BUG CLEARING HOUSE

• US 20160299756A1
• Filed: 04/25/2016
• Published: 10/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Surazski, Jacek, Parks, Jason B., Duda, Dawid
• Granted Patent: US 10,007,512 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0742 in a data processing system embedded in a mobile device, e.g. mobile phones, handheld devices
• 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 11/0775 Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0781 Error filtering or prioritizing based on a policy defined by the user or on a policy defined by a hardware/software module, e.g. according to a severity level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/327 Alarm or error message display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/01 Customer relationship services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/012 Providing warranty services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales

Abstract

A computer-implemented system for managing software problem reports includes a registration sub-system to register software developers from multiple different developer organizations; an application store that makes a plurality of applications from a plurality of application developers available for acquisition by members of the public; an application bug tracker programmed to receive reports of problems with applications distributed using the application store, to receive data regarding the problems, and to associate the data with a particular application or developer of the particular application; and a report generator to produce one or more problem reports for a developer that has provided one or more applications, the problem reports including information about the data regarding the problems relating to particular applications submitted to the application store by the developer.

Claims

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

providing, from a computing system of an application developer and to a computing system of an online application store, a first request to make a first application of the application developer available for distribution on the online application store, wherein the first request includes (i) information that identifies the application developer and (ii) computer code for the first application, wherein the online application store makes applications from a plurality of independent developers available for distribution to computing devices of end users that are independent of the plurality of independent application developers;

providing, at a later time, from the computing system of the application developer and to the computing system of the online application store, a second request for information about one or more applications that the online application store has made available for distribution on behalf of the application developer;

receiving, at the computing system of the application developer as a response to the second request, information about one or more applications that the online application store has made available for distribution on behalf of the application developer, the received information including information about problems that computing devices of one or more end users reported to the online application store in connection with running the first application; and

displaying, at the computing system of the application developer, a report that indicates at least a portion of the problems that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store in connection with running the first application.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, comprising:

receiving, at the computing system of the application developer and as part of the response to the second request, additional information about problems that computing devices of one or more end users reported to the online application store in connection with running one or more additional applications, other than the first application, that the online application store has made available for distribution on behalf of the application developer; and

wherein displaying the report comprises displaying information about problems that computing devices of one or more end users reported to the online application store in connection with running multiple applications among the first application and the one or more additional applications.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the first application is configured to be executed on a mobile computing device.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the report that indicates the at least the portion of the problems that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store identifies, for each respective problem type among a plurality of problem types, a frequency of problems related to the respective problem type that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store within a defined time interval.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the report identifies, for each respective problem type among the plurality of problem types:

(i) a frequency of problems related to the respective problem type that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store within a recent time interval, and

(ii) a frequency of problems related to the respective problem type that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store within a preceding time interval that occurred before the recent time interval.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the report that indicates the at least the portion of the problems that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store classifies each problem among the at least the portion of the problems into one of (i) a first group of problems for problems that caused applications to crash at the computing devices of the one or more end users and (ii) a second group of problems for problems that caused the computing devices of the one or more end users to freeze.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the report that indicates the at least the portion of the problems that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store identifies, for each of respective platform among one or more platforms, a frequency of problems that are reported to have occurred on the respective platform.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the information received in the response to the second request does not contain identifying information for individual end users.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein providing the first request to the computing system of the online application store comprises transmitting metadata associated with the first application, wherein the metadata comprises at least one of a title of the first application, an instruction for the online application store to charge a specified price for the first application, a textual description of the first application, or an icon for the first application to be presented on computing devices of end users or on a site of the online application store.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the report that indicates the at least the portion of the problems that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store is presented in a web page at the computing system of the application developer.

31. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of operations comprising:

providing, from a computing system of an application developer and to a computing system of an online application store, a first request to make a first application of the application developer available for distribution on the online application store, wherein the first request includes (i) information that identifies the application developer and (ii) computer code for the first application, wherein the online application store makes applications from a plurality of independent developers available for distribution to computing devices of end users that are independent of the plurality of independent application developers;

providing, at a later time, from the computing system of the application developer and to the computing system of the online application store, a second request for information about one or more applications that the online application store has made available for distribution on behalf of the application developer;

receiving, at the computing system of the application developer as a response to the second request, information about one or more applications that the online application store has made available for distribution on behalf of the application developer, the received information including information about problems that computing devices of one or more end users reported to the online application store in connection with running the first application; and

displaying, at the computing system of the application developer, a report that indicates at least a portion of the problems that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store in connection with running the first application.

32. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 31, wherein the operations comprise:

receiving, at the computing system of the application developer and as part of the response to the second request, additional information about problems that computing devices of one or more end users reported to the online application store in connection with running one or more additional applications, other than the first application, that the online application store has made available for distribution on behalf of the application developer; and

wherein displaying the report comprises displaying information about problems that computing devices of one or more end users reported to the online application store in connection with running multiple applications among the first application and the one or more additional applications.

33. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 31, wherein the first application is configured to be executed on a mobile computing device.

34. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 31, wherein the report that indicates the at least the portion of the problems that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store identifies, for each respective problem type among a plurality of problem types, a frequency of problems related to the respective problem type that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store within a defined time interval.

35. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 34, wherein the report identifies, for each respective problem type among the plurality of problem types:

(i) a frequency of problems related to the respective problem type that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store within a recent time interval, and

(ii) a frequency of problems related to the respective problem type that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store within a preceding time interval that occurred before the recent time interval.

36. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 31, wherein the report that indicates the at least the portion of the problems that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store classifies each problem among the at least the portion of the problems into one of (i) a first group of problems for problems that caused applications to crash at the computing devices of the one or more end users and (ii) a second group of problems for problems that caused the computing devices of the one or more end users to freeze.

37. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 31, wherein the report that indicates the at least the portion of the problems that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store identifies, for each of respective platform among one or more platforms, a frequency of problems that are reported to have occurred on the respective platform.

38. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 31, wherein the information received in the response to the second request does not contain identifying information for individual end users.

39. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 31, wherein providing the first request to the computing system of the online application store comprises transmitting metadata associated with the first application, wherein the metadata comprises at least one of a title of the first application, an instruction for the online application store to charge a specified price for the first application, a textual description of the first application, or an icon for the first application to be presented on computing devices of end users or on a site of the online application store.

40. A first computing system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause performance of operations comprising;

providing, from the first computing of an application developer and to a computing system of an online application store, a first request to make a first application of the application developer available for distribution on the online application store, wherein the first request includes (i) information that identifies the application developer and (ii) computer code for the first application, wherein the online application store makes applications from a plurality of independent developers available for distribution to computing devices of end users that are independent of the plurality of independent application developers;

providing, at a later time, from the first computing system of the application developer and to the computing system of the online application store, a second request for information about one or more applications that the online application store has made available for distribution on behalf of the application developer;

receiving, at the first computing system of the application developer as a response to the second request, information about one or more applications that the online application store has made available for distribution on behalf of the application developer, the received information including information about problems that computing devices of one or more end users reported to the online application store in connection with running the first application; and

displaying, at the first computing system of the application developer, a report that indicates at least a portion of the problems that the computing devices of the one or more end users reported to the online application store in connection with running the first application.