TABLE FOR STORING PARAMETERIZED PRODUCT/SERVICES INFORMATION USING VARIABLE FIELD COLUMNS

• US 20070088723A1
• Filed: 12/22/2006
• Published: 04/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Fish
• Original Assignee: Robert Fish
• Inventors: Fish, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,250,058 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2282 Tablespace storage structures; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

Computer implemented systems store descriptions of multiple different types of marketplace items as a collection of parameter-value pairs, using a table having a plurality of rows and columns, wherein values for at least two of the items are stored in cells of first and second ones of the rows, respectively; keys that provide information that can be used to decipher differential mappings of a plurality of the columns to a plurality of parameters in different ones of the rows; and one or more interfaces that collectively display previously stored parameters and values to a human end-user.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system that stores descriptions of multiple different types of marketplace items as a collection of parameter-value pairs, comprising:

a table having a plurality of rows and columns, wherein values for at least two of the items are stored in cells of first and second ones of the rows, respectively;

a first key that provides information that can be used to decipher differential mappings of a plurality of the columns to a plurality of parameters for the first one of the rows;

a second key that provides information that can be used to decipher differential mappings of a plurality of the columns to a plurality of parameters for the second one of the rows;

a first interface that displays to a human end-user identifiers for at least two of the parameters; and

a second interface that displays to the user at least some values associated in the system with at least one of the at least two parameters.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the table contains at least five additional keys the provide that provides information that can each be used to decipher differential mappings of a plurality of the columns to a plurality of parameters for other ones of the rows, respectively.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the mappings for at least two of the rows have different mappings for at least ten of the columns.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the table has as having at least thirty columns.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at the least one of the columns is differentially interpreted as having different types of data in cells of the column.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of the types of data comprises a literal.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein at least another of the types of data comprises a pointer to a data element in another table of the system.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein at least another of the types of data comprises a pointer to an address in a public package switched network.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein at least another of the types of data comprises a pointer to an HTML code.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein one of the types of data comprises a number, and another of the types of data comprises alphabetic text.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the first table contains records having a length of no more than 512 byes.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters numbers more than 1000.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the first table requires no more than 30 megabytes to store 100,000 records of the marketplace items.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the first table requires no more than 60 megabytes to store 100,000 records of the marketplace items.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second data structure that contains equivalent parameter-value information for at least some of the marketplace items, but differs in structure from the first table.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the second data structure stores at least some parameter data as parameter pointers.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the second data structure stores at least some of the values as value pointers, and at least some of the values as literals.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the first data structure requires at least twice as much space to store a set of at least 100,000 marketplace items as the second structure.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the first data structure requires at least four times as much space to store a set of at least 100,000 marketplace items as the second structure.