Patent ID: 6973643

Claim:
A method for handling errors in a service program including service functions capable of being called from application programs, comprising: receiving a call for one service function from a service function call within one application program; performing a series of test operations when executing the service function call, wherein each test operation returns an identifier if the test operation failed, wherein each identifier is associated with one error state; if one test operation failed, transmitting the identifier associated with the error state of the failed test operation to an error handling agent, wherein the error handling agent accesses error information associated with the identifier and generates error information describing a specific cause of the error that caused the test operation to fail; generating error information providing a description of a service function error associated with a received identifier; providing a directory including entries corresponding to identifiers capable of being received from the service function, wherein the directory maintains error information for identifiers that describes a specific cause of the test operation failure associated with the identifier; accessing one entry in the directory corresponding to the received identifier, wherein the generated error information comprises the description of a specific cause of the error in the directory entry for the received identifier; detecting a change in a version number of the service program; accessing an updated directory reflecting changes resulting from an update to service functions in the service program; and replacing the directory with the updated directory, wherein the updated directory is capable of including modifications to the identifiers and error information.