Method and system for extraction and accumulation of shopping data
Contents
1. We Gutoolg YPM HOUS 86 6F 00 L sbumes z 666zS PJeog SN d SIS euozuy apo OWOId jnoy4s840 Jo more uonduosaq jonpould Neq Buiddoys US 2012 0253985 A1 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EXTRACTION AND ACCUMULATION OF SHOPPING DATA CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 0001 This application is a Nonprovisional Patent Appli cation claiming benefit under 35 USC 119 a of the follow ing applications each naming Guillaume Maron Jean Guil lou and Alexis Fogel 0002 French Patent Application No 10 04360 filed Nov 8 2010 with the title M thode et syst me d execution infor matis e de taches sur Internet and 0003 French Patent Application No 10 04361 filed on Nov 8 2010 with the title Proc d et syst me informatis e d achat sur le web 0004 Each application cited above is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes The present disclosure also incorporates by reference as is set forth in full in this docu ment for all purposes the following commonly assigned applications patents 0005 U S patent application Ser No Attorney Docket No 93180 800064 filed of even date herewith and entitled METHOD AND COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR PURCHASE ON THE WEB naming Fogel et al hereinaf ter Fogel I 0006 U S patent application Ser No Attorney Docket No 93180 800065 filed of even date herewith and entitled TASK AUTOMATION FOR UNFORMATTED TASKS DETERM2. accumulation system described herein For example it might allow for downloading of software components e g client side plug ins and other applications required for the systems described herein and synching data between the clients running such a system and associated server compo nents 0036 Web server 50 in turn can communicate with data base server 60 that can be configured to access data 70 Database server 60 and data 70 can also comprise a set of servers load balanced to meet scalability and fail over requirements of systems they provide data to They may reside on web server 50 or on physically separate servers Database server 60 can be configured to facilitate the retrieval of data 70 For example database server 60 can retrieve data for the shopping data extraction and accumulation system described herein and forward it to clients communicating with web server 50 Alternatively it may retrieve transac tional data for the associated merchant websites hosted by web server 50 and forward those transactions to the request ing clients 0037 One of the clients 20 can include a desktop personal computer workstation laptop personal digital assistant PDA cell phone or any WAP enabled device or any other computing device capable of interfacing directly or indirectly to Internet 40 Web client 20 might typically run a network interface application which can be for example a browsing program such as Microsoft s Internet E
3. desktop web browser client 20 may be coupled to Internet 40 via a network gateway In one embodi ment the network gateway can be provided by Internet ser vice provider ISP hardware 80 coupled to Internet 40 Inone embodiment the network protocol used by clients is a TCP IP based protocol such as HTTP These clients can then com municate with web servers and other destination devices coupled to Internet 40 0033 An e commerce web server 80 hosting an e com merce website can also be coupled to Internet 40 E com US 2012 0253985 A1 merce web server 80 is often connected to the internet via an ISP Client 20 can communicate with e commerce web server 80 via its connectivity to Internet 40 E commerce web server 80 can be one or more computer servers load balanced to provide scalability and fail over capabilities to clients access ing it 0034 A web server 50 can also be coupled to Internet 40 Web server 50 is often connected to the internet via an ISP Client 20 can communicate with web server 50 via its con nectivity to Internet 40 Web server 50 can be configured to provide a network interface to program logic and information accessible via a database server 60 Web server 50 can be one or more computer servers load balanced to provide scalabil ity and fail over capabilities to clients accessing it 0035 In one embodiment web server 50 houses parts of the program logic that implements the shopping data extrac tion and
4. elements while the automated checkout procedure con tinues to the next page in the shopping tunnel sequence of pages 0051 If on the other hand the confirmation page is reached then at step 360 the cart price will be validated For example the system will check to see if the total matches the sum of the price times the quantity ofall items in the cart plus a combination of all other prices found during the checkout tunnel shipping fee insurance recycling fee etc In one embodiment the system starts by trying trivial solutions One such check could be to see if the product costs plus shipping fee found equals the total price using only prices found on the final or confirmation page of the tunnel If the simple solution does not validate the total price of the transaction then the system may go on to try more complex combinations in an iterative process For example it may check if the product costs plus one or more taxes plus one or more shipping fees plus one or more discounts equal the total cost of the trans action using prices found throughout the checkout tunnel andin an iterative fashion i e first try adding in taxes then try adding in shipping fees then try adding in discounts and so on 0052 Finally if the processing at step 360 leads to the validation of the shopping cart and underlying transaction then at step 370 the user can either confirm or cancel the transaction In one embodiment the user will be abl
5. skill in the art after reading this disclosure In other embodiments combinations or sub combinations of the above disclosed invention can be advantageously made The example arrangements of components are shown for purposes of illustration and it should be understood that combinations additions re arrangements and the like are contemplated in alternative embodiments of the present invention Thus while the invention has been described with respect to exemplary embodiments one skilled in the art will recognize that numer ous modifications are possible 0021 For example the processes described herein may be implemented using hardware components software compo nents and or any combination thereof The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense It will however be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims and that the invention is intended to cover all modifications and equivalents within the scope of the following claims BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0022 The accompanying drawings which are incorpo rated into and constitute a part of this specification illustrate one or more embodiments of the present invention and together with the detailed description serve to explain the principles and implementations of the invention 0023 F
6. the transaction The web pages that form the checkout process are referred to herein as a checkout tunnel akin to the checkout aisle in a supermarket that a purchaser would enter in a physical store once a shop ping cart is loaded with items of interest 0018 The shopping cart analysis program analyzes each page ofa checkout tunnel extracting shopping cart elements as well as any other price elements and details needed to obtain data about the pending transaction Examples of such elements include product ID unit quantity for that product ID price per unit extended price i e the price for the selected unit quantity applicable taxes shipping fees insur ance fees and so on When such elements are extracted and understood the shopping cart analysis program is able to perform a number of useful actions such as validating the contents of the shopping cart and the associated charges storing transaction details for later use by the user etc 0019 In some embodiments the analysis of a web page is done using a rule based system that works on the document object model DOM of the web page In some embodi ments the information is extracted and accumulated from the shopping pages is stored in a history database for later review by users of the system This then can serve as a transaction history database independent of any merchant website for matting 0020 Further embodiments can be envisioned to one of ordinary
7. IG 1 isa simplified block diagram of one embodi ment of a networked Internet client server system Oct 4 2012 0024 FIG 2 is a simplified block diagram of one embodi ment of an Internet client machine running components of the system described herein 0025 FIG 3 illustrates steps of the shopping cart valida tion procedure according to one embodiment 0026 FIG 4 illustrates one embodiment of components of a shopping cart validation system 0027 FIG 5 is a screenshot of one example of a shopping cart item DETAILED DESCRIPTION 0028 As explained herein methods systems and appara tus are provided to automate shopping cart validation e g validating items in a shopping cart and all other associated price values for the transaction in a site independent fashion In some aspects the validation is achieved by extracting and accumulating product quantity price elements of a shopping cart and other elements of a purchasing transaction Advan tageously the information can be stored for a historical review of shopping transactions While the web pages might be provided over one or more different types of networks such as the Internet and might be used in many different scenarios many of the examples herein will be explained with reference to a specific use that of a user interacting with web pages from an e commerce web site with user interactions including purchase selection checkout tunnel pages confir matio
8. INED BY USER INTERFACE PRESEN TATION FORMATS naming Fogel et al hereinafter Fogel IP 0007 U S patent application Ser No Attorney Docket No 93180 800066 filed of even date herewith and entitled ANTHROPOMIMETIC ANALYSIS ENGINE FOR ANALYZING ONLINE FORMS TO DETERMINE USER VIEW BASED WEB PAGE SEMANTICS naming Fogel et al hereinafter Fogel 1117 BACKGROUND 0008 The present invention relates to generally the field of electronic commerce and more particularly to methods and apparatus for validating data stored as part of an electronic shopping cart in automated or assisted methods of online purchasing and a system implementing the method 0009 Due to the growth popularity and usefulness of the Internet a great many transactions are now undertaken using the Internet typically in the form of user manual interactions with web pages In a typical operation a user s browser makes a request to a web server the web server returns the requested page wherein the requested page includes form fields buttons images and or other user input elements When the user s browser receives the requested web page typically in the form of data encoded using the HTML pro tocol the browser considers user preferences and device capabilities and renders the requested page presents a view of that page to the user in a browser window and waits for the user to input data into the form fields or otherwise interact with the
9. US 20120253985A1 av United States a Patent Application Publication o Pub No US 2012 0253985 A1 Maron et al 43 Pub Date Oct 4 2012 54 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EXTRACTION AND ACCUMULATION OF SHOPPING DATA 75 Inventors Guillaume Maron Paris FR Damien Rajon Paris FR Jean Guillou Paris FR 73 Assignee Kwift SAS Puteaux FR 21 Appl No 13 113 995 22 Filed May 23 2011 30 Foreign Application Priority Data Nov 8 2010 ER 10 04360 Nov 8 2010 ER 10 04361 Publication Classification 51 Int Cl G06Q 30 06 2012 01 52 US EE EE 705 27 1 57 ABSTRACT A method for shopping cart validation automation compris ing analyzing a webpage to determine if it contains a shop ping cart structure and if the user has expressed desire to initiate a checkout procedure extracting shopping cart and other price elements from pages of a checkout tunnel accu mulating such information for the shopping transaction vali dating the shopping transaction using the accumulated infor mation and allowing the user to confirm or cancel the transaction upon validation Alternatively the method may message the use that the transaction is not reconcilable where the shopping cart could not be validated Also the system can advantageously build a history database storing transactional details including screen shots of pages of the checkout tun nel SOU J Shopping Cart Analysis Engine 536 Sho
10. ble element e g table tab with rows e g with lt tr gt tags and columns e g with the td tags The structure need not confine itself to the above example rather can be any sort of data structure maintaining shopping cart information In one embodiment this analysis is done using a bottom up approach looking first at the cell level then rows and then columns In one embodiment analysis to determine if a page has a shopping cart structure or shopping cart form may use the webpage analyzer system described in Fogel III 0045 In another embodiment in addition to the bottom up approach information contained in a cell row table head ers etc may be further used to determine meaning of ele ments So in one case at the cell level only the text contained in the cell is used to find out which information it contains and at the row level the information found in each cell of the row is used to refine the meaning of the cell For example if two unidentified cells of price type are found and one cell is found to be the quantity cell of the same row then the two unidentified price cells can be resolved as the first represent ing the unit price and the second representing the quantity times the unit price Furthermore table level information may be used to refine the information even further by using the headers of the table columns For example if there s a cell with the text Product description
11. contains the information PRODUCT DESCRIPTION HEADER 0064 In one industrial application the method of the invention can be implemented by programming an internet browser plug in which the consumer has installed on a mul timedia terminal that can connect to the Internet such as a computer or mobile phone In addition the inventive system may use a physical object having electronic storage capabili ties that can incorporating a data storage medium on which the database of personal consumer information and or the database of purchase history are maintained separate from the client device used as might be done when the client device is a shared device shared among multiple consumers desiring to keep their information separate 0065 Aspects of the invention can be implemented in software running on the client computer and possibly else where Aspects of the invention might also be implemented in hardware or implemented by program code on computer readable media that when executed by hardware performs the programmed aspects As one example the program code might be provided over a network in downloadable form that can be executed by a user at a client computer to implement various aspects of the invention 0066 As explained above the user might be a consumer making purchases by interacting with web pages of different websites A downloaded program or programs can include a plug in that takes actions as if it were the user taking act
12. ction Engine 520 may instead be unable to reconcile the transaction In that case it can provide a message indicating that the transaction was irrec oncilable to the user The user may at that point continue manually on the merchant website to proceed in whatever manner chosen by the user 0056 FIG 4 also provides a user interface component 530 User application 530 interacts with purchase history database 550 to provide transaction details to the user In this way a user can keep track of history details across a host of merchant websites from where shopping purchases have been conducted Advantageously the history database is populated with screen shots of the pages analyzed during the shopping cart validation process 0057 One skilled in the art will appreciated that FIG 4 is one implementation of the disclosure described herein How ever these components may execute their logic in a more or less distributed fashion For example the functionality described as being implemented by plug in 510 and shopping cart analysis engine 520 may be executed by a myriad of executables or be executed by one component in its entirety Also database component 550 can reside locally remotely both and maybe distributed across a host of physical servers 0058 Shopping Cart Analysis Example 0059 FIG 5 is an illustration of a shopping cart with a product item with price etc In the below example the bot tom up approach as applied to FIG 5
13. e to review all the shopping cart transaction details accumulated during the steps described above before confirming or can celling the transaction If step 360 was not able to reconcile the transaction 1 e could not figure out the price figures that lead to the total presented for the transaction then in one aspect a message indicating that the transaction was not rec oncilable will be presented to the user In one case the user can then decide to proceed in a manual fashion to either complete or abandon the transaction 0053 FIG 4 illustrates one embodiment of components of a shopping cart validation system 500 It comprises of a browser plug in 510 a shopping car analysis engine 520 a user application 530 and a purchase history database 550 When a user navigates on a webpage ofa website plug in 510 US 2012 0253985 A1 will forward the DOM information to component 520 At that point control will be passed over to component 520 to ana lyze the page for shopping cart and other price elements thereby determining if the page is at the beginning of a check out tunnel and whether the user has initiated the checkout process In one embodiment component 520 will use the web page analyzer system described in Fogel III Component 520 may also write some details per page it analyzes to the history database 550 Alternatively it may keep analysis details per page in a local memory and write to the history database 550 upon the complet
14. eached 3 The method of claim 2 further comprising validating the purchasing transaction by comparing the transaction details record with the confirmation page details 4 The method of claim 3 further comprising presenting a display to the user for either confirming or cancelling the transaction where the purchasing transaction was validated 5 The method of claim 3 further comprising presenting a display to the user indicating irreconcilable purchasing trans action where the validation of the purchase transaction was not possible 6 The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the transaction details record into a database KE EE k
15. ed using a rules based engine working on the Oct 4 2012 DOM structure of a user navigated webpage One example of arules based engine is described in Fogel III The application also describes a rules tool that may be used to provide rules for the engine As one skilled in the art can appreciate the dis closure described herein may use all or parts of the rules based engine described in Fogel III 0049 FIG 3 illustrates steps of the shopping cart valida tion procedure according to one embodiment At step 310 a user navigated webpage is detected At step 320 the page is analyzed for its meaning e g using the forms analysis described in Fogel III and if a cart form type is found then an analysis is triggered Step 330 checks to see if a user has started a checkout process e g by monitoring whether or not a user clicks on a checkout button If no then the flow is re directed to step 310 to wait for the next user navigated webpage If the user has started a checkout procedure step 340 will do the analysis of all shopping cart and any other price elements present on the page to build details of the shopping cart transaction 0050 The above analysis will be done for each page in the checkout tunnel until a confirmation page is reached So at step 350 a check will be performed to see if the user has reached the confirmation page If not then the flow will loop back to step 340 to continue the analysis for shopping cart and price
16. formation as to the product quantity and price of items that the user wants to purchase Other monetary figures may represent other possible costs of a shopping transaction e g shipping price tax recycling fee insurance amount etc This extracted information can then serve to validate the transaction and to be stored for historical transactional detail purposes 0043 In one embodiment the shopping cart analysis engine comprises of three steps In step one the engine deter mines if there is a shopping cart structure present on a user US 2012 0253985 A1 navigated page and that the user has expressed desire to initiate a shopping transaction e g by pressing checkout thereby indicating that the user has entered a checkout tunnel In step two each page of the checkout tunnel is analyzed to study the elements of the shopping cart if any on that page and other monetary or price elements of the page thereby extracting and accumulating all known monetary information pertaining to the purchasing transaction Finally in step three the above information is used to validate a purchase e g validate the total price etc 0044 In one aspect a user navigated page is analyzed to determine if it is a shopping cart page by searching the page for a data structure representing a shopping cart e g a data structure holding information about products unit prices and total price For example the data structure can be an HTML ta
17. ion of analysis of all pages of the checkout tunnel sequence of pages The information stored in the pur chase history database may include screen shots of the vari ous pages of the checkout tunnel 0054 The shopping cart analysis engine 520 may after its analysis update the user navigated webpage e g by pre filling information on the page and by taking a macroscopic action on the page on behalf of the user More details on auto execution of a page can be found in Fogel I and Fogel III This process may repeat until a shopping confirmation page is reached Engine 520 will continue to extract and accumulate information about the shopping pages for a transaction In one embodiment when the page is determined to be a confirma tion page then details of the transaction accumulated during the analysis will be stored to the purchase history database The details may include screen shots of the web pages of the checkout tunnel 0055 In one aspect once engine 520 determines that a confirmation page has been reached it can start the shopping cart validation procedure described in FIG 3 step 360 As one possibility the engine will use all discovered price ele ments and cart items to sum them up to match against the total on the confirmation page If the engine is able to reconcile the transaction totals it can render a confirmation page for the user with item by item details for user review before con firming or cancelling the transa
18. ions as well as storing and or recording information that is pre sented to the user In this manner the system can assist with purchase processes and can do so without requiring advance notice of the structure of the web pages that the vendors use and without requiring a formalized computer to computer interface 0067 The client device is a computer computing device smart phone etc that has the ability to run programs display information to a user and accept user input Typically the display is a screen Typically the client device has some network connection wired or wireless The client device has computing capability such as a processor that executes sets of US 2012 0253985 A1 instructions and storage for the program code comprising the sets of instructions In particular embodiments there is stor age for user data such as a user database which can be structured unstructured textual binary etc that contains user data name credit card numbers addresses purchase history etc often in an encrypted form The client device is able to read and write to such storage referred to herein as the user database although it should be understood that specific database structures are not required In some cases there are multiple databases such as a user details database and a purchase history database but it should be apparent that dif ferent storage structures are possible 0068 In some cases the data and or
19. is detailed below 0060 First perform Cell analysis first browse each cell matching its text with the defined rules e g the top left cell Oct 4 2012 in FIG 5 contains the text Product description so this cell is tagged with the PRODUCT DESCRIPTION HEADER information type and continue this process for each cell of that table providing the following understanding for each cell types data 0061 PRODUCT DESCRIPTION HEADERIPRODUCT PRICE HEADERIQUANTITY HEADERINOTHINGITOTAL PRICE HEADERINOTHING NOTHINGIUNKNOWN PRICEIQUANTITYIUNKNOWN PRICEIUNKNOWN PRICEINOTHING 0062 Then perform Row analysis Use the information found for each cell of the same row and try to refine their meaning In this example use all the unknown prices found and the quantity and try to match them together to find out which one is the total product price unit price times the quantity and which one is the unit price by trying all the possible combinations This would help in determining the two price types leaving unclear the meaning of the cell with the text Arizona Girls Plus Board Short 0063 Finally perform Column table column header analysis Use the information found in the top cell of each column to refine the information of the cells underneath In this example it can be inferred that the Arizona Girls Plus Board Short cell contains information of type PRO DUCT DESCRIPTION because its header cell
20. it can help understand the information found for all cells under such a header cell i e same column as being a product description cell for all rows in the table under the column with that header cell 0046 In one embodiment when dealing with uncommon complex pages there s a parallel system which converts the website s page into more comprehensible structure This is done specifically on each site where an operator points out where each piece of information e g product quantity unit price etc is on the page using for example XPATH paths This information is then stored in a program database which is shipped with each version of the system 0047 In one aspect the meaning of price elements is derived by taking into account their context e g by studying the surrounding text and images perhaps taking into account any associated tooltips alternate text text on the image etc As one example a dollar figure preceded by the word tax within a certain range around the money symbol e g for dollars euro pounds etc may lead to the determination that the figure is a tax applicable to the transaction Some examples of price elements and their associated meaning include total price of a cart delivery price price for warranty or insurance discount prices recycling fees taxes and a general price category that does not match any other price 0048 In one embodiment the meaning for price elements is determin
21. n of purchase details e g totals shipping etc as well as storing such pages and associated transactional informa tion and doing so in an automated manner where appropriate 0029 Those skilled in the art will appreciate that logic used to automate shopping cart validation and purchasing transaction validation have many applications and that improvements inspired by one application have broad utility in diverse applications that employ techniques used to auto mate shopping cart and purchasing price validations 0030 Below example hardware is described that might be used to implement aspects of the present invention followed by a description of software elements Network Client Server Overview 0031 FIG 1 isa simplified functional block diagram of an embodiment of an interaction system 10 in which embodi ments of the shopping data extraction and accumulation sys tem described herein may be implemented Interaction sys tem 10 is shown and described in the context of web based applications configured on client and server apparatus coupled to a network in this example the Internet 40 How ever the system described here is used only as an example of one such system into which embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented The various shopping data extraction and accumulation components described herein can also be implemented in other systems 0032 Interaction system 10 may include one or more cli ents 20 For example a
22. pping CN EE ep Oct 4 2012 Sheet 1 of 5 US 2012 0253985 A1 Patent Application Publication JeAlos eseqejeq e JONIOS 99M SISqOM 999WWO 3 3 L sinbi auer N S MIOMJSN 18YO 10 dsi alo ejigou dojiseq Sale Halt Oz Oct 4 2012 Sheet 2 of 5 US 2012 0253985 A1 Patent Application Publication 002 z sinbi Kejdsig Jasn JezAjeuy sonuewes bed gam UOREDI ddYy JOSMOIGAUSI D Weit euJeju aseqejeq sisAjeuy 087 IEM Jo Nag JezAjeuy UM Patent Application Publication ee AAA ngi Detect Uver Navigsted Web Page Analyzes Semantics of Web Pagg table Oct 4 2012 Sheet 3 of 5 GE art and Price Elameonte Zo build PZA Sen enn Tina e pa Di Ee ma NG gE ten aka K Palidabed Ja Bee wech Paa Naman Be e m ati Goonbiraviancel Purchase A US 2012 0253985 A1 Patent Application Publication Oct 4 2012 Sheet 4 of5 US 2012 0253985 A1 po Skopydny War Analysis Engine SRG paman d 8 paa 3 EE modow E User Applinalian 7 Benazir PC Purchase History Database menn ec K Ae Ba enan net H H H i H H H d e ROB Figure 4 US 2012 0253985 A1 2012 Sheet 5 of 5 4 Oct Patent Application Publication g 8InGI4 sabueyo Ajdde ONIddIHS 3333 66 Pas eubuo 66 LLS ago SNid ZL 8ZIS BISYON 4 JUEJJI JOJO OZOGL BLENY
23. program instructions are stored on physical medium separate from the client device and is provided with security means and means of communi cation with the multimedia device For example the security means might be a biometric reader that authenticates the consumer user for example using fingerprint recognition The interface might be a conventional USB or Bluetooth connection This variant involving a physical medium allows consumers to make their purchases from any multimedia device while securing access to personal data and allowing access and preservation of purchase history independent of the client device used This would be useful where the user is using a shared computer 0069 The present invention is not limited to the preferred embodiment and implementation described and may be Oct 4 2012 modified or adapted to the needs or requirements without departing from the scope of the invention What is claimed is 1 A method for extracting and accumulating shopping data the method comprising receiving a user navigated webpage for a purchasing trans action analyzing the webpage for purchasing elements extracting the value for elements determined to be purchas ing element along with their meaning and storing the extracted information into a transaction details record 2 The method of claim 1 further comprising repeating the receiving analyzing extracting and storing until a purchasing confirmation page is r
24. quantity and price along with any other monetary figures associated with the transaction e g shipping fees taxes insurance purchased etc Such information once extracted from shopping pages and accumulated for a trans action can then be used to validate the transaction on behalf of a user The validation can include accounting consider ations such as matching against the transaction total provided by a merchant website matching the total prices per product item verifying the selected shipping costs taxes incurred etc Once such an accounting record is built for a transaction it can further provide a means for the user to verify transac tional details either before the purchase or subsequently for managing the history of a user s purchasing transactions 0042 Incertain aspects once it is determined that the user has initiated a purchasing transaction e g by pressing the checkout button indicating that the user is entering a checkout tunnel i e the sequence of pages a user walks through in order to complete a purchasing transaction the shopping cart validation procedure is triggered For example all pages of the shopping sequence may be analyzed for a shopping cart structure and for any other monetary elements of the page The analysis can then facilitate extracting any updated shopping cart information and any other monetary figures along with their associated meaning The shopping cart structure may provide in
25. referably downloaded and stored on a processor readable storage medium such as a hard disk but the entire program code or portions thereof may also be stored in any other volatile or non volatile memory medium or device as is well known such as a ROM or RAM or provided on any media capable of storing program code such as a compact disk CD medium a digital versatile disk DVD medium a floppy disk and the like Additionally the entire program code or portions thereof may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source e g from one of the servers over the Internet or transmitted over any other net work connection e g extranet VPN LAN or other conven tional networks using any communication medium and pro tocols e g TCP IP HTTP HTTPS FTP Ethernet or other media and protocols 0040 It should be appreciated that computer code for implementing aspects of the present disclosure can be C C HTML XML Java JavaScript etc code or any other suitable scripting language e g VBScript or any other suitable programming language that can be executed on a client or server or compiled to execute on a client or server Shopping Data Extraction and Accumulation Overview 0041 In various embodiments methods and systems are provided that facilitate online shopping automation In some aspects automation of online shopping can be made easier by gaining an understanding of what is being purchased e g product
26. t can be used at any merchant site 0016 Thus it is desirable to provide solutions that facili tate automation in online purchasing in a site independent fashion that automate validation of items in a shopping cart and other elements associated with the purchase BRIEF SUMMARY 0017 In embodiments of a purchasing management sys tem software hardware or other computerized implementa tion provides functionality that operates in conjunction witha user using a computer telephone or other computing and network connected device to handle shopping transactions A shopping transaction might involve browsing offerings mak ing a series of selections reviewing selections and then per forming check out actions The purchasing management sys tem automates validation of a shopping cart data structure and or online purchasing transaction In some embodiments a software based shopping cart analysis program runs in the background on the user s device and is triggered when there is US 2012 0253985 A1 an indication of a desire to consummate a shopping transac tion such as when the user explicitly indicates a request to complete the transaction or where the program can infer that the user is completing the transaction Once triggered shop ping cart analysis program can analyze a current webpage being viewed by the user but also determine the possible navigation steps to get to a transaction conclusion while obtaining information about
27. uire that the user print web pages and retype all the information about purchases 0013 Onecommon online purchase model is one based on building a shopping cart in which items are virtually placed These items are then validated upon user expression of check out or desire to consummate the purchase Validation requires specification of consumers personal data including shipping address billing address and other characteristics of payment methods Finally the transaction is completed after going through the validation pages and the user s confirmation of the purchase order 0014 Studies have shown that more than half ofthe acts of shopping on the Web are not completed consumers abandon ing the procedure due to the complexity of steps required to finalize the purchase act which involves the supplying of shipping billing etc information and therefore having to go and search fro that information if it is not memorized In addition with each execution ofa purchase act such sensitive personal information is transmitted over the network and may be intercepted and decoded by using for example spyware which stores the user s keystrokes 0015 Solutions have been devised to make it easier for consumers to purchase products online For example U S Pat No 5 960 411 describes storing data on the vendor s server but that is specific to the particular merchant website and users typically would prefer the flexibility of tools tha
28. web page elements 0010 These methods can be used for online transactions shopping browsing reserving etc generally falling into a category often referred to as e commerce For example the user might visit a website i e cause his or her browser to retrieve a webpage that is part of a collection of static or Oct 4 2012 dynamic web pages collectively referred to possibly along with associated data structures a website view products for sale indicate selections provide purchase instructions and details etc by interacting with web page elements 0011 Another approach for e commerce is to provide a computer to computer interface such as an application pro gram interface or API that would allow one computer or computer process to programmatically provide specifications and details of a requested e commerce transaction More typically vendors only provide a web interface with pages designed for human user interaction 0012 When a purchasing process involves multiple web pages and actions it is often not possible to simply extract all of the purchasing information from one page There might be a page for listing the order another page for confirming shipping details and so on To keep track of it all the user can print each page out or perhaps some vendors provide sum mary pages but not all do Even with such pages if a user desires to maintain structured data about purchases it often might req
29. xplorer Netscape Navigator browser Mozilla s firefox browser Opera s browser or a WAP enabled browser executing on a cell phone PDA other wireless device or the like The network interface application can allow a user of web client 20 to access process and view information and documents avail able to it from servers in the system such as web server 50 0038 Web client 20 also typically includes one or more user interface devices such as a keyboard a mouse touch screen pen or the like for interacting with a graphical user interface GUI provided by the browser on a display e g monitor screen LCD display etc in conjunction with pages forms and other information provided by servers Although the system is described in conjunction with the Internet it should be understood that other networks can be used instead of or in addition to the Internet such as an intranet an extranet a virtual private network VPN a non TCP IP based network any LAN or WAN or the like 0039 According to one embodiment web client 20 and all of its components are operator configurable using an appli cation including computer code run using a central process ing unit such as an Intel Pentium processor an AMD Ath Oct 4 2012 lon processor or the like or multiple processors Computer code for operating and configuring client system 20 to com municate process and display data and media content as described herein is p
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