Document delivery to a mobile device using mobile device based permissions
View Patent ↗Mobile devices enable users to access data and documents in a convenient portable format. The disclosed method and system enables management of permissions associated with documents to be transferred/moved onto a mobile device for review or reference by making the transfer simple and straight forward so that it may be easy for non-technically literate users using a printer driver metaphor on a sending device such as a personal computer.
1. A method of document delivery to a mobile device using mobile device based permissions the method comprising:
sending a print permission request from a sending device to a server coupled to a communications network providing a user identifier associated with the mobile device and a user identifier associated with the sending device;
receiving confirmation of acceptance of the print permission request at the sending device from the server; and
adding the user identifier associated with the mobile device to a printer driver on the sending device, the user identifier associated with the mobile device presented in a print dialog box on the sending device when an electronic document is to be formatted and transferred by the printer driver from the sending device to the mobile device.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein adding the user further comprises adding a device identifier.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the confirmation further comprises configuration parameters for configuring the printer driver to format the document to be sent to the mobile device.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the confirmation of acceptance further comprises a permission identifier to identify a number of times a document transfer will be accepted by the mobile device.
5. The method of claim 4 further comprising formatting a document using received configuration parameters and transferring from the sending device a document from the printer driver to the mobile device, the transfer initiated from the printer driver from within a document creation application.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the confirmation provides a destination address associated with the mobile device.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein the destination address includes a folder identifier.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the destination address includes an indicator for identifying a size of document that will be accepted by the mobile device.
9. The method of claim 6 wherein the destination address is a universal resource locator (URL) wherein the formatted electronic document is transferred by a hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) post or a secure hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) post using the received URL to transfer the formatted electronic document directly from the sending device to the mobile device.
10. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying the print permission request on a display of the mobile device prior to providing confirmation of acceptance of the printer permission request.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the server identifies a mobile device identifier associated with the user identifier in the print permission request.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein prior to sending the print permission request a dialog box is presented on the sending device requesting identification of a particular user identifier generated by the printer driver.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein prior to subsequently sending a document via the printer driver from the sending device a dialog box is presented on the sending device requesting identification of the user identifier that has already been associated with the printer driver.
14. A system comprising:
a mobile device for receiving electronic documents, the mobile device operable to associate a permission with a user identifier associated with the sending device;
a server for locating the mobile device on a network;
a sending device for sending documents to the mobile device, the documents transferred by a printer driver from within a document application on the sending device, the printer driver providing formatting of the document to be received by the mobile device, the client device operable for sending a print permission request to the server providing a user identifier associated with the mobile device and a user identifier associated with the sending device; and
the server locating the mobile device associated with the user identifier of the mobile device and providing the print permission request to the mobile device, the mobile device associating a permission with the user identifier associated with the sending device and providing confirmation to the sending device of acceptance of the print permission request, the sending device adding a user identifier to the printer driver for subsequent sending of documents to the mobile device.
15. The system of claim 14 wherein the confirmation further comprises configuration parameters for configuring the printer driver to format the document to be sent to the mobile device.
16. The system of claim 14 wherein the confirmation of acceptance further comprises a permission identifier to identify a number of times a document transfer will be accepted by the mobile device.
17. The system of claim 14 wherein the confirmation provides a destination address associated with the mobile device.
18. The system of claim 17 wherein the destination address includes a folder identifier.
19. The system of claim 17 wherein the destination address includes an indicator for identifying a size of document that will be accepted by the mobile device.
20. The system of claim 17 wherein the destination address is a universal resource locator (URL) wherein the formatted electronic document is transferred by a hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) post or a secure hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) post using the received URL to transfer the formatted electronic document directly from the sending device to the mobile device.
21. The system of claim 14 wherein the print permission request is displayed on a display of the mobile device prior to providing confirmation of acceptance of the printer permission request.
22. The system of claim 14 wherein the server identifies a mobile device identifier associated with a user ID in the print permission request.
23. The system of claim 14 wherein prior to the mobile device send a document via the printer driver a dialog box is presented on the sending device requesting identification of a particular user identifier that has already been associated with the printer driver.
24. A non-transitory computer readable memory containing instructions for document delivery to a mobile device using mobile device based permissions, the instruction which when executed by a processor of a sending device performing:
sending a print permission request from a sending device to a server coupled to a communications network providing a user identifier associated with the mobile device and a user identifier associated with the sending device;
receiving confirmation of acceptance of the print permission request at the sending device from the server; and
adding the user identifier associated with the mobile device to a printer driver on the sending device, the user identifier associated with the mobile device presented in a print dialog box on the sending device when an electronic document is to be formatted and transferred by the printer driver from the sending device to the mobile device.