Web Service Status Updates During Latency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Web services often cause latency when merchants update prices on their web pages, leading to confusion and unnecessary change requests as the updated prices may not be automatically reflected, causing merchants to submit duplicate requests.
Innovation Solution
A computer system that receives a request to update a value, stores it in a temporary data store, and notifies the merchant, while simultaneously transmitting it to other computer systems for updating in a master data store, ensuring the merchant is informed of the update status even during latency periods.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If web services are used to update prices across multiple systems, then data consistency is improved, but latency increases causing merchants to believe updates are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by storing the price update request locally and notifying the merchant immediately, before the update propagates to all distributed systems. This allows the merchant to see the update without waiting for the entire distributed system to synchronize, effectively decoupling the user-facing update from the backend propagation delay.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism (the web service layer with local caching) that mediates between the merchant's update request and the distributed system's data propagation. The intermediary allows the merchant to see updates immediately while the backend continues to propagate changes asynchronously, resolving the conflict between immediate visibility and system-wide consistency.
2Measurement precision
If the system waits for confirmation from all systems before notifying the merchant, then data accuracy is improved, but user experience deteriorates due to delays
Solution Approach 1:
The system sends the notification to the merchant preliminarily, before receiving confirmation from all distributed systems. The update is displayed with an indicator showing it is being propagated, allowing the merchant to see the update immediately while the system continues to verify propagation to all systems in the background.
Solution Approach 2:
The notification state is made dynamic, transitioning from 'updating' to 'confirmed' as systems propagate the change. This dynamic state allows the interface to show immediate updates while continuously updating the status based on propagation progress, maintaining both user experience and accuracy.
3Loss of information
If the merchant refreshes the page during latency, then they can see current status, but they may believe information is lost and submit duplicate requests
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by providing real-time status indicators to the merchant showing that the update is in progress and has been received. This feedback prevents the merchant from believing the information is lost, eliminating the need to refresh or submit duplicate requests while maintaining visibility of the update status.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs the preliminary action of storing the update request and displaying it to the merchant before the refresh occurs. When the merchant refreshes, the pre-stored request is still available, preventing information loss and avoiding duplicate submissions.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for determining a status of a system update with a long latency may be provided. For example, the system may receive a request to update a value associated with an item offered by a merchant. The new value may be transmitted to one or more other computer systems, so that the new value can be updated in a master data store maintained by the one or more other computer systems. The new value can also be stored in a temporary data store associated with the system and the merchant may be informed that the new value was received and is being updated.