WO2009074037A1

WO2009074037A1 - An instant communication method, device and system

Info

Publication number: WO2009074037A1
Application number: PCT/CN2008/073045
Authority: WO
Inventors: Peng Hu; Xiangxin Yu
Original assignee: Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited
Priority date: 2007-12-05
Filing date: 2008-11-13
Publication date: 2009-06-18
Also published as: CN101175051A; CN101175051B

Abstract

An instant communication method is provided, and the key is in that the server receives the request sent by the first user terminal device that the first user obtains the sharing friend information of the second user, and provides the sharing friend information of the second user to the first user terminal, supplying the first user terminal for providing to the first user. By above method, the user can search other user or user group according to the relativity of the social relation between the users, increasing the interest and the degree of social relation in the instant communication system, helping to fully use the function of the instant communication plane. A server, a user terminal device and an instant communication system are also provided.

Description

Instant communication method, device and system

Technical field

The present invention relates to Internet technologies, and in particular, to an instant messaging method, device and system. Background of the invention

In recent years, as people pay more and more attention to the timeliness of information and communication, Instant Messaging (IM), as a technology that can send and receive messages instantly through the Internet, has been widely favored since its introduction. develop rapidly.

The principle of instant messaging technology is to achieve peer-to-peer real-time information transmission over the Internet, including text, images, voice, video and files. Instant messaging is very interactive, and with its real-time online interaction feature, it can provide people with voice/video chat, transfer files, send E-mail, multi-person chat, Presence Awareness and more. And the price is cheap (except for the Internet access fee is almost free), for most people, communication through instant messaging is more economical than telephone communication, so it is popular with netizens. As Internet technology continues to evolve, Instant Messager is increasingly rich in features, including email, blogs, music, TV, games, and search. The instant messaging tool is no longer a mere chat tool. It has evolved into an integrated information platform that integrates communication, information, entertainment, search, e-commerce, office collaboration and corporate customer service.

With the development of social and Internet technologies, instant messaging technology has become an important part of people's lives. The instant messaging user can add other users who are frequently contacted to the list of friends (or contacts), and obtain the online/offline status of the friend through the presence presentation technology in the instant communication, and initiate a real-time conversation with the user at any time, thereby achieving the information. The purpose of instant communication. In order to facilitate the user to operate multiple contacts, instant messaging tools often provide friend management functions, including the addition, classification and deletion of friends. In addition, instant messaging tools such as QQ It also provides a "user group" feature that allows organizations to organize multiple users to participate in the conversation.

In the existing instant messaging system, there are usually two ways for a friend to find and discover: one is that the user realizes the discovery of the friend by viewing the online user list provided by the server of the instant messaging system; the other is that the user uses other means, For example, the information disclosed by a friend, a web, or the like obtains identity information such as an ID or a nickname of another user's instant communication, and the identity information is input to the server for retrieval to realize the discovery of the friend.

According to the Six Degrees of Separation proposed by the famous American social psychologist Milgren in the 1960s, there will be no more than six people separated from any stranger, that is, The ability to know any stranger through a maximum of six people explains the great potential of social connections between people from one perspective. However, the way to find friends in the existing instant messaging technology is too simple to fully exploit the relevance of social relationships among users. Summary of the invention

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an instant messaging method, server, client device and system that enable a user to find other users based on the relevance of social relationships between users.

An instant messaging method provided by an embodiment of the present invention includes:

Receiving, by the server, a first user that is sent by the first client device to obtain the second user's shared friend information, and providing the second user's shared friend information to the first client device for providing to the first user .

A server provided by another embodiment of the present invention includes a transceiver unit and an information providing unit, wherein

The transceiver unit is configured to receive, by the client device, a request that the first user acquires the shared friend information of the second user, and acquire, by the first user, the shared friend information of the second user. The request is provided to the information providing unit, and the shared friend information of the second user provided by the information providing unit is sent to the client device for providing to the first user; the information providing unit is configured to: Acquiring the shared friend information of the second user according to the request that the first user obtains the shared friend information of the second user that is provided by the transceiver unit, and providing the shared friend information of the second user to the transceiver unit.

A client device provided by still another embodiment of the present invention includes a user interface unit, a sharing request unit, and a transceiver unit:

The user interface unit is configured to receive an instruction that the first user views the shared friend information of the second user, and send the instruction to the sharing requesting unit, and provide the shared friend information of the second user provided by the sharing requesting unit to the Said first user;

The sharing requesting unit is configured to receive, by the user interface unit, an instruction that the first user views the second user sharing the friend information, and according to the instruction, generate, by the first user, a request for acquiring the shared friend information of the second user, and Sending the request to the server through the transceiver unit, and receiving the shared friend information of the second user provided by the transceiver unit;

The transceiver unit is configured to send, by the first requesting user, the request that the first user acquires the shared friend information of the second user to the server, obtain the shared friend information of the second user provided by the server, and provide the shared friend information to the share Request unit.

An instant messaging system provided by still another embodiment of the present invention includes:

a client device, configured to send, to the server, a request for the first user to obtain the second user to share the friend information, and obtain the shared friend information of the second user provided by the server, and display the information to the first user;

And a server, configured to receive, by the client device, the first user to obtain a second user sharing friend information request, and provide the second user's shared friend information to the client device.

It can be seen from the above technical solutions that the instant communication method, server, and guest provided by the present invention The client device and the system consider the social association between users, and the user conveniently finds other friends or user groups by sharing friends and visiting other friends, thereby increasing the interest and social relevance of the instant messaging system, which is beneficial to the user equipment and the system. Give full play to the capabilities of the instant messaging platform. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a structural diagram of an instant messaging system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an instant messaging method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a client device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a server according to an embodiment of the present invention. Mode for carrying out the invention

The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a user may share information of his or her friends (or contacts) and/or user groups, hereinafter collectively referred to as shared friend information, and other users may view (or access) the shared friend information of the user. Find friends, thereby increasing the interest and social relevance of the instant messaging system, and realizing an instant messaging system with social relationship.

In order to realize the sharing of the shared friend information, the embodiment of the present invention adds a device for managing the shared friend information of the user in the instant messaging system, and the device may be a functional unit added in the existing server, or may be a A separate device; a unit for acquiring and displaying the shared friend information information of the user is also correspondingly added to the client device.

The instant messaging system of this embodiment includes a client device 120 and an instant messaging server 160, hereinafter referred to as the server 160. There may be a large number of client devices in the actual system, and there may be more than one server. Here, we have a certain pair of client devices 120 and servers 160. This example describes the functions and business process of each system component.

The client device 120 includes a shared control unit 150 in addition to the existing components. The sharing control unit 150 is in communication with the server 160, and is configured to implement a function related to the sharing operation of sharing the friend information, for example, to request the server to acquire the shared friend information of a certain user, and provide the shared friend information provided by the server to the used. User of client device 120, etc.

Server 160 may include a sharing management unit 180 in addition to existing components. The sharing management unit 180 is mainly responsible for receiving the request for acquiring the shared friend information of the user sent by the client device 120, and providing the shared friend information of the user saved in the server 160 to the client device 120.

The shared friend information may be an identifier of a friend and/or a user group shared by the user, a user nickname, a group name, basic user information, such as age, gender, occupation, city, and the like.

In the above embodiment, the instant messaging system can provide the information of the user's friends and/or user groups to other users without restriction to implement an instant communication system with social relationship. The above system is simple to implement and easy to maintain, and is not flexible in configuration and cannot protect user privacy.

In order to solve the above problem, the following embodiment adds a sharing setting process to restrict the sharing operation of shared buddy information.

Still referring to FIG. 1 , the sharing control unit 150 in the client device 120 may further send the sharing setting information input by the user to the server 160. The sharing management unit 180 in the server 160 may further be used to maintain the sharing setting information of the user. The interaction process is as follows.

The sharing control unit 150 in the client device 120 prompts the user to input sharing setting information, and transmits the sharing setting information of the user to the server 160. The sharing management unit 180 in the server 160 holds the sharing setting information transmitted by the client device 120.

The sharing control unit 150 requests the server 160 to acquire shared buddy information of another user. The sharing management unit 180 determines whether the user of the client device 120 has the right to access the shared friend information of the other user.

Specifically, the sharing management unit 180 may be based on user attributes carried by the client device 120 in the request for acquiring the shared friend information, such as a user ID, etc., and/or sharing setting information of the requested user, such as sharing rights set by the user. Etc., to determine whether the user has access to another user to share friend information. If the user has access rights, the corresponding shared friend information is sent to the client device 120 used by the user. Otherwise, the user's request is rejected, and the request failure message may be returned to the client device 120 or left unprocessed.

In addition, the sharing control unit 150 may also request the server 160 to add the shared friend of another user as a friend according to the shared friend information provided by the server 160. To accomplish this, a new unit may be added to the server 160 to implement the share-based buddy authentication function, and the existing buddy authentication unit 170 in the server 160 may be extended to implement the shared-based buddy authentication function.

Compared with the existing buddy authentication process, in addition to the identity information of the user who needs to provide the requested user, the buddy authentication process needs to provide the buddy association information, that is, the requesting user finds the requested user. The route, so that the requested user can know the way the user who made the request finds, such as having a common friend, can increase the chance of adding a friend.

If it is implemented by the existing friend authentication unit 170, it is required to add a friend-based authentication function based on sharing, which is used to receive the friend association information carried in the request of the user to add a friend, and provide the information to the user who is requested to be added.

2 is a flowchart of an instant messaging system according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein a dotted line indicates the implementation An optional step in the example.

In the system flow of FIG. 2, the present invention is described more clearly by taking the interaction process between the client device 1, the client device 2, and the instant messaging server, hereinafter referred to as the server, as an example.

Step 220: The client device 1 sends the sharing setting information of the first user to the server. The sharing setting information may also include a sharing indication, and the sharing indication may be an operation of setting, canceling, modifying, and the like. These operations can also be implemented by different messages, by defining new messages, or by using existing messages to carry information about these operations. A simplest embodiment is that the user sends sharing setting information including a setting indication, the server sets the user to allow sharing all of his friends and/or user groups; the user sends sharing setting information including a cancellation indication, and the server sets the user not Allow sharing of their friends and/or user groups.

The sharing setting information may also include identity information of the first user, that is, information identifying the instant communication user who initiated the sharing operation in the system. The sharing setting information may also not contain user identity information, and the server may obtain the identity information of the user according to the method in the prior art.

The sharing settings information can also include sharing options as an additional attribute for this sharing. The sharing option may include one or more entries, each of which contains, for example, shared friend information and access rights of the shared friend information, such as shared objects, shared validity time, sharing depth, etc., may be extended by attribute values. Sharing buddy information provides the user with information about friends or groups of users that are exposed to other users. The user may also choose to share all the friends and user groups, and the client device 1 may send the shared friend information specified by the user to the server in the form of a list of user identity information and/or a list of identification information of the user group. The shared object is a friend or a user group designated by the user to allow access to the shared friend information, and may also choose to disclose the shared friend information to all users. Sharing effective time indicates the effective time of this sharing Wai, such as a week, a year, etc. The shared depth indicates the maximum number of layers of a friend relationship that allows access to the shared friend information, that is, the maximum number of people separated by the two users. For example, user A wants to share his three friends X, Y, and Z to friend B, and only allows friends of B and B to access the shared friend information (the premise that friend B can access the shared friend information is B to The friend shares the information of user A), then the user A's sharing operation: the shared friend information is X, Y, and Z, the shared object is B, and the sharing depth is set to 2. Other properties can also be included in the sharing options, no longer here - enumeration.

Step 230: The sharing management unit in the server saves the sharing setting information of the first user sent by the client device 1, and the sharing setting information may be stored in the form of a file or a database.

Alternatively, the server may return the processing result of the first user sharing setting information to the client device 1 through step 226.

At this point, the sharing setting information of the first user has been set in the server, and the shared friend information is available to other users in the system.

Step 240: The second user requests the server to view the shared friend information of the first user through the client device 2. The request includes the identity information of the user to be viewed, that is, the identity information of the first user, and may also include user association information experienced by the second user during the viewing process. For example, user A and B are friends, B and C are friends, and C and D are friends. When D finds A through the above friend relationship and wants to view A's shared friend information, the user association information that needs to be submitted is D - C - B - A.

Step 250: The sharing management unit in the server searches for the saved sharing configuration information of the first user according to the identity information of the second user carried by the request and the identity information of the requested user, that is, the identity information of the first user, if not found. The sharing setting information of the first user or the shared friend information in the sharing setting information is empty, indicating that the first user does not set the sharing friend, and directly rejects the viewing request of the second user; if the sharing setting information is found and the If the shared friend information is not empty, the sharing setting information may be sent to the second user. If the share setting information further includes a sharing option, the sharing option may further determine whether the second user has the right to access the shared information of the first user according to the sharing option.

For example, if the sharing options set by the first user include shared objects, shared validity time, and sharing depth, the sharing management unit needs to determine separately:

Whether the shared object in the sharing option includes the second user, and if not included, determining that the second user does not have permission, and rejecting the viewing request of the second user;

Determining whether the shared information is available at the current time according to the shared effective time set by the first user, and determining that the second user does not have the right to reject the second user's viewing request if the valid time is not within the valid time;

Determining according to the sharing depth set by the first user, the user association information submitted by the second user, or the user association information obtained according to the user history viewing information saved by the server or the user association information calculated according to the first and second user identity information. Whether the second user allows access, when the user association information of the first user and the second user does not satisfy the sharing depth, it is determined that the second user does not have the right to reject the viewing request of the second user.

The above determining steps may be performed sequentially, and are independent of the order of execution. When any one of the judgment results is that the user has no authority, the judgment process is aborted, and the request of the second user is rejected; otherwise, the judgment of other conditions is continued, if the second user A second user is allowed access if all conditions are met.

Step 260: The sharing management unit determines whether to allow the second user to access according to the above process, and returns the shared friend information specified by the first user if allowed, otherwise the return request fails or is not processed.

When the sharing management unit determines that the second user is allowed to access according to the above process, the shared friend information of the first user is provided to the second user. Specifically, the shared friend information in the sharing setting information of the first user may be sent to the client used by the second user. The shared friend letter The information may be the identity of the buddy and/or user group that the first user is allowed to share (eg, IM user number), the name (eg, user nickname or group name), basic information of the user (eg, gender, age, city, occupation) Wait). For example, the sharing management unit provides the shared friend information of the first user to the client device of the second user in the form of a user/group identification list, and is displayed by the client device to the second user, for example, the first user that can be displayed. The list is displayed in the attribute information, or it is displayed in a newly generated window. At the same time, the client device may also send a request for acquiring the user and/or group attribute information to the server according to the instruction of the second user, for example, providing a button or a link for the second user for each item of the list, when the user clicks on a certain When a user or group button or link, the client device sends a request to the server to obtain attribute information of the user or group. After receiving the request, the server may provide the attribute information of the user or group according to the public option set by the user or the group for its attribute information (for example, public to everyone, public only to friends, undisclosed, etc.) The client device of the second user. Here, the attribute information of the user or the group may be basic information such as the age, gender, city, occupation, etc. of the user, or may be a phone number, a mobile phone number, an E-mail address, a blog address, a work unit name, and the like. data. Since the user can set different access rights for different materials, the server needs to determine which user/group information is allowed to be accessed by the second user, and provides information that the second user accesses to the client device of the second user.

The determination based on the sharing depth in the above embodiment will be described below by way of a specific example. For example, user A and B are friends, B and C are friends, C and D are friends, and B sets the information of friend A to user C. The sharing depth is 2. C can be accessed through the above process. The friend information A shared by the user B. If user C shares the friend B with the user D, the D can access the friend information B shared by the user C through the above process. If the user D wants to further view the friend of the user B, the process still passes the above process, but the submitted The view request information includes the user B to be viewed and the user association D-C-B experienced. The sharing management unit determines the sharing depth 2 in the sharing setting information of B to C, and determines User D accesses this entry, thereby returning user information A to user D. If users D and E are friends with each other, and friend C is shared with user E, user E cannot obtain shared friend information of B according to the sharing depth limit. It can be seen that the depth of sharing reflects the user's compromise between sociality and privacy protection. The premise of the above is that each link of the friend association has the operation of sharing the friend, otherwise the view of the shared friend cannot continue to go deep.

One way for the sharing management unit to determine whether to allow viewing is the friend association information obtained according to the friend association information submitted by the user or the user history viewing information saved by the server. In the actual network, the relationship between users presents a mixed network structure. Continue to consider the above example. Assume that user E and user B are also direct friend relationships, and user B has already shared friend A to E, but the E submission contains The shared friend of the user association information E - D - C - B is still rejected due to the depth restriction when viewing the request.

This problem can be solved using the concept of graphs and related algorithms. For example, each user in the system is regarded as a node, and the friend relationship between the two users is connected by one side, and the degree of all sides in the figure is set to 1, and there is no edge between the users without the friend relationship, thus, the user The problem of the depth of the friend association between the two is transformed into the shortest path problem between the two points in the connected graph. This problem has a very mature solution in the theory of graphs. For example, the D algorithm can be used to find the shortest path between any two points. The specific description of the algorithm will not be repeated here, and those skilled in the art should be aware of the implementation of the related algorithms here, and there are many related materials.

By expressing the user relationship in a graph, the second user may not have to submit the user association information of the viewing experience in submitting the request to view the shared friend, and the server is based on the identity information of the first user and the second user in the corresponding user. The relationship between the two users is calculated in the relationship diagram to determine whether the second user meets the requirement of the shared depth set by the first user. However, this solution is relatively complicated. The number of users of the instant messaging system is huge, and it is still expanding further. The number of nodes in the corresponding user relationship diagram is also not It is often large, and the relationship between users is complicated. The maintenance of such a graph will lead to huge system resources and the calculation time will be long, which is not economical.

Therefore, the user association including the viewing experience in the request for viewing the shared friend may be adopted, and the server only judges the association depth of the user according to the user association, thereby preventing the server from maintaining a large and complicated user relationship, thereby reducing the server burden.

In the above system processing flow, the user setting the shared friend information may be spontaneous or may be requested. For example, the server may request the user to set the shared friend in step 218, and the request may also be an advertisement. The form, or the manner of periodically sending the reminder information to the user, reminding the user to update the shared friend information, or after receiving the request of the second user sent by the client device 2 in step 216 to view the shared friend information of the first user, The first user communicates the request. If the process is triggered by the second user's view of the shared friend request, after receiving the sharing setting information of the first user and processing, the server returns to the second user to request to view the result of the shared friend, if the second If the user does not satisfy the shared access rule set by the first user, the second user is notified that the request fails.

In addition, the user can also request to modify their sharing settings information, such as adding, deleting, updating their shared friend information, modifying the sharing options, etc. The operation is similar to the above process, and the request is submitted to the sharing management unit in the server and waits for a response. The message interaction process is the same as that of Figure 2. The above-mentioned modified sharing setting information request may be implemented by using other independent messages, or may be used to set the same message in the step 220 of FIG. 2, wherein the attribute values in the corresponding sharing setting information may be different according to requirements. The value, for example, the operation of adding, deleting, and updating the shared friend information is implemented by using the shared friend information in the sharing setting information, and the user submits the buddy list or the group list that needs to be shared, and the server replaces the shared buddy information received by the server. The shared friend information of the user previously stored; or, the sharing instruction in the sharing setting information may be used to take different values, for example:

You can instruct to add, delete, and update shared friends information. At this time, sharing friend information is not It must be a list of all users or a list of user groups that the user needs to share at this time, and can be expressed in increments. For example, if the share command value is "increase", the shared friend information may include only the user added. The sharing buddy list or the user group list, the server adds the shared buddy information on the basis of the currently stored shared buddy information; the process of deleting the processing is similar to the above process, and is not described again;

It may also indicate that the sharing is cancelled, or there may be multiple processing methods, such as replacing the saved shared friend information list with an empty shared friend information list to indicate that the sharing is not shared, or deleting the saved sharing setting information as a whole;

It can also instruct the modification sharing option to add, delete or modify the previously set sharing restriction conditions, such as shared object, sharing effective time, sharing depth, etc., and the server shares the saved user according to the received modification request message. Set the information to make the appropriate changes.

After the user finds the target user through the friend association relationship, if the friend is requested to be added on the basis of the friend relationship, the social information of the user who requests the request, such as the friend association relationship, needs to be added to the user authentication process to enrich the sociality and improve the user interaction. The probability of passing the certification.

When the second user finds the third user in the shared information of the other party through the client device, the second user may be selected to add the third user as a friend. Here, there are two ways to add a friend: one is to add through a common process, that is, the second user finds the third user by viewing the operation of sharing the friend information, and records the identity information of the third user, exits the sharing operation, and initiates Regular add friend process;

The other is that when the second user views the shared information of the other party through the client device, the second user adds a friend request to the friend authentication unit in the server in the sharing operation process, including the identity information of the target user (such as the third user) and the current time. View user-related information experienced during the process. The friend authentication unit transmits the request information including the second user information and the user association information to the client device of the target user (ie, the third user). The server then rejects the added friend of the first user according to the processing message returned by the third user according to the processing manner in the prior art. The request is either sent to the first user to add a friend success message and update the second user and the third user's buddy list.

In addition, before performing a friend search operation, the user can set up two-way authentication with the server through the client device to ensure the security and reliability of subsequent communication. This type of authentication technique has been applied in the prior art, and those skilled in the art will understand how to combine this process with the technical solution provided by the present invention.

The above shows the operation flow of adding friends, and its real-time nature depends on the online status of users at both ends.

The following is an example of the configuration of the server and the client device to illustrate its implementation. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a client device 30 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The client device 30 mainly includes:

The user interface unit 320 is configured to receive an operation instruction of the user and to communicate information to the user; the sharing control module 350 is configured to complete functions related to the sharing operation, including the sharing request unit 360 and the sharing setting unit 370;

The transceiver unit 380 is configured to perform information interaction with the server.

Other units/modules that have the same function as in the prior art and are not related to the technical solution of the present invention are not shown here. The following example details the workflow of each unit of the client device 30.

The user interface unit 320 receives an indication that the first user sets the sharing setting information and transmits it to the sharing setting unit 370 in the sharing control module 350.

The sharing setting unit 370 is for processing the sharing setting information provided by the user interface unit 320, and supplies the sharing setting information to the transceiving unit 380. The sharing setting information includes shared friend information of the first user.

The transceiving unit 380 transmits the sharing setting information transmitted by the sharing setting unit 370 to the server. The user interface unit 320 receives an instruction that the first user views the shared friend information of the second user, and sends the instruction to the sharing request unit 360 in the sharing control module 350.

The sharing request unit 360 receives an instruction that the first user views the second user sharing the friend information sent by the user interface unit 320, and generates a request for the first user to acquire the shared friend information of the second user according to the instruction, where the request includes the first user. And sending the request to the transceiving unit 380 with the identity information of the second user and other possible information.

The transceiver unit 380 sends a request for the first user to obtain the shared friend information of the second user sent by the sharing request unit 360 to the server; the shared friend information or the rejection view message of the second user sent by the receiving server is sent to the sharing request unit 360.

The sharing request unit 360 sends the shared friend information of the second user sent by the transceiver unit or rejects the viewing message, performs corresponding processing, and sends it to the user interface unit 320;

The user interface unit 320 provides the shared friend information transmitted by the sharing request unit 360 to the first user.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a server 40 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The server 40 mainly includes:

The sharing management module 450 is configured to manage and maintain sharing information of the user, including the information storage unit 430, the information providing unit 460, and the rights management unit 470;

The transceiver unit 480 is configured to interact with each client device in the instant messaging system; the friend authentication unit 420, in addition to being used to complete the functions in the prior art, may also be selected to perform function expansion for implementing the friend based Shared friend authentication feature.

Other unit modules which are identical in function to the prior art and which are not related to the technical solution of the present invention are not shown here. The following example details the workflow of the various components of the server 40.

The transceiver unit 480 receives the sharing setting information of the user sent by the client device and sends it to the information storage unit 430 in the sharing management module 450; The information storage unit 430 stores the sharing setting information of the user sent by the transceiver unit 480. The transceiver unit 480 receives the request of the first user to acquire the shared friend information of the second user and sends the information to the information providing unit in the sharing management module 450. The information providing unit 460 searches for the sharing setting information of the second user in the information storage unit 430 according to the request that the first user acquires the shared friend information of the second user sent by the transceiver unit 480, if the sharing setting information is not found or found. If the shared buddy information is empty, the sending and receiving unit 480 sends a request failure message to the client device or does not process; if found, sends the shared buddy information of the second user to the client device through the sending and receiving unit 480 or The shared setting information of the found second user is sent to the rights management unit 470. The rights management unit 470 determines whether the first user has the right to access the second user sharing the friend information according to the sharing setting information of the second user provided by the information providing unit, and provides the determination result to the rights management unit 470. If there is a privilege, the privilege management unit 470 sends the shared buddy information of the second user to the client device through the transceiver unit 480, and if there is no privilege, sends a request failure message to the client device through the transceiver unit 480 or does not process;

The transceiving unit 480 transmits the information transmitted by the sharing management unit 450 to the client device that transmitted the request.

The transceiver unit 480 can also receive the second user cancel sharing request sent by the client device and provide the information to the information storage unit 430. Then, the information storage unit 430 acquires the cancel sharing request and deletes the sharing setting information of the second user.

The transceiver unit 480 can also receive the second user modification sharing setting information request sent by the client device and provide the information to the information storage unit 430. Then, the information storage unit 430 acquires the modified sharing setting information request, and uses the modified sharing setting information request. The carried sharing setting information replaces the saved sharing setting information of the second user, or the content in the saved sharing setting information of the second user is modified according to the modification instruction in the modified sharing setting information request. If the user proposes to add another friend's friend as his or her friend while viewing the shared friend information, the user sends a request to add a friend based on the sharing to the server through the used client device.

The transceiver unit 480 receives the share-based add friend request sent by the client device, and sends it to the friend authentication unit 420;

The buddy authentication unit 420 generates a buddy authentication request according to the information carried in the request according to the sharing-added friend request sent by the transceiver unit 480, and sends the buddy authentication request to the client device of the requested user through the transceiver unit 480;

The transceiver unit 480 sends the friend authentication request sent by the friend authentication unit 420 to the client device of the requested user; receives the authentication pass message or the authentication rejection message sent by the client device of the requested user, and sends the message to the friend authentication unit 420; The requesting client device sends a add friend success message and updates the user's buddy list or sends a add friend failure message.

In the foregoing embodiment, the instant messaging server may be an independent server device, or may be a module of other devices. As long as the function of the instant messaging server in the embodiment of the present invention can be implemented, the server belongs to the category of the server according to the present invention. .

Through the above examples, those skilled in the art should be able to understand how to implement the above device, and should be able to combine the above device structure with various system functions provided in the above instant messaging system flow to implement the instant of the present invention according to specific needs. Communication Systems.

It can be seen from the above embodiments that the instant messaging method, the server, the client device and the system of the present invention take into consideration the social association between users, and the components with the shared friend management control function are added to the system device, so that Users can access other friends' ways to find more friends or user groups more conveniently, increase the interest and social relevance of the instant messaging system, and help to fully utilize the functions of the instant messaging platform. According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the privacy of the user can also be protected, that is, the user can set the shared content and the object autonomously, and can also set the access restriction on the shared information according to his or her own wishes.

Compared with the existing system, the instant messaging system provided by the embodiment of the present invention is more similar to the real interpersonal society, and can solve the "reputation, problem, and establish good communication and cooperation among the students, the work, and the business cooperation." Through the embodiments of the present invention, people can realize personal data processing, personal social relationship management, and trusted business information sharing, and can safely share their own information and knowledge to trusted people, and use trust relationships to expand their communication experience and achieve even more. Valuable communication and collaboration.

In conclusion, the above is only some of the embodiments of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Any modifications, equivalents, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and scope of the present invention are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

Claim

An instant communication method, characterized in that,

The method according to claim 1, wherein the providing the shared friend information of the second user to the first client device comprises:

The server receives and saves sharing setting information of the second user sent by the second client device, where the sharing setting information includes shared friend information of the second user;

The server searches for the sharing setting information of the second user according to the identity information of the second user carried in the request that the first user acquires the second user sharing the friend information, and searches the shared friend information in the shared setting information that is found. Provided to the first client device.

The method according to claim 2, wherein the sharing setting information further includes access rights of the shared friend information set by the second user, the method further comprising:

The server determines, according to the access permission of the shared buddy information set by the second user, whether the first user has the right to access the shared buddy information, and if yes, provides the shared buddy information to the first client device.

The method according to claim 3, wherein the access rights of the shared friend information set by the second user comprise: a shared object and/or a shared effective time and/or a shared depth;

The determining, by the server, whether the first user has the right to access the shared friend information according to the access permission of the shared friend information set by the second user includes:

Determining, according to the shared object, whether the first user belongs to being allowed to access the shared friend The shared object of the information, if yes, has the authority; otherwise, there is no authority; and/or whether the shared friend information is valid at the current time according to the sharing effective time, and if so, the authority; otherwise, there is no permission; and / or

Obtaining, by the server, the number of layers of the relationship between the first user and the second user, determining whether the number of relationship layers exceeds the shared depth, and if not, having rights; otherwise, having no rights; The maximum number of layers of the friend relationship of the shared friend information.

The method of claim 4, wherein the obtaining, by the server, the number of layers of the relationship between the first user and the second user comprises:

Obtaining, by the server, the relationship layer of the first user and the second user from the user association information carried in the received request; or

The server obtains the relationship layer of the first user and the second user according to the saved historical access information of the first user; or

The server calculates the relationship layer of the first user and the second user according to the identity information of the first user and the second user.

The method according to claim 2 or 4, further comprising: the server receiving a second user cancel sharing request sent by the second client device, deleting the sharing setting information of the second user ; and / or

The server receives the second user modification sharing setting information request sent by the second client device, and replaces the sharing setting information of the second user saved by the second user device according to the sharing setting information carried in the request, or according to the request The modification instruction modifies the sharing setting information of the second user saved by itself.

The method of claim 1, 2, 4 or 6, further comprising:

Receiving, by the server, a request that the first user sends the second user as a friend sent by the first client device; Sending a friend request to the second user, where the add friend request includes identity information and user association information of the first user;

Receiving a response message returned by the second user, if the second user rejects the request, rejecting the first user's add friend request; if the second user accepts the request, sending a friend friend success message to the first user.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein:

The server obtains the user association information from the received request that the first user adds the second user as a friend sent by the first client device; or

The server obtains the user association information according to the saved history view information of the first user; or

The server calculates the user association information according to the identity information of the first user and the second user.

The method according to claim 2, further comprising: after receiving the request that the first user acquires the second user sharing the friend information, the server sends the second user to the second client device. The request for sharing settings information.

The method according to claim 9, wherein the sending, by the second client device, the request for acquiring the sharing setting information of the second user comprises:

Determining whether the server saves the sharing setting information of the second user, and if not, sending a request for acquiring the sharing setting information of the second user to the second client device.

The method according to claim 1, 2, 4, 6 or 9, wherein the shared buddy information comprises a list of buddies of the buddy shared by the second user and/or a list of user group identities.

12. A server, comprising: a transceiver unit and an information providing unit, wherein

The transceiver unit is configured to receive, by the first user, the second user that is sent by the client device a request for sharing the friend information, the request for the first user to obtain the shared friend information of the second user is provided to the information providing unit, and the shared friend information of the second user provided by the information providing unit is sent to the The client device is provided to the first user; the information providing unit is configured to acquire a shared friend of the second user according to the request that the first user obtains the shared friend information of the second user provided by the transceiver unit And providing the shared friend information of the second user to the transceiver unit.

The server according to claim 12, further comprising: an information storage unit, configured to receive and save sharing setting information of the second user provided by the transceiver unit, where the sharing setting information includes the a shared buddy information of the second user; the information providing unit is further configured to search for the second information in the information storage module according to the identity information of the second user carried in the request that the first user obtains the shared buddy information of the second user Sharing the setting information of the user, and providing the shared friend information in the shared setting information that is found to the transceiver unit;

The transceiver unit is further configured to receive sharing setting information of the second user sent by the second client device, and provide the sharing setting information to the information storage unit.

The server according to claim 13, further comprising: a rights management unit, configured to determine, according to the sharing setting information of the second user found by the information providing unit, whether the first user has the right to obtain the Sharing the friend information, and providing the judgment result to the information providing unit;

The information providing unit is further configured to: provide the found sharing setting information of the second user and the identifier of the first user to the rights management unit, and receive a determination result provided by the rights management unit, if The first user has the right to provide the shared friend information in the sharing setting information to the transceiver unit.

15. The server of claim 13 wherein:

The transceiver unit is further configured to receive a second user canceling sharing sent by the client device Requesting and providing to the information storage unit; the information storage unit is further configured to acquire the cancellation sharing request, deleting sharing setting information of the second user; and/or

The transceiver unit is further configured to receive a second user modification sharing setting information request sent by the client device, and provide the request to the information storage unit; the information storage unit is further configured to acquire the modify sharing setting information request, And modifying the shared setting information carried in the shared setting information request to replace the saved sharing setting information of the second user, or modifying the content in the saved sharing setting information of the second user according to the modification instruction in the modifying the sharing setting information request.

The server according to claim 12, further comprising: a friend authentication unit, configured to: add, by the first user, a request that the second user is a friend, where the request includes the identity information of the second user and the user association And sending, by the transceiver unit, the add friend request to the second user, where the request includes the identity information of the first user and the user association information, and obtains a response message of the second user provided by the transceiver unit, If the second user rejects the add friend request, rejecting the add friend request of the first user, and if the second user accepts the add friend request, sending, by the transceiver unit, the add to the first user a friend success message, updating a friend list of the first user and the second user;

The transceiver unit is further configured to receive a request that the first user adds the second user as a friend sent by the client device, and provide the request to the friend authentication unit, and send the add friend request provided by the friend authentication unit to the The second user sends the response message returned by the second user to the friend authentication unit, and sends the add friend success message provided by the friend authentication unit to the first user.

17. A client device, comprising: a user interface unit, a shared request unit, and a transceiver unit:

The user interface unit is configured to receive, by the first user, the shared friend information of the second user. And the instruction is sent to the sharing requesting unit, and the shared friend information of the second user provided by the sharing requesting unit is provided to the first user;

The client device according to claim 17, further comprising: a sharing setting unit, configured to process sharing setting information provided by the user interface unit, and provide the sharing setting information to the sending and receiving a unit, the sharing setting information includes shared friend information of the first user;

The user interface unit is further configured to provide sharing setting information input by the user to the sharing setting unit;

The transceiver unit is further configured to send the sharing setting information provided by the sharing setting unit to the server.

19. An instant messaging system, comprising:

a client device, configured to send, to the server, a request for the first user to obtain the second user to share the friend information, and obtain the shared friend information of the second user provided by the server, and provide the shared user information to the first user;

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising: a second client device, configured to send the sharing setting information of the user to the server, where the sharing setting information includes shared friend information of the second user;

The server receives and saves the sharing setting information of the second user that is sent by the client device, and the second user that is carried in the request that the first user acquires the second user sharing the friend information sent by the client device The identity information finds the sharing setting information of the second user, and sends the shared buddy information in the found sharing setting information to the client device.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein:

The second client device is further configured to: send the access rights of the shared friend information set by the second user to the server in the sharing setting information;

The server searches for the sharing setting information of the second user according to the identity information of the second user carried in the request that the first user acquires the second user sharing the friend information sent by the client device, according to the shared The access authority in the setting information determines whether the first user has the right to obtain the shared friend information of the second user, and if the first user has the right, sends the shared friend information in the sharing setting information to the Describe the client device.