International Business Machines Corporation

Lenovo (singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Lonny R Olson-Williams

Ronald Dean Young

Earl Walter Emerick

Paul William Wertzler

Kurt Clifford Thompson

Van Dee Sammons

Carol Ann Egan

James R Fritsch

Clair L Ewert

Suellen Kae Birkholz

John David Gressett

Jay Peter Obey

Embodiments of the present invention provide an integrated methodology that simplifies upgrade choices for complex computer products through the use of automation and integration of product monitoring and business applications with, for example, web based capabilities. Historical information for computer systems is collected and transmitted to a remote support system. Over time, sufficient historical data provides a historical view of the systems indicative of usage and facilitating the choice of product enhancements, upgrades and customization. Further, this historical view may be integrated with the advances in the product that are kept by the remote support system as well as with the performance requirements of third party application providers.

Method and apparatus upgrade assistance using critical historical product information

A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that in an embodiment, store a reason identifier in rows in a database. The reason identifier identifies the most recent change to the rows. The content of the rows that existed prior to the change are stored in journal records. In response to an undo command, the most-recent instance of each record identifier in the records associated with the reason identifier are found in the journal and moved to the database in reverse time sequence order. In an embodiment, a promote operation requests moving the change upwards in a sequence, from a source version to a target version of the database. In response to the promote operation, a determination is made whether rows with the same row identifiers but a different reason identifier exist in a target version of the database, but the different reason identifier is complete.

Reason-based database changes

Method and apparatus for upgrading a software on a customer system are provided. In one embodiment, a method for upgrading a software on a customer system comprises: receiving, by a supplier system, a software inventory from the customer system; verifying one or more business contracts for the software inventory utilizing one or more databases connected to the supplier system; and determining one or more software upgrade releases for the software inventory utilizing a product topology database connected to the supplier system.

Method and apparatus for automating software upgrades

A method and apparatus prints copies of internet pages from the worldwide web, in accordance with operator-selected formatting instructions. A plurality of internet page record locators are selected and recorded in memory of the data processing system, preferably grouped in a directory such as a Bookmark, Favorite, or Hotlist directory. Operator-specified formatting instructions are then obtained. The formatting instructions may relate to attributes such as page headers, page footers, page break location, pagination, cover sheets, table of contents, the content allocation and placement among the printed pages, as well as the presence or absence of internet identification titles, and the presence or absence of visually perceptible internet links or internet icons from the Internet pages. Finally, the formatted internet pages are printed, utilizing the printer associated with the data processing system, in accordance with the particular operator-selected format requirements which are associated with the selected internet pages.

Method and apparatus for printing worldwide web pages in accordance with operator selected formatting

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Lonny R Olson-Williams