WO2010018427A1

WO2010018427A1 - Method, terminal and server for merging a source and a destination electronic business card

Info

Publication number: WO2010018427A1
Application number: PCT/IB2008/053278
Authority: WO
Inventors: Weidong Sun; Guillermo Saavedra
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Current assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date: 2008-08-15
Filing date: 2008-08-15
Publication date: 2010-02-18
Anticipated expiration: 2011-02-15

Abstract

The invention relates to a method, a terminal and a server for merging a source and a destination electronic business card. The method is executed for each source field of the source electronic business card and includes comparing the source field with a corresponding destination field of the destination electronic business card. The source field and destination field are of a same type. If the source field and the destination field have different values, then searching the destination electronic business card for an empty destination field of the same type. If the search revealed that the empty destination field exists, copying the value of the destination field in the empty destination field and copying the value of the source field in the destination field. Updating vcards.

Description

Method, Terminal and Server for Merging a Source and a Destination Electronic Business Card TECHNICAL FIELD

[1] The present invention relates to a method, a terminal and a server for merging a source and a destination electronic business card. BACKGROUND

[2] Contact information is usually stored in a server or a portable device (e.g. a mobile phone) in the form of an electronic business card. Electronic business cards usually conform to the 'vcards' specification developed by the Internet Mail Consortium and which defines various types of data in order to organize contact information.

[3] When two electronic business cards (or vcards) are merged together, e.g. when synchronizing two devices with their respective electronic business cards, these are usually merged in a field to field manner, plainly, and the most recent value is kept, while the older value is discarded. Conflicting values, for a field, are identified accordingly. This method of merging newer and older values of fields of electronic business cards is not enough flexible and does not solve conflicts appropriately.

[4] US patent 6,374,241 describes a method for determining if a data update record has a matching record in an existing database. According to this patent, a record contains a subset of data e.g. address, zip code, etc. and a match occurs if a score, calculated in accordance to the match of the records, is greater than a threshold. Then, an update to the existing record is performed so that the information from the fields of the update record is included in the existing database in union with the fields of the existing record. Consequently, fields that are blank in the updated record do not overwrite or remove information existing in existing record of the database. Although this method preserves non-empty fields of existing records when no newer corresponding field is available in an update record, it still does a field to field merge. SUMMARY

[5] It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a method, a terminal and a server for merging a source electronic business card and a destination electronic business card and for addressing the afore-described problems and drawbacks.

[6] According an aspect of the invention, a method for merging a source and a destination electronic business card is provided. The method comprises the following steps, for each source field of the source electronic business card. Comparing the source field with a corresponding destination field of the destination electronic business card, said source field and destination field being of a same type. When the source field and the destination field have different values, then searching the destination electronic business card for an empty destination field of the same type. When step b) reveals that the empty destination field exists, copying the value of the destination field in the empty destination field and copying the value of the source field in the destination field.

[7] According to another aspect of the invention, a terminal including modules for merging a source and a destination electronic business card is provided. The terminal comprises a comparator module to compare each source field of the source electronic business card with a corresponding destination field of the destination electronic business card, said source field and destination field being of a same type; a search module to search the destination electronic business card for an empty destination field of the same type, if the source field and the destination field have different values; and a copier module to copy the value of the destination field in the empty destination field and to copy the value of the source field in the destination field, if the function for searching revealed that the empty destination field exists.

[8] According to yet another aspect of the invention, a server including modules for merging a source and a destination electronic business card is provided. The server comprises a comparator module to compare each source field of the source electronic business card with a corresponding destination field of the destination electronic business card, said source field and destination field being of a same type; a search module to search the destination electronic business card for an empty destination field of the same type, if the source field and the destination field have different values; and a copier module to copy the value of the destination field in the empty destination field and to copy the value of the source field in the destination field, if the function for searching revealed that the empty destination field exists. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[9] The objects and advantages of the invention will be understood by reading the detailed description in conjunction with the figures, wherein:

[10] figure 1 illustrates a simplified example of a source, a destination and a merge electronic business card according to an embodiment of the invention;

[11] figure 2 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a method according to an embodiment of the invention;

[12] figure 3 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating the method of figure 1 with additional steps;

[13] figure 4 illustrates an example of a source electronic business card according to an embodiment of the invention;

[14] figure 5 illustrates an example of a destination electronic business card according to an embodiment of the invention; [15] figure 6 illustrates a electronic business card resulting from the merge of the source and destination electronic business cards of figures 5 and 6, according to an embodiment of the invention;

[16] figure 7 illustrates a electronic business card resulting from the merge of the source and destination electronic business cards of figures 5 and 6, according to another embodiment of the invention;

[17] figure 8 is an exemplary block diagram illustrating a terminal including modules for executing the method of the present invention; and

[18] figure 9 is an exemplary block diagram illustrating a server including modules for executing the method of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[19] The various features of the invention will now be described with reference to the figures. These various aspects are described hereafter in greater detail in connection with exemplary embodiments and examples to facilitate an understanding of the invention, but should not be construed as limited to these embodiments. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that the disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

[20] Many aspects of the invention are described in terms of sequences of actions or functions to be performed by elements of a computer system or other hardware capable of executing programmed instructions. It will be recognized that the various actions could be performed by specialized circuits (e.g., discrete logic gates interconnected to perform a specialized function), by program instructions being executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. Moreover, the invention can additionally be considered to be embodied entirely within any form of computer readable carrier, such as solid-state memory, magnetic disk, optical disk or carrier wave (such as radio frequency, audio frequency or optical frequency carrier waves) containing an appropriate set of computer instructions that would cause a processor to carry out the techniques described herein. Thus, the various aspects of the invention may be embodied in many different forms, and all such forms are contemplated to be within the scope of the invention.

[21] The embodiments according to the present invention are described with reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations of methods, servers, and computer program products. It is to be understood that each block of the block diagrams and/or operational illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or operational illustrations, can be implemented by radio frequency, analog and/or digital hardware, and/or computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor circuit of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, ASIC, and/or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer and/or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/ acts specified in the block diagrams and/or operational block or blocks. In some alternate implementations, the functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in the operational illustrations. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved. Furthermore, in some illustrations, some blocks may be optional and may or may not be executed; these are generally illustrated with dashed lines.

[22] In this description, value is taken to mean any character string, including numerical and non numerical characters. Furthermore, in the following description, vcard may be used interchangeably with electronic business card without limiting the invention to the vcard format.

[23] Figure 1 shows a source vcard 5 having three fields, namely "Phone number 1",

"Phone number 2" and "Address 1" having respectively the values "123-456-7890", and "123 Main Street". It also shows a destination vcard 6 having the same types of fields and having respectively the values "234-567-8910", " and ". Finally, figure 1 shows a merged vcard 7 which contains the values resulting from the merge of the source and the destination vcards, according to one aspect of the invention.

[24] Figure 2 illustrates a method for merging a source and a destination electronic business card. This method can be executed while synchronizing electronic business cards between a portable device such as a mobile phone, a smart phone, etc. and a computer such as a server, a personal computer, etc. The method can also be executed for synchronizing different versions of electronic business cards present in one device or present on different devices such as servers, as a person of ordinary skills in the art would readily understand. It should be noted that the source and destination electronic business cards can be two versions of the same electronic business card or can be two different electronic business cards. The terms source and destination are used for an illustration purpose only and a source vcard could be identical to a destination vcard, or completely different from it. Furthermore, the source and destination vcards could have the same properties or not e.g. the source and destination vcards could have read and write permission or not. Moreover, the merged vcard shown in figure 1 could be the destination vcard having been overwritten or could be another vcard altogether.

[25] Still referring to figures 1 and 2, the method comprises the following steps, executed for each source field of the source electronic business card, step 10. It has to be understood that it would be equivalent to execute the next steps for each destination field of the destination electronic business card. In step 18, the source field is compared with a corresponding destination field of the destination electronic business card. It is assumed, at step 18, that the source field and destination field are of a same type. Preferably, the source field has an identifier and the destination field has an identifier identical to the identifier of the source field. In the example of figure 1, the field "Phone number 1" of the source vcard would be compared with the corresponding "Phone number 1" of the destination vcard, "Phone number 1" being the identifier. In this case, both fields have different values, e.g. "123-456-7890" and "234-567-8901". Is has to be understood that the formatting of a phone number could vary slightly from one field to another and that the phone numbers could still be recognized as the same phone number. For example, "1-123-456-7890" could be recognized as the same value as " 123.456.7890".

[26] Still referring to figures 1 and 2, in the next step of the method, step 20, if the source field and the destination field have different values, e.g. different phone numbers as it is the case in the example of figure 1, then in step 22 the destination electronic business card is searched for an empty destination field of the same type. In the example of figure 1, the destination vcard is searched for another "Phone number" field and the field "Phone number 2", which is empty, is identified and can be used for the purpose of the next steps 24 and 26. If the step of searching reveals that the empty destination field exists, step 24, which is the case with the example of figure 1, the step 26 can be executed. In step 26, the value of the destination field is copied in the empty destination field and the value of the source field is copied in the destination field. It has to be noted that the value of the source field could be copied directly in the empty destination field as an alternative, without moving the value of the destination field. In the example of figure 1, the phone number "234-567-8901" of the destination vcard is copied in the empty "Phone number 2" field of the destination vcard and the phone number "123-456-7890" of the source vcard is then copied in the field "Phone number 1" of the destination vcard. In doing so, the assumed "older value" of the "Phone number 1" field is kept in the destination electronic business card while the assumed "newer value" of the source electronic business card is copied in the field "Phone number 1" of the destination electronic business card.

[27] Figure 3 illustrates the method shown in figure 2, with additional steps. The method can further comprise the step 28, where if the step of searching 22 did not reveal that an empty destination field exists, the value of the destination field is copied in a corresponding conflict field of the destination electronic business card. The corresponding conflict field is described in more details below, with an example. This step would be followed by copying the value of the source field in the destination field. However, this last step 28 could also be replaced with an alternative step 28 of copying the value of the source field in a corresponding conflict field of the destination electronic business card and indicating that the destination field is in conflict. In this case, the value of the destination filed would stay unchanged. Thus the assumed "older value" of the destination field would be kept while the assumed "newer value" of the source vcard would be discarded in the conflict field.

[28] Still referring to figure 3, the method can also comprise the following steps, executed before the steps 18 to 28 are executed. Steps 12 to 16 are executed for each other destination field of the destination electronic business card. If the following three conditions of step 12 and 14 are met, then the value of the destination field should be removed in step 16. In step 12, verification is made that the source field and the other destination field are not corresponding fields. Thus, referring for example to figure 1, if the source field is "Phone number 1", the other destination field is not "Phone number 1". But, the source and the other destination fields should be of the same type for the condition to be met. For example, still referring to figure 1, if the source field is "Phone number 1" and the other destination field is "Phone number 2", then this condition is satisfied. Furthermore, the condition of step 14, stating that the source and the other destination field have equal values, should also be satisfied. These additional steps 12, 14 and 16 are for cleaning duplicate copies that could remain in the destination electronic business card after the method is executed. The duplicate copies can then be discarded or put in the recycle bin previously discussed, as duplicate copies, for example. It has to be understood that some exceptions may apply, for instance a home phone number may as well be a valid fax number. As it should be apparent to a person skilled in the art, rules for these exceptions can also be added to the method without departing from the spirit of the invention. Furthermore, as discussed before, a phone number can be written in different manners and each manner would not render it different from the same number written differently. Thus a same phone number written in two different manners could be consider as equal values. Furthermore, it has to be understood that step 10 of the method can be executed in a top down manner, a bottom up manner or in any other suitable manner.

[29] Figure 4 and figure 5 illustrate respectively an example of a source electronic business card 70 and of a destination electronic business card 75. The electronic business cards 70, 75 will be used to illustrate the execution of the method according to some embodiments of the invention. In this example, the source vcard is located in the address book of Alice, which would be physically located, for instance, in a cell phone and the destination vcard is located in a server.

[30] Figure 6 and 7 illustrate the results 80 and 90 of two ways of merging the source electronic business card 70 with the destination electronic business card 75. Figures 7 and 8 also illustrate one embodiment of the conflict fields described previously in step 28 of the method illustrated in figure 3. As it would be apparent to a person skilled in the art, conflict fields could be implemented in many different manners. The corre- sponding conflict fields could be part of the electronic business card or could be in a data structure external to the electronic business card but linked or associated to the electronic business card.

[31] The examples shown in figure 6 and 7 should not be considered as limiting to these embodiments. Furthermore, the electronic business card, as well as the data structure or structures for containing conflict fields could be located in a server as well as in a user device. It is to be understood that the electronic business cards and other related data can be located in whole of in parts in servers or in user devices and that the method could still be applied.

[32] Furthermore, still referring to figures 6 and 7, the data structure for containing the conflict field could take the form of a "recycle bin" attached to the electronic business card. This recycle bin could be used as data storage for conflicting information and for other information such as dates, times of deletion, addition, merge of data, as well as any information regarding the data in the electronic business card. The recycle bin could also be used to allow a user to delay conflict resolution without losing data or to store conflicting fields for a predefined and/or configurable period of time, e.g. a number of days, weeks, forever, etc. A user could delete the data contained in the recycle bin, such as data related to solved conflicts. Furthermore, a user could purge the recycle bin with client based "Delete Recycle Bin" functionality. Using the data of the recycle bin, a user could further review conflicts and retrieve fields deleted of the corresponding electronic business card. An indication of a conflict could also be put in the recycle bin, in another data structure attached and corresponding to the destination electronic business card or in an external data structure and could be accessible to the user. Furthermore, a notification could be sent to the user when a conflict in merging electronic business cards occurs.

[33] In the example illustrated in figures 4 to 6, the method has been executed with the following version of step 28 "copy the value of the destination entry in a corresponding conflict entry and copy the value of the source entry in the destination entry". For example, for the field "Address Home" the corresponding source and the destination fields have different values, e.g. "251 Main Street" and "233 Dominion". Since the values are different, an empty field is searched in the destination electronic business card 75, and is not found, since all other "Address" fields have a value therein. The step 28 stated above is then executed and the value of the destination field "233 Dominion" is put in a corresponding conflict field of the recycle bin 84 of the destination electronic business card and the value of the source field "251 Main Street" is copied the destination field. A warning value of "Conflict", entered in a field of a warning column 82, can also accompany the recycle bin to specify which type of conflict occurred. Thus each field of the destination electronic business card, for which there were no empty fields of the same type, and that were in conflict with a corresponding field of the source electronic business card have been copied in a corresponding recycle bin 84 field. Furthermore, the recycle bin could contain any other pertinent information, such as dates, versions of electronic business cards, etc.

[34] In the example illustrated in figures 4, 5 and 7, the method has been executed with the following version of step 28 "copy the value of the source entry in a corresponding conflict entry". Thus for fields in conflict, if an empty field could not be found in the destination electronic business card, the value of the source field is copied in a corresponding conflict field of the destination electronic business card. In this example, the "Address Home" field of the source electronic business card was copied in the recycle bin 94. Furthermore, a warning value of "Conflict" was also entered in a field of a warning column 92 for each field in conflict.

[35] Figure 8 illustrates a terminal 30 including modules for merging a source and a destination electronic business card. The terminal comprises a comparator module 34 to compare each source field of the source electronic business card with a corresponding destination field of the destination electronic business card, the source field and destination field being of a same type. The terminal also comprises a search module to search the destination electronic business card for an empty destination field of the same type, if the source field and the destination field have different values. The terminal also comprises a copier module to copy the value of the destination field in the empty destination field and to copy the value of the source field in the destination field, if the function for searching revealed that the empty destination field exists. The terminal is able to execute the method described previously in whole or in part. The terminal can be a computer, a portable device such as a laptop, a PDA (personal digital assistant), a cellular phone, a smart phone, or any other device that can execute the method. The terminal can further comprise a module 40 in communication with a server for downloading at least one of the source and the destination electronic business card from the server.

[36] Figure 9 illustrates a server 50 including modules for merging a source and a destination electronic business card. The server 50 comprises a comparator module to compare each source field of the source electronic business card with a corresponding destination field of the destination electronic business card, the source field and destination field being of a same type. The server further comprises a search module to search the destination electronic business card for an empty destination field of the same type, if the source field and the destination field have different values. The server also comprises a copier module to copy the value of the destination field in the empty destination field and to copy the value of the source field in the destination field, if the function for searching revealed that the empty destination field exists. The server can further comprise a module 60 in communication with a terminal for downloading at least one of the source and the destination electronic business card from the terminal. The server can be a computer of any type, such as a personal computer, a portable device, a mainframe, etc. as apparent to a person skilled in the art.

[37] The comparator module, the search module, the copier module and the modules in communication with the terminal and the server can be implemented in software as a function, a program or any other suitable way or can also be implemented with hardware. Furthermore, the result of the merge of the source and the destination electronic business cards can be stored in the terminal, the server or both, and can overwrite a version of an electronic business card previously stored therein, as it would be apparent to a person skilled in the art. Furthermore, while the method is executed, the data of the vcards could be located in one device or could be distributed among several devices.

[38] The previous examples show that existing electronic business card information are not deleted upon merging, the method reduces the number of conflict fields generated by a merge, compared to a simple field to field merge. The user has less work to do since redundancies can be eliminated with the method and since the occurrence of conflicts upon merging electronic business cards is reduced. Furthermore, the methods may reduce the occurrence of conflicts in future updates. Depending on the needs, the method may be used in a terminal or in a server.

[39] The invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments.

However, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that it is possible to embody the invention in specific forms other than those of the embodiments described above. The described embodiments are merely illustrative and should not be considered restrictive in any way. The scope of the invention is given by the appended claims, rather than the preceding description, and all variations and equivalents that fall within the range of the claims are intended to be embraced therein.

Claims

[1] L A method for merging a source and a destination electronic business card, comprising the steps of, for each source field of the source electronic business card:

- a) comparing the source field with a corresponding destination field of the destination electronic business card, said source field and destination field being of a same type;

- b) when the source field and the destination field have different values, then searching the destination electronic business card for an empty destination field of the same type; and

- c) when step b) reveals that the empty destination field exists, copying the value of the destination field in the empty destination field and copying the value of the source field in the destination field.

[2] 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of, after step c):

- d) when step b) does not reveal that the empty destination exists, copying the value of the destination field in a corresponding conflict field of the destination electronic business card and copying the value of the source field in the destination field.

[3] 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of, after step c):

- d) when step b) does not reveal that the empty destination exists, copying the value of the source field in a corresponding conflict field of the destination electronic business card.

[4] 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising before steps a), the step of: for each other destination field of the destination electronic business card:

- i) when the source field and the other destination field are not corresponding fields, when the source field and the other destination field are of the same type and when the source field and the other destination field have equal values, removing the value of the other destination field.

[5] 5. The method of claim 1, wherein in step a) the source field has an identifier and the destination field has an identifier identical to the identifier of the source field.

[6] 6. A terminal, including modules for merging a source and a destination electronic business card, comprising:

- a comparator module to compare each source field of the source electronic business card with a corresponding destination field of the destination electronic business card, said source field and destination field being of a same type;

- a search module to search the destination electronic business card for an empty destination field of the same type, if the source field and the destination field have different values; and

- a copier module to copy the value of the destination field in the empty destination field and to copy the value of the source field in the destination field, if the function for searching revealed that the empty destination field exists.

[7] 7. The terminal of claim 6, further comprising a module in communication with a server to download at least one of the source and the destination electronic business card from the server.

[8] 8. A server, including modules for merging a source and a destination electronic business card, comprising:

[9] 9. The server of claim 8, further comprising a module in communication with a terminal for downloading at least one of the source and the destination electronic business card from the terminal.