Title of Invention

METHOD FOR PROVIDING NEXT PROBABLE LOGIN AND THE PRESENCE INFORMATION OF AN OFFLINE USER IN AN INSTANT MESSAGING SYSTEM

Abstract

The invention unveils a method for obtaining the presence information of a publisher in instant messaging technology even if he is offline and to allows the publisher to decide the presence attributes that should be available during offline to other users. The system for obtains the login information of publishers, especially of the users who are currently offline and permits the watcher to know the presence information of the other publisher who is offline, including information about the next probable login. This method allows only authorized contacts of the user to access the user attributes those allowed by the publisher during offline, like contact information, preferred contact methods (phone/SMS/email), favourite links, and aliases. The login information comprises the next probable login of the user.

Full Text

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY This invention relates in general to the field of mobile communication technology and in particular to the field of Messaging technology that utilizes Presence service. More particularly, this invention applies to technologies like Messaging and Presence Service (IMPS), SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) based Instant Messaging (SIMPLE - SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions), SIP based Push to Talk Over Cellular (PoC) where user's presence is the key factor in communication. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART The presence of users is the vital factor in the Instant Messaging because the user who initiates the communication wish to send an Instant Message (IM) based on the recipient's user presence status i.e. when the recipient user is online. However certain presence information is more useful when the other user is Offline rather than when he/she is Online. Currently it is possible for the IM users (say 'watchers') to access the presence information other online users (say 'publishers') from their IM client machines. Presence information of publishers, who are online, is available only to the authorized watchers and it is only a mind guess for the watcher to know the next probable login information of the publisher who is offline. There is no such "Next Login" presence information defined either in IMPS or in SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) In order to perform various operations in IM technology, including that related to presence information, a user has to login successfully. It also implies that the user has to subscribe the service and be authorized to know the presence information of other users. The presence information can consist of various presence attributes like User Availability, Location etc. Figure 1 shows the operation of getting the presence information of a publisher who is Online / Offline. The operation for Figure 1 is explained below with an example. Both Harry and Sara can act as publishers as well as watchers. In this instance we consider Harry is the authorized watcher and Sara is the publisher. 1. Harry logs into IM server 2. IM Server confirms back to Harry 3. Harry tries to get the presence information of Sara 4. Harry is notified that Sara is offline 5. Harry may wait till Sara logs in (Harry is not aware when Sara may login next time) 6. Sara logs into IM server 7. IM Server confirms back to Sara 8. Sara's client publishes the presence information to IM server. 9. The IM server replies with the status message. 10. IM server notifies authorized watcher Harry, the updated presence information. 11. Harry's client responds with the status to IM server From the above example it is clear that the watcher receives the presence update notifications only when the publisher is Online. If the presence information is requested from a publisher who is Offline, the requested watcher receives the presence information as Offline. Also if the publisher is Offline, it is not possible for the watcher to know when the publisher may login next time and hence resulting in wastage of users time & effort. It is also to be noted that the system is not flexible to allow the publisher to specify what presence information should be available to the watchers when the publisher is offline. Based on the foregoing limitations in the prior art there is a need for an efficient method that can be applied to Instant Messaging technology so that the system would allow the watcher to know the presence information of the other publisher who is offline, including information about the next probable login. The system thus enables both IM users to communicate all relevant information at their convenience. The publisher decides on what presence details should be made available to watchers while he is offline. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The primary object of the present invention is therefore to provide a method for obtaining the presence information of a publisher in messaging technology even if he is offline and to allow the publisher to decide the presence attributes that should be available during offline to other users. It is another object of the invention to provide a system for obtaining the login information of publishers, especially of the users who are currently offline, where the system allows the watcher to know the presence information of the other publisher who is offline, including information about the next probable login. It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method wherein the publishing client allows publishers to specify the presence information that may be available when he is offline and thus permitting the authorized watchers to obtain the presence information of the publisher's offline. In abstract, the invention describes a system that can be applied to Instant Messaging technology and adds two useful features into an instant messaging service. 1. The first feature allows authorized contacts of a user of the instant messaging service, to obtain relevant information about the user, irrespective of whether the user is logged onto the instant messaging service or not. The relevant information can be such as contact information, preferred contact methods, favorite links and aliases. The publisher decides on what is relevant presence information that should be available even if he is offline. 2. The second feature of the invention allows authorized contacts of a user of an instant messaging service, to get login information of the publisher. The login information comprises the next probable login of the user. The publisher provides the information regarding the next probable login to the server. This feature allows the authorized contacts, to be aware of the next login of the user. Further, this feature would make more meaningful to the watchers when the publisher is not logged onto the instant messaging service. Accordingly, the present invention comprises a method for providing relevant presence information of an offline user to other authorized users in a messaging system using an instant messaging server, the method comprising the steps of: a) capturing the updated login information with the next probable login time and permission to other users from the first user (publisher) before the said user logs out; b) providing the relevant presence information of the said first user to the second user (watcher) on request made after logging in and only after verifying that the said second user is authorized by the first user to access the said information; and c) conferring the instant message facility when both the users come online based on the above said information. The relevant presence information, that a publisher can specify are preferred mode of communication, contact information, next probable login information, but are not limited to the above. other advantages and features of the invention will become more clearly apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the invention given as non-restrictive example only and represented in the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPAYNING DRAWINGS Figure 1 illustrates the related art method for getting the presence information of publisher who is Online / Offline. Figure 2 illustrates the invention for getting the presence information of a user who is Online / Offline including the next probable login information in IMPS technology. Figure 3 illustrates the invention for getting the presence information of a user who is Online / Offline including next probable login presence information in SIMPLE technology. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood however that the disclosed embodiment is merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. The following description and drawings are not to be construed as limiting the invention and numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, as the basis for the claims and as a basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the invention. However in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail. As mentioned already the present invention relates to the addition of two useful features into an instant messaging service. The first feature allows authorized buddies/contacts of a user of the instant messaging service, to obtain relevant information about the user. The above information is available irrespective of whether the user is logged onto the instant messaging service or not. This information can be in the form of attributes of the user such as contact information, preferred contact methods, favourite links and aliases. This feature allows only authorized contacts of the user to access the user attributes like contact information, preferred contact methods (phone/SMS/email), favourite links, and aliases. The publisher has the choice of specifying the presence attributes that should be available during offline. The second feature of the invention allows authorized contacts of the user of an instant messaging service, to get login information of the user. The login information comprises the next probable login of the user. The user provides the information regarding the next probable login. This feature allows the authorized contacts of the user to make an intelligent guess about the next login of the user. Further, this feature would be available even when the user is not logged onto the instant messaging service In order to achieve the objectives, entities of the system will have to perform the following additional functionality. For achieving the first feature mentioned above: 1. The publishing user client shall specify the presence information that should be visible to the authorized users even when he is offline. 2. The IM Server shall make the presence information, only those specified by the publisher, visible to the authorized users even when the publisher is offline. For achieving the second feature mentioned above 1. The Recipient client provides publisher to update his next probable login. 2. The IM server to provide only the relevant presence information to the authorized users even when the publisher is currently not logged in. , Now the operation of the invention is detailed with the implementation details in IMPS technology and SIMPLE technology. IMPS technology (Refer to Fig 2) A presence attribute in general contains presence information intended for the user. In order to facilitate the next probable login information, it is required to introduce new presence attribute as described below. Table 1 - NextLogin presence attribute * The column 'Suggested' is provided to guide manufactures to provide support for a minimal common set of attributes. This indicates the next probable login of the publisher and the attribute points to the next time the publisher is most likely to be available for telephony or messaging. An example use this case is described below. Let us assume that user goes to some place where network coverage is not present. Since user may know how long he may be out of coverage, he can specify the approximate date and time at which he is most likely to login back to IM server. This will help other users to login around the same time in order to start conversation, enhancing the user experience for both the sides. A client originated presence attribute is one that has its value field filled in by the publishing client. In the case of NextLogin presence attribute, the value is supplied by the publishing client. Here the originator is client application and there is no network support needed. Defined information elements are: Date and Time format These parameters are expressed as a string; the format follows the ISO8601 specification. The date and time format used shall be the complete date and time using the basic format. There shall be no time-zone indications, but the time may indicate if the time is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or local time. Examples are: 20011019T125031 for local time, and 20011019T095031Z for UTC time. The necessary details are as follows 1.1. The PresenceSubList is extended with NextLogin: 1.2. Namespace definition: The namespace definition is extended with the following element Where 1.3. Example ofNextLogin presence information: xinlns="http://www.openmobilealliance.org/DTD/WV-PAl.2"> T 20051019T125031 1.4. XML Binding Example for PresenceNotification-Request primitive which includes the changes required to facilitate NextLogin information: xmlns="http://www.openmobilealliance.org/DTD/WV-CSPl.2"> Inband im.user.com#48815@server,com Request I]yiApp01#1234 6@SAM8 00 wv:[email protected] TT T CALL+35804123123OPENHoine Phone10 SMS+35804123123OPENHome Messaging20 T http://www.foo,com/MyCard T 20051019T125031 F In order to facilitate the publisher to specify the presence information that can be available to authorized users even if he is offline, the UpdatePresenceRequest method needs to be modified. 1.5. Each presence attribute will require additional element wherein the publisher can specify if that presence attribute needs to be displayed during offline or not. The new element is termed as OfflineDisplay Defined information elements are: Inforrnation-■■■ ■ OfflineDisplay Format Boolean Following values: T - The Value part of the attribute can be displayed during offline F - The Value part of the attribute should not be displayed during offline. The offline display of the Value field of an attribute Table 3 - Structure of OfflineDisplay element 1.6. XML Binding Example for UpdatePresence-Request primitive: xmlns="http://www.openmobilealliance.org/DTD/WV-CSPI.2"> Inband im.user.com#488150server.com RequestIMApp01#12345@SAM800 T 20051019T125031T THAPP7F The transaction flow as per the Figure-2 can be described as below using a session between Harry and Sara as illustration: Both Harry and Sara can act as publishers as well as watchers. In this instance we consider Harry is the authorized watcher and Sara is the publisher. 1. Sara logs into IM server 2. IM server confirms back to Sara 3. Sara updates her Login information with the next probable login time just before logout. The structure for the Nextlogin presence attribute is as shown in Table 2 above. Sara's client uses UpdatePresenceRequestio update the Nextlogin presence attribute with the PresenceSubList consisting the child element Nextlogin. Also in the same method Sara is allowed to specify if this presence should be made available when she is offline, in the element OfflineDisplay. The structure of OfflineDsiplay shown in Table 3. 4. IM server confirms back to Sara 5. Sara requests for logout 6. IM server confirms back to Sara 7. Sara is now logged out 8. Harry logs into IM server 9. IM server confirms back to Harry 10. Harry requests for Sara's relevant presence information 11. IM server responds with the available presence information though Sara is offline because Sara has allowed authorized watchers to view even if she is offline. Harry receives the Nextlogin presence information in the PresenceNotificationRequest method as shown in the example section 1.4 above. 12. Harry requests for logout 13. IM server confirms back to Harry 14. Since Harry could access relevant information like preferred mode of communication, contacts, login information, he may decide to contact Sara immediately either through preferred mode of communication or Harry may login again at the same time when Sara is expected to log in. Harry received Sara's Nextlogin presence information in the method PresenceNotificationRequest as shown in example section 1.6 above. 15. Sara logs into IM server 16. IM server confirms back to Sara 17. Harry logs into IM server 18. IM server confirms back to Harry 19. Harry is happy to see Sara is online and Sends an IM 20. IM server confirms back to Harry 21. IM is delivered to Sara 22. Sara's IM client acknowledges to IM server Publishing IM client allows the users to specify the relevant presence information that has to be available to the watchers even if they are offline. IM server should allow the authorized watchers to access relevant presence information of the users who are not online apart from allowing of the users who are online. If supported by the IM server, the IM client can access that relevant presence information at anytime. It is more appropriate to allow accessing such presence information when a user is offline than when a user is online. Thereby it increases the flexibility in the mode of communication and also gives good user experience for all the communicating users. If not supported the behaviour of the IM server and client remains unchanged. If it is supported by the IM system, next login information is specified by the publisher through his IM client. Usually the publisher updates the next probable login information on the server before he logs out. The next login information is stored on the IM server as presence information and is accessible by watcher. Next login infomnation access is allowed only to the authorized users, as in the case of any other presence attributes. The other IM users can access login presence information of a publisher who is Offline, which is more appropriate. The methods used to perform various operations over presence information such as SubscribePresenceRequest, PresenceAuthRequest, PresenceAuthUser, UpdatePresence, PresenceNotification Request, GetPresence, GetAttributeListRequ est, GetAttributeListResponse, GetReactiveAuthStatusRequest, GetReactiveAuthSt atusResponse, UnsubscribePresenceRequest and CreateAttributeListRequestwW use Nextlogin as one of the PresenceAttributes child element. In order to allow accessing of presence information of an offline user, the IM system needs to fulfill the following requirements: 2. IM publishing client allows specifying the presence information that the publisher wants it to be available to the authorized watchers even if he is offline. 3. IM server allows and provides the presence information to the authorized watchers, of a publisher who may be offline. Similarly in order to present login information to other users, the IM system should have the following flexibility. 1. IM publishing client allows the user to specify the probable time at which the user may login next time. 2. IM watcher client allows obtaining next probable login time as a presence information. 3. IM server provides other authorized watchers to access login information even when the publisher is offline. SIMPLE technology: (Refer to Fig 3) Nextlogin will be one of the new presence data elements in the tuple that has to be defined in the namespace as an extension to be used by the SIMPLE technology. As is generally the case in XML with namespaces, the xmlns attribute can be used on any element in the presence information to define a namespace associated with a namespace prefix. 17. The following instance document uses a hypothetical 'pidf:im' XML namespace as an example of the sort of status extension that might be developed for default PIDF. New element nextlogin is a child element to status element within a tuple element as shown below. open 2005-01-27T15:00:0Z im:[email protected]No network coverage here2005-01-18T16:49:29Z In order to facilitate the publisher to specify the presence information that can be available to authorized users even if he is offline a new element called "offlinedisplay" has to be introduced. The new element "offlinedisplay" may be introduced at two different levels as shown in example below. 1.8. The following instances use hypothetical 'pidf:im' XML namespace as an example of the sort of status extension that might be developed for PIDF. 18.1 The is introduced as a child element of element open 2005-01-27T15:00:0Z T im:[email protected]No network coverage here2005-01-18T16:49:29Z 1.8.2. Another way is to introduce as a child element of element that is extending the default namespace with the new element open 2005-01-27T15:00:0Z im:[email protected] No network coverage here2005-01-18T16:49:29ZT The Nextlogin presence information introduced in SIMPLE technology is applicable in general for IM, PoC (Push to Talk Over Cellular) etc. The illustration explained below considers IM as an example. Both Harry and Sara can act as publishers as well as watchers. The transaction flow as per the Figure-3 can be described as below using a session between Harry and Sara as illustration, where Sara is a publisher and Harry is a watcher: 1. Sara registers to IM server 2. IM server confirms back to Sara 3. Sara updates her Login information presence with the next probable login time, just before logout. The next login presence information structure passed in the PUBLISH method is as defined in section 1.7 above. Sara allows Harry to watch this presence even when she is offline. This is possible with the PUBLISH method with the XML payload as shown in the example section 1.8.1 and 1.8.2 above. 4. IM server confirms back to Sara 5. Sara requests for de-register 6. IM server confirms back to Sara 7. Sara is now not registered 8. Harry registers to IM sen/er 9. IM server confirms back to Harry 10. Harry fetches Sara's nextlogin presence information 11. IM server notifies the nextlogin presence information though Sara is offline because Sara has allowed authorized watchers to view even if she is offline. 12. Harry requests for de-register 13. IM server confirms back to Harry 14. Since Harry could access nextlogin information, he may decide to contact Sara by registering again at the same time when Sara is expected to register. 15. Sara registers to IM server 16. IM server confirms back to Sara 17. Harry registers to IM server 18. IM server confirms back to Harry 19. Harry is happy to see Sara is online and Sends an IM using SIMPLE MESSAGE method 20. IM server confirms back to Harry 21. IM is delivered to Sara 22. Sara's IM client acknowledges to IM server Publishing IM client will allow the users to specify the relevant presence information that has to available to the watchers even if they are offline. IM server should allow the authorized watchers to access relevant presence information of the users who are not online apart from allowing of the users who are online. If supported by the IM server, the IM client can access that relevant presence information at anytime. It is more appropriate to allow accessing such presence information when a user is offline than when a user is online. Thereby increases the flexibility in the mode of communication and also gives good user experience for all the communicating users. If not supported the behaviour of the IM server and client remains unchanged. If supported by the IM system, next login information is specified by the user through his IM client. The IM user updates the next probable login information on the server before he logs out. The next login information is stored on the IM server as presence information and is accessible by other users. Next login information access is allowed only to the authorized users, as in the case of any other presence attributes. The other IM users can access login presence information irrespective of a user who is Offline, which is more appropriate. The methods used to perform various operations over presence information such as Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Poll, Fetch, Notify, Publish, will consist, nextlogin as one of the elements in the tuple. In order to allow accessing of presence information of an offline user, the IM system needs to meet the following. 1. IM publishing client allows specifying the presence information that the publisher wants it to be available to the authorized watchers even if he is offline. 2. IM server allows and provides the presence information to the authorized watchers, of a publisher who may be offline. Similarly in order to present login information to other users, the IM system satisfies the following. 1. IM publishing client allows the user to specify the probable time at which the user may login next time. 2. IM watcher client allows obtaining login information (includes next probable login time) as a presence attribute. 3. IM server provides other authorized users to access login information even when the user is offline. In effect the invention possesses the following advantages and attraction. • In an instant messaging service, user attributes such as contact information, preferred contact methods, favourite links, and aliases, are made available to contacts of a user. These attributes are available irrespective of whether the user is logged onto the instant messaging service or not. • In an instant messaging service, the next probable login of a user is made available to contacts of the user. This information is available even when the user is not logged onto the instant messaging service. • In an instant messaging service, the user attributes and the information regarding the probable next login, as described above, are available only to authorized contacts of the user. It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that other control methods can be derived from the combinations of the various methods and apparatuses of the present invention as taught by the description and the accompanying drawings and these shall also be considered within the scope of the present invention. Further, description of such combinations and variations is therefore omitted above. It should also be noted that the host for storing the applications include but not limited to a computer, mobile communication device, mobile server or a muiti function device. Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications are possible and are apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims unless they depart there from. WE CLAIM 1. A method for providing relevant presence information of an offline user to other authorized users in a messaging system on the instant messaging server, the method comprising the steps of: a) capturing the updated next probable login time and permission to other users from the first user (publisher) before the said user logs out; b) capturing the permissions for presence information that should be available during the first user (publisher) is offline. c) providing the updated login information of the said first user to the second user (watcher) on request made after logging in and only after verifying that the said second user is authorized by the first user to access the said information; and 2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the client machine of the first user can specify relevant presence information includes preferred mode of communication, contact information next probable login information and not limited to these, which should be available to authorized second users during the first user being offline. 3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said login information of the said first user is specified by the client machine of the first user. 4. The method as claimed in claims 1-3 wherein the instant messaging technology is IMPS (Instant Messaging and Presence Service) 5. The method as claimed in claims 1-3 wherein the instant messaging technology is SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions). 6. A system for providing relevant presence information of an offline user to other authorized users in messaging in accordance with claim 1. 7. A method for providing relevant presence information of an offline user to other authorized users in a messaging system using a messaging server, substantially as herein above described and illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

1437-CHE-2004 AMENDED PAGES OF SPECIFICATION 10-12-2012.pdf

1437-CHE-2004 CORRESPONDENCE OTHERS. 10-12-2012.pdf

1437-CHE-2004 FORM-1. 10-12-2012.pdf

1437-CHE-2004 FORM-13 19-06-2006.pdf

1437-CHE-2004 OTHER PATENT DOCUMENT 10-12-2012.pdf

1437-CHE-2004 AMENDED CLAIMS 07-06-2012.pdf

1437-CHE-2004 AMENDED PAGES OF SPECIFICATION 07-06-2012.pdf

1437-CHE-2004 EXAMINATION REPORT REPLY RECEIVED 07-06-2012.pdf

1437-CHE-2004 FORM-1 07-06-2012.pdf

1437-CHE-2004 POWER OF ATTORNEY 07-06-2012.pdf

1437-che-2004-abstract.pdf

1437-che-2004-claims.pdf

1437-che-2004-correspondnece-others.pdf

1437-che-2004-description(complete).pdf

1437-che-2004-description(provisional).pdf

1437-che-2004-drawings.pdf

1437-che-2004-form 1.pdf

1437-che-2004-form 13.pdf

1437-che-2004-form 5.pdf