Email Synchronization Server for Mobile Conversation Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing email systems face challenges in efficiently synchronizing and managing conversations and categories across mobile devices and email servers, particularly in updating entire conversations without knowing all email messages, and in performing remote searches across multiple categories.
Innovation Solution
An email synchronization server is configured to translate conversation and category IDs from mobile devices into formats usable by email servers, allowing for bi-directional updates and searches, and to synchronize email messages between mobile devices and servers, ensuring that mobile devices only store a subset of messages while the server maintains the full set.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If mobile devices store all email messages locally, then conversation and category management is complete, but device memory is exhausted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an email synchronization server as an intermediary between mobile devices and the full email storage system. The server maintains the complete conversation and category metadata, while mobile devices only store a subset of messages. The server translates between device-specific formats and server formats, enabling devices to access full conversation information without storing all messages locally.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments email storage and management into two parts: (1) full message storage on the email server, and (2) selective message caching on mobile devices. The synchronization server manages the segmentation by tracking which messages are stored where and providing translations between different data formats used by devices and servers.
2Reliability
If the system synchronizes all email messages between devices and server, then data consistency is maintained, but synchronization time and bandwidth are excessive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential synchronization information needed to maintain consistency - specifically conversation IDs, category IDs, and message flags - rather than transferring all message data. The synchronization server processes these condensed identifiers to determine what needs to be synchronized, dramatically reducing the data transfer required while maintaining complete data consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing translation rules and conversation/category mappings between device formats and server formats. This preliminary setup allows rapid synchronization without repeatedly processing and translating entire message sets, reducing synchronization time while maintaining consistency.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the email server stores and manages all conversations and categories, then complete search and update capability is available, but server processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The synchronization server acts as an intermediary that handles format translation and conversation management between mobile devices and the email server. It translates device-specific conversation and category identifiers into server-understandable formats, enabling comprehensive search and update capabilities without requiring the main email server to process every device-specific format conversion.
Solution Approach 2:
The synchronization server provides universal functionality by serving multiple purposes: it synchronizes messages, translates formats, manages conversations, and handles category mappings. This multi-functional approach consolidates processing requirements into a dedicated service layer, reducing the processing burden on the main email server while maintaining complete adaptability.
4Adaptability or versatility
If mobile devices translate all email formats to local formats, then device compatibility is maximized, but device processing resources are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The synchronization server serves as an intermediary that performs format translation between server formats and device formats. Instead of devices translating all formats themselves, the server handles this translation task, providing devices with pre-translated data in their local formats. This significantly reduces device processing resource consumption while maintaining maximum format compatibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates format-specific copies of email data through the synchronization server. The server generates device-specific format versions of conversations and categories, which devices can then process locally without needing to perform complex translation operations. This copying approach maintains compatibility while minimizing device processing requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
An email system may include an email server(s) configured to store email messages in a plurality of mailboxes, where the email messages are organized into different conversations and the conversations are organized into different categories. A plurality of mobile wireless communications devices may each be configured to store email messages from respective mailboxes also organized into the different conversations and the different categories. Each of the mobile wireless communications devices may also associate respective conversation IDs with the different conversations, and associate respective category IDs with the different categories. An email synchronization server(s) may be configured to synchronize email messages between the mobile wireless communications devices and respective mailboxes, translate an email search request in the form of a conversation ID(s) and a category ID(s) from a given mobile wireless communications device, and cooperate with email server(s) to retrieve email messages based upon the translated email search request.