System and Method for Caching of Data in a Computer System

Abstract

A system and method are presented for using a plurality of data caches to increase the efficiency of a computing system in an e-commerce environment. Separate caches with distinct time-to-live values are created, one each for customer information, customer cart contents, and product pricing data. Product pricing is pre-analyzed using a pricing data engine that calculates multiple potential prices for a single item that is then stored in the product pricing data cache. This data can then be used in a variety of contexts to determine different pricing for the same product without requiring another request for product data from the pricing data engine. When a product is viewed during catalog browsing, all information needed to determine pricing for that particular user might be accessible from the data caches for fast processing.

What is claimed is :   
     
         1 . A system comprising:
 a) a computer processor;   b) data communication to a customer data source, a cart contents data source, and a pricing data engine;   c) a first data cache, a second data cache, and a third data cache;   d) programming operating on the computer processing device, the programming operating the processor to: 
 i) receive a product price request comprising a product identifier identifying a product, and a user identifier; 
 ii) request customer information for the user identifier from the customer data source; 
 iii) receive customer information from the customer data source; 
 iv) store the customer information in the first data cache to allow for later retrieval of the customer information without the involvement of the customer data source; 
 v) request cart content data for the user identifier from a cart contents data source; 
 vi) receive user-specific cart content from the cart content data source, the user-specific cart content comprising a plurality of cart product identifiers indicating products in an electronic shopping cart related to the user identifier; 
 vii) store user-specific cart content in the second data cache to allow for later retrieval of the user-specific cart content without the involvement of the cart content data source; 
 viii) request pricing data for the product identifier and for the cart product identifiers from the pricing data engine; 
 ix) receive pricing data from the pricing data engine, the pricing data comprising a plurality of prices for the product identifier, with a discounted price in the pricing data being associated with a trigger condition, the pricing data further comprising prices for the cart product identifiers including a bundled discount requiring the purchase of the product; 
 x) store the pricing data in the second data cache to allow for later retrieval of the pricing data without the involvement of the pricing data engine; 
 xi) determine that a price for the product based on whether the customer information meets the trigger condition; and 
 xii) transmit the price and the bundled discount in response to the product price request.