Catalog management module in a custom product configuration system

Abstract

A software system may be used to define configurable products for use in a selling application module by sellers of products to define custom configuration of products to satisfy customer needs. During periodic points in time, a subset of all configuration of these configurable products may be offered for sale by sellers user special price terms and conditions. Catalogs of sale products may provide a mechanism for configuring only products that are included within sale products. A catalog manager module may assist in preparing a catalog of product data and related configuration rules associated with only products included within a particular catalog.

1 - 29 . (canceled) 
     
     
         30 . A method comprising:
 responsive to a user's selection of a subset of available products, extracting, by a catalog management system hosted at a first computer system, data regarding the selected subset of products from a product database accessible to the catalog management system, and transmitting the extracted data to a runtime data reduction module communicatively coupled to the catalog management system; and   generating, by the runtime data reduction module, a catalog including only the extracted data, and providing the generated catalog to the user via a user application module communicatively coupled to the runtime data reduction module.   
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 30 , further comprising hierarchically defining, by the runtime data reduction module, the products included in the catalog using at least one of product configuration data and product configuration rules associated with the respective products, wherein the products included in the catalog are configurable by application of the product configuration rules to the product configuration data. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 31 , further comprising:
 receiving, at the runtime data reduction module, user information via the user application module;   defining, by the runtime data reduction module, a configurable product based on the received user information and configuration rules associated with the configured product; and   providing, by the runtime data reduction module, access to the definition to the user via the user application module.