CN114385655A

CN114385655A - Method for providing flight inquiry service and flight inquiry system

Info

Publication number: CN114385655A
Application number: CN202210036395.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 曾彬彬; 钱劲; 龙飞; 李小梅; 吉颉; 姜闻明
Original assignee: China Eastern Technology Application R & D Center Co ltd; China Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Eastern Technology Application R & D Center Co ltd; China Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2022-01-13
Filing date: 2022-01-13
Publication date: 2022-04-22

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method of providing flight inquiry services, comprising: pre-establishing a flight database which synchronizes data from a flight management system database of a third party; pre-establishing a flight cache library storing data associated with a plurality of scheduled flights loaded from the flight database at a predetermined refresh frequency; receiving a flight inquiry request; in response to data associated with the flight requesting the query being stored in the flight cache, reading data associated with the flight requesting the query from the flight cache as provided as a query result; and in response to the data associated with the flight requesting the query not being stored in the flight cache, reading data associated with the flight requesting the query from the flight database and generating and providing query results based on the data, and storing the data associated with the flight requesting the query read from the flight database in the flight cache. The disclosure also relates to a flight inquiry system.

Description

Method for providing flight inquiry service and flight inquiry system

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a method of providing flight inquiry service and a flight inquiry system.

Background

Currently, user interfaces such as official websites, mobile phone Applications (APPs), and applets of various civil airlines and travel service companies can provide flight inquiry and purchase services, but management and maintenance of civil aviation data are generally performed in a platform (also referred to herein as "flight management system of a third party") of a third party (a "third party" refers to a provider with respect to the method and system according to the present disclosure, and a third party of a service party of the method and system according to the present disclosure, such as a chinese messenger), for example, by a salesman of each airline company configuring data in the third party platform. Therefore, there is a need for providing flight inquiry services to users quickly and accurately for user interfaces such as official websites, APPs, applets, and the like of various airlines and travel service companies.

Disclosure of Invention

One of the objects of the present disclosure is to provide a method for providing flight inquiry service and a flight inquiry system.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of providing flight inquiry services, comprising: pre-establishing a flight database, wherein the flight database synchronizes data from a flight management system database of a third party; pre-establishing a flight cache library storing data associated with a plurality of predetermined flights loaded from the flight database at a predetermined refresh rate; receiving a flight inquiry request; in response to data associated with the flight requesting the query being stored in the flight cache, reading data associated with the flight requesting the query from the flight cache as provided as a query result; and in response to the data associated with the flight requesting the query not being stored in the flight cache, reading data associated with the flight requesting the query from the flight database and generating and providing query results based on the data, and storing the data associated with the flight requesting the query read from the flight database in the flight cache.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of providing flight inquiry services, comprising: establishing a flight database in advance, wherein the flight database synchronizes stock data of flights from a flight management system database of a third party; pre-establishing a flight cache library storing inventory data for a plurality of scheduled flights loaded from the flight database at a predetermined refresh rate, and fare and tax data for the plurality of scheduled flights obtained from the flight management system; receiving a flight inquiry request; reading inventory data and freight and tax data of the flight requesting the query from the flight cache library as a query result in response to the flight requesting the query being one or more of the plurality of scheduled flights; and in response to the requested flight not being in the plurality of scheduled flights, reading inventory data of the requested flight, obtaining freight rate and tax data of the requested flight from the flight management system, generating and providing query results based on the inventory data and the freight rate and tax data of the requested flight, and storing the inventory data and the freight rate and tax data of the requested flight in the flight cache.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a flight enquiry system providing a user interface for enquiring flights, the system comprising: a flight database configured to synchronize data from a database of a flight management system of a third party; and a flight cache repository configured to store data associated with a plurality of scheduled flights loaded from the flight database at a predetermined refresh frequency, wherein the system is configured to: receiving a flight query request through the user interface; in response to data associated with the flight requesting the query being stored in the flight cache, reading data associated with the flight requesting the query from the flight cache as provided as a query result; and in response to the data associated with the flight requesting the query not being stored in the flight cache, reading data associated with the flight requesting the query from the flight database and generating and providing query results based on the data, and storing the data associated with the flight requesting the query read from the flight database in the flight cache.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a flight enquiry system providing a user interface for enquiring flights, the system comprising: a flight database configured to synchronize inventory data for flights from a database of a flight management system of a third party; and a flight cache configured to store inventory data for a plurality of scheduled flights loaded from the flight database at a predetermined refresh rate, and fare and tax data for the plurality of scheduled flights obtained from the flight management system, wherein the system is configured to: receiving a flight query request through the user interface; reading inventory data and freight and tax data of the flight requesting the query from the flight cache library as a query result in response to the flight requesting the query being one or more of the plurality of scheduled flights; and in response to the requested flight not being in the plurality of scheduled flights, reading inventory data of the requested flight, obtaining freight rate and tax data of the requested flight from the flight management system, generating and providing query results based on the inventory data and the freight rate and tax data of the requested flight, and storing the inventory data and the freight rate and tax data of the requested flight in the flight cache.

According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus for providing flight inquiry service, comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories configured to store a series of computer-executable instructions, wherein the series of computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method as described above.

According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the non-transitory computer readable storage medium has stored thereon a series of computer executable instructions, which when executed by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform the method as described above.

Other features of the present disclosure and advantages thereof will become apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments thereof, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

The present disclosure may be more clearly understood from the following detailed description, taken with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1 is an exemplary flow chart of a portion of a method of providing flight inquiry services according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 2 is an exemplary flow chart of a portion of a method of providing flight inquiry services according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 3 is an exemplary block diagram of a portion of a flight inquiry system according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary block diagram of a general purpose hardware system that can be applied to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Note that in the embodiments described below, the same reference numerals are used in common between different drawings to denote the same portions or portions having the same functions, and a repetitive description thereof will be omitted. In some cases, similar reference numbers and letters are used to denote similar items, and thus, once an item is defined in one figure, it need not be discussed further in subsequent figures.

Detailed Description

The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate several embodiments of the disclosure. It should be understood, however, that the present disclosure may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, the embodiments described below are intended to provide a more complete disclosure of the present disclosure, and to fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. It is also to be understood that the embodiments disclosed herein can be combined in various ways to provide further additional embodiments.

It is to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. All terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the meaning commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art unless otherwise defined. Well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity.

Herein, the term "a or B" includes "a and B" and "a or B" rather than exclusively including only "a" or only "B" unless otherwise specifically stated.

In this document, the term "exemplary" means "serving as an example, instance, or illustration," and not as a "model" that is to be reproduced exactly. Any implementation exemplarily described herein is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations. Furthermore, the disclosure is not limited by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding technical field, background, brief summary or the detailed description.

In addition, "first," "second," and like terms may also be used herein for reference purposes only, and thus are not intended to be limiting. For example, the terms "first," "second," and other such numerical terms referring to structures or elements do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context.

It will be further understood that the terms "comprises/comprising," "includes" and/or "including," when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

According to the method for providing the flight inquiry service and the flight inquiry system of the embodiment of the disclosure, the method can be implemented by, for example, an official website, an APP, a small program and the like of a civil airline or a travel service company, so that the flight inquiry service can be quickly and accurately provided for a user. A method or system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a pre-established flight database and a flight cache library. The flight database synchronizes data from the flight management system database of a third party in a timing full-volume synchronization and real-time incremental updating mode so as to ensure the accuracy, the real-time performance and the effectiveness of the original data for flight inquiry service. The establishment of the flight buffer library can ensure that the flight query request of the user can be responded to quickly, and meanwhile, the flight buffer library stores data which is loaded from the flight database at a preset refreshing frequency and is associated with a plurality of scheduled flights, so that the accuracy of the data provided for the user is ensured.

Fig. 1 is an exemplary flow chart of a portion of a method of providing flight inquiry services according to an embodiment of the disclosure. A method of providing a flight inquiry service through a user interface 10 according to a method or system of an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to fig. 1.

In process 110, a flight query request is received via user interface 10. The user interface 10 may be an interface for querying flights provided by a method or system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and may be presented, for example, by an official website, APP, applet, and the like of a civil airline or a travel service company. The flight query request may generally specify a departure airport(s) (which may be one or more), an arrival airport(s) (which may be one or more), and a departure date (which may be one or more). In this context, unless otherwise stated, a flight is determined by a combination of a departure airport, an arrival airport, and a departure date. If the data associated with the flight requesting the query is stored in the flight cache repository 20, i.e. the hit cache, the data associated with the flight requesting the query is read from the flight cache repository 20 and provided to the user interface 10 as a query result.

In a specific example, the system receives a flight query request from a user via the user interface 10, and for each flight to be queried, generates a cache key using a generic method based on parameters (departure airport, arrival airport and departure date), and looks up from the cache key whether the required data has been cached in the flight cache library 20 (which may be, for example, a mongoDB database). If the required data is already stored in the flight buffer store 20, the required data is read from the flight buffer store 20 and processed into the form required by the user interface 10. For example, if the data stored in the flight cache library 20 is serialized and compressed, the data read from the flight cache library 20 may be deserialized and then packaged (e.g., via flight information package, itinerary package, rate package, etc.) into a data form of the return result required by the user interface 10.

The data in the flight cache repository 20 may be configured with a cache expiration time. If data associated with the flight requesting the query is stored in the flight buffer repository 20, i.e. hits in the cache, but the data has expired (which may be determined, for example, from the cache change time and the cache expiration time), the data associated with the flight requesting the query is read from the flight database 30 and stored in the flight buffer repository 20. In this case, the system may be configured to return query results from the flight cache library 20 (i.e., query results based on cached data that has expired) to quickly respond to the user's request; may also be configured to return query results from the flight database 30 to provide more accurate information to the user.

In process 120, if the data associated with the flight requesting the query is not stored in the flight cache library 20, i.e., the cache is not missed, the data associated with the flight requesting the query is read from the flight database 30 and query results are generated and provided based on the data, and the data associated with the flight requesting the query read from the flight database 30 is stored in the flight cache library 20.

In some embodiments, it may be desirable to go to a third party flight management system query in real time, since the fare and taxes for flights that are part of the query results may vary faster. In these embodiments, the pre-established flight database 30 stores flight inventory data synchronized from a third party flight management system database 40 (shown in FIG. 2). The pre-established flight cache 20 stores inventory data for a plurality of scheduled flights loaded from the flight database 30 at a predetermined refresh rate, and fare and tax data for the plurality of scheduled flights obtained from the flight management system. The method receives a flight enquiry request via the user interface 10. The inventory data for the flight requested to be queried and the fare and tax data are read from the flight cache repository 20 as a query result for one or more of the plurality of scheduled flights stored in the flight cache repository 20 in response to the flight requested to be queried. In response to the flight requesting the query not being among the plurality of scheduled flights stored in the flight cache 20, reading inventory data of the flight requesting the query from the flight database 30, obtaining the freight rate and tax data of the flight requesting the query from the flight management system, and generating and providing query results based on these data, and storing the inventory data and the freight rate and tax data of the flight requesting the query in the flight cache 20.

Fig. 2 is an exemplary flow chart of a portion of a method of providing flight inquiry services according to an embodiment of the disclosure. A method of maintaining data synchronization of the flight database 30 with a database of a flight management system of a third party according to a method or system of an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to fig. 2.

The data associated with the plurality of scheduled flights stored in the flight cache 30 includes flight plan data. The processes 130 and 140 are processes for a synchronized manner of flight plan data.

In process 130, the third party flight management system database 40 periodically pushes the full amount of data to the flight database 30, thereby causing the flight database 30 to synchronize data from the flight management system database 40. For example, at a scheduled time of day, the flight management system database 40 synchronizes the full amount of data to the flight database 30 by pushing all of the targeted data that needs to be synchronized (e.g., may be referred to simply as "full amount data") to the flight database 30. In one specific example, an FTP server for data interaction may be established between a system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure (hereinafter referred to simply as the "present system") and a flight management system of a third party. At scheduled times of day, the flight management system will store the flight schedule data for the next year in the flight management system database 40 on the FTP server in the form of TXT files. The system will go to FTP to obtain the TXT file every day, and analyze all flight plan data, compare with flight plan data in the flight database 30 of the system, find different data to update. In another embodiment, the flight plan data in the flight database 30 of the present system may be replaced in full with all flight plan data parsed from the TXT file.

In process 140, the system receives a flight plan data change notification (e.g., may be referred to simply as "incremental data") from the flight management system and updates the flight database 30 based on the contents of the flight plan data change notification. In a specific example, when a flight is added or modified or cancelled, the flight management system may push a message, i.e., a flight plan data change notification, to the system through a message queue (e.g., an ActiveMQ message queue) after updating its own database (i.e., flight management system database 40). The flight plan data change notification of the present system updates the data of the flight database 30. For example, if the flight plan data change notification pushed by the flight management system is a cancellation event notification for flight a, the system deletes the data associated with flight a in the flight database 30; if the flight schedule data change notification sent by the flight management system is the newly added event of flight A, the system adds the data associated with flight A to the flight database 30.

The system combines the implementation process 130 and the implementation process 140, on one hand, synchronizes all the destination data from the flight management system database 40 to the flight database 30 at a predetermined time of day, and on the other hand, when there is a flight plan change, the system receives a flight plan data change notification from the flight management system and updates the flight database 30 according to the content of the flight plan data change notification. This ensures that the data in the flight database 30 of the system is synchronized with the data in the flight management system database 40 of the third party as much as possible, thereby ensuring that the cache data loaded from the flight database 30 into the flight cache 20 is as accurate as possible (i.e. as consistent as possible with the data in the flight management system database 40), and enhancing the user experience.

In some cases, the full or incremental data may not be pushed in time due to a failure of the flight management system of the third party, or the like, or the message may be lost due to network congestion, or the like. These situations may result in the data in flight database 30 not being consistent with the data in flight management system database 40, although the system implements process 130 and process 140 in combination. Thus, as a supplement, the system may also actively read all flight schedule data from the flight management system database 40 for a future period of time (e.g., 3 months in the future) at a predetermined time of day (e.g., a time different from the predetermined time of day in the process 130), and update the data in the flight database 30 for the future period of time based on the data.

The data stored in the flight cache 30 associated with the plurality of scheduled flights includes flight inventory data including inventory, shipping price and taxes for each scheduled flight of the plurality of scheduled flights. The

processes

150 and 160 are processes for a synchronized manner of flight inventory data.

In process 150, the system receives a flight inventory data change notification from the flight management system and accesses the flight management system database 40 according to the flight inventory data change notification, for example, sends a query request to the flight management system database 40 to read inventory data of a corresponding flight and updates the flight database 30 according to the read result. After the user finishes purchasing, corresponding stock data, passenger ticket data and passenger data are generated, the flight management system sends flight stock data change notice to the system through the message queue. The flight inventory data stored in the flight inventory database 30 is data of open seats on the corresponding flight (i.e., seats that can be sold to the outside, which are inventory containing sales policies). After receiving the notification of the change of the flight inventory data, the system accesses the flight management system database 40 to read the inventory data of the corresponding flight (i.e., the data of the above-mentioned open seat), and updates the flight inventory data of the flight database 30 according to the reading result.

When a user queries flight data, determines a flight to be reserved, and then performs a purchase operation, the system may receive a purchase request for a flight indicated as purchasable as a result of the query, and transmit the purchase request to a flight management system, which may process the purchase request. In process 160, if the purchase result is a failure, it indicates that the data in the flight buffer library 20, or even the data in the flight database 30, may be inaccurate, and therefore, the system may access the flight management system database 40 to read the inventory data of the corresponding flight in response to the failure of the purchase result, and update the inventory data of the corresponding flight in the flight database 30 according to the read result.

In the processes shown in fig. 2, the flight management system may use a message queue to send notifications to the system. In one embodiment, the message queue may be an ActiveMQ message queue. The ActiveMQ is provided with a visual interface, so that how many consumers consume, how many data waiting to be consumed on the queue, how many data are consumed and the like can be seen in real time. But as the consumers of the ActiveMQ diminish (e.g., consumption server failure, or network failure, etc.), the rate of message consumption drops, resulting in data pile-up on the ActiveMQ. Aiming at the problem, the system can periodically detect the data accumulation condition on the ActiveMQ, and when the number of the accumulated messages reaches a threshold value, alarm information is output to inform the flight management system to temporarily stop message pushing until the message consumption speed on the ActiveMQ is recovered to be normal, and then the message pushing is carried out.

As described above, the flight inquiry system (also simply referred to herein as "the present system") according to the embodiment of the present disclosure provides the user interface 10 for inquiring flights. The system includes a flight cache 20 and a flight database 30. Wherein the flight cache repository 20 is configured to store data associated with a plurality of scheduled flights loaded from the flight database at a predetermined refresh rate, and the flight database 30 is configured to synchronize data from a database of a flight management system of a third party. FIG. 3 is an exemplary block diagram of a portion of the present system. As shown in fig. 3, the system further includes a flight configuration table 210, a policy configuration table 220, a refresh request database 230, a message queue 250, a message production server 240, a message consumption server 260, and a server configuration table 270. It should be noted that herein, when multiple identical or similar elements are provided, they may be labeled in the figures using a two-part reference numeral (e.g., message consumption server 260-1). These elements may be referred to herein individually by their full reference number (e.g., message consumption server 260-1) or collectively by a first portion of their reference number (e.g., message consumption server 260).

As described above, the flight cache 20 is configured to store data associated with a plurality of scheduled flights loaded from the flight database at a predetermined refresh rate. The flight configuration table 210 and the policy configuration table 220 (which may, for example, each be stored in an apollo static table) are used by the present system to determine the predetermined refresh frequency and the plurality of scheduled flights described above. Flight configuration table 210 may include one or more departure airports and one or more arrival airports, specific examples of which may be shown in table 1 below. The policy configuration table 220 may include departure date-related parameters and refresh frequency for each flight type of the plurality of flight types, and a specific example thereof may be as shown in table 2 below.

TABLE 1 specific example of flight configuration Table

Table 2 specific examples of policy configuration tables

Type of flight	Date of departure	Refresh frequency
			Domestic single pass	Within 30 days	Refreshed at one time in 20 minutes
Domestic single pass	Within 31-60 days	Refresh once in 1 hour
			Domestic single pass	Within 61-360 days	Refreshing once in 1 day
International single pass	Within 60 days	Refreshed at one time in 20 minutes
			International single pass	Within 61-360 days	Refreshing once in 1 day
Domestic round trip	Within 30 days, and back and forth for 1-7 days	Refreshed at 30 min
			Domestic round trip	Within 31-60 days, and back and forth for 1-7 days	Refreshing once in 1 day
International round trip	Within 60 days, and back and forth for 1-7 days	Refresh once in 1 hour

The system may determine the values of the items in the flight configuration table 210 and the policy configuration table 220 based on historical data of flight queries and/or purchases (the historical data may originate from the system or from the flight management system). The historical data may be, for example, ticket purchase data for less than 30 days, for example, in winter, the amount of tickets ordered to airlines in warm zones at airports may increase significantly, belonging to hot airlines during this period. The system may determine hot routes from historical data of flight inquiries and/or purchases, thereby determining the values D1 and D2 for hot departure airports and the values A1, A2 … … A5 for hot arrival airports.

Taking the flight configuration table 210 and the policy configuration table 220 shown in table 1 and table 2 above as an example, a specific example of determining the scheduled refresh frequency and the plurality of scheduled flights to be used for refreshing the flight cache library 20 according to the flight configuration table 210 and the policy configuration table 220 is described below. Assuming that the current date is 2021, 10, month, 8, a plurality of scheduled flights and corresponding scheduled refresh rates may be determined as shown in table 3 below.

TABLE 3 example of scheduled flights and scheduled Refresh frequencies

In some embodiments, the values of the entries in the flight configuration table 210 and the policy configuration table 220 determined from historical data of flight queries and/or purchases may be used as initial values from which the system may determine the initial values for scheduled flights and scheduled refresh rates using the methods described above. These initial values may then be adjusted based on the current time and the query and/or purchase of flights within a time period prior to the current time to update the flight configuration table 210 and the policy configuration table 220, thereby enabling the determined scheduled flights and scheduled refresh rates determined by the present system to be updated. For example, if the amount of tickets for a flight increases significantly, the frequency of refreshes for that flight may be increased; or if the purchase failure rate of a flight becomes high, the frequency of refreshing the flight may be increased, and so on. In one particular example, the present system statistically finds an increase in the number of invoices for airlines D1 through A1 whose departure date is the 31 th future day, then the refresh frequency for airlines D1 through A1 whose departure date is the 31 th future day may be adjusted to a 20 minute refresh. In another specific example, the present system may find that the failure rate of purchases by airlines D1 through A1 that depart on the next 10 th day is high, which may be due to a refresh rate that is not high enough for a 20 minute refresh.

The system is configured with a plurality of servers for loading relevant data in the flight database 30 into the flight cache 20 at a predetermined refresh rate. The present system includes a refresh request database 230 (which may be, for example, a mongoDB database) to store a plurality of refresh requests indicating that data is loaded from the flight database 30 for loading into the flight cache library 20. Each refresh request includes a scheduled refresh time field and a scheduled flight field to indicate that data associated with a scheduled flight is loaded from the flight database at the scheduled refresh time. The message production server 240 examines the requests in the refresh request database 230 for a predetermined period of time (e.g., every minute), pushing all refresh requests (also referred to herein as "target refresh requests") whose predetermined refresh time indicated by the predetermined refresh time field is no later than the current time to the message queue 250 (which may be, for example, a rabbitMQ message queue). The message consumption server 260 is configured to read the targeted refresh request from the message queue and read the data associated with the flight indicated by the targeted refresh request from the flight database 30 and write the read data associated with the flight to the flight cache 20.

The refresh requests in refresh request database 230 are generated by servers of the present system, which may include message production server 240 or message consumption server 260. For example, message production server 240 generates a plurality of initial refresh requests at predetermined times of day based on flight configuration table 210 and policy configuration table 220, and writes the generated plurality of initial refresh requests to refresh request database 230. Each refresh request includes a scheduled flight field corresponding to a scheduled flight and a scheduled refresh time field corresponding to a scheduled refresh time. The reserved flight field may be determined based on the method of determining reserved flights (i.e., the contents of table 3) described above. The predetermined refresh time field may be determined based on the current time at which the refresh request was generated after the predetermined refresh frequency (i.e., the contents of table 3) is determined according to the method described above. For example, if the current time is 00:05 and the predetermined refresh frequency is 20 minutes, the next predetermined refresh time is determined to be 00: 25. These initial refresh requests are pushed to message queue 250 by message production server 240 and consumed by message consumption server 260, respectively, at respective predetermined refresh times.

The message consumption server 260 loads the data associated with the flight indicated by the refresh request from the flight database 30 according to the read indication of the refresh request, and writes the data into the flight cache library 20 to refresh the cache data of the flight by the present system. Thereafter, the message consumption server 260 may update the refresh request according to the current time and the predetermined refresh frequency of the current refresh request to form a new refresh request, and write the generated updated refresh request into the refresh request database 230. For example, if the current time for the message consuming server 260 to consume the message and complete the data refresh of the flight cache library 20 is 00:25, and the scheduled refresh frequency of the flight corresponding to the current refresh request is 20 minutes, the message consuming server 260 determines that the next scheduled refresh time of the flight is 00: 45. The message consumption server 260 changes the field of the predetermined refresh time in the refresh request accordingly and stores the changed refresh request in the refresh request database 230 for the next message push and consumption.

To avoid that refresh requests in the refresh request database 230 are pushed repeatedly, an identification field may be set for each refresh request. For example, after a refresh request is initially generated, the identification field is set to a first value (e.g., "yes") indicating that the refresh request may be pushed. Before message production server 240 prepares to push multiple refresh requests in bulk, the identification field may be modified to a second value in bulk (e.g., "no"), indicating that the refresh request may not be pushed. After the message consumption server 260 has flushed the flight data indicated by the refresh request and updated the scheduled refresh time field of the refresh request, the identification field may be set to the first value again and stored in the refresh request database 230 to wait to be pushed.

Since the rate of message consumption is much slower than the rate of message production, in order to avoid message accumulation in the message queue 250, only one message production server 240 may be provided in the system, and multiple message consumption servers 260-1, 260-2, 260-3, etc. may be provided. In addition, only one message production server 240 is provided, and the refresh request in the refresh request database 230 can be prevented from being repeatedly pushed.

Further, although a plurality of message consuming servers 260-1, 260-2, 260-3, etc. are provided, sometimes the message consuming server 260 may malfunction, resulting in message consuming failure and thus message accumulation in the message queue 250. In some embodiments, the present system may also include a server configuration table 270 (which may be stored, for example, in a Redis database). Each message consuming server 260 writes its own IP address to the server configuration table 270 at a predetermined time period (e.g., every 15 seconds). The message producing server 240 determines the number of message consuming servers 260 currently working normally according to the IP addresses of the message consuming servers recorded in the server configuration table 270 before pushing the target refresh request to the message queue. If the number of the message consumption servers 260 currently operating normally is less than the predetermined number, the message push is not performed. Otherwise, if the number of the message consumption servers 260 which are currently and normally working is not less than the preset number, the message pushing is executed. In this manner, message accumulation on message queue 250 can be avoided.

Furthermore, each message consumption server 260 may further include a respective local cache queue, so that the message consumption server 260 may read a plurality of refresh requests from the message queue 250 in batch at a time and store the plurality of refresh requests read at a time into the corresponding local cache queue, and then the message consumption server 260 may read and process the refresh requests from the corresponding local cache queue one by one. Because the message amount of the refresh request is huge, the mechanism of the local cache queue can reduce the occupation time of each message consumption server 260 on the network as much as possible, and ensure the smoothness of the network.

The present disclosure also provides an apparatus for providing flight inquiry services. An apparatus for providing flight inquiry services includes one or more processors and one or more memories. The one or more processors are configured to perform the methods described above in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. The memory is configured to store data and programs and the like required by the processor. The program comprises a series of computer executable instructions necessary to cause a processor to perform the method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure described above. The data includes data in the databases described above, data in the configuration table, data in the message queue, and the like. The one or more memories may be configured to store one item of the above-described content using one memory, may be configured to collectively store one item of the above-described content using a plurality of memories, or may store more than one item of the above-described content using one memory.

It should be noted that one or more memories may all be a local memory, may all be a cloud memory, and may also be a part of the local memory and a part of the cloud memory. Similarly, one or more of the processors may all be local processors, may all be cloud processors, may be part of local processors, and may be part of cloud processors.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary block diagram of a generic hardware system 300 that can be applied to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Hardware system 300, which may be an example of a hardware device applied to aspects of the present disclosure, will now be described with reference to fig. 4. Hardware system 300 may be any machine configured to perform processing and/or computing, and may be, but is not limited to, a workstation, a server, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a personal data assistant, a smart phone, a vehicle computer, or any combination thereof. The flight inquiry system or the device for providing flight inquiry service according to the embodiment of the disclosure may be implemented in whole or at least in part by the hardware system 300 or a similar device or system.

Hardware system 300 may include components connected to bus 302 or in communication with bus 302, possibly via one or more interfaces. For example, hardware system 300 may include a bus 302, as well as one or more processors 304, one or more input devices 306, and one or more output devices 308. The one or more processors 304 may be any type of processor and may include, but are not limited to, one or more general purpose processors and/or one or more special purpose processors (e.g., special processing chips). Input device 306 may be any type of device that can input information to a computing device, which may include, but is not limited to, a camera, a lidar sensor, an inertial navigation system, a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen, a microphone, and/or a remote control. Output device 308 may be any type of device that can present information and may include, but is not limited to, a display, a speaker, a buzzer, a video/audio output terminal, a vibrator, and/or a printer.

Hardware system 300 may also include non-transitory storage device 310 or be connected with non-transitory storage device 310. The non-transitory storage device 310 may be any storage device that is non-transitory and that may enable data storage, and may include, but is not limited to, a magnetic disk drive, an optical storage device, solid state memory, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, an optical disk, or any other optical medium, a ROM (read only memory), a RAM (random access memory), a cache memory, and/or any other memory chip/chip set, and/or any other medium from which a computer may read data, instructions, and/or code. The non-transitory storage device 310 may be detachable from the interface. The non-transitory storage device 310 may have data/instructions/code for implementing the methods, steps, and processes described above. One or more of the one or more memories described above may be implemented by the non-transitory storage device 310.

Hardware system 300 may also include a communication device 312. The communication device 312 may be any type of device or system capable of communicating with external devices and/or with a network and may include, but is not limited to, a modem, a network card, an infrared communication device, a wireless communication device, and/or a chipset, such as a bluetooth device, 1302.11 device, WiFi device, WiMax device, cellular communication device, and/or the like.

The bus 302 may include, but is not limited to, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, an enhanced ISA (eisa) bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus.

Hardware system 300 may also include a working memory 314, which may be any type of working memory that can store instructions and/or data useful for the operation of processor 304, which may include, but is not limited to, a random access memory and/or a read-only memory device.

Software elements may be located in working memory 314 including, but not limited to, an operating system 316, one or more application programs 318, drivers, and/or other data and code. Instructions for performing the methods and steps described above may be included in one or more application programs 318. Executable code or source code for the instructions of the software elements may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as storage device 310 described above, and may be read into working memory 314 by compilation and/or installation. Executable or source code for the instructions of the software elements may also be downloaded from a remote location.

It is also to be understood that variations may be made in accordance with specific requirements. For example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or any combination thereof. In addition, connections to other computing devices, such as network input/output devices, may be employed. For example, some or all of the methods or apparatus according to embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by programming hardware (e.g., programmable logic circuitry including Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and/or Programmable Logic Arrays (PLAs)) in assembly or hardware programming languages (e.g., VERILOG, VHDL, C + +) using logic and algorithms according to the present disclosure.

It should also be understood that the components of hardware system 300 may be distributed across a network. For example, some processes may be performed using one processor, while other processes may be performed by another processor that is remote from the one processor. Other components of hardware system 300 may also be similarly distributed. As such, hardware system 300 may be interpreted as a distributed computing system that performs processing at multiple locations.

In addition, embodiments of the present disclosure may also include the following examples:

1. a method of providing flight inquiry services, comprising:

pre-establishing a flight database, wherein the flight database synchronizes data from a flight management system database of a third party;

pre-establishing a flight cache library storing data associated with a plurality of predetermined flights loaded from the flight database at a predetermined refresh rate;

receiving a flight inquiry request;

in response to data associated with the flight requesting the query being stored in the flight cache, reading data associated with the flight requesting the query from the flight cache as provided as a query result; and

in response to the data associated with the flight requesting the query not being stored in the flight cache, reading data associated with the flight requesting the query from the flight database and generating and providing query results based on the data, and storing the data associated with the flight requesting the query read from the flight database in the flight cache.

2. The method of 1, further comprising determining the predetermined refresh frequency and the plurality of predetermined flights from a flight configuration table and a policy configuration table, wherein,

the flight configuration table includes one or more departure airports and one or more arrival airports, an

The policy configuration table includes departure date related parameters for each of the plurality of classes of flights and a refresh frequency for each class of flights.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining initial values for the flight configuration table and the policy configuration table based on historical data of flight queries and/or purchases, and adjusting the initial values to update the flight configuration table and the policy configuration table based on the current time and queries and/or purchases of flights within a time period prior to the current time.

4. The method of 1, wherein the data associated with the plurality of scheduled flights stored in the flight cache library comprises inventory, shipping price, and taxes for each of the plurality of scheduled flights.

5. The method of 1, further comprising:

synchronizing all of the destination data in the flight management system database to the flight database at predetermined times of day; and

and receiving a data change notice from the flight management system, and updating the flight database according to the data change notice.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

responding to the data change notification as a flight plan data change notification, and updating the flight database according to the content of the flight plan data change notification; and

and responding to the flight inventory data change notification, accessing the flight management system database according to the flight inventory data change notification to read inventory data of corresponding flights, and updating the flight database according to the reading result.

7. The method of 1, further comprising:

receiving a purchase request for a flight indicated as purchasable by the query result and transmitting the purchase request to the flight management system; and

and in response to the purchase result being failure, accessing the flight management system database to read inventory data of the corresponding flight, and updating the flight database according to the read result.

8. A method of providing flight inquiry services, comprising:

establishing a flight database in advance, wherein the flight database synchronizes stock data of flights from a flight management system database of a third party;

pre-establishing a flight cache library storing inventory data for a plurality of scheduled flights loaded from the flight database at a predetermined refresh rate, and fare and tax data for the plurality of scheduled flights obtained from the flight management system;

receiving a flight inquiry request;

reading inventory data and freight and tax data of the flight requesting the query from the flight cache library as a query result in response to the flight requesting the query being one or more of the plurality of scheduled flights; and

in response to the requested flight not being in the plurality of scheduled flights, reading inventory data for the requested flight from the flight database, obtaining freight rate and tax data for the requested flight from the flight management system, and generating and providing query results based on these data, and storing the inventory data and freight rate and tax data for the requested flight in the flight cache.

9. A flight inquiry system, the system providing a user interface for inquiring flights, the system comprising:

a flight database configured to synchronize data from a database of a flight management system of a third party; and

a flight cache bank configured to store data associated with a plurality of scheduled flights loaded from the flight database at a predetermined refresh frequency,

wherein the system is configured to:

receiving a flight query request through the user interface;

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a flight configuration table and a policy configuration table, wherein,

The policy configuration table includes departure date related parameters for each of the plurality of classes of flights and a refresh frequency for each class of flights,

the system is further configured to determine the predetermined refresh frequency and the plurality of predetermined flights based on the flight configuration table and the policy configuration table.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a refresh request database configured to store a plurality of refresh requests, wherein each of the refresh requests includes a scheduled refresh time field to indicate loading of data associated with a scheduled flight from the flight database at a scheduled refresh time;

a message queue;

a message production server configured to read a target refresh request with a predetermined refresh time not later than the current time from the refresh request database at a predetermined time period, and push the target refresh request to the message queue; and

a plurality of message consumption servers, each message consumption server configured to read the targeted refresh request from the message queue and read data associated with the flight indicated by the targeted refresh request from the flight database and write the read data associated with the flight indicated by the targeted refresh request to the flight cache library.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a server configuration table, wherein,

each of the message consuming servers is further configured to write its own IP address into the server configuration table at a predetermined time period; and

the message production server is further configured to:

before the target refreshing request is pushed to the message queue, determining the number of the message consumption servers which normally work at present according to the server configuration table;

responding to the situation that the number of the message consumption servers which normally work at present is smaller than the preset number, and not executing the pushing; and

and responding to the situation that the number of the message consumption servers which work normally at present is not less than the preset number, and executing the pushing.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein,

the message production server is further configured to: generating a plurality of initial refresh requests and writing the plurality of initial refresh requests to the refresh request database at a predetermined time each day; and

each of the message consumption servers is further configured to: and after loading the data associated with the flight indicated by the target refresh request from the flight database, updating the preset refresh time field of the target refresh request according to the current time and the preset refresh frequency to generate an updated refresh request, and writing the generated updated refresh request into the refresh request database.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising a plurality of local cache queues corresponding respectively to the plurality of message consumption servers, wherein each of the message consumption servers is further configured to: reading a plurality of target refresh requests from the message queue, storing the read target refresh requests into a corresponding local cache queue, and reading and processing the target refresh requests from the corresponding local cache queue one by one.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the system is further configured to:

16. The system of 15, wherein the system is further configured to:

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the system is further configured to:

18. A flight inquiry system, the system providing a user interface for inquiring flights, the system comprising:

a flight database configured to synchronize inventory data for flights from a database of a flight management system of a third party; and

a flight cache configured to store inventory data for a plurality of scheduled flights loaded from the flight database at a predetermined refresh rate and tariff and tax data for the plurality of scheduled flights obtained from the flight management system,

wherein the system is configured to:

receiving a flight query request through the user interface;

19. An apparatus for providing flight inquiry services, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more memories configured to store a series of computer-executable instructions,

wherein the series of computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method of any one of claims 1-8.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a series of computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform the method of any of claims 1-8.

Although the various aspects of the present disclosure have been described so far with reference to the accompanying drawings, the above-described methods, systems and apparatuses are merely exemplary examples, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited by these aspects, but is only limited by the following aspects: the appended claims and their equivalents. Various elements may be omitted or equivalent elements may be substituted. In addition, the steps may be performed in a different order than described in the present disclosure. Further, the various elements may be combined in various ways. It is also important that as technology develops many of the elements described can be replaced by equivalent elements which appear after the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A method of providing flight inquiry services, comprising:

receiving a flight inquiry request;

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the predetermined refresh frequency and the plurality of predetermined flights based on a flight configuration table and a policy configuration table, wherein,

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining initial values for the flight configuration table and policy configuration table based on historical data of flight queries and/or purchases, and adjusting the initial values to update the flight configuration table and policy configuration table based on the current time and queries and/or purchases for flights within a period of time prior to the current time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data associated with the plurality of scheduled flights stored in the flight cache library comprises an inventory, a fare, and a tax for each scheduled flight of the plurality of scheduled flights.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

6. A method of providing flight inquiry services, comprising:

receiving a flight inquiry request;

7. A flight inquiry system, the system providing a user interface for inquiring flights, the system comprising:

wherein the system is configured to:

receiving a flight query request through the user interface;

8. A flight inquiry system, the system providing a user interface for inquiring flights, the system comprising:

wherein the system is configured to:

receiving a flight query request through the user interface;

9. An apparatus for providing flight inquiry services, comprising:

one or more processors; and

wherein the series of computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method of any one of claims 1-6.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a series of computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform the method of any of claims 1-6.