Mail Client Caching Pre-Send Validation for Delivery Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic mail systems often fail to deliver messages due to issues such as large message sizes, full recipient mailboxes, or unintended recipient lists, leading to embarrassing or costly mistakes that are only discovered after sending.
Innovation Solution
A mail client program that caches and exposes 'mail tips' to the sender during message composition, providing information on potential delivery issues, such as mailbox full status, maximum message size, and out-of-office recipients, allowing the sender to adjust or cancel the message before sending.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If e-mail messages are sent without pre-send validation, then sending speed is fast, but delivery reliability is poor
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs pre-send validation actions before the e-mail is actually sent. The mail client retrieves and caches delivery condition information (mailbox capacity, message size limits, recipient status) in advance, and validates the message against these conditions during composition, allowing senders to correct issues before sending and ensuring reliable delivery without delaying the actual transmission.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback to the sender during message composition by displaying mail tips that indicate delivery conditions and potential issues. This feedback mechanism allows senders to adjust their messages based on real-time information about recipient mailbox status, message size constraints, and other delivery factors, improving delivery reliability while maintaining efficient sending processes.
2Loss of information
If mail tips are retrieved from server for every message composition, then information accuracy is high, but system response time is slow
Solution Approach 1:
The mail client performs preliminary actions by retrieving and caching mail tip information from the server in advance, before the user actually needs to compose a message. This cached information is then reused during message composition, providing accurate delivery condition information without requiring real-time server queries, thus maintaining information accuracy while significantly improving system response time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates copies of the mail tip information by caching it locally on the client machine. Instead of repeatedly querying the server for the same delivery condition data, the client uses local copies of this information during message composition, reducing network traffic and server load while maintaining data accuracy and improving response performance.
3Reliability
If pre-send validation is performed, then delivery failure rate is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mail client performs self-service by automatically retrieving, caching, and validating delivery condition information without requiring manual user intervention. The system autonomously checks message size limits, mailbox capacities, and recipient status, providing validation feedback to the sender. This automated approach reduces delivery failures while keeping the user interface simple and intuitive, minimizing the perceived complexity for users.
Data Source
AI summary
Technologies are described herein for caching and exposing pre-send data relating to the sender or recipient of an e-mail message. A mail client program is configured to cache recipient and configuration mail tips at a client computer. The configuration mail tips may be retrieved from a server computer and cached when the mail client program is started. Recipient mail tips may be retrieved and cached as each recipient of an e-mail message is identified. When subsequent e-mail messages are created, cached mail tips for an e-mail recipient are utilized instead of retrieving the mail tips from the server computer. The cached mail tips may be updated after a predefined period of time has elapsed. The cached mail tips may also be utilized when the client program is offline or unable to establish a connection to the server computer.