Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Srinivasa Reddy Manda

David Paul Limont

Zohaib Haider Ali

Thomas W Millett

Jun Yan

Sridhar Sundararaman

Kevin Christopher Clement

Samuele Carpineti

Selvaraj Nalliah

David Andrew Howell

James M Lyon

Joseph Patrick Masterson

Kenneth Fern

Russell Lee Simpson, Jr

Andrew James Peacock

Ashutosh Tripathi

Jaya Matthew

Charlie Ricafort Chung

Russell L Simpson, Jr

Eduardo D Melo

David Lloyd Meyers, Jr

William Hart Holmes

Eduardo Da Fonseca Melo

Christian Piccolo

Mihir S Ray

Ankit Goel

Sirish Kumar Balaga

Rahul Singh

David Meyers

Madhur Dixit

Balasubramanian Rajagopalan

Tor-Helge Persett

Sara Louise Manning Dawson

Craig Edward Thomas

Akashdeep Khudia

Sara Manning L M Dawson

Xiao Hu

Tao Zhang

Chanchai Ravindra Kariwala

Mohit Mehtani

Sara Manning LM Dawson

In non-limiting examples of the present disclosure, systems, methods and devices for providing cross-domain access to calendar availability are presented. A request to schedule an event may be received. The request may comprise an identity of an organizer user account, the organizer user account associated with a first domain, and an identity of an invitee user account, the invitee user account associated with a second domain. An importance level of the organizer user account to the invitee user account may be determined. A determination may be made as to whether the organizer user account has access to events in an electronic calendar associated with the invitee user account based on the importance level. One or more events that the organizer account has access to may be surfaced in an event scheduling assistant user interface associated with the organizer user account.

Intelligent event time bridge across domains

Controlling notifications based on an importance of the notifications to users is described. A service provider can receive notifications. The service provider can determine an order for sending the notifications based partly on priority levels assigned to the notifications and positions associated with presentations of the notifications. The service provider can send a first notification to at least one device in a first period of time. The service provider can determine that sending a second notification causes a conflict with a presentation policy. Accordingly, the service provider can determine a second period of time subsequent to the first period of time to send the second notification to the at least one device based partly on a lapse of a predetermined amount of time and/or an occurrence of an event, and can send the second notification to the at least one device in the second period of time.

Smart notifications

Techniques and technologies for smart support systems are described. In at least some embodiments, a method comprises: receiving an indication of a user invoking a support facility due to a problem experienced with a software application; obtaining user-related information including at least one of an age of the user or at least one indication of proficiency of the user with operation of the software application; obtaining problem-related information related to the problem experienced with the software application; and selecting a starting point of a support path based at least partially on the problem-related information and the user-related including at least one of an age of the user or at least one indication of proficiency of the user with operation of the software application, the support path defining one or more operations intended to address the problem experienced with the software application.

Smart support

Variety of approaches to optimize performance based on behavioral and situational signals are described. A productivity service initiates operations to optimize performance upon receiving a behavioral signal and/or a situational signal associated with a user. The behavioral signal and/or the situational signal are analyzed to infer a usage pattern associated with a component of an application. Next, a failure of the usage pattern is detected in a comparison to an utility threshold. In response, the application is instructed to interrupt an execution of the component.

Optimizing performance based on behavioral and situational signals

A computer-implemented technique is described herein for customizing user experience on a per-user basis. In some implementations, the technique involves: collecting feedback information from a user pertaining to the user's interaction with a program feature; determining a modification to be made to the program feature based on the feedback information; making the modification; notifying the user of the modification; and receiving the user's post-modification assessment of the modification. The technique enables a program provider to quickly modify program features in an automated manner, with no (or reduced) effort by human developers, and at consequent reduced cost. In addition, the technique improves the users' experience with the program features since the program modifications are tailored to each user's preferences.

Customizing program features on a per-user basis

Network disconnections are automatically detected between a client application and a server When a disconnection is detected by either the client or server, a determination is made as to whether the disconnection is a temporary disconnection or a longer-lasting disconnection. While disconnected, attempts are made to automatically reconnect the client and server. During the disconnected period, a subset of communication functions remain operable. When the connection is restored, presence/availability information is automatically delivered to the client.

Maintaining communication connections during temporary network disruptions

Providing synchronization notifications to a client device. In response to a server receiving notification that an event of interest has been received, a state of the client device is determined. The state indicates whether or not the client device has any outstanding sync notifications. In an embodiment, the state is determined based on a first parameter and a second parameter. When the state of the client device indicates that the client device has no outstanding sync notifications prior to the receipt the received notification, the first parameter is set equal to the second parameter, and the second parameter is updated after each successful device synchronization of the client device. A filter is applied prior to sending out the sync notification to the client device.

Providing sync notifications to client devices

Providing synchronization notifications to a client device. In response to a server receiving notification that an event of interest has been received, a state of the client device is determined. The state indicates whether or not the client device has any outstanding sync notifications. In an embodiment, the state is determined based on a trackingGUID and a syncGUID. When the state of the client device indicates that the client device has no outstanding sync notifications prior to the receipt the received notification, the trackingGUID is set equal to the syncGUID, which is updated after each successful device synchronization of the client device. A timeout is set equal to a current time plus a predetermined value and the sync notification is sent to the client device. In an alternative embodiment, the sync notification is formatted according to a type of the client device.

Method to provide sync notifications to client devices

The subject invention relates to systems and methods that enable dynamic programming and execution of an electronic communications dialog. In one aspect, a configurable messaging system is provided. The system includes a configuration file to describe interface options of a computerized dialog session, wherein the configuration file specifies interface activities and state transitions between the interface options within the configuration file. A state controller executes the interface options during communications activities with the dialog session. The configuration file can also describe prompt elements to solicit information from users or applications.

Dynamic configuration of unified messaging state changes

A unified messaging (UM) application benefits from platform independence and human intelligibility of eXtended Markup Language (XML). A finite state machine (FSM) of the UM application is created utilizing an XML feature to create a valid menu state based upon a UM software component. For a UM software component that is a context or setting of the UM application, an XML conditional attribute conditions a prompt, transition or grammar node of the UM FSM. For a UM software component that is an XML snippet, an XML importation element replicates the XML snippet upon compilation, avoiding time-consuming and error prone requirements for manual code duplication. For a UM software component such as an external method, function, variable or action, a function wrapping XML tool validates the existence of such external UM software components at build time and captures version information to verify the availability of the same version upon execution.

Unified messaging state machine

Described is a method to provide sync notifications to a client device. The invention maintains a notion of the state of the device. When an event of interest occurs for the mobile device, the server decides whether or not the device needs to be prompted to sync. A parameter that indicates whether an event of interest renders the device no longer up to date from the perspective of the server or whether an event of interest occurs and the device has not contacted the server for a certain period of time is compared to a last known parameter for a device. If the parameters match and the current time is greater than a timeout value, a sync notification is sent. If the parameters don't match, the sync notification is sent. The method is repeated for each event of interest.

Method and computer program product to provide synch notifications to client devices

Generating a series of digits corresponding to a personal identification number (PIN) of a user for unified messaging access to personal information management (PIM) data. Data involved in the generation of the series of digits along with the series of digits are stored for subsequent use during authentication of the user and PIN updates.

Manipulation of unified messaging pins

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Sammamish, WA, United States of America

Srinivasa Reddy Manda