ASSOCIATION OF METADATA WITH SOURCE CODE AND APPLICATIONS AND SERVICES PREMISED THEREON

• US 20140173561A1
• Filed: 12/13/2012
• Published: 06/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Toub, Stephen H.
• Granted Patent: US 9,632,771 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/123
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/73 Program documentation

Abstract

Systems and methods are described that enable metadata to be associated with source code at various levels of granularity (e.g., at the level of files, classes, functions, lines, statements and expressions) and that enable such metadata to be accessed independently of the source code with which it is associated. Such metadata may be used to track provenance and history of source code within and across source code repositories, associate ratings or other indicia of quality or reliability with source code, wherein such ratings may be exposed to developers and wherein such ratings may be used to better manage the automated check-in, testing and analysis of source code, and facilitate a process by which a component that manages a source code entity is notified about updates made to a related source code entity and by which like changes may be to the source code entity in a manual or automated fashion.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining that an action has been performed with respect to a first source code entity, the first source code entity comprising an item of source code within a source code file;

generating metadata associated with the first source code entity based upon the performance of the action; and

storing the generated metadata separately from the source code file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises:

determining that the action has been performed with respect to one or more classes, functions, lines, statements, or expressions within the source code file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining that the first source code entity has been created, modified or deleted, and

wherein the generating comprises generating metadata associated with the first source code entity that comprises historical information concerning the creation, modification or deletion.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining that the first source code entity has been copied from a second source code entity, and

wherein the generating comprises one or more of:

generating metadata associated with the first source code entity by copying metadata associated with the second source code entity, and

generating metadata associated with the first source code entity that comprises a link to the second source code entity.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining that a second source code entity has been copied from the first source code entity, and

wherein the generating comprises generating metadata associated with the first source code entity that comprises a link to the second source code entity.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a second source code entity is similar to the first source code entity; and

in response to determining that the second source code entity is similar to the first source code entity, performing one or more of;

generating metadata associated with the first source code entity by copying metadata associated with the second source code entity,

generating metadata associated with the first source code entity that comprises a link to the second source code entity,

generating metadata associated with the second source code entity by copying metadata associated with the first source code entity, and

generating metadata associated with the second source code entity that comprises a link to the first source code entity.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating comprises generating one or more of structured data and unstructured data.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the generating of structured data comprises generating one or more key/value pairs.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the generated metadata separately from the source code file comprises storing the generated metadata in one of:

a metadata file that is associated with the source code file;

a data stream that is associated with the source code file;

or

a database.

10. A software development system, comprising:

one or more computers;

a repository that stores source code files; and

a metadata manager that, when executed by at least one of the one or more computers, associates metadata with source code entities included within the source code files, the metadata associated with each source code entity being indicative of a quality or reliability of the corresponding source code entity.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a bug tracking system that associates bug information with each source code entity;

wherein the metadata that is associated with each source code entity is generated based at least in part on the bug information associated with each source code entity.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

an analytics engine that identifies problems that occur during deployment of applications that comprise executable code generated from the source code files, associates such problems with the source code entities, and determines the metadata to be associated with each source code entity based at least in part on any problem(s) associated with the source code entity.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

an automated testing system that automatically tests each source code entity and generates test results information therefor; and

an analytics engine that receives the test results information and determines the metadata to be associated with each source code entity based at least in part on the test results information generated for the source code entity.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

an analytics engine that identifies a developer associated with each of the source code entities, obtains reputation information for each developer so identified, and determines the metadata to be associated with each source code entity based at least in part on the reputation information of the developer associated with the source code entity.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the analytics engine is operable to modify the reputation information of at least one developer based upon metadata associated with a source code entity that is associated with the developer.

16. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a source control system that controls a check-in policy for the source code files based on the metadata.

17. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

an automated testing system that determines an amount, type and/or degree of testing or static analysis to be applied to the source code entities based on the metadata associated therewith.

18. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a source code editor that exposes the metadata associated with each source code entity to a user thereof.

19. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining that a source code entity within a first source code file has been modified;

identifying a related source code entity within a second source code file or a code store based on metadata associated with the source code entity; and

sending a notification concerning the modification to a component that manages the related source code entity.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving a notification concerning a modification to the related source code entity; and

in response to receiving the notification concerning the modification to the related source code entity, performing one of;

automatically modifying the source code entity based on the modification to the related source code entity;

or

providing a developer with a means for updating the source code entity based on the modification to the related source code entity.