阅读说明：本技术 一种基于云pos的智能支付和退款方法以及电子设备 (Cloud POS-based intelligent payment and refund method and electronic equipment ) 是由 张亚飞 黎超 于 2021-09-10 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明提供一种基于云POS的智能支付和退款方法以及电子设备。其中,基于云POS的智能支付包括根据商品信息生成交易订单并发送到云POS应用服务器未完成交易订单数据库中；发起收单支付任务并接收根据客户支付信息生成的支付编码；根据所述支付编码生成订单支付记录以发起支付请求；接收所述订单支付请求结果并更新所述交易订单的收款数据。通过本发明,能够在交易中断后重启后能够进入上次交易订单完成后续支付问题,无需重新进行建单,提高收银效率,优化客户支付体验。(The invention provides an intelligent payment and refund method based on a cloud POS (point of sale) and an electronic device. The cloud POS-based intelligent payment comprises the steps of generating a transaction order according to commodity information and sending the transaction order to an unfinished transaction order database of a cloud POS application server; initiating an order and payment receiving task and receiving a payment code generated according to the payment information of the client; generating an order payment record according to the payment code to initiate a payment request; and receiving the order payment request result and updating the collection data of the transaction order. According to the invention, the problem of completing subsequent payment in the last transaction order can be solved after the transaction is restarted after the transaction is interrupted, the order is not required to be built again, the cash register efficiency is improved, and the payment experience of a client is optimized.)

1. The intelligent payment method based on the cloud POS is applied to a cloud POS terminal and comprises the following steps:

generating a transaction order according to the commodity information and sending the transaction order to an unfinished transaction order database of the cloud POS application server;

initiating an order and payment receiving task and receiving a payment code generated according to the payment information of the client;

generating an order payment record according to the payment code to initiate a payment request;

and receiving the order payment request result and updating the collection data of the transaction order.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: after the cloud POS terminal is shut down and restarted and is connected with a cloud POS application server, inquiring a transaction order of the unfinished payment task of the customer according to the related information of the unfinished transaction order, and continuing initiating a receipt payment task according to the inquired transaction order of the unfinished payment task, wherein the related information of the unfinished transaction order comprises an order number, a customer member card number and a mobile phone number.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the number of the order payment tasks can be set as N times of payment, the payment amount of each time can be set as M yuan, wherein the total successful payment amount is not larger than the transaction order amount, and when the total successful payment amount is equal to the transaction order amount, the transaction order finishes the collection;

the path of the order receiving payment task is divided into a direct connection payment path and a non-direct connection payment path, wherein the direct connection payment path comprises cloud flash payment, WeChat payment, Payment treasure payment, bank card swiping card payment and membership card payment, and the non-direct connection payment path comprises bank transfer payment, cash payment and check payment.

4. The method of claim 1 or 2, further comprising:

and the cloud POS application server deletes the transaction orders which do not complete the payment task in the incomplete transaction order database at regular time according to preset time, wherein the preset time is set according to the order time limit of other business systems.

5. The method of claim 1 or 3, further comprising:

after initiating an order payment task according to the payment amount and a payment path selected by a customer each time, generating a unique order payment record according to the received customer payment information, sending the unique order payment record to a cloud POS application server and storing the unique order payment record in a database;

when the payment path of the order payment task is a direct connection payment path, the cloud POS application server assembles the order payment record into a payment parameter, calls a payment gateway to initiate a payment request to a third-party payment platform through a payment center, wakes up a user payment tray after the third-party payment platform receives the payment request, and informs the payment gateway that the initiation of the payment request is successful;

after a payment request initiating success notification is received, a payment result query request is initiated to a cloud POS application server at regular time according to preset time;

whether a payment result query request is continuously initiated is determined according to the payment result state returned by the cloud POS application server, and when the payment result state is in payment, the payment result query request is continuously initiated at regular time; when the payment result state is payment success or payment failure, updating the state of the order payment record;

and when the payment path of the order receiving and payment task is a non-direct connection payment path, the cloud POS application server synchronously updates the order payment record to a payment center.

6. An intelligent refund method based on cloud POS is characterized by being applied to a cloud POS terminal and comprising the following steps:

generating an order refund record for the paid transaction order according to the refund amount of the customer and the refund path, and sending the order refund record to an unfinished transaction order database of the cloud POS application server;

initiating a refund request according to the order refund record;

and receiving the refund request result of the order and updating the refund data of the transaction order.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

the completed transaction order can generate a plurality of order refund records, the sum of the order refund amounts is not more than the payment sum of the transaction order, and the refund path comprises a direct connection payment path refund and a non-direct connection payment path refund;

when the refund path is a direct connection refund path, the cloud POS application server assembles the order refund record into a refund parameter, calls a refund interface to send a refund request to a third party payment platform through a payment center, refunds after the third party payment platform receives the refund request, and informs the refund interface that the refund request is sent successfully;

after receiving a refund request initiation success notification, initiating a refund result query request to a cloud POS application server at regular time according to preset time;

whether a refund result query request is continuously initiated or not is determined according to the refund result state returned by the cloud POS application server, and when the refund result state is in refund, the refund result query request is continuously and regularly initiated; when the refund result state is the successful refund or the failure refund, updating the state of the refund record of the order;

and when the refund path is a non-direct connection payment path, the cloud POS application server synchronously sends the refund record of the order to a payment center for storage.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

and when the refund path is a direct connection refund path, judging whether the time for initiating the refund of the transaction order exceeds the refund period of the third-party payment platform, and if the time exceeds the refund period, selecting a non-direct connection payment path to generate an order refund record.

9. A computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored, which, when loaded and executed by a processor, implements the cloud POS-based smart payment method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 or the cloud POS-based smart refund method according to claim 5 or 8.

10. An electronic device, comprising: a processor, a memory, and a communication interface; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the memory is used for storing a computer program;

the processor is used for loading and executing the computer program to enable the electronic equipment to execute the manual customer service automatic order distribution method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 or the intelligent cloud POS-based refund method according to any one of claims 5 to 8;

the communication interface is used for realizing communication between the access device and other equipment.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of intelligent payment, in particular to an intelligent payment and refund method based on a cloud POS and an electronic device.

Background

The greatest difference between home decoration building material retail business and other retail business in payment scenes is that orders have multiple commodity types, large transaction amount and long refund period, so that a customer may need to complete payment in multiple payment modes for one order. Similarly, the customer actually produces redundant building material products at different nodes of the home decoration, so that the situation of returning multiple varieties of products occurs.

However, the situation of transaction interruption often occurs when a POS machine is powered off, transaction communication is overtime, the refund time exceeds the third party payment channel limit, the payment mode needs to be switched when the amount of a customer is insufficient, and the like when a single order is paid for and refunded for many times, in the prior art, the method for processing the POS order receiving problem is to cancel the interrupted transaction order and initiate the transaction again, so that the cashier efficiency is greatly reduced; meanwhile, an ultra-long-term refund scene often appears in the sales of home decoration building material commodities, refund is limited within 7 days or 15 days under the common condition, the ultra-long-term refund needs to be supported by a merchant system and only supports return on the original way, and the user is very inconvenient under the condition that other refund channels are needed, so that a solution is provided for the problems of repeated payment and repeated refund in the cash receiving process of the home decoration industry.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cloud POS-based intelligent payment and refund method and an electronic device for solving the above problems in the prior art.

In order to achieve the above and other related objects, the present invention provides an intelligent payment method based on cloud POS, where the method is applied to a cloud POS terminal, and includes: generating a transaction order according to the commodity information and sending the transaction order to an unfinished transaction order database of the cloud POS application server; initiating an order and payment receiving task and receiving a payment code generated according to the payment information of the client; generating an order payment record according to the payment code to initiate a payment request; and receiving the order payment request result and updating the collection data of the transaction order.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes: after the cloud POS terminal is shut down and restarted and is connected with a cloud POS application server, inquiring a transaction order of the unfinished payment task of the customer according to the related information of the unfinished transaction order, and continuing initiating a receipt payment task according to the inquired transaction order of the unfinished payment task, wherein the related information of the unfinished transaction order comprises an order number, a customer member card number and a mobile phone number.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes: the number of the order payment tasks can be set as N times of payment, the payment amount of each time can be set as M yuan, wherein the total successful payment amount is not larger than the transaction order amount, and when the total successful payment amount is equal to the transaction order amount, the transaction order finishes the collection; the path of the order payment task is divided into a direct connection payment path and a non-direct connection payment path, wherein the direct connection payment path comprises WeChat payment, Payment treasure payment, bank card swiping card payment and membership card payment, and the non-direct connection payment path comprises bank transfer payment, cash payment and check payment.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes: and the cloud POS application server deletes the transaction orders which do not complete the payment task in the incomplete transaction order database at regular time according to preset time, wherein the preset time is set according to the order time limit of other business systems.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes: after initiating an order payment task according to the payment amount and a payment path selected by a customer each time, generating a unique order payment record according to the received customer payment information, sending the unique order payment record to a cloud POS application server and storing the unique order payment record in a database; when the payment path of the order payment task is a direct connection payment path, the cloud POS application server assembles the order payment record into a payment parameter, calls a payment gateway to initiate a payment request to a third-party payment platform through a payment center, wakes up a user payment tray after the third-party payment platform receives the payment request, and informs the payment gateway that the initiation of the payment request is successful; after a payment request initiating success notification is received, a payment result query request is initiated to a cloud POS application server at regular time according to preset time; whether a payment result query request is continuously initiated is determined according to the payment result state returned by the cloud POS application server, and when the payment result state is in payment, the payment result query request is continuously initiated at regular time; when the payment result state is payment success or payment failure, updating the state of the order payment record; when the payment path of the order receiving and payment task is a non-direct connection payment path, the cloud POS application server synchronously updates the order payment record to a payment center;

in an embodiment of the present invention, the present invention provides an intelligent refund method based on a cloud POS, where the method is applied to a cloud POS terminal, and includes: generating an order refund record for the paid transaction order according to the refund amount of the customer and the refund path, and sending the order refund record to an unfinished transaction order database of the cloud POS application server; initiating a refund request according to the order refund record; and receiving the refund request result of the order and updating the refund data of the transaction order.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes: the paid transaction order can generate a plurality of order refund records, the sum of the order refund amounts is not more than the total payment amount of the transaction order, and the refund path comprises a direct payment path refund and a non-direct payment path refund; when the refund path is a direct connection refund path, the cloud POS application server assembles the order refund record into a refund parameter, calls a refund interface to send a refund request to a third party payment platform through a payment center, refunds after the third party payment platform receives the refund request, and informs the refund interface that the refund request is sent successfully; after receiving a refund request initiation success notification, initiating a refund result query request to a cloud POS application server at regular time according to preset time; whether a refund result query request is continuously initiated or not is determined according to the refund result state returned by the cloud POS application server, and when the refund result state is in refund, the refund result query request is continuously and regularly initiated; when the refund result state is the successful refund or the failure refund, updating the state of the refund record of the order; and when the refund path is a non-direct connection payment path, the cloud POS application server synchronously sends the refund record of the order to a payment center for storage.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes: and when the refund path is a direct connection refund path, judging whether the time for initiating the refund of the transaction order exceeds the refund period of the third-party payment platform, and if the time exceeds the refund period, selecting a non-direct connection payment path to generate an order refund record.

To achieve the above and other related objects, the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored, which, when being loaded and executed by a processor, implements the cloud POS-based intelligent payment method or the cloud POS-based intelligent refund method.

To achieve the above and other related objects, the present invention provides an electronic device, comprising: a processor, a memory, and a communication interface; wherein the memory is for storing a computer program; the processor is used for loading and executing the computer program to enable the electronic equipment to execute the cloud POS-based intelligent payment method or the cloud POS-based intelligent refund method; the communication interface is used for realizing communication between the access device and other equipment.

As described above, the cloud POS-based intelligent payment and refund method provided by the invention realizes multiple direct connection and non-direct connection hybrid payments and multiple multi-channel refunds for large-amount payment of customers, solves the problem of transaction interruption caused by system or business reasons in a complex scene of the home decoration industry, and solves the problem of difficulty in refund for a very long period.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart of an intelligent payment method based on cloud POS in an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an intelligent refund method based on cloud POS according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic data flow processing diagram of a payment method for a cloud POS-based direct-connection third party payment platform according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic data flow processing diagram of a cloud POS-based non-direct connection payment method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

The embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to specific embodiments, and other advantages and effects of the present invention will be easily understood by those skilled in the art from the disclosure of the present specification. The invention is capable of other and different embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways, and its several details are capable of modification in various respects, all without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It is to be noted that the features in the following embodiments and examples may be combined with each other without conflict. All other embodiments, which can be obtained by a person skilled in the art without any inventive step based on the embodiments of the present invention, are within the scope of the present invention.

It should be noted that the drawings provided in the following embodiments are only for illustrating the basic idea of the present invention, and the components related to the present invention are only shown in the drawings rather than drawn according to the number, shape and size of the components in actual implementation, and the type, quantity and proportion of the components in actual implementation may be changed freely, and the layout of the components may be more complicated.

In order to solve the problems that in the prior art, the cashier efficiency is greatly reduced due to the fact that a cloud POS terminal is powered off or a bill needs to be recorded again when the communication is overtime, and the refund cannot be conducted when the refund time of a customer exceeds a limited time, the invention provides an intelligent payment and refund method based on a cloud POS and an electronic device.

As shown in fig. 1, the present embodiment provides an intelligent payment method based on cloud POS, including the following steps:

s11: and generating a transaction order according to the commodity information and sending the transaction order to an unfinished transaction order database of the cloud POS application server.

Specifically, a to-be-paid transaction order is generated by scanning a commodity barcode or manually inputting information such as the commodity barcode, the quantity, the unit price or an unpaid order barcode by a cashier and is sent to an unfinished order database of the cloud POS application server.

It should be noted that the unfinished transaction orders of the unfinished payment tasks of the customers stored in the unfinished order database of the cloud POS application server are deleted at regular time according to preset time, and the preset time is set according to unfinished list storage time limit of other upstream and downstream business systems, and generally can be set to 24 hours. And because part of the payment orders also belong to the orders of the unfinished payment tasks, the part of the orders are not deleted regularly so as to carry out the subsequent refund operation, but the order collection payment tasks are not supported to be continuously initiated.

Preferably, after the cloud POS terminal is shut down, restarted and connected with a network to enter service, the transaction order of the unfinished payment task of the client is inquired according to the related information of the unfinished transaction order, and an order receiving and payment task or a refund task is continuously initiated according to the inquired transaction order of the unfinished payment task. The uncompleted transaction order query mode can be queried through an order number, a customer member card number, a mobile phone number and the like.

S12: an order and payment task is initiated and a payment code generated according to the customer payment information is received.

Specifically, a transaction order can initiate multiple receipt payment tasks, the refund times and the payment amount of each time can be defined according to the requirements of customers, the total successful payment amount is not larger than the transaction order amount, and the collection records of the transaction order are updated after the receipt payment tasks of each time are completed.

Further, a payment path is selected according to customer requirements when the order-receiving payment task is initiated each time, the payment path comprises a direct connection payment path and a non-direct connection payment path, wherein the direct connection payment path comprises cloud flash payment, WeChat payment, Payment treasure payment, bank card swiping card payment and membership card payment, and the non-direct connection payment path comprises bank transfer payment, cash payment and check payment.

Further, multiple orders and payments initiated by a trade order may take multiple mixed payment paths based on customer demand. For example, a transaction order may have a transaction amount of 100 dollars and may be initiated with 3 payment tasks, one payment task being a 20 dollar payment with cash, one payment task being a 30 dollar payment with a bank card swipe, and one payment task being a 50 dollar payment with a treasurer payment.

Further, a unique payment transaction ID is generated from the order payment record generated for each order payment task to uniquely identify the order payment task.

S13: and generating an order payment record according to the payment code to initiate a payment request.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 3, when the payment path of the order payment task is the direct connection payment path, the cloud POS application server assembles the order payment record into a payment parameter to invoke the payment gateway to initiate a payment request to the third party payment platform via the payment center, and after the third party payment platform receives the payment request, wakes up the user payment tray and notifies the payment gateway that the initiation of the payment request is successful.

Further, after receiving the payment request initiation success notification, the cloud POS terminal initiates the order payment record payment result query request to the cloud POS application server at regular time according to the unique payment transaction ID of the order receipt payment at preset time, and 5s polling may be set between the preset time and the preset time.

Further, the cloud POS terminal determines whether to continue to initiate a payment result query request or not according to the payment result state returned by the cloud POS application server, and when the returned payment result state is in payment, the cloud POS terminal continues to initiate the payment result query request according to preset time; and when the returned payment result state is payment success or payment failure, stopping sending the payment result inquiry request.

In another embodiment of the method, as shown in fig. 4, when the payment path of the order payment task is a non-direct connection payment path, the cloud POS terminal inputs payment information of a customer, generates a payment code, sends an order payment record to the cloud POS application server database, and the cloud POS application server synchronously updates the order payment record to the payment center after receiving the information.

S14: and receiving the order payment request result and updating the collection data of the transaction order.

Specifically, the transaction order collection data is updated according to the payment result state returned by the cloud POS application server. For example, when the state of the received order payment record is the payment completion or the payment failure, the remaining amount of the required payment of the transaction order is calculated in real time, and the customer is waited to select the next payment path to complete the payment. When the remaining required payment amount is 0, the transaction order is completed.

Further, the state of the transaction order is updated to be unpaid, partial payment, unfinished payment due to payment overtime and paid according to the result of the order payment request.

Further, the cloud application server deletes the completed trade order from the unfinished trade order database.

In another embodiment, as shown in fig. 2, the present embodiment provides an intelligent refund method based on cloud POS, including the following steps:

s21: and generating an order refund record for the paid transaction order according to the refund amount of the client and the refund path, and sending the order refund record to the unfinished transaction order database of the cloud POS application server.

Specifically, after receiving the customer refund requirement, it is first queried whether the payment of the transaction order is successful according to the transaction order information of the customer, for example, if the order status is paid, partially paid, and partially refunded, the transaction order supports generation of an order refund record. And for the transaction order, generating a plurality of order refund records according to the returned goods information or the goods information only refunded, and generating a unique refund transaction ID for each order refund record, wherein the sum of refund amount of the transaction order is not more than the sum of successful payment of the transaction order.

Further, the refund path of the method comprises a direct connection payment path refund and a non-direct connection payment path refund, and the refund path is selected according to the requirements of customers. Preferably, the original route refund is carried out according to the payment record of the customer, and when the customer has special requirements, a non-direct connection payment path is provided for refunding.

Further, if the customer selects the original route for refund, if the refund amount relates to a plurality of payment paths, splitting according to the refund amount of each payment path when generating the order refund record, and modifying the refund amount of a certain payment path according to the customer requirement, wherein the refund amount of a single payment path is not more than the payment amount of the original path; and if the customer selects the non-direct connection payment path to refund, the payment is not limited by the payment amount of the original payment path.

Preferably, when the refund path is a direct connection refund path, whether the time for initiating the transaction order refund exceeds the refund period of the third-party payment platform is judged in advance, and if the time exceeds the refund period, a non-direct connection payment path is selected to generate an order refund record.

S22: and initiating a refund request according to the order refund record.

When the refund path is a direct connection refund path, the cloud POS application server assembles the order refund record into a refund parameter, calls a refund interface to send a refund request to a third party payment platform through a payment center, refunds after the third party payment platform receives the refund request, and informs the refund interface that the refund request is sent successfully;

further, after receiving the refund request initiation success notification, the cloud POS terminal initiates the order refund record payment result query request to the cloud POS application server according to the unique refund transaction ID of the refund request at a fixed time according to preset time, and 5-second polling may be set between the preset time.

Further, the cloud POS terminal determines whether to continue initiating a refund result query request or not according to a refund result state returned by the cloud POS application server, and when the returned refund result state is in refund, the cloud POS terminal continues initiating the refund result query request according to preset time; and when the returned payment result state is the refund success or the refund failure, stopping sending the refund result inquiry request and re-sending the order refund record.

Further, when the refund path is a non-direct connection payment path, the cloud POS terminal inputs refund information of a customer, generates an order refund record and sends the order refund record to the cloud POS application server, and the cloud POS application server synchronously sends the order refund record to the payment center for storage after receiving the order refund record.

S23: and receiving the refund request result of the order and updating the refund data of the transaction order.

Specifically, the refund data of the transaction order is updated according to the refund result state returned by the cloud POS application server. For example, when the status of the received order refund record is that the refund is successful or fails, the remaining refundable amount of the transaction order is calculated in real time, and when the remaining refundable amount is 0, the transaction order does not support the refund.

Furthermore, the status of the transaction order is updated to be partial refund and full refund according to the result of the order refund request.

Further, the cloud application server deletes the completed order refund record from the incomplete transaction order database.

Since the technical principle of the embodiment of the system is similar to that of the embodiment of the method, repeated description of the same technical details is omitted.

All or part of the steps for implementing the above method embodiments may be performed by hardware associated with a computer program. Based upon such an understanding, the present invention also provides a computer program product comprising one or more computer instructions. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can store or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that is integrated with one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy Disk, hard Disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

Referring to fig. 5, the embodiment provides an electronic device, which may be a portable computer, a smart phone, a tablet computer, or the like. In detail, the electronic device comprises at least, connected by a bus 51: a memory 52, a processor 53, and a communication interface 54, wherein the communication interface 54 is used for implementing communication between the data access device and other devices, the memory 52 is used for storing computer programs, and the processor 53 is used for executing the computer programs stored in the memory 52 to execute all or part of the steps in the foregoing method embodiments.

The above-mentioned system bus may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, or the like. The system bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown, but this does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus. The communication interface is used for realizing communication between the database access device and other equipment (such as a client, a read-write library and a read-only library). The Memory may include a Random Access Memory (RAM), and may further include a non-volatile Memory (non-volatile Memory), such as at least one disk Memory.

The Processor may be a general-purpose Processor, and includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), and the like; the Integrated Circuit may also be a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, a discrete Gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component.

In summary, according to the cloud POS-based intelligent payment and refund method and the electronic device provided by the invention, the last transaction order can be entered to complete the subsequent payment problem after the transaction is interrupted due to system or business reasons, and the order is not required to be built again, so that the cash register efficiency is improved, and the payment experience of the customer is optimized; and for the ultralong period refund of the home decoration service, multiple commodities are submitted for multiple times for multi-channel refund, and the problem of difficulty in the ultralong period refund is solved. The invention provides a quick payment and refund scheme for the customer and improves the user experience. Therefore, the invention effectively overcomes various defects in the prior art and has high industrial utilization value.

The foregoing embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and utilities of the present invention and are not intended to limit the invention. Any person skilled in the art can modify or change the above-mentioned embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, it is intended that all equivalent modifications or changes which can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and technical spirit of the present invention be covered by the claims of the present invention.