U.S. patent application number 12/384119 was filed with the patent office on 2010-02-18 for system and method for the enablement of electronic commerce in a content network.
Invention is credited to Steven Mark Salzinger, Jeffrey Charles Sherwin, Takeshi Leland Toyohara, Russell Ian Zack.
Application Number | 20100042475 12/384119 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34798542 |
Filed Date | 2010-02-18 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100042475 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Salzinger; Steven Mark ; et
al. |
February 18, 2010 |
System and method for the enablement of electronic commerce in a
content network
Abstract
An apparatus customizes electronic received information and
facilitates electronic transactions with an individual consumer.
The apparatus includes a consumer database for storing consumer
profiles information corresponding to the individual consumer and a
transaction database for storing transaction related information
corresponding to individual commercial partners, including target
content markers. A first computer program in communication with the
databases modifies the electronic information received to include
the consumer profile information stored in the consumer database
which corresponds to the transaction-related target content markers
in the electronic information. A second computer program in
communication with the consumer database automatically monitors
consumer interaction and automatically monitors consumer
interaction and automatically updating the consumer profile data
based on the interactions.
Inventors: |
Salzinger; Steven Mark; (New
York, NY) ; Sherwin; Jeffrey Charles; (New York,
NY) ; Toyohara; Takeshi Leland; (New York, NY)
; Zack; Russell Ian; (New York, NY) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Thomas F. Bergert;Williams Mulien
Suite 700,, 8270 Greensboro Drive
McLean
VA
22102
US
|
Family ID: |
34798542 |
Appl. No.: |
12/384119 |
Filed: |
April 1, 2009 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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11982835 |
Nov 5, 2007 |
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12384119 |
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10359770 |
Feb 7, 2003 |
7346552 |
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11982835 |
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60374830 |
Apr 24, 2002 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/39 ;
707/E17.044 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20130101;
G06Q 30/0633 20130101; G06Q 20/10 20130101; G06Q 30/0617
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/10 ;
707/104.1; 707/E17.044 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 10/00 20060101
G06Q010/00; G06Q 30/00 20060101 G06Q030/00 |
Claims
1. An apparatus which customizes electronic information received by
the apparatus to facilitate electronic transactions with an
individual consumer comprising: a consumer database for storing
consumer profiles information corresponding to the individual
consumer; a transaction database for storing transaction related
information corresponding to individual commercial partners,
including target content markers; a first computer program in
communication with said databases for modifying the electronic
information received to include said consumer profile information
stored in the consumer database which corresponds to said
transaction-related target content markers in said electronic
information; and a second computer program in communication with
said consumer database for automatically monitoring consumer
interaction and automatically monitoring consumer interaction and
automatically updating the consumer profile data based on said
interactions.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 10/359,770, filed on Feb. 7, 2003, which
claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No.
60/374,830 entitled "System and Method for the Enablement of
Electronic Commerce in Limited Input Environments" filed Apr. 24,
2002 the entirety of which are incorporated by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to electronic commerce and
transactions, and more particularly, to a system and method for
facilitating transactions for consumers and commercial entities
operating within networks which may offer limited input
environments, such as interactive television systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Interactive television is a relatively new phenomenon.
Through interactive television, television viewers can use their
remote controls or other input devices to affect what is seen and
what functionality can be invoked on the television screen.
Interactive television moves consumers to actively participate in
television. Various forms of functionality, content and
applications can be invoked with interactive television, including
selecting information to be scrolled like a "ticker" across a
portion of the television screen. Such information might be related
to sports, weather, news, the stock market, or other information
found to be of interest.
[0004] Consumer interaction through the television or over wireless
devices is currently a difficult task, due in part to poor
consumer/service provider interfaces and in part to strict
agreements between service providers and their commercial partners.
It is obviously advantageous for cable and wireless service
providers to be able to provide their customers with the ability to
interact with third party commercial partners. However, the service
provider typically reaches individual agreements with each specific
partner on both a business and technical level, thereby hindering
scalability for each commercial partner. For example, the technical
level agreement may not only contain mandates on connections and
protocols, but also which specific information the partner is
looking for on a screen or session level basis, and where that
information can be entered by the customer. This can include
applications that require completed input fields from the customer
through remote controls such as "request for information"
advertisements, television-commerce order forms, or games. With the
increasing disparity of equipment, software, and environments,
third party content providers have difficulty successfully
deploying this content and applications in varied environments.
[0005] With regard to consumer/service provider interfaces,
traditional purchasing methods by television-watching consumers
have required the consumer to place a telephone call or log in to
an Internet web site to purchase the materials shown on television.
Once logged in, the consumer is required to enter text in text
fields and make other selections in appropriate dialog boxes to
convey necessary information to the vendor, such as billing and
shipping information. Both of these methods require an investment
of time and effort on the part of the consumer, which can lead to
lost sales opportunities. Customization would improve customer
interaction, but service providers and commercial partners
typically find it unduly burdensome to customize on an individual
consumer basis.
[0006] There is thus a need for a method of empowering
television-watching consumers and wireless Internet surfers with
simple access and functionality for purchasing items of interest
discovered while interacting with their devices. There is also a
need for a system for facilitating automated and simplified
presentation of commercial partner information over a content
network to users of devices having limited input environments.
[0007] By the present invention, there is provided a system and
method for automatically storing and loading consumer information
into commercial transaction pages. Consumer information can be
stored through registration or through system interaction and is
associated with tags from commercial participants which are stored
based upon informational needs for consummating transactions. New
commercial participants are easily integrated into the present
system through storage and association of tags or target content
markers. Commercial participant branding is maintained, and entry
of consumer information is minimized and simplified.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] FIG. 1 shows a schematic of the data flow in accordance with
one embodiment of the present invention.
[0009] FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the process by which a
customer purchase can be made using the system of the present
invention.
[0010] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating vendor integration using
markup transformation in accordance with one embodiment of the
present invention.
[0011] FIG. 4 shows one embodiment of an architecture diagram for
use in implementing the system of the present invention.
[0012] FIGS. 5 through 8 show the interaction of the various
components of the present invention in connection with the
initiation and execution of end user and vendor-side activity.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0013] The following terms are defined to enhance the understanding
of the invention, but the definitions contained should not be read
in a limiting sense.
1. Provider or Operator: Network operator such as a cable or
wireless service provider. 2. Vendor or Commercial Partner: Third
party seller of goods and services. 3. Customer or Consumer: Cable
service user and consumer of goods and services. 4. Protocol: Means
of connection between Customer and Commercial Partner (ie.
HTTP/MFS). In one embodiment, the present invention takes the form
of a plug-able module for any J2EE compliant application server
written in Java.TM. that intercepts the stream of information
between the customer and vendor while still within the confines of
the provider's network. 5. Tags: Embedded information keys, such as
HTML or XML embedded keys, for customer specific values which can
be agreed upon at time of Provider/Vendor agreement. 6.
Environment: The private connections between the customer, the
provider, and the vendor communicated via pre-determined protocol.
7. Dialogs: Interactive user interface objects displayed by the
browser (such as text fields, text areas, check boxes, radio
buttons, and list boxes). 8. Standard Information: Groups of values
to specific tags that are common. across most vendors (such as
billing and shipping information). 9. Non-Standard Information:
Unique user session information or groups of values to specific
tags that are not frequently used by more than one vendor. 10.
Page: User interface presentation screen. 11. Data entry page: The
page provided by the present invention on the device or television
set top browser for entering standard or non-standard information.
12. Data selection page: The page generated by the present
invention at the point of sale for the customer to easily select
which information to use for the transaction.
[0014] In the embodiment of the invention as shown in FIGS. 1
through 8, there is provided a commerce and transaction platform 10
for use in network platforms having limited user input
capabilities, such as interactive television systems or wireless
Internet service provider systems. The limitations on consumer
input can be inherent, such as where an input device has no
keyboard, or can be based on convenience, such as where a binary
selection may take a user a few seconds, but a longer field entry
may take one or more minutes. The system of the present invention
can specifically handle the needs of cable and wireless service
providers that have agreements with specific vendors to be able to
sell products and/or services to the providers' customers.
[0015] I. Holds Preference Data
[0016] As shown in FIGS. 1 and 7, the present invention provides a
commerce transaction application system 10, which can incorporate a
subscriber profile management and digital wallet service to serve
consumers using a variety of limited input devices. The present
invention allows users to store various types of information,
including billing and shipping addresses, credit card data, and
partner-specific preference data, regardless of type or quantity.
User, profile, type or any number of semantics can be used to
organize this information in database 24.
[0017] II. Auto Fills Preference Data [0018] a. Data Insertion
[0019] The present invention was designed for usability; if a
consumer is using a device with restrictive input methods, such as
a digital cable set-top box 32 or data capable phone, the invention
facilitates the data entry requirements. The invention can insert
preference data into the stream of information that is passed
between the consumer at 32, 36 and commercial provider 20. The
invention recognizes markers or tags 22 that commercial partner 20
uses as keys to the customer-entered values or preferences. Since
these markers 22 can be agreed upon a priori, the consumer's data
is present, and the present invention maintains the
customer-specific values for the markers, the values are written to
the stream via proxy server 40 as the tags are identified. This is
also shown in FIG. 3. [0020] b. Standard Tags
[0021] The present invention can allow for a set of predetermined
markers or tags to be used by many commercial partners, given that
none of said markers are tags have partner-specific meaning. A
specific embodiment of this could be a number of partners and the
present invention all conforming to some standard, such as
Electronic Commerce Markup Language (ECML). The partner need only
notify the present invention through any number of the invention's
interfaces that it is a participant in the standard, and the
partner can than be fully integrated. As shown in FIG. 6, vendor 20
can interact with tag database 24B via servlet 21 using HTTP. The
servlet can interact with tag database 24B using Java Database
Connectivity (JDBC). [0022] c. Default Policies
[0023] If the information required by the commercial partner is not
known, a default entry can be provided to the consumer. For
example, if the consumer is ordering a men's dress shirt, and has
previously stored credit and identity information in the consumer
database, the shirt retailer may send an HTML page having
standardized fields (set forth by the network provider and the
present invention) for identity and credit information, as well as
neck size, sleeve length, collar type and color. Individual tags
can be associated with each field such that, when the HTML page is
parsed by the application of the present invention, the fields
corresponding to identity and credit information are pre-populated
into the HTML page, and the remaining fields are left as default
values. Default values and/or indicators can be pre-set according
to the preferences of the consumer, the commercial partner or the
network operator. Dialog types can than be modified and/or pre-set
according to preferences and/or default policies. A specific
embodiment of a default policy could be to either fill in a class
of default values such as marketing opt-in/opt-out options, or
simply to fill in nothing. [0024] d. Dialog Modification
[0025] The present invention not only can insert preference or
choices for certain dialogs, but it can also substitute difficult
dialogs for easier ones if the commercial partner and network
operator so desire. For example, if the shirt retailer provides
text fields for neck size and sleeve length, such dialogs may be
difficult to enter for a consumer in a limited input environment
without a keyboard. Thus, the consumer may desire that the dialogs
be presented in a drop-down menu or radio button format. [0026]
III. Interruption of Workflow
[0027] If the consumer has stored more than one possible input
value (or there are conflicting policies of equal importance), the
present invention presents the consumer with a list of selectable
options either inline with the page or in an augmented workflow
(with the mechanism below), otherwise it automatically fills the
appropriate value, rather than cumbersome text areas to make
transaction and signup processes more efficient.
[0028] FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram of process steps in accordance
with one embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the
system can collect any initial information at 50, and can receive a
purchase request 52 from consumer. Next, the proxy server accesses
the tag database 54 for the tags associated with the particular
vendor involved and fills the information 56 into the vendor page
according to data in the consumer database. If further information
is required 58 to consummate the transaction, the customer can then
be presented with a separate data entry page as at 64 or default
values which may or may not require consumer confirmation. Once
obtaining any new information at 66, the database can be updated as
at 68 so as to provide even greater efficiencies in future
transactions involving the consumer. If no further information is
required, yet the user has multiple profile information values for
a particular field, for example, the system of the present
invention can send a data selection page 60 where the user can
select which profile and/or standard information they would like to
use, as at 62. Once all information required for a transaction is
presented, the transaction can be consummated as at 69. As shown in
FIG. 8, once the transaction has occurred, the vendor can send an
e-mail confirmation via messaging component 80, and customer
service component 82 can send order confirmation via servlet 83,
accessible via the profile database.
[0029] If the consumer has requested content, the network operator
can interrupt or augment with additional user interface components
the commercial partner's workflow to gather identity or other
information from the user. For example, if the consumer is part of
a household of five registered purchasers, and the consumer
accesses information about toys, the network operator may suspend
the consumer's interaction with the commercial partner while
determining which profile to invoke for the household. In doing so,
the consumer's content requests and the commercial partner's
responses can be cached while the identity information is obtained
or will be filled after a selection. Since the present invention
does the work of inserting the end consumer's billing and shipping
addresses and credit card information, the consumer in one
embodiment simply has to select their product and the desired
shipping and billing information from outside the commercial
partner's interface in order to execute a transaction, which can be
automatically chosen as well.
[0030] IV. Input Methods
[0031] There are a variety of ways of attaining the user's data:
[0032] a. Web Page
[0033] As shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, because the client's input device
can be limited, the user's profile can be managed via PC 36 using a
branded interface 38 on the World Wide Web. The authentication used
on the web interface could be the same account information used on
the device, allowing for simplified profile management and fewer
forgotten passwords. In one embodiment, the user can communicate
information to database 24 via servlet 41 using a servlet
container. The servlet can interact with profile database 24A using
Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) 42. It will be appreciated that
database 24 can comprise multiple separate databases (for example,
24A and 24B in FIGS. 5 through 8) or a single database. [0034] b.
Interactive Workflow
[0035] In a further embodiment of the invention, the unknown
information required by the commercial partner can be presented in
a separate data entry page for the consumer. Such a page may be
desirable where a more difficult data entry process is requested,
such as the text of a greeting card, for example. Information
requests can be placed in the aforementioned augmented or
interrupted workflow as well as a separate area provided by the
network operated accessible at any time before possible
transactions. [0036] c. Existing Database Import
[0037] As shown in FIG. 5, the present invention can also import
data from external databases, such as service provider database 43.
A specific embodiment could be either a batch load as at 45 for a
number of accounts from an existing billing system or single
account setup from a customer service interface. [0038] d. First
time transaction data entry
[0039] The present invention also recognizes when a consumer
attempts to use the system does not have an existing profile in the
system. When such cases arise, the present invention interrupts
workflow (via aforementioned mechanism), and presents augmented
workflow for the new consumer to register with the system. A
particular embodiment of this is the present invention catching the
consumer clicking "checkout" and offering a setup page if the
consumer wishes to continue. An additional embodiment is the
present invention recognizing that the consumer lacks a profile yet
has a default policy registered to not offer registration
(opt-out), and the present invention allows the commercial partner
workflow to continue.
[0040] V. Transaction Recognition
[0041] The present invention also interprets appropriate commercial
partner documents to determine information that is descriptive or
required to consummate a transaction from the partner. The present
invention then presents this information to the interactive
television, mobile data, or internet consumer in a format which is
simple to navigate and complete, and which may be pre-populated
with relevant customer data to the extent the data has been
obtained.
[0042] VI. Tag Registration [0043] a. Introduction
[0044] The present invention allows the network provider to expose
an interface to the commercial partners for easy integration of
standard or custom tags or markers. The present invention allows
partners to enter their specific tags or markers through the
appropriate protocol plug-in, and match them to internal markers
already determined in the system. Through this interface, partners
can check what the system is already looking for, what it has the
potential to look for, and request new tags or markers to be
analyzed. [0045] b. Integration
[0046] The present invention provides a solution for commercial
partners and network providers who require information and content
integration. The present invention not only facilitates this
integration, but also provides records of agreement and manages the
relationships. The present invention also allows the vendors to
maintain their branding and acquire the particular customer
information they need, while requiring no more integration than if
the vendor had direct access to the customer's browser. Because of
this tag matching and modifying procedure, the customer is provided
with the look-and-feel intended by the commercial partner,
including the page layout, workflow, and custom and non-custom
content.
[0047] In terms of users, a provider's customer is generally not
one person, but instead an entire household. Each household
consists of multiple users, and each user may wish to have multiple
methods of payment, multiple locations for goods to be shipped to,
and multiple preferences that are vendor specific. The present
invention accommodates any household type, whether that includes a
single user with a single billing and shipping address related to a
single credit card, or multiple users, with one or more different
addresses per user, and one or more payment types. Furthermore, the
present invention enhances the abilities of a roaming user by
providing for data entry from a PC, as well as a DTSB or PDA, as
shown in FIG. 1. [0048] c. Mechanism
[0049] A specific embodiment of this function can be a web page
that displays all known internal HTML tags: CAULDRON_FIRST_NAME,
CAULDRON_LAST_NAME, CAULDRON_FULL_NAME. When the partner access the
web site, the content developer can register all intended HTML tags
to be used or already in use by matching them to the internal tags:
CAULDRON_FIRST_NAME & PARTNER_FNAME, CAULDRON_LAST_NAME &
PARTNER_LNAME, etc. [0050] d. Motivation
[0051] The commercial partner can provide certain field descriptors
that depict the information needed from a customer in order to
purchase the vendor's goods or services. This information can be
provided electronically or "offline" and is stored in a partner
transaction or tag database, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 7, for
example. As an example, an airline may need identity and credit
information, as well as seating preference, meal preference, and
date and time information in order to process a request.
Conversely, a shirt retailer may need size and color information in
addition to identity and credit information. When such commercial
partners register their field descriptor tags with the system of
the present invention, they are stored in the partner transaction
database. As such, whenever a consumer requests content from a
commercial partner or vendor, the partner can provide its generic
content page with tags, and the present invention parses the page
for tags and inserts consumer values, if known, which correspond to
the partner's tags. As shown in FIG. 7, consumer 32 can request
information, which request is processed through proxy server 40 to
vendor 20. Vendor returns content information containing tags,
whereby the information is received and parsed by proxy server 40.
In parsing the electronic information, proxy server invokes
programming which accesses tags from tag database 24B and
associated consumer information from profile database 24A to
pre-populate the electronic form for the consumer. It will be
appreciated that a variety of types of commercial partners are
encompassed by the present invention, including merchants of goods
and services, content providers, contest operators and other
entities who may interact with consumers in the course of
conducting commerce and transactions. [0052] e. Standard Tags
[0053] In another embodiment, commercial partners need not identify
required information prior to involvement in electronic
transactions. In such instances, the system of the present
invention can parse the electronic pages intended for a consumer to
identify fields or tags similar to known tags already stored in the
partner transaction database. If the system recognizes common tags,
such as those listed in agreed standards like ECML (as discussed
above), these tags can be associated with the new commercial
partner and stored in the transaction database. The invention can
further pull consumer values associated with the particular tags
prior to delivering the content page to the consumer. In this way,
new commercial partners can be readily integrated into the system
of the present invention without previously identifying their tags
with the system.
Implementation
[0054] FIG. 4 identifies one embodiment of a detailed internal code
architecture 55 of one implementation in the Java language. This
embodiment can handle synchronous HTTP protocol and HTML dialog
modification with workflow interruption while using the HTML tag
registration, parsing and modification as discussed above.
Core Code Components (Example Embodiment)
[0055] The application of one embodiment of the present invention
is generally comprised of 6 packages:
[0056] FlyBuy.TM..servlet: Core Server objects that exist across
all requests
[0057] FlyBuy.TM..parser: HTML Parsing classes including 3.sup.rd
Party code and adapters.
[0058] FlyBuy.TM..state: Request level classes maintained on a per
user basis.
[0059] FlyBuy.TM..store: Persistence classes for managing Database
interaction.
[0060] FlyBuy.TM..auth: Classes for managing authenticity keys and
approvals.
[0061] FlyBuy.TM..action: Handlers for all expected behaviors and
required actions of the present invention.
Server Startup
[0062] flybuy.servlet
[0063] On startup, the servlet container loads the FlybuyServlet
with the ServletConfig object from the container configuration
file. FlybuyServlet then loads its custom configuration file,
flybuyconfig.xml, and creates a FlyBuyconfig object (which is a
singleton and can be accessed from anywhere). Before finishing,
FlybuyServlet instantiates the chosen Authentication scheme for
managing authenticity of the client. FlybuyServlet is now ready to
receive HttpServletRequest and HttpServletResponse objects from the
container.
Request Dispatching
[0064] flybuy.servlet, flybuy.state, flybuy.action
[0065] When the service function is called in FlybuyServlet, the
FlybuyServlet must manage two tasks. First, it must request any
previously stored session or the creation of a new session
depending on whether the client has previously logged in (all
sessions, new and old, are managed by the SessionManager).
Secondly, the FlybuyServlet must derive the appropriate Action
either from internal logic based on what the present application
already knows about the client or from what is indicated in a
custom request from the client as a result of a system interruption
page. Once the Session has been acquired and the appropriate Action
is derived and acquired from ActionFactory, FlybuyServlet executes
the action and the correct allocated action takes over the
remaining service fulfillment.
Authentication
[0066] flybuy.auth, flybuy.action
[0067] Classes wishing to manage authentication must implement the
interface. Session keys are stored in secured cookies that are
checked by the FlybuyServlet; thus, every request is authenticated.
During ServletLoginAction, the Authenticators generate the key that
will be used for the duration of the session. For each subsequent
request the key is requested from the cookie, and verified by the
implemented method in the Authenticator. The only Authenticator
included with this release is BasicAuthentication which only checks
username and password combinations, and verifies session keys.
Session Data
[0068] flybuy.state, flybuy.action, flybuy.store
[0069] With all requests per user login session, there is an
associated Session object. The Session object contains the
authentication key for maintaining tight security and any cached
HTTP requests and responses that need to be held while the user
selects which profiles to use as well as client network connection
information. The Session object is also the central point for all
data required to manage the request and insert user-defined values
into the necessary vendor form fields.
[0070] After authenticity of the user has been initially confirmed
in ServletLoginAction, the ProfileManager is called upon to gather
the entire appropriate vendor and profile data associated to the
hostname and user, respectively. The ProfileManager encapsulates
all this data into a UserData object, which is returned and
maintained in the user's Session object. The UserData object not
only maintains the mappings of vendor specific tags to a list of
profiles which can have the data to fill the forms, but also a
running list of selected profiles, so the user is interrupted as
few times as possible.
Content Rewriting
[0071] flybuy.state, flybuy.action, flybuy.parser
[0072] For every request routed through the present application,
the Parser and RewritingFilter are instantiated and work together
to resolve any fields that may need completion on behalf of the
client. If the user has already selected the appropriate data or if
there is only one choice, the RewritingFilter automatically fills
the data. If there is ambiguity about which profile data to
complete the form with, the interruptAction must be called to
present the user with the appropriate options.
Handlers
[0073] flybuy.action
[0074] As stated in Request Dispatching above, the flybuy.action
classes are the handlers for every required behavior. System
internal logic for deriving the appropriate action is first
determined by checking if the session is marked new. If the session
is not new, the parameter list of the HTTPServletRequest is checked
for an fb_action key, which is an indicator of the submission of an
application JSP, and the value is translated into the appropriate
action name. If the session is not new, and there is no. fb_action
in the parameter list, a default action is taken, namely,
ServletVendorAction.
[0075] Currently there are six flybuy.action classes, each of which
extend the AbstractServletAction and are created from the
ActionFactory. SessionInitAction is created if the Session object
is marked as new, and its job is to store the HTTPServletRequest in
the Session, and forward the client to the login.jsp. The login.jsp
indicates the next action to take is SessionLoginAction. The
SessionLoginAction authenticates the user and gathers the profile
and tag data for the user and site, before retrieving the cached
HTTPServletRequest and fulfilling it.
[0076] ServletVendorAction handles all normal requests routed
through FlyBuy, and calls upon the Parser and RewritingFilter
objects to check for any forms that may need completion. As
mentioned earlier, if there is any choice that user must make for
the forms to be filled, an interrupt page must be sent to the
client so the user can make his/her choice. Once the Parser and
RewritingFilter have determined all the options to be completed by
the user, the Vendors response is stored in the Session and a
UserDataException with the necessary information is thrown to the
ServletVendorAction. The ServletVendorAction then forwards the
client to the JSP that presents the options. When the client
submits, the InterruptAction is called as per the value of
fb_action (embedded in the JSP previously sent) and the choices are
then set in the user's Session's UserData object. The
InterruptAction then calls the ServletVendorAction with the cached
Vendor Response and the process can continue.
[0077] The invention may be embodied in other specific forms
without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics
thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in
all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the
invention being indicated by the claims of the application rather
than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come
within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are
therefore intended to be embraced therein.
[0078] What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent
is:
* * * * *