Syntactic to semantic binding

• US 7,565,648 B2
• Filed: 08/19/2004
• Issued: 07/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kline, David C., Boilen, Michael G.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAVIS, JOHN Q
• Application Number:
  US10/922,586
• Publication Number:
  US 20060041423A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,797 Days
• Field of Search: 717/143
• US Class Current: 717/143
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3676 for coverage analysis

Abstract

In order to facilitate automated operations with software, semantic meaning of data values is bound to the syntactic type of the data values. In a described implementation, a piece of software accepts inputs and produces outputs. The inputs have a specified syntactic type (e.g., runtime type) and an expected semantic meaning. The semantic meaning corresponds to a real-world description of relevant data for the input. Providing a data set that matches the specified syntactic type and the expected semantic meaning as input to the software enables a relevant operation with the software to be performed. An example automated operation is the testing of a piece of software. In another described implementation, a synmantic data object is created and/or utilized that includes a syntactic type attribute and a semantic meaning attribute for the contained data value(s). Other optional attributes include locale indication and a validity flag.

Claims

1. One or more processor-accessible storage media comprising processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a device to:

instantiate, for use, one or more data objects comprising;

at least one data value;

a syntactic type of the at least one data value; and

a semantic meaning of the at least one data value;

bind the syntactic type of the at least one data value to the semantic meaning of the at least one data value; and

transform the one or more data objects into one or more synmantic data objects.

2. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the semantic meaning comprises a string that represents the real-world description of the at least one data value.

3. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the syntactic type comprises a string type or an integer type.

4. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more data objects further comprises:

a locale indicator that provides a regional and/or a cultural significance to the at least one data value with regard to the semantic meaning.

5. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 4, wherein the one or more data objects further comprises:

a validity flag that indicates if the at least one data value is valid or invalid with regard to the indicated locale.

6. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 5, wherein the validity flag, when set to invalid, indicates that the at least one data value is incorrectly formatted or not semantically meaningful for the indicated locale.

7. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, further direct the device to perform an operation on a software module using the at least one data value of the one or more data objects.

8. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, further direct the device (i) to extract from the software module the syntactic type of an input thereof and (ii) to ascertain the semantic meaning associated with the input from an argument of the input.

9. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 8, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, further direct the device to request the at least one data value of the one or more data objects from a data provider, the request specifying the extracted syntactic type and the ascertained semantic meaning.

10. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

sending a request for a data set to a data provider, the request specifying a syntactic type and a semantic meaning for data values of the requested data set;

receiving the requested data set from the data provider;

binding the syntactic type and the semantic meaning of the data values;

transforming the data values into one or more synmantic data objects; and

applying the one or more synmantic data objects to software module in order to test and evaluate the software module with relevant data that is both syntactically correct and semantically meaningful.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

extracting the syntactic type for the data values from an application programming interface (API) of the software module.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

ascertaining the semantic meaning for the data values from an application programming interface (API) of the software module.

13. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

identifying a pertinent locale;

wherein the request further specifies the pertinent locale.

14. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

instantiating an object that formulates the request and effectuates the sending and receiving.

15. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the performing comprises:

applying the data values of the requested data set to the software module to test the software module.

16. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

acquiring from the data provider information describing data to which the data provider has access.

17. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the requested data set comprises a first collection of valid data, a second collection of invalid data, and a third collection of semantically-incorrect data;

and

wherein the performing comprises;

applying the first collection, the second collection, and the third collection to the software module in the operation.

18. A device, comprising:

at least one processor;

one or more media including processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, direct the device to establish an application programming interface (API) for requested data, the API comprising;

a syntactic type of the requested data; and

a semantic meaning of the requested data;

wherein the processor-executable instructions further direct the device to provide a data set having the syntactic type and the semantic meaning of the requested data.

19. The device as recited in claim 18, wherein the processor-executable instructions further direct the device to retrieve the data set from a data store, the data store tagging data stored therein with syntactic type and semantic meaning.

20. The device as recited in claim 18, wherein the API further comprises a pertinent locale;

and wherein the processor-executable instructions further direct the device to provide the data set such that data values thereof are relevant to the semantic meaning in terms of the pertinent locale.

21. The device as recited in claim 18, wherein the API further enables a requesting client to specify whether valid, invalid, and/or semantically-incorrect data values are being requested.

22. The device as recited in claim 18, wherein the processor-executable instructions further direct the device to consider aliases for the semantic meaning that is accepted via the API.

23. The device as recited in claim 18, wherein the processor-executable instructions further direct the device to provide the data set in a valid data value collection, an invalid data value collection, and a semantically-incorrect data value collection.

24. One or more processor-accessible storage media including processor-executable instructions that comprise a client testing application, the client testing application is to extract a syntactic type and to ascertain an associated semantic meaning of an argument from a target software module,

wherein the client testing application is to direct a device to perform actions comprising:

requesting a data set from a data provider, a request thereof specifying the syntactic type and the associated semantic meaning of the argument; and

applying the data set to the target software module.

25. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 24, wherein the request also specifies a pertinent locale.

26. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 24, wherein the request also specifies the data provider.

27. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 24, wherein the client testing application is to direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

loading a script file that identifies at least one method of the target software module to be tested,

wherein the applying comprises applying the data set to the at least one identified method of the target software module.

28. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 24, wherein the client testing application is to direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

reporting test results precipitated from the action of applying.

29. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 24, wherein the applying comprises at least one of:

applying valid data values to the target software module;

applying invalid data values to the target software module;

or

applying semantically-incorrect data values to the target software module.

30. A computer-implemented arrangement for syntactic to semantic binding, the arrangement comprising:

determination means for determining syntactic types and names of arguments of multiple methods to be tested;

request means for requesting synmantic data objects from a semantic binding library based on the determined syntactic types and names of the arguments; and

application means for calling each method with at least one returned synmantic data object.

31. The computer-implemented arrangement as recited in claim 30, wherein the determination means comprises:

extraction means for extracting the syntactic types of the arguments; and

ascertainment means for ascertaining a semantic meaning of the arguments from the names thereof.

32. The computer-implemented arrangement as recited in claim 30, wherein the request means comprises:

library means for binding a semantic meaning to the syntactic type of data in the requested synmantic data objects.

33. The computer-implemented arrangement as recited in claim 30, further comprising:

load means for loading a script file that identifies the multiple methods to be tested; and

read means for reading the script file to identify the multiple methods to be tested.

34. The computer-implemented arrangement as recited in claim 30, further comprising:

report means for reporting results derived from the calling by the application means.

35. The computer-implemented arrangement as recited in claim 30, wherein the computer-implemented arrangement comprises at least one of (i) one or more processor-accessible storage media or (ii) at least one device.

36. The computer-implemented arrangement as recited in claim 30, wherein the at least one returned synmantic data object includes a locale field and a validity field.