Unified message management method and system

A method of operating a messaging system, comprising:

• receiving at least one message at a messaging system, said message being in at least one format supported by at least one message adapter forming a part of a message source;
• checking said at least one message by an external service in accordance with a set of rules stored in a rules database;
• transforming said at least one format of said at least one message to another message format according to said set of rules;
• routing said at least one transformed message to an application adapter in accordance with said set of rules;
• processing said transformed message by said application adapter;
• optimizing data required for response from other services by an algorithm of said message adapter;
• routing said transformed message from the application adapter to a business service adapter in accordance with said set of rules;
• processing said routed message by said business service adapter;
• obtaining said optimized data required for said response from said other services by an algorithm of said business service adapter;
• storing said data in a memory accessible by said messaging system on behalf of said message source;
• transforming said obtained data by said business service adapter into a response message using the message format in accordance with said set of rules;
• routing said response message to the message adapter in accordance with said rules;
• and
• transmitting said response message by said message adapter to a recipient via an optimized set-top box (STB) transport adapter in accordance with said set of rules, wherein the optimized STB transport adapter includes a file name virtualization for allowing a STB application to operate with abstract transport API (application program interface) by hiding a specific transport protocol used for the received message or the response message.