Customizable offline payment plug-in for payment server

• US 20030093372A1
• Filed: 11/13/2001
• Published: 05/15/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Meyer, Christopher, Atogi, O. Michael, Wainwright, Mark R.
• Application Number:
  US10/007,858
• Publication Number:
  US 20030093372A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Online commerce is often conducted in a network including buyer computers, seller computers, financial institution computers and a payment management computer, which provides payment management services to sellers. Payment management software makes use of a generic framework including Payment Instruction, Capture, Refund, Account and Batch data structures. The generic framework is extended to support transactions which conform to uncommon payment protocols, for example, by shipping the merchandise Collect On Delivery or COD. The Payment Instruction data structure is modified to include two seller-definable fields, each of which can be written with data required for the particular type of transaction being modeled. The Account data structure is modified to include a field for receiving data identifying the particular type of transaction being modeled..

Claims

1. For use with a payment management program which includes one or more payment protocol plug-ins normally used to control online funds transfers from a financial institution to a seller account following placement of a merchandise order by a buyer with the seller, each of the payment protocol plug-ins being produced by extending a framework characterized by a Payment Instruction data structure describing payment instructions for completing the transaction, a Capture data structure describing the state of a specific transaction by which a seller is compensated, a Refund data structure describing the state of a specific transaction by which compensation is returned to a buyer, a Batch data structure defining a set of Captures and Refunds to be processed as a unit and an Account data structure describing a relationship between a seller and a financial agent responsible for transferring funds into a seller account, a method of enabling a seller to modify the data structures in the framework to represent a different type of transaction, said method comprising the steps of:

adding at least one seller-defined field to the Payment Instruction data structure to support a seller'"'"'s entry of information unique to the specific offline method being modeled; and

adding at least one field to the Account data structure to identify the offline method being modeled.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein each seller-defined field added to the Payment Instruction data structure comprising a field of finite length.

3. An article of manufacture comprising a computer useable medium having a computer readable program embodied in said medium, wherein the computer readable program defines a payment management program which includes one or more payment protocol plug-ins normally used to control online funds transfers from a financial institution to a seller account following placement of a merchandise order by a buyer with the seller, each of the payment protocol plug-ins extending a framework characterized by a Payment Instruction data structure describing payment instructions for completing the transaction, a Capture data structure describing the state of a specific transaction by which a seller is compensated, a Refund data structure describing the state of a specific transaction by which compensation is returned to a buyer, a Batch data structure defining a set of Captures and Refunds to be processed as a unit and an Account data structure describing a relationship between a seller and a financial agent responsible for transferring funds into a seller account, said computer readable program further including program code adding at least one seller-definable field to the Payment Instruction data structure to support a seller'"'"'s entry of information unique to a specific method being modeled and program code adding at least one seller-definable field to the Account data structure to identify the method being modeled.

4. A payment management system including one or more payment protocol plug-ins normally used to control online funds transfers from a financial institution to a seller account following placement of a merchandise order by a buyer with the seller, each of the payment protocol plug-ins being implemented by extending a framework characterized by a Payment Instruction data structure describing payment instructions for completing the transaction, a Capture data structure describing the state of a specific transaction by which a seller is compensated, a Refund data structure describing the state of a specific transaction by which compensation is returned to a buyer, a Batch data structure defining a set of Captures and Refunds to be processed as a unit and an Account data structure describing a relationship between a seller and a financial agent responsible for transferring funds into a seller account, said system further including:

seller-defined storage areas in the Payment Instruction data structure for receiving seller-entered information unique to a specific offline method being modeled, and

a seller-defined storage area in the Account data structure identifying the method being modeled.

5. A system as set forth in claim 4 wherein each seller-defined storage area comprises a field of finite length.