U.S. patent application number 14/132284 was filed with the patent office on 2014-04-17 for facilitating presentation of content relating to a financial transaction.
This patent application is currently assigned to FISERV, INC.. The applicant listed for this patent is FISERV, INC.. Invention is credited to Mark Edward Bowman, Mark T. Harris, John Alexander Kell, Sherry Pleasant Lewter.
Application Number | 20140108239 14/132284 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 49840981 |
Filed Date | 2014-04-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140108239 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Bowman; Mark Edward ; et
al. |
April 17, 2014 |
FACILITATING PRESENTATION OF CONTENT RELATING TO A FINANCIAL
TRANSACTION
Abstract
Systems, methods and computer-readable media for facilitating
the presentation of content associated with a financial transaction
are disclosed. The content may be identified by a requestor or a
party to the financial transaction on whose behalf a request
associated with the financial transaction is received. A content
location identifier that identifies a location where the content is
stored may be identified or generated and may be included in or
otherwise provided in association with a debit or credit
instruction. The content location identifier may be presented by a
user interface associated with a financial institution in
conjunction with other transaction information and may facilitate
access to the content and presentation of the content to a
user.
Inventors: |
Bowman; Mark Edward;
(Canton, GA) ; Harris; Mark T.; (Westerville,
OH) ; Lewter; Sherry Pleasant; (Duluth, GA) ;
Kell; John Alexander; (Decatur, GA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
FISERV, INC. |
Brookfield |
WI |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
FISERV, INC.
Brookfield
WI
|
Family ID: |
49840981 |
Appl. No.: |
14/132284 |
Filed: |
December 18, 2013 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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13630426 |
Sep 28, 2012 |
8626659 |
|
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14132284 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/39 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 40/02 20130101;
G06Q 20/24 20130101; G06F 16/9566 20190101; G06Q 20/389 20130101;
G06F 3/04842 20130101; G06Q 20/26 20130101; G06F 3/0482 20130101;
G06Q 20/10 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/39 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 20/38 20060101
G06Q020/38; G06Q 20/26 20060101 G06Q020/26; G06Q 20/24 20060101
G06Q020/24 |
Claims
1. A system, comprising: at least one network interface; at least
one memory storing computer-executable instructions; and at least
one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one network
interface and the at least one memory and configured to access the
at least one memory to execute the computer-executable instructions
to: receive, on behalf of a requestor via at least a first network
interface of the at least one network interface, a request to
perform or request a financial transaction involving a financial
account, wherein the request comprises content-related information
relating to content associated with the financial transaction,
wherein the content is identified by one of: i) the requestor or
ii) a party to the financial transaction different from the
requestor, and wherein the content-related information comprises
one of: i) the content or ii) a first content location identifier
indicative of a first location from which the content is
retrievable; perform one of: i) identify the first content location
identifier from the content-related information or ii) generate,
based at least in part on the content-related information, a second
content location identifier indicative of a second location from
which the content is retrievable; insert one of: i) the first
content location identifier or ii) the second content location
identifier into one of i) a debit instruction to post a debit to
the financial account, wherein the debit instruction is associated
with the financial transaction or ii) a credit instruction to post
a credit to the financial account, wherein the credit instruction
is associated with the financial transaction; direct, via at least
a second network interface of the at least one network interface,
transmission of the debit instruction or the credit instruction to
one of: i) a payment network or ii) a core account processing
system associated with a financial institution at which the
financial account is held; generate a presentation of information
associated with the financial account comprising: transaction
information comprising an indication of posting of the debit or the
credit, and one of: i) a selectable representation of one of the
first content location identifier or the second content location
identifier, wherein the selectable representation enables retrieval
and presentation of the content or ii) a representation of the
content generated responsive to retrieval of the content based at
least in part on the first content location identifier or the
second content location identifier; and direct transmission of the
presentation of information for presentment to a user.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is
configured to direct at least a third network interface of the at
least one network interface to transmit the presentation of
information associated with the financial account to a user device
associated with the user, wherein the presentation of information
comprises the selectable representation of one of the first content
location identifier or the second content location identifier, and
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute
the computer-executable instructions to: receive, via at least a
fourth network interface of the at least one network interface from
the user device on behalf of the user, a request for the content,
wherein the request for the content is generated responsive to
selection of the selectable representation; and direct, via at
least a fifth network interface of the at least one network
interface, transmission of the content for presentation to the user
responsive to receiving the request for the content.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein two or more of the first network
interface, the second network interface, the third network
interface, the fourth network interface, or the fifth network
interface are a same network interface.
4. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is
further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions
to: retrieve the content from at least one of: i) one or more
remote datastores or ii) one or more local datastores.
5. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is
further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions
to: authenticate at least one of i) the requestor in connection
with the request to perform or request the financial transaction or
ii) the user in connection with the request for the content.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the presentation of information
associated with the financial account comprises the representation
of the content generated responsive to retrieval of the content
based at least in part on the first content-location identifier or
the second content-location identifier, and wherein the at least
one processor is further configured to execute the
computer-executable instructions to: retrieve the content based at
least in part on the first content location identifier or the
second location identifier; and generate the representation of the
content based at least in part on the retrieved content.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the selectable representation of
one of the first content location identifier or the second content
location identifier comprises hyperlinked anchor text.
8. The system of claim 7, wherein the one of: i) the debit
instruction or ii) the credit instruction comprises one of: i) the
anchor text or ii) an identifier associated with the anchor
text.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the selectable representation of
one of the first content location identifier or the second content
location identifier comprises a graphical representation of the
content.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first
content location identifier or the second content identifier
comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).
11. The system of claim 10, wherein the URL is a shortened URL.
12. The system of claim 1, wherein the content comprises at least
one of: i) textual content associated with the financial
transaction, ii) an image associated with the financial
transaction, iii) audio content associated with the financial
transaction, or iv) video content associated with the financial
transaction.
13. The system of claim 1, wherein the requestor is one of: i) an
account holder of the financial account or ii) an entity authorized
by the account holder to initiate the request.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the user is one of: i) the
requestor or ii) the party to the financial transaction different
from the requestor.
15. The system of claim 1, wherein the core account processing
system forms part of a financial institution system associated with
the financial institution.
16. A method, comprising: receiving, by a computerized service
provider system comprising one or more computers and on behalf of a
requestor, a request to perform or request a financial transaction
involving a financial account, wherein the request comprises
content-related information relating to content associated with the
financial transaction, wherein the content is identified by one of:
i) the requestor or ii) a party to the financial transaction
different from the requestor, and wherein the content-related
information comprises one of: i) the content or ii) a first content
location identifier indicative of a first location from which the
content is retrievable; performing one of: identifying, by the
computerized service provider system, the first content location
identifier from the content-related information, or generating, by
the computerized service provider system and based at least in part
on the content-related information, a second content location
identifier indicative of a second location from which the content
is retrievable; inserting, by the computerized service provider
system, one of: i) the first content location identifier or ii) the
second content location identifier into one of i) a debit
instruction to post a debit to the financial account, wherein the
debit instruction is associated with the financial transaction or
ii) a credit instruction to post a credit to the financial account,
wherein the credit instruction is associated with the financial
transaction; transmitting, by the computerized service provider
system, the debit instruction or the credit instruction to one of:
i) a payment network or ii) a core account processing system
associated with a financial institution at which the financial
account is held; generating, by the computerized service provider
system, a presentation of information associated with the financial
account comprising: transaction information comprising an
indication of posting of the debit or the credit, and one of: i) a
selectable representation of one of the first content location
identifier or the second content location identifier, wherein the
selectable representation enables retrieval and presentation of the
content or ii) a representation of the content generated responsive
to retrieval of the content based at least in part on the first
content location identifier or the second content location
identifier; and transmitting, by the computerized service provider
system, the presentation of information for presentment to a
user.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the presentation of information
associated with the financial account is transmitted to a user
device associated with the user and comprises the selectable
representation of one of the first content location identifier or
the second content location identifier, the method further
comprising: receiving, by the computerized service provider system
from the user device on behalf of the user, a request for the
content, wherein the request for the content is generated
responsive to selection of the selectable representation; and
transmitting, by the computerized service provider system, the
content for presentation to the user responsive to receiving the
request for the content.
18. The method of claim 16, wherein the presentation of information
associated with the financial account comprises the representation
of the content generated responsive to retrieval of the content
based at least in part on the first content-location identifier or
the second content-location identifier, the method further
comprising: retrieving, by the computerized service provider
system, the content based at least in part on the first content
location identifier or the second location identifier; and
generating, by the computerized service provider system, the
representation of the content based at least in part on the
retrieved content.
19. The method of claim 16, wherein the selectable representation
of one of the first content location identifier or the second
content location identifier comprises hyperlinked anchor text.
20. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one of the first
content location identifier or the second content identifier
comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).
21. The method of claim 16, wherein the content comprises at least
one of: i) textual content associated with the financial
transaction, ii) an image associated with the financial
transaction, iii) audio content associated with the financial
transaction, or iv) video content associated with the financial
transaction.
22. The method of claim 16, wherein the requestor is one of: i) an
account holder of the financial account or ii) an entity authorized
by the account holder to initiate the request.
23. The method of claim 22, wherein the user is one of: i) the
requestor or ii) a party to the financial transaction different
from the requestor.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation application of U.S.
application Ser. No. 13/630,426 filed Sep. 28, 2012.
BACKGROUND
[0002] With the advent of the digital age, financial account
holders are increasingly relying on online platforms to manage
their financial accounts, initiate financial transactions, and
obtain information relating to their financial accounts. These
online platforms may support a variety of software applications
such as online financial applications (e.g., online banking
applications) rendered by traditional web browsers running on
desktop or laptop devices, online financial applications rendered
by mobile browsers running on mobile devices such as smartphones or
tablets, dedicated smartphone or tablet mobile banking or other
financial applications, and so forth. These online applications
have dramatically increased the speed and efficiency with which
financial account holders are able to conduct financial
transactions and manage their financial accounts.
[0003] In addition to providing functionality for initiating
financial transactions and managing financial accounts, online
financial applications generally provide financial account holders
with various financial transaction and account information relating
to pending and processed financial transactions. Such information
may include a posting date of a transaction, a transaction amount,
a brief description of the transaction, an available financial
account balance, and so forth.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0004] The detailed description is set forth with reference to the
accompanying drawings. Use of the same reference numerals indicates
similar or identical components or elements; however, similar
components or elements may also be designated with different
reference numerals. Various embodiments of the disclosure may
utilize elements or components other than those illustrated in the
accompanying drawings and some elements and/or components may not
be present in one or more embodiments. It should be appreciated
that while singular terminology may be used to describe various
components or elements, a plural number of such components or
elements is also within the scope of the disclosure.
[0005] FIG. 1A schematically depicts an illustrative networked
architecture for facilitating presentation of content relating to a
financial transaction in accordance with one or more embodiments of
the disclosure.
[0006] FIGS. 1B-1D schematically depict various illustrative data
flows between various components of the illustrative architecture
depicted in FIG. 1A in accordance with one or more embodiments of
the disclosure.
[0007] FIG. 2 schematically depicts an illustrative device for
facilitating presentation of content relating to a financial
transaction in accordance with one or more embodiments of the
disclosure.
[0008] FIG. 3 is a process flow diagram depicting an illustrative
method for identifying a content location identifier associated
with content relating to a financial transaction and including the
content location identifier in a debit or credit instruction
associated with the financial transaction in accordance with one or
more embodiments of the disclosure.
[0009] FIG. 4 is a process flow diagram depicting an illustrative
method for receiving a request for content relating to a financial
transaction and generating and transmitting a representation of the
content in accordance with one or more embodiments of the
disclosure.
[0010] FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative online presentation of
information associated with a financial account that includes a
representation of a content location identifier that facilitates
access to an illustrative type of content relating to a financial
transaction in accordance with one or more embodiments of the
disclosure.
[0011] FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative online presentation of
information associated with a financial account that includes a
representation of a content location identifier that facilitates
access to another illustrative type of content relating to a
financial transaction in accordance with one or more additional
embodiments of the disclosure.
[0012] FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative online presentation of
information associated with a financial account that includes a
representation of a content location identifier that facilitates
access to yet another illustrative type of content relating to a
financial transaction in accordance with one or more embodiments of
the disclosure.
[0013] FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative online presentation of
information associated with a financial account that includes a
representation of a content location identifier and other
information that facilitates access to yet another illustrative
type of content relating to a financial transaction in accordance
with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.
[0014] FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative presentation of information
associated with a financial account that includes various
representations of various illustrative types of content relating
to a financial transaction in accordance with one or more
embodiments of the disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Overview
[0015] Online financial applications such as online banking
applications may provide a financial account holder with
information relating to a financial account such as transaction and
account details. Account statements, whether mailed or delivered in
electronic form, may also provide transaction and account details.
To date, however, the nature of the transactional and account
information provided to a financial account holder through an
online interface or in a paper statement has been limited in scope.
Conventionally, such information has been limited to transaction
amounts, account balance information, posting dates, minimal
descriptions of the type/nature of the transactions, or similar
information. Further, while account holders may have some degree of
control over the formatting or arrangement of the information
presented via an online banking interface, they generally are not
able to control the type, nature, or scope of information that is
presented. Further, conventional online financial account
interfaces (e.g., online banking interfaces, online credit card
interfaces, etc.) and client applications for initiating financial
transactions (e.g., bill payments, person-to-person (P2P) payments
and requests for payments, account-to-account (A2A) funds
transfers, retail payments, and check deposits) fail to provide a
mechanism by which a requestor associated with a financial
transaction (e.g., an account holder) can identify content relating
to a financial transaction and associate the content with the
financial transaction such that the content may be presented to a
user (e.g., an account holder) via an online financial account
interface or as part of a downloadable or mailed account
statement.
[0016] This disclosure relates to systems, methods, and
computer-readable media for facilitating the presentation of
content relating to a financial transaction. A service provider
system may receive a request associated with a financial
transaction on behalf of a requestor. The request may be received,
for example, from a client device that hosts any of a variety of
types of client applications. An illustrative, non-exhaustive list
of such client applications may include an online banking
application or other financial application, a person-to-person
(P2P) client application that supports functionality for
transferring funds between financial accounts associated with
different account holders (e.g., a P2P payment or a request for a
P2P payment), a funds transfer application that supports
functionality for transferring funds between financial accounts
associated with a same account holder, a client application that
supports functionality for electronic bill presentment and payment,
a client application that supports functionality for remote deposit
capture, an application or interface that facilitates retail
payments, and so forth. In certain embodiments, the request may be
received from a client application hosted by a merchant or a device
or system associated with the merchant or other payee as part of a
credit card transaction, a debit card transaction, a check payment,
an Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) transaction, and so forth. The
merchant or payee may be online or brick-and-mortar and the
financial transaction may be an online transaction or a physical
point-of-sale (POS) transaction.
[0017] The requestor may be any entity from whom the request
associated with the financial transaction is received by the
service provider system. For example, the requestor may be a party
to the financial transaction (e.g., a payor, a payee etc.), a
merchant that submits the financial transaction request based on
authorization received from a payor, and/or an individual or other
entity authorized to submit the request by an account holder of a
financial account associated with the financial transaction. The
financial transaction associated with the request may be any of a
variety of types of financial transactions including, but not
limited to, a bill payment, a P2P payment, a request for a P2P
payment, a retail payment, an account-to-account transfer, a funds
transfer, a check deposit, and so forth. In fact, the financial
transaction may include any transaction according to which funds
are transferred from one financial account to one or more other
financial accounts. A financial account to be debited or credited
as part of the financial transaction may include any of a variety
of types of financial accounts including, but not limited to, a
demand deposit account, a savings account, a money market account,
a line of credit account, a debit card account, a credit card
account, a prepaid card account, a stored value account, or a
brokerage account.
[0018] It should be appreciated that the foregoing are not
exhaustive listings of the types of client applications, financial
transactions and/or financial accounts to which systems and methods
of the disclosure may be applicable. Any financial transaction
involving the exchange of value between any two or more value
holding entities and any applications that support such value
exchanges are within the scope of this disclosure.
[0019] The request may be associated with content relating to the
financial transaction. The content may include any of a variety of
types of content including textual content, one or more images,
electronic or multimedia content such as audio and/or video
content, and so forth. The textual content may include, but is not
limited to, a textual description of the financial transaction,
textual information associated with and/or generated by one or more
parties to the financial transaction, and so forth. Illustrative
examples of textual content include, but are not limited to, a
sales receipt, a purchase order, a sales invoice, a bill, or a
greeting card associated with the financial transaction. Such
textual content may be organized according to any suitable format
for presentation in connection with an online account interface or
within an account statement. For example, the textual content may
be rich textual content that may be encoded in accordance with any
suitable formatting specification such as any of those defined by
any of a variety of markup languages (e.g., Extensible Markup
Language (XML), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible
HyperText Markup Language (XHTML), Extensible Stylesheet Language
(XSL), etc.). The textual content may have graphical elements,
tags, metadata, and so forth associated therewith.
[0020] Illustrative types of image content may include an image of
an individual associated with the financial transaction (e.g., an
image of an account holder of a financial account from which funds
are to be debited in connection with the financial transaction, an
image of an account holder of a financial account to which funds
are to be credited in connection with the financial transaction,
etc.), an image of an event associated with the financial
transaction (e.g., an image of an event at which the financial
transaction was initiated), an image of a purchased item associated
with the financial transaction (e.g., an image of a product
purchased as part of an online financial transaction or as part of
a financial transaction initiated at a physical retail location),
an image of a purchase order associated with the financial
transaction, an image of an invoice associated with the financial
transaction, an image of a receipt associated with the financial
transaction (e.g., an image of a physical or online-generated sales
receipt), an image of a greeting card or message, and so forth.
[0021] Illustrative types of electronic or multimedia content
include, but are not limited to, audio files (e.g., digital music,
audio books, other audio recordings, etc.), video files, electronic
books (e-books), collections of images, content capable of being
streamed, and so forth. Such electronic or multimedia content may
be associated with and/or generated by one or more parties to the
financial transaction or may be purchased or identified in
connection with the financial transaction. It should be appreciated
that the above-described examples of the types of content relating
to the financial transaction are merely illustrative and that any
of a variety of types of content are within the scope of this
disclosure.
[0022] In various embodiments, the content relating to the
financial transaction may be identified by the requestor of the
financial transaction or a party to the financial transaction. In
some embodiments, the requestor may also be a party to the
financial transaction. For example, in the case of a request to
make a P2P payment or a request to request a P2P payment, the
requestor may be an account holder associated with a financial
account to be debited or an account holder associated with a
financial account to be credited. The requestor may also be an
entity that is not a party to the financial transaction such as an
account holder of a financial account associated with the financial
transaction, but that is authorized to submit the request on behalf
of the account holder (e.g., a user authorized to submit requests
for P2P payments or requests for requests for P2P payments on
behalf of a corresponding account holder). Various content (e.g.,
an image of an account holder associated with the financial account
to be credited as part of the P2P payment, an image of an account
holder associated with the financial account to be debited as part
of the P2P payment, textual content, etc.) may be identified by the
requestor. The client application (e.g., P2P client application,
A2A client application, etc.) may provide an interface that allows
the requestor or the party to the financial transaction (such as in
those scenarios in which the requestor is a different entity from
the party to the financial transaction) to attach, append, or
otherwise associate the content with the request for the financial
transaction. For example, the client application may provide
functionality that allows the requestor or the party to the
financial transaction to browse for content stored locally or
remotely and to associate the content with the request.
Alternatively, the requestor or the party to the financial
transaction may designate or otherwise associate a location
identifier with the request that identifies a resource where
associated content is stored.
[0023] In certain embodiments, the requestor may correspond to the
payor. In other embodiments, the requestor may be an entity other
than the payor such as, for example, a merchant or payee associated
with the financial transaction. For example, in the case of a
credit card transaction in which a payment is made to a payee
(e.g., a merchant), the requestor may be the merchant who submits a
request for a financial transaction on behalf of the payor. In
certain embodiments, the content may be identified by the payee
independently of the payor. For example, the payee may identify
content (e.g., a sales receipt, electronic content purchased as
part of the financial transaction, etc.) based on the nature/type
of the financial transaction.
[0024] In other embodiments, the payor (e.g., the credit card
holder) may specify the type of content he/she wishes to associate
with the financial transaction. As a non-limiting example, a payor
may identify, as part of an online purchase of a product, content
to associate with the financial transaction. Such content may
include any suitable content such as, for example, an image of the
product purchased, an image of a sales receipt for the product
purchased or textual content included in the sales receipt, and so
forth. A client application through which the payor initiates the
financial transaction (e.g., by submitting payment information) may
provide functionality for allowing the payor to identify or
otherwise specify the content to be associated with the financial
transaction. For example, the payor may be permitted to attach,
append, or otherwise associate the content with the financial
transaction. In other embodiments, the payee (e.g., merchant) may
provide a set of options of content types to associate with the
financial transaction. The payor may select one or more of the
content types and the payee may associate corresponding content
with the financial transaction. In such scenarios, the payee may
identify or generate the content corresponding to the content types
selected by the payor.
[0025] In certain other embodiments, the payor and the payee may
each identify content relating to the financial transaction. For
example, in the case of a financial transaction initiated in the
context of an event or function, the payor may identify first
content relating to the financial transaction (e.g., an image of
the event) and the payee (e.g., the merchant) may identify second
content relating to the financial transaction (e.g., an image of a
sales receipt, a textual and/or graphical representation of the
sales receipt, etc.). The first content and the second content may
both be presented in association with the corresponding financial
transaction via an online account interface or an account
statement.
[0026] In various embodiments, the request associated with the
financial transaction may include the content itself. As a
non-limiting example, content associated with a P2P payment request
may be supplied with the request by utilizing functionality
provided by the client application through which the P2P payment
request is submitted. For example, the client P2P application may
provide a user with a capability to attach or append the content to
the request. As another non-limiting example, a request received by
the service provider system which is associated with an online
purchase may include content (e.g., content purchased as part of
the transaction, content relating to the product or service
purchased such as an image of the purchased product, textual or
multimedia content generated by the purchaser as part of the online
purchase, etc.) that is attached or appended to or otherwise
provided in association with the request.
[0027] In those embodiments in which the content is included in or
otherwise provided in conjunction with the request, the service
provider system may store the content in one or more local
datastores that form at least part of the service provider system.
Alternatively, the service provider system may direct one or more
server devices to store the content in one or more remote
datastores. More specifically, the service provider system may
transmit the content to the one or more server devices along with
an instruction/request for the server device(s) to store the
content in the remote datastore(s). As will be described in more
detail hereinafter, the service provider system may subsequently
retrieve or access the content by submitting a request for the
content to the server device(s). In still other embodiments, the
service provider system may store at least a portion of the content
in the local datastore(s) and direct storage of at least a portion
of the content in the remote datastore(s). For example, a portion
of the content may be stored in the local datastore(s) and a
remaining portion of the content may be stored in the remote
datastore(s). Alternatively, multiple instances of the content may
be stored to provide redundancy, where one or more instances of the
content are stored in the local datastore(s) and one or more
instances of the content are stored in the remote datastore(s).
[0028] In various other embodiments, the request associated with
the financial transaction may include an identifier that
facilitates access to and retrieval of the content associated with
the financial transaction rather than the content itself. For
example, the request may include an identifier that specifies a
location at which the content is stored. In certain embodiments,
the service provider system may utilize the identifier provided
with the request to obtain or retrieve the content. Upon retrieval
of the content, the service provider system may proceed to store
the content locally in the one or more local datastores, or
alternatively, may direct storage of the content in the remote
datastore(s) as described earlier.
[0029] Upon receipt of the content, either with the financial
transaction request or by retrieving the content using an
identifier provided with the request, the service provider system
may identify a content location identifier that facilitates access
to the content associated with the financial transaction. In some
embodiments, the service provider system may generate the content
location identifier, while in other embodiments a system, device,
or program module(s) distinct from the service provider system may
generate the content location identifier. If generated by a system,
device, or module(s) distinct from the service provider system, the
content location identifier may be obtained, received, or retrieved
by the service provider system from the entity that generates the
content location identifier. In those embodiments in which the
request includes an identifier that identifies a location where the
content is stored, that identifier may correspond to the content
location identifier identified by the service provider system.
Alternatively, the service provider system may utilize the
identifier provided with the request to access and retrieve the
content, store the content in the local datastore(s) or direct
storage of the content in the remote datastore(s) upon receipt of
the content, and proceed to generate a second identifier (e.g., the
content location identifier) that serves to facilitate access to
the content stored in the local datastore(s) and/or remote
datastore(s).
[0030] The content location identifier may be any suitable
identifier that facilitates access to and retrieval of the content.
For example, the content location identifier may be a Uniform
Resource Locator (URL) that references a resource where the content
is stored (e.g., the local datastore(s) and/or the remote
datastore(s)). In various embodiments, the content location
identifier may be a shortened URL that is shorter than a longer URL
that identifies a resource where the content is stored. The
shortened URL may be generated from the longer URL and may redirect
to the resource identified by the longer URL. The shortened URL may
be generated in accordance with any suitable URL shortening
methodology. For example, the shortened URL corresponding to a
longer URL may be generated using an appropriate hash function that
maps the longer URL to a unique key that may be used to generate
the shortened URL. In some embodiments, as will be described in
more detail hereinafter, the content location identifier may
include a resource locator such as a shortened URL as well as
anchor text or an indication of anchor text to be included in a
presentation of information associated with a financial account
that is debited or credited as part of the financial transaction.
For example, financial account information presented via an online
application interface may include the anchor text as a selectable
representation of the content location identifier (e.g., a
clickable hyperlink) that, upon selection, directs a user to the
resource identified by the content location identifier.
[0031] Upon identification or generation of the content location
identifier, the service provider system may generate a debit or a
credit instruction associated with the financial transaction. The
service provider system may embed the content location identifier
within the generated debit or credit transaction or append the
content location identifier thereto and transmit the debit or
credit instruction to a payment network or a financial institution
at which a financial account associated with the financial
transaction is held. The payment network to which the debit or
credit instruction may be transmitted may be any suitable payment
network including, but not limited to, an ACH network, such as that
supported by the Federal Reserve or the Electronic Payments Network
(EPN), a proprietary network of financial institutions, a debit
network, a credit network, or any other suitable payment network
capable of facilitating and/or processing financial transactions
between member financial institutions or between member financial
institutions and non-member financial institutions. In one or more
embodiments, the payment network may be a real-time payment
network. The payment network may include any number of computing
devices, payment gateways, routers, switches, communicative links,
and so forth that facilitate financial transactions between
financial institutions.
[0032] Upon receipt of the debit or credit instruction, the payment
network may cause a debit or credit to be posted to a financial
account. The payment network may transmit or otherwise convey the
debit or credit instruction via a set of communicative links to,
for example, a core account processing system associated with the
financial institution which, in turn, may cause a debit or credit
to be posted to the financial account. Alternatively, the payment
network, via a set of communicative links to the financial
institution, may cause the debit or credit to be posted to the
financial account.
[0033] In some embodiments, rather than transmitting the debit or
credit instruction to a payment network, the service provider
system may transmit the debit or credit instruction to a financial
institution at which a financial account to be debited or credited
as part of the financial transaction is held. For example, the
service provider system may transmit the debit or credit
instruction via a set of communicative links to one or more program
modules configured to interact with a core account processing
system of the financial institution. Upon receipt of the debit or
credit instruction, the program module(s) may cause an associated
debit or credit to be posted to the financial account, or
alternatively, may direct the core account processing system to
post the debit or credit to the financial account.
[0034] As previously described, the debit or credit instruction
transmitted by the service provider system may include a content
location identifier that facilitates access to content relating to
the financial transaction, and may optionally further include
information that may be included in a representation of the content
location identifier. An online banking application or other online
user interface may be configured to present information (e.g.,
transaction and account information) associated with the financial
account. Such online account information may include an indication
of the posting of the debit or credit to the financial account. The
presentation of information may further include a representation of
the content location identifier. For example, as previously
described, the content location identifier may be a shortened URL
that redirects to a longer URL that identifies a resource where the
associated content is stored.
[0035] In some embodiments, the content location identifier itself
(e.g., the shortened URL) may be displayed as part of the
presentation of information. In other embodiments, an alternate
representation of the content location identifier may be displayed.
For example, anchor text associated with the content location
identifier may be displayed. The anchor text may include, for
example, text that is generally descriptive of the nature/type of
content with which the content location identifier is associated.
The anchor text may have been provided along with the content
location identifier in connection with the debit or credit
instruction. In other embodiments, a key or other identifier that
identifies the anchor text to display may have been supplied with
the debit or credit instruction. In still other embodiments, the
representation of the content location identifier may be an image
such as an icon that is representative of the content or the type
of content, a thumbnail image of the content itself, or the like.
It should be appreciated that numerous other representations of the
content location identifier are within the scope of this disclosure
and may be presented.
[0036] In still further embodiments, variable free-form content may
be provided in association with the content location identifier.
The variable content may be distinct from anchor text which, as
described earlier, may be presented as a representation of the
content location identifier. The variable content may be, for
example, a character string (e.g., an access code) that may be
presented in association with the representation of the content
location identifier, and which provides access to the content upon
selection of the representation of the content location identifier
and redirection to a resource where the content is stored. It
should be appreciated that numerous other examples of variable
content associated with the content location identifier and
distinct from the content identified by the content location
identifier are within the scope of this disclosure.
[0037] As used herein, the phrase "representation of the content
location identifier" may refer to the content location identifier
itself or to some other representation associated with the content
location identifier. For example, the "representation of the
content location identifier" may refer to the content location
identifier (e.g., a URL that includes a combination of alphanumeric
characters), anchor text displayed as part of a hyperlink
associated with the content location identifier, and so forth. In
various embodiments, the representation of the content location
identifier included in the presentation of information may be
selectable. For example, the content location identifier displayed
as part of an online presentation of information associated with
the financial account may be hyperlinked or otherwise selectable.
In other embodiments, anchor text associated with the content
location identifier may be hyperlinked or otherwise selectable.
Selection of the representation of the content location identifier
may initiate a process for access and retrieval of content stored
at a location referenced by the content location identifier.
[0038] In some embodiments, the online presentation of information
provided by way of the online financial application may not include
a selectable representation of the content location identifier.
Rather, in certain embodiments, the content location identifier
(e.g., a URL) may be displayed but may not be selectable, in which
case, it may be necessary for a user to copy and paste the content
location identifier into, for example, a browser field to initiate
a process for accessing and retrieving the associated content. In
the online context, the content location identifier may not be
selectable if presented, for example, as part of a downloadable
online account statement.
[0039] In other embodiments, the transaction and account
information associated with the financial account that is debited
or credited may be presented as part of a paper statement that may
be mailed to an account holder on a periodic basis. The paper
statement may include a representation of the content location
identifier (e.g., the content location identifier itself) or a
representation of the content referenced by the content location
identifier. As will be described in more detail hereinafter, upon
receipt of the content location identifier provided in connection
with the debit or credit instruction, the financial institution (or
more specifically an online financial application associated with
the financial institution) may utilize the content location
identifier to access and retrieve associated content. Upon receipt
of the content, a representation of the content may be generated
and presented in the paper statement. Alternatively, the
representation of the content may itself be received by the online
financial application. The representation of the content may be
displayed in the paper statement in relative proximity to other
transaction information associated with the financial transaction
with which the content is associated. As a non-limiting example,
the content may be an image of an individual from whom funds were
received as part of a P2P payment. The representation of the
content that is generated and displayed in the paper statement may
be a thumbnail image of the original image.
[0040] Referring again to the online context, as previously noted,
a selectable representation of the content location identifier
(e.g., a hyperlink) may be presented as part of an online
presentation of financial account information. Upon selection of
the representation of the content location identifier, a request
for the content may be generated. In certain embodiments, the
request may be directed to one or more server devices configured to
access and retrieve the content from one or more remote datastores.
The server device(s) may transmit the content to the requesting
application (e.g., the online financial application) for
presentation to a user of the requesting application. For example,
the content may be presented in a pop-up window overlaying the
online application interface presenting the financial account
information. Alternatively, the content may be presented in a new
browser window or a new browser tab separate from a browser window
or tab in which the financial account information is rendered. In
still other embodiments, a dedicated software application may be
accessed and opened for presenting the content such as, for
example, when the content is multimedia content.
[0041] In other embodiments, the request for the content may be
redirected to the service provider system. Upon receipt of the
request for the content, the service provider system may access the
local datastore(s) to retrieve the content, or alternatively, if
the content is stored in the remote datastore(s), may re-transmit
the request or generate and submit another request for the content
to the server device(s) that may control access to the remote
datastore(s). Upon receipt or retrieval of the content, the service
provider system may generate a representation of the content which
may include altering the content in some fashion. For example, the
service provider system may compress, partition, or otherwise
modify the content to conform to specifications of the online
financial account application to which the modified content may be
transmitted. In other embodiments, the service provider system may
transmit the content to the online financial account application in
unadulterated form. Upon receipt of the content, the online
financial account application may modify the content according to
various specifications prior to presenting the content to a user.
Selection of the selectable representation of the content location
identifier may cause the online financial account application to
receive or retrieve the content and control the presentation of the
content to a user. Alternatively, selection of the representation
of the content location identifier may cause the user (e.g., the
browser via which the user is accessing the financial account
application) to be redirected to a resource hosted by the service
provider system (or an alternate resource) such that the server
provider system may control presentation of the content to the
user.
[0042] These and other embodiments will now be described in more
detail through reference to the accompanying drawings which form
part of this disclosure. While various illustrative networked
architectures and user interfaces for facilitating various
illustrative methods of the disclosure are described, it should be
appreciated that numerous modifications, alternatives, and
expansions of the described illustrative embodiments fall within
the scope of this disclosure.
Illustrative Architectures, Data Flows and Processes
[0043] FIG. 1A schematically depicts an illustrative networked
architecture 100 for facilitating the presentation of content
relating to a financial transaction in accordance with one or more
embodiments of the disclosure. It should be appreciated that
numerous other suitable networked configurations beyond the
illustrative configuration depicted in FIG. 1A are within the scope
of this disclosure. FIG. 2 schematically depicts an illustrative
service provider computer 106 in accordance with one or more
embodiments of the disclosure. The illustrative data flows depicted
in FIGS. 1B-1D and the illustrative methods depicted in FIGS. 3-4
will be described through reference to the illustrative networked
configuration shown in FIG. 1A and the illustrative service
provider computer 106 depicted in FIG. 2.
[0044] The illustrative networked architecture 100 may include a
service provider system 104 that may include one or more service
provider computers 106(1)-106(N) (generically referred to herein as
service provider computer(s) 106) and one or more local datastores
108. The networked architecture 100 may further include one or more
payment networks 110, one or more server devices 112(1)-112(N)
(generically referred to herein as server device(s) 112) that may
control access to and retrieval of information stored in one or
more remote datastore(s) 114, and a financial institution system
116 associated with one or more financial institutions and which
may include one or more financial institution computers
118(1)-118(N) (generically referred to herein as financial
institution computer(s) 118).
[0045] The service provider computer(s) 106, the financial
institution computer(s) 118, and/or the server device(s) 112 may
include any suitable computing device including, but not limited
to, a server computer, a mainframe computing device, a workstation
computing device, a personal computing device, and so forth. It
should be appreciated that the service provider system 104 and/or
the financial institution system 116 may further include various
other components such as routers, gateways, switches, other
computing devices, communicative links, or any other suitable
components.
[0046] A client device 102 that hosts or otherwise provides access
to a client application 102A is also depicted in FIG. 1A. As will
be described in more detail later in this disclosure, the service
provider system 104 may receive a request associated with a
financial transaction from the client application 102A. Although
not depicted in FIG. 1A, one or more intervening systems or devices
may be provided between the client device 102 and the service
provider system 104. For example, the client device 102 may
represent a user device and an intervening payee system may be
provided that submits payment requests on behalf of a user of the
client device 102 (e.g., a payor). In various embodiments, the
client application 102A may be a thin client such as, for example,
a browser-based or dedicated mobile application that is hosted by
one or more remote servers that may form part of the service
provider system 104 or another system or entity.
[0047] In addition, a user interface 120 may be provided that is
hosted by the financial institution system 116. The user interface
120 may include a representation of a content location identifier
122 that identifies a location where content associated with a
financial transaction is stored. The user interface 120 and the
content location identifier 122 will also be described in greater
detail later in this disclosure.
[0048] FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative service provider computer 106
in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure. The
service provider computer 106 may comprise one or more processors
202 and one or more memories 204 (generically referred to herein as
memory 204). The processor(s) 202 may include any suitable
processing unit capable of accepting digital data as input,
processing the input data based on stored computer-executable
instructions, and generating output data. The computer-executable
instructions may be stored, for example, in the memory 204 and may
include operating system software, application software, and so
forth. The processor(s) 202 may be configured to execute the
computer-executable instructions to cause various operations to be
performed. The processor(s) 202 may include any type of processing
unit including, but not limited to, a central processing unit, a
microprocessor, a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC)
microprocessor, a microcontroller, an Application Specific
Integrated Circuit (ASIC), and so forth.
[0049] The memory 204 may store program instructions that are
loadable and executable by the processor(s) 202, as well as data
manipulated and generated by the processor(s) 202 during execution
of the program instructions. Depending on the configuration and
implementation of the service provider computer(s) 106, the memory
204 may be volatile memory (memory that maintains its state when
supplied with power) such as random access memory (RAM) and/or
non-volatile memory (memory that maintains its state even when not
supplied with power) such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory,
and so forth. In various implementations, the memory 204 may
include multiple different types of memory, such as static random
access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM),
unalterable ROM, and/or writeable variants of ROM such as
electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash
memory, and so forth.
[0050] The service provider computer 106 may further include
additional data storage 218 such as removable storage and/or
non-removable storage including, but not limited to, magnetic
storage, optical disk storage, and/or tape storage. Data storage
218 may provide non-volatile storage of computer-executable
instructions and other data. The memory 204 and/or the data storage
218, removable and/or non-removable, are examples of
computer-readable storage media (CRSM).
[0051] The service provider computer 106 may further include
communications connection(s) 222 that allow the service provider
computer 106 to communicate with other computing devices or
application software forming part of the networked architecture 100
depicted in FIG. 1A. For example, the service provider computer 106
may utilize the communications connection(s) 222 to communicate
with the client application 102A, the payment network(s) 110, the
financial institution system 116 (e.g., the financial institution
computer(s) 118), the server device(s) 112, and so forth.
[0052] The service provider computer 106 may additionally include
one or more input/output (I/O) devices 220, such as a keyboard, a
mouse, a pen, a voice input device, a touch input device, a
display, speakers, a camera, a microphone, a printer, and so forth,
for receiving user input and/or providing output to a user.
[0053] The memory 204 may include various program modules
comprising computer-executable instructions that upon execution by
the processor(s) 202 cause the service provider computer 106 to
perform various operations. For example, the memory 204 may have
loaded therein an operating system (O/S) 206 that provides an
interface between other application software executing on the
service provider computer 106 and hardware resources of the service
provider computer 106. More specifically, the O/S 206 may include a
set of computer-executable instructions for managing hardware
resources of the service provider computer 106 and for providing
common services to other application programs (e.g., managing
memory allocation among various application programs). The O/S 206
may include any operating system now known or which may be
developed in the future including, but not limited to, a Microsoft
Windows.RTM. operating system, an Apple OSX.TM. operating system,
Linux, Unix, a mainframe operating system such as Z/OS, a mobile
operating system, or any other proprietary or freely available
operating system.
[0054] The memory 204 may further include a database management
system (DBMS) 208 for accessing, retrieving, storing, and/or
manipulating data stored in one or more datastores. The DBMS 208
may use any of a variety of database models (e.g., relational
model, object model, etc.) and may support any of a variety of
query languages.
[0055] The memory 204 may further include various program modules
comprising computer-executable instructions that upon execution by
the processor(s) 202 cause the service provider computer 106 to
perform various operations. The functionality provided by these
various program/application modules will be described in more
detail hereinafter through reference to various accompanying
drawings.
[0056] FIG. 3 is a process flow diagram depicting an illustrative
method 300 for identifying a content location identifier associated
with content relating to a financial transaction and including the
content location identifier in a debit or credit instruction
associated with the financial transaction in accordance with one or
more embodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 4 is a process flow
diagram depicting an illustrative method 400 for receiving a
request for content relating to a financial transaction and
generating and transmitting a representation of the content in
accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure. The
illustrative methods 300 and 400 will be described through
reference to the illustrative networked architecture depicted in
FIG. 1A, the illustrative data flows depicted in FIGS. 1B-1D, and
the illustrative configuration and implementation of a service
provider computer 106 as depicted in FIG. 2. However, it should be
appreciated that the illustrative methods 300 and 400 may be
performed in connection with any networked architecture and
configuration within the scope of this disclosure. Further, while
various operations are depicted in the process flow diagrams
depicted in FIGS. 3 and 4, it should be appreciated that any of the
depicted operations are optional and that, in various embodiments,
any of the operations may not be performed. Further, in various
embodiments, additional operations may be performed beyond those
which are depicted.
[0057] Referring to FIG. 3 and through further reference to the
illustrative architecture 100 depicted in FIG. 1A, the illustrative
data flows depicted in FIG. 1B, and the illustrative service
provider computer 106 architecture depicted in FIG. 2, at operation
302, the service provider system 104 may receive, via a set of
communicative links, a request 124 associated with a financial
transaction from a client application 102A hosted by a client
device 102. The communicative links between the service provider
system 104 and the client device 102 may form part of any of one or
more communication networks including, but not limited to, one or
more cable networks, the Internet, one or more wireless networks
having any coverage area, cellular networks, peer-to-peer networks,
or any other private and/or public networks. Further, such
communicative links may provide for network traffic across any type
of medium including, but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted
wire pair, optical fiber, hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC), microwave
terrestrial transceivers, radio frequency communications, satellite
communications, or combinations thereof.
[0058] The client device 102 may be any suitable device capable of
hosting the client application 102A including, but not limited to,
a server computer, a mainframe computer, a desktop computer, a
laptop computer, a mobile device such as a smartphone, tablet
device or other device with cellular capabilities, a personal
digital assistant (PDA), a point-of-sale (POS) device, a gaming
console, a set-top box, a smart television, or any other suitable
device or combination thereof. The client application 102A may be
any of the client applications previously described including, but
not limited to, an online banking or other financial application, a
person-to-person (P2P) client application, a funds transfer
application, a client application that supports functionality for
electronic bill presentment and payment, a client application that
supports functionality for remote deposit capture, a toolkit that
may include Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or software
libraries that may be used in the context of another client
application to access functionality provided by the service
provider system 104, and so forth. In certain embodiments, the
client application 102A may be associated with an online merchant
or other payee and may support functionality for receiving
financial account information as input and initiating an online
credit card transaction, an online debit card transaction, an ACH
transaction, and so forth.
[0059] The service provider system 104 may be configured to receive
the request 124 from the client application 102A via the set of
communicative links that connect the client device 102 and the
service provider system 104. The request 124 received by the
service provider system 104 may be associated with any of a variety
of types of financial transactions including, but not limited to, a
bill payment, a person-to-person (P2P) payment, a request for a P2P
payment, a retail payment, an account-to-account transfer, a funds
transfer, a check deposit, and so forth.
[0060] Still referring to the illustrative architecture 100
depicted in FIG. 1A, the service provider system 104 may
additionally be configured to communicate with the server device(s)
112, the financial institution system 116, and the payment
network(s) 110 via respective sets of communicative links. The
respective communicative links via which the service provider
system 104 may communicate with the server device(s) 112, the
financial institution system 116, and/or the payment network(s) 110
may form at least part of one or more communication networks which
may be any of the types previously described. In certain
embodiments, at least a portion of the communicative links via
which any of the networked components of the illustrative
architecture 100 are able to communicate may form part of one or
more of the same networks.
[0061] The request 124 received by the service provider system 104
from the client application 102A may be associated with content 128
relating to the financial transaction. The content 128 may be
provided with the request 124 (either embedded in the request or as
an attachment thereto) or may otherwise be identified in the
request 124 (e.g., an identifier that identifies a resource where
the content 128 is stored may be provided in the request 124).
[0062] Upon receipt of the request 124, the service provider
computer(s) 106 may store the associated content 128 in the local
datastore(s) 108. As previously noted, the content 128 may be
provided with the request 124, in which case, the service provider
computer(s) 106 may identify the content 128 from the request 124
and proceed to store the content 128 in the local datastore(s) 108.
For instance, the service provider computer(s) 106 may include a
content storage and retrieval module 216 that comprises
computer-executable instructions that upon execution by the
processor(s) 202 causes the content 128 to be identified from the
request and stored in the local datastore(s) 108. In certain
embodiments, the processor(s) 202 may execute computer-executable
instructions provided as part of the content storage and retrieval
module 216 to call a service (e.g., a software service) to store
the content in the local datastore(s) 108.
[0063] In various embodiments, the processor(s) 202 may optionally
execute computer-executable instructions provided as part of the
content storage and retrieval module 216 to direct storage of the
content 128 in the remote datastore(s) 114 by transmitting the
content 128 and a request/instruction to store the content 128 to
the server device(s) 112. In some embodiments, a portion of the
content 128 may be stored in the local datastore(s) 108 and a
remaining portion of the content 128 may be stored in the remote
datastore(s) 114, one or more copies of the content 128 may be
stored in the local datastore(s) 108 and one or more copies of the
content 128 may be stored in the remote datastore(s) 114, and so
forth.
[0064] In those embodiments in which the request 124 includes an
identifier that identifies a resource where the content 128 is
stored rather than the content 128 itself, the processor(s) 202 may
execute computer-executable instructions provided as part of the
content storage and retrieval module 216 to access and retrieve the
content 128 using the identifier provided with the request 124 and
to store the content in the local datastore(s) 108 and/or direct
storage of the content in the remote datastore(s) 114. For example,
referring to FIG. 1B, computer-executable instructions included in
the content storage and retrieval module 216 may be executed to
access the one or more other remote datastore(s) 126 based on the
identifier provided with the request 124, retrieve the content 128
therefrom, and store the content in the local datastore(s) 108
and/or direct storage of the content in the remote datastore(s)
114. Although not depicted in FIG. 1B, the service provider system
104 may optionally retrieve the content 128 from the remote
datastore(s) 126 by submitting a request to one or more server
devices (not shown) that control access to the remote datastore(s)
126.
[0065] Referring again to FIG. 3, at operation 304, the
processor(s) 202 may execute computer-executable instructions
included in a content location identifier identification module 210
to identify (or generate) a content location identifier 122
associated with the content that identifies a resource where the
content 128 is stored (e.g., the local datastore(s) 108 and/or the
remote datastore(s) 114). For example, in certain embodiments, such
as those in which the content is stored in the remote datastore(s)
114, the service provider computer(s) 106 may receive the content
location identifier 122 from the server device(s) 112. Further, in
those embodiments in which the request 124 does not include the
content 128 but instead includes an identifier that identifies a
location where the content 128 is stored, the content location
identifier 122 may correspond to the identifier provided with the
request 124. Alternatively, in certain of those embodiments in
which the request 124 includes an identifier associated with the
content 128 rather than the content 128 itself, the processor(s)
202 may execute computer-executable instructions included in the
content location identifier identification module 210 and/or the
content storage and retrieval module 216 to retrieve the content
128 from the resource (e.g., the remote datastore(s) 126) where the
content 128 is stored using the identifier provided with the
request 124, store or direct storage of the content 128 in the
local datastore(s) 108 and/or the remote datastore(s) 114,
respectively, and generate the content location identifier 122 or
receive the content location identifier 122 from the server
device(s) 112. In various embodiments, the processor(s) 202 may
execute computer-executable instructions provided as part of the
content location identifier generation module 212 to generate the
content location identifier 122.
[0066] Referring again to FIG. 3, at operation 306, the service
provider system 104 may generate a debit or credit instruction 130
associated with the financial transaction based on the request
received at operation 302. For example, the processor(s) 202 may
execute computer-executable instructions included in the payment
instruction generation module 214 to generate the debit or credit
instruction 130. The debit or credit instruction 130 may be
generated in accordance with a standard that specifies various
formatting requirements that the debit or credit instruction 130
must adhere to in order to provide for interoperability between
various payment networks and financial institutions.
[0067] The content location identifier 122 identified (or
generated) at operation 304 may comprise a content locator (e.g., a
URL) that identifies a location where the associated content 128 is
stored. In various embodiments, the content location identifier 122
may be a shortened URL capable of being included in a predefined
field of the debit or credit instruction 130 that has a
predetermined maximum limit on the size of data that may be
included in the field. In certain embodiments, additional
information may be provided along with the content location
identifier 122 that may affect how the content location identifier
122 will be represented by, for example, an online financial
application interface that presents transactional and account
information associated with a financial account debited or credited
as part of the financial transaction. For example, anchor text that
is optionally descriptive of or relevant to the content identified
by the content location identifier 122 may also be provided with
the debit or credit instruction 130. An online application
interface may display the anchor text, perhaps as a selectable
hyperlink, in lieu of the content location identifier 122. The
anchor text may be linked to the content location identifier 122
such that selection of the anchor text may cause a request to be
generated for retrieval of the content 128 based on the content
location identifier 122 that identifies a location where the
content 128 is stored. In other embodiments, an indication of the
anchor text (e.g., a key that identifies associated anchor text)
may be included in the debit or credit instruction 130. In such
embodiments, an online application interface having prior knowledge
of the association between the key and the anchor text may identify
the key provided in the debit or credit instruction 130, identify
the associated anchor text, and display the anchor text, perhaps as
a selectable hyperlink. Alternatively, the indication of the anchor
text may cause a selectable graphic image to be presented in lieu
of the anchor text such as, for example, a selectable icon or
thumbnail image.
[0068] Referring again to FIG. 3, at operation 308, the service
provider computer(s) 106 may transmit the generated debit or credit
instruction 130 to the payment network(s) 110 or the financial
institution system 116. For example, the processor(s) 202 may
execute computer-executable instructions provided as part of one or
more program modules stored in the memory 204 to transmit the
generated debit or credit instruction 130. As previously described,
the payment network(s) 110 may be any suitable payment network
including, but not limited to, an ACH network, a proprietary
network of financial institutions, a debit network, a credit
network, or any other suitable payment network capable of
facilitating and/or processing financial transactions between
member financial institutions or between member financial
institutions and non-member financial institutions. The payment
network(s) 110 may include any number of computing devices, payment
gateways, routers, switches, communicative links, and so forth that
facilitate the processing of financial transactions between
financial institutions.
[0069] Upon receipt of the debit or credit instruction 130, the
payment network(s) 110 may cause a debit or credit to be posted to
a financial account held at a financial institution associated with
the financial institution system 116. The payment network(s) 110
may transmit or otherwise convey the debit or credit instruction
130, via a set of communicative links to, for example, the
financial institution computer(s) 118 forming at least part of the
financial institution system 116, or more specifically, to a core
account processing system associated with or forming part of the
financial institution computer(s) 118. The core account processing
system may, in turn, cause a debit or credit to be posted to the
financial account. Alternatively, the payment network(s) 110 may
cause the debit or credit to be posted to the financial account via
the set of communicative links to the financial institution system
116. It should be appreciated that the financial institution system
116 may be communicatively linked to multiple different types of
payment networks (e.g., an ACH network, a proprietary financial
institution network, a debit network, etc.) such that financial
accounts held at a financial institution associated with the
financial institution system 116 may be accessed via the different
payment networks. Respective modules associated with each of the
payment networks may be integrated with a common core account
processing system associated with the financial institution to
support communication between the different payment networks and
the core account processing system.
[0070] In other embodiments, rather than transmitting the debit or
credit instruction 130 to the payment network(s) 110, the service
provider computer(s) 106 may transmit the debit or credit
instruction 130 to the financial institution system 116. For
example, the service provider computer(s) 106 may transmit the
debit or credit instruction 130--via a set of communicative links
between the service provider system 104 and the financial
institution system 116--to one or more program modules configured
to interact with the financial institution computer(s) 118, or more
specifically, with a core account processing system associated with
or forming part of the financial institution computer(s) 118. Upon
receipt of the debit or credit instruction 130, the program
module(s) may cause an associated debit or credit to be posted to
the financial account, or alternatively, may direct the core
account processing system to post the debit or credit to the
financial account.
[0071] In one or more embodiments of the disclosure, the debit or
credit posted to the financial account may be posted in real-time.
Alternatively, the debit or credit instruction may be transmitted
or processed asynchronously as part of a batch transaction.
Settlement associated with the posted debit or credit may occur as
part of a net settlement of financial transactions between
financial institutions which may occur asynchronously as part of a
batch transaction.
[0072] As previously described, the content location identifier 122
associated with content 128 relating to the financial transaction
may be provided with the debit or credit instruction 130 generated
and transmitted by the service provider system 104. The content
location identifier 122 may be communicated to the financial
institution computer(s) 118 via the payment network(s) 110 such as
in those embodiments in which the service provider system 104
transmits the debit or credit instruction 130 including the content
location identifier 122 to the payment network(s) 110.
Alternatively, the service provider system 104 may communicate the
content location identifier 122 to the financial institution
computer(s) 118 as part of the debit or credit instruction 130 that
is transmitted, in certain embodiments, to the financial
institution system 116 via the set of communicative links between
the service provider system 104 and the financial institution
system 116.
[0073] It should be appreciated that the service provider system
104 and the financial institution system 116 may, in various
embodiments, include numerous other components beyond those
depicted such as additional computing devices, datastores, routers,
switches, gateways, additional software components, and so forth.
Further, while certain functionality may be described as being
provided by the service provider computer(s) 106 or the financial
institution computer(s) 118, such functionality may, in various
embodiments, be provided by other components forming part of the
service provider system 104 or the financial institution system 116
either independently of the service provider computer(s) 106 and/or
the financial institution computer(s) 118 or in conjunction
therewith. In addition, although the service provider system 104 is
illustratively depicted in FIG. 1A as a single system, it should be
appreciated that the service provider system 104 may comprise an
architecture that includes multiple independent system(s) and/or
payment gateways capable of communicating among one another to
facilitate the processing of financial transactions. Further, the
various sets of communicative links and associated communication
network(s) connecting various networked components of the
illustrative architecture 100 (e.g., the set of communicative links
between the service provider system 104 and the financial
institution system 116) may also provide for communication between
any of the components forming part of such systems. In addition,
data or information described as being generated, transmitted, or
received by a system (e.g., the service provider system 104) may be
generated, transmitted, or received by one or more components of
the system (e.g., the service provider computer(s) 106) and vice
versa.
[0074] In various embodiments, the service provider computer(s) 106
may provide functionality that forms part of a middle application
layer of functionality between the client application 102A and the
payment network(s) 110 that provide access to financial accounts.
In such embodiments, the service provider system 104 may further
include the client application 102A. Further, in various
embodiments, one or more of the payment networks 110 may form part
of the service provider system 104 and may, for example, correspond
to a proprietary payment network associated with a service provider
with which the service provider system 104 is associated. In other
embodiments, the client application 102A may be provided as a
stand-alone application that is distinct from but capable of
interacting with the service provider system 104 and providing
access to the functionality offered by the service provider system
104. Further, in various embodiments, the payment network(s) 110
may operate independently of the service provider system 104, but
may provide the service provider system 104 with access to
financial accounts held at various financial institutions that are
members of the payment network(s) 110. In various embodiments, a
core account processing system associated with the financial
institution system 116 may also form part of the service provider
system 104. In addition, in certain embodiments, the user interface
120 may form part of or be provided by the service provider system
104.
[0075] In various embodiments, the client application 102A may be
capable of communicating with one or more of the payment network(s)
110 independently of the service provider system 104. For example,
a payment network 110 may support a set of communicative links that
allow the client application 102A to communicate with the payment
network 110 independently of the service provider system 104
through, for example, pre-existing payment gateways.
[0076] Referring again to FIGS. 1A-1B, the content location
identifier 122 may be presented as part of a presentation of
financial account information provided by a user interface 120. It
should be appreciated that the user interface 120 may include one
or more user interfaces (e.g., web pages) that provide various
functionality associated with a financial application such as an
online banking application. It should further be appreciated that
the user interface 120 may be provided as part of an online
financial application accessed using a mobile device such as a
smartphone or tablet device or as part of a dedicated mobile
application. The financial application may be a software
application running on the financial institution computer(s) 118,
and may potentially be a distributed application. The user
interface 120 may, in fact, be any suitable interface (e.g., an
online banking interface) for providing financial account
information to a user (e.g., an account holder of the financial
account). The user interface 120 may provide various account
transaction details 132 including posting dates of financial
transactions, status indicators of financial transactions,
available account balance information, information relating to
pending transactions, brief textual descriptions of financial
transactions, and so forth. In various embodiments, the user
interface 120 including the account transaction details 132 and the
content location identifier 122 may be presented to a user upon
receipt of suitable authentication credentials. For example, an
online financial application may provide one or more interfaces for
receiving authentication credentials (e.g., a username and
password) from a user (e.g., an account holder of a financial
account) and may authenticate the user prior to presenting the
account transaction details 132 and the content location identifier
122.
[0077] In certain embodiments, as depicted, for example, in FIGS.
1C and 1D, the content location identifier 122 may be presented as
part of the presentation of information displayed to the user via
the user interface 120. In other embodiments, an alternate
representation of the content location identifier 122 may be
presented such as, for example, anchor text that is linked to the
content location identifier 122 and which is descriptive of or
otherwise relevant to the content 128 referenced by the content
location identifier 122. In various embodiments, the representation
of the content location identifier 122 that is presented via the
user interface 120 may be selectable. For example, the content
location identifier 122, the anchor text representative of the
content location identifier 122, and so forth may comprise a
selectable hyperlink or some other selectable indicator. Upon
selection of the selectable representation of the content location
identifier 122 by, for example, an account holder of the financial
account or other user of the user interface 120, a request for the
content referenced by the content location identifier 122 may be
generated. The request may be generated by, for example, the
financial application with which the user interface 120 is
associated. In certain embodiments, one or more other components of
the financial institution system 116 may assist in generation of
the request.
[0078] FIG. 4 is a process flow diagram that depicts an
illustrative method 400 for receiving the request for the content
128 and generating and transmitting a representation of the content
128. The illustrative method 400 will be described first through
reference to the illustrative data flows depicted in FIG. 1C and
subsequently through reference to the illustrative data flows
depicted in FIG. 1D.
[0079] Referring to FIGS. 1C and 4 in particular, at operation 402
of the illustrative method 400, the request 134 for the content 128
may be received by service provider system 104 from the user
interface 120 (or more generally from a financial application
providing the user interface 120). As previously described, the
request 134 may be generated upon selection of the selectable
representation of the content location identifier 122 provided as
part of a presentation of information presented via user interface
120. Although the content location identifier 122 itself is
depicted as being presented in FIG. 1C, it should be appreciated
that an alternate representation of the content location identifier
122 (e.g., selectable anchor text) may be presented.
[0080] Upon receipt of the request 134, at operation 404, the
service provider system 104, or more specifically one or more
components thereof (e.g., the service provider computer(s) 106) may
enforce access control to the content 128 by authenticating the
received request. Authentication of the request may involve
verification that the requestor of the content 128 is legitimately
associated with the content 128 (e.g., the entity that identified
the content or an entity acting on behalf of the entity that
identified the content). The online financial account application
may provide identifying information associated with the requestor
of the content 128 based on a prior authentication of the content
requestor by the financial account application. Alternatively, the
service provider system 104 may require authentication credentials
to be provided with the content request or may, if directly
interacting with the content requestor, prompt for the
authentication credentials.
[0081] Upon authentication of the content requestor, the service
provider system 104 may retrieve the content 128. The content 128
(or at least a portion thereof) may be stored in the local
datastore(s) 108 in which case the service provider computer(s) 106
may access the local datastore(s) 108 and retrieve the content 128
therefrom. Alternatively, the content 128 (or at least a portion
thereof) may be stored in the remote datastore(s) 114. The service
provider system 104 may have previously directed storage of the
content 128 in the remote datastore(s) 114. The service provider
computer(s) 106 may access the remote datastore(s) 114 and retrieve
the content 128 therefrom. Although not depicted in FIG. 1C, it
should be appreciated that, in various embodiments, the service
provider computer(s) 106 may not have direct access to the remote
datastore(s) 114. Rather, the service provider computer(s) 106 may
transmit a request for the content 128 to the server device(s) 112
which may, in turn, access the remote datastore(s) 114, retrieve
the content 128, and transmit the content to the service provider
computer(s) 106. In various embodiments, the processor(s) 202 may
execute computer-executable instructions provided as part of the
content storage and retrieval module 216 to retrieve the content
128.
[0082] At operation 406, the service provider computer(s) 106 may
generate a representation of the content 128. The representation of
the content 128 that is generated may include the content 128 in
unmodified form. Alternatively, the processor(s) 202 may execute
computer-executable instructions provided as part of one or more
program modules stored in the memory 204 to modify the content 128
by compressing, partitioning, or otherwise altering one or more
characteristics of the content 128 to generate the representation
of the content 128.
[0083] At operation 408, the service provider computer(s) 106 may
transmit the representation of the content 128 to the user
interface 120 for presentation to a user (e.g., an account holder).
The representation of the content 128 may be presented in any of a
variety of ways including as part of a pop-window generated by the
user interface 120, as part of a new browser window or tab, or via
a software application capable of supporting a format associated
with the content 128 as in the case, for example, of various
multimedia content. Various illustrative types of content 128 that
may be presented to a user via the online user interface 120 are
schematically depicted in FIGS. 5-8. In alternative embodiments,
the representation of the content 128 received from the service
provider computer(s) 106 by the user interface 120 may be presented
as part of a printed paper statement as schematically depicted in
FIG. 9. Upon receipt of the representation of the content 128, one
or more components of the financial institution system 116 may
optionally further modify the content 128 prior to presentation in
a printed account statement.
[0084] Now referring to FIG. 4 in the context of the alternative
illustrative data flows depicted in FIG. 1D, at operation 402 of
the illustrative method 400, the request 134 for the content 128
may be received by the server device(s) 112 from the user interface
120 (or more generally from a financial application providing the
user interface 120). As previously described, the request 134 may
be generated upon selection of the selectable representation of the
content location identifier 122 provided as part of a presentation
of information presented via user interface 120. Although the
content location identifier 122 itself is depicted as being
presented in FIG. 1D, it should be appreciated that an alternate
representation of the content location identifier 122 (e.g.,
selectable anchor text) may be presented.
[0085] Upon receipt of the request 134, the server device(s) 112
may access the remote datastore(s) 114 and retrieve the content 128
at operation 404. At operation 406, the server device(s) 112 may
generate a representation of the content 128. The representation of
the content 128 that is generated may include the content 128 in
unmodified form. In such embodiments, the representation of the
content 128 may correspond to the content 128 itself, and the
server device(s) 112 may simply transmit the content 128 to the
financial application providing the user interface 120 at operation
408. Alternatively, the server device(s) 112 may modify the content
128 by compressing, partitioning, or otherwise altering one or more
characteristics of the content 128 to generate the representation
of the content 128 and may transmit, at operation 408, the modified
content to the financial application providing the user interface
120 for presentation to a user (e.g., an account holder). The
representation of the content 128 may be presented in any of the
variety of ways described earlier.
[0086] It should be appreciated that while various program modules
are illustratively depicted in FIG. 2 as being stored in the memory
204, numerous other program modules may be provided that include
computer-executable instructions that, upon execution by the
processor(s) 202, cause any of the operations described herein to
be performed. Further, any functionality described as being
provided by any of the program modules illustratively depicted in
FIG. 2 may, in various embodiments, be performed, at least in part,
by one or more other program modules.
Illustrative Interfaces
[0087] FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative online presentation of
information 500 associated with a financial account that includes a
representation 508 of a content location identifier that
facilitates access to an illustrative type of content 512 relating
to a financial transaction. The online presentation of information
500 may be provided via, for example, a browser window 502
displaying a web page associated with an online financial
application or via any other suitable user interface. The
presentation of information 500 may include various headings 504
that describe various aspects of financial transaction information
provided to a user. For example, financial transaction information
associated with an illustrative financial transaction 506 may
include a posting date of the transaction, a brief textual
description of the transaction, an amount of the transaction, an
available balance remaining after posting of the transaction, and
so forth.
[0088] A representation 508 of a content location identifier
associated with content relating to a financial transaction may be
presented. The representation 508 of the content location
identifier may be presented in relatively close proximity to the
financial transaction 506 with which it is associated. The example
financial transaction 506 depicted in FIG. 5 may correspond, for
example, to a P2P payment, a transfer of funds initiated via an
online banking application, or a similar transaction. While anchor
text is depicted as being presented in FIG. 5, it should be
appreciated that any suitable representation 508 of the content
location identifier (including the content location identifier
itself) may be presented. As previously described, the
representation 508 of the content location identifier may be
selectable, and upon selection by a user, may initiate a process
for retrieving the content from a resource identified by the
content location identifier. The content 512 illustratively
depicted in FIG. 5 includes an image of an individual to whom the
P2P payment was made or to whom the funds were transferred.
Additional textual content may be presented in association with the
image (e.g., name of recipient of funds, transferred funds amount,
etc.). This additional textual content may form part of the content
initially identified by the requestor from whom the financial
transaction request was received. For example, a client application
via which the financial transaction request was submitted may
provide functionality for associating various types of content
(e.g., an image and associated textual content) to form aggregate
content for association with the financial transaction.
Alternatively, the image may correspond to the content identified
by the requestor and the additional textual content may be
identified and associated with the content identified by the
requestor by the financial account application presenting the
content to a user.
[0089] The content 512 is illustratively depicted as being
presented in a pop-up browser window 510; however, any suitable
mechanism for presenting the content 512 may be provided. The
content 512 may have been identified/provided by an account holder
associated with the financial account with which the presentation
of information 500 is associated such as in the case of a P2P
payment. Alternatively, the content 512 may have been
identified/provided by the recipient of the funds such as in the
case of a request for a P2P payment.
[0090] FIG. 6 depicts another illustrative online presentation of
information 600 associated with a financial account that includes a
representation 608 of a content location identifier that
facilitates access to another illustrative type of content 610
relating to a financial transaction. The online presentation of
information 600 may be provided via, for example, a browser window
602 displaying a web page associated with an online financial
application or via any other suitable user interface. The
presentation of information 600 may include various headings 604
similar to the headings 504 depicted in FIG. 5 that describe
various aspects of the financial transaction information that is
presented.
[0091] A representation 608 of a content location identifier
associated with content relating to an illustrative financial
transaction 606 may be presented. The representation 608 of the
content location identifier may be presented in relatively close
proximity to the financial transaction 606 with which it is
associated. The example financial transaction 606 depicted in FIG.
6 may correspond, for example, to a retail purchase transaction or
a similar transaction. While anchor text is depicted as being
presented in FIG. 6, it should be appreciated that any suitable
representation 608 of the content location identifier (including
the content location identifier itself) may be presented. As
previously described, the representation 608 of the content
location identifier may be selectable, and selection by a user may
initiate a process for retrieving the content from a resource
identified by the content location identifier. The content 610
illustratively depicted in FIG. 6 is an image of a sales receipt
associated with the financial transaction 606. The content 610 is
illustratively depicted as being presented in a pop-up browser
window; however, any suitable mechanism for presenting the content
610 may be provided. The content 610 may have been
identified/provided by the retailer or by the account holder.
[0092] FIG. 7 depicts yet another illustrative online presentation
of information 700 associated with a financial account that
includes a representation 708 of a content location identifier that
facilitates access to yet another illustrative type of content 710
relating to a financial transaction. The online presentation of
information 700 may be provided via, for example, a browser window
702 displaying a web page associated with an online financial
application or via any other suitable user interface. The
presentation of information 700 may include various headings 704
similar to the headings 504, 604 depicted in FIGS. 5 and 6,
respectively, that describe various aspects of the financial
transaction information that is presented.
[0093] A representation 708 of a content location identifier
associated with content relating to an illustrative financial
transaction 706 may be presented. The representation 708 of the
content location identifier may be presented in relatively close
proximity to the financial transaction 706 with which it is
associated. The example financial transaction 706 depicted in FIG.
7 may correspond, for example, to a retail purchase transaction or
a similar transaction. While anchor text (e.g., "View Message") is
depicted as being presented in FIG. 7, it should be appreciated
that any suitable representation 708 of the content location
identifier (including the content location identifier itself) may
be presented. As previously described, the representation 708 of
the content location identifier may be selectable, and selection by
a user may initiate a process for retrieving the content 710 from a
resource identified by the content location identifier. The content
710 illustratively depicted in FIG. 7 may correspond to textual
content provided by a requestor (e.g., the account holder) at the
time that the financial transaction 706 was initiated.
Alternatively, the content 710 may correspond to an image of a
greeting card or other message provided by the requestor to another
party. The content 710 is illustratively depicted as being
presented in a pop-up browser window; however, any suitable
mechanism for presenting the content 710 may be provided. The
content 710 may have been identified/provided by a retailer or by
the account holder.
[0094] FIG. 8 depicts yet another illustrative online presentation
of information 800 associated with a financial account that
includes a representation of a content location identifier 808 and
other information that facilitates access to yet another
illustrative type of content relating to a financial transaction.
The online presentation of information 800 may be provided via, for
example, a browser window 802 displaying a web page associated with
an online financial application or via any other suitable user
interface. The presentation of information 800 may include various
headings 804 similar to the headings 504, 604, 704 depicted in
FIGS. 5-7, respectively, and which describe various aspects of the
financial transaction information that is presented.
[0095] A representation 808 of a content location identifier
associated with content relating to an illustrative financial
transaction 806 may be presented. The representation 808 of the
content location identifier may be presented in relatively close
proximity to the financial transaction 806 with which it is
associated. In addition, other information such as an access code
810 may also be provided in conjunction with the representation 808
of the content location identifier. The example financial
transaction 806 depicted in FIG. 8 may correspond, for example, to
a retail purchase transaction such as an online purchase
transaction. While the representation 808 of the content location
identifier is shown as being presented in FIG. 8, it should be
appreciated that any number of alternate representations of the
content location identifier may be presented (e.g., anchor
text).
[0096] As previously described, the representation 808 of the
content location identifier may be selectable, and selection by a
user may direct the user to a resource (e.g., a web page)
identified by the content location identifier. The content location
identifier may be further associated with electronically
downloadable or streaming content such as electronic content
purchased as part of the financial transaction 806. In various
embodiments, an access code 810 may also be presented with the
representation 808 of the content location identifier. The access
code 810 may have been received as part of the debit or credit
instruction that included the content location identifier. The
access code 810 may be utilized to download or stream the
associated content.
[0097] For example, selection of the representation 808 of the
content location identifier may cause the user to be directed to a
resource (e.g., a web page). Selection of the representation 808 of
the content location identifier may direct the user to a web page
812 identified by the content location identifier. The web page may
include a data field 814 for inputting the access code 810. The
user may submit the entered code using, for example, the "submit"
widget 816 and may be presented with an indication 818 of how much
content has been downloaded. The content may correspond, for
example, to a purchased electronic file.
[0098] FIG. 9 depicts yet another illustrative presentation of
information 900 associated with a financial account that includes
various representations of various illustrative types of content
relating to a financial transaction. The presentation of
information 900 may be associated with, for example, a printed
financial account statement 902.
[0099] The account statement 902 may include various identifying
information 904. The account statement 902 may further include
various headings 906 similar to the headings 504, 604, 704, 804
depicted in FIGS. 5-8, respectively, and which describe various
aspects of the financial transaction information that is presented.
Various illustrative types of content 908, 910 may be presented in
the account statement 902 in association with the associated
financial transactions. The content 908, 910 may correspond to
modified versions of original content relating to the financial
transactions. For example, the original content may have to be
reduced in size to generate the content 908, 910 in order to
facilitate inclusion of the content in the account statement
902.
[0100] While various illustrative presentations of the information
and types of content have been described in connection with FIGS.
5-9, it should be appreciated that numerous other variations,
modifications, and so forth are within the scope of this
disclosure. Further, although specific embodiments of the
disclosure have been described, one of ordinary skill in the art
will recognize that numerous other modifications and alternative
embodiments are within the scope of the disclosure. For example,
any of the functionality and/or processing capabilities described
with respect to a particular device or component may be performed
by any other device or component. Further, although specific
example embodiments have been presented, it should be appreciated
that numerous other examples are within the scope of this
disclosure.
[0101] Additional types of CRSM that may be present in association
with any of the components described herein (e.g., any of the
components of the networked architecture 100) may include, but are
not limited to, programmable random access memory (PRAM), SRAM,
DRAM, RAM, ROM, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory
(EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disc
read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disc (DVD) or other
optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk
storage or other magnetic storage devices, solid-state memory
devices, or any other medium. Combinations of any of the above are
also included within the scope of CRSM.
[0102] Alternatively, computer-readable communication media may
include computer-readable instructions, program modules, or other
data transmitted within a data signal, such as a carrier wave, or
other transmission. However, as used herein, CRSM does not include
computer-readable communication media. Examples of
computer-readable communication media, whether modulated using a
carrier or not, include, but are not limited to, signals that a
computer system or machine hosting or running a computer program
can be configured to access, including signals downloaded through
the Internet or other networks. For example, the distribution of
software may be an Internet download.
[0103] Although embodiments have been described in language
specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is
to be understood that the disclosure is not necessarily limited to
the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specific
features and acts are disclosed as illustrative forms of
embodiments of the disclosure. Conditional language such as, for
example, "can," "could," "might," or "may," unless specifically
stated otherwise, or unless otherwise understood within the context
as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments
include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features,
elements, and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not
generally intended to imply that features, elements, and/or steps
are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or
more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or
without user input or prompting, whether these features, elements,
and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular
embodiment.
* * * * *