Shard Determination Logic for Scalable Order and Inventory Management Architecture with a Sharded Transactional Database

• US 20150347554A1
• Filed: 06/30/2014
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores Texas LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Vasantham, Madhavan Kandhadai, Sreedhararaj, Sreekanth
• Granted Patent: US 9,659,079 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2246 Trees, e.g. B+trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/278 Data partitioning, e.g. horizontal or vertical partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/24 Sorting, i.e. extracting data from one or more carriers, rearranging the data in numerical or other ordered sequence, and rerecording the sorted data on the original carrier or on a different carrier or set of carriers sorting methods in generalG06F7/36 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy

Abstract

A store computer system is provided. The computer system includes a sharded store transactional database such as an order or inventory database. The database may include a first database shard which stores a first group of order or inventory data and a second database shard which stores a second group of order or inventory data which is different than the first group of data. The computer system may include a store order management computer system that implements a shard determination module which is programmed to receive a query regarding an order or item associated with the store, identify a database shard associated with the order or item from data in the query, and communicate data regarding the order or item to or from the identified database shard.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a sharded store order database, the sharded store order database comprising;

a first order database shard in a first order database server, the first order database shard having inventory data for a first group of orders, the first group of orders corresponding to items which have been sold by the store;

a second order database shard in a second order database server, the second order database shard having order data for a second group of orders, the second group of orders corresponding to items which have been sold by the store, the second group of orders being different than the first group of orders;

a store order management computer system comprising;

a computer processor;

memory connected to the computer processor; and

an order shard determination module programmed to;

receive a query regarding an order to purchase an item from the store;

identify an order database shard associated with the order from data in the query; and

communicate data regarding the order to the identified order database shard.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the order shard determination module is more specifically programmed to:

receive a new order to purchase an item from a customer;

identify a location where the customer resides;

identify an order database shard which corresponds to the location where the customer resides; and

store data regarding the new order on the identified database shard.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the order shard determination module is more specifically programmed to:

receive a new order to purchase an item from a customer;

perform a modulo operation on the sequence of the order to identify a database shard; and

store data regarding the new order on the identified database shard.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the order shard determination module is more specifically programmed to:

receive a new order to purchase an item from a customer;

identify a database shard in a round robin assignment;

assign the order to the identified database shard; and

store data regarding the new order on the identified database shard.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the order shard determination module is more specifically programmed to:

receive a new order to purchase an item from a customer;

identify a database shard based on attributes of the customer;

assign the order to the identified database shard; and

store data regarding the new order on the identified database shard.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the order shard determination module is more specifically programmed to:

receive a new order to purchase an item from a customer;

identify a database shard;

assign the order to the identified database shard;

store data regarding the new order on the identified database shard;

embed a code associated with the identified database shard in an order identification number; and

store the order identification number in an account associated with the customer.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the order shard determination module is more specifically programmed to:

receive a new order to purchase an item from a customer;

identify a database shard;

assign the order to the identified database shard;

store data regarding the new order on the identified database shard;

create an order identification number for the new order

store a code associated with the identified database shard in a data field associated with the order identification number; and

store the order identification number and associated data field in an account associated with the customer.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the order shard determination module is more specifically programmed to:

receive a query regarding a past order to purchase an item from the store;

identify a database shard which stores information associated with the past order based on information associated with the order; and

retrieve data regarding the past order from the identified database shard.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first order database shard stores information for purchases made in a brick and mortar store location;

the second order database shard stores information for online purchases; and

wherein the order shard determination module is more specifically programmed to;

receive a query regarding a purchase made by a customer;

determine whether the purchase was made online or in a brick and mortar store location and thereby identify a database shard associated with the purchase;

retrieve data regarding the purchase from the identified database shard.

10. A computer system comprising:

a sharded store inventory database associated with a store, the sharded store inventory database comprising;

a first inventory database shard in a first inventory database server, the first inventory database shard having inventory data for a first group of items sold by a store;

a second inventory database shard in a second inventory database server, the second inventory database shard having inventory data for a second group of items sold by a store, the second group of items being different than the first group of items;

a store order management computer system comprising;

a computer processor;

memory connected to the computer processor; and

an inventory shard determination module programmed to;

receive a query regarding an item sold by the store;

identify an inventory database shard upon which inventory data for the item is stored; and

retrieve information about the item from the identified inventory database shard.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the inventory shard determination module is more specifically programmed to:

determine a product category associated with the item;

identify a database shard based on the product category; and

retrieve information about the item from the identified inventory database shard.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the inventory shard determination module is more specifically programmed to:

determine whether the item is sold online or in a brick and mortar store location;

identify a database shard based on where the item is sold; and

retrieve information about the item from the identified inventory database shard.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the inventory shard determination module is more specifically programmed to:

determine whether the item is sold by the store or is sold by a third party through the store;

identify a database shard based on the seller of the item; and

retrieve information about the item from the identified inventory database shard.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein:

items sold by the store are organized into a tree structure according to type of item;

the sharded store inventory database includes individual database shards associated with different leaf nodes corresponding to different item types; and

the inventory shard determination module is more specifically programmed to;

identify a database shard based on a leaf node associated with an item.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein a store webpage categorizes items according to the tree structure.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein inventory shard identification data is associated with item information corresponding to the item;

wherein customer selection of the item on a webpage transmits inventory shard identification data to the inventory shard determination module; and

wherein the inventory shard determination module is programmed to provide inventory information for the item to a customer via the webpage.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein inventory shard determination data is contained within identification data for the item;

wherein the query transmits the identification data for the item to the inventory shard determination module; and

wherein the inventory shard determination module identifies an inventory database shard upon which inventory data for the item is stored from the identification data for the item.