LINKING DIAGNOSTIC VISUALIZATIONS TO APPLICATION CODE

• US 20130152052A1
• Filed: 12/13/2011
• Published: 06/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Dadiomov, Alexander, Ji, Xinhua, Ledoux, Eric, Rapp, James, Griffing, Daniel, Jacobs, Matthew, Nesson, Ben, Campbell, Drake A., Agarwal, Mayank, Janotti, Paulo Cesar Sales, Kamenev, Alexey, Van Leeuwen, Jared Robert
• Granted Patent: US 9,146,836 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/125
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/321 Display for diagnostics, e.g. diagnostic result display, self-test user interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for linking diagnostic visualizations to regions of application code. Diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of an application are displayed. The diagnostic visualizations partially represent the abstract objective of the application (e.g., as envisioned by a developer). Diagnostic data for at least one of a plurality of components is displayed. The diagnostic data indicates the performance of the at least one of the plurality of components during execution of the application. The displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations and the displayed diagnostic data is correlated to link the one or more diagnostic visualizations to the at least one of the plurality of components. Linking the one or more diagnostic visualizations to the at least one of the plurality of components can better indicate how the application'"'"'s behavior reconciles the abstract objective.

Claims

1. At a computer system, the computer system including a processor and system memory, the computer system configured to present diagnostic data for applications at a graphical interface, the diagnostic data derived from a stream of raw computing activity, the stream of raw computing data generated by a plurality of components during execution of an application, one or more portions of the application emitting diagnostic visualizations during execution of the application, the diagnostic visualizations representing an abstract objective of the application, a method for presenting diagnostic data for the application, the method comprising:

an act of displaying one or more diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of the application, the one or more diagnostic visualizations partially representing the abstract objective of the application;

an act of displaying diagnostic data indicating the performance of at least one of the plurality of components during part of the execution of the application; and

an act of visually correlating the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data to link the one or more diagnostic visualizations to the at least one of the plurality of components so as to better indicate how the application'"'"'s behavior reconciles the abstract objective.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of visually correlating the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data comprises an act of assigning a same identification to each of the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations and the corresponding displayed diagnostic data.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of visually correlating the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data comprises an act of displaying each of the diagnostic visualizations adjacent to the corresponding diagnostic data.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of displaying one or more diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of the application comprises an act of visually distinguishing one or more types of information from the displayed diagnostic visualizations including a plurality of flags, a plurality of messages, and a plurality of spans.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the act of visually distinguishing one or more types of information from the displayed diagnostic visualizations including a plurality of flags, a plurality of messages, and a plurality of spans comprises an act of visually distinguishing the plurality of spans from one another by assigning one of a plurality of different graphical symbols to each span, each span representing the duration of the one or more portions of the application.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, the act of visually distinguishing one or more types of information from the displayed diagnostic visualizations including a plurality of flags, a plurality of messages, and a plurality of spans comprises an act of visually distinguishing the plurality of flags from one another by assigning one of a plurality of different graphical symbols to each flag, each flag representing a plurality of events within the duration of the application.

7. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the plurality of messages are used to notify a user of a plurality of events within the duration of the application.

8. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the act of visually distinguishing one or more types of information comprises an act of allocating one of a plurality of visual enhancements to each of the one or more types of information, the plurality of visual enhancements including a plurality of icons, a plurality of colors, a plurality of marks, and a combination thereof.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of displaying one or more diagnostic visualizations emitting during execution of the application further comprises an act of decomposing the diagnostic visualizations into a plurality of sub diagnostic visualizations, wherein each of the plurality of sub diagnostic visualizations represents one of a plurality of abstract sub-objectives of the application.

10. A computer program product for use at a computer system, the computer program product for implementing a method for presenting diagnostic data for an application, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the computer system to perform a method including the following:

display one or more diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of the application, the one or more diagnostic visualizations partially representing the abstract objective of the application;

display diagnostic data indicating the performance of at least one of a plurality of components of the computing system during part of the execution of the application;

display a plurality of visually distinguishable symbols indicating one or more events occurred during the execution of the application; and

visually correlate the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data to link the one or more diagnostic visualizations to the at least one of one plurality of components so as to better indicate how the application'"'"'s behavior reconciles the abstract objective.

11. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to visually correlate the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to assign a same identification to each of the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations and the corresponding displayed diagnostic data.

12. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to visually correlate the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to display each of the diagnostic visualizations adjacent to the corresponding diagnostic data.

13. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to display the one or more diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of the application comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to visually associate a plurality of spans with the one or more diagnostic visualizations, the plurality of spans representing the duration of the one or more portions of the application, each of the plurality of spans being visually distinguishable from others of the plurality of spans.

14. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein the plurality of visually distinguishable symbols includes a plurality of flags, a plurality of messages, and a plurality of spans.

15. The computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein the plurality of flags represent the plurality of events within the duration of the application, the plurality of flags allowing the user to interact with the computer system, each of the plurality of flags being visually distinguishable.

16. The computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein the plurality of messages notify the user of the computer system of the plurality of events within the duration of the application.

17. The computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of visually distinguishable symbols is assigned with a combination of a plurality of icons, a plurality of colors, and a plurality of marks.

18. The computer program product as recited in claim 17, wherein the combination of a plurality of icons, a plurality of colors, and a plurality of marks represents a plurality of different levels of importance.

19. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to display one or more diagnostic visualizations emitting during execution of the application comprises computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to decompose the diagnostic visualizations into a plurality of sub diagnostic visualizations, wherein each of the plurality of sub diagnostic visualizations represents one of a plurality of abstract sub-objectives of the application.

20. At a computer system, the computer system including a processor and system memory, the computer system configured to present diagnostic data for applications at a graphical interface, the diagnostic data derived from a stream of raw computing activity, the stream of raw computing data generated by a plurality of components during execution of an application, one or more portions of the application emitting diagnostic visualizations during execution of the application, the diagnostic visualizations representing an abstract objective of the application, a method for presenting diagnostic data for the application, the method comprising:

an act of displaying one or more diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of the application, the one or more diagnostic visualizations partially representing the abstract objective of the application, each of the one or more diagnostic visualizations being decomposable into one or more sub diagnostic visualizations representing one or more abstract sub-objectives of the application;

an act of displaying diagnostic data indicating the performance of at least one of the plurality of components during part of the execution of the application;

an act of displaying a plurality of visually distinguishable symbols indicating one or more events occurred during the execution of the application the plurality of visually distinguishable symbols including one or more spans, one or more messages, and one or more flags; and

an act of visually correlating the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data to link the one or more diagnostic visualizations to the at least one of one plurality of components so as to better indicate how the application'"'"'s behavior reconciles the abstract objective, including;

an act of assigning a same identification to each of the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations and the corresponding displayed diagnostic data;

an act of displaying each of the diagnostic visualizations adjacent to the corresponding diagnostic data.