METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING STATUS INFORMATION OF A DATA ITEM
A method and system for providing status of a data item after receiving status information pertaining to the data item. It is determined whether the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the data item. The status record is updated to include the received status information if the received status information is new. The updated message indicating the received status information is then composed and transmitted over a network.
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This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/469,841, filed May 11, 2012, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/293,053, filed Nov. 9, 2011, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,180,683, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/885,234, filed Sep. 17, 2010, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,078,504, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/042,851 filed Jan. 25, 2005, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,801,767, which is a continuation of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/371,536, filed Feb. 14, 2003, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,859,787, which is a continuation of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/426,573, filed Oct. 25, 1999, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,139,726, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/725,635, filed Oct. 8, 1996, now issued as U.S. patent application Ser. No. 6,047,264, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/695,095, filed Aug. 8, 1996, now abandoned, the benefit of each of which is claimed hereby, and each of which are incorporated herein in its entirety.
This application is related to copending patent application Ser. No. 10/371,274, entitled “Method and System for Requesting Status information from a Common Carrier,” filed Feb. 14, 2003, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,596,510, and patent application ser. No. 10/371,296, entitled “Method and System for Providing Order Status Information using a Network Address,” filed Feb. 14, 2003, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,130,818, each commonly assigned with the present invention.
BACKGROUND1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to updating electronic data items.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the mail order industry, it is common practice to notify customers by mail when their orders are backlogged or their shipments will be delayed for some reason. The advent of wide area electronic networks like the Internet has made it possible for customers to query the status of their orders and shipments by directly accessing the merchants' and shippers' information systems. For example, both Federal Express® (FedEx®) and United Parcel Service® (UPS®) have world wide web sites on the Internet where customers can track the shipping status of their packages by simply inputting the package's tracking number to a computer form on a web page.
There is an advantage however, to notifying customers by mail when their shipments will be delayed, because the customer is not required to take any action to receive this notification—that is, the customer does not have to proactively access the Internet or other network, go to the shipper's world wide web site, and obtain and input a parcel tracking number in order to check on the shipping status.
in U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,778 to Brookes (“Brookes”), a keyword based profile is used to match information coming into a system with the users' interests. 111 Brookes, the user is alerted to the presence of the information in the database (perhaps because there is a delivery fee associated with the information), but the information is not actually delivered to the user.
Also in the related art are several internet-based electronic mail systems that deliver information to users daily via E-mail based on personal profiles. There are, for example, several stock quotation services that electronically mail a list of a user's personal favorite stock prices each day. Unlike Brookes, such systems do deliver the information directly to the user. However, the user is required to submit an interest profile to the system in order to receive feedback.
The present invention may be implemented as a computer program 248 running on a central server host computer shown in FIG. II, attached to a wide area network 275 accessible by many potential customers through remote terminals 210 using keyboard 240, pointing device 260 and monitor 280. An exemplary network for implementing the present invention is the Internet which is accessible by a significant percentage of the world population, although the network may also be a local area or limited area accessible network.
Information about the customers and their respective orders is maintained in a status database 16 such as the one shown in
Periodically via status query 10, status requester 13, sends a status request to another host computer on wide area network 275, such as a common carrier shipping service like UPS® or FedEx®. Status information 11 is returned and received by status receiver 14, which places the new status information in status database 116. When status receiver 14 updates the status in status database 16, it sets a flag on the particular database record indicating a change in status.
Periodically, electronic mail messenger 15 checks status database 16, to see if the status of any record has changed, by examining the records, status flags. if a record has been flagged, then electronic mail messenger 15 composes an electronic mail message 12 based on the new status information in status database 16. This electronic mail message 12 is transmitted to the customer over the wide area network 275.
One skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains will recognize that the various components of the system may communicate between themselves in a variety of ways. In an exemplary embodiment, status receiver 14 signals electronic mail messenger 15 via an “Updated Status” flag in the appropriate database records that a new update message should be sent. However, status receiver 14 could directly communicate with electronic mail messenger 15 to send a status update message without setting a signaling flag in status database 16 and awaiting discovery of such a flag by the electronic mail messenger.
One skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains will further recognize that components of status requester 13 and status receiver 14 may be combined into a single module that communicates with a remote host computer in a synchronous fashion. For example, the status requester portion of the combined module could send a status request to the remote host computer and wait for the status information to be received before proceeding to submit the next status request to the remote host computer. This type of synchronous operation is quite common in electronic data interchange applications.
The present invention may be implemented as a software program on a host computer such as 250 in
A general description of the present invention as well as an exemplary embodiment of the present invention has been set forth above. Those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains will recognize and be able to practice additional variations to the methods and system described within the teachings of this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications and additions are deemed to be within the scope of the invention, which is to be limited only by the appended claims.
Claims
1. A method comprising:
- by a server comprising at least one computer processor, receiving, responsive to a periodic status query, a changed status of an order that comprises an electronic data item;
- by the server updating the electronic data item with the changed status;
- by the server, generating, using the electronic data item, a message containing the changed status; and
- by the server, transmitting the message over a network.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 5, 2013
Publication Date: Apr 3, 2014
Applicant: eBay Inc. (San Jose, CA)
Inventors: Alan S. Fisher (Pleasanton, CA), Samuel Jerrold Kaplan (Hillsborough, CA)
Application Number: 14/098,305
International Classification: H04L 29/06 (20060101);