Automated connection of electronic messaging and social networking services method and apparatus
Disclosed are systems and methods for improving interactions with and between electronic mail services and other services, such as social networking service and/or providing systems supported by or configured with personal computing devices, servers and/or platforms. The systems interact to identify and retrieve data within or across platforms, which can be used to improve the quality of data used in processing interactions between or among processors in such systems. The disclosed systems and methods provide systems and methods for automatic linking of an electronic messaging service and another service, such as a social networking service. The disclosed systems and methods form a connection between an electronic messaging system and another service external to the electronic messaging system and uses the formed link to perform a number of actions on behalf of the user of the electronic messaging system and the other service.
1. A method comprising:
providing, at a computing device, a user interface display of an electronic message, the electronic message being directed to a user via an electronic messaging service, the display of the electronic message comprising a display of a user-selectable action of a social networking service, the user-selectable action having a corresponding universal resource locator (URL) identifying the social networking service and the user-selectable action;
receiving, at the computing device, input from the user via the user interface display, the input indicating a selection by the user of the action;
automatically forming a connection, via the computing device, with the social networking service and by a connection service of the electronic messaging service, the automatic connection formation further comprising procuring, by the connection service before invoking the determined action, authorization permitting the connection service to access the social networking system to perform the determined action with the social networking service on behalf of the user, the authorization comprising a token;
transmitting, via the computing device and by the connection service using the formed connection between the connection service of the electronic messaging service and the social networking service, a request on behalf of the user, the request comprising a request that the social networking service perform the action selected by the user;
receiving, via the computing device and by the connection service of the electronic messaging service using the formed connection between the connection service and the social networking service, a reply from the social networking service in response to the request that the social networking service perform the action selected by the user; and
causing, via the computing device and as a response to the selection by the user of the action in the display of the electronic message presented in the user interface of the electronic messaging service, the user interface to be updated to include information indicative of the reply received from the social networking service.
2. The method of claim 1 , the determined action is a “Like” action, of the social networking service, to be performed on an object identified in the URL.
3. The method of claim 1 , the electronic message is from a sender that is the social networking service.
4. The method of claim 1 , the electronic message is from a sender that is another user of the social networking service.
5. The method of claim 4 , the sender is an online merchant and the action is a “Like” action to like the online merchant on the social networking service.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, via the computing device and by the connection service, that the action to be performed with the social networking service is a “comment” action;
causing, via the computing device and by the connection service, display of a prompt for the user to input the comment;
receiving, via the computing device and by the connection service, input from the user in response to the prompt; and
the request transmission further comprising transmitting the input received from the user in response to the prompt with the request requesting that the social networking service perform the determined action.
7. The method of claim 1 , the determined action is an “Invite” action, of the social networking service, to be performed on an event object identified in the URL.
8. The method of claim 1 , the token comprising a long-lived access token.
9. The method of claim 8 , the authorization procurement further comprising:
causing, via the computing device and by the connection service, a login dialog of the social networking service to be displayed as a prompt for the user to log in to the social networking service;
receiving, via the computing device and by the connection service, a short-lived access token from the social networking service;
transmitting, via the computing device and by the connection service, the short-lived access token to a server computer of the electronic messaging service;
receiving, via the computing device, a code from the server computer of the electronic messaging service;
obtaining, via the computing device, the long-lived access token from the social networking service using the received code.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
prior to causing the display of the login dialog of the social networking service:
requesting, via the computing device and by the connection service, the code from the server computer of the electronic messaging service; and
receiving, via the computing device and by the connection service, a response from the server computer of the electronic messaging service indicating that a valid long-lived token is unavailable.
11. The method of claim 1 , the automatic invocation of the determined action comprising automatically calling an application programming interface (API) of the social networking service to perform the determined action.
12. The method of claim 11 , the action is a voting action of the social networking service.
13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly encoded with computer-executable instructions, that when executed by a processor associated with a computing device, performs a method comprising:
providing a user interface display of an electronic message, the electronic message being directed to a user via an electronic messaging service, the display of the electronic message comprising a display of a user-selectable action of a social networking service, the user-selectable action having a corresponding universal resource locator (URL) identifying the social networking service and the user-selectable action;
receiving input from the user via the user interface display, the input indicating a selection by the user of the action;
automatically forming a connection with the social networking service and by a connection service of the electronic messaging service, the automatic connection formation further comprising procuring, by the connection service before invoking the determined action, authorization permitting the connection service to access the social networking system to perform the determined action with the social networking service on behalf of the user, the authorization comprising a token;
transmitting, by the connection service using the formed connection between the connection service of the electronic messaging service and the social networking service, a request on behalf of the user, the request comprising a request that the social networking service perform the action selected by the user;
receiving, by the connection service of the electronic messaging service using the formed connection between the connection service and the social networking service, a reply from the social networking service in response to the request that the social networking service perform the action selected by the user; and
causing, as a response to the selection by the user of the action in the display of the electronic message presented in the user interface of the electronic messaging service, the user interface to be updated to include information indicative of the reply received from the social networking service.
14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , the automatic invocation of the determined action comprising automatically calling an application programming interface (API) of the social networking service to perform the determined action.
15. A computing device comprising:
a processor;
a non-transitory storage medium for tangibly storing thereon program logic for execution by the processor, the program logic comprising:
providing logic executed by the processor for providing a user interface display of an electronic message, the electronic message being directed to a user via an electronic messaging service, the display of the electronic message comprising a display of a user-selectable action of a social networking service, the user-selectable action having a corresponding universal resource locator (URL) identifying the social networking service and the user-selectable action;
receiving logic executed by the processor for receiving input from the user via the user interface display, the input indicating a selection by the user of the action;
forming logic executed by the processor for automatically forming a connection with the social networking service and by a connection service of the electronic messaging service, the automatic connection formation further comprising procuring, by the connection service before invoking the determined action, authorization permitting the connection service to access the social networking system to perform the determined action with the social networking service on behalf of the user, the authorization comprising a token;
transmitting logic executed by the processor for transmitting, by the connection service using the formed connection between the connection service of the electronic messaging service and the social networking service, a request on behalf of the user, the request comprising a request that the social networking service perform the action selected by the user;
receiving logic executed by the processor for receiving, by the connection service of the electronic messaging service using the formed connection between the connection service and the social networking service, a reply from the social networking service in response to the request that the social networking service perform the action selected by the user; and
causing logic executed by the processor for causing, as a response to the selection by the user of the action in the display of the electronic message presented in the user interface of the electronic messaging service, the user interface to be updated to include information indicative of the reply received from the social networking service.
16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , the token comprising a long-lived access token.
17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , the authorization procurement further comprising:
causing, by the connection service, a login dialog of the social networking service to be displayed as a prompt for the user to log in to the social networking service;
receiving, by the connection service, a short-lived access token from the social networking service;
transmitting, by the connection service, the short-lived access token to a server computer of the electronic messaging service;
receiving a code from the server computer of the electronic messaging service;
obtaining the long-lived access token from the social networking service using the received code.
18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , further comprising:
prior to causing the display of the login dialog of the social networking service:
requesting, by the connection service, the code from the server computer of the electronic messaging service; and
receiving, by the connection service, a response from the server computer of the electronic messaging service indicating that a valid long-lived token is unavailable.