Patent ID: 7539746

Claim:
A method of processing electronic commerce transactions comprising messages exchanged between a client and a server of a computer network, the method comprising: establishing a communications connection between the network client and the network server at an electronic transaction assurance (eTA) system; receiving a request message from the client at the eTA system, the request message relating to an aspect of the electronic commerce transaction; extracting data from the request message to record a state of the electronic commerce transaction; detecting that a failure has occurred with respect to the electronic commerce transaction; determining whether an outcome of the electronic commerce transaction in relation to the request message has failed, and the actual state of the electronic commerce transaction at the failure; selecting an appropriate recovery action to recover from the failure based upon said actual state; transmitting a response message to the client in accordance with the recovery action, wherein the response message masks the failure from the client by providing an expected response to the request message from the client.