The present invention relates to techniques for transferring e-mail attachments to devices that can render them, such as printers, fax machines, or playback devices.
Various problems can arise in presenting e-mail attachments, such as MIME attachments. An attachment typically defines a document in one of a variety of digital formats meant to accompany the body of an e-mail message, which may also comment on the document. Attachments can, for example, contain images, text, or multimedia documents, other e-mail messages, video, audio, voice, or other information.
Problems can arise in presenting an e-mail attachment using a machine with a small or unusually shaped display. Problems can also arise in presenting an attachment with a machine that has a low speed network connection. These and similar problems in presenting attachments are referred to generally herein as xe2x80x9cattachment presentation problemsxe2x80x9d.
For example, a user reading e-mail from a personal digital assistant (PDA) or mobile telephone may be able to read text of e-mail messages but may also need to know the content of attachments. The user may, however, have difficulty viewing or hearing attachments, both because the machine""s display or speaker cannot present an attachment adequately and also because the machine""s network connection is too slow to allow transfer of an attachment in a reasonable time. Also, the slow, inexpensive central processing units (CPUs) in these devices are often not up to the task of presenting sophisticated multimedia information. The user could view or hear the attachment by finding a regular computer with a modem to connect to the home network and view and hear attachments, but this is often impractical or impossible, and is generally an undesirable complication.
An article from Cahners In-Stat Group, entitled Demand for Wireless Internet: Hype or Reality?, Cahners In-Stat Group, 1999, describes a survey in which 90 percent of mobile data users pointed out the need for wireless Internet access to both send and receive e-mail, while two-thirds stated that it is either very important or extremely important to view attachments in wireless e-mail.
Based on the foregoing, there is a clearly a need to allow users of mobile devices to have access to attachments in a manner that avoids the attachment presentation problems inherent in the use of those devices.
Techniques are provided for avoiding attachment presentation problems by transferring an e-mail attachment to a device that can render it for presentation to the user. According to one aspect of the invention, the system includes a server machine, and the user""s client machine, such as a mobile phone or PDA. The server can present a version of the e-mail item on the user""s client, including a descriptor of the attachment rather than the entire attachment itself. If requested, the server can also transfer the attachment for rendering so that the user can perceive the attachment. The techniques thus make it possible for the user to perceive the attachment in rendered form despite the attachment presentation problems.