Systems and methods of just-in-time proactive notification of a product release containing a software fix

Abstract

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.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, at a computing system, an indication of an error in execution of an application on an end user computer, the indication including a data element that ties the indication to a component of the application and makes the indication unique for the component;   obtaining, by the computing system using the received indication, information of a release of the application, the release being configured to correct the error; and   sending a notification of the release of the application to the end user computer.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 comparing, by the computing system, the received indication to one or more indexes to determine a match between the received indication and an entry of the one or more indexes, the entry pertaining to the release of the application. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising:
 having determined the match between the received indication and the entry of the one or more indexes, preparing, by the computing system from the information of the release of the application, the notification of the release of the application. 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein a correction of the error is included in a defect ticket, and wherein the method further comprises:
 detecting the defect ticket stored on a defect management server computer. 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the defect ticket contains information pertaining to the error for which the correction was provided, and wherein the method further comprises:
 having detected the defect ticket, accessing the information pertaining to the error from the defect ticket; and 
 generating the indication based on the information pertaining to the error. 
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the defect ticket contains information pertaining to the component of the application in which the error occurred, and wherein the method further comprises:
 having detected the defect ticket, accessing the information pertaining to the component of the application from the defect ticket; and 
 generating the data element based on the information pertaining to the component. 
 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the defect ticket contains information of the release of the application, and wherein the method further comprises:
 having detected the defect ticket, accessing the information of the release of the application from the defect ticket; and 
 preparing the notification based on the information of the release. 
 
     
     
         8 . A method comprising:
 generating, by an end user computer, an indication of an error in execution of an application, the indication including a data element that ties the indication to a component of the application and makes the indication unique for the component;   providing, by the end user computer, the generated indication to a computing system, the computing system being configured to identify a release of the application that corrects the error; and   receiving, at the end user computer from the computing system, a notification of the release of the application.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein an exception is thrown upon occurrence of the error, and wherein the method further comprises:
 in response to the exception, generating stack trace information by the end user computer. 
 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the generating of the indication is based on the stack trace information. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising:
 generating, by the end user computer, the data element based on information pertaining to the component. 
 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising:
 having received the notification of the release of the application at the end user computer, displaying the notification on the end user computer, 
 wherein the notification is configured to enable an update of the application on the end user computer to prevent an occurrence of the error in the component during execution of the application. 
 
     
     
         13 . A system comprising:
 at least one memory; and   processing circuitry configured to execute program instructions out of the at least one memory to:
 receive an indication of an error in execution of an application on an end user computer, the indication including a data element that ties the indication to a component of the application and makes the indication unique for the component; 
 obtain, using the received indication, information of a release of the application configured to correct the error; and 
 send a notification of the release of the application to the end user computer. 
   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13  wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to execute the program instructions out of the at least one memory to compare the received indication to one or more indexes to determine a match between the received indication and an entry of the one or more indexes, the entry pertaining to the release of the application. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to execute the program instructions out of the at least one memory, having determined the match between the received indication and the entry of the one or more indexes, to prepare, from the information of the release of the application, the notification of the release of the application. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15  wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to execute the program instructions out of the at least one memory to send the notification of the release of the application to the end user computer, and wherein the notification is configured to enable an update of the application on the end user computer to prevent an occurrence of the error in the component during execution of the application. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 13  wherein a correction of the error is included in a defect ticket, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to execute the program instructions out of the at least one memory to detect the defect ticket stored on a defect management server computer. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17  wherein the defect ticket contains information pertaining to the error for which the correction was provided, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to execute the program instructions out of the at least one memory, having detected the defect ticket, to access the information pertaining to the error from the defect ticket, and to generate the indication based on the information pertaining to the error. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 17  wherein the defect ticket contains information pertaining to the component of the application in which the error occurred, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to execute the program instructions out of the at least one memory, having detected the defect ticket, to access the information pertaining to the component of the application from the defect ticket, and to generate the data element based on the information pertaining to the component. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 17  wherein the defect ticket contains information of the release of the application, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to execute the program instructions out of the at least one memory, having detected the defect ticket, to access the information of the release of the application from the defect ticket, and to prepare the notification based on the information of the release.