METHOD, APPARATUS, AND PROGRAM FOR SUPPORTING CREATION AND MANAGEMENT OF METADATA FOR CORRECTING PROBLEM IN DYNAMIC WEB APPLICATION

• US 20130124521A1
• Filed: 01/02/2013
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: TERAGUCHI, Masayoshi
• Granted Patent: US 9,223,815 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0775 Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures

Abstract

Method to support creation and management of metadata for correcting a problem in a dynamic web application. A support apparatus includes a metadata creation section, a block extraction section, a similar-block search section, and a metadata generalizing section. In response to correction of a problem by a corrector, the support apparatus implements methods to create metadata including the details of the correction and application conditions, that is, a global variable group and cookie information that identify the state of the web application in which the problem has occurred, extracts another block to which the created metadata is applicable from an operation log by using a semantic block including the location of the problem as a clue, and generalizes the application conditions of the created metadata by converting them to a key-value pair structure by using the other block and by extracting a common portion therefrom.

Claims

1. A method for a computer to support creation and management of metadata for correcting a problem in a dynamic web application, the method comprising the steps of:

by the computer,

(a) creating metadata M1 in response to correction of a problem in a web application by a corrector, the metadata M1 including operation information indicating an operation for correcting the problem and application conditions of the operation information, and the application conditions including semantic block information including a location at which the problem has occurred in a Web page and a global variable group and cookie information that identify the state of the web application in which the problem has occurred;

(b) calculating metadata, for each of one or more blocks B0 that match the block information of the metadata M1 of blocks in the Web page that has shifted during a correction operation, with reference to an operation log on the web application by the corrector, the metadata including a global variable group and cookie information that identify the state of the web application that has output the Web page including the blocks B0; and

(c) converting each of the global variable groups and the cookie information acquired for the metadata M1 and the individual blocks B0 to a key-value pair structure, extracting a common portion therefrom, and updating the global variable groups and the cookie information of the metadata M1 by using the extracted common portion.

2. The supporting method according to claim 1, wherein the calculation step (b) includes the substep (b-1) of, by the computer, presenting the one or more blocks B0 that match the block information of the metadata M1 to the corrector to prompt the corrector to select blocks SB to which the operation that the operation information of the metadata M1 indicates is applicable, wherein the computer calculates metadata including the global variable group and the cookie information for each of the selected blocks SB.

3. The supporting method according to claim 2, wherein the update step (c) includes the substep (c-1) of, by the computer, extracting a key included in common in all the global variable groups or all the cookie information and extracting a key-value pair structure in which a value corresponding to the extracted key is common in all the global variable group or all the cookie information as the common portion.

4. The supporting method according to claim 3, wherein the update step (c) includes the substep (c-2) of, by the computer, further converting each of the values of the elements of an array object included in the global variable group or the cookie information to a key-value pair structure including a key for extracting the element and the value of the element.

5. The supporting method according to claim 4, wherein the update step (c) includes the substep (c-3) of, by the computer, if a value corresponding to a key included in common in all the global variable group or all the cookie information is an array object, performing the substep (c-1) on the individual elements of the array object.

6. The supporting method according to claim 3, wherein the update step (c) includes the substep (c-4) of, by the computer, converting a hierarchical object included in the global variable group or the cookie information to a key-value pair structure by dealing with the hierarchical object as an array whose values are variables.

7. The supporting method according to claim 3, wherein in the update step (c), the computer converts the cookie information formed of single information to a key-value pair structure in which the key and the value are the same.

8. The supporting method according to claim 2, where in the creation step (a), the computer obtains values for a global variable group and cookie information of a type that is preset in the computer as being effective in identifying the state of the web application and uses the values as the application conditions of the metadata M1.

9. The supporting method according to claim 1, wherein the metadata for correcting a problem in a dynamic web application further includes location information that locates the problem in the block information as the application conditions, the method further comprising the steps of:

by the computer,

(d) creating, in response to location of the present problem in the web application by the corrector, block information including the location of the problem and location information that locates the problem in the block information;

(e) extracting matched metadata from a metadata storage section that stores metadata created in the past by using the created block information and location information as search keys and presenting the extracted metadata to the corrector to prompt the corrector to select metadata M0 that is applicable to the location of the present problem; and

(f) creating metadata M2 for correcting the present problem in the web application with reference to operation information of the selected metadata M0.

10. The supporting method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of, by the computer, (g) updating the existing metadata M0 by generalizing the application conditions of the existing metadata M0 by using the metadata M2.

11. The supporting method according to claim 1, wherein the metadata for correcting a problem in a dynamic web application further includes, as the application conditions, address identification information that locates a Web page in which the problem has occurred, location information that locates the problem in the block information, and block identification information that locates the block information in the Web page at the occurrence of the problem, the method further comprising the steps of:

by the computer,

(h) calculating address information of the present Web page that the web application has output and a global variable group and cookie information that identify the present state of the web application;

(i) extracting matched metadata M0 from a metadata storage section that stores metadata created in the past by using the calculated address information, global variable group, and cookie information as search keys;

(j) comparing the block information of the extracted metadata M0 with a corresponding block in the Web page that the present web application has output, the corresponding block being extracted from the block identification information of the metadata M0, and if the blocks do not match, presenting the metadata M0 to the corrector to prompt the corrector to correct the metadata M0, and receiving the corrected block identification information; and

(k) updating the existing metadata M0 by generalizing the block identification information of the metadata M0 by using the corrected block identification information.