Systems and methods for providing localized functionality in browser based postage transactions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10089797-B1
Application number	US-71303310-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Feb 25, 2010
Priority date	Feb 25, 2010
Publication date	Oct 2, 2018
Grant date	Oct 2, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods which implement localized functionality in a client server system using a technique of caching one or more functional objects for access in response to an appropriate server call are shown. Embodiments provide a browser based postage indicia generation and printing solution in which a browser upon which a postage client is operable is controlled to cache one or more functional objects in the form of script files. Various functional objects may be optimized for caching by clients such as postal rating scripts, postal insurance rating scripts, address verification scripts, etc. Security and/or accuracy verification may be implemented by a server to independently verify the results of the use of functional objects by a client.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
identifying, at a postage generation server computing system, a subset of raw postage rating data, wherein said subset of raw postage rating data is identified as useful to a remote computing system for performing a postage indicium generation function associated with creating at least one postage indicium request;
converting, at said postage generation server computing system, said subset of said raw postage rating data into one or more postage rating script functional objects that are executable by said remote computing system when performing said postage indicium generation function associated with creating said at least one postage indicium request;
sending at least one postage rating script functional object of said one or more postage rating script functional objects to said remote computing system to be cached, wherein said remote computing system is located remote to said postage generation server computing system and communicates with said postage generation server computing system via a network;
receiving, at said postage generation server computing system, a postage indicium request, wherein said postage indicium request was created by the postage indicium generation function of the remote computing system using said cached at least one postage rating script functional object by making a call to said cached at least one postage rating script functional object;
using, by said postage generation server computing system, at least a portion of said postage indicium request to determine that said cached at least one postage rating script functional object produced an erroneous postage indicium request, wherein determining that said cached at least one postage rating script functional object produced the erroneous postage indicium request comprises the postage generation server computing system independently performing a function of the at least one postage rating script functional object to verify results of use of the at least one postage rating script functional object by the postage indicium generation function of the remote computing system; and
based at least on the determination that said at least one postage rating script functional object produced the erroneous postage indicium request, sending an updated at least one postage rating script functional object to said remote computing system to be cached.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
creating a substantially unique resource identifier for each of said one or more postage rating script functional objects, thereby creating one or more substantially unique resource identifiers, wherein when creating said postage indicium request, code is executed by the postage indicium generation function that uses said substantially unique resource identifier to call said cached at least one postage rating script functional object.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said one or more substantially unique resource identifiers each comprise a substantially unique uniform resource locator (URL).

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said updated at least one postage rating script functional object includes updated raw postage rating data for a particular locale, said updated raw postage rating data still being useful for creating at least one postage indicium request.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein using said cached at least one postage rating script functional object in creating the postage indicium request comprises rating a postal item for a postage indicium to be created in association with the postage indicium request.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said raw postage rating data comprises postal insurance information and using said cached at least one postage rating script functional object in creating the postage indicium request comprises postal insurance rating for a postal item associated with the postage indicium request.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said converting said subset of said raw postage rating data into one or more postage rating script functional objects comprises:
parsing said raw postage rating data to provide said one or more postage rating script functional objects in a size optimized for client-server network communication.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said one or more postage rating script functional objects comprise platform independent scripts executable within a browser of a client computing system.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said method is operable on a plurality of postage indicia requests for a batch of items, said method further comprising:
receiving a plurality of additional postage indicium requests after said receiving said postage indicium request, wherein said plurality of additional postage indicium requests were created using said cached updated at least one postage rating script functional object, and wherein said plurality of additional postage indicium requests are part of a same batch; and
based at least on a determination that said cached updated at least one postage rating script functional object produced a first postage indicium request of the plurality of additional postage indicium requests with no error, processing remaining postage indicium requests of said plurality of additional postage indicium requests without determining that said remaining postage indicium requests were produced from said cached updated at least one postage rating script functional object with no error.

10. A postage indicia distribution system comprising:
a client computing system having cache memory associated therewith, said client computing system configured under control of browser software executing platform independent postage indicia generation code for performing a postage indicia generation function, wherein said client computing system is located remote to a postage server computing system and communicates with said postage server computing system via a network; and
a first browser executable postage rating script, which was created for said client computing system by said postage server computing system, stored in said cache memory and identified by a first substantially unique uniform resource locator, wherein execution of said platform independent postage indicia generation code invokes said first browser executable postage rating script from said cache memory to create a postage indicium generation request associated with postage indicium generation using said first substantially unique uniform resource locator, wherein said created postage indicium generation request is sent to said postage server computing system and requests authorization of said postage indicium generation;
wherein said client computing system is configured to receive a request response, wherein said request response is received in response to said postage server computing system determining that said invoked first browser executable postage rating script produced an erroneous postage indicium generation request in which a rate calculation of the postage indicium generation request is determined to be incorrect by the postage server computing system independently performing a function of the first browser executable postage rating script, and wherein said request response comprises a second browser executable postage rating script having updated postage data regarding a postage indicia generation function of the first and second browser executable postage rating scripts contained therein, which is stored in said cache memory.

11. The postage indicia distribution system of claim 10 wherein said second browser executable postage rating script is identified by a second substantially unique uniform resource locator, wherein execution of said platform independent postag

Assignees

• Begen Geoffrey C
• Biswas Michael John
• Stamps Com Inc

Inventors

• Begen Geoffrey C
• Biswas Michael John

Classifications

• G07B17/0008 Primary

  Communication details outside or between apparatus (coin-freed apparatus for franking per se G07F17/26) · CPC title

• G07B2017/00056

  Client-server · CPC title

• G07B2017/00161

  from a central, non-user location, e.g. for updating rates or software, or for refilling funds · CPC title