Mailbox pooling pre-empting criteria
View Patent ↗Mailbox pooling pre-emptive criteria is set forth for use in an adaptive polling system for synchronizing data between a mail server and a mobile communication device. The polling engine stores an indication of the number of messages in the mailbox, the total mailbox size (i.e. the used storage size in bytes), and the last message ID from the last poll. In the next poll, the polling engine retrieves this information from the mailbox and checks against the values stored from the last poll. If the information is the same, then there is no need to compare the message ID list. Whenever either the number of messages in the mailbox or the mailbox size or last message ID has changed, then the full comparison of the message ID list is performed.
1. A wireless communication system comprising:
a mobile device accessible via a wireless network;
a mobile mailbox of the mobile device;
a wireless service engine for controlling data communication over the wireless network between the mobile device and the mobile mailbox;
a plurality of external mailboxes maintained at multiple external mail servers; and
a polling engine, including a memory for storing an internal database of message IDs received from the multiple external mail servers, and arranged to update e-mails between the plurality of external mailboxes maintained at the multiple external mail servers, and the mobile mailbox by, for each external mailbox:
retrieving current pre-emptive criteria including at least one of a number of messages in and size of the external mailbox, from the external mail server maintaining the external mailbox;
if the current pre-emptive criteria matches previously stored pre-emptive criteria, pre-empting the updating; and
if not, retrieving a current list of message IDs from the external mail server and comparing the current list to a previously stored list to identify messages to be updated; and
decreasing its polling interval based on at least one positive event including receipt of a new message from one of the external mailboxes, and increasing the polling interval based on at least one negative event.
2. The wireless communication system of claim 1 , wherein the negative events include an invalid login or password confirmation issued by a respective one of the external mailboxes.
3. A wireless communication system comprising:
a wireless service engine for controlling data communication over the wireless network between the mobile device and the mobile mailbox;
a polling engine, including a memory for storing an internal database of message IDs received from multiple external mail servers, and arranged to update e-mails between multiple external mailboxes maintained at the multiple external mail servers, and a mobile mailbox of a mobile device, by, for each external mailbox:
retrieving current pre-emptive criteria including at least one of a number of messages in and size of the external mailbox, from the external mail server maintaining the external mailbox;
if the current pre-emptive criteria matches previously stored pre-emptive criteria, pre-empting the updating, and
if not, retrieving a current list of message IDs from the external mail server and comparing the current list to the internal database to identify messages to be updated; and
decreasing its polling interval based on at least one positive event including receipt of a new message from one of the external mailboxes, and increasing the polling interval based on at least one negative event.
4. The wireless communications system of claim 3 , wherein the at least one external mail server is a POP mail server.
5. A wireless communication system comprising:
a polling engine, including a memory for storing an internal database of message IDs received from multiple external mail servers, and arranged to update e-mails between multiple external mailboxes maintained at the multiple external mail servers, and a mobile mailbox of a mobile device, by, for each external mailbox:
retrieving current pre-emptive criteria including at least one of a number of messages in and size of the external mailbox, from the external mail server maintaining the external mailbox;
if the current pre-emptive criteria matches previously stored pre-emptive criteria, pre-empting the updating, and
if not, retrieving a current list of message IDs from the external mail server and comparing the current list to the internal database to identify messages to be updated; and
decreasing its polling interval based on at least one positive event and increasing the polling interval based on at least one negative event including an invalid login or password confirmation issued by a respective one of the external mailboxes.
6. A method for updating e-mails between multiple external mailboxes maintained at multiple external mail servers, and a mobile mailbox of a mobile communication device, comprising:
storing, in a memory of a polling engine, an internal database of message IDs received from the multiple external mail servers;
updating e-mails between the multiple external mailboxes and the mobile mailbox, by, for each external mailbox:
retrieving current pre-emptive criteria including at least one of a number of messages in and size of the external mailbox, from the external mail server maintaining the external mailbox;
if the current pre-emptive criteria matches previously stored pre-emptive criteria then pre-empting the updating, and
if not, retrieving a current list of message IDs from the external mail server and comparing the current list to the internal database to identify messages to be updated;
decreasing a polling interval based on at least one positive event including receipt of a new message from one of the external mailboxes, and increasing the polling interval based on at least one negative event;
wherein retrieving the current pre-emptive criteria occurs at an adaptive polling rate based on the positive and negative events, and wherein the positive events cause a decrease in polling interval and the negative events cause an increase in the polling interval.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the negative events include entry of an invalid login or password confirmation issued by a respective one of the external mailboxes.