Method and system for address book application programming interface


United States Patent		7257822
Sambhus , ; et al.		August 14, 2007

	*Title*

Method and system for address book application programming interface

	*Abstract*

An address book API according to the present invention includes an abstracted API and one or more address book specific adapters. The abstracted API provides functionalities common to a plurality of address book programs. The abstracted API is abstract enough to readily interface with various address books. Each adapter provides for address book program specific implementation of functionalities.



Inventors:	Sambhus; Mihir (Milpitas, CA), Kavacheri; Sathyanarayanan (Sunnyvale, CA)
Assignee:	Sun Microsystems Inc (Santa Clara, CA)
Appl. No.:	10/823,321
Filed:	April 13, 2004
PCT Pub Date:	August 14, 2007

Current U.S. Class:			719/328 707/10 709/245
Current International Class:			G06F 9/44 (20060101)
Field of Search:			707/10,102,104.1 709/209,245 719/328

	U.S. Patent Documents
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5835089	November 1998	Skarbo et al.
6147773	November 2000	Taylor et al.
6349299	February 2002	Spencer et al.
6973448	December 2005	Monberg et al.
6990672	January 2006	Maguire et al.




Primary Examiner:	Lewis; Cheryl
Attorney, Agent or Firm:	Osha Liang LLP


	*Claims*

What is claimed is: 1. A system comprising: a computer system comprising: a storage device comprising an application programming interface and an adapter; and a processor configured to execute the application programming interface and the adapter; wherein said application programming interface is configured, when executed, to enable communication between an application and said adapter, wherein said application programming interface is configured to provide a common interface for accessing a plurality of address book programs, wherein a first address book program of said plurality of address book programs comprises a first server-dependent application programming interface and a second address book program of said plurality of address book programs comprises a second server-dependent application programming interface; and wherein said adapter is configured, when executed, to enable communication between said application programming interface and one of said plurality of address book programs, wherein said adapter performs at least one address book operation on an address book entry in said first address book program, and wherein said at least one address book operation comprises one selected from a group consisting of fetching said address book entry, modifying said address book entry, adding said address book entry, and deleting said address book entry. 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said application programming interface comprises a first set of programming code generic to said plurality of address book programs. 3. The system according to claim 2, wherein said adapter comprises a second set of programming code specific to said one of said plurality of address book programs. 4. The system according to claim 1, wherein said application programming interface and said adapter are written in a platform independent programming language. 5. The system according to claim 4, wherein said platform independent programing language is Java. 6. The system according to claim 1, wherein said application programming interface and said adapter are substantially lightweight directory access protocol compliant. 7. A computer-readable storage medium containing instructions which when executed cause a computing device to implement a method of communicating between an application and a plurality of address book programs comprising: establishing a session between said application and a first address book program of the plurality of address book programs, wherein an implementation of said session is provided by an adapter for communicating between said application and said first address book program; accessing said first address book program using said adapter; and performing an operation on an address book entry in said first address book program using said adapter, wherein said operation is one selected from a group consisting of fetching said address book entry, modifying said address book entry, adding said address book entry, and deleting said address book entry, wherein an address book application programming interface provides a common interface for access to said plurality of address book programs, wherein said first address book program comprises a first server-dependent application programming interface and a second address book program of said plurality of address book programs comprises a second server-dependent application programming interface. 8. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7, wherein said application programming interface comprises programming code common to the plurality of address books programs. 9. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 8, wherein said adapter comprises programming code dependent from said first address book program. 10. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 9, wherein said plurality of address book programs are lightweight directory access protocol compliant. 11. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7, wherein said application programming interface and said adapter are written in a platform independent programming language. 12. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein said platform independent programming language is Java.


	*Description*

BACKGROUND Referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram of communication between an application and a plurality of address book programs. Typically, the application (e.g., word processor program, e-mail program and the like) is running on a client device and each address book program is provided by a corresponding server. The application includes a server dependent application programming interface (server dependent API) for each address book. Each server dependent API 125, 135, 145 enables the application 105 to access a corresponding address book program 120, 130, 140. Currently, there is no common interface to access address book programs on different servers, such as Sun Microsystems' SunOne, Microsoft's Exchange, Lotus' Notes, and/or the like. If a new address book program is to be accessed by the application, the programming code of the application needs to be modified to add a corresponding new server dependent API. SUMMARY OF INVENTION Embodiments of the invention provide a method and system for use with an address book application programming interface (address book API). In one embodiment, the address book API comprises an abstracted API and one or more address book specific adapters. The abstracted API provides an interface for communication with a plurality of applications (e.g., word processor program, e-mail program and the like). Each adapter provides for communicating with a specific address book program. The abstracted API is abstract enough to readily interface with various address book programs. In one embodiment, the address book API establishes an abstraction of a session generic to all address book programs and then implements the abstraction of the session, specific to an address book program requested by an application. The computer implemented method also includes creating an abstraction of opening a default address book program and implementing the abstraction to open the requested address book program. Thereafter, an abstraction of an operation may be generated. The abstraction of the operation is implemented to perform an operation (e.g., fetch, modify, add, delete and/or the like) on the requested address book program. In another embodiment, the computer implemented method of communication between an application and an address book program includes establishing a session between the application and the address book program, opening the address book program and performing an operation on the address book program. An abstraction of the session is provided by an abstracted API. The implementation of the abstraction may be provided by an address book specific adapter. An abstraction of opening the address book program is provided by the abstracted API. The implementation of the abstraction of opening the address book program is provided by the address book specific adapter. An abstraction of performing the operation is also provided by the abstracted API. The implementation of the abstraction of performing the operation is provided by the address book specific adapter. Other aspects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of communication between an application and a plurality of address books in accordance with the conventional art. FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an exemplary address book application programming interface in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram of a computer implemented method of communication between an application and an address book performed by an address book application programming interface in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of an exemplary computer network for implementing an address book application programming interface in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiment of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention will be described in conjunction with these embodiments, it will be understood that they are not intended to limit the invention to these embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, in the following detailed description of the present invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it is understood that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, a block diagram of an exemplary address book application programming interface (address book API), in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, is shown. The address book API provides the method by which an application program 205 can access one or more address book programs 220, 230, 240. As depicted in FIG. 2, the address book API includes an abstracted application programming interface (abstracted API) 210 and one or more adapters 225, 235, 245. The abstracted API 210 contains programming code, common to each address book program, necessary to establish a session with each address book program, open an address book program and perform various operations (e.g., fetch, add, modify, delete and/or the like) thereon. Each adapter 225, 235, 245 contains programming code, specific to a corresponding address book program, necessary to establish a session with the corresponding address book program, open the address book program and perform various operations (e.g., fetch, add, modify, delete and/or the like) thereon. In one implementation, the abstracted API 210 and adapters 225, 235, 245 are written in a platform independent programming language (e.g., Java) and are Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) complaint. One skilled in the art can appreciate that the abstracted API and adapters could be compliant to a protocol for a particular type of address book program, e.g., Microsoft Exchange Address Book protocol, Lotus Notes Address Book protocol, SunOne Address Book protocol, etc. In one embodiment, the abstracted API 210 provides minimal implementation. The abstracted API 210 is predominantly an interface with implementation specific code delegated to the adapters 225, 235, 245. The abstracted API 210 is address book program independent. The adapters 225, 235, 245 are plug-able programming routines. Thus, the abstracted API 210 (and the application 105) does not need to be re-coded to support a new address book program. Instead, an adapter providing address book program dependent functionality for the new address book program is coded and plugged-in. Referring now to FIG. 3, a flow diagram of a computer implemented method of communicating between an application and an address book program performed by an address book application programming interface (address book API), in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, is shown. As depicted in FIG. 3, the method of communication begins with establishing an abstraction of a session, at 310. The abstracted session is generic to a plurality of address book programs. At 320, the abstraction of the session is implemented. The abstraction of the session is implemented specific to a particular address book program requested by the application. In one embodiment of the invention, the session includes connecting and authenticating by passing one or more configuration properties (e.g., host, port, user, etc.) associated with the particular session to an address book session (ABSession). The ABSession passes the service specific properties and the store object to the address book store (ABStore). The ABStore also passes a store connect to the address book being accessed. The ABStore creates and returns an adapter specific store object based on the services being accessed. In response, the ABSession calls the ABStore to authenticate the user. The ABStore returns to the application notification that the connection has been established and the user has been authenticated or that the attempt to establish a connection has failed. The ABSession is an entry point into the abstracted API. The ABSession returns an instance of the session object. The session object is a container class that encapsulates the service specific properties and the store object. The required and optional properties (e.g., user name, user password, admin domain, admin password, base domain and/or the like) are defined by the individual adapters. The session object creates and returns an adapter specific store object based on the services being accessed. The ABStore abstract class represents an address book connection per user that encapsulates the authentication related methods (e.g., connect, disconnect, is connected and/or the like). At 330, an abstraction of opening an address book program is created. The abstraction of opening the address book is generic to the plurality of address book programs. At 340, the abstraction of opening the address book program is implemented. The abstraction of opening the address book program is implemented specific to the particular address book program requested by the application. In one embodiment of the invention, the ABStore also includes commands to open a default address book program. The ABStore stores a reference to the address book session object which instantiated it, so as to get access to the properties store in the session object. At 350, an abstraction of an operation on the address book is generated. The abstraction of the operation is generic to the plurality of address book programs. At 360, the abstraction of the operation on the address book program is implemented. The abstraction of the operation is implemented specific to the particular address book program requested by the application. The operation may include a fetch, addition, modification, deletion of the address book contacts, groups, or distribution lists, or the like. In one implementation, the AddressBook abstracted class represents an address book of a user. The commands of the AddressBook abstracted class may include fetch, add, delete, modify and/or the like, of address book entries, groups, distribution lists and/or the like. The AddressBook abstracted class is identified by an address book identifier stored in the session object. The implementation of the AddressBook abstracted class is provided by the adapters. The Elements class forms the super class of Entry and Group classes and may contain all the attributes common to both. The Elements class contains a property called elementType, which defines whether the Element object created is an Entry, a Group or the like. The values for elementType are: Element.ENTRY; Element.GROUP; Element.ALL; and Element.UNSPECIFIED. It also contains a properties hashmap for use by the adapters in storing and retrieving any extra name-value pairs specific to the backend service. The Entry class extends from the Elements class. The Entry class defines the elementType to be Element.ENTRY. This class encapsulates the attributes associated with an Address Book entry (e.g., first name (fn), last name (ln), hp, fp, pp, mp, em and/or the like). The Entry class contains a comprehensive list of attributes for the services. The Entry object is passed on to the methods in the ABStore like add, modify, delete fetch and/or the like. The Group class extends from the Elements class. The Group class defines the elementType to be Element.GROUP. The Group object is passed on to the methods in the ABStore, such as add, rename, delete, fetch and/or the like. The ABFilter class specifies the search and sort filters to be applied for the address book fetch command. The search parameters are defined in the ABSearchTerm objects. The methods included are setting the searchTerm object, which contains the attributes to search the address book on, setting the group to search in, setting the sort fields and order of sort, and/or the like. The ABSearchTerm abstract class specifies a single search term or a combination of search terms. The base search term is of the form of a name value pair (e.g., "1=doe"). It also stores the boolean `exact` which indicates whether the search should be an exact or a contained search. The search term is converted into an adapter specific search filter by the abstracted method ABSearchTerm.compute. The implementation of the computer method recurses through the search terms and gets a final search filter. An exemplary communication between an application and an address book program is illustrated in Table 1. TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 // Define the service of type ldap, based on the properties set in the // channel and pass the relevant attributes to the factory String service = "com.sun.portal.ab.ldap.LdapABStore"; Properties props = new Properties( ); props.put("ab.host", "iwps.red.iplanet.com"); props.put("ab.port", "389"); . . . . . . //Also put the user name and password in the Props object props.put("ab.username", "b"); ABSession session = null; ABStore store = null; AddressBood ab = null; // Get the Session object try { session = ABSession.getInstance(props); // Get the adapter specific store object store = session.getABStore(service); // Try connecting the store object to the backend service store.connect( ); // Get the default Address book object from the store ab = store.openAddressBook( ); } catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("Could not make a connection to the address book"); } // Do operations on the Address book e.g., fetch // Define an entry object with the fields to search on // Define search terms ..search on something like ((ln