Business channel synchronization

• US 8,799,218 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2006
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Liu, Allen Yihren, King, Philip J., Maffeo, Michael, Tamhanker, Hemant V., Agrawal, Ajay K.
• Primary Examiner(s): DWIVEDI, MAHESH H
• Application Number:
  US11/566,117
• Publication Number:
  US 20080133612A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,804 Days
• Field of Search: 707/200, 707/610, 707/782, 707/617, 707/618, 707/620, 705/26.3
• US Class Current: 707/617
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

A method and a system of business channel synchronization are provided. In one example embodiment, a network-based commerce system may receive, via a network and from a client application, update data related to a user listing, update a record related to the user listing, utilizing the received update data; and communicate, via the network, the received update data reflecting a further update to the record related to the user listing to the client application. In one example embodiment, a client system may comprise a communication module, a listing manager, a synchronization engine, an upload module, and a user interface module. In one example embodiment, a user may synchronize the user'"'"'s listing data from a client application to one or more network-based commerce systems. In an alternative example embodiment the user may synchronize the user'"'"'s listing data from one or more network-based commerce systems to a client application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a network-based commerce system,

opening a number of network connections, the number of the network connections determined by a client application locally installed on a client machine based on a machine census of the client machine, the machine census including determining a central processing power, total memory, available memory, bandwidth, and operating system, and a records census, the records census based on a number of items to synchronize between the network-based commerce system and the client application;

receiving, via the network connections and from a user at the client application, first update data related to a user listing of the user;

receiving, via the network connections and from the client application, a synchronization command that synchronizes updating of data related to the user listing of the user, between the client application and the network-based commerce system;

responsive to the receiving of the synchronization command, updating a first record related to the user listing, the updating to include the first update data received from the user in the first record; and

communicating, via the network connections, second update data to the client application, the second update data reflecting a further update to the first record related to the user listing.

2. The method of claim 1, including:

receiving, at the client application, the second update data; and

updating a second record related to the user listing using the second update data received from the networked-based commerce system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first update data includes a description of the user listing.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first update data includes a modification of the description included in the user listing.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first update data indicates a removal of the user listing, and wherein the updating includes removing the user listing from publication by the network-based commerce system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user listing is a fixed price listing.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user listing is an auction listing.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the updating is performed in real-time by the network-based commerce system upon receiving the first update data from the client application.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the updating is performed at a time scheduled by the client application.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the seem ate data includes data related to a sale of an offering that is the subject of the user listing.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the second update data includes data related to a current hid related to the user listing.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second update data includes data related to a message communicated by the client application.

13. A network based commerce system comprising:

one or more modules, each module comprising machine-executable instructions retained on non-transitory machine-readable media, the modules comprising,

a communication module to;

open a number of network connections, the number of the network connections determined by a client application locally installed on a client machine based on a machine census of the client machine, the machine census including determining a central processing power, total memory, available memory, bandwidth, and operating system, and a records census, the records census based on a number of items to synchronize between a network-based commerce system and a client application locally installed on a client machine; and

receive, from a user at the client application, a synchronization command that synchronizes updating of data related to the user listing of the user, between the client application and the network-based commerce system;

the communication module further configured to receive first update data related to a user listing of a user; and

a listing management module configured to update, responsive to the receiving of the synchronization command, a first record related to the use listing, the updating to include the first update data received from the user in the first record;

the communication module to communicate, via the network connections, second update data to the client application, the second update data reflecting a further update to the first record related to the user.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein he communication module is an Application Programming interface (API) server.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising a synchronization module configured to control the timing of updates performed by the listing management module.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the listing management module is configured to update the first record in real-tine upon receiving the first update data frorn the client application.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the listing management module is configured to update the first record at a time scheduled by the client application.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the listing management module is configured to update the first record including removing the user listing from publication by the network-based commerce system.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the listing management module is configured to update the first record including modifying the description included in the user listing, received from the client application.

20. A method comprising;

at a client application locally installed on a client machine and configured to create and update a user listing by a user,

determining a machine census of the client machine, the machine census including determining a central processing power, total memory, available memory, bandwidth, and operating system, and a records census, the records census based on a number of items to synchronize between a network-based commerce system and a client application locally installed on a client machine;

opening a number of network connections, the number of network connections determined by the client application based on the machine census of the client machine and the record census;

transmitting, via the network connections, to the network-based commerce system a synchronization command that synchronizes updating of data related to the user listing of the user, between the client application and the network-based commerce system;

transmitting, via the network connections, first update data received from the user at the client application, to a network-based commerce system, the network-based commerce system to, responsive to receiving the synchronization command, update a record related to the user listing, the updating to include the first update data received from the user in the record;

receiving, via the network connections, second update data, pertaining, to the listing, from the network-based commerce system; and

updating, a record pertaining to the listing maintained at the client application, the updating to include in the record the second update data received from the network-based commerce system.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first update data includes a modification of the description included in the user listing.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the first update data indicates a removal of the user listing, and wherein the updating includes removing the user listing from publication by the network-based commerce system.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the second update data includes data related to a sale of an offering that is the subject of the user listing.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the second update data includes data related to a current bid related to the user listing.

25. A client system comprising:

one or more modules, each module comprising machine-executable instructions retained on non-transitory machine-readable media, the modules comprising,

a synchronization engine to determine a machine census of a client machine and a records census and open a number of network connections, the number of network connections determined by a client application locally installed on the client machine based on a machine census of the client machine, the machine census including determining a central processing power, total memory, available memory, bandwidth, and operating system, and a records census, the records census based on a number of items to synchronize between a network-based commerce system and the client

a communication module configured to transmit, via the network connections and from the client application to a network-based commerce system, a synchronization command that synchronizes updating of data related to the user listing of a user, between the client application and the network-based commerce system;

the communication module configured to transmit first update data received from the user at the client application, to the network-based commerce system, the network-based commerce system to update a record related to the user listing, the updating to include the first update data received from the user in the record, and to receive, via the network, second update data, pertaining to the listing, from the network-based commerce system; and

a listing manager configured to update, a record for the listing maintained at the client application, using the second update data received from the network-based commerce system.

26. The client system of claim 25, further comprising an upload module configured to deliver the first update data to the communication module.

27. The client system of claim 26, further comprising a user interface configured to communicate with a user.

28. The client system of claim 27, further comprising a synchronization engine configured to control the communication module, the upload module, and the listing manager, using input data received from the user interface.