Patent ID: 7636939

Claim:
A data structure that is stored on a computer readable medium, the data structure comprising: a SOAP header that contains the following fields: an Uber identity field that includes an Uber name that globally identifies an entity and that associates the entity with a plurality of different endpoint addresses where one or more messages are deliverable to the entity and wherein the Uber name does not specify which of the plurality of endpoint addresses is used for sending a message to the entity; an address field, the address field comprising: the plurality of endpoint addresses, which are each associated with the entity; one or more policies describing when a particular endpoint address is used to send messages to the entity, the one or more policies comprising criteria including at least one of date and/or time ranges, sensitivity of data, urgency or priority of data classification of data, topic of data, user selection as a result of prompting, a machine registered default, an application registered default, a user registered default, application specific logic, custom registered extensions, recipient attributes, or presence of an entity; and wherein the address field specifies which of the plurality of endpoint addresses is used in delivering the one or more messages by implementing the one or more policies; a security field that comprises one or more keys for facilitating secure communications with the entity through at least one of the plurality of endpoint addresses; and wherein the contents of the Uber identity field, the address field and the security field are serialized in the data structure and wherein the data structure is extensible such that new address fields and new security fields may be added in such a way as to be generally associated with the entity though the Uber identity.