Method, system, and computer program product for interfacing with information sources
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- ordering records of airline flights based on a combination of factors including age of cached flight availability information associated with at least a portion of the records and time-to-departure;
querying one or more airline information sources for flight availability information corresponding to the records in accordance with the ordering; and
caching flight availability information received from the one or more airline information sources;
wherein the ordering, the querying, and the caching are performed within a suitably programmed computer system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method, system and computer program product for interfacing between information requesters and information sources. In an embodiment, information is obtained from one or more information sources in response to client requests. In an embodiment, information received from information sources is cached for future use, such as for future client requests. In a caching embodiment, information can also be received by monitoring traffic between an information source and a third party, and/or by proactively querying the information sources. Proactive queries can be generated to populate a cache and/or to update presently cached information. In a caching embodiment, the invention includes methods for determining whether to respond to a request for information out-of-cache and/or with real-time information from an information source. In an embodiment, the invention interfaces with airline availability information sources. The invention also includes, without limitation, methods for interfacing with information sources through proxies, methods for ordering and prioritizing queries, methods for processing queries in a distributed architecture, and time-out features.
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Citations
42 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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ordering records of airline flights based on a combination of factors including age of cached flight availability information associated with at least a portion of the records and time-to-departure; querying one or more airline information sources for flight availability information corresponding to the records in accordance with the ordering; and caching flight availability information received from the one or more airline information sources; wherein the ordering, the querying, and the caching are performed within a suitably programmed computer system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method, comprising:
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ordering records of airline flights based at least in part on a cached number of available seats associated with one or more of the records; querying one or more airline information sources for flight availability information corresponding to the records in accordance with the ordering; and caching flight availability information received from the one or more airline information sources; wherein the ordering, the querying, and the caching are performed within a suitably programmed computer system.
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28. A method, comprising:
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receiving first and second requests for flight availability information from corresponding first and second requesters; separating each of the first and second requests into a plurality of sub-queries; prioritizing the first requestor sub-queries with respect to one another; prioritizing the second requestor sub-queries with respect to one another; ordering the first requestor sub-queries with respect to the second requestor sub-queries according to corresponding times of receipt, including resolving priority disputes between simultaneously received first and second requests so that higher priority sub-queries of the first and second requests are processed before lower priority sub-queries of the first and second requests; and processing the sub-queries according to the associated priorities; wherein the receiving, the separating, the prioritizing of the first and second requestor sub-queries, and the ordering, are performed within a suitably programmed computer system. - View Dependent Claims (29)
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30. A method, comprising:
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converting scheduled airline flight times to approximate flight times; hashing records of the airline flights, including the approximate flight times; storing the scheduled flight times at corresponding hash indexes; receiving a request for flight availability information, including a requested flight time; converting the requested flight time to an approximate requested flight time; hashing at least the approximate requested flight time to generate a request hash index; and returning information from the request hash index including the corresponding scheduled flight time; wherein the convertings, the hashings, the storing, and the returning, are performed within a suitably programmed computer system. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A method, comprising:
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storing records of airline flights; and caching flight availability information received from one or more airline information sources, including sharing a cached availability count record between a plurality of the airline flight records; wherein the storing and the caching are performed within a suitably programmed computer system. - View Dependent Claims (38)
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39. A method, comprising:
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caching flight availability information; receiving a request for flight availability information; querying an airline information source for flight availability information in response to the request; and searching the cached flight availability information for the requested flight availability information after waiting a pre-determined time for a response from the airline information source; wherein the caching, the receiving, the querying, and the searching are performed within a suitably programmed computer system.
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40. A method, comprising:
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monitoring flight availability information traffic between an airline information source and one or more clients of the airline information source; caching at least a portion of the monitored flight availability information traffic; determining a likelihood that flight availability information will be received within a period of time by the monitoring; generating proactive queries for flight availability information not likely to be received within the period of time; and caching information returned in response to the proactive queries; wherein the monitoring, the cachings, the determining, and the generating are performed within a suitably programmed computer system.
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41. A method, comprising:
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identifying one or more factors associated with flight availability information; learning a relationship between historical values for the one or more factors and historical values for flight availability information; generating a function according to the learned relationship; receiving a request for flight availability information; providing values for the one or more factors corresponding to the request to the function; and returning predicted flight availability information from the function; wherein the identifying, the learning, the generating, the receiving, the providing, and the returning are performed within a suitably programmed computer system. - View Dependent Claims (42)
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Specification