take), and the Setting field specifies the interval to be used (the provider's recommended setting would be used by default). The provider would initially fill out these three fields, then the consumer would be able to edit the Setting field within the Minimum and Maximum allowed.

Another example of a preference element is a notification element. Notification elements are used to control how a consumer is notified of new information when the object or an object update is transferred. The format and structure of notification elements are discussed below in connection with the special processing notification elements receive. Any other consumer-editable preference regarding object attributes or method processing can be expressed as an preference element. Preference elements receive special processing by the consumer program 22 and storage in the consumer database 21 which will be further described below.

In addition to the composite type and composite value, each element 142 includes standard attributes such as system ID, name, description, version number, NewFlag, and HoldFlag. Each element in the database has a unique identification number. Identification number assignments throughout the database are discussed below. The name is used as a label for identifying the element to the provider or consumer. The version number is used to coordinate updates each time the element is changed. The NewFlag is set to TRUE each time an element has been changed by a provider so that new information can be efficiently updated when an updated object is transferred to the consumer program. The HoldFlag is used to identify changed elements which are not yet to be distributed. The structure and content of elements may be more fully understood in connection with the description of the notification element type discussed below.

Pages

In order to organize the many elements 142 which can be contained in a communications object 110, one or more container classes may be desired. Container classes allow the grouping of elements for purposes of display, editing, or other program operations. Container classes are also useful for controlling selective distribution, which will be discussed below. Different types of container classes can be implemented, and container classes can contain other container classes. FIG. 5 illustrates the implementation of one primary container class: the Page class 141. A page contains one or more Reference instances 144 which associate Elements 142 with the page. References may contain attributes such as DisplayOrder which control the display order of the elements on the page. Each Element 142 must assigned to at least one page 141 in order to be transmitted with an object, however an element may be included on more than one page 141. Standard page attributes are similar to the standard element attributes, i.e., SystemID, Name, Description, VersionNumber, NewFlag, and HoldFlag.

Methods

The Method class 140 is a form of metadata used to store methods which may be included in a communications object instance when it is transferred to a consumer. These methods should not be confused with the methods belonging to each of the other object classes in the system. A method object is simply a mechanism to store a method in the database for later inclusion in a communications object instance, at which time the method becomes a formal method of the communications object. Communications object methods are one of the most powerful aspects of communications objects. They allow the provider to specify processing instructions which will execute on the consumer's computer when certain conditions exist in the consumer program. For example, when a communications object is first received by the consumer program 22, a "receipt method" may automatically execute to return an acknowledgment message to the provider with information about that consumer transferred from the consumer database 21. Instances of the Method class 140 may implement communications object methods in several ways. The method could simply be a call to execute a system method included in the consumer program 22. The method could be actual instructions included in the object as program code in an executable format or interpretable format, such as a script format. The method may also be a remote procedure call to another application or object located on the consumer's computer or on a communications network accessible from the consumer program where the method can be executed, or from which the method can be downloaded by the consumer program for local execution. The application of communications object methods to automating operations in the consumer program 22 will be further discussed below.

Communications Objects

Communications objects 110 are the highest level data structure because they serve as the container for type definitions, elements, pages, and methods. Each of these is a one-to-many relationship. A type definition 143, element 142, page 141, or method 140 must be assigned to an object 110 in order to be transferred to a consumer, however each type definition, element, page, or method may be included in more than one object 110. Communications objects have many of the same standard attributes as elements, pages, and methods, i.e. SystemID, Name, Description, VersionNumber, NewFlag, and HoldFlag. In addition communications objects also have attributes that apply only to communications objects as a whole. These attributes include the markup language version used to generate instances of the object, the class the communications object belongs to, the objects' age, and the number of published updates to the object.

Recipients

The Recipient class 120 is used to determine the distribution of a communications object. Each communications object 110 is associated with one or more recipients 120 who are to receive an instance of the object when it is first created or when changes are made to it. Recipients are of two types: consumer programs 22, or distribution servers 32. Transfer of communications objects 110 to both types of recipients is typically via the push technique. However recipients may also be tracked here even if they use the pull technique of updating via the use of acknowledgment messages, as described further below. The push method may involve a fully automated transfer via a communications network, or it may involve a manual transfer such as a file copy over a network or via a computer floppy disk. Recipient objects 120 include the attributes necessary to generate and transmit an instance of the communications object to the recipient. To uniquely identify recipients even when names change, a SystemID attribute can used in addition to a Name attribute. SystemIDs are discussed below. Other attributes include the recipient's communications network address, such as an e-mail address, the type of encoding that should be used (e.g. MIME, BinHex, UUencoding, etc.), and the maximum attachment file size (to determine if multiple attachments need to be sent). Recipients 120 have an association with Methods 140 in order to allow different methods to be assigned to different recipients. An example is the communications object's update method. Communications objects transmitted to consumers via e-mail push may use one update method, while those transmitted to distribution servers may use a different update method. Other methods such as encoding methods and transmission methods may also be assigned in this manner.

Recipients 120 also has an aggregate association with acknowledgment 121 and page subscription 122. Acknowledgment 121 has a one-to-one association with communications object 141. Acknowledgment 121 is where consumer acknowledgment of communications object receipt is stored. Acknowledgment messages will be described below. Page subscription 122 is the mechanism by which a provider can control selective distribution by specifying which pages are transferred to a recipient. Alternately, by including in the communications object 110 all instances of Page subscription 122 for all pages 141 contained in the object (but not necessarily transmitted to the consumer), the provider can allow the consumer to choose which pages the consumer wants to receive. Selective distribution is described further below.

Other Classes

Three other classes in the database significantly involved with program operations are Global Preferences 114, Folder 115, and Report 116. Global Preferences 114 provides a means for storing the providers or consumers preferences for general operation of the provider program 12 or consumer program 22. This may include attributes such as the default menu to display upon program startup, the default refresh interval to assign to new objects, the user's preference for notification when new objects arrive, the number of object archive copies the user wishes to keep, and other such preferences. Global Preferences 114 may also include method preferences, such as the notification method to use when new objects are received, the method to use for archiving versions of objects or object components, and the method to use for backing up the database.

Folder 115 is a container class useful for grouping objects, particularly for consumers. Folder groupings allow objects to be referenced simultaneously for analysis, display, sorting, searching, and transmission. Alternatively, although not shown, other container classes can be applied to other classes, such as pages and elements, for similar purposes.

Report 116 is a class for storing report definitions and display or printing preferences. As in many database management systems, reports may be defined by the system or by the user, and can include any listings, statistics, or analysis of value to the user.

System ID and Naming Services

Because communications objects and their component type definitions, elements, pages, and methods are exchanged among multiple providers and consumers, the instances of these objects and components need to be uniquely distinguishable in each provider database 11 and consumer database 21. Name attributes alone cannot be relied upon to guarantee uniqueness. Other unique identification numbering systems could be employed, such as the provider's or consumer's U.S. Social Security numbers, U.S. Federal Employer Identification Numbers, passport numbers, etc. However, in a communications system which may be used globally, not all users may be assigned identifiers under one of these identification systems. A separate global identification system could be employed, such as the domain naming and e-mail addressing system used by the Internet. Although not all Internet users have their own Internet domain names, all of them have unique e-mail addresses. However, since users can and do change e-mail addresses, this would require that their system ID also change. The ideal communications system allows complete separation (or "abstraction" in object-oriented terminology) of a user's communications system ID from any real world names or physical communications network addresses with which the user is associated. In this way, users can change names or physical communications network addresses while maintaining the continuity of their communications relationships. In addition any changes to the user's name or physical communications network address can be automatically propagated by the user's communications object(s) to all the other consumers with whom the user has a communications relationship.

To achieve this objective, the present invention assigns a unique system ID value to each unique communications object and communications object component. This function is the equivalent of an automatically-generated unique key field ID in conventional database management systems.

As shown in FIG. 5, a central system ID server 42 is used to perform this function. This ID server contains a database of system ID assignments 41. The system ID database 41 could also be replicated across a group of ID servers 42 at various nodes of communications network 3 to improve performance as the number of users increases. Upon initial installation, each provider program 12 or consumer program 22 sends a request 44 via the communications network 3 to the ID server 42 for a unique system ID 43. The ID server 42 returns a response 45 to the requesting program. The requesting program then saves the system ID in the provider database 11 or consumer database 21. This system ID 43 is shown in FIG. 3 as the SystemID attribute of the Database class 100. Within the database, the provider and consumer programs 12, 22 can include a function for assigning a separate unique system ID value to each instance of a communications object 110 or any class that will become a component of a communications object. In FIG. 3, these classes include the Method 140, Page 141, Element 142, and TypeDefinition 143 classes. Again, this function is the equivalent of an automatically-automatically-generated unique key field ID in a conventional database management system. Since the provider's system ID 100 is unique for the entire communications system, and since each instance of a communications object system ID 110 or any or any component class system ID is unique within the provider's database, the combination of these system IDs creates a canonical naming system capable of uniquely identifying every communications object instance or object component class instance throughout the communications system.

It is also desirable to be able to assign provider groups within the communications system. Group identifiers allow providers to be classified for purposes of program licensing control, system attribute or method access permissions, object attribute or method access permissions, statistics gathering, or other purposes. For example, each employee of a large corporation who is a communications object provider needs a unique provider system ID, however the corporation needs a group ID to identify those communications objects as part of the corporation. The corporation may further desire to identify employees by subgroups such as division and department. The system ID assignment function can be modified to provide this capability simply by including nested system IDs for each group association within the system ID database 41. The object class model for nested system ID associations is shown in FIG. 6. The system ID database 250 contains any number of unique system IDs 251. Each of these may in turn contain zero, one, or more unique system IDs that function as group IDs as shown in association 255. This nesting of IDs may be as deep as necessary. Each system ID 251 includes a name and description attribute. For top level system IDs this would be the name and description of the provider. For lower-level group IDs this would be the name and description of the group (company, division, department, etc.).

Each system ID 251 also includes a key attribute. This could be a password, encryption key, or any similar value. This value could be used in conjunction with an Authentication method of the system ID 251 to verify that the user applying for the group ID is authorized to be in that group. For example, a corporate administrator could establish a group ID for the corporation. The administrator would receive the initial key for that group ID. The administrator would need to communicate that key to each employee who would supply it in the request 44 (FIG. 5) to be assigned that group ID. Each system ID 251 can also be associated with one or more system ID classifications 193. System ID classifications can be used to establish system-wide groups useful for program licensing, statistics, access permissions, or other purposes.

Since the system ID server 40 is available system-wide, and includes at least one system ID object in the system ID database 41 for each provider, which contains the provider's name, description, and an authentication key, the system ID server 40
is a suitable mechanism to offer both system name directory services and system authentication services. These services are further described below. instance throughout the communications system.

The system ID assignment function can be further improved by using communications objects included with or downloaded by provider and consumer programs 12, 22 to control the access of the provider and consumer programs 12, 22 to the system ID server 42. For example, if a group of system ID servers 42 was employed for performance or loading reasons, a communications object could determine the optimal member of the server group to access. The use of communications objects create automated communications relationships with special method servers is further explained below.

Object Transfer Processes

Besides using HTML as a display protocol, the Internet and World Wide Web also offers suitable protocols for accessing and transferring communications objects. A Web browser program 50 can be used both to retrieve the communications object and display it for viewing and editing to the consumer. The transfer of an object using a Web server 32 is illustrated in FIG. 7. The browser 50 issues a HTTP request 36 to the Web server 32 to receive the communications object markup file 35 which is located on the Web server 32. The HTTP request 36 can result from a URL manually entered by the user or through selection of a URL link from any Web page. Thus, providers who have World Wide Web documents can create links to their communications objects in those documents. A consumer can obtain a communications object simply by using a browser 50 to select the link. The object itself is then transferred as a standard Multimedia Internet Mail Extension (MIME) object type as defined by the Web HTTP protocol, in response to the HTTP request. The MIME type is discussed in Internet Request for Comment Nos. 1521 and 1522, incorporated herein by reference. As with other MIME objects, the browser program 50 determines whether a helper application exists for this type of MIME object. For a MIME type which uniquely identifies communications objects, the browser program 50 transfers the object to the consumer program 22 as the helper application. The transfer to the consumer program 22 principally results in the execution of a set of processing steps. These processing steps include storage of the object in the consumer database 21. The consumer program 22 can also execute other processing steps based upon the version of the object, preference elements, other consumer preferences, and methods in the object. The processes for storing and processing objects is discussed below.

FIG. 8 illustrates transfer of an object through e-mail using the push technique. The browser program 50 is not used for this function. The object may be attached as a MIME object to an e-mail message 38. Other attachment or encoding types may be used, such as BinHex or UUencoding. The object may also be encoded in ASCII into the text of the e-mail message itself. The optimal encoding method for each recipient can be selected and employed automatically by the provider program 12 when included in the Recipients (120, FIG. 3) class. The transmission steps each attachment or encoding type may vary slightly. The transmission steps for a MIME attachment will be described here. The e-mail message is sent in the ordinary manner, using whichever e-mail servers and intermediaries are available (i.e., through the Internet 37), to reach the consumer's e-mail server 31. The consumer's e-mail program 62 retrieves the mail message from its server in the ordinary manner. Depending upon operation of the e-mail program, the attachment may be downloaded for storage in either an internal or external MIME directory 63, 64, or left for storage on the e-mail server 31. The consumer program then periodically polls the MIME directory 65, 66 or the e-mail server 31 to locate objects of a communications object MIME type. If a communications type object is located, it is read from the storage location and processed by the consumer program as described below.

Alternatively, all e-mail from a server can be filtered through the consumer program 22. In this process, the consumer program 22 acts as a proxy server. The e-mail program 62 polls the consumer program 22, as the proxy server, for new mail 68. The consumer program 22, in turn, polls 67 the e-mail server 31. The resulting mail response is filtered for communications objects directly by the consumer program 22 before being transferred to the e-mail program 62.

Provider Program Operation

As described above, the provider program 12 operates as a state machine in generating HTML screens and forms which are displayed by the user's browser program. The provider program 12 is used to create and edit instances in the provider database
11 of the object classes described above. The provider program 12 is also used to publish and distribute instances of communications objects to the consumer program 22 or distribution server 32 through the communications system 3.

FIG. 9 illustrates the relationships between various screens and forms produced and used by the provider program. Upon starting, an HTML page of the main menu 300 screen is generated and displayed. If the browser program 50 (FIG. 2) is not currently operating, the provider program 21 starts the browser program 50 and generates a DDE, OLE, AppleEvent, or similar operating system request to start the browser program 50 and have it display the requested HTML page. The main menu 300 screen lists various menu items which are hyperlinks to other HTML pages containing additional menus or forms. The menus and forms discussed with respect to the provider program 22 or consumer program 21 are merely illustrative of the capabilities of the system. The features and functions of the system can be organized in any order or hierarchy within the screen based menu system. Alternatively, another native interface system could provide a substantially different organization. Additionally, other functions and features can be added by creating other menus or forms and creating hyperlinks on the existing menus or forms to those new screens. Furthermore, in addition to specific menus, various choices can be implemented on toolbars displayed on one or more of these HTML pages. In order to satisfy user preferences, many menus, forms, and toolbars can be editable by the user via preference forms or even direct HTML source editing. Such preferences may allow a different default startup menu screen, different toolbars, different menu choices on any given screen, different screen fonts or backgrounds, or other display or operational preferences.

The first five choices on the main menu 300 allow the user to work with the communications objects, pages, elements, type definitions, and methods stored in the provider database. The provider program is primarily creating, displaying, editing, and reporting on objects in the provider database. Therefore, the menus and forms used by the provider program are similar to a the menuing, browsing, editing, or reporting modes of any conventional database application. Initially, there are no user-defined communications objects, pages, elements, type definitions, or methods. (System-defined communications objects, pages, elements, type definitions, or methods may exist which are not editable by the user). Upon selection of one of the menu choices, a HTTP request is generated to display the requested HTML page. The communications object 320, page 330, element 340, type definition 350, and method 360 forms include similar functions: create, edit, delete, and preview. Although the functions are similar, each menu has links to different HTML forms used for performing the functions on the different types of data (communications object 321-324, page 331-334, element 341-344, type definition 351-354, and method 361-364). In addition to the menu choices, a list of the appropriate class instances from the provider database 11 is displayed in order to select the data to edit, delete, or preview. In one embodiment, hyperlinks or form buttons for editing, deleting, and previewing are associated with each data item in the list. Alternatively, a single link to the edit, delete, or preview forms can be used and the data item is selected from a list when that form is displayed.

The create forms 321, 331, 341, 351, 361 are respectively used to create a new communications object, page, element, type definition, or method instance. A form is displayed having entry locations to input the necessary attribute data and create the desired associations. Association choices can be shown as lists of the associated class instances with checkboxes or input fields for each instance. For example, when a new page is created, the page create form 321 that creates a new instance of a page (141, FIG. 3) would include a list of communications objects (110, FIG. 3) to which the new page can be assigned. It would also include a list of elements (142, FIG. 3) that can be assigned to the page. The display order for these elements could be input as numerical values in input boxes representing each reference (144, FIG. 3).

FIG. 10A shows the processing steps to be taken upon submission of a create form. These steps also apply to submission of an editing form as described below. When a create form is submitted (step 400), the provider program 12 first determines whether the form data is valid (step 401). If it is not the provider program returns an error screen or form with information about the error to the user (step 411). This error screen may include a form for correcting the error, or hyperlinks to other forms where the error can be corrected. Once a form passes the validation test, the provider program then determines whether the form is a create or an edit operation (step 402). For a create operation, the program next assigns the new instance an initial version value (step 403), sets the instance's NewFlag attribute to TRUE (step 404), and saves the instance to the provider database 11 (step 405). The version value is used to compare changed object class instances in the object reception processing. The NewFlag attribute is used to indicate a class instance that requires distribution.

The provider program 12 then calls the container association routine illustrated in FIG. 10B. In this routine, the provider program first gets all associated class instances which contain the newly created class instance (step 431). The program then processes each associated class instance to determine whether it is already identified as a new instance (steps 432, 433). If the associated class instance is not new, the version value is incremented (step 443), the NewFlag is set to TRUE (step
442), and the instance is stored in the provider database 11 (step 441). When an associated class instance becomes new, every contai