1. A method for managing pre-booking activity in a cross-channel reservation system comprising at least one at least one processor, the method comprising:
receiving from a first travel channel at the cross-channel reservation system a first user request including a travel availability inquiry;
creating, with the at least one processor of the cross-channel reservation system, a data record including a plurality of data fields corresponding to data fields of a passenger name record and an offer field;
receiving from a first travel server at the cross-channel reservation system pre-booking information for a travel resource corresponding to the travel availability inquiry;
building an offer based at least in part on the pre-booking information for the travel resource with the at least one processor of the cross-channel reservation system;
enriching the data record with the offer such that the data fields and the offer field comprise the pre-booking information for the travel resource; and
receiving a second user request at the cross-channel reservation system from a second travel channel to access the data record.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the data fields and offer field of the data record are shared among the first and second travel channels of the multi-channel reservation system and reused for future inquiries.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein data record includes pricing information for the travel resource.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the data record includes an indication of a validity date comprising a time threshold after which the offer is no longer valid.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the cross-channel reservation system comprises a single access interface module.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the cross-channel reservation system comprises an interface module that includes an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) or an Enterprise Application Integration bus (EAI).
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
in response to the request received from the second travel channel, confirming the offer to transform the offer into a booking
8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:
before the offer is confirmed, performing a price check corresponding to the offer to determine whether a price corresponding to the travel resource of the offer has changed.
9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:
before the offer is confirmed, performing an availability check corresponding to the offer to determine whether an availability corresponding to the travel resource of the offer has changed.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the data record comprises a plurality of offers each corresponding to a travel resource, and further comprising:
building a proposal comprising one or more of the offers; and
generating an itinerary of the set of proposals; and
communicating the itinerary to a client module.
11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:
in response to receiving user input from the client module corresponding to the itinerary, re-checking each offer of the proposal.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein rechecking each offer of the proposal comprises:
performing an availability check corresponding to each offer to determine whether a reservation element corresponding to the travel resource of the offer is available; and
performing a price check corresponding to each offer to determine whether a price corresponding to the offer has changed.
13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:
in response to determining that the travel resource of each offer is available and that the price corresponding to each offer has not changed, confirming a reservation of each travel resource of each offer of the proposal.
14. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing a computer program for managing pre-booking activity at a cross-channel reservation system, the computer program comprising instructions that when executed by a processor of the cross-channel reservation system causes the processor to
receive from a first travel channel at the cross-channel reservation system a first user request including a travel availability inquiry, create a data record including a plurality of data fields corresponding to data records of a passenger name record and an offer field, receive pre-booking information from a travel server at the cross-channel reservation system for a travel resource corresponding to the travel availability inquiry, build an offer based at least in part on the pre-booking information for the travel resource, enrich the data record with the offer such that the data fields and the offer field comprise the pre-booking information for the travel resource, and receive a second user request from a second travel channel at the reservation system to access the data record.
15. A reservation data processing system comprising:
at least one processor configured to execute instructions of system modules; and
a memory storing system module comprising:
an interface module configured upon execution to receive from a first travel channel a first user request including a travel availability inquiry; and
a processor module configured upon execution by the at least one processor to create a data record including a plurality of data fields corresponding to data fields of a passenger name record and an offer field, receive pre-booking information from a first travel server for a travel resource corresponding to the travel availability inquiry, build an offer based at least in part on the pre-booking information for the travel resource, and enrich the data record with the offer such that the data fields and the offer field comprise pre-booking information for the travel resource,
wherein the interface module is further configured upon execution by the at least one processor to receive a second request from a second travel channel to access the data record.
16. The reservation data processing system of claim 15 wherein the interface module is configured upon execution to communicate with a plurality of travel channels and the data record is shared among the plurality of channels and reused for future inquiries.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A data management system comprising:
a. a plurality of independent data structures having a common form, each of said data structures encapsulating a single data instance;
b. each of said data structures also encapsulating references to other of said independent data structures encapsulating associated data instances; and
c. wherein said plurality of data structures are stored on a computer-readable media in non-tabular form and further wherein said data instances encapsulated in said data structures can be added, removed and searched.
2. The data management system of claim 1 wherein each of said independent data structures also encapsulates a reference indicating the location of itself within a multi-dimensional organization of said data structures.
3. The data management system of claim 1 wherein a first data instance is encapsulated with references to associated data instances and each of said associated data instances are separately encapsulated with a reference to said first encapsulated data instance.
4. The data management system of claim 3 wherein said data structures are application independent and generally the same for all of said data instances.
5. The data management system of claim 1 wherein:
a first data instance is encapsulated with references to associated data instances and each of said associated data instances are separately encapsulated with a reference to said first encapsulated data instance;
wherein each of said encapsulated references is a logical index which uniquely identifies each of said associated encapsulated data instances and also encodes the location of each of said associated encapsulated data instances on said computer-readable media; and
wherein said logical index is \u2018m\u2019 dimensional, and has \u2018n\u2019 bits per dimension.
6. The data management system of claim 5 wherein said data structures are application independent and generally the same for all of said data instances.
7. The data management system of claim 1 wherein:
said encapsulated references are in at least one dimensions; and
each of said at least one dimensions corresponds to a type of association.
8. The data management system of claim 7 wherein each of said at least one dimensions has a plurality of said encapsulated references.
9. The data management system of claim 8 wherein said data structures are application independent and generally the same for all of said data instances.
10. The data management system of claim 7 wherein said data structures are application independent and generally the same for all of said data instances.
11. The data management system of claim 1 wherein said data structures are application independent and generally the same for all of said data instances.
12. The data management system of claim 1 wherein at least one of said encapsulated references is a reference to an encapsulated data instance in another computing environment.
13. The data management system of claim 1 wherein the encapsulated references of at least one of said encapsulated data instances are unique and the encapsulated references of at least two of said encapsulated data instances are generally identical.
14. The data management system of claim 1 including a plurality of pre-existing encapsulated data instances having established associations, wherein at least one new encapsulated data instance is associated with at least one of said preexisting encapsulated data instates.
15. The data management system of claim 1 including a plurality of pre-existing encapsulated data instances having established associations, wherein any of said pre-existing encapsulated data instances can be removed and disassociated from other pre-existing associated encapsulated data instances.
16. The data management system of claim 1 including a plurality of pre-existing encapsulated data instances having established associations, wherein new associations between at least two pre-existing encapsulated data instances can be added.
17. The data management system of claim 1 including a plurality of pre-existing encapsulated data instances having established associations, wherein any of said pre-existing associations between said pre-existing encapsulated data instances can be removed.
18. The data management system of claim 1 further comprising a search capability for finding specific unknown encapsulated data instances from a selection criteria of known encapsulated data instances by accessing said known encapsulated data instances representing said selection criteria comprising the steps of:
accessing references encapsulated with said known encapsulated data instances representing said selection criteria;
using Boolean operations to compare said accessed encapsulated references to find references to said specific unknown encapsulated data instances; and
retrieving said specific unknown encapsulated data instances.
19. The data management system of claim 18 wherein said encapsulated references are embodied as logical indexes in a plurality of dimensions, each of said dimensions corresponding to a type of association, wherein said accessing further comprises accessing said encapsulated references from said dimensions specified in said selection criteria.
20. The data management system of claim 19 wherein said encapsulated references are \u2018m\u2019 dimensional logical indexes, each of which uniquely identifies and encodes the location of said associated encapsulated data instances on said computer readable media, wherein said encapsulated references are filtered by Boolean operations on at least one of said \u2018m\u2019 dimensional logical indexes.
21. The data management system of claim 20 wherein said Boolean operations further comprise:
a basic mathematical operator which results in the direct exclusion of at least one encapsulated reference from the result of said comparing in a single operation.
22. The data management system of claim 19 wherein said Boolean operations further comprise:
a basic mathematical operator which results in the direct exclusion of at least one encapsulated reference from the result of said comparing in a single operation.
23. The data management system of claim 18 wherein said encapsulated references are \u2018m\u2019 dimensional logical indexes, each of which uniquely identifies and encodes the location of said associated encapsulated data instances on said computer readable media, wherein said encapsulated references are filtered by Boolean operations on at least one of said \u2018m\u2019 dimensional logical indexes.
24. The data management system of claim 23 wherein said Boolean operations further comprise:
a basic mathematical operator which results in the direct exclusion of at least one encapsulated reference from the result of said comparing in a single operation.
25. The data management system of claim 18 wherein said Boolean operations further comprise:
basic mathematical operators which result in the direct exclusion of at least one encapsulated reference from the result of said comparing in a single operation.
26. The system of claim 1 wherein said encapsulated data instances have attributes of a user interface.
27. The system of claim 26 wherein said attributes of a user interface are selected from a group of user views, display elements, and data access methods.
28. The system of claim 1 further comprising searching said system wherein the encapsulated references of two or more different encapsulated data instances are used to derive desired results.
29. The system of claim 28 wherein said encapsulated references of two or more different encapsulated data instances are compared for at least one of commonality, similarity and difference to derive sets of references corresponding to said desired results.
30. The system of claim 29 wherein said encapsulated references of two or more different encapsulated data instances are stored in an order based on value and are compared for at least one of commonality, similarity and difference to derive sets of references corresponding to said desired results.
31. The system of claim 28 wherein:
a first data instance is encapsulated with references to associated data instances and each of said associated data instances are separately encapsulated with a reference to said first encapsulated data instance;
wherein each of said encapsulated references is a logical index which uniquely identifies each of said associated encapsulated data instances and also encodes the location of each of said associated encapsulated data instances on said computer readable media; and
wherein said logical index is \u2018m\u2019 dimensional, and has \u2018n\u2019 bits per dimension; the encapsulated references of two or more different encapsulated data instances are compared for at least one of commonality, similarity and difference to derive sets of references corresponding to said desired results.
32. The system of claim 28 wherein:
each of said at least one dimensions has a plurality of said encapsulated references; and
said encapsulated references of two or more different encapsulated data instances are stored in an order based on value and are compared for at least one of commonality, similarity and difference to derive sets of references corresponding to said desired results.
33. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
a plurality of encapsulated data instances representing ASCII characters;
said data structures containing said encapsulated data instances representing ASCII characters also containing encapsulated references to encapsulated data instances using one or more of said corresponding ASCII characters; and
said data structures containing encapsulated data instances using one or more of said ASCII characters also containing encapsulated references to said encapsulated data instances representing said used ASCII characters.
34. The system of claim 33 wherein said encapsulated references with a given ASCII character data instance refer to other encapsulated data instances using said ASCII characters based on the position of said given ASCII character in the sequence of said ASCII characters in said encapsulated data instances.
35. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
a plurality of encapsulated data instances representing Unicode characters;
said data structures containing said encapsulated data instances representing Unicode characters also containing encapsulated references to encapsulated data instances using one or more said Unicode characters; and
said data structures encapsulated data instances using one or more of said Unicode characters also contains encapsulated references to said data instances representing said used Unicode characters.
36. The system of claim 35 wherein said encapsulated references with a given Unicode character data instance refer to other data instances using said Unicode characters based on the position of said given Unicode characters in the sequence of said Unicode characters in said encapsulated data instances.
37. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
a plurality of encapsulated data instances representing the tokens of a token set of any data type;
said data structures containing said data instances representing said tokens also containing encapsulated references to encapsulated data instances using one or more of said tokens; and
said data structures containing encapsulated data instances using one or more of said tokens also containing encapsulated references to said encapsulated data instances representing said used tokens.
38. The system of claim 37 wherein said encapsulated references for a given token data instance refer to other encapsulated data instances using said token based on the position of said given token in the sequence of said tokens in said encapsulated data instance.
39. The system claim 38 wherein:
said token set is selected from a group consisting of a set of graphic descriptors, a set of colors, a set of shapes, a set of glyphs, a set of waveforms, a set of frequency values, a set of audio frequency values, a defined set of symbols, and real numbers.
40. The data management system of claim 1 wherein:
said data structure is application independent and is generally the same for all of said data instances;
finding specific unknown encapsulated data instances from a selection criteria of known encapsulated data instances by accessing known encapsulated data instances representing said selection criteria;
accessing references encapsulated with said known encapsulated data instances representing said selection criteria;
using Boolean operations to compare said accessed encapsulated references to find references to said specific unknown encapsulated data instances; and
retrieving said specific unknown encapsulated data instances.
41. The system of claim 40 further comprising searching said system wherein said encapsulated references of different said encapsulated data instances are used to derive desired results.
42. The data management system of claim 1 wherein:
at least one of said encapsulated references is a reference to an encapsulated data instance in another computing environment; and
a first data instance is encapsulated with references to associated data instances and each of said associated data instances are separately encapsulated with a reference to an encapsulated data instance.
43. The data management system of claim 1 wherein:
said encapsulated references of at least one of said encapsulated data instances is unique and said encapsulated references of at least two of said encapsulated data instance are generally identical;
finding specific unknown encapsulated data instances from a selection criteria of known encapsulated data instances by accessing known encapsulated data instances representing said selection criteria;
accessing references encapsulated with said known encapsulated data instances representing said selection criteria;
using Boolean operations to compare said accessed encapsulated references to find references to said specific unknown encapsulated data instances; and
retrieving said specific unknown encapsulated data instances.
44. The data management system of claim 1 wherein:
said encapsulated references of at least one of said encapsulated data instances is unique and said encapsulated references of at least two of said encapsulated data instance are generally identical; and
searching said system wherein said encapsulated references of different said encapsulated data instances are used to derive desired results.
45. A data management system in a computing environment comprising:
a plurality of independent data structures having a common form, each encapsulating a single data instance;
wherein said plurality of data structures are stored on a computer-readable media in non-tabular form;
wherein each of said encapsulated references is a logical index which uniquely identifies each of said associated encapsulated data instances and also encodes the location of each of said associated encapsulated data instances on said computer-readable media; and
wherein said logical index is \u2018m\u2019 dimensional, and has \u2018n\u2019 bits per dimension, said encapsulated references are in at least one dimensions, and each of said at least one dimensions corresponds to a type of association.
46. The data management system of claim 45 wherein each of said data structures are application independent and generally the same for all of said data instances.
47. The data management system of claim 46 further comprising a search capability for finding specific unknown encapsulated data instances from a selection criteria of known encapsulated data instances by accessing known encapsulated data instances representing said selection criteria comprising the steps of:
accessing references encapsulated with said known encapsulated data instances representing said selection criteria;
using Boolean operations to compare said accessed encapsulated references to find references to said specific unknown encapsulated data instances; and
retrieving said specific unknown encapsulated data instances.
48. The system of claim 47 wherein said encapsulated references of two or more different said encapsulated data instances are used to find said specific unknown encapsulated data instances.
49. The data management system of claim 48 wherein at least one of said encapsulated references is a reference to a encapsulated data instance in another computing environment.
50. The data management system of claim 49 wherein said encapsulated references of at least one of said encapsulated data instances is unique and said encapsulated references of at least two of said encapsulated data instances are generally identical.
51. The system of claim 50 further comprising searching said system wherein said encapsulated references of different said encapsulated data instances are used to derive desired results.
52. The data management system of claim 45 further comprising a search capability for finding specific unknown encapsulated data instances from a selection criteria of known encapsulated data instances by accessing known encapsulated data instances representing said selection criteria comprising the steps of:
accessing references encapsulated with said known encapsulated data instances representing said selection criteria;
using Boolean operations to compare said accessed encapsulated references to find references to said specific unknown encapsulated data instances; and
retrieving said specific unknown encapsulated data instances.
53. The system of claim 52 wherein said encapsulated references of two or more different said encapsulated data instances are used to find said specific unknown encapsulated data instances.
54. The data management system of claim 45 wherein at least one of said encapsulated references is a reference to a encapsulated data instance in another computing environment.
55. The data management system of claim 45 wherein said encapsulated references of at least one of said encapsulated data instances is unique and said encapsulated references of at least two of said encapsulated data instance are generally identical.
56. A method to convert a non-data instance centric database to a data instance centric database comprising:
creating encapsulated data instances in said data instance centric database representing elements of said non-data-instance centric database schema and data elements of said non-data-instance centric database;
creating associations amongst the said data instances in said data instance centric database representing the relationships between said data elements and said schema elements of the non-data-instance centric database; and
storing said associations as a reference to each associated data instance stored within a independent data structure having a common form encapsulating the associated data instances, which are stored in non-tabular form on a computer-readable media.
57. The method of claim 56 wherein said converting is through a software agent which is a data instance in said data instance centric database.
58. The method of claim 56 wherein said non-data instance centric database includes a flat file.
59. A data management system comprising:
one or more items;
wherein each of said items encapsulates a data instance;
wherein items which are associated with each other encapsulate mutual references to each other;
wherein said items may be added, removed and searched; and
wherein said items are stored in non-tabular form on a computer-readable media.
60. The data management system of claim 59 wherein each of said items is represented in a fundamental data structure.
61. The data management system of claim 59 wherein each of said items has a unique reference associated therewith.
62. The data management system of claim 61 wherein said unique reference also serves as an index to physically locate said data instance associated with each of said items on said computer-readable media.
63. The data management system of claim 61 wherein each of said references is an \u201cm\u201d dimensional index, each of said dimensions being \u201cn\u201d bits in length.
64. The data management system of claim 63 wherein \u201cm\u201d is 4 and \u201cn\u201d is 30.
65. The data management system of claim 59 wherein said references to associated items are arranged in sets defining the type of association between said item and each of said other items referenced in said set.
66. The data management system of claim 59 wherein said items may act as containers for one or more other member items.
67. The data management system of claim 66 wherein membership of an item within a container item is indicated by an identity in one or more of said \u201cm\u201d dimensions in said logical index of said container item and each of said member items.
68. The data management system of claim 59 wherein each of said items may encapsulate embedded elements.
69. The data management system of claim 68 wherein said embedded elements are references to other items.
70. The data management system of claim 59 wherein said data instances may contain data of any type.