Application reporting library

• US 8,245,082 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2010
• Issued: 08/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Arapov, Anton
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): KO, CHAE M
• Application Number:
  US12/713,009
• Publication Number:
  US 20110209008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 901 Days
• Field of Search: 714/38.1, 714/48
• US Class Current: 714/38.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0706 the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment
• 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 11/0781 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

Abstract

An apparatus and a method for detecting and reporting malfunctions in computer programs is described. A reporting library of an Application Programming Interface (API) is configured to direct a report of software malfunction to a specified server. The API is implemented in an application to be executed on a computer system. The application implementing the API is to report software malfunction of the application to the specified server.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

configuring a reporting library of an Application Programming Interface (API) to direct a report of a software malfunction to a specified server; and

implementing the API in an application to be executed on a computer system, wherein the application is modified to report data associated with the software malfunction of the application to the reporting library for delivery to the specified server instead of a default server associated with the application.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting at least one type of a software malfunction as defined in the reporting library by a malfunction detector provided by the API;

collecting data of the software malfunction and generating a crash report by a data collector provided by the API; and

reporting the crash report in a manner specified in the reporting library to the specified server.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the application implementing the API is to form a first reporting module and a second reporting module, the first reporting module configured to report to a first server, the second reporting module configured to report to a second server.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the computer system communicates with the specified server over a network.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the API is implemented with at least one application in the computer system.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for causing a computer system to perform a method comprising:

configuring a reporting library of an Application Programming Interface (API) to direct a report of a software malfunction to a specified server; and

implementing the API in an application to be executed on a computer system, wherein the application is modified to report data associated with the software malfunction of the application to the reporting library for delivery to the specified server instead of a default server associated with the application.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the method further comprises:

detecting at least one type of a software malfunction as defined in the reporting library by a malfunction detector provided by the API;

collecting data of the software malfunction and generating a crash report by a data collector provided by the API; and

reporting the crash report in a manner specified in the reporting library to the specified server.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the application implementing the API is to form a first reporting module and a second reporting module, the first reporting module configured to report to a first server, the second reporting module configured to report to a second server.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the computer system communicates with the specified server over a network.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the API is implemented with at least one application in the computer system.

11. A computer system comprising:

a memory comprising an application;

a processor coupled to the memory; and

a configurable malfunction reporting application programming interface (API), stored in the memory, to be implemented in the application executed by the processor, the configurable malfunction reporting API comprising;

a malfunction detector configured to modify the application to report data associated with a software malfunction to the reporting library,

a data collector configured to collect the data associated with the software malfunction and generate a crash report, and

a reporting module configured to direct a report of the software malfunction to a specified server instead of a default server associated with the application.

12. The computer system of claim 11 wherein the application implementing the API is to form a first reporting module and a second reporting module, the first reporting module configured to report to a first server, the second reporting module configured to report to a second server.

13. The computer system of claim 11 wherein the computer system communicates with the specified server over a network.

14. The computer system of claim 11 wherein the API is implemented with at least one application in the computer system.