Multivendor Catalogs: Smart Catalogs and Virtual Catalogs
Arthur M. Keller, Michael Genesereth · 1998
We discuss how distributed multivendor catalogs can be created and used by multiple retailers. Currently, there are a variety of proprietary approaches to electronic catalogs. These include WWW catalogs built with stovepipe architectures that allow only one catalog to be used at a time. Also, proprietary catalogs are created using EDI 832 transactions that limit flexibility and technological growth. We present an architecture for electronic catalogs, called Smart Catalogs and Virtual Catalogs. Smart catalogs are searchable, annotated combinations of machine-readable (i.e., minimally processable) and machine-sensible (i.e., actually understood by the computer) product data and can accommodate existing product catalog data formats and representations. Virtual catalogs dynamically retrieve information from multiple smart catalogs and present this product data in a unified manner with its own look and feel, not that of the source smart catalogs. These virtual catalogs do not store product data from smart catalogs directly (except when caching for performance); instead virtual catalogs obtain current product data from smart catalogs to satisfy specific customer queries. Customers interact with smart catalogs and virtual catalogs through WWW or other interfaces.