Bug Clearing House

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2015234699-A1
Application number	US-201414549131-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 20, 2014
Priority date	May 19, 2010
Publication date	Aug 20, 2015
Grant date	—

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.

First claim

1 - 20 . (canceled)

21 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
obtaining, at a computing system, information that identifies a plurality of applications that are to be distributed to user devices through an on-line application store operating on the computing system, the plurality of applications provided to the computing system by a plurality of application developers; receiving, at the computing system, requests from a plurality of user devices to download particular ones of the plurality of applications through the on-line application store; in response to receiving the requests from the plurality of user devices to download the particular ones of the plurality of applications through the on-line application store, providing the particular ones of the plurality of applications to corresponding ones of the plurality of user devices that requested the particular ones of the plurality of applications; receiving, at the computing system, problem reports from particular ones of the plurality of user devices, the problem reports indicating application bugs detected while running applications distributed through the on-line application store on the particular ones of the plurality of user devices; associating, by the computing system, a portion of the received problem reports with a first application developer among the plurality of application developers based on the portion of the received problem reports indicating application bugs that were detected while running applications provided to the computing system by the first application developer; generating, by the computing system, a consolidated bug report for the first application developer that characterizes the portion of the received problem reports associated with the first application developer; and providing the consolidated bug report to the first application developer.

22 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , wherein:
the plurality of applications are finished releases of the plurality of applications, and the on-line application store is arranged to make accessible the finished releases of the plurality of applications for download and purchase by members of the public, including by users that are not affiliated with the plurality of application developers.

23 . The computer-implemented method of claim 22 , further comprising:
receiving, at the computing system and in conjunction with receiving a first of the requests from a first of the plurality of user devices to download a first of the particular ones of the plurality of applications through the on-line application store, authorization to charge a fee for the first application to an account associated with the first of the plurality of user devices that requested to download the first application; and in response to receiving the authorization to charge the fee for the first application, causing, by the computing system, the fee for the first application to be charged to the account associated with the first of the plurality of user devices.

24 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , wherein the on-line application store is operated by an organization that is separate and independent from the plurality of application developers, wherein the requests received from the plurality of user devices to download particular ones of the plurality of applications through the on-line application store are requests initiated by users that are separate and independent from (i) the organization that operates the on-line application store, and (ii) the plurality of application developers.

25 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , further comprising:
associating, by the computing system, a second portion of the received problem reports with a second application developer among the plurality of application developers, other than the first application developer, based on the second portion of the received problem reports indicating application bugs that were detected while running applications provided to the computing system by the second application developer; generating, by the computing system, a second consolidated bug report for the second application developer that characterizes the second portion of the received problem reports associated with the second application developer; and providing the second consolidated bug report to the second application developer.

26 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , wherein the portion of the received problem reports associated with the first application developer includes problem reports for a particular application reported to the computing system by multiple different user devices, wherein the consolidated bug report for the first application developer characterizes the problem reports for the particular application reported by the multiple different user devices.

27 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , wherein the portion of the received problem reports associated with the first application developer includes problem reports for multiple different applications developed by the first application developer and distributed through the on-line application store, wherein the consolidated bug report for the first application developer characterizes the problem reports for the multiple different applications developed by the first application developer and distributed through the on-line application store.

28 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , further comprising providing the first application developer with access to a graphical report generator, wherein the consolidated bug report is provided to the first application developer in a layout specified by a report template generated with the graphical report generator.

29 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , wherein generating, by the computing system, the consolidated bug report for the first application developer comprises choosing to exclude from the consolidated bug report information that specifically identifies the user devices from which the problem reports characterized by the consolidated bug report originated.

30 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , wherein generating, by the computing system, the consolidated bug report for the first application developer comprises selecting one of a plurality of different levels of information associated with the problem reports being characterized in the consolidated bug report to include in the consolidated bug report, the selection based on a level of trust associated with the first application developer.

31 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , further comprising:
analyzing, by the computing system, the problem reports received from the particular ones of the plurality of user devices; identifying, by the computing system and based on the analysis of the problem reports, related application bugs encountered by different applications' attempts to interact with a common operating system used by multiple ones of the plurality of user devices; and determining, by the computing system and based on the identified related application bugs, a problem with the common operating system used by each of the multiple ones of the plurality of user devices.

32 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , wherein the consolidated bug report for the first application developer is arranged to show, for each of one or more applications distributed through the on-line application store for the first application developer, a frequency of occurrence of problems associated with the application.

33 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , wherein the consolidated bug report for the first application devel

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Surazski Jacek
• Parks Jason B
• Duda Dawid

Classifications

• G06F11/0775 Primary

  Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields · CPC title

• G06F8/70 Primary

  Software maintenance or management · CPC title

• G06F11/0781

  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 title

• G06F11/0748

  in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault (remote testing G06F11/2294) · CPC title

• G06F11/0742 Primary

  in a data processing system embedded in a mobile device, e.g. mobile phones, handheld devices · CPC title