Aggregation and prioritization of application issue data

• US 20050108677A1
• Filed: 11/14/2003
• Published: 05/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jowtiff Bros AB LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Lokesh, Jain, Kalpit, Ford, Jeffrey L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,735,065 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24556 Aggregation; Duplicate elimination

Abstract

A novel software application development aid comprises a web portal that provides aggregated and prioritized application issue data to ISVs in an ISV-specific and ISV-customizable manner so that the ISVs may improve their applications or correct errors therein and may know which application issues are causing the greatest reductions in customer satisfaction. So informed, the ISV may efficiently focus limited corrective resources on the most pressing problems. The application issue data sources for the ISV portal may include logo testing data, user crash report data, and other testing data.

Claims

1. A portal for aggregating application issue data for access by one or more application developers comprising:

a data interface to a plurality of application issue data sources for obtaining application issue data regarding one or more applications associated with each of the one or application developers;

a network interface accessible by each of the one or more application developers; and

an aggregation module for aggregating the application data by application and for presenting to each of the one or more application developers via the network interface a customizable user interface that presents aggregated data regarding only the one or more applications associated with that application developer and omitting application data for applications not associated with that application developer.

2. The portal according to claim 1, wherein the aggregation module is further operable to prioritize the application data according to at least one criterion at the request of an application developer.

3. The portal according to claim 2, wherein the at least one criterion includes one or more criteria selected from the group consisting of issue ID, application name, application version, issue type, issue priority, operating system, and number of issue reports per issue.

4. The portal according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of application issue data sources comprise a database of logo certification test results performed on at least one application by a party other than the application developer and a database of user- reported computer crash data.

5. The portal according to claim 4, wherein the plurality of application issue data sources further comprise an additional database of application experience test data.

12. The web portal user interface according to claim 11, wherein the information visually associated with each of the one or more applications comprises an indication of the total number of issues associated with that application.

13. The web portal user interface according to claim 12, wherein the applications issues each have one of a plurality of types, and wherein the information visually associated with each of the one or more applications comprises an indication of the number of issues of each type associated with that application.

6. A web portal user interface for presenting application issue data to a user comprising:

a search pane for user entry of at least one search term, whereby entry of at least one search term coupled with a run command will cause a search to be executed of aggregated application issue data;

a task pane for user selection of a format for display of application issue data; and

a content pane for display of application issue data.

7. The web portal user interface according to claim 6, wherein the user is an application developer of one or more applications, and the application issue data available to the user in the content pane relates to those one or more applications and omits data related to applications other than the one or more applications.

8. The web portal user interface according to claim 7, wherein the task pane contains a listing of available formats.

9. The web portal user interface according to claim 8, wherein the listing of available formats comprises a summary format.

10. The web portal user interface according to claim 9, wherein each application issue has associated therewith number of reports of that issue, and wherein the summary format comprises a graphical illustration of the number of reports associated with each of a subset of application issues, each application issue in the subset having associated therewith more reports than any of the remaining issues not in the subset.

11. The web portal user interface according to claim 8, wherein the listing of available formats comprises a format wherein each of the one or more applications is listed and is visually associated with information regarding application issues for that application.

14. The web portal user interface according to claim 11, wherein the information visually associated with each of the one or more applications comprises an indication of the total number of issues associated with that application when used in conjunction with an indicated operating system.

15. The web portal user interface according to claim 8, wherein the listing of available formats comprises a format wherein all application issues associated with the one or more applications are presented.

16. The web portal user interface according to claim 15, wherein each application issue has an identifier, and wherein within the format wherein all application issues associated with the one or more applications are presented, the application issues are grouped by application issue identifier.

17. The portal according to claim 6, wherein the search pane comprises selectable search filters.

18. A method of presenting application issue data regarding one or more software applications to a developer of the one or more software applications comprising:

gathering application issue data from a plurality of data sources;

aggregating application issue data such that application issues pertaining to a same application are grouped together; and

presenting the aggregated application issue data visually to the developer of the one or more software applications.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein gathering application issue data from a plurality of data sources comprises gathering the application issue data from a database storing at least one item of user crash report data and a database storing at least one item of test report data.

20. The method according to claim 18, wherein presenting the aggregated application issue data visually to the developer of the one or more software applications comprises presenting a user selectable control for altering the order in which the application issues are presented.

21. The method according to claim 18, wherein presenting the aggregated application issue data visually to the developer of the one or more software applications comprises presenting a subset of the data in a visual page and presenting a user-selectable page control for accessing one or more pages of remaining data.

22. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing the method according to claim 18.

23. An apparatus for presenting application issue data regarding one or more software applications to a developer of the one or more software applications comprising:

means for gathering application issue data from a plurality of data sources;

means for aggregating application issue data such that application issues pertaining to a same application are grouped together; and

means for presenting the aggregated application issue data visually to the developer of the one or more software applications.