Composing packages of electronic mail attachments
View Patent ↗The present invention is directed to a method and system for composing a package of application files to be sent as e-mail attachments in e-mail communications. A plurality of data structures are created, wherein each data structure groups together a plurality of different user application files designated as attachments to an e-mail communication. Application files designated from within user applications are associated with selected data structures, such that each designated application file is associated with a selected data structure. During composition of an e-mail communication having attachments, a list of the data structures containing application files are provided.
1. A method comprising:
receiving input identifying a package to be attached to an electronic communication, the package comprising a copy of an original application file;
determining if the original application file has been changed since the copy of the original application file was made for attachment to the electronic communication; and
requesting input via a graphical menu prompting a user to choose whether to one of replace the copy of the original application file with a copy of a modified application file in response to determining that the original application file has been changed and allow the copy of the original application file be sent with the electronic communication.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
replacing the copy of the original application file with the copy of the modified application file in response to receiving input choosing to replace the copy of the original application file.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving input identifying the original application file to be included in the package.
4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:
requesting input from the user as to whether one of an existing name for the original application file should be used to identify the original application file in the package and a new name should be used to identify the original application file in the package.
5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:
requesting input from the user to identify the new name used to identify the original application file in the package in response to the user indicating that the original application file should be identified by the new name in the package.
6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:
storing the package comprising the original application file with an indication of an original name of the original application file and an identification of the new name used to identify the original application file.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
checking for a term in the electronic communication indicative of a user's intent to attach an attachment to the electronic message; and
requesting input from the user as to whether an attachment is intended to be included with the electronic message in response to detecting the term in the electronic message indicative of the user's intent to attach an attachment to the electronic message.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the receiving input identifying a package to be attached to an electronic communication is in response a user indicating that an attachment is intended to be included with the electronic message.
9. An apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
a memory to store computer program instructions, the computer program instructions when executed on the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving input identifying a package to be attached to an electronic communication, the package comprising a copy of an original application file;
determining if the original application file has been changed since the copy of the original application file was made for attachment to the electronic communication; and
requesting input via a graphical menu prompting a user to choose whether to one of replace the copy of the original application file with a copy of a modified application file in response to determining that the original application file has been changed and allow the copy of the original application file be sent with the electronic communication.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 , the operations further comprising:
replacing the copy of the original application file with the copy of the modified application file in response to receiving input choosing to replace the copy of the original application file.
11. The apparatus of claim 9 , the operations further comprising:
receiving input identifying the original application file to be included in the package.
12. The apparatus of claim 11 , the operations further comprising:
requesting input from the user as to whether one of an existing name for the original application file should be used to identify the original application file in the package and a new name should be used to identify the original application file in the package.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 , the operations further comprising:
requesting input from the user to identify the new name used to identify the original application file in the package in response to the user indicating that the original application file should be identified by the new name in the package.
14. The apparatus of claim 13 , the operations further comprising:
storing the package comprising the original application file with an indication of an original name of the original application file and an identification of the new name used to identify the original application file.
15. The apparatus of claim 9 , the operations further comprising:
checking for a term in the electronic communication indicative of a user's intent to attach an attachment to the electronic message; and
requesting input from the user as to whether an attachment is intended to be included with the electronic message in response to detecting the term in the electronic message indicative of the user's intent to attach an attachment to the electronic message.
16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the receiving input identifying a package to be attached to an electronic communication is in response a user indicating that an attachment is intended to be included with the electronic message.
17. A method comprising:
attaching a package to an electronic communication in response to a user input, the package comprising a copy of an original application file;
determining if the original application file has been changed since the package has been attached to the electronic communication; and
replacing the copy of the original application file with a copy of a modified application file in response to determining that the original application file has been changed since the package has been attached to the electronic communication and user input via a graphical menu indicating that the original application file should be replaced with the copy of the modified application file.
18. The method of claim 17 wherein the graphical menu prompts a user to choose to one of replace the copy of the original application file with a copy of the modified application file in response to determining that the original file has been changed since the package has been attached to the electronic communication and allow the copy of the original application file to be sent with the electronic communication.
19. The method of claim 17 further comprising:
receiving input identifying the original application file to be included in the package.
20. The method of claim 17 further comprising:
checking for a term in the electronic communication indicative of a user's intent to attach an attachment to the electronic message; and
requesting input from the user as to whether an attachment is intended to be included with the electronic message in response to detecting the term in the electronic message indicative of the user's intent to attach an attachment to the electronic message.