Dynamic Documentation Assembly for Installed Software Services
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing documentation for software suites becomes unwieldy due to comprehensive coverage of all services and versions, making it irrelevant and complex for end-users who only install a subset of services, and fails to describe interactions between services.
Innovation Solution
A system that dynamically generates documentation based on installed services and their versions, using a service discovery mechanism to identify relevant documents and compile them into a customized set, excluding unnecessary information and covering software dependencies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If comprehensive documentation covering all services and versions is provided, then completeness of information is improved, but documentation complexity and size increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments comprehensive documentation into service-specific modules, where each service has its own documentation set. The system then dynamically assembles relevant segments based on installed services, providing completeness without overwhelming complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic documentation generation that adapts to the user's specific service installation configuration. The documentation set is dynamically assembled at runtime based on which services are actually installed, transforming static comprehensive docs into dynamic tailored documentation.
2Loss of information
If comprehensive documentation covering all services is provided, then coverage of all possible service combinations is improved, but relevance to user's specific installation decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by pre-organizing documentation into service-specific modules with metadata identifying which services each document applies to. This allows the system to quickly assemble relevant documentation based on the user's specific service installation without requiring users to search through irrelevant content.
3Reliability
If documentation covers every possible service version combination, then version compatibility is improved, but documentation maintenance complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments documentation into service-specific modules with version metadata, allowing independent maintenance of each service's documentation. The system dynamically assembles compatible versions at runtime, eliminating the need to manually create and maintain documentation for every possible version combination.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses parameter changes by incorporating version identifiers as metadata parameters in documentation modules. The system dynamically selects and assembles documentation based on version parameters matching the installed services, ensuring version compatibility without manual intervention for each combination.
4Device complexity
If individual service documentation is provided, then documentation size is reduced, but ability to describe service interactions is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges individual service documentation modules with interaction documentation modules. The system dynamically assembles both types of documentation based on installed services, providing concise service-specific info plus relevant interaction guidance only when those services are actually installed.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for dynamically building documentation based on installed services are described herein. In an embodiment, a plurality of different electronic documents are stored in a data repository. A server computer system identifies one or more service software components of an application program that have been installed as part of a particular application instance. The server computer identifies a subset of one or more particular documents from the plurality of documents stored in the data repository that correspond to the identified one or more services. Using the subset of one or more particular documents, the server generates a particular customized document which is then stored in association with the particular application instance.