Method and system of implementing a carrier manager librarian

• US 6,078,889 A
• Filed: 09/30/1997
• Issued: 06/20/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Pitney Bowes Incorporated (Böwe Systec AG)
• Original Assignee: Pitney Bowes Incorporated (Böwe Systec AG)
• Inventors: Hasbani, Jacques E., Rauh, Edward M., Boucher, Glenn, Karbowski, Kenneth, Carroll, Terri A.
• Primary Examiner(s): MacDonald, Allen R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kanof, Pedro R.
• Application Number:
  US08/942,262
• Time in Patent Office: 994 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/28, 705/402, 705/400, 705/34, 705/14, 705/417, 705/418, 235/385, 379/114, 380/15, 104/88.04
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08345 Pricing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

A management librarian for shipping carriers is configured to access a registry containing carrier identifiers corresponding to the carriers and module identifier corresponding to carrier rate modules. The carrier rate modules contain item rating instructions arranged to rate the item for a respective carrier from among the carriers. The carrier management librarian is also configured to load into the executable space of a client application a selected carrier rate module corresponding to the selected carrier based on module identifiers accessed in the registry. An entry point for the item rating instructions is identified, based on an associated module identifier corresponding to the selected carrier.

Claims

1. A carrier management system having a microprocessor, said system further comprising:

(a) a plurality of carrier rate modules, each of the carrier rate modules containing item rating instructions arranged to rate an item for a respective carrier from among a plurality of carriers;

(b) a registry recording carrier identifiers corresponding respectively to the carriers in a one-to-one association with module identifiers indicating respectively how to load the carrier rate modules; and

(c) a carrier management librarian module containing carrier management instructions arranged to;

(i) access the registry;

(ii) load a selected carrier rate module corresponding to the selected carrier, based on a module identifier accessed in the registry, into the executable space of a client application executing the carrier management librarian module; and

(iii) identify an entry point for the item rating instructions in the loaded, selected carrier rate module in response to an identifier corresponding to the selected carrier specified by the client application.

2. The carrier management system of claim 1, wherein the carrier management instructions are further arranged to load all the carrier rate modules corresponding to the carriers into the executable space of the executing process based on all the module identifiers of modules recorded in the registry.

3. The carrier management system of claim 1, wherein the carrier management instructions are further arranged to:

(a) identify the selected carrier rate module from among the plurality of carrier rate modules based on an identifier corresponding to the selected carrier; and

(b) load the selected carrier rate module after identifying the selected carrier rate module.

4. The carrier management system of claim 1, wherein the carrier management instructions are further arranged to dynamically link the carrier rate module corresponding to the selected carrier into the executing process.

5. The carrier management system of claim 1, further comprising a carrier rate data access module containing data access instructions arranged to access carrier rate data stored in a file on a non-volatile computer readable medium;

wherein at least one of the carrier rate modules further contains instructions arranged to;

(a) load the carrier rate data access module;

(b) execute said data access instructions for accessing the carrier rate data for the corresponding carrier; and

(c) execute said item rating instructions for rating the item based on the carrier rate data.

6. The carrier management system of claim 1, wherein the carrier management librarian module is configured to be loaded into the executable space of the client application.

7. A carrier management system, comprising:

(a) a client application for interacting with a user and performing logistics functions in response;

(b) a plurality of carrier rate modules, each of the carrier rate modules containing item rating instructions arranged to rate an item for a respective carrier from among a plurality of carriers;

(c) a registry recording carrier identifiers corresponding respectively to the carriers in a one-to-one association with module identifiers indicating respectively how to load the carrier rate modules; and

(d) a carrier management librarian module executable by the client application and containing carrier management instructions arranged to;

(i) access the registry to retrieve the module identifiers recorded therein;

(ii) load a selected carrier rate module corresponding to the selected carrier, based on a module identifier accessed in the registry, into the executable space of the client application; and

(iii) identify an entry point for the item rating instructions in the loaded, selected carrier rate module in response to an identifier corresponding to the selected carrier specified by the client application; and

wherein the client application is configured to call the entry point to rate an item for the selected carrier.

8. The carrier management system of claim 7, wherein the carrier management instructions are further arranged to load all the carrier rate modules corresponding to the carriers into the executable space of the executing process based on all the module identifiers of modules recorded in the registry.

9. The carrier management system of claim 7, wherein the carrier management instructions are further arranged to:

(a) identify the selected carrier rate module from among the plurality of carrier rate modules based on an identifier corresponding to the selected carrier; and

(b) load the selected carrier rate module after identifying the selected carrier rate module.

10. The carrier management system of claim 7, wherein the carrier management instructions are further arranged to dynamically link the carrier rate module corresponding to the selected carrier into the executing process.

11. The carrier management system of claim 7, further comprising a carrier rate data access module containing data access instructions arranged to access carrier rate data stored in a file on a non-volatile computer readable medium;

wherein at least one of the carrier rate modules further contains instructions arranged to;

(a) load the carrier rate data access module;

(b) execute said data access instructions for accessing the carrier rate data for the corresponding carrier; and

(c) execute said item rating instructions for rating the item based on the carrier rate data.

12. The carrier management system of claim 7, wherein the carrier management librarian module is configured to be loaded into the executable space of the client application.

13. A method of rating an item for a selected carrier from among a plurality of carriers in a carrier management system, said method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

(a) accessing a registry recording carrier identifiers corresponding respectively to the carriers in a one-to-one association with module identifiers indicating how to load corresponding carrier rate modules;

(b) loading a plurality of the carrier rate modules, at least one of which corresponding to the selected carrier, into the executable space of an executing client application based on the carrier identifiers;

(c) identifying an entry point for item rating instructions contained in a loaded carrier rate module corresponding to the selected carrier item based on a carrier identifier corresponding to the selected carrier specified by the executing client application, said item rating instructions arranged to rate the item for the selected carrier; and

executing the item rating instructions.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of loading a plurality of the carrier rate modules includes the step of loading all the carrier rate modules corresponding to the carriers into the executable space of the executing client application based on all the module identifiers recorded in the registry.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising the computer-implemented step of identifying a selected carrier rate module from among the carrier rate modules based on a selected carrier identifier corresponding to the selected carrier and the carrier identifiers recorded in the registry, wherein the step of loading a plurality of the carrier rate modules includes the step of loading the selected carrier rate module after identifying the selected carrier rate module.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of loading a plurality of the carrier rate modules, at least one of which corresponding to the selected carrier, into the executable space of the executing client application based on the module identifiers includes the step of dynamically linking the carrier rate module corresponding to the selected carrier into the executing client application.

17. The method of claim 13, further including the computer-implemented steps of:

(a) loading a carrier rate data access module into the executable space of the executing client application, said carrier rate data access module containing data access instructions arranged to access carrier rate data, said carrier rate data stored in a file on a non-volatile computer readable medium;

(b) execute said data access instructions for accessing the carrier rate data; and

(c) execute said item rating instructions for rating the item based on the carrier rate data.

18. A computer readable medium bearing thereon sequences of instructions for managing a plurality of carrier rate module corresponding respectively to a plurality of carriers for an executing client application, said sequences of instructions comprising sequences of instructions for performing the computer-implemented steps of:

(a) accessing a registry recording carrier identifiers corresponding respectively to the carriers in a one-to-one association with module identifier indicating how to load the corresponding carrier rate modules;

(b) loading a plurality of the carrier rate modules, at least one of which corresponding to the selected carrier, into the executable space of the executing client application based on the carrier identifiers; and

(c) identifying an entry point for item rating instructions contained in a loaded carrier rate module corresponding to the selected carrier item based on a carrier identifier corresponding to the selected carrier specified by the executing client application, said item rating instructions arranged to rate the item for the selected carrier.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the step of loading one or more of the carrier rate modules includes the step of loading all the carrier rate modules corresponding to the carriers into the executable space of the executing client application based on all the module identifiers recorded in the registry.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein:

(a) said sequences of instructions further comprises sequences of instructions for performing the step of identifying a selected carrier rate module from among the carrier rate modules based on a selected carrier identifier corresponding to the selected carrier and the carrier identifiers recorded in the registry; and

(b) the step of loading a plurality of the carrier rate modules includes the step of loading the selected carrier rate module after identifying the selected carrier rate module.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the step of loading a plurality of the carrier rate modules, at least one of which corresponding to the selected carrier, into the executable space of the executing client application based on the module identifiers includes the step of dynamically linking the carrier rate module corresponding to the selected carrier into the executing client application.