Method and system of remote monitoring and support of devices, extracting data from different types of email messages, and storing data according to data structures determined by the message types

Abstract

A method, system and program product for implementing communication to download a driver to a target device or business office appliance using an electronic network message or e-mail. A newest driver for the device / appliance may be downloaded from, for example, a service center connected to the device / appliance through a Wide Area Network (WAN) such as the Internet. The device driver of a client computer using the device / appliance may be updated from the target device / appliance if it is determined that a user of the client computer desires to update the driver of the client computer.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 190,460, filed Nov. 13, 1998, entitled “Method and System for Translating Documents Using Different Translation Resources for Different Portions of the Documents,” which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 654,207, filed May 28, 1996, entitled “Method and System for Translating Documents Using Different Translation Resources for Different Portions of the Documents,” now U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,386; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 997,705, filed Dec. 23, 1997, entitled “Object-oriented System and Computer Program Product for Mapping Structured Information to Different Structured Information,” now U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,196; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 997,705, filed Dec. 23, 1997, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Providing a Graphical User Interface for Creating and Editing a Mapping of a First Structural Description to a Second Structur...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] The inventors have recognized that, for the sake of flexibility, it is desirable to quickly and easily change the message type designation of information concerning remotely monitored devices and appliances, and to easily determine an appropriate data structure by which the received information may be stored. To achieve this goal, the message type designation of a given message's information may be defined within the message itself and extracted at the receiving end before the information is analyzed or stored according to a data structure determined by the message type. The present invention achieves the goal of allowing a large number of devices to communicate configuration, status and / or other types of information in a variety of message types, so that the information can be stored at the receiving end according to data structures that are determined by the message type.

Problems solved by technology

This repeated design, implementation and revision of communication schemes and storage schemes are costly and time-consuming.

Accordingly, communication techniques that are frozen to specific message types and data structures are not well suited to communicating and storing information relating to monitoring or supporting devices of many different types.

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