Method and communication device for processing data for transmission from the communication device to a second communication device
View Patent ↗A method and communication device for processing data for transmission from the communication device to a second communication device is provided. It is detected that the data comprises an attachment. An address of a copy of the attachment is determined, the attachment present on a storage device external to the communication devices. An address of the copy of the attachment is substituted in the data such that the copy is retrievable at the second communication device via the address. The data is then transmitted to the second communication device.
1. A method comprising:
substituting, at an originating communication device, an address of a copy of an attachment associated with data for transmission, by processing the attachment to extract the address, the address embedded in the attachment, and the copy present on a storage device external to the originating communication device and retrievable via the address; and
transmitting the data including the address from the originating communication device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the attachment comprises an exchangeable image file format (EXIF), and the address is embedded in EXIF data.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the address comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising
determining if the storage device is accessible; and, if not,
transmitting the data with the attachment attached thereto instead of the substituting.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the determining if the storage device is accessible comprises determining if the storage device is accessible to a receiving communication device.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the determining if the storage device is accessible to the receiving communication device comprises at least one of:
determining if the storage device and the receiving communication device are each associated with a same communication network; and
determining if there is a firewall between the receiving communication device and the storage device, and if so, determining that the storage device is not accessible to the receiving communication device.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
uploading the copy of the attachment to the storage device;
determining the address of the copy of the attachment; and, at least one of:
storing the address in at least one of a database and a table in association with an identifier of the attachment; and
embedding the address in the attachment.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data comprises at least one of an e-mail, a text-message, a short message service message and an instant messaging message, and the attachment comprises at least one of image data, audio data, video data and document data.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the address is stored in association with an identifier of the attachment in at least one of a database and a table, and the substituting the address of the copy comprises processing at least one of the database and the table to retrieve the address via the identifier.
10. A communication device comprising:
an interface enabled to transmit data;
a processing unit enabled to:
substitute an address of a copy of an attachment associated with data for transmission, by processing the attachment to extract the address, the address embedded in the attachment, and the copy present on a storage device external to the communication device and retrievable via the address; and
transmit the data, including the address, via the interface.
11. The communication device of claim 10 , wherein the attachment comprises an exchangeable image file format (EXIF), and the address is embedded in EXIF data.
12. The communication device of claim 10 , wherein the address comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).
13. The communication device of claim 10 , wherein the processing unit is further enabled to:
determine if the storage device is accessible; and, if not,
transmit the data with the attachment attached thereto instead of substituting the attachment with the address of the copy.
14. The communication device of claim 13 , wherein the processing unit is further enabled to determine if the storage device is accessible by determining if the storage device is accessible to a receiving communication device.
15. The communication device of claim 14 , wherein the processing unit is further enabled to determine if the storage device is accessible to the receiving communication device by at least one of:
determining if the storage device and the receiving communication device are each associated with a same communication network; and
determining if there is a firewall between the receiving communication device and the storage device, and if so, determining that the storage device is not accessible to the receiving communication device.
16. The communication device of claim 10 , wherein the processing unit is further enabled to:
upload the copy of the attachment to the storage device;
determine the address of the copy of the attachment; and, at least one of:
store the address in at least one of a database and a table in association with an identifier of the attachment; and
embed the address in the attachment.
17. The communication device of claim 10 , wherein the data comprises at least one of an e-mail, a text-message, a short message service message and an instant messaging message, and the attachment comprises at least one of image data, audio data, video data and document data.
18. The communication device of claim 10 , further comprising a memory, and wherein the address is stored in association with an identifier of the attachment in at least one of a database and a table at the memory, and the processing unit is further enabled to substitute the address of the copy by processing at least one of the database and the table to retrieve the address via the identifier.