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US 2010/0138500 A1Published application
Online Archiving of Message Objects
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsAshish Consul, Rajasi Saha
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This disclosure is directed to automatically moving message objects, such as email message objects, from online source mailbox databases to online archive mailbox databases. As described herein, each email message in a source mailbox database is directly or indirectly associated with a retention policy tag. The retention policy tag associated with a message object in a source mailbox database specifies a retention period. The message object remains in source mailbox database until the retention period expires for the message object. When the retention period for the message object expires, the message object is automatically moved to an archive mailbox database.
Claims20
A method for online archiving of messaging objects, the method comprising:
- storing a set of available archive retention policy tags in a directory, the set of available archive retention policy tags consisting of archive retention policy tags available to be associated with message objects in a source mailbox;
- automatically identifying, at an electronic computing system, an archive retention policy tag in the set of available archive retention policy tags as an applicable archive message retention policy tag for a message object stored in a source mailbox;
- automatically determining, at the electronic computing system, whether a retention period specified by the applicable archive retention policy tag has expired for the message object;
- automatically generating, at the electronic computing system, a copy of the message object at the archive mailbox when the retention period specified by the applicable archive retention policy tag has expired for the message object;
- and
- automatically deleting, at the electronic computing system, the message object from the source mailbox when the retention period specified by the applicable archive retention policy tag has expired for the message object,
- wherein the directory, the source mailbox, and the archive mailbox are stored at one or more data storage systems in the electronic computing system.
4 more elements
An electronic computing device comprising:
- a processing unit;
- a network interface that enables the electronic computing device to communicate via an electronic communications network with a client system;
- and
- a data storage system that comprises:
- a directory that stores a set of retention policy tags, the set of retention policy tags including a set of available archive retention policy tags, wherein each archive retention policy tag in the set of available archive retention policy tags is available to be associated with a source mailbox in a source mailbox database;
- a mailbox database that stores a source mailbox;
- an archive mailbox database that stores an archive mailbox;
- a directory server that, when executed by the processing unit, causes the electronic computing device to provide a directory service that enables an administrator of the electronic computing device to create and maintain the retention policy tags in the directory;
- and
- a mailbox server that, when executed by the processing unit, causes the electronic computing device to:
- automatically identify an archive retention policy tag in the set of available archive retention policy tags as an applicable archive retention policy tag for a message object stored in the source mailbox;
- automatically determine whether a retention period specified by the applicable archive retention policy tag has expired for the message object;
- and
- automatically delete the message object from the source mailbox when the retention period specified by the applicable archive retention policy tag has expired for the message object;
- and
- an archive mailbox server that, when executed by the processing unit, causes the electronic computing device to automatically generate a copy of the message object at the archive mailbox when the retention period specified by the applicable archive retention policy tag has expired for the message object.
13 more elements
A computer-readable data storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing unit of an electronic computing device, cause the electronic computing device to:
- store, at a data storage system, a directory that stores a set of retention policy tags, the set of retention policy tags including a set of available archive retention policy tags, wherein each archive retention policy tag in the set of available archive retention policy tags is available to be associated with a source mailbox in a source mailbox database;
- automatically determine whether the message object explicitly specifies an archive retention policy tag;
- automatically identify the retention policy tag explicitly specified by the message object as an applicable archive retention policy tag when it is determined that the message object explicitly specifies an archive retention policy tag;
- automatically determine whether the message object is in a folder within the source mailbox when the message object does not explicitly specify an archive retention policy tag;
- automatically determine whether the folder is associated with an archive retention policy tag when the message object is in a folder;
- automatically identify the archive retention policy tag associated with the folder as the applicable archive retention policy tag when it is determined that the message object is in a folder and when it is determined that the folder is associated with an archive retention policy tag;
- automatically identify a default archive retention policy tag as the applicable archive retention policy tag when it is determined that the message object is not in a folder;
- automatically identify the default archive retention policy tag as the applicable archive retention policy tag when it is determined that the message object is in a folder and when it is determined that the folder is not associated with an archive retention policy tag;
- automatically determine whether a retention period specified by the applicable archive message retention tag has expired for the message object;
- automatically generate a copy of the message object at the archive mailbox when the retention period specified by the applicable archive retention policy tag has expired for the message object;
- and
- automatically delete the message object from the source mailbox when the retention period specified by the applicable archive retention policy tag has expired for the message object.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.