Systems And Methods For Interactions With Software Probes

• US 20090254821A1
• Filed: 04/04/2008
• Published: 10/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Inventors: Cates, Claire S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,566,796 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3612 by runtime analysis performance monitoring G06F11/3466

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for enabling interaction between a user and a software probe inserted into application code for monitoring and testing application performance. Communications are initialized with the software probe and a user interface is provided to the user. Command data is received from the user through the interface and forwarded to the software probe. In response, data communications are received from the software probe.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system for capturing one or more metrics of an application via embedded software probes comprising:

application software code to be tested;

software probe code inserted into the application software code such that the software probe code can monitor the performance of the application software code;

a user interface configured for bidirectional interaction with the software probe such that user entered commands are routed to the software probe for execution within the application software and application performance data gathered by the software probe is routed to the user interface for display or to a file for storage.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the software probe code is configured to execute user entered commands entered via the user interface during runtime of the application.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is configured such that a user inserts code into an already instrumented software probe in real time without a need to recompile the application software code or software probe code.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the software probe code can be activated or deactivated via commands from the user routed to the software probe via the user interface.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the application performance data gathered by the software probe is displayed on the user interface such that a user can access the data in real time and command the software based upon the displayed data.

38. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the performance of the application software code includes the capturing of metrics.

6. A computer-implemented method of enabling interaction between a user and a software probe inserted into application code for monitoring application performance, comprising:

initializing communication with the software probe;

providing an user interface to the user;

receiving command data from the user through the user interface;

forwarding the command data to the software probe; and

receiving data communications from the software probe.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the command data forwarded to the software probe instructs the software probe to execute a command within the application in real time.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the command collects specified data within the running application and outputs the specified data from the software probe.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the command data forwarded to the software probe enables the user to interact with the software probe in real time without the need to recompile the software code or the application.

10. The method of claim 6 further comprising storing the received data communications in a file.

11. The method of claim 6 further comprising displaying the received data communications in a display window on the user interface.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the initializing communication with the software probe further comprises:

monitoring a communication port;

receiving a query from a software probe on the communication port; and

creating a socket for communication to the software probe.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the user interface contains a command input wherein a user can enter probe commands.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the command input is a text box input.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the user interface contains a button adding mechanism wherein a user can forward command data to the software probe by clicking a user defined interface button.

16. The method of claim 6, wherein the software probe is selected from the group consisting of an AProbe compatible software probe and a DTrace compatible software probe.

17. A computer-implemented software probe inserted into application code for analysis of runtime performance of the application, comprising:

an initialization routine for negotiating communication between the software probe and a user interface;

a log writing routine for writing a line of text to the user interface display;

a process command routine for performing command actions in accordance with received command data from the user interface; and

a termination routine for terminating communication between the software probe and the user interface.

18. The software probe of claim 17 further comprising a data view routine for invoking a viewer on a data file such that the user interface displays captured data.

19. A system for enabling interaction between a user and a software probe inserted into application code for observing performance of an application, comprising:

a processor;

system memory for storing the application code and software probe;

a software probe inserted into the application probe comprising;

software instructions for providing an user interface to the user;

software instructions for initializing communication between a user interface and the software probe;

software instructions to receive command data from the user through the user interface;

software instructions for forwarding the command data to the software probe; and

software instructions to receive data communications from the software probe.

20. A method of inserting debug code into an already instrumented software probe residing in application code for monitoring a running application comprising:

receiving command instructions for insertion into the active software probe;

compiling the received command instructions into a format compatible with the software probe; and

inserting the compiled received command instructions into the active software probe.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein compiling the received command instructions into a format compatible with the software probe comprises determining a proper position within the application to insert the code.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the received command instructions identify a routine to be analyzed.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the received command instructions identify the frequency with which a routine is to be analyzed.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the received command instructions identify actions to be taken upon entry into the specified routine.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the received command instructions identify actions to be taken upon exit from the specified routine.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein the compiled received command instructions are inserted during application runtime.

27. A system for inserting debug code into an active software probe residing in application code for monitoring the performance of an application executing on a processor comprising:

software instructions to receive command instructions for insertion into the active software probe;

software instructions for compiling the received command instructions into a format compatible with the software probe; and

software instructions for inserting the compiled received command instructions into the active software probe.

28. A computer-implemented method of visualizing patterns within a table of data containing application performance data generated by an injected software probe comprising:

identifying patterns within a table of data;

receiving user input as to which identified patterns are to be visualized; and

highlighting the identified patterns associated with the user input.

29. The method of claim 28 further comprising listing the identified patterns in a second table.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the second table further comprises the number of times each identified pattern occurs in the table of data.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the second table further comprises a position in the data table where each identified pattern first appears in the table of data.

32. The method of claim 28, wherein data table records contained within each identified pattern associated with the user input are highlighted by a unique color in the table of data.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein data table records contained within each identified pattern associated with the user input are highlighted by a unique cell background in the table of data.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein data table records that appear in more than one pattern associated with the user input are highlighted in a further unique color in the table of data.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein records which begin a pattern associated with the user input are further highlighted.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the records which begin a pattern associated with the user input are further highlighted by coloring all columns of the records which begin a pattern associated with the user input while all subsequent records contained within the pattern associated with the user input have only one column highlighted.

37. A probe interface for facilitating bidirectional communication with a software probe containing debug code comprising:

means for initializing communication between the probe interface and the software probe;

means for receiving a probe command from a user;

means for communicating the received probe command to the debug for execution;

means for receiving metric data from the debug code; and

means for displaying the received metric data to the user.