AUTOMATED SERVICE SOLUTION DELIVERY

• US 20130047148A1
• Filed: 08/18/2011
• Published: 02/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nigul, Leho, Lui, King Shing Kelvin
• Granted Patent: US 9,665,656 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

A group of software update uniform resource locators (URLs) that each reference software support information related to one of a group of initial logical components of a deployed software package are hosted at a software update server. The group of initial logical components represent problem reporting domains of the deployed software package. A request, initiated by a selection at a computing device of one of the software update URLs, for the software support information referenced by the selected software update URL for the one of the group of initial logical components of the software package is detected. The software support information referenced by the selected software update URL for the one of the group of initial logical components is downloaded.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

hosting, at a software update server, a plurality of software update uniform resource locators (URLs) that each reference software support information related to one of a plurality of initial logical components of a deployed software package, where the plurality of initial logical components represent problem reporting domains of the deployed software package;

detecting a request, initiated by a selection at a computing device of one of the software update URLs, for the software support information referenced by the selected software update URL for the one of the plurality of initial logical components of the software package; and

downloading the software support information referenced by the selected software update URL for the one of the plurality of initial logical components.

2. The method of claim 1, where hosting, at the software update server, the plurality of software update URLs that each reference software support information related to one of the plurality of initial logical components of the deployed software package comprises:

identifying an initial plurality of problem reporting domains associated with the software package that each logically spans an initial subset of a plurality of software components that form the software package;

defining the plurality of initial logical components based upon the initial plurality of problem reporting domains;

creating the plurality of software update URLs; and

creating web content addressed by each of the plurality of software update URLs that comprises software support information related to the plurality of initial logical components.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

retrieving at least one predefined notification condition associated with a problem reporting domain of the deployed software packaged that specifies at least one notification criterion associated with repartitioning of the problem reporting domain;

determining whether the retrieved at least one predefined notification condition has been met;

generating a notification indicating the at least one predefined notification condition has been met; and

repartitioning the initial plurality of problem reporting domains into a new plurality of problem reporting domains in response to receiving instruction to repartition the initial plurality of problem reporting domains into the new plurality of problem reporting domains.

4. The method of claim 3, where repartitioning the initial plurality of problem reporting domains into the new plurality of problem reporting domains comprises one of:

changing a problem reporting scope associated with the software package; and

changing software component associations of the initial subset of the plurality of software components of the software package associated with the selected software update URL to form a new subset of the plurality of software components of the software package associated with the selected software update URL.

5. The method of claim 4, where changing the problem reporting scope associated with the software package comprises:

identifying a new problem reporting domain associated with the software package;

creating a new software update URL that references software support information associated with the new problem reporting domain;

creating web content addressed by the new software update URL that references the software support information associated with the new problem reporting domain; and

linking each of the plurality of software update URLs of each software component of the initial subset of the plurality of software components that form the software package to the new software update URL.

6. The method of claim 4, where changing the software component associations of the initial subset of the plurality of software components of the software package associated with the selected software update URL to form the new subset of the plurality of software components of the software package associated with the selected software update URL comprises:

identifying a new subset of software components associated with the problem reporting domain;

identifying software update URLs associated with the new subset of software components;

creating a new software update URL to host support information associated with the problem reporting domain; and

forwarding software update URL requests associated with the new subset of software components to the new software update URL.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising hosting at least one of a documentation link, a reference to a blog post, a configuration option, and a usage suggestion associated with at least one of the plurality of initial logical components via the software update URL that references the software support information related to the at least one of the plurality of initial logical components.

8. A system, comprising:

a communication interface; and

a processor programmed to;

host a plurality of software update uniform resource locators (URLs) that each reference software support information related to one of a plurality of initial logical components of a deployed software package, where the plurality of initial logical components represent problem reporting domains of the deployed software package;

detect a request via the communication interface, initiated by a selection at a computing device of one of the software update URLs, for the software support information referenced by the selected software update URL for the one of the plurality of initial logical components of the software package; and

download the software support information referenced by the selected software update URL for the one of the plurality of initial logical components.

9. The system of claim 8, where, in being programmed to host the plurality of software update URLs that each reference software support information related to one of the plurality of initial logical components of the deployed software package, the processor is programmed to:

identify an initial plurality of problem reporting domains associated with the software package that each logically spans an initial subset of a plurality of software components that form the software package;

define the plurality of initial logical components based upon the initial plurality of problem reporting domains;

create the plurality of software update URLs; and

create web content addressed by each of the plurality of software update URLs that comprises software support information related to the plurality of initial logical components.

10. The system of claim 9, where the processor is further programmed to:

retrieve at least one predefined notification condition associated with a problem reporting domain of the deployed software packaged that specifies at least one notification criterion associated with repartitioning of the problem reporting domain;

determine whether the retrieved at least one predefined notification condition has been met;

generate a notification indicating the at least one predefined notification condition has been met; and

repartition the initial plurality of problem reporting domains into the new plurality of problem reporting domains in response to receiving instruction to repartition the initial plurality of problem reporting domains into the new plurality of problem reporting domains.

11. The system of claim 10, where, in being programmed to repartition the initial plurality of problem reporting domains into the new plurality of problem reporting domains, the processor is programmed to one of:

change a problem reporting scope associated with the software package; and

change software component associations of the initial subset of the plurality of software components of the software package associated with the selected software update URL to form a new subset of the plurality of software components of the software package associated with the selected software update URL.

12. The system of claim 11, where, in being programmed to change the problem reporting scope associated with the software package, the processor is programmed to:

identify a new problem reporting domain associated with the software package;

create a new software update URL that references software support information associated with the new problem reporting domain;

create web content addressed by the new software update URL that references the software support information associated with the new problem reporting domain; and

link each of the plurality of software update URLs of each software component of the initial subset of the plurality of software components that form the software package to the new software update URL.

13. The system of claim 8, where the processor is further programmed to host at least one of a documentation link, a reference to a blog post, a configuration option, and a usage suggestion associated with at least one of the plurality of initial logical components via the software update URL that references the software support information related to the at least one of the plurality of initial logical components.

14. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium including computer readable program code, where the computer readable program code when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

host a plurality of software update uniform resource locators (URLs) that each reference software support information related to one of a plurality of initial logical components of a deployed software package, where the plurality of initial logical components represent problem reporting domains of the deployed software package;

detect a request, initiated by a selection at a computing device of one of the software update URLs, for the software support information referenced by the selected software update URL for the one of the plurality of initial logical components of the software package; and

download the software support information referenced by the selected software update URL for the one of the plurality of initial logical components.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, where in causing the computer to host the plurality of software update URLs that each reference software support information related to one of the plurality of initial logical components of the deployed software package, the computer readable program code when executed on the computer causes the computer to:

identify an initial plurality of problem reporting domains associated with the software package that each logically spans an initial subset of a plurality of software components that form the software package;

define the plurality of initial logical components based upon the initial plurality of problem reporting domains;

create the plurality of software update URLs; and

create web content addressed by each of the plurality of software update URLs that comprises software support information related to the plurality of initial logical components.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, where the computer readable program code when executed on the computer further causes the computer to:

retrieve at least one predefined notification condition associated with a problem reporting domain of the deployed software packaged that specifies at least one notification criterion associated with repartitioning of the problem reporting domain;

determine whether the retrieved at least one predefined notification condition has been met;

generate a notification indicating the at least one predefined notification condition has been met; and

repartition the initial plurality of problem reporting domains into a new plurality of problem reporting domains in response to receiving instruction to repartition the initial plurality of problem reporting domains into the new plurality of problem reporting domains.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, where in causing the computer to repartition the initial plurality of problem reporting domains into the new plurality of problem reporting domains, the computer readable program code when executed on the computer causes the computer to one of:

change a problem reporting scope associated with the software package; and

change software component associations of the initial subset of the plurality of software components of the software package associated with the selected software update URL to form a new subset of the plurality of software components of the software package associated with the selected software update URL.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, where in causing the computer to change the problem reporting scope associated with the software package, the computer readable program code when executed on the computer causes the computer to:

identify a new problem reporting domain associated with the software package;

create a new software update URL that references software support information associated with the new problem reporting domain;

create web content addressed by the new software update URL that references software support information associated with the new problem reporting domain; and

link each of the plurality of software update URLs of each software component of the initial subset of the plurality of software components that form the software package to the new software update URL.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, where in causing the computer to change the software component associations of the initial subset of the plurality of software components of the software package associated with the selected software update URL to form the new subset of the plurality of software components of the software package associated with the selected software update URL, the computer readable program code when executed on the computer causes the computer to:

identify a new subset of software components associated with the problem reporting domain;

identify software update URLs associated with the new subset of software components;

create a new software update URL to host support information associated with the problem reporting domain; and

forward software update URL requests associated with the new subset of software components to the new software update URL.

20. The computer program product of claim 14, where the computer readable program code when executed on the computer further causes the computer to host at least one of a documentation link, a reference to a blog post, a configuration option, and a usage suggestion associated with at least one of the plurality of initial logical components via the software update URL that references the software support information related to the at least one of the plurality of initial logical components.