System and method of communicating with distributed marketplaces

• US 9,053,502 B2
• Filed: 04/12/2011
• Issued: 06/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Vandervort, David R.
• Primary Examiner(s): STOPP, COURTNEY L
• Application Number:
  US13/085,037
• Publication Number:
  US 20120265643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,519 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1, 705/27.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy

Abstract

A method of processing a specification may include receiving, by a home site, information regarding a search for at least one good or service, automatically generating, by the home site, a specification comprising a command block, an origin block and a routing block, based on the received information, and transmitting, by the home site, the specification to the one or more destination marketplaces. One or more of the command block, the origin block and the routing block may include one or more domain-specific language instructions. The command block may include one or more instructions defining the search and one or more instructions defining one or more actions to perform with respect to results of the search. The origin block may include information identifying the home site. The routing block comprises information identifying one or more destination marketplaces.

Claims

1. A method of processing a specification, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first destination marketplace, a specification from a home site, wherein the specification defines a product or service and comprises;

a command block comprising one or more instructions for performing a search and one or more search criteria and one or more instructions for performing one or more actions based on a result of the search,

an origin block comprising an identifier associated with the home site, and

a routing block comprising information associated with one or more marketplaces that have already processed the specification and one or more instructions for forwarding the specification to one or more other marketplaces that have not yet processed the specification;

authenticating, by the first destination marketplace, the specification by;

identifying a digital signature embedded in the specification,

identifying a verification uniform resource locator embedded in the specification, and

transmitting the digital signature to a website corresponding to the verification uniform resource locator;

in response to receiving verification of authenticity from the website, processing, by the first destination marketplace, the specification by executing one or more of the instructions in the command block;

creating, by the first destination marketplace, an updated specification by modifying the specification to include an indication of which instructions were executed by the first destination marketplace; and

performing, by the first destination marketplace, one or more of the actions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the specification comprises:

searching a database associated with the first destination marketplace to identify a list of search results comprising indications of at least one good or service that satisfies the search criteria; and

transmitting the list of search results according to one or more instructions in the command block of the specification.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the specification comprises updating the routing block to include a uniform resource locator associated with the first destination marketplace.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the specification comprises updating the routing block to include a timestamp indicating when the first destination marketplace processed the specification.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the specification comprises updating the routing block to include an indication of whether the first destination marketplace authorized the specification.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the specification comprises updating the routing block by incrementing a number of times that the specification has been transmitted.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein creating an updated specification comprises:

identifying a second destination marketplace from a database associated with the first destination marketplace; and

updating the routing block to include a uniform resource locator associated with the second destination marketplace.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a universal unique identifier associated with the specification; and

in response to the first destination marketplace not previously receiving a second specification associated with the universal unique identifier, processing the specification.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein performing one or more actions comprises:

in response to a transmission number equaling or exceeding a permitted transmission number, not transmitting the specification by the first destination marketplace to a second destination marketplace; and

in response to the permitted transmission number exceeding the transmission number, transmitting the specification by the first destination marketplace to a second destination marketplace,

wherein the transmission number indicates a number of times the specification has been transmitted,

wherein the permitted transmission number indicates a number of times the specification is allowed to be transmitted,

wherein the specification comprises the transmission number and the permitted transmission number.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein performing one or more of the actions comprises performing one or more of the following:

refining the results of the search;

placing a bid on the at least one good or service;

purchasing the at least one good or service; and

emailing the results to a user.

11. A method of processing a specification, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first destination marketplace, a specification from a home site, wherein the specification defines a product or service and comprises;

a command block comprising one or more instructions for performing a search, one or more search criteria, a marketplace type, and one or more instructions for performing one or more actions based on a result of the search,

an origin block comprising an identifier associated with the home site, and

a routing block comprising information associated with one or more marketplaces that have already processed the specification and one or more instructions for forwarding the specification to one or more other marketplaces that have not yet processed the specification;

authenticating, by the first destination marketplace, the specification by;

,

identifying a digital signature embedded in the specification,

identifying a verification uniform resource locator embedded in the specification, and

transmitting the digital signature to a website corresponding to the verification uniform resource locator;

in response to receiving verification of authenticity from the website, determining whether the first destination marketplace satisfies the marketplace type;

in response to the first destination marketplace satisfying the marketplace type, processing, by the first destination marketplace, the specification by executing one or more of the instructions in the command block;

creating, by the first destination marketplace, an updated specification by modifying the specification to include an indication of which instructions were executed by the first destination marketplace;

identifying a transmission number embedded in the specification,

wherein the transmission number indicates a number of times the specification has been transmitted;

incrementing the transmission number;

modifying the specification by replacing the identified transmission number with the incremented transmission number; and

in response to a permitted transmission number exceeding the incremented transmission number, transmitting, by the first destination marketplace, the specification to a second destination marketplace, wherein the permitted transmission number indicates a number of times the specification is allowed to be transmitted.

12. A system for processing a specification, the system comprising:

a computing device associated with a first marketplace destination;

a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the computing device, wherein the computer-readable storage medium comprises one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the computing device to perform the following;

receiving a specification from a home site, wherein the specification defines a product or service and comprises;

a command block comprising one or more instructions for performing a search and one or more search criteria and one or more instructions for performing one or more actions based on a result of the search,

an origin block comprising an identifier associated with the home site, and

a routing block comprising information associated with one or more marketplaces that have already processed the specification and one or more instructions for forwarding the specification to one or more marketplaces that have not yet processed the specification,

authenticating the specification by;

identifying a digital signature embedded in the specification,

identifying a verification uniform resource locator embedded in the specification, and

transmitting digital signature to a website corresponding the verification uniform resource locator,

in response to receiving verification of authenticity from the website, processing the specification by executing one or more of the instructions in the command block,

creating an updated specification by modifying the specification to include an indication of which instructions were executed by the first destination marketplace, and

performing one or more actions.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more processing instructions for processing the specification comprise one or more processing instructions that, when executed, cause the computing device to perform the following:

search a database associated to identify a list of search results comprising indications of at least one good or service that satisfies the search criteria; and

transmitting the list of search results according to one or more instructions in the command block of the specification.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more programming instructions for modifying the specification comprise one or more programming instructions for updating the routing block to include a uniform resource locator associated with the first destination marketplace.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more programming instructions for modifying the specification comprise one or more programming instructions for updating the routing block to include a timestamp indicating when the first destination marketplace processed the specification.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more programming instructions for modifying the specification comprise one or more programming instructions for updating the routing block to include an indication of whether the first destination marketplace authorized the specification.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more programming instructions for creating an updated specification comprise one or more programming instructions for:

identifying an associated destination marketplace from a database associated with the first destination marketplace; and

updating the routing block to include a uniform resource locator corresponding to the associated destination marketplace.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more programming instructions for processing the specification comprise one or more programming instructions for:

identifying a marketplace type from the specification;

in response to the first destination marketplace satisfying the marketplace type, processing the specification by the first destination marketplace; and

the one or more programming instructions for creating an updated specification comprise one or more programming instructions for updating the routing block to include a uniform resource locator associated with the first destination marketplace.