Patent ID: 8954355
Filing Date: 2015-02-10
Classification: G06Q,G07B

Abstract:
1. A method for invoking an online postage and shipping label service provided by a postage vendor on an electronic device that includes a processor, comprising: providing, by the postage vendor, an application program interface configured to invoke the online postage and shipping label service provided by the postage vendor via a web service, wherein the application program interface limits postage generation to mail classes that a carrier system can scan and track to provide one or more security measures associated with online postage and shipping label service; receiving, at a postage and label server associated with the postage vendor, an electronic request to generate an image of a shipping label using the online postage and shipping label service from an electronic commerce system, wherein the electronic commerce system integrates the online postage and shipping label service via a third party application having a requester interface that implements the application program interface and invokes the online postage and shipping label service to generate the image of the shipping label; generating, by the postage and label server, a tracking identification that is associated with the requested image of the shipping label and that is associated with a postage indicium from the mail classes that the carrier system can scan and track on the shipping label; generating, by the postage and label server, the image of the shipping label on the postage and label server in response to the electronic request received from the electronic commerce system, wherein the image of the shipping label includes a destination address associated with a buyer that completed a transaction on the electronic commerce system, the tracking identification, and the postage indicium; charging, by the postage and label server, a cost for the shipping label to an account that the postage and label server maintains with the carrier system for the third party application; and sending, from the postage and label server associated with the postage vendor, via extensible markup language (XML) using simple object access protocol (SOAP), the image of the shipping label to the third party application associated with the electronic commerce system via the requester interface that implements the application program interface, wherein the application program interface enables the third party application to integrate the image as part of the third party application and enables the third party application to forward the image of the shipping label to a user associated with the transaction completed on the electronic commerce system, wherein the image is generated in ZPL format or EPL format.