Contact Management System and Method

Abstract

A computer-implemented contact management method includes creating a contact record in a contact management system, generating a unique serial number corresponding to the contact record, conveying the serial number to a recipient, entering, by the recipient, the serial number into an internet-enabled computer application, requesting, by the application, the record from the contact management system corresponding to the serial number, and receiving data associated with the contact record. The received contact data may be automatically updated through an update function. A contact management system includes a data storage and a contact management server. A plurality of interne-enabled computer applications associated to the same user account may receive the same information using a synchronization function without further user input.

1 . In a network including an information management server, a network device comprising:
 a data storage, a network interface, a processor, and a program memory;   at least one requester application, including
 logic for assigning a unique requester application identifier to the at least one requester application, the requester application identifier not a user identifier and not a network communication address of the network device; 
   information request logic for managing the transmission of requests to the information management server, the information request logic including a means of generating and sending a request, the request including user identification information and user authentication criteria, the requester application identifier, and at least one request type of one of add and update and delete and synchronize, where a request including a request type of add further includes at least one serial number for an information record of at least one different user account, where a request including a request type of delete further includes at least one serial number for an information record of at least one different user account, and where a request including a request type of update or of type synchronize does not include serial numbers for information records of different user accounts;
 data storage logic for creating, reading, updating and deleting information records in the data storage of the network device; 
 information reply logic for managing the transmission of replies from the information management server, the information reply logic including a means of parsing each reply where the reply type of each reply is at least one of add and update and delete and information message, and 
 where a reply of type add results in one of a message indicating that the request for an information record was not approved and a message that the request for an information record is pending approval and the requested information record and its associated serial number, the reply logic including a means of at least one of providing the received information to another logic module of the requester application, and invoking the data storage logic to add a new data record, store the contents of the information record received from the information management system in the new data record, and store the index of the new data record and the corresponding serial number of the received information record in a cross-reference, 
 where a reply of type update results in one of a message indicating that the requester application is up to date and the at least one updated information record and its associated serial number, the reply logic including a means of at least one of providing the received updated information to another logic module of the requester application, and invoking the data storage logic and passing the at least one serial number to the data storage logic to retrieve the index of the corresponding data record from the cross-reference, retrieve the corresponding data record from the data storage and update the data record with the contents of the information record received from the information management system, and, 
 where a reply of type delete results in at least one serial number for an information record to be deleted, the reply logic including a means of at least one of providing the received information to another logic module of the requester application, and invoking the data storage logic and passing the at least one serial number to the data storage logic to retrieve the index of the corresponding data record from the cross-reference, delete the corresponding data record from the data storage, and delete the index and serial number from the cross-reference. 
   
     
     
         2 . The requester application of  claim 1 , wherein the requester application is a document application capable of at least one of generating and rendering a printable document, wherein the printable document contains at least one variable and the document application contains logic capable of substituting the at least one variable with substitute data, and wherein the substitute data is user information contained in the reply received from the information management server and mapped to the at least one variable. 
     
     
         3 . The requester application of  claim 1  wherein the requester application is a web application capable of at least one of presenting a hypertext document with at least one input field for a serial number and receiving an HTTP request containing at least one serial number, making a request from the web application to the information management server for user information associated to the at least one serial number, receiving a reply transmitted from the information management server, generating a hypertext document wherein the hypertext document contains at least one of one or more variables and one or more input fields, the web application containing logic capable of substituting each variable or the value of each input field with substitute data, and wherein the substitute data is user information contained in the reply from the information management server. 
     
     
         4 . The network device of  claim 1 , wherein the network device is a device capable of communicating over a wireless network. 
     
     
         5 . The network device of  claim 1 , wherein the network device is a vehicle navigation system. 
     
     
         6 . The network device of  claim 1 , wherein the network device is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) device. 
     
     
         7 . The requester application of  claim 1 , wherein the means of generating and sending a request includes a requester application type identifying at least one of a data format and a protocol of the first requester application, and the means of parsing each reply including a means of processing each reply where the reply is transmitted with at least one of a data format and a protocol identified by the requester application type. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving at the information management system a request from a first requester application, the request further includes a requester application type indicating at least one of a data format and a protocol of the first requester application, and wherein transmitting to the first requester application further includes transmitting a reply in at least one of a data format and a protocol identified by the requester application type.