Dynamic verification of application portability

• US 7,774,757 B1
• Filed: 07/13/2005
• Issued: 08/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Sahoo, Sanjeeb K., Awasthi, Vikas
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Wei Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rampuria; Satish
• Application Number:
  US11/180,411
• Time in Patent Office: 1,854 Days
• Field of Search: 717120-135, 717168-178, 709/217, 709/219, 709/203, 714 37- 57
• US Class Current: 717/127
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/366 using diagnostics G06F11/0703 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3676 for coverage analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3684 for test design, e.g. generating new test cases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3692 for test results analysis

Abstract

A system and for dynamic verification of application portability may include an application server configured to support a debugging interface, an application deployed on the application server, and a portability verification tool. The portability verification tool may be configured to invoke the debugging interface during an execution of the application to determine whether the application violates one or more specified portability criteria during the execution.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing program instructions executable by the processor to implement;

an application server configured to provide services defined in a particular application services specification, wherein the application server is further configured to support a debugging interface, wherein the debugging interface comprises a plurality of debugging functions;

an application deployed on the application server; and

a portability verification tool configured to invoke the debugging interface during an execution of the application to determine whether the application violates one or more specified portability criteria during the execution of the application, wherein to determine whether the application violates the one or more specified portability criteria the portability verification tool is configured to;

invoke a particular debugging function of the plurality of debugging functions to monitor the execution of the application via the debugging interface for exceptions;

determine that a monitored exception that belongs to a specified category of exceptions is indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, wherein the specified category of exceptions includes an exception that is indicative of an invocation by the application of an application server service interface that is not defined in the particular application services specification;

in response to the monitored exception being indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, indicate that the application violates the one or more specified portability criteria; and

determine that another monitored exception is not indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, wherein a monitored exception that is not indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria does not cause the portability verification tool to indicate that the application violates the one or more specified portability criteria.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the application invokes one or more interfaces to application server services during the execution, and wherein a portability criterion of the one or more specified portability criteria includes a requirement that each of the one or more interfaces be defined in a particular version of a standard application server services specification supported by the application server.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the application invokes one or more external functions during the execution, and wherein a portability criterion of the one or more specified portability criteria includes a requirement that each of the one or more external functions implement an interface defined in a particular version of a standard application programming interface (API) specification.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the debugging interface is platform-independent.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the specified category of exceptions includes unchecked exceptions that are not declared in method signatures.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the application server is configured to provide a reference implementation of application server services defined in the particular application services specification.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the specified category of exceptions includes exceptions belonging to one or more specified programming language object classes.

8. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the portability verification tool is further configured to:

identify an exclude list of exceptions; and

if a particular exception monitored using the particular debugging function belongs to the specified category of exceptions, determine that the execution of the application violates the particular portability criterion only if the particular exception is not in the exclude list.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the application server supports access to objects through one or more containers, wherein the application includes a component deployed to a particular container of the one or more containers, and wherein an exception of the specified category of exceptions is caught in code for the particular container.

10. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the debugging interface comprises a plurality of debugging functions, and wherein the portability verification tool is further configured to:

identifying a set of functions defined in the application;

invoke a particular debugging function of the plurality of debugging functions to monitor the execution for function invocations; and

generate a coverage analysis report identifying the particular functions of the set of functions that were invoked during the execution.

11. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the application server is executed within a first virtual machine process, and wherein the portability verification tool is executed within a second virtual machine process.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the first virtual machine process is executed on a first computer host, and wherein the second virtual machine process is executed on a second computer host.

13. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the portability verification tool is further configured to provide an interface to specify a portability criterion of the one or more specified portability criteria without modifying source code of the portability verification tool.

14. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

deploying an application on an application server configured to provide services defined in a particular application services specification, wherein the application server is further configured to support a debugging interface, wherein the debugging interface comprises a plurality of debugging functions;

invoking a particular debugging function of the plurality of debugging functions of the debugging interface during an execution of the application to make a determination whether the application violates one or more specified portability criteria during the execution of the application;

monitoring the execution of the application via the debugging interface for exceptions;

determining that a monitored exception that belongs to a specified category of exceptions is indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, wherein the specified category of exceptions includes an exception that is indicative of an invocation by the application of an application server service interface that is not defined in the particular application services specification;

in response to the monitored exception being indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, indicating that the application violates the one or more specified portability criteria;

determining that another monitored exception is not indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, wherein a monitored exception that is not indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria does not cause an indication that the application violates the one or more specified portability criteria; and

generating a portability verification report including a result of the determination.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the debugging interface is platform-independent.

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

identifying an exclude list of exceptions; and

making the determination that the execution of the application violates the particular portability criterion if the particular monitored exception belongs to the specified category of exceptions and is not in the exclude list.

17. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the debugging interface comprises a plurality of debugging functions, the method further comprising:

identifying a set of functions defined within the application;

invoking a particular debugging function of the plurality of debugging functions to monitor the execution for function invocations; and

generating a coverage analysis report identifying the particular functions of the set of functions that were invoked during the execution.

18. A computer readable medium comprising program instructions, wherein the instructions are computer-executable to:

deploy an application on an application server configured to provide services defined in a particular application services specification, wherein the application server is further configured to support a debugging interface, wherein the debugging interface comprises a plurality of debugging functions;

invoke a particular debugging function of the plurality of debugging functions of the debugging interface during an execution of the application to make a determination whether the application violates one or more specified portability criteria during the execution of the application;

monitor the execution of the application via the debugging interface for exceptions;

determine that a monitored exception that belongs to a specified category of exceptions is indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, wherein the specified category of exceptions includes an exception that is indicative of an invocation by the application of an application server service interface that is not defined in the particular application services specification;

in response to the monitored exception being indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, indicate that the application violates the one or more specified portability criteria; and

determine that another monitored exception is not indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, wherein a monitored exception that is not indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria does not cause the portability verification tool to indicate that the application violates the one or more specified portability criteria;

generate a portability verification report including a result of the determination.

19. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the debugging interface comprises a plurality of debugging functions, wherein the instructions are further computer-executable to:

identify a set of functions defined within the application;

invoke a particular debugging function of the plurality of debugging functions to monitor the execution for function invocations; and

generate a coverage analysis report identifying the particular functions of the set of functions that were invoked during the execution.

20. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to store program instructions executable by the processor to implement a portability verification tool configured to;

invoke a particular debugging function of a debugging interface supported by an application server during an execution of an application deployed at the application server to determine whether the application violates one or more specified portability criteria during the execution, wherein the application server is configured to provide services defined in a particular application services specification, and wherein the debugging interface comprises a plurality of debugging functions;

monitor the execution of the application via the debugging interface for exceptions;

determine that a monitored exception that belongs to a specified category of exceptions is indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, wherein the specified category of exceptions includes an exception that is indicative of an invocation by the application of an application server service interface that is not defined in the particular application services specification;

in response to the monitored exception being indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, indicate that the application violates the one or more specified portability criteria; and

determine that another monitored exception is not indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria, wherein a monitored exception that is not indicative of a violation of the one or more specified portability criteria does not cause the portability verification tool to indicate that the application violates the one or more specified portability criteria;

generate a portability verification report including a result of the determination.