INTERACTIVE PRODUCT CONFIGURATOR THAT ALLOWS MODIFICATION TO AUTOMATED SELECTIONS

• US 20100036747A1
• Filed: 11/13/2008
• Published: 02/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Plotkin, Martin P., Kulik, David J., Bagley, Claire M., Chen, Gao, Colena, Michael, Ng, Joyce
• Granted Patent: US 8,458,050 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

A product configurator includes a constraint based network that includes a plurality of nodes. The configurator receives one or more user selections and generates one or more automatic selections to form a complete configuration. The configurator receives a request to change the configuration after forming the complete configuration, and retracts the automatic selections. For each of the retracted automatic selections, the configurator determines if the retracted automatic selection is a configuration-defining selection and reasserts the configuration-defining selections.

Claims

1. A method of operating a product configurator that comprises a constraint based network that comprises a plurality of nodes, the method comprising:

receiving one or more user selections;

generating one or more automatic selections to form a complete configuration;

receiving a request to change the configuration after forming the complete configuration;

retracting the automatic selections;

for each of the retracted automatic selections, determining if the retracted automatic selection is a configuration-defining selection; and

reasserting the configuration-defining selections.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a first selection;

determining one or more first affected nodes of the plurality of nodes that are affected by the first selection; and

for each first affected node, storing a first prior domain state of the node and associating the stored first prior domain state with the first selection.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first selection is a user selection.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first selection is an automatic selection.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the first selection is an automatic selection and the retracting comprises restoring the stored prior first domain state for each affected node.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each of the retracted automatic selections, determining if the retracted automatic selection is a non configuration-defining selection.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forming a queue of the user selections and the reasserted automatic selections, wherein the user selections have a higher priority than the reasserted automatic selections.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a new selection;

determining if the new selection is a new user selection;

if the selection is a new user selection, retracting all of the reasserted automatic selections in the queue;

inserting the new user selection after the existing user selections in the queue;

reasserting as many of the retracted automatic selections as possible.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a new user selection;

detecting a conflict in response to the new user selection;

displaying on a user interface a list of conflicts, wherein the displaying distinguishes between user selections and reasserted automatic selections.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration-defining selection defines the configuration.

11. A computer readable media having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to function as a constraint based product configurator comprising:

receiving one or more user selections;

generating one or more automatic selections to form a complete configuration;

receiving a request to change the configuration after forming the complete configuration;

retracting the automatic selections;

for each of the retracted automatic selections, determining if the retracted automatic selection is a configuration-defining selection; and

reasserting the configuration-defining selections.

12. The computer readable media of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a first selection;

determining one or more first affected nodes of the plurality of nodes that are affected by the first selection; and

for each first affected node, storing a first prior domain state of the node and associating the stored first prior domain state with the first selection.

13. The computer readable media of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a new user selection;

detecting a conflict in response to the new user selection;

displaying on a user interface a list of conflicts, wherein the displaying distinguishes between user selections and reasserted automatic selections.

14. A constraint based product configurator comprising:

means for receiving one or more user selections;

means for generating one or more automatic selections to form a complete configuration;

means for receiving a request to change the configuration after forming the complete configuration;

means for retracting the automatic selections;

for each of the retracted automatic selections, means for determining if the retracted automatic selection is a configuration-defining selection; and

means for reasserting the configuration-defining selections.