Transaction management system

• US 20020038363A1
• Filed: 02/13/2001
• Published: 03/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ip Ot Sub Ulc
• Original Assignee: Vignette Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: MacLean, John M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,287,071 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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; and

a filter operating between the server and the client to capture data associated with the transaction.

2. The transaction management system of claim 1 wherein the filter operates on the server that hosts the transaction.

3. The transaction management system of claim 1 further comprising a second server connected in a communicating relationship with the server that hosts the transaction and connected in a communicating relationship with the client, wherein the filter operates on the second server.

4. The transaction management system of claim 1 further comprising a document repository that stores data captured by the filter.

5. The transaction management system of claim 4 wherein the data is indexed according to at least one of a transaction type, a transaction party, a transaction time, or a transaction identifier.

6. The transaction management system of claim 1 further comprising a document repository that stores unstructured data captured by the filter, the unstructured data including data having a plurality of formats.

7. The transaction management system of claim 6 further comprising a viewer for viewing the unstructured data stored in the document repository.

8. The transaction management system of claim 6 wherein the unstructured data includes a record of a transaction between the server and the client, as displayed to a user at the client during the transaction.

9. The transaction management system of claim 6 wherein the unstructured data includes at least one of facsimile data, print stream data, application document data, hypertext transfer protocol data, graphics data, and audio data.

10. The transaction management system of claim 1 wherein the filter is configured to begin capture upon occurrence of one or more predetermined events.

11. The transaction management system of claim 1 wherein the filter is configured to stop capture upon occurrence of one or more predetermined events.

12. The transaction management system of claim 1 further comprising a configuration interface with which a user selects data to be captured during the transaction.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein storing the captured data is performed after detecting the second event.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising retrieving the captured data and displaying the captured data in the form that the data was displayed by the client when the data was captured.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the captured data includes a hypertext transfer protocol session.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

capturing a form from the server;

capturing data relating to the form from the client; and

storing the data relating to the form from the client in the form as one or more default values of the form.

18. The method of claim 13 further comprising in response to the first event, initiating a capture of data communicated between the client and a third-party provider of content.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the content includes at least one of banner advertisements or price quotations.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein the first event includes navigation by the client to one or more predetermined addresses.

21. The method of claim 13 wherein the second event includes navigation by the client to one or more predetermined addresses.

22. The method of claim 13 further comprising configuring the first event and the second event to correspond to one or more predetermined universal resource locators.

23. The method of claim 13 further comprising configuring one or more attributes by which the data is indexed.

24. The method of claim 13 further comprising configuring the capture of data to include a portion of the data communicated between the client and the server, the portion being less than all of the data communicated between the client and the server.

25. The method of claim 13 wherein the data communicated between the client and the server includes data relating to an electronic commerce transaction between the client and the server.

28. The method of doing business of claim 27 further comprising storing the electronic commerce transaction in a document repository and providing a viewer for reviewing the transaction stored in the document repository.

29. The method of doing business of claim 27 wherein the filter resides on a client system and the filter operates as a proxy to the server that hosts the electronic commerce transaction.

30. The method of doing business of claim 27 wherein the filter resides on a second server, the second server operating as a proxy to the server that hosts the electronic commerce transaction and the client.

31. The method of doing business of claim 28 wherein access to the document repository is provided as a service to at least one of the client or the server.

32. The method of doing business of claim 27 further comprising using the captured electronic commerce transaction to verify the transaction after the transaction has been completed.

13. A method for managing transactions conducted over a network comprising:

detecting a first event;

in response to the first event, initiating a capture of data communicated between a client and a server;

detecting a second event;

in response to detection of the second event, stopping the capture of data communicated between the client and the server; and

storing the captured data.

26. A system for managing transactions conducted over a network comprising:

first detecting means for detecting a first event;

capturing means for capturing data communicated between a client and a server in response to a detection of the first event by the first detecting means;

second detecting means for detecting a second event, the capturing means stopping the capture of data in response to a detection by the second detecting means of the second event; and

storing means for storing the captured data.

27. A method of doing business comprising providing a filter for capturing an electronic commerce transaction between a server and a client, the server hosting the electronic commerce transaction, and the filter capturing the electronic commerce transaction in a form that permits review of the transaction as displayed to the client during the transaction, the filter being configurable to control a first event that begins the capture of the transaction, a second event that ends the capture of the transaction, and one or more types of data to be included in the capture of the transaction.