Location API for Email Calendaring Services
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current email and calendaring software underutilizes the location field, limiting the ability to provide enhanced location-based functionality, which hinders accurate and efficient scheduling and meeting organization, particularly on mobile devices.
Innovation Solution
An API for email and calendaring web services is developed to enable client applications to search and retrieve location-related data, including geo-coordinates, addresses, and business information, allowing for enhanced location fields in meeting items and reducing ambiguity in scheduling requests.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the location field in calendaring software is enhanced with additional functionality, then the quality of location information and scheduling accuracy is improved, but the system complexity and implementation difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary location web service that acts as a mediator between the calendaring system and location data sources. This service handles the complexity of location data retrieval, validation, and management externally, allowing the core calendaring system to remain relatively simple while still providing enhanced location functionality through API integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The location web service is designed as a universal platform that can serve multiple functions: retrieving location data, validating addresses, providing geo-coordinates, and supporting various client applications. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate systems, reducing overall complexity while improving location information quality.
2Ease of operation
If location data retrieval functionality is added to client applications, then the ease of data entry and user experience is improved, but the device complexity and development requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The location web service enables client applications to perform self-service location data retrieval through standardized APIs. Applications can independently query location information, validate addresses, and obtain geo-coordinates without requiring complex integrated systems or manual configuration, thereby simplifying the client application structure while improving data entry ease.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual location data entry and validation mechanisms with automated web service API calls. This substitution eliminates the need for complex client-side location management code and manual data processing, reducing application complexity while enhancing user experience through automated location retrieval.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the email and calendaring server is extended to support enhanced location functionality, then the location field utility is improved, but the manufacturing complexity and deployment difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts location functionality from the core email and calendaring server into a separate, dedicated location web service. This extraction allows the main server to remain relatively simple and easier to deploy, while the specialized location service handles the complexity of location data management, providing enhanced functionality without significantly complicating the primary system deployment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system is segmented into distinct components: the core email/calendaring server and the separate location web service. This segmentation allows independent development, testing, and deployment of each component, reducing the overall deployment complexity while enabling enhanced location field functionality through the specialized location service.
Data Source
AI summary
An application programming interface (API) method for providing location related search capability to clients of an email and calendaring service is disclosed. In response to a request message from a client, a find place method defined in an API provided by an API service is invoked. The find place method parses the request message for parameters such as a query string or source-related identifier indicating a place name or address of a location to be searched, the culture/format for the search and results, a maximum number of results to be provided, the source of the location to search, and geo-coordinates of the place and/or the user. The parameters are used to query specified source(s). The results of the search are filtered and formatted to provide location information to the client.