Stateless shopping cart for the web

A method of user shopping on a network having at least one computer-server for interactively communicating with users employing browser programs on terminal/computers at locations remote from said computer-server, said method comprising the steps of:

• transmitting a request from said browser program to said computer-server for a shopping page;
• invoking a market application program at said computer-server in response to said request and generating and transmitting a shopping page file to said browser program;
• building, by said browser program, from said shopping page file, a shopping page;
• sending from said browser program to the computer-server for operation thereon by said market application program a request having a first field containing new selected items selected from the shopping page and, if there are previously selected items, a second field containing the previously selected items;
• if said second field was sent by said sending step, generating a shopping list containing identification of items previously selected by said user, and if not, creating a shopping list;
• adding new selected items from the first field to the shopping list;
• returning the shopping list of items in a shopping field of a shopping page file to said browser program;
• storing at least the shopping list by said browser program at a terminal computer;
• and
• continuing cyclical transmitting, invoking, building, receiving, and generating the shopping list and adding items to the shopping list and returning to and storing the shopping list at the terminal/computer until termination by the browser program.

Stateless shopping cart apparatus in a server computer for responding to requests from a browser system at a client station, the requests being directed to a stateless shopping cart market system in the server computer, the server computer having a processor, a keyboard, and a plurality of data storage devices, said processor having a central processing unit, memory and input/output control, said input/output control connected to the keyboard and data storage devices at the server computer and to the client station through a communication network, said apparatus comprising:

• a receiver receiving an add request from the browser system, said add request identifying the market system and having a data string with a shopping cart field and a selected item to be added by the market system to the shopping cart field;
• a cart list module initializing a shopping cart list or converting a shopping cart field in the add request to the shopping cart list;
• an add module adding the selected item to the shopping cart list to provide an updated shopping cart list containing the selected item and any previous selected items from earlier add requests;
• a shopping page module converting the updated shopping cart list to an updated version of the shopping cart field, generating a page file, embedding the updated version of the shopping cart field in the page file and sending the page file to the browser system for management of the shopping cart field at the client station whereby the user's shopping cart containing one or more user selected items is embodied in the shopping cart field in a page file that is controlled and stored by the browser system at the client station.

Apparatus for emulating a shopping cart metaphor on a network of server and client computing systems, said apparatus operating in a server and in a browser at a client station communicating with the server through the network, said browser generating requests to the server and the server responding with page files to the browser, said apparatus comprising:

• a request module in the browser sending a shopping page request to the server;
• a shopping page module in the server sending a shopping page file to the browser in response to the shopping page request, said shopping page file containing items selectable by a user using the browser;
• a shopping module at the browser generating an add request and sending said add request to the server, said add request containing selected items from the items selectable in the shopping page file and a list of previously selected items, if any;
• a cart list module initializing a shopping cart list if a list of previously selected items is not in the add request;
• an add module at the server adding the selected items to the shopping cart list;
• a shopping page module at the server converting the shopping cart list to a cart field, generating a new shopping page file, embedding the cart field in the new shopping page file and sending the new shopping page file to the browser;
• said shopping module at the browser storing at least the shopping cart field received in the new shopping page field and sending a next add request to the server whereby the shopping cart field is managed by the browser at the client station.

A computer program storage medium readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process in a server computer for responding to shopping requests from a browser system at a client station so that a shopping cart collection of items selected at the browser system is managed at the browser system rather than the server, said computer process comprising the steps of:

• receiving an add request from the browser system, said add request identifying a market system at the server and having a shopping cart field and a selected item to be added by the market system to a shopping cart list;
• converting a shopping cart field in the add request to the shopping cart list,
• adding the selected item to the shopping cart list to provide an updated cart list containing the selected item and any previous selected items from earlier add requests;
• converting the updated cart list to an updated version of the shopping cart field;
• generating a page file and embedding the updated version of the shopping cart field in the page file;
• and
• sending the page file to the browser system at the client station whereby the updated version of the shopping cart field in the page file is managed by the browser system at the client station.