SOLUTION SEARCH FOR SOFTWARE SUPPORT

• US 20120066218A1
• Filed: 11/21/2011
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Rapp, Roman, Savu, Constantin, Haeberle, Tilmann, Schneider, Thomas, Kushakovska, Olena, Djamdji, Jean-Pierre
• Granted Patent: US 8,296,311 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0769 Readable error formats, e.g. cross-platform generic formats, human understandable formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/327 Alarm or error message display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

A search middleware may be used to receive search requests regarding a software incident associated with a software application. The search requests may be populated with attribute values determined based on context data associated with the software application and collected in association with the software incident. The search requests may be dispatched to a subset of a plurality of solution repositories, even if the solution repositories have different interfaces and/or search technologies. The resulting solution documents retrieved from the solution repositories may be compiled for presentation on a solution search interface.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a search middleware configured to receive a search request for a solution to a software incident from at least one consumer search user interface (UI), via a search interface, the search middleware configured to conduct a search of at least two solution repositories of a plurality of solution repositories for a possible solution to the software incident, based on the search request, and further configured to return a combined solution search result to the consumer search UI, the plurality of solution repositories including a solution repository including documents of a solution type; and

a search compiler associated with the solution repository and configured to compile the documents into the solution search result for providing to the consumer search UI, the solution search result including an identification of a source solution repository of each document in the solution search result.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an index associated with the solution repository and configured to store attribute values associated with at least some of the documents,

the search middleware including an attribute cache configured to manage attribute metadata regarding the attributes and to cache at least some of the attribute values as stored in the at least two solution repositories of the plurality of solution repositories.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an index associated with the solution repository and configured to store attributes associated with at least some of the documents and to store at least one attribute value associated with each attribute, the attributes including software attributes characterizing and identifying software in which the software incident occurred.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an index associated with the solution repository and configured to store attributes associated with at least some of the documents and to store at least one attribute value associated with each attribute, the attributes including document attributes characterizing at least some of the documents in the solution repository.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a search dispatcher configured to determine at least one attribute included in the search request, based on context information associated with the software incident and collected with reporting of the software incident.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a repository search interface including a web service.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a repository search interface configured to map the search request between the search interface and a native search interface; and

a search dispatcher configured to access the repository search interface using a remote function call.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a search source manager configured to select at least two solution repositories from the plurality of solution repositories based on the consumer search UI.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the search interface of the search middleware is compatible with at least two consumer search UIs.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the search middleware includes a rating manager configured to associate a user-received rating of each of the documents compiled into the solution search result by the search compiler.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the documents of the solution type include one or more incident documents based on previous software incidents, case documents based on a subset of the previous software incidents and describing the subset along with previous solutions thereto, and knowledgebase documents based on the case documents and describing categories of software incidents.

12. A search middleware for providing solutions for software incidents, the search middleware comprising:

a search interface configured to receive a solution search request from at least one consumer search user interface (UI), the solution search request referencing a software incident of a software application and including context data collected about the software application at a time of the software incident; and

a search compiler configured to compile at least a portion of the solution documents into a solution search result for providing to the at least one consumer search UI, the solution search result including an identification of a source solution repository of each solution document the at least the portion of the solution documents in the solution search result.

13. The search middleware of claim 12, further comprising:

a solution source manager configured to receive the solution search request and configured to select at least two solution repositories from among a plurality of solution repositories, and based on the consumer search UI, and further configured to determine corresponding communication techniques for communicating with the at least two solution repositories;

an attribute manager configured to determine attribute values based on the context data, the attribute values selected from a plurality of attributes and attribute values that are maintained in common for the plurality of solution repositories by the attribute manager; and

an attribute cache configured to manage attribute metadata regarding the attributes and to cache at least some of the attribute values as stored in the at least two solution repositories of the plurality of solution repositories.

14. The search middleware of claim 13, wherein the attribute values include software attribute values characterizing and identifying software in which the software incident occurred.

15. The search middleware of claim 13, wherein the attribute values include documents attribute values characterizing at least some of the documents in the plurality of solution repositories.

16. The search middleware of claim 12, further comprising a rating manager configured to associate a user-received rating of each of the solution documents compiled into the solution search result by the search compiler.

17. A method comprising:

receiving a solution search request from at least one consumer search user interface (UI), the solution search request referencing a software incident of a software application and including context data collected about the software application at a time of the software incident;

selecting at least two solution repositories from among a plurality of solution repositories, and based on the consumer search UI; and

compiling solution documents into a solution search result for providing to the at least one consumer search UI, the solution search result including an identification of a source solution repository of each solution document in the solution search result.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the compiling the solution documents into the solution search result includes associating a user-received rating of each of the solution documents compiled into the solution search results.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

selecting attribute values, based on the context data, from a plurality of attribute values maintained in common for the plurality of solution repositories, the attribute values include software attribute values characterizing and identifying software in which the software incident occurred.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the attribute values include document attribute values characterizing at least some of the solution documents from the plurality of solution repositories.