System and method of caching inventory information in a network
First Claim
1. A system for distributing access to inventory items available at a plurality of vendor locations, the system comprising:
- a communications network;
a plurality of user stations selectively connected to said communications network for transmitting user inquiries on said communications network;
location servers operatively connected to said communications network, each of said location servers accessing a set of inventory availability information associated with a set of inventory items available at a respective location;
a host server communicating with said location servers through said communications network, said host server being configured to receive the user inquiries regarding availability of the inventory items associated with a subset of said location servers; and
a cache server;
communicating with said location servers through said communications network;
locally storing a subset of the set of inventory availability information for a plurality of said location servers, said subset being less than an entirety of said set; and
being operatively connected with said host server to provide said host server with access to said subset of inventory availability information.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for distributing access to inventory items available at vendor locations includes user stations transmitting user inquiries on a communications network. Network-connected location servers access a set of inventory availability information associated with inventory items available at their respective location, for example, tables at a restaurant. The host server receives user inquiries regarding availability of items associated with at least some of the location servers and queries a cache server that locally stores a binary subset of the information from the location servers to determine if the requested item is available without having to separately query the database at each location. Particularly, a web server receives and stores information regarding only whether a requested item is available or not available from a particular location rather than how many items are available at the location. A user, therefore, can access availability of inventory items with less communications traffic.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A system for distributing access to inventory items available at a plurality of vendor locations, the system comprising:
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a communications network;
a plurality of user stations selectively connected to said communications network for transmitting user inquiries on said communications network;
location servers operatively connected to said communications network, each of said location servers accessing a set of inventory availability information associated with a set of inventory items available at a respective location;
a host server communicating with said location servers through said communications network, said host server being configured to receive the user inquiries regarding availability of the inventory items associated with a subset of said location servers; and
a cache server;
communicating with said location servers through said communications network;
locally storing a subset of the set of inventory availability information for a plurality of said location servers, said subset being less than an entirety of said set; and
being operatively connected with said host server to provide said host server with access to said subset of inventory availability information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. In combination with a communications network selectively connected to a plurality of user stations, each of the user stations being associated with a respective display configured to display a page of information, a system for distributing access to inventory items available at a plurality of vendor locations, the system comprising:
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location servers operatively connected to the communications network, each of said location servers accessing a set of inventory availability information associated with a set of inventory items available at a respective location;
a host server communicating with said location servers through the communications network, said host server being configured to receive the user inquiries regarding availability of the inventory items associated with a subset of said location servers; and
a cache server;
communicating with said location servers through the communications network;
locally storing a subset of the set of inventory availability information for a plurality of said location servers, said subset being less than an entirety of said set; and
being operatively connected with said host server to provide said host server with access to said subset of inventory availability information.
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23. An online restaurant table availability system for communication with one or more restaurant database servers over a communications network, each of the restaurant database servers storing a complete set of table inventory information for at least one respective restaurant location, the system comprising:
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a website receiving user inquiries from the communications network regarding table availability for a user-specified table capacity and a user-specified time, said website communicating with the restaurant database servers through the communications network; and
a cache server maintaining less than the complete set of each set of table inventory information located at the one or more restaurant database servers, the information in the less than complete set representing a status of table availability for table capacities at specified times, said cache server being in communication with the one or more restaurant database servers through the communications network, and said cache server communicating with said website for providing said website with access to the less than complete set.
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24. In combination with a website for processing online restaurant table availability inquiries, the website being in communication with one or more restaurant database servers through a communications network, each of the restaurant database servers being adapted to store complete table inventory information for at least one respective restaurant location, an inventory system comprising:
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a server configured to receive user inquiries from the communication network regarding table availability for a specified table capacity and a specified time; and
a cache server connected to the communications network and configured to receive and store messages from the restaurant database servers, each of said messages being a summary of the complete table inventory information and corresponding to a status of available tables of a given size at a given time, said cache server configured to provide to a user information indicating whether a table of a user-requested size and for a user-requested time one of;
is available; and
is not available.
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Specification