AUTOMATED SOLUTION THAT DETECTS CONFIGURATION PROBLEMS IN AN ECLIPSE-BASED SOFTWARE APPLICATION

• US 20090187823A1
• Filed: 01/23/2008
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: FARRELL, PETER L. H., WIJENAYAKE, SUDARSHA D. A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,230,397 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management

Abstract

The present invention discloses an automated method for detecting configuration problems in an ECLIPSE-based software application. Such a method can begin with the receipt of a user-command to test a configuration of an ECLIPSE-based software application or with a detection of a feature addition/update when an auto-testing feature is enabled. Information about the available sites for the ECLIPSE-based application can then be obtained. Then, a list of software elements required to operate the ECLIPSE-based software application can be compiled. At least one data attribute can be extracted from the meta data of each software element in the compiled list. The extracted data attributes can then be analyzed. When the analysis identifies a configuration problem, the existence of the configuration problem can be validated.

Claims

1. An ECLIPSE framework feature configuration testing software comprising:

a set of programmatic instructions digitally encoded in a machine readable media and executable by at least one computing device, wherein said set of programmatic instructions are configured to analyze a set of features and feature patches of an ECLIPSE-based application, to determine an existence of configuration problems if any, and to report determined configuration problems.

2. The software of claim 1, wherein the software is a component of an ECLIPSE development software tool able to be triggered based upon a user selection within a graphics based software development interface.

3. The software of claim 1, wherein the software is at least one of a component of the ECLIPSE-based application and a software executable able to interact with the ECLIPSE-based application, wherein said software automatically executes when a new feature or feature update is applied to the ECLIPSE-based application, and wherein detection of a configuration problem during the automatic execution causes the application of the new feature of feature update to be aborted.

4. The software of claim 1, wherein at least one of the configuration problems determined and reported by the software represents an unmet operating condition of at least one of the ECLIPSE framework, a software engineering standard, and an ECLIPSE standard, and wherein at least one of the configuration problems is one of a software element unavailability, a corruption of the set of meta data, an absence of the set of meta data, a violation of the at least one ECLIPSE standard, a conflict between version of the software element, an unfulfilled dependency between software elements, an absence of a branding plug-in, and an exclusion of a software element from the ECLIPSE-based software application.

5. An automated method for detecting configuration problems in an ECLIPSE-based software application comprising:

receiving a user-command to test a configuration of an ECLIPSE-based software application, wherein the ECLIPSE-based software application includes a plurality of software elements;

obtaining available sites for the ECLIPSE-based application;

compiling a list of software elements required to operate the ECLIPSE-based software application;

extracting a set of at least one data attribute from a set of meta data for each software element contained in the compiled list of software elements;

analyzing the set of data attributes extracted for each software element; and

when a result of the analyzing step determines an existence of a configuration problem, validating the existence of the configuration problem.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein further comprising:

generating a test report containing results of the analyzing step and the validating step, when executed.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the test report includes a recommended solution for the configuration problem.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the results in the test report are grouped into at least one section, wherein the at least one section includes a missing software elements section, a missing meta data section, a versioning errors section, a platform filter issues section, an incomplete dependencies section, and a captured errors and warnings section.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the set of extracted data attributes includes one of an element identifier, a version identifier, a set of platform filters, a set of included software elements, a set of required software elements, and an identification of a branding plug-in.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the configuration problem represents an unmet operating condition of at least one of the ECLIPSE-based operating system, an ECLIPSE coding standard, and ECLIPSE framework.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the obtaining, compiling, and extracting steps utilize an Application Programming Interface (API) to interface with the plurality of software elements of the ECLIPSE-based software application.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein said steps of claim 5 are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program stored in a computer readable media, said computer programming having a plurality of code sections that are executable by at least one machine.

13. An automated system that detects configuration problems of an ECLIPSE-based software application comprising:

an ECLIPSE-based software application configured to operate in an ECLIPSE framework, wherein the ECLIPSE-based software includes a plurality of software elements, wherein each software element contains a set of meta data defining a plurality of operational data; and

a configuration test utility configured to determine an existence of configuration problems between the plurality of software elements of the ECLIPSE-based software application, wherein the configuration test utility produces a test report containing determined configuration problems.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein a configuration problem represents an unmet operating condition of at least one of the ECLIPSE framework, a software engineering standard, and an ECLIPSE standard.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the configuration problem is at least one of a software element unavailability, a corruption of the set of meta data, an absence of the set of meta data, a violation of at least one ECLIPSE standard, a conflict between version of the software element, an unfulfilled dependency between software elements, an absences of a branding plug-in, and an exclusion of a software element from the ECLIPSE-based software application.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the set of meta data is captured in a manifest document written in an Extensible Markup Language (XML).

17. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a user interface configured to accepting a user-configuration of at least one of the configuration test utility and the test report.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the configuration test utility utilizes an Application Programming Interface (API) to interface with the plurality of software elements of the ECLIPSE-based software application.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the determined configuration problems of the test report are grouped into at least one section, wherein the at least one section includes a missing software elements section, a missing meta data section, a versioning errors section, a platform filter issues section, an incomplete dependencies section, and a captured errors and warnings section.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the test report includes a recommended solution for the determined configuration problems.