Patent ID: 7600048

Claim:
At a server in a distributed environment, a method of providing Web Services over a mail transport by utilizing a MAPI (Messaging Application Program Interface) compliant mail application in order to support offline communications and extended processing time of service requests without creating additional infrastructure for such message exchanges, the method comprising acts of: receiving, at a MAPI compliant mail application running on a server that hosts a Web Service a Web Service message from the Web Service, wherein the Web Service message is received via a custom layered transport that includes a managed MAPI functions layer that is used to convert the Web Service message into an email message that can be sent by the MAPI compliant mail application, wherein the Web Service message is formatted according to an addressing scheme that comprises a transport portion, and an email address portion, wherein the transport portion identifies the use of a MAPI compliant mail application for sending the Web Service message as part of a message exchange pattern between a client and the Web Service that communicate over a mail message transport, and wherein the email address portion defines an email address of the client to which the email message is to be sent, and wherein email messages exchanged between the client and the Web Service are routed through a mail exchange server; identifying, at the managed MAPI functions layer, the mail address portion within the addressing scheme for sending the Web Service message to the client; converting, at the managed MAPI functions layer, the Web Service message into an email message, the email message including the email address of the client, the Web Service message, and an identifier for identifying the Web Service and message exchange type for the Web Service message; and transferring the email message to an outgoing mailbox of the MAPI compliant mail application for subsequent delivery to the client over the mail message transport such that the email message is stored in the outgoing mailbox until a connection is made to the mail exchange server.