Web Service Architecture for Product Configuration

• US 20090106402A1
• Filed: 10/20/2008
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Singhal, Ashish, Lu, Hang, Varmaraja, Muralidhara, Chikovani, Eugene
• Granted Patent: US 9,021,064 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Various techniques for providing product configuration as a Web Service are disclosed. One method involves receiving a Web Service signature requesting access to a product configuration session to configure a product and accessing information representing an instance of the product, in response to receipt of the Web Service signature. A responsive Web Service signature, containing information such as the price of the instance of the product, whether the instance of the product represents a valid configuration, and/or indicative of options available to further configure the product, can be returned to the application that requested access to the session. The requester can request multiple changes to the instance of the product, and validation of those changes can be delayed until after all of the changes have been applied (as opposed to each change being validated independently). A single configurator can handle requests received via multiple different sales channels.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a Web Service signature requesting access to a product configuration session to configure a product;

accessing information representing an instance of the product, in response to receipt of the Web Service signature.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a second Web Service signature, wherein the second Web Service signature comprises information indicative of options available to further configure the product; and

sending the second Web Service signature to an application, wherein the Web Service signature is received from the application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second Web Service signature requesting access to a second product configuration session to configure the product,

wherein the Web Service signature is received from a first sales channel module in a first sales channel, and

wherein the second Web Service signature is received from a second sales channel module in a second sales channel; and

accessing information representing a second instance of the product, in response to receipt of the second Web Service signature.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the accessing the information representing the instance of the product comprises:

applying a plurality of changes to the instance of the product and waiting to validate the instance of the product until all of the plurality of changes have been applied.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a second Web Service signature, wherein the second Web Service signature comprises information indicative of whether the instance of the product represents a valid configuration of the product; and

sending the second Web Service signature to an application, wherein the Web Service signature is received from the application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the Web Service signature comprises information representing a sales context, and wherein the accessing the instance of the product is dependent upon the sales context.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a second Web Service signature, wherein the second Web Service signature comprises information indicative of a price of the instance of the product; and

sending the second Web Service signature to an application, wherein the Web Service signature is received from the application.

8. A computer readable storage medium storing program instructions executable to:

access information representing an instance of a product, in response to receipt of a Web Service signature requesting access to a product configuration session to configure the product.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the program instructions are further configured to:

generate a second Web Service signature, wherein the second Web Service signature comprises information indicative of options available to further configure the product; and

send the second Web Service signature to an application, wherein the Web Service signature is received from the application.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the program instructions are further configured to:

access information representing a second instance of the product, in response to receipt of a second Web Service signature requesting access to a second product configuration session to configure the product,

wherein the Web Service signature is received from a first sales channel module in a first sales channel, and

wherein the second Web Service signature is received from a second sales channel module in a second sales channel.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein accessing the information representing the instance of the product comprises:

applying a plurality of changes to the instance of the product and waiting to validate the instance of the product until all of the plurality of changes have been applied.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the program instructions are further configured to:

generate a second Web Service signature, wherein the second Web Service signature comprises information indicative of whether the instance of the product represents a valid configuration of the product; and

send the second Web Service signature to an application, wherein the Web Service signature is received from the application.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the Web Service signature comprises information representing a sales context, and wherein accessing the instance of the product is dependent upon the sales context.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the program instructions are further configured to:

generate a second Web Service signature, wherein the second Web Service signature comprises information indicative of a price of the instance of the product; and

send the second Web Service signature to an application, wherein the Web Service signature is received from the application.

15. A system comprising:

computer readable storage means for storing information representing an instance of a product; and

configurator means for accessing information representing an instance of the product, in response to receipt of a Web Service signature requesting access to a product configuration session to configure a product.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

means for generating a second Web Service signature, wherein the second Web Service signature comprises information indicative of options available to further configure the product; and

means for sending the second Web Service signature to an application, wherein the Web Service signature is received from the application.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

means for receiving a second Web Service signature requesting access to a second product configuration session to configure the product,

wherein the Web Service signature is received from a first sales channel module in a first sales channel, and

wherein the second Web Service signature is received from a second sales channel module in a second sales channel; and

wherein the configurator means are further for accessing information representing a second instance of the product, in response to receipt of the second Web Service signature.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein accessing the information representing the instance of the product comprises:

applying a plurality of changes to the instance of the product and waiting to validate the instance of the product until all of the plurality of changes have been applied.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

means for generating a second Web Service signature, wherein the second Web Service signature comprises information indicative of whether the instance of the product represents a valid configuration of the product; and

means for sending the second Web Service signature to an application, wherein the Web Service signature is received from the application.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the Web Service signature comprises information representing a sales context, and wherein the accessing the instance of the product is dependent upon the sales context.