TRACE MANAGEMENT IN CLIENT-SERVER APPLICATIONS

• US 20080313504A1
• Filed: 06/13/2008
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Wedel, Malte, Roessler, Andreas
• Granted Patent: US 8,271,957 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3636 by tracing the execution of the program

Abstract

There are methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for generating an integrated trace output file on a system having a first computing device and a second computing device. The first computing device generates a first trace output and receives a second trace output from the second computing device. The first computing device generates an integrated trace output file by combining the second trace output with the first trace output.

Claims

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A system for generating an integrated trace output file, the system comprising:

a client computer device comprising a client agent, including;

a client detection module configured to detect a first event having a first severity level at the client computer device;

a client generation module configured to generate a client-side trace output in response to the event detection at the client computer device; and

a client communication module configured to transmit the client-side trace output;

a server computer device comprising a server agent, including;

a server detection module configured to detect a second event having a second severity level at the server computer device;

a server generation module configured to generate a server-side trace output in response to the detection of the event at the server computer device;

a server communication module configured to receive the client-side trace output from the client computer device; and

a server integration module configured to generate the integrated trace output file by integrating the client-side trace output with the server-side trace output, the integrated trace output file having the client-side trace output appended to the server-side trace output.

22. A system having a server computer device for generating an integrated trace output file, the server computer device comprising a server agent having:

a server generation module configured to generate a server-side trace output in response to detection of a first event having a first severity level at the server computer device;

a server communication module configured to receive a client-side trace output from a client computer device, the client-side trace output generated in response of detection of a second event having a second severity level at the client computer device; and

a server integration module configured to generate the integrated trace output file by integrating the client-side trace output with the server-side trace output, the integrated trace output file having the client-side trace output appended to the server-side trace output.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising an application program including the server agent.

24. A system comprising:

a client computer device having a client agent, including;

a client detection module configured to detect a first event having a first severity level at the client computer device;

a client generation module configured to generate a client-side trace output in response to the event detection at the client computer device; and

a client communication module configured to transfer the client-side trace output to a server computer device for integrating the client-side trace output with a server-side trace output documenting a second event having a second severity level, the integrated trace output file having the client-side trace output appended to the server-side trace output.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising a client program including the client agent.

26. A method for generating trace output files on a system having a client and a server, comprising:

integrating a client-side trace output generated in response to detection of a first event having a first severity level at the client with a server-side trace output documenting a second event having a second severity level to generate an integrated trace output file having the client-side trace output appended to the server-side trace output.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the event at the client device occurs while a user is interacting with an application program executing on the server.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

detecting the second event at the server while the user is interacting with the application program;

generating the server-side trace output in response to the detection of the second event at the server; and

integrating the server-side trace output with the client-side trace output to generate a single trace output file.

29. A method of generating trace output files, the method comprising:

receiving a first trace output documenting a first event having a first severity level from a first computing device; and

integrating the first trace output with a second trace output documenting a second event having a second severity level from a second computing device to generate an integrated output file having the first trace output appended to the second trace output.

30. A computer program storage product for generating trace output files on a system having a first computing device and a second computing device, the computer program storage product having instructions to cause a data processing apparatus to:

integrate a first trace output documenting a first event having a first severity level generated at a first computing device with a second trace output documenting a second event having a second severity level generated at a second computing device to generate an integrated trace output file having the first trace output appended to the second trace output.

31. The computer program storage product of claim 30, further comprising instructions to:

provide an agent for detecting the second event at the second computing device.

32. The computer program storage product of claim 31, wherein the instructions to provide the agent further comprise instructions to employ executable code.

33. The computer program storage product of claim 30, further comprising instructions to:

identify severity levels for event detection at the first computing device;

detect an event having an identified severity level;

generate the first trace output at the first computing device; and

associate the first trace output with the identified severity level.

34. The computer program storage product of claim 33, wherein the identified severity level indicates whether the first trace output comprises an error message, a warning message, an information message, or a debug message.

35. The computer program storage product of claim 30, further comprising instructions to:

identify severity levels for event detection at the second computing device;

detect an event having an identified severity level;

generate the second trace output at the second computing device; and

associate the second trace output with the identified severity level.

36. The computer program storage product of claim 35, wherein the identified severity level indicates whether the second trace output comprises an error message, a warning message, an information message, or a debug message.

37. The computer program storage product of claim 30, further comprising instructions to:

receive an active component trace output from the second computing device.

38. The computer program storage product of claim 37, further comprising instructions to:

combine the active component trace output with the first trace output.

39. The computer program storage product of claim 30, wherein the second trace output includes an active component trace output generated at the second computing device.

40. The computer program storage product of claim 30, wherein the first computing device is a server and the second computing device is a client.

41. The computer program storage product of claim 30, further comprising instructions to:

display the integrated trace output file on the second computing device.

42. The computer program storage product of claim 41, further comprising instructions to display the integrated trace output file in a separate browser window.

43. The computer program storage product of claim 30, wherein the instructions to generate the integrated trace output file comprise instructions to integrate the second trace output with the first trace output in a chronological order.

44. An integrator for performing a method for generating trace output files, the method comprising:

receiving a first trace output documenting a first event having a first severity level from a first computing device; and

integrating the first trace output with a second trace output documenting a second event having a second severity level from a second computing device to generate an integrated output file having the first trace output appended to the second trace output.