System And Method For Generating Messages

1 . A method for generating messages comprising:

retrieving information regarding a plurality of tasks from a database;

based on the information retrieved, determining whether notifications for the tasks need to be generated;

determining a recipient for each notification;

grouping the tasks based on the recipient of each notification; and

generating a message for each group of tasks.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the tasks have a hierarchical structure.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the database includes information regarding the start and end of each task and a message is generated for tasks that are late.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein before generating the message, information pertaining to the groups of tasks is stored in one of the database and a temporary data structure.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the temporary data structure is a Hash Map.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein each task has a task ID and task IDs are grouped together to form a key in the Hash Map and recipients are grouped together to form a value associated with the key.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the generated messages are one of electronic mail messages, text messages and voicemail messages.

8 . A system for reducing the number of generated notification messages comprising:

a database storing information regarding a plurality of tasks, notification definitions and notification recipients, wherein at least a subset of the tasks are each associated with a notification definition and a notification recipient; and

a server determining which tasks, based on their associated notification definitions, require a notification message, grouping the tasks requiring notification messages together and grouping recipients together, and generating notification messages based on the groupings of tasks and recipients.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of tasks have a hierarchical structure.

10 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the database includes information regarding the start and end of each task and the server generates notification messages if tasks are late.

11 . The system of claim 8 , wherein information pertaining to the grouping of tasks is stored in one of the database and a temporary data structure.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the temporary data structure is a Hash Map.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein each task has a task ID and task IDs are grouped together to form a key in the Hash Map and recipients are grouped together to form a value associated with the key.

14 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the generated messages are one of electronic mail messages, text messages and voicemail messages.

15 . A method for generating notification messages comprising:

retrieving from a database data pertaining to a plurality of notifications, and a recipient and a source associated with each notification;

ordering the notifications first by recipient and then by source;

grouping the notifications based on both their source and recipients; and

generating a message for each group of notifications.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the notifications are associated with tasks having a hierarchical structure.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein information pertaining to the grouping of notifications is stored in one of the database and a temporary data structure.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the temporary data structure is a Hash Map.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the notifications are associated with tasks, each task having a task ID and task IDs are grouped together to form a key in the Hash Map and recipients are grouped together to form a value associated with the key.

20 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the generated messages are one of electronic mail messages, text messages, audio messages and video messages.