Centralized audiotext polling system

• US 5,857,193 A
• Filed: 06/13/1997
• Issued: 01/05/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Tele-Publishing Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Tele-Publishing Incorporated
• Inventors: Sutcliffe, Andrew B., Willett, Charles J., Schultz, Scott M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lintz, Paul R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHANNAVAJJALA, SRIRAMA T
• Application Number:
  US08/876,009
• Time in Patent Office: 571 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/8, 707/200, 707/201, 707/202, 707/203, 707/204, 704/278, 705/14, 705/10, 455/427, 395/185.07
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/12 for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A data transfer system for transferring between a plurality of data storage devices is provided. A data transfer request system requests scheduled and unscheduled data transfers between respective ones of the data storage devices. A first database stores entries corresponding to scheduled data transfer request and a second database stores entries corresponding to unscheduled data transfer requests. A scheduler updates the entries in the first and second databases on a predetermined interval. A file transfer system accesses the entries in the first and second databases and transfer data between the data storage devices according to information in the database entries.

Claims

1. A system for transferring data between a plurality of data storage devices, the system comprising:

a data transfer request system for requesting a data transfer between respective ones of the plurality of data storage devices;

a first database for storing a plurality of entries each corresponding to an unscheduled data transfer request;

a second database for storing a plurality of entries each corresponding to a scheduled data transfer request;

a scheduler coupled to the first and second databases for updating entries in each of the first and second databases; and

a file transfer system coupled to each of the first and second databases to access the entries in each of the first and second databases and to transfer data between predetermined ones of the plurality of data storage devices.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the file transfer system includes a first file transfer system and a second file transfer system.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the first file transfer system transfers data based on entries in the first database.

4. The system according to claim 2, wherein the second file transfer system accesses the first database for data storage device information and transfers data based on entries in the second database.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of data storage devices is remote with respect to the system for transferring data.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the data transfer request system includes a first data transfer system for generating the scheduled data transfer requests.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the data transfer system includes a second data transfer request system, wherein the first and second data transfer request systems generate the unscheduled data transfer requests.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of data storage devices is an audiotext system.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the audiotext system stores personal ad information.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the data transfer request system requests data from the audiotext system, the data having at least one data element selected from the group consisting of box number, PIN number, profile data, security code, ad expiration date, and client identification.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of data storage devices includes a remote audiotext system and a data storage device in network communication with the data transfer request system.

12. The system according to claim 8, wherein the remote audiotext system is in modem communication with the file transfer system.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein the data transfer request system and the scheduler are in network communication.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the file transfer system examines the second database for entries at predetermined time intervals.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the file transfer system examines the first database for entries at predetermined time intervals.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein the scheduler examines a network location at predetermined time intervals for unscheduled data transfer requests.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the scheduler updates the first database with unscheduled data transfer requests at the network location.

18. A method of transferring data between respective ones of a plurality of data storage devices, comprising the steps of;

storing a plurality of entries in a first database, each of the plurality of entries corresponding to a scheduled data transfer request;

storing a plurality of entries in a second database, each of the plurality of entries corresponding to an unscheduled data transfer request;

updating the entries in each of the first and second databases;

transferring data from the respective ones of the plurality of data storage devices based on the entries in the first and second databases.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the step of storing a plurality of entries in a first database further includes obtaining the scheduled data transfer requests from a data transfer request system.

20. The method according to claim 18, wherein the step of updating the entries includes examining a network location to determine if there are unscheduled data transfer requests.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the step of updating the entries further includes the step of updating the second database with the unscheduled data transfer requests at the network location.

22. The method according to claim 18, wherein a first data transfer system transfers data based on scheduled data transfer requests and a second data transfer system transfers data based on unscheduled data transfer requests.

23. The method according to claim 18, wherein at least one of the data storage devices is an audiotext system that transfers data over a modem.

24. The method according to claim 18, wherein the step of transferring the data further includes the step of examining the second database for entries at predetermined intervals.

25. The method according to claim 18, wherein the step of transferring the data further includes examining the first database for entries at predetermined intervals.

26. The method according to claim 24, further including the step of examining a time value to determine whether the predetermined interval to examine the second database has arrived.

27. The method according to claim 25, further including the step of examining a time value to determine whether the predetermined interval to examine the first database has arrived.

28. The method according to claim 18, wherein the step of transferring data further includes the step of obtaining data storage device information from the first database and storing the information in the second database.