|Publication number||US8185479 B2|
|Application number||US 12/832,805|
|Publication date||22 May 2012|
|Filing date||8 Jul 2010|
|Priority date||7 Dec 2007|
|Also published as||US20100268659|
|Publication number||12832805, 832805, US 8185479 B2, US 8185479B2, US-B2-8185479, US8185479 B2, US8185479B2|
|Inventors||Rafael Zimberoff, Alexander Uslontsev, Stanislav Tugushev|
|Original Assignee||Z-Firm, LLC|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (47), Non-Patent Citations (6), Referenced by (7), Classifications (10), Legal Events (2)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
The present disclosure relates to methods, systems, and techniques for smart packing lists and, in particular, to methods and systems for preparing shipments based on information stored in a machine-readable data block, such as a bar code, in a packing list.
A number of approaches exist for performing operations related to shipment preparation, such as printing shipping labels using a computer. In one approach, a shipping label is prepared and printed using a stand-alone application executing on a shipper's computing system. Such client-side applications may include document preparation applications, such as word processors or special-purpose shipping label applications. Using a word processor to prepare shipping labels may be an error prone process, as relevant information (e.g., each destination shipping address) may need to be entered manually. In addition, the word processor may not be configured or otherwise capable of preparing bar codes or other machine-readable indicia required or preferred by some carrier services.
Special-purpose shipping label applications also suffer from a number of drawbacks. In particular, they are typically limited in their ability to communicate over a network to obtain information relevant to a shipping label (e.g., a recipient address), or to inform other computing systems about a shipping label that has been printed (e.g., for tracking purposes). Furthermore, even if a stand-alone shipping label application has network capabilities, information is exchanged in a potentially non-uniform manner between shipping label applications and remote computing systems. In such cases, the developers of shipping label applications may need to implement multiple diverse mechanisms for communicating with different remote computing systems, such as those provided by different shipping carriers for tracking shipments. Further, some remote computing systems may be unable or unwilling to grant or support access by a special-purpose shipping label application (e.g., based on security concerns, technical considerations, etc.), resulting in reduced functionality for the special-purpose shipping label application.
In other approaches, Web-based shipping label applications have been used. Such applications allow a user to utilize a Web browser to prepare and print shipping labels. Web-based shipping label applications may not be able to readily or conveniently access information stored in locations other than those that are accessible to the Web server that provides the shipping label application (e.g., the client machine, computing systems operated by third-parties, etc.). For example, because the shipping label application is a server side application, it may not be able to interact with software (e.g., database systems, address books, etc.) and/or hardware (e.g., printers, disks, etc.) resident on the client machine or on Internet-connected systems. Such restrictions may result in reduced functionality for the shipping label application, such as poor integration, low quality shipping label output, etc.
Furthermore, many shipping label applications and other shipping systems are tightly coupled to one or more other systems. For example, some shipping label applications are tightly coupled to a particular carrier, such that they can generate labels and perform other operations that are tailored for that particular carrier, but not for other carriers. In other cases, a shipping system may be tightly coupled to a particular e-commerce platform, such that the shipping system can be used to process orders received via that particular e-commerce platform, but not other sources.
Embodiments described herein provide enhanced computer- and network-based methods, techniques, and systems for preparing item shipments, such as by producing shipping labels. Example embodiments provide a Shipment Management System (“SMS”), which may interact with one or more Shipment Preparation Systems (“SPS”), in order to enable users to efficiently prepare item shipments by producing shipping labels, producing pick lists, recording and/or transmitting information about shipments, or the like. An item shipment (i.e., a shipment) includes one or more activities related to the transport of an item from one location to another. Such activities may include obtaining and/or providing information about a shipment (e.g., a destination shipping address, a parcel weight and/or size, a tracking number, etc.), outputting a shipping label for the shipment (e.g., an address label, postage indicia, etc.), delivery and/or receipt of the shipment, etc. Items may include any objects that may be transported by a shipping carrier network (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service, Federal Express, a shipping agency, etc.), such as goods (e.g., items purchased by customers), packages, communications (e.g., letters, documents, magazines, flyers, etc.), etc. Preparing an item shipment includes any item shipment tasks or activities that are performed prior to the dispatch of the shipment, for example prior to tendering the shipment to a carrier. For example, preparing an item shipment may include preparing a packing list, preparing a pick list, producing a shipping label, selecting shipment items, packaging items, affixing one or more labels to a package, and the like.
In some embodiments, a packing list having a machine-readable data block, such as a bar code (or “barcode”) is used to facilitate preparation of item shipments (i.e., shipment preparation). A packing list may be any document (e.g., electronic, hard copy, etc.), packing material (e.g., box, mailer, envelop, wrapper), or other object that in some way identifies and/or describes a particular item shipment, such as by including or otherwise identifying source and destination address details, items for the shipment, shipment preferences, or the like. In some embodiments, the machine-readable data block in the packing list contains shipment preparation information that is configured to cause an SPS to perform various actions related to shipment preparation, such as label printing. In one embodiment, the machine-readable data block includes one or more uniform resource identifiers (“URIs”) that are used by the SPS to communicate with one or more remote code modules, such as the SMS, to obtain information for the preparation of a shipment (e.g., a destination shipping address to use for a label, items in the shipment) and/or to transmit information about the shipment (e.g., a parcel weight, a tracking number). Note that the packing list need not identify itself with any particular name or title (e.g., “Packing List”). Nor does the packing list need to contain any human-readable information. In some cases, the packing list may include only the machine-readable data block.
The example SMS 102 includes a packing list generation engine 105, an address management engine 106, and a shipment information data engine/repository 107. The components of the SMS 102 provide various functions and/or services related to the management of shipments, such as supporting (e.g., facilitating) the preparation of shipments by generating and providing packing lists that include bar codes or other machine-readable data blocks that include shipment preparation information that can be used to produce shipping labels or perform other tasks associated with the preparation of shipments. In one embodiment, the packing list generation engine 105, manages the generation and provisioning (e.g., transmitting, forwarding, sending, etc.) of packing lists that may be used to initiate, cause, invoke, or otherwise perform shipments. The address management engine 106 provides destination shipping addresses and/or other information regarding shipments in response to requests received from the SPS 104 and/or other systems/components. The shipment information data engine 107 records (e.g., stores, tracks, etc.) information about shipments, such as when a label was printed, when a shipment was sent, tracking number(s), and/or other details related to a particular shipment. The shipment information data engine 107 may provide additional services related to shipments, such as providing tracking capabilities to third parties (e.g., item recipients).
Note that although the packing list generation engine 105, the address management engine 106, and the shipment information data engine 107 are illustrated as part of the shipment management system 102, no restrictions are placed on the location and/or control of components 105-107. In particular, in one embodiment, the shipment management system 102 may be deployed as part of a single Web server having software modules (e.g., CGI modules, servlets, server-side code modules, plug-ins, etc.) corresponding to each of components 105-107. In another embodiment, components 105-107 may be operated under the control of different entities and/or on different computing systems. For example, the packing list generation engine 105 may be part of a first Web site that provides an order management facility, the address management engine 106 may be an electronic address book situated on the client computing system 101, and the shipment information data engine 107 may be part of a second Web site that provides an interface to one or more shipping carrier services (e.g., United Parcel Service, U.S. Postal Service, etc.). In some embodiments, all or some of the SMS 102 is operated by a shipping carrier, whilst the SPS is operated by an entity (e.g., a merchant) that is not the shipping carrier and that utilizes the shipping carrier to transport shipments to their destinations. In some embodiments, all or some of the SMS 102 are operated by some third party, such as an ecommerce platform (e.g., eBay, Amazon.com, Volusion), or the SMS 102 is an ecommerce system operated by or on behalf of the user 110. In addition, different and/or additional components may be provided as part of an SMS 102.
In the illustrated example, a user 110 operates the client computing system 101 to prepare one or more shipments. In particular, the user 110 receives a packing list 115 that has been generated by the packing list generation engine 105. Receiving the packing list may include receiving a printed (e.g., hard copy) version of the packing list and/or receiving an electronic version (e.g., a PDF file, Word document, etc.) of the packing list. The packing list includes a machine readable-data block, such as a bar code, that contains/includes shipment preparation information including a URI (or other identifier) that identifies a code module or other network resource (e.g., a file) that is remote and separate from the client computing system 101 (and the SPS 104). The user operates the scanner 103 to obtain the shipment preparation information (including the URI) by reading the bar code in the packing list 115. When the packing list 115 has been obtained in electronic form, the user 110 may in some embodiments simply point the scanner 103 at a display or device (e.g., tablet computer, smart phone, etc.) that is used to present or otherwise display the packing list 115. The URI is then obtained from the received shipment preparation information by the SPS 104.
Upon receiving the URI, the SPS 104 uses the URI to access the address management engine 106 and obtain a destination shipping address associated with the URI. Then, the SPS 104 generates a shipping label 116 that includes the destination shipping address and prints the shipping label 116 via the printer 111. The SPS also uses the URI (or another URI that is included in or identified by the shipment preparation information) to post information about the preparation of the order to the shipment information data engine 107. For example, upon printing or otherwise outputting the shipping label, the SPS 104 posts information about the printed label to the shipment information data engine/repository 107. Posting information to the shipment information data engine/repository 107 may include providing, sending, transmitting, forwarding information using any protocol or other communication mechanism, such as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SMTP, SOAP, etc. The posted information may include, for example, the fact that the label has been printed along with other details related to the shipment, such as package weight, tracking numbers(s), estimated transit time, temperature or other environmental measurements at time of shipment, etc. Other users (e.g., shipment recipients) of the shipment management system 102 or via other permitted systems may then access information about the status of the shipment.
In addition, the bar code of the packing list 125 further identifies a URI (e.g., a post-back URI) or other identifier that can be used to transmit information about the preparation of the shipment, as discussed with respect to
More specifically, in block 201 a packing list for an order is received, the packing list including a machine-readable data block that identifies a remote code module. An example packing list is described with reference to
In block 202, the SPS reads the machine-readable data block from the packing list. Reading the machine-readable data block may include scanning a bar code (e.g., with an optical scanner), interrogating an RFID tag (e.g., with an RFID interrogator), or the like. Data contained in the machine-readable data block is then transmitted to and received by the SPS, where it is utilized to facilitate preparation of the shipment, as described next.
In block 203, the SPS communicates with a remote code module (e.g., the remote code module identified by the machine-readable data block) to obtain information for the preparation of the shipment of the order. The obtained information may include an indication of at least one of: a destination shipping address; an order number; information about one or more items in the order, including at least one of a quantity, a part number, a stock-keeping unit, a color, a size, a weight, and/or a price; a preferred shipping method; a package type; a package size; and/or a shipping carrier. As will be described further below, in some embodiments the SPS may obtain the information without reference to a remote code module, such as when the machine-readable data block includes all of the necessary shipment information.
In block 204, the SPS initiates the shipment based on the obtained information, such as by initiating output of a shipping label. An example shipping label is described with reference to
In some embodiments, generating the shipping label may include determining a destination shipping address, such as by direct reference to information contained within the machine-readable data block (e.g., when the machine-readable data block encodes the address). In other embodiments, the destination shipping address may be determined by interacting with an identified code module (e.g., the address management engine 106 of
In other embodiments, initiating the shipment may include other activities. For example, preparing the shipment may include causing a person to prepare a package by generating and transmitting a pick list or other instructions to the person that specify one or more items of the order to be retrieved or otherwise selected for packaging. In other embodiments, preparing the shipment may include providing an indication of packaging materials to be used.
In block 205, the SPS communicates with a remote code module to transmit information about the preparation of the shipment of the order. The remote code module may be a shipment information data engine 107 provided by a remote Web server, as described with reference to
In some embodiments, communicating with the remote code module may include determining or otherwise identifying the code module, such as by direct reference to the shipment information data engine (e.g., when the machine-readable data block encodes the address). In other embodiments, the remote code module may be determined by interacting with a code module, file, or data that is configured to provide the location/identification of the code module (e.g., the shipment information data engine 107 of
After block 205, the process ends, or optionally returns to block 201, such as when the SPS is operating in a batch mode where it processes multiple packing lists, or multiple machine-readable data blocks contained within one packing list.
In the illustrated example, the order management application 301 displays a table 302 of recent orders that have been placed by various customers. The table is organized into rows 304 a-304 f that each represent one order. Each row includes fields 303 a-303 e that each contain information about one aspect of the associated order. In particular, each order includes an order number 303 a, an order status 303 b, a recipient 303 c, and one or more actions 303 d. The actions listed in field 303 d may be presented as user-selectable controls (e.g., links, buttons, etc.), such that a user may invoke associated functionality to perform the action. Field 303 e indicates that in other embodiments, orders may have a greater or lesser number of associated fields.
For example, fields (columns) 303 a-303 d of order (row) 304 a indicate that the illustrated order has an order number of 00298, that the order has been purchased and is to be shipped to Mr. Buyer, and that the order may be shipped by selecting (e.g., clicking on) a link 305 named “ship” in field 303 d. In the illustrated example, the user selects the link 305, and in response, the Web browser 300 presents a packing list, as described with respect to
The post-back URI 317 is used by the SPS to provide information about the shipment preparation to a code module, such as the shipment information data engine 107 (
In some embodiments, post-back information may include indications (such as string parameters) of one or more data items that are to be provided by the SPS to the shipment information data engine. In the illustrated example of
Other variations besides those illustrated in
The SPS 330 includes user-selectable controls (e.g., text fields, drop down menus, checkboxes, etc.) for specifying various information related to a particular shipment, such as sender information 331, recipient information 332, and package information 333. The SPS 330 may automatically populate at least some of the controls based on shipment preparation information received from a bar code or other machine-readable data block. In one example embodiment, based on a shipment information URI (e.g., URI 316) received by the SPS 330 as part of shipment preparation information (e.g., shipment preparation information 315), the SPS 330 requests a destination shipping address from an address management engine. Upon receiving the destination shipping address, the SPS 330 then populates (e.g., fills in) one or more of the fields of the recipient information 332. The SPS 330 may also automatically populate other fields, such as those in the sender information 331, such as based on previously recorded user preferences and/or settings. In the illustrated embodiment, the user of the SPS 330 may provide additional information about the shipment, such as parcel information 333 (e.g., shipping weight, value, etc.). In other embodiments, the SPS 330 has no user interface at all, and runs automatically in response to the receipt of the shipment information.
The SPS 330 also includes a ship control 334 that may be selected by a user to initiate the output of a shipping label corresponding to the specified shipment. In some embodiments, the output of the shipping label may be delayed until a later time, such as the end of a workday, so that multiple shipping labels may be output in a batch manner. After the user prints the label using the ship control 334, the SPS 330 may transmit information about the label or the shipment (e.g., package weight, tracking number(s), environmental aspects of the shipping area, an indication that the shipment is ready for pickup) to a remote code module based on shipment preparation information received from a machine-readable data block in a packing list.
In the illustrated embodiment, the order management application 301 has been displayed in an updated state, for example, in response to a user request (e.g., a page reload) to a Web server that provides the order management application 301. However, in other embodiments, the Web server may automatically update or refresh the order management application 301, for example in response to a posting of information about the shipment received from the SPS.
In other embodiments, a flow that is different from the one described with respect to
Although certain terms are used primarily herein, other terms could be used interchangeably to yield equivalent embodiments and examples. For example, it is well-known that equivalent terms in the shipping field and in other similar fields could be substituted for many of the terms used here. Specifically, the term “shipping label” can be used interchangeably with “ship label,” “address label,” “mailing label,” etc. Likewise, the term “label” can be used interchangeably with “indicia,” “marker,” “tag,” etc. Furthermore, the term “Uniform Resource Identifier” can be used interchangeably with “Uniform Resource Locator.” In addition, terms may have alternate spellings which may or may not be explicitly mentioned, and all such variations of terms are intended to be included.
Example embodiments described herein provide applications, tools, data structures and other support to implement a shipment preparation system to be used for producing shipping labels and/or performing other shipment preparation activities. Other embodiments of the described techniques may be used for other purposes. For example, many applications could incorporate the technique of using a URI to cause a Web browser or other code module to initiate an action (e.g., loading of a file, output of a graphic, transmission of a data item, etc.) and perform a corresponding post back of information about performance of the action. Some example applications and/or uses include link tracking, report generation, address book management, contact management, etc. In general, these techniques are applicable to any application that could benefit from performing a designated action followed by a post back of information about the performed action.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth, such as data formats and code sequences, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the described techniques. The embodiments described also can be practiced without some of the specific details described herein, or with other specific details, such as changes with respect to the ordering of the code flow, different code flows, etc. Thus, the scope of the techniques and/or functions described are not limited by the particular order, selection, or decomposition of steps/blocks described with reference to any particular routine.
The computing system 400 may comprise one or more server and/or client computing systems and may span distributed locations. In addition, each block shown may represent one or more such blocks as appropriate to a specific embodiment or may be combined with other blocks. Moreover, the various blocks of the SPS 410 may physically reside on one or more machines, which use standard (e.g., TCP/IP) or proprietary interprocess communication mechanisms to communicate with each other.
In the embodiment shown, computer system 400 comprises a computer memory (“memory”) 401, a display 402, one or more Central Processing Units (“CPU”) 403, Input/Output devices 404 (e.g., bar code scanner, RFID interrogator, keyboard, mouse, CRT or LCD display, etc.), other computer-readable media 405, and network connections 406. The SPS 410 is shown residing in memory 401. In other embodiments, some portion of the contents, some of, or all of the components of the SPS 410 may be stored on or transmitted over the other computer-readable media 405. The components of the SPS 410 preferably execute on one or more CPUs 403 and manage the production of shipping labels, as described herein. Other code or programs 430 (e.g., a Web browser) and potentially other data repositories, such as data repository 420, also reside in the memory 410, and preferably execute on one or more CPUs 403. Of note, one or more of the components in
In a typical embodiment, the SPS 410 includes a label generation engine 411, a user interface engine 412, a shipping preparation system application program interface (“SPS API”) 413, and a shipping label production data repository 415. Other and/or different modules may be implemented. In addition, the SPS 410 may interact via a network 450 with a shipment management system 455, commerce computing systems 465 (e.g., online marketplaces, shipping carrier systems, etc.), and an accessible scanner 460. The scanner 460 may communicate via the network (e.g., wired or wireless) or it may communicate directly to the client computing system (e.g., wired or wireless). In other embodiments, the scanner may instead by another type of input device (e.g., RFID interrogator) or module (e.g., software data integrator/consumer) operable to read or otherwise consume shipment preparation information from a machine-readable data block. Also, the data repository 415 may be provided external to the SPS 410 as well, for example via a Web server or other access provider (not shown) executing on one of the other computing systems 460, accessible over the network 450. As noted, in other embodiments, the SPS 410 may be a Web-based application, in which the user interface is displayed in a Web browser (or similar rendering component), while the components of the SPS 410 are hosted on one or more computers at local or remote locations. In such an embodiment, a user may scan or otherwise read a machine-readable data block into a client computing system that then transmits the shipment preparation information to be processed by one or more a server-side shipment preparation components (e.g., a label generation component). In other embodiments, the label generation engine 411 may execute on the client computing system, or on one or more servers. The label generation engine may be an application that has a user interface or it may be accessible via a non visual API made available via HTTP or some other protocol.
The label generation engine 411 manages the generation of shipping labels. Generating shipping labels may include obtaining information about a particular shipment (e.g., a destination shipping address), and creating and/or managing data structures or other information used to facilitate, track, or otherwise represent the shipment. Generating shipping labels may also include determining and/or generating a representation of a shipping label (e.g., a bit map, a printer definition language file, an image file, etc.) and providing such a representation to some output device (e.g., a printer, a network interface, etc.). The label generation engine 411 may further provide information about generated shipping labels to other modules, such as the shipment management system 455.
The user interface engine 412 provides a view and a controller that facilitates user interaction with the SPS 410. The user interface engine 412 may, for example, provide an interactive graphical user interface such as the one described with reference to
The SPS API 413 provides programmatic access to one or more functions of the SPS 410. For example, the SPS API 413 may provide an interface that provides one or more functions that may be called by one of the other programs 430 in order to produce a shipping label in an automated or semi-automated manner.
In addition, the API 413 may be in at least some embodiments invoked or otherwise accessed via remote entities, such as the shipment management system 455, the commerce computing system 465, and/or the scanner 460, to access various functions of the SPS 410. For example, the scanner 460 may transmit shipment preparation information to the SPS 410 via the API 413. In addition, the shipment management system 455 may transmit a packing list to the SPS 410 via the API 413. In general, the API 413 may enable local or remote computers and/or modules to interact with the SPS 410 using SOAP, HTTP, REST, or some other protocol.
The data repository 415 records information about shipments made via the SPS 410, as well as information related to the operation of the SPS 410 generally. Such information may include shipping records, user preferences, application settings (e.g., shipper return address, default carrier, etc.), account information (e.g., shipper accounts with one or more carriers), etc.
The SPS 410 may include other components that facilitate the preparation of a shipment. For example, the SPS 410 may include a component that generates and prints pick lists that include a list of items that are to be selected by a person and placed in a particular package. Also, the SPS 410 may include fewer components than those illustrated. For example, the SPS 410 may be a background task, daemon, driver, service, or other “hidden” system component that responds to shipment preparation information received from the scanner by automatically performing various shipment preparation activities, such as obtaining, generating, and/or printing a shipping label; obtaining, generating, and/or printing a pick list; communicating to obtain information for preparation of a shipment; communicating to transmit information about preparation of a shipment; and the like. In such an embodiment, the SPS 410 may not include all or some of one or more of the illustrated components, such as the user interface engine 412 (e.g., when any user interface capabilities are presented via a Web browser), the label generation engine (e.g., when the label is generated by a remote server), etc.
The embodiments described above may also use well-known or proprietary synchronous or asynchronous client-sever computing techniques. However, the various components may be implemented using more monolithic programming techniques as well, for example, as an executable running on a single CPU computer system, or alternately decomposed using a variety of structuring techniques known in the art, including but not limited to, multiprogramming, multithreading, client-server, or peer-to-peer, running on one or more computer systems each having one or more CPUs. Some embodiments are illustrated as executing concurrently and asynchronously and communicating using message passing techniques. Equivalent synchronous embodiments are also supported by an SPS implementation. Also, other steps/blocks could be implemented for each routine, and in different orders, and in different routines, yet still achieve the functions of the SPS.
In addition, programming interfaces to the data stored as part of the SPS 410 (e.g., in the data repository 415) can be available by standard means such as through C, C++, C#, and Java APIs; libraries for accessing files, databases, or other data repositories; through scripting languages such as XML; or through Web servers, FTP servers, or other types of servers providing access to stored data. The data repository 415 may be implemented as one or more database systems, file systems, or any other method known in the art for storing such information, or any combination of the above, including implementation using distributed computing techniques.
Also the example SPS 410 may be implemented in a distributed environment comprising multiple, even heterogeneous, computer systems and networks. For example, in one embodiment, the label generation engine 411, the user interface engine 412, the API 413, and the data repository 415 are all located in physically different computer systems. In another embodiment, various modules of the SPS 410 are hosted each on a separate server machine and may be remotely located from the tables which are stored in the SPS data repository 415. Also, one or more of the modules may themselves be distributed, pooled or otherwise grouped, such as for load balancing, reliability or security reasons. Different configurations and locations of programs and data are contemplated for use with techniques of described herein. A variety of distributed computing techniques are appropriate for implementing the components of the illustrated embodiments in a distributed manner including but not limited to TCP/IP sockets, RPC, RMI, HTTP, Web Services (XML-RPC, JAX-RPC, SOAP, etc.). Other variations are possible. Also, other functionality could be provided by each component/module, or existing functionality could be distributed amongst the components/modules in different ways, yet still achieve the functions of an SPS.
Furthermore, in some embodiments, some or all of the components of the SPS may be implemented or provided in other manners, such as at least partially in firmware and/or hardware, including, but not limited to one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), standard integrated circuits, controllers (e.g., by executing appropriate instructions, and including microcontrollers and/or embedded controllers), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), etc. Some or all of the system components and/or data structures may also be stored (e.g., as software instructions or structured data) on a computer-readable medium, such as a hard disk, a memory, a network, or a portable media article to be read by an appropriate drive or via an appropriate connection. The system components and data structures may also be transmitted via generated data signals (e.g., as part of a carrier wave or other analog or digital propagated signal) on a variety of computer-readable transmission mediums, such as media 405, including wireless-based and wired/cable-based mediums, and may take a variety of forms (e.g., as part of a single or multiplexed analog signal, or as multiple discrete digital packets or frames). Such computer program products may also take other forms in other embodiments. Accordingly, embodiments of this disclosure may be practiced with other computer system configurations.
More specifically, at block 501, the routine receives shipment preparation information from a bar code. In one embodiment, the routine may receive the shipment preparation information by reading a bar code in a packing list with a bar code scanner or other input device. In other embodiments, the routine may receive shipment preparation information from other types of machine-readable data blocks, including RFID tags or the like, by using a suitable input device.
In block 502, the routine determines whether a shipment information URI is identified by the received shipment preparation information, and if not proceeds to block 503, else proceeds to block 504. The shipment information URI may be identified in various ways, including by being embedded or contained in the shipment preparation information (e.g., stored in a bar code) received in block 501, or more indirectly, such as via an identifier of a local file that includes the shipment information URI, via a URI that identifies a code module that provides the shipment information URI, or the like. Thus, block 502 may also include determining or obtaining the shipment information URI, as well as possibly one or more other URIs, such as a post-back URI (see block 506, below).
In block 503, the routine obtains a destination shipping address from the shipment preparation information. For example, the destination shipping address may be embedded directly in the shipment preparation information received in block 501, as illustrated in
In block 504, the routine communicates with a code module identified by the shipment information URI to obtain a destination shipping address. The code module may be, for example, an address management engine, as described with reference to
Note that the operations described with respect to blocks 503 and 504 need not be exclusive of one another. For example, in some embodiments, the routine may obtain some shipment information (e.g., indications of one or more order items) directly from the shipment preparation information contained in a machine-readable data block and other shipment information (e.g., a destination address) from a code module identified by a URI. In other embodiments, the routine may obtain all shipment information directly from the shipment preparation information, and then confirm or verify that information by reference to a code module identified by a URI.
In block 505, the routine initiates output of a shipping label that includes the destination shipping address. Outputting the shipping label may include generating a digital representation of the shipping label (e.g., a bit map, an image file, etc.), printing the shipping label, sending or transmitting the shipping label (e.g., via email), recording the shipping label (e.g., in a data repository), etc.
In block 506, the routine determines whether a post-back URI is identified by the received shipment preparation information, and if not ends, else proceeds to block 507. The post-back URI may be identified in various ways, including by being embedded or contained in the shipment preparation information received in block 501, or more indirectly, as discussed with reference to block 502, above.
In block 507, the routine posts information about the produced shipping label to a code module identified by the post-back URI. As discussed above, post-back URI may identify a code module, such as the shipment information data engine 107 described with reference to
In addition, the shipment preparation information and/or the post-back URI may include or otherwise specify one or more fields, parameters, or other identifiers of data items that are to be reported to the code module, such as aspects of the shipment preparation process and/or the produced shipping label (e.g., a tracking number, a date, a shipping cost, etc.).
Furthermore, code modules may be identified in other ways. For example, the shipment preparation information may not include a URI or other identifier of a code module. Instead, the identity of a shipment information and/or post-back code module may be determined in other ways, such as implicitly, based on the identity of a server that provided some other portion of the shipment preparation information, such as the shipment information URI. In other embodiments, the identity of a shipment information and/or post-back code module may be recorded as a setting or preference of the SPS itself. Such a setting may be used as a default (e.g., when the shipment information does not identify a shipment information data engine) or an override (e.g., a shipment information data engine to use regardless of any shipment information data engine identified by the shipment preparation information).
The computing system 600 may comprise one or more server and/or client computing systems and may span distributed locations. In addition, each block shown may represent one or more such blocks as appropriate to a specific embodiment or may be combined with other blocks. Moreover, the various blocks of the SMS 610 may physically reside on one or more machines, which use standard (e.g., TCP/IP) or proprietary interprocess communication mechanisms to communicate with each other.
In the embodiment shown, computer system 600 comprises a computer memory (“memory”) 601, a display 602, one or more Central Processing Units (“CPU”) 603, Input/Output devices 604 (e.g., keyboard, mouse, CRT or LCD display, etc.), other computer-readable media 605, and network connections 606. The SMS 610 is shown residing in memory 601. In other embodiments, some portion of the contents, some of, or all of the components of the SMS 610 may be stored on or transmitted over the other computer-readable media 605. The components of the SMS 610 preferably execute on one or more CPUs 603 and manage the production of shipping labels, as described herein. Other code or programs 630 and potentially other data repositories, such as data repository 620, also reside in the memory 610, and preferably execute on one or more CPUs 603. Of note, one or more of the components in
In a typical embodiment, the SMS 610 includes a packing list generation engine 611, an address management engine 612, a shipment information data engine 613, a shipment management system application program interface (“SMS API”) 614, and a shipment management system data repository 615. Other and/or different modules may be implemented. In addition, the SMS 610 may interact via a network 650 with a client computing system 655, commerce computing systems 665, and other computing systems 660. The client computing system 655 may, for example, execute an SPS as described with reference to
The packing list generation engine 611, the address management engine 612, and the shipment information data engine 613 respectively correspond to the packing list generation engine 105, the address management engine 106, and the shipment information data engine 107, described with respect to
The SMS API 614 provides programmatic access to one or more functions of the SMS 610. For example, the SMS API 614 may provide an interface that provides one or more functions that may be called by one of the other programs 630 (e.g., a Web server) in order to initiate generation and/or transmission of a packing list. In this manner, the API 614 facilitates the development of third-party software, such as user interfaces, plug-ins, adapters (e.g., for integrating functions of the SMS 610 into Web applications), and the like. For example, the API 614 may facilitate the configuration of the SMS 610 as a Web-based shipment management system, in which a user interface is displayed in a Web browser (or similar rendering component), while other components of the SMS are hosted on one or more computers at a local or remote location.
In addition, the API 614 may be in at least some embodiments invoked or otherwise accessed via remote entities, such as the client computing system 655 and/or the commerce computing system 665, to access various functions of the SMS 610. For example, the client computing system 655 executing a SPS may obtain from and/or provide to the SMS 610 information about a shipment via the API 614. In addition, the commerce computing system 665 may provide order information to the SMS 610 via the API 614.
As discussed with reference to the SPS of
More specifically, at block 701, the routine receives a request or information related to a shipment. The request or information may be received from, for example, a Web browser or an SPS. The shipment may be identified in various ways, such as by an order identifier, a recipient identifier, an item identifier, etc. In some embodiments, the routine may execute one or more access control techniques at this point, such as checking whether the received request or information was accompanied by one or more tokens (e.g., cookie, password, passkey, username, etc.) configured to enable access to the functionality provided by the routine.
In block 702, the routine determines whether a request for a shipping URI was received, and if so, proceeds to block 703, else proceeds to block 704. In block 703, the routine generates and provides packing list for a shipment that corresponds to the request. Generating the packing list may include dynamically generating a packing list that includes shipment preparation information in a bar code or other machine-readable data block, the shipment preparation information based on various factors, such as the identity of the party making the request, the identity of the recipient of the item, a shipment identifier, the capabilities of a particular SPS, etc. A generated packing list may be provided (e.g., transmitted, sent, forwarded, etc.) to an SPS in order to cause the SPS to facilitate preparation of the shipment in accordance with shipment preparation information included in a bar code of the packing list. In some embodiments, generated packing list may be provided to other components of the SMS, such as a data repository, such that the generated shipping URIs may be utilized at a later time. The routine then proceeds to block 709.
In block 704, the routine determines whether a request for a destination shipping address was received, and if so, proceeds to block 705, else proceeds to block 706. In block 705, the routine provides a destination shipping address for the shipment that corresponds to the request. The destination shipping address may be obtained by the routine from, for example, the SMS data repository 615 of
In block 706, the routine determines whether information about a shipment was received, and if so, proceeds to block 707, else proceeds to block 708. In block 707, the routine records information about the shipment. Recording information about the shipment may include storing one or more data items (e.g., a tracking number, a status code, an error message, a parcel weight, etc.) in the SMS data repository 615 of
In block 708, the routine performs other indicated actions as appropriate. Other actions may include, for example, providing information about the status of a shipment (e.g., whether and/or when the shipment was shipped or received), deleting information about one or more shipments, etc.
In block 709, the routine determines whether to continue, and if so, continues the loop of 701-709, else ends.
The above-described techniques can be used during other phases of a typical item shipment process as well. For example, as noted with respect to
As described further below, in some embodiments, a syntax and semantics for shipping uniform resource identifiers is defined. A shipping uniform resource identifier (“URI”) may be generated by an SMS and embedded within a machine-readable data block such as a bar code. The shipping URI can be used to specify actions that that are to be taken by the SPS to perform a particular item shipment. A shipping URI includes a scheme name that identifies a shipping protocol and that is configured to cause Web browsers or other applications to execute an SPS to perform activities such as to produce a shipping label. A shipping URI also includes scheme data that is provided by the SMS to the SPS and that specifies one or more aspects of a particular item shipment. The scheme data may include, for example, a destination shipping address that is to be included in a shipping label for a particular shipment or may include an identifier (e.g., a URI or link) that may be used to determine a destination shipping address or other shipping characteristics. The scheme data may also include an identifier (e.g., another URI) of a code module (e.g., of a Web server) that is configured to store information about shipments, such that the SPS can provide information about the item shipment to the code module. Alternatively, a single identifier may be used to obtain shipment label information such as an address associated with a particular shipment and to provide information about the item shipment. For example, the SPS may provide information regarding the printing of a shipping label, a tracking number associated with the shipment, etc. By automatically providing information about the item shipment to the code module, the information may then be made available to other systems and/or users, such as the intended recipient of the item shipment, so the recipient can be notified or otherwise learn that the item has been shipped. In this manner, a shipping URI facilitates the interoperation of disparate computing systems to efficiently perform item shipments. Techniques related to shipping URIs are described further in U.S. Pat. No. 7,409,353, issued Aug. 5, 2008, entitled “Methods and Systems for Producing Shipping Labels”, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,624,025, issued Nov. 24, 2009, entitled “Methods and Systems for Supporting the Production of Shipping Labels,” all of which are incorporated in their entireties herein by reference.
In one embodiment, URI-based shipping protocol is provided. A shipping protocol defines a syntax for well-formed shipping URIs and the corresponding item shipment actions (e.g., shipping label generation and/or output) taken by a compliant SPS in response to a well-formed shipping URI. One example syntax for a shipping URI is:
In this example, a shipping URI comprises the text string “ship,” followed by the text string “://” followed by a list of properties. In the illustrated example, the text string “ship” identifies the described shipping protocol. In other embodiments, other identifiers may be used, such as “shipto,” “slpp” (“Shipping Label Production Protocol”), etc. A list of properties is one or more properties, separated by the “?” character. Each property is a key-value pair comprising a property name, followed by the “=” character, followed by a property value. A property may specify an action to be taken by the SPS and/or a property of a shipping label that is to be produced. Allowed property names in the example protocol include GETURI, POSTURI, ADDR, TRANSFORM, POST_METHOD, and POSTBACK_FAIL. Other protocols may include a greater or lesser number of properties and/or different property names. A property value is any URI encoded string.
Table 1, below, describes the semantics and/or purpose of each of the properties defined by an example shipping protocol.
To specify a URI which may be used by an SPS to
obtain a destination shipping address from a code
module identified by the URI and/or to provide a
location of a module to be used by an SPS to provide
post -back information.
To specify a URI which may be used by an SPS to
provide information about an item shipment to a code
module identified by the URI.
To specify a destination shipping address, such as by
an XML string or plain text.
To specify a URI which identifies a style sheet which
may be used to transform a destination shipping
address into a printable representation.
To specify an HTTP method (e.g., GET or POST) to
use when obtaining a destination shipping address
and/or providing information about an item shipment.
To specify a URI which may be used by an SPS to
provide information about an error condition related to
an item shipment to a code module identified by the
Table 2, below, provides examples for each of the properties defined by an example URI-based shipping protocol. Note that for readability, the examples of Table 2 have in some cases been broken across multiple lines. In typical embodiments, the illustrated properties would not include newline characters or be broken over several lines, as illustrated.
<street>123 Easy St.</street>
In the example shipping protocol, property values may include one or more fields that each refer to aspects of an item shipment and/or a produced shipping label. These fields are specified as text strings surrounded by the “%” character. In other embodiments, other delimiters may be utilized (e.g., “$”, “?”, “!”, etc.) Table 3, below, describes various fields and their semantics. Other fields and/or semantics can be similarly supported.
A tracking number associated with the shipment
(e.g., as provided by a carrier service)
The cost of the shipment
The date that the item was shipped (e.g., provided to
a carrier service)
A name or other identifier of a carrier for the
shipment (e.g., United Parcel Service, Federal
Express, U.S. Postal Service, etc.)
A type of service used to ship the item (e.g., next
day, weekend delivery, etc.)
The weight of the shipment
One or more dimensions of a parcel, envelope, or
other packing materials used to ship the item
An error message or code associated with the item
shipment (e.g., that the label did not print correctly,
that a destination shipping address could not be
The date and/or time on which the shipping label
The status of the shipment (e.g., label printed,
awaiting pickup, picked up, etc.)
The real or estimated time in transit for the shipment
In a typical embodiment, an SPS will replace each field in a given property value of a shipping URI (i.e., substitute a given field) with the appropriate data item from the corresponding item shipment and/or shipping label. For example, if a TrackingNum field occurs in a POSTURI, the SPS will replace the string “% TrackingNum %” with an actual tracking number from the corresponding item shipment and/or shipping label. This string replacement will typically occur prior to the use of the POSTURI in order to provide information to a code module identified by the POSTURI about the corresponding item shipment.
In one embodiment an XML-based shipping protocol is provided. A shipping protocol defines a syntax for well-formed XML shipment preparation information blocks and the corresponding item shipment actions (e.g., shipping label generation and/or output) taken by a compliant SPS in response to a well-formed shipping preparation information block. Example XML-based shipping information blocks are illustrated in
All of the above U.S. patents, U.S. patent application publications, U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, foreign patent applications and non-patent publications referred to in this specification and/or listed in the Application Data Sheet, including but not limited to U.S. Pat. No. 7,409,353, issued Aug. 5, 2008, entitled “Methods and Systems for Producing Shipping Labels;” U.S. Pat. No. 7,624,025, issued Nov. 24, 2009, entitled “Methods and Systems for Supporting the Production of Shipping Labels;” U.S. Patent Application No. 61/019,208, filed Jan. 4, 2008, entitled “Methods and Systems for Supporting the Production of Shipping Labels;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/169,509, filed Jul. 8, 2008, entitled “Methods and Systems for Producing Shipping Labels;” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/347,660, filed Dec. 31, 2008, entitled “Methods and Systems for Supporting the Production of Shipping Labels” are incorporated herein by reference, in their entireties.
From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. For example, the methods and systems for facilitating shipment preparation discussed herein are applicable to other architectures other than an electronic commerce order management architecture. As noted, the described techniques may be used for any carrier/mail communication, such as direct mail operations, mail merges, etc. Also, the methods and systems discussed herein are applicable to differing shipping and/or networking protocols, communication media (optical, wireless, cable, etc.) and devices (such as wireless handsets, electronic organizers, personal digital assistants, portable email machines, game machines, pagers, navigation devices such as GPS receivers, etc.).
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|Cooperative Classification||G06Q10/083, G06Q50/30, G06Q10/08, G06Q10/0835|
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|2 Sep 2010||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: Z-FIRM, LLC, WASHINGTON
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:ZIMBEROFF, RAFAEL;USLONTSEV, ALEXANDER;TUGUSHEV, STANISLAV;SIGNING DATES FROM 20100816 TO 20100823;REEL/FRAME:024934/0830
|12 Nov 2015||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4