Method and apparatus for providing help content corresponding to the occurrence of an event within a computer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8996471-B2
Application number	US-63880206-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2006
Priority date	Nov 26, 2002
Publication date	Mar 31, 2015
Grant date	Mar 31, 2015

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for displaying help content corresponding to the occurrence of an event occurring within a computer. An alert help data file is periodically downloaded at a client computer. When a program alert occurs within a client computer, the alert help data file is searched to identify help content corresponding to the particular occurrence of the alert. An alert identifier may be uniquely assigned to each alert to assist in locating the corresponding help content. Moreover, an assert tag and a function result value may also be utilized to define and locate particular help content. Once located, the help content may be displayed to a user.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for providing helpful content associated with a program alert, the method comprising:
periodically retrieving a help file comprising help content associated with at least one parameter uniquely identifying events associated with a client computer, wherein periodically retrieving the help file comprising the help content comprises:
determining whether a current time corresponds to a first appropriate time to execute an update service, the update service being configured to execute by specifying a key in a registry of the client computer,
in response to a determination that the current time is the appropriate time to execute the update service, determining whether data collection is permissible based on administrative policies set on the client computer,
retrieving an updated version of the help file, and
specifying a second appropriate time to execute the update service by updating the key in the registry of the client computer;

generating the program alert;
consulting a remote control file to determine an assert identifying code which identifies an occurred assert associated with the program alert;
determining whether help content should be provided regarding the program alert;
in response to determining that the help content should be provided,
identifying the help content based upon an alert identifier associated with the program alert and an assert tag uniquely identifying the occurred assert, the assert tag corresponding to the assert identifying code provided by the remote control file, the help content being based at least on an error report received from at least one other client computer that has previously experienced a similar event and a similar assert, wherein identifying the help content comprises locating the help content from a help table, wherein locating the help content from the help table comprises locating the help content based on a position field in a help index used identifying a position of the alert identifier associated with the help content, and
determining whether the help content is corrupt, wherein determining whether the help content is corrupt comprises utilizing cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and utilizing size data contained in a help content header, and
in response to determining that the help content is not corrupt, generating a graphical user interface with the help content;

determining whether to flag a program code based upon the assert;
using a computer to display the help content;
determining whether the program alert is a reportable event;
in response to determining that the reportable event has occurred, consulting the help file to determine whether the event should be reported; and
if the event is to be reported, collecting data identified by the help file as an event report.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the help content further comprises identifying the help content based on a function result generated concurrently with the program alert.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein identifying the help content comprises identifying the help content comprising extensible hypertext markup language.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein identifying the help content further comprises identifying the help content comprising a hyperlink to a remotely stored help resource.

5. A system for providing helpful content associated with a program alert, the system comprising:
a memory storage; and
a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to:
periodically retrieve a help file comprising help content associated with at least one parameter uniquely identifying events associated with a client computer, wherein the processing unit being operative to periodically retrieve the help file comprising the help content comprises the processing unit being operative to:
determine whether a current time corresponds to a first appropriate time to execute an update service, the update service being configured to execute by specifying a key in a registry of the client computer,
in response to a determination that the current time is the appropriate time to execute the update service, determine whether data collection is permissible based on administrative policies set on the client computer,
retrieve an updated version of the help file, and
specify a second appropriate time to execute the update service by updating the key in the registry of the client computer;

generate the program alert;
consult a remote control file to determine an assert identifying code which identifies an occurred assert associated with the program alert;
determine whether help content should be provided regarding the program alert;
in response to determining that the help content should be provided,
identify the help content based upon an alert identifier associated with the program alert and an assert tag uniquely identifying the occurred assert, the assert tag corresponding to the assert identifying code provided by the remote control file, the help content being based at least on an error report received from at least one other client computer that has previously experienced a similar event and a similar assert, wherein identifying the help content comprises locating the help content from a help table, wherein locating the help content from the help table comprises locating the help content based on a position field in a help index used identifying a position of the alert identifier associated with the help content, and
determine whether the help content is corrupt, wherein determining whether the help content is corrupt comprises utilizing cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and utilizing size data contained in a help content header, and
in response to determining that the help content is not corrupt,

generate a graphical user interface with the help content;
determine whether to flag a program code based upon the assert;
use a computer to display the help content;
determine whether the program alert is a reportable event;
in response to determining that the reportable event has occurred, consult the help file to determine whether the event should be reported; and
if the event is to be reported, collect data identified by the help file as an event report.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the processing unit being operative to identify the help content further comprises the processing unit being operative to identify the help content based on a function result generated concurrently with the program alert.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the processing unit being operative to identify the help content comprises the processing unit being operative to identify the help content comprising extensible hypertext markup language.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processing unit being operative to identify the help content further comprises the processing unit being operative to identify the help content comprising a hyperlink to a remotely stored help resource.

9. A non-volatile storage device that stores a set of instructions which when executed perform a method for providing helpful content associated with a program alert, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:
periodically retrieving a help file comprising help content associated with at least one parameter uniquely identifying events associated with a client computer, wherein periodically retrieving the help file comprising the help content comprises:
determining whether a current time corresponds to a first appropriate time to execute an update service, the update service being configured to execute by specifying a key in a registry of the client computer,
in response to a determination that the current time is the appropriate time to execute the updat

Assignees

• Greenberg Steven M
• Larsson Jeffrey E
• Fischer Kevin J
• Microsoft Corp

Inventors

• Greenberg Steven M
• Larsson Jeffrey E
• Fischer Kevin J

Classifications

• Y10S707/99945

  Object-oriented database structure processing · CPC title

• G06F9/4446 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• Y10S707/99933

  Query processing, i.e. searching · CPC title

• G06F9/453 Primary

  Help systems · CPC title