Alert Engine Transforming SMTP to SMS and WAP
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing alert systems fail to deliver notifications in the preferred communication format and protocol chosen by the user, often requiring input in a specific format and lacking access to user profiles for personalized delivery.
Innovation Solution
An alert engine module transforms alerts from a generic communications format, such as SMTP, into preferred formats like SMS, WAP, or email, based on user preferences and device types, ensuring delivery through appropriate gateways to mobile devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If an alert system delivers notifications in a fixed generic format (e.g., SMTP only), then the system complexity is reduced and implementation is simpler, but the user cannot receive notifications in their preferred communication format (SMS, WAP, email, etc.)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an alert engine as an intermediary component that receives notifications in a generic format and transforms them into user-preferred formats. The alert engine acts as a mediator between the notification source and the user's device, converting SMTP notifications into SMS, WAP, or email formats based on user profile information stored in the system. This resolves the contradiction by adding format adaptability through the intermediary transformation process while keeping the core notification system relatively simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the format parameter of notifications based on user preferences stored in user profiles. The alert engine retrieves the user's preferred communication format from their profile and transforms the notification accordingly. This allows the same notification content to be delivered in different formats (SMS, WAP, email) by changing only the delivery format parameter, thus achieving adaptability without requiring multiple separate notification systems.
2Reliability
If the alert system requires manual configuration for each user's preferred format and device parameters, then delivery precision is improved, but the ease of operation deteriorates as users must manually input complex parameters
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-configuring user profiles with preferred notification formats and device parameters before actual notification delivery. During user setup, the system stores the user's preferred communication format (SMS, WAP, email) and relevant device parameters in a user profile database. When a notification needs to be delivered, the alert engine automatically retrieves these pre-configured settings from the user profile, eliminating the need for manual parameter input during each notification event and ensuring reliable delivery to the correct device.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the system stores detailed user profile information for format transformation, then the adaptability to user preferences is improved, but the device complexity increases due to additional storage and processing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts user profile information and preferred format settings from the notification delivery process and stores them separately in a user profile database. The alert engine retrieves only the necessary format preference data from the user profile when transforming notifications, rather than storing and processing all possible user information. This extraction approach allows the system to maintain adaptability to user preferences while keeping the overall system structure relatively simple by separating profile management from the core notification delivery function.
Data Source
AI summary
An alert engine module receives an alert for an event in a generic communications format and delivers an alert for the event to a target address in a communications format that is preferred by a user based on the alert content. The generic format can be an e-mail message, such as a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) message. The alert engine can be operative to transform the alert based on a header and/or format of a target address.