Productivity Integration Hub Abstraction for Server SDK Complexity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing productivity services face challenges in seamless integration across different servers, requiring proficiency with each server's Software Development Kit (SDK) and complicating collaboration for end-users using different productivity services.
Innovation Solution
The Productivity Integration Hub (PIH) module acts as a single point of contact, providing seamless connectivity and abstraction by executing authorization, authentication, and single sign-on, and offering a common API for end-users to access various productivity services, such as meeting, mail, and calendar services, without needing to deal with individual server SDKs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple productivity servers are used to provide diverse services, then service variety and functionality are improved, but integration complexity and development difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gateway server as an intermediary component that mediates between client devices and multiple productivity servers. The gateway server receives service requests from clients, determines the appropriate target productivity server, and forwards requests accordingly. This intermediary approach allows the system to support multiple diverse productivity servers without increasing client-side complexity, as all integration logic is centralized in the gateway server.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway server is designed with universal functionality to handle requests for multiple different productivity servers (e.g., email servers, calendar servers, contact servers from different vendors). Instead of requiring separate integration mechanisms for each server type, the gateway server provides a unified interface that can adapt to various productivity server protocols and APIs, enabling one component to serve multiple functions across different service domains.
2Reliability
If individual server SDKs are required for each productivity server, then precise server-specific functionality is achieved, but development burden and proficiency requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the integration complexity and server-specific communication logic from the client applications and relocates it to the gateway server. Instead of embedding multiple SDKs and integration code within each client application, the extraction approach moves all server communication responsibilities to the gateway server, which then presents a simplified interface to clients. This reduces client development burden while maintaining reliable server-specific functionality through the gateway's specialized handling.
3Productivity
If seamless integration is implemented across multiple servers, then user collaboration capability is improved, but system complexity and authentication management increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple authentication and service management functions into a single gateway server. Instead of requiring separate authentication mechanisms for each productivity server, the gateway server consolidates user credentials, authorization logic, and service coordination into one centralized component. This merging approach enables seamless cross-server collaboration while simplifying authentication management, as users interact with a single gateway interface rather than multiple separate authentication systems.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system including a display; a memory storing processor-executable steps; a Productivity Integration Hub (PIH) module; and a processor to execute the processor-executable process steps to cause the system to: present a user interface on the display, the user interface associated with an end-user application and including one or more user-entry fields to receive data to request a service; receive input data in the one or more displayed user-entry fields; receive the input data at the PIH module; access a productivity server via the PIH module; return one or more response details to the PIH module from the productivity server; and display on the user interface at least one of the one or more response details received from the PIH module. Numerous other aspects are provided.