Mobile print email reply with thumbnails
View Patent ↗Techniques are provided that allow the user to view on his or her mobile device the body of an email or other items from a message service as well as each of the attachments as thumbnails or individual images. As well, techniques allow the user to view particular attributes of each item, e.g. the number of pages and the page size of a particular attachment. Techniques are provided such that the user may view such thumbnails and/or attributes on a unique URL generated as a result of the generated email. Thus, by such techniques, the user is provided with a platform for mobile devices that allows intuitive selection of what should be or is desired to be printed.
1. A method for printing emails or items from a message service from a mobile device, comprising the steps of:
receiving, at a server capable or enabled to manage or process printing, an item from a mobile device, the item having one or more attachments;
responsive to receiving the item, generating a notification message that contains a link to a particular URL and sending the notification message to the mobile device;
responsive to the link being activated, at the URL, dynamically generating an object, wherein the dynamically generated object is configured to allow selecting any of the one or more attachments and configured to allow selecting printing options associated with the one or more attachments; and
responsive to receiving one or more selections of the one or more attachments and to receiving selected printing options associated with the one or more selections, sending the one or more selections of the one or more attachments and the selected printing options to a printing device;
wherein one or more steps of are performed by one or more processors.
2. The method of claim 1 , the notification message is a response email, the response email contains the link, and the response email is returned to an address from where the email arrived.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dynamically generated object comprises thumbnail images, wherein each thumbnail image is associated with one of said one or more attachments or a body of the item, itself.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein said each thumbnail image associated with said one or more attachments is a live hypertext link to a larger representation of said associated attachment.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said each larger representation is a part of an image gallery with next and previous links.
6. The method of claim 3 , wherein said dynamically generated object is an html page with multiple images comprising in part said thumbnail images.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dynamically generated object is presented on a browser at the mobile device.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the printing options comprise any of: duplex, number of pages, media size, color, black and white.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to said receiving said one or more selections of the one or more attachments and to receiving selected printing options associated with the one or more selections, generating and returning a status of said selections.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the item is an email.
11. An apparatus for printing emails or items from a message service from a mobile device, comprising the steps of:
a server capable or enabled to manage or process printing configured to receive an item from a mobile device, the item having one or more attachments;
a generating processor configured to generate, in response to the item being received, a notification message that contains a link to a particular URL and sending the notification message to the mobile device;
a generating processor to dynamically generate, in response to the link being activated, an object at the particular URL, wherein the dynamically generated object is configured to allow selecting any of the one or more attachments and configured to allow selecting printing options associated with the one or more attachments; and
a sending processor configured to send the one or more selections of the one or more attachments and the selected printing options to a printing device, in response to the one or more selections of the one or more attachments being received and to the selected printing options associated with the one or more selections being received;
wherein at least one of the processors comprises a hardware implementation.
12. A method for printing emails or items from a message service from a mobile device, comprising the steps of:
receiving, at a server capable or enabled to manage or process printing, an item from a mobile device, the item having one or more attachments;
responsive to receiving the item, generating a notification message that contains a link to a particular URL and sending the notification message to the mobile device;
responsive to receiving the item, generating an object at the particular URL, wherein the generated object is configured to allow selecting any of the one or more attachments and configured to allow selecting printing options associated with the one or more attachments; and
responsive to receiving one or more selections of the one or more attachments and to receiving selected printing options associated with the one or more selections, sending the one or more selections of the one or more attachments and the selected printing options to a printing device;
wherein one or more steps of are performed by one or more processors.