Order system payment routing

• US 7,630,936 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2006
• Issued: 12/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Samsi, Caesar M., Kumar, Vinod
• Primary Examiner(s): Dass; Harish T
• Application Number:
  US11/518,106
• Publication Number:
  US 20070282741A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,188 Days
• Field of Search: 707/103, 707/100, 707/3, 705/40, 705/41, 705/1, 395/227, 380/25
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to processing payment requests. In aspects, a user of an online system is allowed to pay for goods or services using a combination or one or more payment types including credit card, cash card, gift certificate, purchase order, money order, other payment types, and the like. A payment router determines which payment processor(s) needs to be involved to satisfy each payment request and routes payment requests to each payment processor as needed. Adding new payment methods and changing existing payment methods may be accomplished by changing a table or the like that associates payment methods with payment processors.

Claims

1. A computer storage medium having stored computer-executable instructions comprising an application for routing a plurality of payment methods to a plurality of payment processors, wherein when executed, the computer-executable instructions perform a method comprising the following:

receiving input from a user that specifies that payment objects corresponding to a first payment method are to be sent to a first payment processor;

receiving input from the user specifying that payment objects corresponding to a second payment method are to be sent to a second payment processor;

storing the first and second inputs in a database table, wherein the database table includes a payment method column and a payment processor column such that each payment method listed in the database table is associated with a payment processor defined in the same row as the payment method such that the payment processor to which a corresponding payment method is sent is updatable by modifying the value of the payment processor in the corresponding row of the database table without requiring the recoding of the application and such that by modifying the payment processor value in the same row as the payment method, a corresponding payment method is sent to a different payment processor corresponding to the modified payment processor value;

receiving input from a second user regarding a set of one or more goods to purchase in a single purchase transaction;

receiving input from the second user regarding a plurality of payment methods by which the set of one or more goods are to be purchased;

creating a collection of payment objects wherein the collection contains an object for each payment method, wherein each object indicates the associated payment method and an amount to pay using the payment method for which the object was created;

receiving the collection of payment objects at a payment router, wherein each of the payment objects is associated with other information that includes information about a shopping cart in the form of an OrderForm dictionary, and configuration information needed to execute a pipeline in the form of a Context dictionary;

the payment router accessing each payment object in the collection of payment objects to determine the associated payment method for each payment object;

the payment router using the associated payment method for each payment object to retrieve the corresponding payment processor from the database table; and

the payment router sending data derived from each payment object to the corresponding payment provider to request payment in the amount specified in the payment object.

2. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of payment methods comprise one or more of a credit card, a cash card, a gift certificate, a purchase order, a money order, and a proprietary payment method.

3. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of payment methods comprise at least two credit cards.

4. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the database table further includes:

an identifier type column with identifier type fields storing type identifiers for identifying payment method types, wherein each different type of payment method is associated with a different type identifier within the identifier type field of the database table.

5. The computer storage medium of claim 4, wherein related payment methods are associated with the same type identifier, with credit card payment methods being identified by a first type identifier, cash cards being identified by a second type identifier, gift certificates being identified by a third type identifier, and money orders being identified by a fourth type identifier.

6. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein sending data derived from each payment object to the corresponding payment provider to request payment in the amount specified in the payment object comprises executing a pipeline for each object and providing the object to the pipeline, wherein the pipeline includes a payment router and one or more corresponding payment processors.

7. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more goods further comprises one or more services.

8. A method performed by an application that is executed by a processor of a computer, the method comprising:

receiving input to the computer from a user that specifies that payment objects corresponding to a first payment method are to be sent to a first payment processor;

receiving input to the computer from the user specifying that payment objects corresponding to a second payment method are to be sent to a second payment processor;

storing the first and second inputs in a database table which is stored in a computer storage medium of the computer, wherein the database table includes a payment method column and a payment processor column such that each payment method listed in the database table is associated with a payment processor defined in the same row as the payment method such that the payment processor to which a corresponding payment method is sent is updatable by modifying the value of the payment processor in the corresponding row of the database table without requiring the recoding of the application and such that by modifying the payment processor value in the same row as the payment method, a corresponding payment method is sent to a different payment processor corresponding to the modified payment processor value;

receiving input to the computer from a second user regarding a set of one or more goods to purchase in a single purchase transaction;

receiving input to the computer from the second user regarding a plurality of payment methods by which the set of one or more goods are to be purchased;

creating a collection of payment objects in memory of the computer wherein the collection contains an object for each payment method, wherein each object indicates the associated payment method and an amount to pay using the payment method for which the object was created;

receiving the collection of payment objects at a payment router that is being executed by the processor of the computer, wherein each of the payment objects is associated with other information that includes information about a shopping cart in the form of an OrderForm dictionary, and configuration information needed to execute a pipeline in the form of a Context dictionary;

the payment router accessing each payment object in the collection of payment objects to determine the associated payment method for each payment object;

the payment router using the associated payment method for each payment object to retrieve the corresponding payment processor from the database table; and

for each payment object;

the payment router copying data derived from the payment object to the associated Context dictionary with a payment-to-process key; and

the payment router routing a payment request corresponding to the payment object to the corresponding payment provider to request payment in the amount specified in the payment object by executing the pipeline using the Context dictionary and OrderForm dictionary.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising subsequent to sending data derived from each payment object to the corresponding payment provider, receiving input from the user that specifies that payment objects corresponding to the first payment method are to be sent to a third payment processor such that the database table is updated such that the third payment processor is associated with the first payment method without requiring the application to be recoded.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein a type of the first payment method comprises a credit card, a cash card, a gift certificate, a purchase order, or a money order.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a type of the second payment method is different than the type of the first payment method.