System and method for visualizing exception generation

• US 7,627,857 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2004
• Issued: 12/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DoorDash, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rokosz, Vaughn Theodore
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Wei Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHOW, CHIH CHING
• Application Number:
  US10/988,924
• Publication Number:
  US 20060112373A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,842 Days
• Field of Search: 717/124, 714/37, 714/45, 714/46
• US Class Current: 717/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software

Abstract

A system for animating the visualization of exceptions thrown by an application includes an application server; an application program; an in-memory exception table; an exception log file; an analysis database; and a user interface. The application server is operable for executing the application program during a server session including a plurality of analysis windows; responsive to exceptions thrown by the application program during execution for logging exception data to the in-memory exception table; responsive to completing an analysis window, logging the exception table to the exception log file; responsive to completing the server session, for building an analysis database from the exception log file; and generating from the exception log file an exception visualization animation including a sequential plurality of exception table renditions to the user interface.

Claims

1. A method of graphically animating program exceptions, comprising:

executing an application program during a server session including a plurality of analysis windows;

monitoring, on an exception monitoring system, said application program for a thrown exception;

responsive to said thrown exception, logging, by the exception monitoring system, exception data to an exception table;

responsive to conclusion of each analysis window, appending, by the exception monitoring system, said exception table to a log file;

upon ending said server session, building, by the exception monitoring system, an analysis database for rendering an exception visualization animation to a user,

wherein said exception visualization animation maps exception information into a graphical representation of a program structure; and

wherein said thrown exception includes information about a class from which said thrown exception originated.

2. The method of claim 1, said exception data comprising an index value, a count of number of exception instances, a time of last throw of said exception instance, exception class indicia, exception source indicia, and probe identifier.

3. The method of claim 2, said analysis database including for each table a plurality of rows of exception data, with a row for each unique exception-source tuple including table number, index indicia, count of occurrences, exception indicia, and source of exception indicia.

4. The method of claim 3, said visualization animation including a plurality of exception renditions corresponding to said exception tables, each exception rendition including indicia representative of the number of occurrences of said exception, a modification flag, said exception indicia and said source of exception indicia.

5. The method of claim 4, said modification flag being set for each exception-source tuple of an exception table having exception activity during an analysis window corresponding to said exception table, said activity including one or more of:

a new exception and an exception having its count increased.

6. The method of claim 5, said visualization animation comprising a sequence of table renditions.

7. The method of claim 5, said visualization animation comprising a sequence of universal modeling language (UML) class diagrams.

8. A system for graphically animating exceptions thrown by an application, comprising:

a processor;

an application server;

an application program;

an in-memory exception table;

an exception log file;

an analysis database; and

a user interface;

said application server for executing said application program during a server session including a plurality of analysis windows;

responsive to exceptions thrown by said application program during execution for logging exception data to said in-memory exception table;

responsive to completing an analysis window, logging said exception table to said exception log file;

responsive to completing said server session, for building an analysis database from said exception log file;

generating from said exception log file an exception visualization animation including a sequential plurality of exception table renditions to said user interface, wherein said exception visualization animation maps exception information into a graphical representation of a program structure; and

wherein said exceptions include information about a class from which one or more of said exceptions originated.

9. The system of claim 8, said exception data comprising an index value, a count of number of exception instances, a time of last throw of said exception instance, exception class indicia, exception source indicia, and probe identifier.

10. The system of claim 9, said analysis database including for each table a plurality of rows of exception data, with a row for each unique exception-source tuple including table number, index indicia, count of occurrences, exception indicia, and source of exception indicia.

11. The system of claim 10, said visualization animation including a plurality of exception renditions corresponding to said exception tables, each exception rendition including indicia representative of the number of occurrences of said exception, a modification flag, said exception indicia and said source of exception indicia.

12. The system of claim 11, said modification flag being set for each exception-source tuple of an exception table having exception activity during an analysis window corresponding to said exception table, said activity including either one or more of a new exception and an exception having its count increased.

13. The system of claim 12, said visualization animation comprising a sequence of table renditions.

14. The system of claim 12, said visualization animation comprising a sequence of universal modeling language (UML) class diagrams.

15. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform operations for graphically animating program exceptions, said operations comprising:

executing an application program during a server session including a plurality of analysis windows;

monitoring said application program for a thrown exception;

responsive to said thrown exception, logging exception data to an exception table;

responsive to conclusion of each analysis window, appending said exception table to a log file; and

upon ending said server session, building an analysis database for rendering exception visualization animation to a user, wherein said exception visualization animation maps exception information into a graphical representation of a program structure; and

wherein said thrown exception includes information about a class from which said thrown exception originated.

16. The program storage device of claim 15, said exception data comprising an index value, a count of number of exception instances, a time of last throw of said exception instance, exception class indicia, exception source indicia, and probe identifier.

17. The program storage device of claim 16, said analysis database including for each table a plurality of rows of exception data, with a row for each unique exception-source tuple including table number, index indicia, count of occurrences, exception indicia, and source of exception indicia.

18. The program storage device of claim 17, said visualization animation including a plurality of exception renditions corresponding to said exception tables, each exception rendition including indicia representative of the number of occurrences of said exception, a modification flag, said exception indicia and said source of exception indicia.

19. The program storage device of claim 18, said modification flag being set for each exception-source tuple of an exception table having exception activity during an analysis window corresponding to said exception table, said activity including one or more of a new exception and an exception having its count increased.

20. The program storage device of claim 19, said visualization animation comprising a sequence of table renditions.

21. The program storage device of claim 19, said visualization animation comprising a sequence of universal modeling language (UML) class diagrams.