Just-in-Time Software Fix Notification via Error Signatures
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Solution Overview
Problem
End users face a lengthy and time-consuming process in determining if a subsequent application program release addresses specific errors or exceptional events, as software fix information is not systematically maintained, leading to difficulties in obtaining updates.
Innovation Solution
A method is introduced where a signature is generated for an error event, tied to a program component, and sent to hosted services to determine if a subsequent release exists with a fix, enabling notifications for downloading the updated application program.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If end users manually search for software fixes through multiple Internet searches and customer service calls, then they can obtain information about subsequent releases, but the process becomes lengthy and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system proactively generates signatures corresponding to error events and provides them to hosted services before users need to search for fixes. This preliminary action of pre-processing error information enables the system to automatically match and notify users when fixes become available, eliminating the need for manual searching and significantly reducing the time users spend obtaining fix information.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where error signatures from application crashes are automatically sent to hosted services, which then compare these signatures against a database of known issues and their fixes. When a match is found or a fix becomes available, the system feeds back notification information to the user, creating a closed-loop system that eliminates manual searching and continuously provides updated fix information.
2Device complexity
If software product release information is not systematically collected and maintained, then storage and management complexity is reduced, but customer service personnel and users cannot efficiently determine whether subsequent releases contain software fixes
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential information needed for fix matching - specifically error signatures and their corresponding program components - from the complex software release information. By taking out only these critical elements and maintaining them in a structured format in hosted services, the system achieves both simplicity in management and efficiency in determining fix availability, resolving the contradiction between low complexity and high ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces hosted services as an intermediary layer between the application program and users. This intermediary systematically collects, maintains, and manages error signature information and software fix data in a structured manner. The intermediary automatically processes error reports, matches them against the signature database, and provides fix information to users, thereby enabling efficient fix determination without requiring complex information management systems at the user or application level.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for providing notifications to users of software product releases that contain software fixes for errors or exceptional events experienced during execution of application programs. The techniques can include proactively generating a signature that corresponds to an error event experienced during execution of an application program, providing the signature to hosted services for determining whether a subsequent release of the application program exists containing a fix to correct the error event, and, having determined that a subsequent release of the application program exists, receiving a notification pertaining to the subsequent release, including information for downloading the subsequent release to a user computer. In this way, notifications of software product releases that address error events experienced during execution of application programs can be provided to users in a just-in-time (JIT) fashion for subsequent downloading of the software product releases to their respective computers.