Method and system of printing postage indicia from an envelope design application

• US 6,282,524 B1
• Filed: 07/20/1998
• Issued: 08/28/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Pitney Bowes Incorporated (Böwe Systec AG)
• Original Assignee: Pitney Bowes Incorporated (Böwe Systec AG)
• Inventors: Kramer, Allen L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dixon, Thomas A.
• Application Number:
  US09/119,464
• Time in Patent Office: 1,135 Days
• Field of Search: 705/401, 705/402, 705/408, 705/410, 705/411, 705/60, 705/62, 101/71, 283/71, 235/101, 235/375, 380/51, 713/1, 345/439
• US Class Current: 705/408
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 17/00362 Calculation or computing within apparatus, e.g. calculation of postage value
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00298 Visual, e.g. screens and their layouts
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/0033 Communication with software component, e.g. dll or object
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00419 Software organization, e.g. separation into objects

Abstract

The invention is a method and system for printing a postage meter indicia from a data processing system. The printing of the indicia is under control of an indicia control in an object linking and embedding (OLE2) environment. The method begins with instantiating an indicia control in the design application that will utilize the object control for indicia printing. The indicia control is attached to an application window for use by the application. Once established, the control will be passed a set of postage meter data from an interoperatively linked postage meter. The interface is enhanced by displaying an envelope representation on a monitor screen to a system operator, wherein the envelope display comprises design fields and wherein one of the design fields is a representation of the postage indicia. The postage indicia additionally comprises postage meter data such as available funds, a transaction value, and a postage meter identification. Additional parameters which may be set by transferring data from linked routines include: a date; a zip code; and a postage value. The envelope design fields comprise: a return address field; a destination address field; and, optionally, a Postnet barcode and/or an advertising slogan. The method then continues with the printing of the postage indicia to the application file and subsequently to an envelope. Printing to the application, as opposed to an indicia file, causes decrementing of the funds available to the data processing system by an amount equal to the postage value in the printed indicia.

Claims

1. A method of creating an indicia printing object in an object oriented development environment of a data processing system comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing an object creation function within said data processing system;

(b) registering a class within said data object creation function and instantiating said class; and

, wherein said instantiation establishes a programming interface to said indicia printing object;

(c) establishing the properties of said indicia printing object by;

(i) placing a set of object methods within said indicia printing object by utilizing said programming interface;

(ii) placing printing functionality within said indicia printing object by utilizing said programming interface;

(iii) placing data linking functionality within said indicia printing object by utilizing said programming interface;

(iv) placing a set of postage value tables within said indicia printing object by utilizing said programming interface; and

(d) creating a human interface, for allowing data to be displayed to a system operator under direction from said object methods, and placing said human interface within said indicia printing object by utilizing said programming interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said set of postage value tables further comprises:

(a) a plurality of postal value data;

(b) rules for use of postal value data;

(c) error messages; and

(d) suggestions for alternate paths of movement within said data processing system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said set of object methods comprises action instructions;

said action instructions further comprising display instructions for instructing said data processing system to display data on said display means.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said set of object methods comprises action instructions;

said action instructions further comprising storage instructions for instructing said data processing system to store data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said set of object methods comprises action instructions;

said action instructions further comprising printing instructions for instructing said data processing means to print data on said output means.