Web browser program feedback system

• US 6,526,524 B1
• Filed: 09/29/1999
• Issued: 02/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kelley, Edward E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ziemer, Rita A
• Application Number:
  US09/408,356
• Time in Patent Office: 1,245 Days
• Field of Search: 714/38, 714/4, 714/11, 714/16, 714/26, 714/31, 714/47, 714/48, 714/57, 714/718, 714/820, 711/114, 348/192, 701/114, 370/216, 370/235, 706/909
• US Class Current: 714/38.1
• 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 11/0781 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 11/3672 Test management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing feedback to a programmer of a web based application notifying the programmer of application errors encountered by an end user of the application. A user error table is created to log application errors when a user computer is running the web based application. The present invention searches the user error table to determine whether an application error has occurred and only those errors which occur for a first time are forwarded to a server responsible for collecting the programmer'"'"'s e-mail. A server error table is created to log those error messages received by the server and only those error messages which are unique are forwarded to the programmer. The programmer does not receive duplicate error messages relating to the same error and can use the feedback provided by the present invention to correct the application in subsequent versions. Error messages are filtered at the user computer level and at the server level such that the programmer will receive error messages for a particular programming error only once. The programmer is not inundated with multiple error messages relating to the same error by multiple users. Most preferably, the present invention is a computer program product incorporating known source code containing the means for providing feedback to the programmer of application errors stored on a server accessible to users who can download the application onto their user computers.

Claims

1. A method of notifying a programmer of an application error while running an application developed by the programmer, the application being stored on a user computer connected to a server on a network, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) detecting an error while running an application;

(b) determining whether the error has previously occurred while running said application;

(c) sending an error message without user input to a server responsible for collecting error messages if said error has not previously occurred, said error message notifying the programmer of said application of said error;

(d) receiving said error message by the server;

(e) determining whether said error is recorded in a server error table stored on the server; and

(f) sending an error message to the programmer if said error is not found in said server error table, said error message notifying the programmer of said error.

2. The method of claim 1 further including the step of creating a user error table and wherein step (b) further comprises determining whether said error has been recorded in said user error table.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of creating a user error table comprises creating a user error table having an application name, an identifier for said error, an error message, and a programmer e-mail address.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein upon determining that said error has been recorded in said user error table, said error message is not sent to the programmer.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein during step (e) if said error is recorded in said server error table, said error message is not sent to the programmer.

6. A method of notifying a programmer of an application error while a user is viewing a web application developed by the programmer on a user computer using a web browser linked to a server, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) determining whether the web browser and the web application are compatible;

(b) determining whether an error has previously occurred while viewing the web application; and

(c) upon determining that said error has not previously occurred, sending an error message to the programmer via the server without user input to notify the programmer of said error.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein in step (a) if the web browser and the web application are incompatible, an error message will not be generated.

8. The method of claim 6 further including the step of creating a user error table comprising a web application name, an error message, and an e-mail address for the programmer of the web application.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein step (b) further includes the step of determining whether said error has been recorded in said user error table and, if said error has not been recorded, then continuing to step (c).

10. The method of claim 6 wherein during step (c) said error message is sent to a server having a server error table for logging and filtering error messages.

11. The method of claim 10 further including the step of determining whether said error message was previously recorded in said server error table, and if said error message is not recorded in said server error table, said error message is forwarded to the programmer.

12. The method of claim 11 further including the step of determining whether said error message was previously recorded in said server error table, and if said error message is recorded in said server error table, said error message is not sent to the programmer.

13. The method of claim 6 further including the step of receiving an error message by the programmer regarding an application error wherein subsequent error messages have been filtered out by the user computer and the server such that duplicate error messages are not sent to the programmer.

14. The method of claim 6 further including the step of sending said error message to a system programmer for the server if there is no programmer indicated in the user error table.

15. The method of claim 6 further including the step of searching a program table stored on the server comprising an application name and a programmer of the application, said program table created by a system programmer and wherein in step (c) an e-mail address for the programmer is obtained from said program table such that an error message may be sent to the programmer.

16. A feedback system for alerting a programmer of an application error when a user is accessing a web application written by the programmer using a web browser, the system to perform the steps of:

(a) determining whether an application error has previously occurred;

(b) creating an error table stored on the user'"'"'s computer;

(c) searching said error table for said application error;

(d) sending an error message corresponding to said application error to a server which collects e-mail for the programmer if said application error is not found in said error table;

(e) creating a server error table stored on the server which collects e-mail for the programmer;

(f) searching said server error table for said error message corresponding to said application error; and

(g) forwarding said error message corresponding to said application error to said programmer when said error message is not found in said server error table.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein step (b) comprises creating an error table comprising entries for the web application, an error number, an error message, and an e-mail address of the server.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein step (e) comprises creating a server error table comprising entries for the web application, an error number, and an error message.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein in step (g) said error message has been filtered by the user computer and the server which collects e-mail for the programmer such that the programmer does not receive multiple error messages relating to a same application error encountered by numerous different users.

20. A web browser stored on a user computer for accessing and browsing web applications, said user computer having stored thereon a user error table which tracks errors that occur while browsing a web application, said web browser comprising

means for determining whether a web application error has occurred;

means for creating an entry in said user error table corresponding to said web application error;

means for searching said user error table to determine whether said web application error exists in said user error table prior to notifying the programmer of said web application error; and

means for sending an error message to a server which collects e-mail for the programmer to notify the programmer of said web application error, said server having a server error table and a means for searching said server error table for said error message such that the programmer does not receive multiple error messages related to said web application error if said web application error exists in said server error table.

21. A server within a network of user computers, each user computer capable of accessing an application written by a programmer and stored on the server, said server capable of logging and filtering application error messages for sending to the programmer to notify the programmer of application errors, comprising

means for creating a server error table, said server error table stored on a memory storage of the server;

means for creating and writing to a user error table on a user computer, said user error table comprising entries corresponding to the application written by the programmer, an error message and an address of the server;

means for determining whether an application error has occurred;

means for determining whether an entry for an application error exists in the user error table;

means for sending an error message by the user computer to the server regarding the application error, said error message sent without input from a user of the user computer;

means for receiving said error message;

means for determining whether said error message exists in said server error table; and

means for sending an e-mail to the programmer if said error message is absent from said server error table.

22. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for a method of notifying a programmer of an application error while running an application developed by the programmer, the application being stored on a user computer connected to a server on a network, said method steps comprising:

(a) detecting an error while running an application;

(b) determining whether said error has previously occurred while running said application;

(c) sending an error message without user input to a server responsible for collecting error messages if said error has not previously occurred, said error message notifying the programmer of said application of said error;

(d) receiving said error message by the server;

(e) determining whether said error is recorded in a server error table stored on the server; and

(f) sending an error message to the programmer if said error is not found on said server error table, said error message notifying the programmer of said error.

23. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for a method of providing feedback to a programmer regarding application errors while an application is running on a user computer linked to a server or network, said method steps comprising:

(a) creating a user error table stored on the user computer, said user error table containing entries for the application name, an error number;

an error message, and a programmer'"'"'s server e-mail address;

(b) determining whether an application error has previously occurred by searching said user error table;

(c) sending an e-mail to the programmer'"'"'s server with an error message corresponding to the application error without input from a user of the user computer, the programmer'"'"'s server having a server error table containing entries comprising the application name, an error number, and the error message;

(d) receiving, by the programmer'"'"'s server, the e-mail sent from the user computer;

(e) determining whether the error message exists in the server error table; and

(f) sending an e-mail to the programmer only if the error message did not exist in the server error table to apprise the programmer of the application error.

24. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embedded therein for providing feedback to a programmer of an application regarding application errors, the computer readable program code means in said computer program product comprising;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to detect an error while running said application;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to determine whether the error has previously occurred while running said application;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to send an error message without input from a user of said application to a server responsible for collecting e-mail for the programmer if said error has not previously occurred, said error message notifying the programmer of said application of said error;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to receive said e-mail by the server;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to determine whether said error is recorded in a server error table stored on the server; and

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to send an e-mail to the programmer if said error is not found on said server error table, said error message notifying the programmer of said error.

25. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embedded therein for causing application errors to be logged and filtered such that a programmer of an application obtains feedback regarding the application errors, the computer readable program code means in said computer program product comprising;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to create a user error table stored on the user computer, said user error table containing entries for applications stored on the user computer, an error number, an error message, and a programmer'"'"'s server e-mail address;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to determine whether an application error has previously occurred by searching said user error table;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to send an e-mail to the programmer'"'"'s server with an error message corresponding to the application error without input from a user of the user computer, the programmer'"'"'s server having a server error table containing entries comprising an application name, an error number, and the error message;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to receive, by the programmer'"'"'s server, the e-mail sent from the user computer;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to determine whether the error message has been previously received by the programmer'"'"'s server; and

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to send an e-mail to the programmer only if the error message was not previously received by the programmer'"'"'s server to apprise the programmer of the application error.