Debugging through causality and temporal patterning in an event processing system

• US 10,055,334 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2015
• Issued: 08/21/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lentz, James L., Martin, David D., Van, Jung W., Yheng, Yee Pin
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wang, Ben C
• Application Number:
  US14/788,491
• Publication Number:
  US 20170004066A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,148 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3684 for test design, e.g. generating new test cases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to a method and apparatus for visualizing events received and processed by a plurality of software agents in a distributed system. Aspects of the present disclosure generally include receiving, for each software agent, a recording identifying one or more events occurring on that software agent, generating a visualization showing a timeline for one or more of the plurality of software agents wherein the visualization represents each event consumed or emitted by the one or more software agents as an icon on the timeline ordered based on the time the event is consumed or emitted, receiving a request indicating at least a first one of the icons in the visualization, determining, for the event corresponding to the first icon, a causal chain of events related to that event, and updating the icons corresponding to events in the causal chain of events to present an ordered sequence of events in the causal chain of events that occurred relative to the event corresponding to the first one of the icons.

Claims

1. A system for visualizing events received and processed by a plurality of software agents in a distributed system, the system comprising:

one or more computer processors;

a memory containing a program which when executed by the one or more computer processors performs an operation, the operation comprising;

identifying, for each software agent, by a debugger, a plurality of events occurring on that software agent;

identifying at least two of the plurality of events occurring effectively simultaneously;

generating, on a user interface presented by the debugger, a visualization showing a respective timeline for each of the plurality of software agents wherein the visualization represents each event consumed by each software agent as an icon above the respective timeline for the respective software agent and each event emitted by each respective software agent as an icon below the respective timeline for the respective software agent, wherein the icons are ordered based on a time each respective event is consumed or emitted and wherein the visualization includes a stacked icon on at least one of the timelines representing the identified at least two of the plurality of events occurring effectively simultaneously;

presenting the visualization via the user interface of the debugger;

receiving a request indicating at least a first one of the icons in the visualization, wherein the first icon is the stacked icon;

updating the first icon to present a semi-circle arrangement of icons representing the identified at least two of the plurality of events occurring effectively simultaneously;

determining, for the event corresponding to the first icon, a causal chain of events related to that event; and

updating the icons corresponding to events in the causal chain of events to present, on the user interface of the debugger, an ordered sequence of events in the causal chain of events that occurred relative to the event corresponding to the first one of the icons.

2. The system of claim 1, the operation further comprising displaying, on the user interface of the debugger, a time horizon cursor at the time an event corresponding to the first icon was consumed or emitted.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the causal sequence of events is based on events emitted or consumed by a first software agent of the one or more software agents.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the ordered sequence of events is based on events emitted or consumed occurring effectively at the same time as the event corresponding to the first icon.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the ordered sequence of events is based on events emitted or consumed by other software agents wherein the events emitted or consumed by the other software agents are emitted or consumed by the first software agent.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein updating the icons further comprises highlighting the icon in the visualization based on causal chain of events.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein updating the icons further comprises fading the icons in the visualization not associated with the causal chain of events.

8. A computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code for visualizing events received and processed by a plurality of software agents in a distributed system, comprising;

computer-readable program code configured to identify, for each software agent, by a debugger, a plurality of events occurring on that software agent;

computer-readable program code configured to identify at least two of the plurality of events occurring effectively simultaneously;

computer-readable program code configured to generate, on a user interface presented by the debugger, a visualization showing a respective timeline for each of the plurality of software agents wherein the visualization represents each event consumed by each software agent as an icon above the respective timeline and each event emitted by each respective software agent as an icon below the timeline for the respective software agent, wherein the icons are ordered based on a time each respective event is consumed or emitted and wherein the visualization includes a stacked icon on at least one of the timelines representing the identified at least two of the plurality of events occurring effectively simultaneously;

computer-readable program code configured to present the visualization via the user interface of the debugger;

computer-readable program code configured to receive a request indicating at least a first one of the icons in the visualization, wherein the first icon is the stacked icon;

computer-readable program code configured to update the first icon to present a semi-circle arrangement of icons representing the identified at least two of the plurality of events occurring effectively simultaneously;

computer-readable program code configured to determine, for the event corresponding to the first icon, a causal chain of events related to that event; and

computer-readable program code configured to update the icons corresponding to events in the causal chain of events to present, on the user interface of the debugger, an ordered sequence of events in the causal chain of events that occurred relative to the event corresponding to the first one of the icons.

9. The computer-program product of claim 8, further comprising computer-readable program code configured to display, on the user interface of the debugger, a time horizon cursor at the time an event corresponding to the first icon was consumed or emitted.

10. The computer-program product of claim 8, wherein the causal sequence of events is based on events emitted or consumed by a first software agent of the one or more software agents.

11. The computer-program product of claim 10, wherein the ordered sequence of events is based on events emitted or consumed occurring effectively at the same time as the event corresponding to the first icon.

12. The computer-program product of claim 10, wherein the ordered sequence of events is based on events emitted or consumed by other software agents wherein the events emitted or consumed by the other software agents are emitted or consumed by the first software agent.

13. The computer-program product of claim 8, wherein updating the icons further comprises highlighting the icon in the visualization based on causal chain of events.