Transaction management system

• US 7,792,958 B1
• Filed: 09/21/2007
• Issued: 09/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ip Ot Sub Ulc
• Original Assignee: Vignette Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: MacLean, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): ISMAIL, SHAWKI SAIF
• Application Number:
  US11/903,373
• Time in Patent Office: 1,082 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709223-224, 705 26- 27
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2379 Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24565 Triggers; Constraints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/389 Keeping log of transactions for guaranteeing non-repudiation of a transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

The systems and methods described herein relate to a system for documenting transactions. A filter is provided that captures content associated with transactions. The filter may be configured to start and stop the capture at predetermined times, and may be further configured to specify what content is to be captured during a transaction. The system may store any documents or data associated with a transaction, including dynamic content and user selections and inputs. A document repository may be provided for storing unstructured data representing data, text, forms, and so forth presented to a party during a transaction. A viewer may be provided for displaying data stored in the document repository.

Claims

1. A transaction management system comprising:

a server that hosts a transaction;

a network;

a client connected in a communicating relationship with the server over the network, and the client participating in the transaction hosted by the server;

a filter operating on the server to capture data associated with the transaction, wherein the data associated with the transaction comprises;

a first request by the client for a first page;

a set of data associated with the first page, wherein the set of data associated with the first page comprises a first HTML object and a set of objects referenced by the first HTML object;

a second request returned by the client in response the user using a user input presented in the first page; and

a set of data associated with a second page returned in response to the second request, wherein the set of data associated with the second page comprises a second HTML object and a set of objects referenced by the second HTML object.

2. The transaction management system of claim 1, wherein the set of objects referenced by the first HTML object comprise at least some external content.

3. The transaction management system of claim 1, wherein the filter is responsive to a first trigger to begin capturing data associated with the transaction and responsive to a second trigger to stop capturing data associated with the transaction.

4. The transaction management system of claim 1, wherein the user input comprises activation of a user control in the first page.

5. The transaction management system of claim 1, wherein the filter stores the data associated with the first page in a document repository.

6. The transaction management system of claim 5, wherein storing the data associated with the first page in a document repository further comprises storing the request, the first HTML object and objects referenced by the first HTML object in a hierarchical system of folders.

7. The transaction management system of claim 6, wherein the data associated with the transaction is indexed by at least one of a transaction type, a transaction party, a transaction time, or a transaction identifier.

8. The transaction management system of claim 1, wherein the filter captures data associated with the transaction over multiple sessions.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein storing the data associated with the first page in a document repository further comprises storing the request, the first HTML object and objects referenced by the first HTML object in a hierarchical system of folders.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the data associated with the transaction is indexed by at least one of a transaction type, a transaction party, a transaction time, or a transaction identifier.

11. A method comprising:

providing a server running a server application to host a transaction and a filter;

a network; and

a client connected in a communicating relationship with the server over the network, the client running a client application that interacts with the server application to participate in the transaction;

generating, by the client, a first request for a first page, wherein the generating is performed by the client application;

responsive to a first trigger, beginning capture of data associated with the transaction by the filter, wherein the data associated with the transaction comprises the request sent by the client application;

returning a set of data associated with the first page, wherein the set of data associated with the first page comprises a first HTML object and a set of objects referenced by the first HTML object and wherein the returning is performed by the server application;

capturing the data associated with the first page, wherein the capturing is performed by the filter;

generating a second request based on activation of a user input in the first page, wherein generating the second request is performed by the client application;

capturing the second request, wherein the capturing is performed by the filter;

returning a set of data associated with a second page in response to the second request, wherein the returning is performed by the server application; and

capturing the set of data associated with the second page, wherein the capturing is performed by the filter.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the set of objects referenced by the first HTML object comprise at least some external content.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising stopping capture of data associated with the transaction responsive to a second trigger.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the filter stores the data associated with the first page in a document repository.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the filter captures data associated with the transaction over multiple sessions.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing the captured data associated with the transaction in the data repository and storing additional unstructured data associated with the transaction in the repository.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the additional unstructured data associated with the transaction comprises at least one of electronic mail, a scanned document or a facsimile.

18. The transaction management system of claim 16, wherein the at least one server hosting the server application and the at least one server hosting the filter application comprise the same server.

19. The transaction management system of claim 16, wherein the filter application is further configured to capture the set of objects referenced by the HTML object.

20. A transaction management system comprising:

a client coupled to a network hosting a client application; and

a set of servers connected to the network, at least one of the set of servers hosting a server application and at least one of the set of servers running a filter application, wherein the filter application is configured to;

detect a first event to initiate capture of data communicated between the client application and the server application associated with a transaction, wherein the data communicated includes a GET command issued by the client application, an HTML object returned in response to the GET command, and a set of additional requests by the client application to fetch objects referenced by the HTML object;

store the data communicated between the client application and the server application in a repository;

detect a second event; and

stop capturing data communicated between the client application and the server application in response to the second event.