Application programming interfaces for structuring distributed systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11010739-B2
Application number	US-201715858100-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2017
Priority date	Dec 29, 2017
Publication date	May 18, 2021
Grant date	May 18, 2021

Abstract

A system and environment to enable entities to utilize delivery services provided by a service provider are described herein. In some examples, the service provider exposes the delivery services to a computing device associated with a merchant, buyer, and/or others using one or more Applicant Programming Interfaces (APIs) provided by the service provider. The one or more APIs may enable merchants and/or others to automatically integrate the delivery services into technologies used by the merchants and/or others in order to facilitate updating content of menus.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a service computing device including a service computing device processor and a service computing device communication interface communicatively coupled to the service computing device processor, the service computing device communication interface for communicating over one or more networks with a plurality of third party service devices, and further for communicating over the one or more networks via one or more first Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) with a computing device associated with at least one of a customer or a merchant, the service computing device being configured to:
receive, via the one or more first APIs provided by the service computing device, a request for content update, wherein the content update is configured for delivery to a customer-facing application and is related to one or more menu items offered by the merchant, the request being generated via the one or more first APIs from an application that is executable on the computing device associated with at least one of the customer or the merchant;
determine, via the one or more first APIs, that the content update applies to other customer-facing applications, wherein the other customer-facing applications are interfaced with the application through one or more second APIs;
determine that the content update is to be sent to a targeted customer-facing application of the other customer-facing applications;
on determining that the content update is to be sent to the targeted customer-facing application, generate, for the merchant, a proposal for delivering the content update to the targeted customer-facing application, the proposal including: a nature of the content update indicating urgency with which to apply the content update and an estimated amount of time for delivery of the content update;
cause an interface of the targeted customer-facing application to be updated as per the content update; and
send, using the one or more first APIs and to a display system associated with the merchant, a notification indicating that the targeted customer-facing application has received the content update.

2. The system as claim 1 recites, wherein the service computing device is further configured to:
provide an interface to at least one of the customer or the merchant via a display associated with the computing device; and
cause to present, via the interface, the notification indicating that the targeted customer-facing application has received the content update.

3. The system as claim 1 recites, wherein the service computing device is further configured to:
determine that the content update was sent to at least one additional customer-facing applications of the other customer-facing applications in addition to the targeted customer-facing application; and
rescind, via the one or more second APIs and by the service computing device, the content update from the at least one additional customer-facing application.

4. The system as claim 1 recites, wherein the content update comprises a first content update, and wherein the service computing device is further configured to:
receive, via the one or more first APIs and via a consensus application executing on the service computing device, a plurality of requests for additional content updates including the request for the first content update, and wherein the consensus application selects the content update from the additional content updates based on the customer preferences.

5. The system as claim 1 recites, wherein determining that the content update is to be sent to a targeted customer-facing application is based at least in part on an inventory database.

6. The system as claim 1 recites, wherein the display system comprises a kitchen display system.

7. The system as claim 1 recites, wherein the targeted customer-facing application communicates with the merchant via the one or more second APIs.

8. A method comprising:
receiving, by the service computing device and via one or more first Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) provided by the service computing device, a request for content update, wherein the content update is configured for delivery to a customer-facing application and is related to one or more menu items offered by a merchant, the request being generated via the one or more first APIs from an application that is executable on a computing device associated with at least one of a customer or the merchant;
determining, by the service computing device and via the one or more first APIs, that the content update applies to other customer-facing applications, wherein the other customer-facing applications are interfaced with the application through one or more second APIs;
determining, by the service computing device, that the content update is to be sent to a targeted customer-facing application of the other customer-facing applications;
on determining, by the service computing device, that the content update is to be sent to the targeted customer-facing application, generating, by the service computing device and for the merchant, a proposal for delivering the content update to the targeted customer-facing application, the proposal including: a nature of the content update indicating urgency with which to apply the content update and an estimated amount of time for delivery of the content update;
causing, by the service computing device, an interface of the targeted customer-facing application to be updated as per the content update; and
sending, by the service computing device and using the one or more first APIs and to a display system associated with the merchant, a notification indicating that the targeted customer-facing application has received the content update.

9. The method as claim 8 recites, further comprising:
providing, by the service computing device, an interface to at least one of the customer or the merchant via a display associated with the computing device; and
causing to present, by the service computing device and via the interface, the notification indicating that the targeted customer-facing application has received the content update.

10. The method as claim 8 recites, further comprising:
determining, by the service computing device, that the content update was sent to at least one additional customer-facing application of the other customer-facing applications in addition to the targeted customer-facing application; and
rescinding, by the service computing device and via the one or more second APIs, the content update from the at least one additional customer-facing application.

11. The method as claim 8 recites, wherein the content update comprises a first content update, and the method further comprising:
receiving, via the one or more first APIs and via a consensus application executing on the service computing device, a plurality of requests for additional content updates including the request for the first content update, and wherein the consensus application selects the content update from the additional content updates based on the customer preferences.

12. The method as claim 8 recites, wherein determining that the content update is to be sent to a targeted customer-facing application is based at least in part on an inventory database.

13. The method as claim 8 recites, wherein the display system comprises a kitchen display system.

14. The method as claim 8 recites, wherein the targeted customer-facing application communicates with the merchant via the one or more second APIs.

15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing executable instructions that, whe

Assignees

• Square Inc

Inventors

• Bell Bruce
• Yien Kevin
• Westman Karl

Classifications

• G06Q50/12

  Hotels or restaurants · CPC title

• G06Q20/20 Primary

  Point-of-sale [POS] network systems · CPC title

• G06Q20/14

  specially adapted for billing systems · CPC title

• G06Q20/12

  specially adapted for electronic shopping systems · CPC title

• G06F9/541

  via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications · CPC title