Method and apparatus of prompting an update of an application

• US 9,552,199 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2015
• Issued: 01/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Wang, Yan, Wang, Li
• Primary Examiner(s): MILLER, VIVA L
• Application Number:
  US14/721,565
• Publication Number:
  US 20150347122A1
• Time in Patent Office: 609 Days
• Field of Search: 717/168
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/004 Error avoidance G06F11/07 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/656 while running
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

A method and apparatus of updating an application are disclosed. The method includes calculating an error probability of a designated application when running under one or more designated conditions in an event that the application includes updateable content, the one or more designated conditions including an attribute and/or a runtime environment of the application; and pushing an update prompt of the application to a terminal device that satisfies the one or more designated conditions in response to the error probability satisfying a preset condition. The embodiments of the present disclosure reduce the number and the frequency of pushing other unnecessary update prompts, reduce the consumption of resources of a server system, reduce the number and the frequency of responses of a terminal device with respect to the update prompts, and also decrease the consumption of system resources of the terminal devices.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, the method comprising:

calculating an error probability of an application when running under one or more designated conditions, the one or more designated conditions including at least one of an attribute or a runtime environment of the application, wherein calculating the error probability of the application comprises;

acquiring log information recorded in one or more terminal devices to which the application belongs, the log information including error information of the application when running under the one or more designated conditions, and startup information of the application under the one or more designated conditions; and

calculating a quantity ratio between the error information and the startup information to obtain the error probability of the application when running under the one or more designated conditions;

pushing an update prompt of the application to a terminal device that has installed the application in response to the error probability being higher than a preset probability threshold; and

determining whether to push or stop pushing the update prompt of the application to one or more target terminal devices based at least in part on a new error probability of the application running under the one or more designated conditions after an update, the one or more target terminal devices including terminal devices that satisfy the one or more designated conditions and are different than the terminal device, wherein the update prompt of the application is pushed to the one or more target terminal devices if the new error probability decreases, and the update prompt of the application is stopped from pushing to the one or more target terminal devices if the new error probability remains unchanged or increases.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal device includes a mobile device, a computer, or a smart television.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein information of the attribute of the application includes at least version information of the application, and information of the runtime environment includes at least one of model information of the terminal device, operating system version information of the terminal device, or network information of the terminal device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising pushing the update prompt of the application to a preset number of terminal devices under the one or more designated conditions.

5. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors;

memory;

a probability statistics module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to calculate an error probability of an application when running under one or more designated conditions, the one or more designated conditions including at least one of an attribute or a runtime environment of the application, wherein calculating the error probability of the application comprises;

acquiring log information recorded in one or more terminal devices to which the application belongs, the log information including error information of the application when running under the one or more designated conditions, and startup information of the application under the one or more designated conditions; and

calculating a quantity ratio between the error information and the startup information to obtain the error probability of the application when running under the one or more designated conditions;

a prompt pushing module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to push an update prompt of the application to a terminal device that has installed the application when the error probability being higher than a preset probability threshold, and determine whether to push or stop pushing the update prompt of the application to one or more target terminal devices based at least in part on a new error probability of the application running under the one or more designated conditions after an update, the one or more target terminal devices including terminal devices that satisfy the one or more designated conditions and are different than the terminal device, wherein the update prompt of the application is pushed to the one or more target terminal devices if the new error probability decreases, and the update prompt of the application is stopped from pushing to the one or more target terminal devices if the new error probability remains unchanged or increases.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the terminal device includes a mobile device, a computer, or a smart television.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the attribute of the application is represented by attribute information of the application, and the runtime environment is represented by runtime environment information, and wherein the attribute information of the application comprises at least version information of the application, and the runtime environment information comprises at least one of:

model information of the terminal device, operating system version information of the terminal device, and network information of the terminal device.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the prompt pushing module includes a first pushing sub-module to push the update prompt of the application to a preset number of terminal devices under the one or more designated conditions.

9. One or more computer-readable media storing executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

calculating an error probability of an application when running under one or more designated conditions, the one or more designated conditions including at least one of an attribute or a runtime environment of the application, wherein calculating the error probability of the application comprises;

acquiring log information recorded in one or more terminal devices to which the application belongs, the log information including error information of the application when running under the one or more designated conditions, and startup information of the application under the one or more designated conditions; and

calculating a quantity ratio between the error information and the startup information to obtain the error probability of the application when running under the one or more designated conditions;

pushing an update prompt of the application to a terminal device that has installed the application in response to the error probability being higher than a preset probability threshold; and

determining whether to push or stop pushing the update prompt of the application to one or more target terminal devices based at least in part on a new error probability of the application running under the one or more designated conditions after an update, the one or more target terminal devices including terminal devices that satisfy the one or more designated conditions and are different than the terminal device, wherein the update prompt of the application is pushed to the one or more target terminal devices if the new error probability decreases, and the update prompt of the application is stopped from pushing to the one or more target terminal devices if the new error probability remains unchanged or increases.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the terminal device includes a mobile device, a computer, or a smart television.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the attribute of the application includes at least version information of the application, and information of the runtime environment includes at least one of model information of the terminal device, operating system version information of the terminal device, or network information of the terminal device.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, the acts further comprising pushing the update prompt of the application to a preset number of terminal devices under the one or more designated conditions.