Inserting snapshot code into an application

• US 10,050,797 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2015
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Garrett, Charles D., Gounares, Alexander G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): Luu, Binh
• Application Number:
  US14/821,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20150347275A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,103 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3656 using a specific debug interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

A debugging system may display snapshot information that may be collected in response to an event identified while an application executes. The debugging system may allow a user to browse the various data elements in the snapshot, and may allow the user to modify a snapshot configuration by including or excluding various data elements within the snapshot data. The user interface may have a mechanism for including or excluding data elements that may be presented during browsing, as well as options to change the events that may trigger a snapshot. The updated snapshot configuration may be saved for future execution when the event conditions are satisfied.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a debug viewer executing on the at least one processor, wherein the debug viewer;

retrieves a snapshot taken during execution of an application and containing local variable values and call stack data;

retrieves a performance metric obtained during execution of the application;

displays an interactive time line in a debug user interface, the interactive time line comprising both a first performance indicator derived from the performance metric and at least the snapshot, wherein the first performance indicator and the snapshot are rendered as interactive elements on an interactive timeline, such that a user is enabled to select the performance indicator of the snapshot to trigger a display of underlying data associated with the first performance indicator of the snapshot, when a corresponding interactive element is selected from the interactive timeline;

displays a field for receiving user input that is operable to define one or more conditions for a subsequent snapshot to be taken during execution of the application;

displays a field for receiving additional user input that is operable to define one or more snapshot definitions for data to be collected during the subsequent snapshot;

receives the user input for the one or more conditions and the additional user input for the one or more snapshot definitions;

prior to a subsequent execution of the application, automatically inserts a new snapshot source code into the application, wherein the new snapshot source code may be inserted by automatically traversing the application source code to identify the one or more conditions for a subsequent snapshot to be taken;

monitors the application for the one or more conditions during the subsequent execution of the application; and

detects, upon the subsequent execution of the application, that the one or more conditions has been satisfied, triggers the subsequent snapshot to collect data based on the one or more snapshot definitions.

2. The system of claim 1, the snapshot comprising at least a portion of source code for the application, the portion of source code allows the user to interactively select a variable within the source code display and perform an action comprising view a current value of the selected variable, define a breakpoint, and delete a breakpoint.

3. The system of claim 1, the snapshot comprising at least a pointer to a location in source code.

4. The system of claim 3, the system further comprising:

a source code library comprising a first version of the source code being executed as the application when the first instance of the snapshot is taken;

the snapshot comprising a reference to the first version of the source code.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein:

variable values in snapshots are encrypted or obfuscated, wherein the debug viewer performs processes for decrypting or de-obfuscating the variable values; and

wherein the debug viewer displays performance metrics comprising function names that are not encrypted or obfuscated.

6. The system of claim 5, the debug user interface further comprising:

a snapshot mechanism by which the user may select the first instance of the snapshot.

7. The system of claim 1, the debug user interface further comprising:

controls comprising a pause mechanism, the pause mechanism causing the application to pause executing.

8. The system of claim 7, the debug user interface further comprising:

a browser that displays a plurality of local variables while the application has paused executing; and

a user control that selects a local variable to be collected during a future snapshot.

9. The system of claim 1, the one or more conditions comprising a predefined value for an additional local variable.

10. The system of claim 1, the one or more conditions comprising a predefined value for a global variable.

11. The system of claim 1, the one or more conditions comprising a predefined event.

12. A computer implemented method that is implemented by a debug viewer, the method comprising:

retrieving a snapshot taken during execution of an application and containing local variable values and call stack data;

retrieving a performance metric obtained during execution of the application;

displaying an interactive time line in a debug user interface, the interactive time line comprising both a first performance indicator derived from the performance metric and at least the snapshot, wherein the first performance indicator and the snapshot are rendered as interactive elements on an interactive timeline, such that a user is enabled to select the performance indicator of the snapshot to trigger a display of underlying data associated with the first performance indicator of the snapshot, when a corresponding interactive element is selected from the interactive timeline;

displaying a field for receiving user input that is operable to define one or more conditions for a subsequent snapshot to be taken during execution of the application;

displaying a field for receiving additional user input that is operable to define one or more snapshot definitions for data to be collected during the subsequent snapshot;

receiving the user input for the one or more conditions and the additional user input for the one or more snapshot definition;

prior to a subsequent execution of the application, automatically inserting a new snapshot source code into the application, wherein the new snapshot source code may be inserted by automatically traversing the application source code to identify the one or more conditions for a subsequent snapshot to be taken;

monitoring the application for the one or more conditions during the subsequent execution of the application; and

detecting, upon the subsequent execution of the application, that the one or more conditions has been satisfied, triggering the subsequent snapshot to collect data based on the one or more snapshot definitions.

13. The method of claim 12, the snapshot comprising at least a portion of source code for the application, which portion of source code allows the user to interactively select a variable within the source code display and perform an action comprising viewing a current value of the selected variable, define a breakpoint, and delete a breakpoint.

14. The method of claim 12, the snapshot comprising at least a pointer to a location in source code.

15. The method of claim 14, the system further comprising:

a source code library comprising a first version of the source code being executed as the application when the first instance of the snapshot is taken;

the snapshot comprising a reference to the first version of the source code.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein:

variable values in snapshots are encrypted or obfuscated, wherein the debug viewer performs processes for decrypting or de-obfuscating the variable values; and

wherein the debug viewer displays performance metrics comprising function names that are not encrypted or obfuscated.

17. The method of claim 16, the debug user interface further comprising:

a snapshot mechanism by which the user may select the first instance of the snapshot.

18. The method of claim 12, the debug user interface further comprising:

controls comprising a pause mechanism, the pause mechanism causing the application to pause executing.

19. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable hardware storage devices having thereon one or more computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for conditionally inserting custom code within an application, the method comprising:

retrieving a snapshot taken during execution of an application and containing local variable values and call stack data;

retrieving a performance metric obtained during execution of the application;

displaying an interactive time line in a debug user interface, the interactive time line comprising both a first performance indicator derived from the performance metric and at least the snapshot, wherein the first performance indicator and the snapshot are rendered as interactive elements on an interactive timeline, such that a user is enabled to select the performance indicator of the snapshot to trigger a display of underlying data associated with the first performance indicator of the snapshot, when a corresponding interactive element is selected from the interactive timeline;

displaying a field for receiving user input that is operable to define one or more conditions for a subsequent snapshot to be taken during execution of the application;

displaying a field for receiving additional user input that is operable to define one or more snapshot definitions for data to be collected during the subsequent snapshot;

receiving the user input for the one or more conditions and the additional user input for the one or more snapshot definitions;

prior to a subsequent execution of the application, automatically inserting a new source snapshot code into the application, wherein the new snapshot source code may be inserted by automatically traversing the application source code to identify the one or more conditions for a subsequent snapshot to be taken;

monitoring the application for the one or more conditions during the subsequent execution of the application; and

detecting, upon the subsequent execution of the application, that the one or more conditions has been satisfied, triggering the subsequent snapshot to collect data based on the one or more snapshot definitions.