Methods and system for processing changes to existing purchase orders in an object-oriented order processing system

An order processing computer comprising:

• an interface;
• a processor;
• a memory encoded with an order application;
• and
• an interconnection mechanism coupling the interface, the processor and the memory;
• wherein the processor performs the order application as an order process to process changes to purchase orders in an object oriented order processing system, said object oriented order processing system having an order object including a reference to a collection of multiple objects containing attribute information, by performing the operations of:
• receiving, via the interface, a change to an existing purchase order, the existing purchase order existing in an order database accessible to the order process, said change a result of a request by a customer;
• generating, in the memory, a change order based on the existing purchase order, the change order containing the change to the existing purchase order and including a reference to an order comparator object;
• comparing the change order to the existing purchase order to generate a change order result in the memory that indicates differences between the change order and the existing purchase order, and determining if any other attributes related to the change order are changed based on the change order, and if the other attributes are changed, then supplementing the change order result to indicate the differences between those other attributes, wherein when the order process performs the operation of receiving a change to an existing order, the order process performs the operations of:
• receiving an identification of an existing order which is to be changed;
• placing a hold on the existing order;
• receiving a change signal via the interface indicating a new value for an attribute of an object;
• and
• wherein when the order process performs the operation of generating a chance order based on the existing order, the order process performs the operations of:
• for each object in the existing order in the memory for which the change signal indicates a new value for an attribute of that object, performing the steps of:
• i) copying the object and any attributes and associated values in the existing order to an object in the change order in the memory having corresponding attributes and associated values;
• and
• ii) assigning the new value as indicated in the change signal to a value of a corresponding attribute of the object in the chance order, and wherein the order process performs the operation of comparing concurrently with the operation of generating a change order, such that the operation of generating a change order result in the operation of comparing is performed during the processing of each object in the existing order for which the change signal indicates a new value for an attribute of that object;
• and
• providing the change order result to said customer via the interface, such that the customer is capable of distinguishing the differences between the change order and the existing order.