Systems and Methods for Providing In-Band and Out-Of-Band Message Processing

Abstract

A personal messaging agent ( 220 ) performs enhanced messaging services. The personal messaging agent ( 220 ) includes a user profile ( 310 ), a message filter ( 320 ), and at least one external helper ( 330 ). The user profile ( 310 ) stores user preferences for processing messages. The message filter ( 320 ) receives messages, performs in-band processing on the messages based on the user preferences, and generates at least one event for triggering out-of-band processing of the messages. The external helpers ( 330 ) perform the out-of-band processing of the messages in response to the event(s).

1 . A personal messaging agent, comprising: 
 a user profile configured to store user preferences for processing messages;    a message filter configured to receive one or more messages, perform in-band processing on the message based on the user preferences, and generate at least one event for triggering out-of-band processing of the message; and    at least one external helper configured to perform the out-of-band processing of the messages in response to the at least one event.    
   
   
       2 . The personal messaging agent of  claim 1 , wherein the message filter includes: 
 a message manager configured to examine the message and modify the message based on the user preferences, and    an event manager configured to send the at least one event to the at least one external helper to trigger the out-of-band processing.    
   
   
       3 . The personal messaging agent of  claim 2 , wherein the message manager includes: 
 a tokenizer configured to read the message and reduce the message to a set of tokens.    
   
   
       4 . The personal messaging agent of  claim 2 , wherein the message manager includes: 
 a plurality of message components corresponding to elements of the message, each of the message components being configured to recognize a specific portion of the message and modify the specific portion based on the user preferences.    
   
   
       5 . The personal messaging agent of  claim 4 , wherein the message components include: 
 a header component configured to process a header portion of the message,    a separator component configured to process a separator portion of the message, and    a body component configured to process a body portion of the message.    
   
   
       6 . The personal messaging agent of  claim 1 , wherein the message filter is further configured to generate an enhanced message from the in-band processing and transmit the enhanced message for delivery to one or more mailboxes associated with one or more message recipients.  
   
   
       7 . The personal messaging agent of  claim 6 , wherein the at least one external helper is configured to further process the message after delivery to the one or more mailboxes.  
   
   
       8 . The personal messaging agent of  claim 7 , wherein the at least one external helper is configured to at least one of automatically generate a reply to the message, deliver the message to one or more alternate mailboxes, and notify the one or more message recipients of the delivery of the message.  
   
   
       9 . A system for providing personal messaging services, comprising: 
 means for storing user preferences for processing at least one message;    means for receiving a message;    means for performing in-band processing on the message based on the user preferences to create a processed message;    means for generating at least one event for triggering out-of-band processing of the processed message; and    means for performing the out-of-band processing of the processed message in response to the at least one event.    
   
   
       10 . A method for providing enhanced messaging services, comprising: 
 receiving a message stream intended for a message recipient;    performing in-band processing on the message stream based on one or more preferences of the message recipient to create a processed message stream;    generating at least one event for triggering out-of-band processing of the processed message stream; and    performing the out-of-band processing of the processed message stream in response to the at least one event.    
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the performing in-band processing includes: 
 examining the message stream, and    modifying the message stream based on the one or more preferences of the message recipient.    
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the examining includes: 
 reading the message stream, and    reducing the message stream to a set of tokens.    
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the performing in-band processing includes: 
 creating a plurality of message components that correspond to elements of the message stream, each of the message components being configured to recognize a specific portion of the message stream and modify the specific portion based on the one or more preferences of the message recipient.    
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the message components include at least a header component, a separator component, and a body component; and 
 wherein the performing in-band processing further includes: 
 processing a header portion of the message stream by the header component,  
 processing a separator portion of the message stream by the separator component, and  
 processing a body portion of the message stream by the body component.  
   
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising: 
 transmitting the processed message stream for delivery as a message to one or more mailboxes associated with the message recipient.    
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the performing out-of-band processing includes: 
 processing the message after delivery to the one or more mailboxes.    
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the processing includes: 
 at least one of automatically generating a reply to the processed message stream, delivering the processed message stream to one or more alternate mailboxes, and notifying the message recipient of the delivery of the processed message stream.