Title of Invention	METHOD FOR UPDATING INFORMATION OF A NETWORK USER
Abstract	The present invention provides a server, method and system for updating information of a network user. The server includes a storage module, operable for storing information of users and storing open-limiting parameters at least for information of a first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive information of the first user; and an update processing module, operable for determining at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters stored in the storage module after receiving the updated information of the first user from a client operated by the first user, and updating the information of the first user included in the information of each of the at least one second user in the storage module.

Title of Invention

METHOD FOR UPDATING INFORMATION OF A NETWORK USER

Abstract

The present invention provides a server, method and system for updating information of a network user. The server includes a storage module, operable for storing information of users and storing open-limiting parameters at least for information of a first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive information of the first user; and an update processing module, operable for determining at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters stored in the storage module after receiving the updated information of the first user from a client operated by the first user, and updating the information of the first user included in the information of each of the at least one second user in the storage module.

Full Text	Server, Method and System for Updating Information of a Network User Field of the Invention The present invention relates to communication systems, and particularly, to a server, method and system for updating information of a network user. Background of the Invention Internet users of various forums, communities, games, etc. all have their own contacts. Information of a contact usually includes contact details and information about the contact's occupation, company, family and so on. Such information can be inputted manually by users. However, with all the contacts modifying and updating their information continually, the information held by a user becomes more and more incomplete. Moreover, the number of contacts of each network user is growing bigger and bigger, workload for inputting the information of each contact manually one by one is fairly intolerable. Therefore, it becomes very important for a network user to maintain exact information of contacts with high efficiency. According to a method in prior art, a 'contact information editing system" is established, and information of all the network users and their contacts' information are both stored in an information database of a server, and the network users are associated with their contacts, i.e., association relation is set up between the network users and their contacts. When a contact of a network user wishes to revise his/her own information, the contact may edit the information through a client device and store the information in the server. Thus a network user may acquire the latest information of the contact and download the information when logging in the server. Thus, the network user can save his/her time and the updating efficiency is improved. In accordance with the prior art, however, a network user still needs to input information manually when editing his/her contacts' information for the first time. More important, there is no control in opening the information of a network user to his/her contacts. Thus, a first network user in the system may acquire all the informafion of a second network user easily as long as the second network user has been in association with the first network user as a contact of the first network user. And the first network user may also obtain the updated information of the second netWork us,er whenever the second network user has logged in the server and revised his/her information. Thus according to the prior art, all the information of any network user (i.e., a contact of other network users) is open to all the network users without any restriction, and furthermore, there are hidden troubles in security. Thus, it is necessary to provide a method of updating information of a network user which enables the information of a user being open only to entitled network users. Summary An aspect of the present invention is to provide a server for updating information of a network user to solve the problem of opening information of a contact to network users without restriction as mentioned in the prior art. Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for updating information of a network user to solved the above-mentioned problem existing in the prior art. Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a system for updating information of a network user to solved the above-mentioned problem existing in the prior art. A server for updating a contact's information of for a network user is also provided, which includes: a storage module, operable for storing information of users and storing open-limiting parameters at least for information of a first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive information of the first user; and an update processing module, operable for determining at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters stored in the storage module after receiving the updated information of the first user from a client operated by the first user, and updating the information of the first user included in the information of each of the at least one second user in the storage module. A method for updating a contact's information of for a network user is also provided, which includes: determining at least one second user according to open-limiting parameters for information of a first user after receiving updated information of the first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining users who are allowed to receive the updated information of the first user, and the at least one second user is allowed to receive the updated information of the first user; updating information of the first user included in the information of the at least one second user according to the updated information of the first user and the open-limiting parameters. According to embodiments of the present invention, the system for updating information of a network user includes: more than one client, connectable to a server, wherein the client operated by a first user is operable for sending updated information of the first user to the server; the server, operable for storing information of users and open-limiting parameters at least for information of the first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user; determining at least one second user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user according to the open-limiting parameters after receiving the updated information of the first user from the client operated by the first user; for each second user, updating information of the first user included in the information of the second user according to the open-limiting parameters for the information of the first user. In accordance with the present invention, the contact's information included in information of a user is updated according to the open options of the contact. Thus, the aimlessness in opening the information of a contact is reduced. Brief Description of the Drawings Fig.l is a diagram illustrating the structure of a system for updating information of a network user in accordance with the present invention; Fig.2 is a diagram illustraTing the structure of a system for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; Fig.3 is a fiow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with the present invention; Fig.4 is a flow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; ' Fig.5 ,is an interaction diagram of updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; Fig.6 is a flow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; Fig.7 is an interaction diagram of updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Embodiments of the Invention The present invention is further explained hereinafter in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings as well as embodiments so as to make the objects, the technical solutions and merits thereof more apparent. It should be appreciated that the embodiments offered herein are used for explaining the present invention only and shall not be used for limiting the protection scope of the present invention. An exemplary process provided by the present invention includes: determining at least one second user according to open-limiting parameters for information of a first user after receiving updated information of the first user, in which the open-limiting parameters are used for determining users who are allowed to receive the updated information of the first user, and the at least one second user is allowed to receive the updated information of the first user; updating information of the first user included in the information of the at least one second user according to the updated information of the first user and the open-limiting parameters. A server which carries out the above process includes a storage module and an update processing module. The storage module is operable for storing information of users and storing open-limiting parameters at least for information of a first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive information of the first user. And the update processing module is operable for determining at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters stored in the storage module after receiving the updated information of the first user from a client operated by the first user, and updating the information of the first user included in the information of each of the at least one second user in the storage module. Adopting the above process, a system can be obtained, and the system includes more than one client and a server. The more than one client is connectable to a server, and the client operated by a first user is operable for sending updated information of the first user to the server. The server is operable for storing information of users and open-limiting parameters at least for information of the first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user; determining at least one second user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user according to the open-limiting parameters after receiving the updated information of the first user from the client operated by the first user; for each second user, updating information of the first user included in the information of the second user according to the open-limiting parameters for the information of the first user. In accordance with the present invention, open options of network users are set via clients and stored in a server, i.e., setting up open-limiting parameters for limiting the open of information of the network users, e.g., which users are allowed to receive the information of a user, or which part of the information of a user is allowed to be received by other users, or which users are allowed to receive a certain part of the information of a user. When a contact of some users edits his/her information and uploads the edited information to the server, the server generates an update list according to the stored open options of the contact. The update list lists at least one user whose information of the contact is to be updated and at least one item to be updated in the information of the contact for each of the at least one user. Then, only the users listed in the update list each receives an update notification. And on receipt of an acknowledgement fed back by each of the listed users, the contact's information which is held by the user and is stored in a storage module is updated correspondingly. For other users who are not listed in the update list and other items not in the update list, the corresponding update will not happen. An update notification is a message sent to a user for notifying the user of an information update of a contact of the user, which may either be concise or detailed, e.g., the update notification may just include an identity of the contact who has just updated his/her information, or the update notification may also include the time of the update, titles of the updated items (e.g., phone number, address) and so on. Preferably, the user who receives the update notification may choose to accept the information update or reject the information update, and if the user accepts the update, an acknowledgement will be sent and the contact's information included in the information of the user will be modified to accord with the updated information of the contact, otherwise, the contact's information included in the information of the user is left unchanged. Thus, the information of the contact can be open to the network users with restriction. Fig.l is a diagram illustrating the structure of a system for updating information of a network user in accordance with the present invention. The system includes a server 100 and a plurality of clients (such as client 200, client 300, .,., client N). At least two clients are involved in a simplest example of the present invention. In the present invention, the clients have identical internal structures and functions, and different clients are operated by different users. Each user may have multiple contacts, and each of them may also operate their respective clients. Therefore, "user" and "contact" involved in the present invention are just relative concepts and each user may be other users' "contact". The two concepts are presented in the present invention and applied in the following description, only to clearly explain the implementation of the present invention and not to limit the protection scope of the present invention. Fig.2 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a system for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The system is the simplest exemplary system in accordance with the present invention, which includes a server 100, a client 200 operated by a user, and a client 300 operated by one contact of the user. The client 200 and the client 300 have identical internal structure and functions. The user has logged in the system through the client 200 while the contact of the user has also logged in through the client 300. As described above, the "user" and "contact" in the present invention are just relative concepts. The server 100 is connected with the client 200 and the client 300 respectively, and includes a transceiver 101, an update processing module 102 and a storage module 103. (1) The transceiver 101 is connected to the update processing module 102, operable for receiving and sending network data, and controlled by the update processing module 102. Specifically, the operations performed by the transceiver 101 at least include the following steps. The transceiver 101 forwards an information editing request sent by the client 200 to the client 300, and receives the contact's information sent by the client 300. The transceiver 101 sends the information to the update processing module 102, and sends an update notification to the users listed in an update list generated by the update processing module 102, in which the users include the user operating the client 200. Then the transceiver 101 receives an acknowledgement fed back by the client 200 and sends the acknowledgement to the update processing module 102. (2) The update processing module 102 is connected with the transceiver 101 and the storage module 103 respectively, operable for updating a contact's information of a user. Specifically, the following operations are performed. The update processing module 102 updates the information of the contact saved in the storage module 103 on receipt of the edited information of the contact sent by the client 300, and obtains the open options of the contact from the storage module 103. Then the update processing module 102 generates an update list and a corresponding update record according to the open options of the contact, and stores the list and the record into the storage module 103. For each of the users who, according to the open options of the contact, are allowed to receive the updated information, an update record is generated and stored in the storage module 103, preferably in the stored information of each of the users. The update processing module 102 also generates at lest one update notification which is to be sent by the transceiver 101 respectively to at least one user who is listed in the update list (including the user operating the client 200) and who is online. On receipt of an acknowledgement sent by the client 200, the update processing module 102 updates the contact's information included in the information of the user operating the client 200 in the storage module 103 according to the acknowledgement and deleting the update record stored in the storage module 103. For users who are listed in the update list and who are not online, an update notification will be generated according to the update record stored in the storage module 103 when one of the user logging in the system, and the update notification will be sent to the user, then the update record will be deleted after an acknowledgement is received from the user. (3) The storage module 103 is connected with the update processing module 102 and operable for storing related information of each user (including information related to the above concepts 'user" and 'contact"), including: information of the user, a list of the user's contacts, information of the user's contacts, open options of the user, an update list, an update record, etc. Some of the information is uploaded by the client 200 and the client 300. Supposing in an embodiment that there are four users of A, B, C and D in the system and the four users are contacts of each other, the related information of the four users are independently stored in the storage module 103 of the server 100. User A has three contacts B, C and D and thus the stored related information of user A may include: information of user A, a list of the contacts of user A (i.e. B, C and D), information of the contacts held by user A, open options of user A (e.g., fully open to B and C while partially open to D), an update list and an update record. It should be noted that since open options for information are introduced in the present invention and the stored information of users are independent, i.e., information of users stored in the storage module 103 are not associated, instead, a contact's information is included in the user's information, and the contact's information included in the user A's information may be different from the contact's information uploaded by the contact. The client 200 is connected to the server 100 and includes a transceiver 201 and an information management module 202. (1) The transceiver 201 is operable for receiving various messages sent by the server 100, delivering the messages to the information management module 202, and sending various messages generated by the information management module 202 to the server 100. (2) The information management module 202 is connected with the transceiver 201 and specifically, performs the following operations. The information management module 202 downloads the information of a contact of the user and edits the information of both the user and the contact. The information management module 202 also sets open options for the information of the user and uploading the open options to the server 100 through the transceiver 201 for storage. The information management module 202 generates an information editing request for the client 300 if the user wants to initiatively update or create the information of a certain contact. Since the structure of the system is peer to peer, and 'user" and "contact" are just relative concepts, the user may also receive an information editing request sent by the client 300 and process the request. The information management module 202 parses and displays the update record sent by the server 100 for the user to acknowledge the update record when a contact revises his/her information and the corresponding information are generated in the server 100. The client 300 is connected to the server 100. Since the system shown in Fig.2 has a peer to peer structure, and the 'user" and the "contact" are just relative concepts, the inner structure of the client 300 is identical with that of the client 200. Specifically, the client 300 includes a transceiver 301 and an information management module 302 and the functions of the modules are the same as those of the client 200. These will not be described herein. It should be noted that the above description is only an illustration of the simplest system in accordance with the present invention and is not for limiting the protection scope of the present invention. Fig.3 is a flow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with the present invention. There is a step of setting open options for the information of all the users in a system before other steps in accordance with the present invention are performed. The step is described by taking setting open options for the information of the user operating the client 200 as an example, which includes the following steps. (1) Classify the user's contacts and the information of the user according to classification settings in the information management module 202. Suppose that there are four users A, B, C and D in the system and each of the four users are contacts of the others of the four users in an embodiment. Take user A as an example. User A operates the client 200 and has three contacts B, C and D which respectively operates three clients other than the client 200, e.g., contact C operates the client 300. Suppose that the information management module 202 in the client 200 operated by user A takes social attributes as the classification principle in the classification settings. For example, contacts of user A may be classified into family member, friend and customer while the information of user A may be classified into family information, hobby information and career information, etc. The information of each class can be called a "card" according to the present invention. Thus, the information of a contact may include multiple cards according to the present embodiment, e.g., a family card, a hobby card and a career card. (2) Set different open levels (e.g., fully open, fully secret and user-defmed open) for the different classes of contacts according to the above classification, and the open level indicates the part of information which is to be opened, e.g., for fully open, all information is allowed to be received by the class of contacts, and for fully secret, none of the information is allowed to be received by the class of contacts, and for user-defined open, a user may specify one or more classes of information, i.e. information card, which is allowed to be received by the class of contacts. In this embodiment, contact B of user A may be classified as family member, contact C as friend, and contact D as customer. Meanwhile, the information open contents corresponding to the classes are set, e.g., fully open for family member, the family card and the hobby card being open for friend, and the career card being open for customer. Accordingly, the open options table of user A is shown in the following table. Contact Class Open level Open contents B Family member Fully open Family card, hobby card, and career card C Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card D Customer Partially open Career card Correspondingly, the open options table of contact C operating the client 300 is shown in the following table. Contact Class Open level Open contents A Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card B Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card D Customer Partially open Career card After the open options are set in the information management module 202 and the information management module 302, the open options of user A and contact C are sent to the server 100 through the transceiver 201 and the transceiver 301 respectively. The server 100 receives the open options of all the users and stores the open options into the storage module 103 for future use. Above described is just an exemplary method for classification and of setting open options. Other potential classifications and open options may also be used in the present invention. In step S30l. the server 100 receives the edited information of the contact sent by the client 300 and stores the information into the storage module 103. In the present invention, there may be at least two situations when the client of a contact sends edited information of the contact to the server 100. In one situation, the contact edits his/her information and uploads the information to the server 100. In another situation, the client 200 sends an information editing request to the client 300 when the user wishes to update or create the information of the contact, and the client 300 uploads the edited information of the contact to the server 100. It should be clear that the server 100 may receive the edited information of the contact sent by the client 300 for various reasons according to the present invention, and the reasons for which the server 100 receives the edited information should not be limited to a certain one. In step S302, the server 100 generates an update list according to the open options of the contact stored in the storage module 103, and sends an update notification to the users in the update list. For example, the open options table of contact C stored in the storage module 103 is shown as in the following table: Contact Class Open level Open contents A Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card B Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card D Customer Partially open Career card Accordingly, the update processing module 102 generates an update list according to the above open options table. The update list includes: the users whose information corresponding to the contact is to be updated and the items to be updated in the information. Supposing in the above example, when only the hobby card in the information uploaded to the server 100 by contact C is revised compared with the original information, the update processing module 102 generates an update list according to the open options table of contact C, the update list is as shown in the following table. Contact Class To be updated or not Items to be updated A Friend Yes Hobby card B Friend Yes Hobby card D Customer No None Then, the update processing module 102 sends update notifications to the users concerned according to the contents of the list. An update notification includes the items revised by the contact and an inquiry about whether the user wishes to change the information of contact C stored in the storage module 103 into the revised information. Still in the above example, the notification specifically includes the contents as follows. "Notifying A that: contact C has revised the hobby card; the revision includes ...; update the information or not?" 'Notifying B that: contact C has revised the hobby card; the revision includes ...; update the information or not?" In step S303, the information management module 202 sends an acknowledgement to the server 100 after the client 200 receives the update notification and allows the update, and the server 100 revises the contact's information of the users listed in the update list according to the acknowledgement. Fig.4 is a flow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a contact initiatively revises his/her information and uploads the information to the server 100 as the above described first situation. Detailed interaction process is illustrated in Fig.5. A step of setting open options for the information of all the users in the system is performed before other steps. The step has been described in detail with reference to Fig.3, so it will not be described herein. In step S401, the client 300 uploads revised information of the contact to the server 100. In this embodiment, the contact revises his/her information through the client 300, and the information management module 302 uploads the revised information of the contact to the server 100 through the transceiver 301. In step S402, the server 100 receives the revised information of the contact and stores the information into the storage module 103. Herein, the contact's information in the related information of the user has not been revised yet. In step S403, the server 100 derives the open options of the contact in the storage module 103 and generates an update list and update records. As shown in Fig.5, the process specifically includes: (1) acquiring the open options of the contact; (2) acquiring the list to be updated by the contact; (3) generating an update list and an update record according to the open options and the list acquired. In an embodiment, there are four users A, B, C and D in a system and the open options table of contact C stored in the storage module 103 is as shown in the following table. Contact Class Open level Open contents A Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card B Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card D Customer Partially open Career card Supposing that compared with the original information, only the hobby card in the information uploaded by contact C to the server 100 is revised, the update processing module 102 generates the following update list according to the open options information table of contact C: Contact Class To be updated or not Items to be updated A Friend Yes Hobby card B Friend Yes Hobby card D Customer No None In this step, the update record is also stored. In step S404, the server 100 sends an update notification to the client 200 in the updated list. Still according to the above embodiment, the update notification may include the items revised by the contact and an inquiry about whether the user wishes to change the information of contact C in the information of the user stored in the storage module 103 into the revised information , e.g.. ' 'Notifying A that: contact C has revised the hobby card; the revision includes ...; update or not?'" "'Notifying B that: contact C has revised the hobby card; the revision includes ...; update or not?" In step S405. the client 200 receives the update notification and feeds back an acknowledgement to the server 100. As shown in Fig.5, the process specifically includes: (1) the information management module 202 in the client 200 parses and displays the update notification for the user; (2) if the user allows the update, the information management module 202 generates an acknowledgement and the transceiver 201 feeds the message back to the server 100. In step S406, the server 100 updates the contact's information in the information of the user and deletes the update record according to the acknowledgement sent by the client 200. Fig.6 is a flow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the contact uploads the edited information to the server 100 in response to an information editing request initiated by the user as the above described second situation. Detailed interaction process is illustrated in Fig.7. A step of setting open options for the information of all the users in a system is performed before other steps. The step has been described in detail with reference to Fig.3, so it will not be described herein. In step S601, the client 200 initiates an information editing request to the client 300. As shown in Fig.7, the process specifically includes: (1) the client 200 firstly sends the information editing request to the server 100; (2) the server 100 generates and stores a request record on receipt of the information editing request; (3) the server 100 forwards the information editing request to the client 300. In an embodiment, there are four users A, B, C and D in a system, the four users are contacts of one another, in which user A operates the client 200, and contact C, a contact of user A, operates the client 300. In step S601, user A initiates an information editing request to the client 300 when user A wishes to update the information of contact C in the information of the user in the storage module 103 in the server 100. ' In step S602, the client 300 feeds back the edited information of the contact to the server 100. As shown in Fig.7, the process specifically includes: (1) the contact edits the information through the information management module 302 in the client 300 and returns a response for the request; (2) the client 300 uploads the response including the edited information of the contact to the server 100 through the transceiver 301. In step S603, the server 100 receives and stores the edited information of the contact. In step S604, the server 100 derives the open options of the contact in the storage module 103 and generates an update list and an update record. In this embodiment, since the request is a one-to-one request initiated by the user to the contact, only the user initiating the request is in the generated updated list. Still according to the above described embodiment, the open options table of contact C stored in the storage module 103 is as shown in the following table: Supposing that compared with the original information, only the hobby card in the information uploaded to the server 100 by contact C is revised, the update processing module 102 would generates the following update list according to the open options table of contact C according to the embodiment: In step S605, the server 100 sends an update notification to the client 200 which initiated the request. Still according to the above embodiment, the update notification includes the items revised by the contact and an inquiry about whether the user wishes to change the information of contact C in the information of the user stored in the storage module 103 into the revised information, e.g.. ' 'Notifying A that: contact C has revised the hobby card; the revision includes ...; update or not?' In step S606, the client 200 feeds back an acknowledgement to the server 100 on receipt of the update notification. In step S607, the server 100 updates the contact's information in the information of the user and deletes the update record stored in step S604 according to the acknowledgement of the client 200. In the above embodiment, the operation efficiency is improved by creating or updating the information of a contact using a request-feedback scheme. It should be noted that the typical applications of the present invention include but are not limited to the updating of a contact's information in the information of users of forums, communities, games, etc. The method described in the present invention may also be applied in updating a contact's information in the information of other similar network users. The foregoing description is only preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not for use in limiting the protection scope thereof All the modifications, equivalent replacements or improvements in the scope of the present invention's sprit and principles shall be included in the protection scope of the present invention. Claims 1. A server for updating information of a network user, comprising: a storage module, operable for storing information of users and storing open-limiting parameters at least for information of a first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive information of the first user; and an update processing module, operable for determining at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters stored in the storage module after receiving the updated information of the first user from a client operated by the first user, and updating the information of the first user included in the information of each of the at least one second user in the storage module. 2. The server for updating information of a network user of Claim 1, wherein the information of the first user stored in the storage module is classified into at least one class, and the open-limiting parameters are further used for determining at least one class being allowed to be received by other users in information of the fist user. 3. The server for updating information of a network user of Claim 2, wherein the update processing module is further operable for generating, according to the open-limiting parameters, an update list which lists at least one second user and at least one to-be-updated class of information of the first user included in the information of the second user in the storage module. 4. The server for updating information of a network user of Claim 3, wherein the update processing module is further operable for generating and sending an update notification to each of the at least one second user listed in the update list, wherein the update notification comprises at least an identity of the first user; and updating the at least one to-be-updated class of information of the first user included in the information of a second user in the storage module according to the updated information of the first user after receiving an acknowledgement from the second user. 5. The server for updating information of a network user of Claim 3, wherein the update processing module is further operable for generating at least one update record according to the open-limiting parameters and the updated information of the first user in the storage module, and storing the at least one update record in the information of the at least one second user listed in the update list; generating and sending an update notification to each of the at least one second user who is listed in the update list and who is being online; generating and sending, according to an update record stored in information of a second user when the second user has just logged in the system, an update notification to the just-logged-in second user; and deleting the update record stored in the information of a second user in the storage module after receiving an acknowledgement from the second user. 6. The server for updating information of a network user of Claim 1, wherein the update processing module is further operable for receiving an information editing request from a second user which requests updating information of the first user, and sending the information editing request to the first user. 7. A method for updating information of a network user, comprising: determining at least one second user according to open-limiting parameters for information of a first user after receiving updated information of the first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining users who are allowed to receive the updated information of the first user, and the at least one second user is allowed to receive the updated information of the first user; updating information of the first user included in the information of the at least one second user according to the updated information of the first user and the open-limiting parameters. 8. The method for updating information of a network user of Claim 7, wherein the information of the first user is classified into at least one class, and the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one second user being allowed to receive at least one class of the information of the first user; and the determining the at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters comprises: determining at least one to-be-updated class of information of the first user according to the updated information of the first user; and for each determined class, determining at least one second user being allowed to receive the determined class according to the open-limiting parameters. 9. The method for updating information of a network user of Claim 8, wherein the first user has at least one contact, and the at least one contact is classified into at least one class of contact; and the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one class of contact being allowed to receive each class of information of the first user; and the determining the at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters comprises: determining at least one second user belonging to at least one class of contact being allowed to receive the determined class of the updated information. 10. The method for updating information of a network user of Claims 8, further comprising: generating and storing, according to the open-limiting parameters and the updated information of the first user, an update list which lists at least one second user whose information is to be updated and the determined class of information. 11. The method for updating information of a network user of Claims 10, further comprising: generating and sending an update notification to each of the at least one second user listed in the update list, wherein the update notification comprises at least an identity of the first user; and updating the determined class of information of the first user included in the information of a second user according to the updated information of the first user after receiving an acknowledgement from the second user. 12. The method for updating information of a network user of Claims 10, further comprising: ' generating at least one update record according to the open-limiting parameters and the updated information of the first user, and storing the at least one update record in the stored information of the at least one second user listed in the update list; generating and sending an update notification to the second user who is listed in the update list and who is being online; generating and sending, according to an update record stored in information of a second user when the second user has just logged in the system, an update notification to the just-logged-in second user; and deleting the update record stored in the information of the second user after receiving an acknowledgement from the second user. 13. The method for updating information of a network user of Claims 7, further comprising: receiving an information editing request from a second user which requests updating information of the first user, and sending the information editing request to the first user. 14. The method for updating information of a network user of Claims 7, further comprising: receiving and storing the open-limiting parameters for the information of the first user from the first user. 15. A system for updating informafion of a network user, comprising: more than one client, connectable to a server, wherein the client operated by a first user is operable for sending updated information of the first user to the server; the server, operable for storing information of users and open-limifing parameters at least for information of the first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for det ermining at least one user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user; determining at least one second user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user according to the open-limiting parameters after receiving the updated information of the first user from the client operated by the first user; for each second user, updating information of the first user included in the information of the second user according to the open-limiting parameters for the information of the first user. 16. The system for updating information of a network user of Claim 15, wherein the client operated by the first user is further operable for sending the open-limiting parameters for information of the first user to the server; the server is further operable for receiving and storing the open-limiting parameters. 17. The system for updating information of a network user of Claim 15, wherein the client operated by a second user is further operable for sending to the server an information editing request which requests updating information of the first user; and the server is further operable for sending the information editing request to the client operated by the first user. 18. The system for updating information of a network user of Claim 15, wherein the server is further operable for sending, for each second user, an update notification which at least comprises an identity of the first user respectively to a client operated by the second user, updating the information of the first user included in information of the second user according to the updated information of the first user and the open-limiting parameters after receiving an acknowledgement from the client operated by the second user; and the client operated by the second user is further operable for receiving and displaying the update notification sent by the server, and sending an acknowledgement to the server when the second user accepts the update.

Full Text

Server, Method and System for Updating Information of a
Network User
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication systems, and particularly, to a server, method and system for updating information of a network user.
Background of the Invention
Internet users of various forums, communities, games, etc. all have their own contacts. Information of a contact usually includes contact details and information about the contact's occupation, company, family and so on. Such information can be inputted manually by users. However, with all the contacts modifying and updating their information continually, the information held by a user becomes more and more incomplete. Moreover, the number of contacts of each network user is growing bigger and bigger, workload for inputting the information of each contact manually one by one is fairly intolerable. Therefore, it becomes very important for a network user to maintain exact information of contacts with high efficiency.
According to a method in prior art, a 'contact information editing system" is established, and information of all the network users and their contacts' information are both stored in an information database of a server, and the network users are associated with their contacts, i.e., association relation is set up between the network users and their contacts. When a contact of a network user wishes to revise his/her own information, the contact may edit the information through a client device and store the information in the server. Thus a network user may acquire the latest information of the contact and download the information when logging in the server. Thus, the network user can save his/her time and the updating efficiency is improved.
In accordance with the prior art, however, a network user still needs to input information manually when editing his/her contacts' information for the first time. More important, there is no control in opening the information of a network user to his/her contacts. Thus, a first network user in the system may acquire all the informafion of a second network user easily as long as the second network user has been in association with the first network user as a contact of the first network user. And the first network user may also obtain the updated information of the second

netWork us,er whenever the second network user has logged in the server and revised his/her information. Thus according to the prior art, all the information of any network user (i.e., a contact of other network users) is open to all the network users without any restriction, and furthermore, there are hidden troubles in security.
Thus, it is necessary to provide a method of updating information of a network user which enables the information of a user being open only to entitled network users.
Summary
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a server for updating information of a network user to solve the problem of opening information of a contact to network users without restriction as mentioned in the prior art.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for updating information of a network user to solved the above-mentioned problem existing in the prior art.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a system for updating information of a network user to solved the above-mentioned problem existing in the prior art.
A server for updating a contact's information of for a network user is also provided, which includes:
a storage module, operable for storing information of users and storing open-limiting parameters at least for information of a first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive information of the first user; and
an update processing module, operable for determining at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters stored in the storage module after receiving the updated information of the first user from a client operated by the first user, and updating the information of the first user included in the information of each of the at least one second user in the storage module.
A method for updating a contact's information of for a network user is also provided, which includes:
determining at least one second user according to open-limiting parameters for information of a first user after receiving updated information of the first user,

wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining users who are allowed to receive the updated information of the first user, and the at least one second user is allowed to receive the updated information of the first user;
updating information of the first user included in the information of the at least one second user according to the updated information of the first user and the open-limiting parameters.
According to embodiments of the present invention, the system for updating information of a network user includes:
more than one client, connectable to a server, wherein the client operated by a first user is operable for sending updated information of the first user to the server;
the server, operable for storing information of users and open-limiting parameters at least for information of the first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user; determining at least one second user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user according to the open-limiting parameters after receiving the updated information of the first user from the client operated by the first user; for each second user, updating information of the first user included in the information of the second user according to the open-limiting parameters for the information of the first user.
In accordance with the present invention, the contact's information included in information of a user is updated according to the open options of the contact. Thus, the aimlessness in opening the information of a contact is reduced.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Fig.l is a diagram illustrating the structure of a system for updating information of a network user in accordance with the present invention;
Fig.2 is a diagram illustraTing the structure of a system for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
Fig.3 is a fiow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with the present invention;
Fig.4 is a flow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

' Fig.5 ,is an interaction diagram of updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
Fig.6 is a flow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
Fig.7 is an interaction diagram of updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
Embodiments of the Invention
The present invention is further explained hereinafter in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings as well as embodiments so as to make the objects, the technical solutions and merits thereof more apparent. It should be appreciated that the embodiments offered herein are used for explaining the present invention only and shall not be used for limiting the protection scope of the present invention.
An exemplary process provided by the present invention includes: determining at least one second user according to open-limiting parameters for information of a first user after receiving updated information of the first user, in which the open-limiting parameters are used for determining users who are allowed to receive the updated information of the first user, and the at least one second user is allowed to receive the updated information of the first user; updating information of the first user included in the information of the at least one second user according to the updated information of the first user and the open-limiting parameters.
A server which carries out the above process includes a storage module and an update processing module. The storage module is operable for storing information of users and storing open-limiting parameters at least for information of a first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive information of the first user. And the update processing module is operable for determining at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters stored in the storage module after receiving the updated information of the first user from a client operated by the first user, and updating the information of the first user included in the information of each of the at least one second user in the storage module.

Adopting the above process, a system can be obtained, and the system includes more than one client and a server. The more than one client is connectable to a server, and the client operated by a first user is operable for sending updated information of the first user to the server. The server is operable for storing information of users and open-limiting parameters at least for information of the first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user; determining at least one second user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user according to the open-limiting parameters after receiving the updated information of the first user from the client operated by the first user; for each second user, updating information of the first user included in the information of the second user according to the open-limiting parameters for the information of the first user.
In accordance with the present invention, open options of network users are set via clients and stored in a server, i.e., setting up open-limiting parameters for limiting the open of information of the network users, e.g., which users are allowed to receive the information of a user, or which part of the information of a user is allowed to be received by other users, or which users are allowed to receive a certain part of the information of a user. When a contact of some users edits his/her information and uploads the edited information to the server, the server generates an update list according to the stored open options of the contact. The update list lists at least one user whose information of the contact is to be updated and at least one item to be updated in the information of the contact for each of the at least one user. Then, only the users listed in the update list each receives an update notification. And on receipt of an acknowledgement fed back by each of the listed users, the contact's information which is held by the user and is stored in a storage module is updated correspondingly. For other users who are not listed in the update list and other items not in the update list, the corresponding update will not happen. An update notification is a message sent to a user for notifying the user of an information update of a contact of the user, which may either be concise or detailed, e.g., the update notification may just include an identity of the contact who has just updated his/her information, or the update notification may also include the time of the update, titles of the updated items (e.g., phone number, address) and so on. Preferably, the user who receives the update notification may choose to accept the information update or reject the information

update, and if the user accepts the update, an acknowledgement will be sent and the contact's information included in the information of the user will be modified to accord with the updated information of the contact, otherwise, the contact's information included in the information of the user is left unchanged. Thus, the information of the contact can be open to the network users with restriction.
Fig.l is a diagram illustrating the structure of a system for updating information of a network user in accordance with the present invention.
The system includes a server 100 and a plurality of clients (such as client 200, client 300, .,., client N). At least two clients are involved in a simplest example of the present invention.
In the present invention, the clients have identical internal structures and functions, and different clients are operated by different users. Each user may have multiple contacts, and each of them may also operate their respective clients. Therefore, "user" and "contact" involved in the present invention are just relative concepts and each user may be other users' "contact". The two concepts are presented in the present invention and applied in the following description, only to clearly explain the implementation of the present invention and not to limit the protection scope of the present invention.
Fig.2 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a system for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The system is the simplest exemplary system in accordance with the present invention, which includes a server 100, a client 200 operated by a user, and a client 300 operated by one contact of the user. The client 200 and the client 300 have identical internal structure and functions. The user has logged in the system through the client 200 while the contact of the user has also logged in through the client 300. As described above, the "user" and "contact" in the present invention are just relative concepts.
The server 100 is connected with the client 200 and the client 300 respectively, and includes a transceiver 101, an update processing module 102 and a storage module 103.
(1) The transceiver 101 is connected to the update processing module 102, operable for receiving and sending network data, and controlled by the update processing module 102. Specifically, the operations performed by the transceiver 101

at least include the following steps. The transceiver 101 forwards an information editing request sent by the client 200 to the client 300, and receives the contact's information sent by the client 300. The transceiver 101 sends the information to the update processing module 102, and sends an update notification to the users listed in an update list generated by the update processing module 102, in which the users include the user operating the client 200. Then the transceiver 101 receives an acknowledgement fed back by the client 200 and sends the acknowledgement to the update processing module 102.
(2) The update processing module 102 is connected with the transceiver 101 and the storage module 103 respectively, operable for updating a contact's information of a user. Specifically, the following operations are performed. The update processing module 102 updates the information of the contact saved in the storage module 103 on receipt of the edited information of the contact sent by the client 300, and obtains the open options of the contact from the storage module 103. Then the update processing module 102 generates an update list and a corresponding update record according to the open options of the contact, and stores the list and the record into the storage module 103. For each of the users who, according to the open options of the contact, are allowed to receive the updated information, an update record is generated and stored in the storage module 103, preferably in the stored information of each of the users. The update processing module 102 also generates at lest one update notification which is to be sent by the transceiver 101 respectively to at least one user who is listed in the update list (including the user operating the client 200) and who is online. On receipt of an acknowledgement sent by the client 200, the update processing module 102 updates the contact's information included in the information of the user operating the client 200 in the storage module 103 according to the acknowledgement and deleting the update record stored in the storage module 103. For users who are listed in the update list and who are not online, an update notification will be generated according to the update record stored in the storage module 103 when one of the user logging in the system, and the update notification will be sent to the user, then the update record will be deleted after an acknowledgement is received from the user.
(3) The storage module 103 is connected with the update processing module 102 and operable for storing related information of each user (including information

related to the above concepts 'user" and 'contact"), including: information of the user, a list of the user's contacts, information of the user's contacts, open options of the user, an update list, an update record, etc. Some of the information is uploaded by the client 200 and the client 300. Supposing in an embodiment that there are four users of A, B, C and D in the system and the four users are contacts of each other, the related information of the four users are independently stored in the storage module 103 of the server 100. User A has three contacts B, C and D and thus the stored related information of user A may include: information of user A, a list of the contacts of user A (i.e. B, C and D), information of the contacts held by user A, open options of user A (e.g., fully open to B and C while partially open to D), an update list and an update record. It should be noted that since open options for information are introduced in the present invention and the stored information of users are independent, i.e., information of users stored in the storage module 103 are not associated, instead, a contact's information is included in the user's information, and the contact's information included in the user A's information may be different from the contact's information uploaded by the contact.
The client 200 is connected to the server 100 and includes a transceiver 201 and an information management module 202.
(1) The transceiver 201 is operable for receiving various messages sent by the server 100, delivering the messages to the information management module 202, and sending various messages generated by the information management module 202 to the server 100.
(2) The information management module 202 is connected with the transceiver

201 and specifically, performs the following operations. The information management module 202 downloads the information of a contact of the user and edits the information of both the user and the contact. The information management module
202 also sets open options for the information of the user and uploading the open options to the server 100 through the transceiver 201 for storage. The information management module 202 generates an information editing request for the client 300 if the user wants to initiatively update or create the information of a certain contact. Since the structure of the system is peer to peer, and 'user" and "contact" are just relative concepts, the user may also receive an information editing request sent by the client 300 and process the request. The information management module 202 parses

and displays the update record sent by the server 100 for the user to acknowledge the update record when a contact revises his/her information and the corresponding information are generated in the server 100.
The client 300 is connected to the server 100. Since the system shown in Fig.2 has a peer to peer structure, and the 'user" and the "contact" are just relative concepts, the inner structure of the client 300 is identical with that of the client 200. Specifically, the client 300 includes a transceiver 301 and an information management module 302 and the functions of the modules are the same as those of the client 200. These will not be described herein.
It should be noted that the above description is only an illustration of the simplest system in accordance with the present invention and is not for limiting the protection scope of the present invention.
Fig.3 is a flow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with the present invention.
There is a step of setting open options for the information of all the users in a system before other steps in accordance with the present invention are performed. The step is described by taking setting open options for the information of the user operating the client 200 as an example, which includes the following steps.
(1) Classify the user's contacts and the information of the user according to classification settings in the information management module 202. Suppose that there are four users A, B, C and D in the system and each of the four users are contacts of the others of the four users in an embodiment. Take user A as an example. User A operates the client 200 and has three contacts B, C and D which respectively operates three clients other than the client 200, e.g., contact C operates the client 300. Suppose that the information management module 202 in the client 200 operated by user A takes social attributes as the classification principle in the classification settings. For example, contacts of user A may be classified into family member, friend and customer while the information of user A may be classified into family information, hobby information and career information, etc. The information of each class can be called a "card" according to the present invention. Thus, the information of a contact may include multiple cards according to the present embodiment, e.g., a family card, a hobby card and a career card.

(2) Set different open levels (e.g., fully open, fully secret and user-defmed open) for the different classes of contacts according to the above classification, and the open level indicates the part of information which is to be opened, e.g., for fully open, all information is allowed to be received by the class of contacts, and for fully secret, none of the information is allowed to be received by the class of contacts, and for user-defined open, a user may specify one or more classes of information, i.e. information card, which is allowed to be received by the class of contacts. In this embodiment, contact B of user A may be classified as family member, contact C as friend, and contact D as customer. Meanwhile, the information open contents corresponding to the classes are set, e.g., fully open for family member, the family card and the hobby card being open for friend, and the career card being open for customer. Accordingly, the open options table of user A is shown in the following table.

Contact Class Open level Open contents
B Family member Fully open Family card, hobby card, and career card
C Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card
D Customer Partially open Career card
Correspondingly, the open options table of contact C operating the client 300 is shown in the following table.

Contact Class Open level Open contents
A Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card
B Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card
D Customer Partially open Career card
After the open options are set in the information management module 202 and the information management module 302, the open options of user A and contact C are sent to the server 100 through the transceiver 201 and the transceiver 301 respectively. The server 100 receives the open options of all the users and stores the open options into the storage module 103 for future use. Above described is just an

exemplary method for classification and of setting open options. Other potential classifications and open options may also be used in the present invention.
In step S30l. the server 100 receives the edited information of the contact sent by the client 300 and stores the information into the storage module 103. In the present invention, there may be at least two situations when the client of a contact sends edited information of the contact to the server 100. In one situation, the contact edits his/her information and uploads the information to the server 100. In another situation, the client 200 sends an information editing request to the client 300 when the user wishes to update or create the information of the contact, and the client 300 uploads the edited information of the contact to the server 100. It should be clear that the server 100 may receive the edited information of the contact sent by the client 300 for various reasons according to the present invention, and the reasons for which the server 100 receives the edited information should not be limited to a certain one.
In step S302, the server 100 generates an update list according to the open options of the contact stored in the storage module 103, and sends an update notification to the users in the update list. For example, the open options table of contact C stored in the storage module 103 is shown as in the following table:

Contact Class Open level Open contents
A Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card
B Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card
D Customer Partially open Career card
Accordingly, the update processing module 102 generates an update list according to the above open options table. The update list includes: the users whose information corresponding to the contact is to be updated and the items to be updated in the information.
Supposing in the above example, when only the hobby card in the information uploaded to the server 100 by contact C is revised compared with the original information, the update processing module 102 generates an update list according to the open options table of contact C, the update list is as shown in the following table.

Contact Class To be updated or not Items to be updated

A Friend Yes Hobby card
B Friend Yes Hobby card
D Customer No None
Then, the update processing module 102 sends update notifications to the users concerned according to the contents of the list. An update notification includes the items revised by the contact and an inquiry about whether the user wishes to change the information of contact C stored in the storage module 103 into the revised information. Still in the above example, the notification specifically includes the contents as follows.
"Notifying A that: contact C has revised the hobby card; the revision includes ...; update the information or not?"
'Notifying B that: contact C has revised the hobby card; the revision includes ...; update the information or not?"
In step S303, the information management module 202 sends an acknowledgement to the server 100 after the client 200 receives the update notification and allows the update, and the server 100 revises the contact's information of the users listed in the update list according to the acknowledgement.
Fig.4 is a flow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a contact initiatively revises his/her information and uploads the information to the server 100 as the above described first situation. Detailed interaction process is illustrated in Fig.5.
A step of setting open options for the information of all the users in the system is performed before other steps. The step has been described in detail with reference to Fig.3, so it will not be described herein.
In step S401, the client 300 uploads revised information of the contact to the server 100. In this embodiment, the contact revises his/her information through the client 300, and the information management module 302 uploads the revised information of the contact to the server 100 through the transceiver 301.

In step S402, the server 100 receives the revised information of the contact and stores the information into the storage module 103. Herein, the contact's information in the related information of the user has not been revised yet.
In step S403, the server 100 derives the open options of the contact in the storage module 103 and generates an update list and update records. As shown in Fig.5, the process specifically includes: (1) acquiring the open options of the contact; (2) acquiring the list to be updated by the contact; (3) generating an update list and an update record according to the open options and the list acquired.
In an embodiment, there are four users A, B, C and D in a system and the open options table of contact C stored in the storage module 103 is as shown in the following table.

Contact Class Open level Open contents
A Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card
B Friend Partially open Family card and hobby card
D Customer Partially open Career card
Supposing that compared with the original information, only the hobby card in the information uploaded by contact C to the server 100 is revised, the update processing module 102 generates the following update list according to the open options information table of contact C:

Contact Class To be updated or not Items to be updated
A Friend Yes Hobby card
B Friend Yes Hobby card
D Customer No None
In this step, the update record is also stored.
In step S404, the server 100 sends an update notification to the client 200 in the updated list. Still according to the above embodiment, the update notification may include the items revised by the contact and an inquiry about whether the user wishes to change the information of contact C in the information of the user stored in the storage module 103 into the revised information , e.g..

' 'Notifying A that: contact C has revised the hobby card; the revision includes ...; update or not?'"
"'Notifying B that: contact C has revised the hobby card; the revision includes ...; update or not?"
In step S405. the client 200 receives the update notification and feeds back an acknowledgement to the server 100. As shown in Fig.5, the process specifically includes: (1) the information management module 202 in the client 200 parses and displays the update notification for the user; (2) if the user allows the update, the information management module 202 generates an acknowledgement and the transceiver 201 feeds the message back to the server 100.
In step S406, the server 100 updates the contact's information in the information of the user and deletes the update record according to the acknowledgement sent by the client 200.
Fig.6 is a flow chart of a method for updating information of a network user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the contact uploads the edited information to the server 100 in response to an information editing request initiated by the user as the above described second situation. Detailed interaction process is illustrated in Fig.7.
A step of setting open options for the information of all the users in a system is performed before other steps. The step has been described in detail with reference to Fig.3, so it will not be described herein.
In step S601, the client 200 initiates an information editing request to the client 300. As shown in Fig.7, the process specifically includes: (1) the client 200 firstly sends the information editing request to the server 100; (2) the server 100 generates and stores a request record on receipt of the information editing request; (3) the server 100 forwards the information editing request to the client 300. In an embodiment, there are four users A, B, C and D in a system, the four users are contacts of one another, in which user A operates the client 200, and contact C, a contact of user A, operates the client 300. In step S601, user A initiates an information editing request to the client 300 when user A wishes to update the information of contact C in the information of the user in the storage module 103 in the server 100.

' In step S602, the client 300 feeds back the edited information of the contact to the server 100. As shown in Fig.7, the process specifically includes: (1) the contact edits the information through the information management module 302 in the client 300 and returns a response for the request; (2) the client 300 uploads the response including the edited information of the contact to the server 100 through the transceiver 301.
In step S603, the server 100 receives and stores the edited information of the contact.
In step S604, the server 100 derives the open options of the contact in the storage module 103 and generates an update list and an update record. In this embodiment, since the request is a one-to-one request initiated by the user to the contact, only the user initiating the request is in the generated updated list. Still according to the above described embodiment, the open options table of contact C stored in the storage module 103 is as shown in the following table:

Supposing that compared with the original information, only the hobby card in the information uploaded to the server 100 by contact C is revised, the update processing module 102 would generates the following update list according to the open options table of contact C according to the embodiment:

In step S605, the server 100 sends an update notification to the client 200 which initiated the request. Still according to the above embodiment, the update notification includes the items revised by the contact and an inquiry about whether the user wishes to change the information of contact C in the information of the user stored in the storage module 103 into the revised information, e.g..

' 'Notifying A that: contact C has revised the hobby card; the revision includes ...; update or not?'
In step S606, the client 200 feeds back an acknowledgement to the server 100 on receipt of the update notification.
In step S607, the server 100 updates the contact's information in the information of the user and deletes the update record stored in step S604 according to the acknowledgement of the client 200.
In the above embodiment, the operation efficiency is improved by creating or updating the information of a contact using a request-feedback scheme.
It should be noted that the typical applications of the present invention include but are not limited to the updating of a contact's information in the information of users of forums, communities, games, etc. The method described in the present invention may also be applied in updating a contact's information in the information of other similar network users.
The foregoing description is only preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not for use in limiting the protection scope thereof All the modifications, equivalent replacements or improvements in the scope of the present invention's sprit and principles shall be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims
1. A server for updating information of a network user, comprising:
a storage module, operable for storing information of users and storing open-limiting parameters at least for information of a first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one user being allowed to receive information of the first user; and
an update processing module, operable for determining at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters stored in the storage module after receiving the updated information of the first user from a client operated by the first user, and updating the information of the first user included in the information of each of the at least one second user in the storage module.
2. The server for updating information of a network user of Claim 1, wherein
the information of the first user stored in the storage module is classified into at least one class, and the open-limiting parameters are further used for determining at least one class being allowed to be received by other users in information of the fist user.
3. The server for updating information of a network user of Claim 2, wherein
the update processing module is further operable for generating, according to the open-limiting parameters, an update list which lists at least one second user and at least one to-be-updated class of information of the first user included in the information of the second user in the storage module.
4. The server for updating information of a network user of Claim 3, wherein
the update processing module is further operable for generating and sending an update notification to each of the at least one second user listed in the update list, wherein the update notification comprises at least an identity of the first user; and
updating the at least one to-be-updated class of information of the first user included in the information of a second user in the storage module according to the updated information of the first user after receiving an acknowledgement from the second user.
5. The server for updating information of a network user of Claim 3, wherein

the update processing module is further operable for generating at least one update record according to the open-limiting parameters and the updated information of the first user in the storage module, and storing the at least one update record in the information of the at least one second user listed in the update list;
generating and sending an update notification to each of the at least one second user who is listed in the update list and who is being online;
generating and sending, according to an update record stored in information of a second user when the second user has just logged in the system, an update notification to the just-logged-in second user; and
deleting the update record stored in the information of a second user in the storage module after receiving an acknowledgement from the second user.
6. The server for updating information of a network user of Claim 1, wherein
the update processing module is further operable for receiving an information editing request from a second user which requests updating information of the first user, and sending the information editing request to the first user.
7. A method for updating information of a network user, comprising:
determining at least one second user according to open-limiting parameters for information of a first user after receiving updated information of the first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for determining users who are allowed to receive the updated information of the first user, and the at least one second user is allowed to receive the updated information of the first user;
updating information of the first user included in the information of the at least one second user according to the updated information of the first user and the open-limiting parameters.
8. The method for updating information of a network user of Claim 7, wherein
the information of the first user is classified into at least one class, and
the open-limiting parameters are used for determining at least one second user being allowed to receive at least one class of the information of the first user; and
the determining the at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters comprises:

determining at least one to-be-updated class of information of the first user according to the updated information of the first user; and
for each determined class, determining at least one second user being allowed to receive the determined class according to the open-limiting parameters.
9. The method for updating information of a network user of Claim 8, wherein
the first user has at least one contact, and the at least one contact is classified into at
least one class of contact; and the open-limiting parameters are used for determining
at least one class of contact being allowed to receive each class of information of the
first user; and
the determining the at least one second user according to the open-limiting parameters comprises:
determining at least one second user belonging to at least one class of contact being allowed to receive the determined class of the updated information.
10. The method for updating information of a network user of Claims 8, further
comprising:
generating and storing, according to the open-limiting parameters and the updated information of the first user, an update list which lists at least one second user whose information is to be updated and the determined class of information.
11. The method for updating information of a network user of Claims 10, further
comprising:
generating and sending an update notification to each of the at least one second user listed in the update list, wherein the update notification comprises at least an identity of the first user; and
updating the determined class of information of the first user included in the information of a second user according to the updated information of the first user after receiving an acknowledgement from the second user.
12. The method for updating information of a network user of Claims 10, further
comprising:

' generating at least one update record according to the open-limiting parameters and the updated information of the first user, and storing the at least one update record in the stored information of the at least one second user listed in the update list;
generating and sending an update notification to the second user who is listed in the update list and who is being online;
generating and sending, according to an update record stored in information of a second user when the second user has just logged in the system, an update notification to the just-logged-in second user; and
deleting the update record stored in the information of the second user after receiving an acknowledgement from the second user.
13. The method for updating information of a network user of Claims 7, further
comprising:
receiving an information editing request from a second user which requests updating information of the first user, and sending the information editing request to the first user.
14. The method for updating information of a network user of Claims 7, further
comprising:
receiving and storing the open-limiting parameters for the information of the first user from the first user.
15. A system for updating informafion of a network user, comprising:
more than one client, connectable to a server, wherein the client operated by a first user is operable for sending updated information of the first user to the server;
the server, operable for storing information of users and open-limifing parameters at least for information of the first user, wherein the open-limiting parameters are used for det ermining at least one user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user; determining at least one second user being allowed to receive the updated information of the first user according to the open-limiting parameters after receiving the updated information of the first user from the client operated by the first user; for each second user, updating information of the first user included in the information of the second user according to the open-limiting parameters for the information of the first user.

16. The system for updating information of a network user of Claim 15, wherein
the client operated by the first user is further operable for sending the open-limiting parameters for information of the first user to the server;
the server is further operable for receiving and storing the open-limiting parameters.
17. The system for updating information of a network user of Claim 15, wherein
the client operated by a second user is further operable for sending to the server an information editing request which requests updating information of the first user; and
the server is further operable for sending the information editing request to the client operated by the first user.
18. The system for updating information of a network user of Claim 15, wherein
the server is further operable for sending, for each second user, an update notification which at least comprises an identity of the first user respectively to a client operated by the second user, updating the information of the first user included in information of the second user according to the updated information of the first user and the open-limiting parameters after receiving an acknowledgement from the client operated by the second user; and
the client operated by the second user is further operable for receiving and displaying the update notification sent by the server, and sending an acknowledgement to the server when the second user accepts the update.

Documents:

768-CHE-2008 ENGLISH TRANSLATION 17-12-2012.pdf

768-CHE-2008 POWER OF ATTORNEY 17-12-2012.pdf

768-CHE-2008 AMENDED CLAIMS 17-12-2012.pdf

768-CHE-2008 AMENDED CLAIMS 29-08-2013.pdf

768-CHE-2008 AMENDED PAGES OF SPECIFICATION 17-12-2012.pdf

768-CHE-2008 AMENDED PAGES OF SPECIFICATION 29-08-2013.pdf

768-CHE-2008 EXAMINATION REPORT REPLY RECEIVED 17-12-2012.pdf

768-CHE-2008 EXAMINATION REPORT REPLY RECEIVED 29-08-2013.pdf

768-CHE-2008 FORM-1 17-12-2012.pdf

768-CHE-2008 FORM-1 29-08-2013.pdf

768-CHE-2008 FORM-3 17-12-2012.pdf

768-CHE-2008 OTHER PATENT DOCUMENT 17-12-2012.pdf

768-che-2008-abstract.pdf

768-che-2008-claims.pdf

768-che-2008-correspondnece-others.pdf

768-che-2008-description(complete).pdf

768-che-2008-drawings.pdf

768-che-2008-form 1.pdf

768-che-2008-form 18.pdf

768-che-2008-form 3.pdf

768-che-2008-form 5.pdf

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Patent Number

257183

Indian Patent Application Number

768/CHE/2008

PG Journal Number

37/2013

Publication Date

13-Sep-2013

Grant Date

10-Sep-2013

Date of Filing

28-Mar-2008

Name of Patentee

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED

Applicant Address

4/F, EAST 2 BLOCK, SEG PARK, ZHENXING ROAD, FUTIAN DISTRICT, SHENZHEN,GUANGDONG, 518044

Inventors:

#	Inventor's Name	Inventor's Address
1	GAO, MINGHANG	4/F, EAST 2 BLOCK, SEG PARK, ZHENXING ROAD, FUTIAN DISTRICT, SHENZHEN, GUANGDONG, 518044 CHINA
2	CHEN, QIXIANG	4/F, EAST 2 BLOCK, SEG PARK, ZHENXING ROAD, FUTIAN DISTRICT, SHENZHEN, GUANGDONG, 518044 CHINA
3	ZHANG, XINGLIANG	4/F, EAST 2 BLOCK, SEG PARK, ZHENXING ROAD, FUTIAN DISTRICT, SHENZHEN, GUANGDONG, 518044 CHINA
4	QIN, PENGCHENG	4/F, EAST 2 BLOCK, SEG PARK, ZHENXING ROAD, FUTIAN DISTRICT, SHENZHEN, GUANGDONG, 518044 CHINA
5	WANG, MENG	4/F, EAST 2 BLOCK, SEG PARK, ZHENXING ROAD, FUTIAN DISTRICT, SHENZHEN, GUANGDONG, 518044 CHINA
6	LIAO, JUE	4/F, EAST 2 BLOCK, SEG PARK, ZHENXING ROAD, FUTIAN DISTRICT, SHENZHEN, GUANGDONG, 518044 CHINA

PCT International Classification Number

G06F17/30

PCT International Application Number

N/A

PCT International Filing date

PCT Conventions:

#	PCT Application Number	Date of Convention	Priority Country
1	200710073792.5	2007-03-30	China