TWO-WAY REMOTE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20160072692A1
• Filed: 09/02/2015
• Published: 03/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Home Box Office Incorporated (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Home Box Office Incorporated (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: Patwardhan, Makarand V., Furtwangler, Tyler R., Furtwangler, Brandon C., Corrington, Jesse
• Granted Patent: US 10,044,591 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/30 Monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3644 by instrumenting at runtime
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3668 Software testing software testing in telephone exchanges H04M3/242, testing of hardware G06F11/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3672 Test management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3696 Methods or tools to render software testable
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/14 using software, i.e. software packages network security related monitoring H04L63/1408
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]

Abstract

The described technology is directed towards server-controlled testing and/or monitoring of a client device application program. The server loads plug-in components directed towards the testing and/or monitoring operations, and instructs the client device to couple counterpart plug-in components to the client device application program. The server'"'"'s plug-in components communicate with the application program'"'"'s plug-in components to run the testing and/or monitoring operations, which may be automated, send queries to the client to receive responses, and send commands to the client to take actions. The server includes dashboards for interacting with the client device. The client device includes virtual input devices that allow the server to inject input into the client application program.

Claims

1. A method performed at least in part on at least one machine, comprising:

coupling a server machine to a remote client device for testing or monitoring of a client device program, or both testing and monitoring of the client device program;

loading at least one server-side component related to the testing or monitoring of the client device program, or both testing and monitoring of the client device program;

using the server-side component to have a server-side specified testing or monitoring set of operations, or both, performed on the client device program; and

receiving logging data at the server corresponding to the set of testing operations performed on the client device program, or receiving monitoring data at the server corresponding to the set of monitoring operations performed on the client device program, or both receiving logging data at the server corresponding to the set of testing operations performed on the client device program and receiving monitoring data at the server corresponding to the set of monitoring operations performed on the client device program.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, communicating a query from the server to the client device program, and receiving a response from the client device program in response to the query.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising, receiving the query at the client device program, obtaining information requested via the query, and communicating the information from the client device program to the server to respond to the query.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein using the server-side component to have the server-side specified testing or monitoring set of operations performed by the client device program comprises running an automated test on the client device program.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein using the server-side component to have the server-side specified testing or monitoring set of operations, or both, performed by the client device program comprises debugging the client device program.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, instructing the client device program to not send information that the client device program is capable of providing but is unwanted by the server for the set of server-side specified testing or monitoring set of operations, or both.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising, communicating a command from the server to the client device program to invoke a client-side action.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein communicating the command comprises injecting input to the client device program via a virtual input device coupled to or incorporated into the client device program.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein communicating the command corresponds to obtaining data corresponding to at least part of a user interface tree of the client device program.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising, receiving the command at the client device program, and taking action at the client device program with respect to executing the command.

11. A system comprising:

a client device, the client device having a channel manager component that establishes a communication channel with a server;

one or more plug-in components able to be coupled to an application program of the client device, the plug-in components corresponding to one or more testing-related operations or one or more monitoring-related operations, or both, for testing or monitoring, or both testing and monitoring, of the client device application program; and

the client-device communicating with the server, including to receive information as to which server-specified plug-in component or plug-in components to couple to the application program, in which the server-specified plug-in component or plug-in components are coupled to the application program to communicate with one or more server components to perform testing-related operations, monitoring-related operations, or both, and to communicate data to the server corresponding to performing the testing-related operations, monitoring-related operations, or both.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the client plug-in component or plug-in components communicate data to the server corresponding to test log data, performance monitoring data, or both.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the client application program is coupled to or incorporates one or more virtual input devices, the one or more server components injecting input to the client application program via the one or more virtual input devices.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the one or more virtual input devices include one virtual input device that sends input to a button provider and another virtual input device that sends input to a pointer provider.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the one or more server components comprise one or more plug-in components for automated testing of the client application program or for monitoring of the client application program, or both for automated testing of the client application program and for monitoring of the client application program, including one or more corresponding server-side dashboard components to provide for server-side interaction with the client application program.

16. One or more machine-readable storage media having machine-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:

running server-specified testing operations or server-specified monitoring operations, or both, on a client application program, in which one-or more plug-in components are coupled to the client application program and configured to communicate information to a server;

communicating data corresponding to the testing operations, or data corresponding to the monitoring operations, or both data corresponding to the testing operations and data corresponding to the monitoring operations from the plug-in components to the server.

17. The one or more machine-readable storage media of claim 16 having further machine-executable instructions comprising, receiving a query from the server, obtaining information at the client device with respect to the query, and responding to the query to return at least part of the information.

18. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 16 having further machine-executable instructions comprising, receiving a command from the server, and taking action at the client application program to execute the command.

19. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 18 wherein receiving the command comprises receiving a command directed to inputting input into the client application program, and wherein taking the action comprises using a virtual input device to input the input to the client application program.

20. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 18 wherein receiving the command comprises receiving a command directed to returning data corresponding to at least part of a user interface tree, and wherein taking the action comprises returning the data corresponding to at least part of a user interface tree to the server.