System and method for acknowledging calendar appointments using a mobile device
View Patent ↗A system and method are provided for communicating calendar appointment acknowledgements to a sender from a recipient device, in particular a mobile communication device capable of receiving SMS messages. The sender creates a calendar object comprising calendar event data, designates a recipient, and selects a transport method for delivering the calendar event data. If the transport method is SMS, then a calendar object message in plaintext SMS format is prepared, comprising a unique identifier, and transmitted to the recipient. The recipient's mobile communication device receives the SMS message and parses the message to extract the calendar event data, and transmits an acknowledgement to the sender including the unique identifier.
1. A method for receiving, at a recipient device, calendar data from a sending device, the recipient device being capable of receiving SMS messages and comprising a calendar data store for storing calendar event data, the method comprising:
receiving, at the recipient device, an SMS calendar message comprising calendar event data;
scanning the SMS calendar message for a unique calendar event identifier;
if the unique calendar event identifier is found, parsing the SMS calendar message and storing the calendar event data and the unique calendar event identifier in the calendar data store;
if the unique calendar event identifier is not found,
scanning the SMS calendar message for identifying data characteristics, and if said data characteristics are found,
parsing the SMS calendar message and storing the calendar event data in the calendar data store with a unique calendar event identifier generated at the recipient device; and
transmitting the calendar event data and the unique calendar event identifier to a network data store associated with the recipient device for subsequent access.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the SMS calendar message is carried out at a SMS message transport layer, and wherein the method further comprises passing the SMS calendar message to a calendar application operating on the recipient device, such that the scanning is carried out by the calendar application.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the SMS calendar message comprises one of:
a set of predefined headings and values associated with at least one of the predefined headings;
a set of predefined delimiters delimiting values associated with a predefined set of calendar event data types; and
a set of values associated with a predefined set of calendar event data types, wherein each value is represented by a character string of predefined length.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting an acknowledgement SMS message from the recipient device to the sending device, the acknowledgement SMS message comprising:
the unique calendar event identifier, and
either an accept response or a decline response to the SMS calendar message.
5. A method for transmitting calendar event data to a recipient device, comprising:
obtaining from a user calendar event data comprising a contact identifier designating an attendee;
generating a calendar message, the message comprising the calendar event data and a unique calendar event identifier;
determining a preferred transport associated with the attendee;
if the preferred transport for the attendee is an SMS transport,
formatting the calendar message as an SMS calendar message; and
transmitting the SMS calendar message to the attendee using the SMS transport;
receiving, at a recipient device associated with the attendee, the SMS calendar message, said receiving being carried out at an SMS message transport layer;
the recipient device passing the received SMS calendar message to a calendar application operating on the recipient device;
scanning, by said calendar application, the received SMS calendar message for the unique calendar event identifier;
if the unique calendar event identifier is found, the recipient device parsing the SMS calendar message and storing the calendar event data and the unique calendar event identifier in a calendar data store at the recipient device;
if the unique calendar event identifier is not found, the recipient device scanning the SMS calendar message for identifying data characteristics, and if said data characteristics are found, parsing the SMS calendar message and storing the calendar event data in the calendar data store with a unique calendar event identifier generated at the recipient device;
the recipient device transmitting the calendar event data and the unique calendar event identifier to a network data store associated with the recipient device for subsequent access; and
receiving, from the recipient device, an acknowledgement SMS message comprising the unique calendar event identifier and either an accept response or a decline response.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the SMS calendar message comprises one of:
a set of predefined headings and values associated with at least one of the predefined headings;
a set of predefined delimiters delimiting values associated with a predefined set of calendar event data types; and
a set of values associated with a predefined set of calendar event data types, wherein each value is represented by a character string of predefined length.
7. A non-transitory computer program product comprising code, which when executed by a processor of a device, causes the device to carry out the method of claim 1 .
8. A non-transitory computer program product comprising code, which when executed by a processor of a device, causes the device to carry out the method of claim 5 .