Application validation through object level hierarchy analysis

• US 8,826,240 B1
• Filed: 09/29/2012
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Appurify, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lachwani, Manish, Patnaik, Pratyus, Srinivasan, Jay, Jain, Rahul
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chowdhury, Ziaul A
• Application Number:
  US13/631,919
• Time in Patent Office: 703 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/126
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3604 Software analysis for verifying properties of programs byte-code verification G06F9/44589
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code

Abstract

Application validation is performed based at least in part on object level hierarchy data associated with the application. An application is executed on a physical or emulated host device, and assembly code is generated for the executing application. The assembly code is analyzed to identify objects associated with the application, and to identify relationships between the objects. Based on the object and relationship data, an object level hierarchy is generated for the application. Validation of the application may be performed by comparing an object level hierarchy for a current version of the application to a previously generated hierarchy for a previous version of the application to identify differences between to the two hierarchies.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for utilizing processing resources of a computerized system, the computer-implemented method comprising:

providing, to a host device, an application for validation;

instructing the host device to execute the application and an assembly code generation module;

instructing the assembly code generation module to determine a first address of a user interface application view for the application;

instructing the assembly code generation module to determine a second address for a main window of the application based on the first address;

instructing the assembly code generation module to traverse a view hierarchy for the main window to generate the assembly code for the application;

receiving the assembly code from the host device;

analyzing the assembly code to identify a plurality of objects associated with the application and to determine at least one relationship among the plurality of objects;

based on the plurality of objects and the at least one relationship, generating an object level hierarchy for the application; and

validating the application, based at least partly on the object level hierarchy.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the plurality of objects is based at least partly on searching the assembly code for one or more predetermined patterns which correspond to the plurality of objects.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the received assembly code is associated with a user interface type of object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the validating the application comprises comparing the object level hierarchy with a previously generated object level hierarchy for the application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing further includes determining a difference between the object level hierarchy and the previously generated object level hierarchy in at least one of an object identity, an inter-object relationship, or an object attribute.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the validating the application comprises determining a correspondence between one or more text attributes for the plurality of objects and a target character set for localization of the application.

7. The method claim 1, the operations further comprising:

receiving the application for validation from a client device; and

providing to the client device a result of the validating, the result including at least a portion of the object level hierarchy.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the host device is an emulation of a physical device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the at least one relationship among the plurality of objects is based at least in part on analyzing address data for the plurality of objects within the assembly code.

10. A system comprising:

at least one memory;

at least one processor configured to access the at least one memory; and

at least one application validation module stored in the at least one memory and executed by the at least one processor to;

receive assembly code generated from execution of an application on a host device, the generating of the assembly code comprising;

determining a first address in a memory of the host device of a user interface application view for the application;

determining a second address in the memory of the host device for a main window of the application, the main window being a zero-indexed element of the user interface application view having the first address; and

traversing a view hierarchy for the main window to generate the assembly code;

analyze the assembly code to identify a plurality of objects associated with the application and to determine at least one relationship between the plurality of objects;

based on the plurality of objects and the at least one relationship, generate an object level hierarchy for the application; and

validate the application based at least in part on the object level hierarchy.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the assembly code is generated on the host device from execution of an assembly code generation module with reference to the executing application.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein validation of the application comprises:

comparison of the object level hierarchy of a current version to a baseline object level hierarchy previously generated for a previous version of the application.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the determination that the current version of the application is valid is further based at least in part on determining that the baseline object level hierarchy includes a plurality of objects that correspond to the plurality of objects in the object level hierarchy of the current version.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the determination that the current version of the application is valid is further based on determining that the baseline object level hierarchy includes a corresponding relationship among the plurality of objects that correspond to a relationship included in the object level hierarchy.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the determination that the current version of the application is valid is further based on determining that the baseline object level hierarchy includes a corresponding set of attributes for each of the plurality of objects that correspond to a set of attributes in the object level hierarchy.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein validation of the application comprises:

designation of a target character set for localizing the application;

determination of at least one text attribute associated with one or more objects of the object level hierarchy;

identification of a character set for at least one character of the at least one text attribute; and

comparison of the target character set to the identified character set.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of objects include program objects that correspond to user interface elements of the application.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of objects include program objects that correspond to memory management elements of the application.

19. The system of claim 10, wherein the determination of at least one relationship among the plurality of objects is based at least in part on analyzing address data for the plurality of objects within the assembly code.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the address data includes virtual address data determined by an assembly code generation module during execution of the application.

21. The system of claim 10, wherein identifying the plurality of objects is based at least in part on searching the assembly code for one or more predetermined patterns.

22. The system of claim 10, wherein receiving the assembly code is responsive to a plurality of iterated requests to the host device, each iteration configured to request information for a parent relationship of a first object to a second object in the plurality of objects.

23. A system comprising:

a host device, including an assembly code generation module to generate assembly code for an application executing on the host device, wherein the host device operates to;

determine a first address of a user interface application view for the application;

determine a second address of a main window of the application, the main window being an initially indexed element of the user interface application view having the first address; and

traverse a view hierarchy for the main window of the application, to generate the assembly code; and

a server device in communication with the host device, the server device including at least one module stored in at least one memory of the server device and executed by at least one processor of the server device to;

receive at least a portion of the assembly code from the host device;

analyze the received assembly code to identify a plurality of objects associated with the application and to determine at least one relationship among the plurality of objects; and

based on the plurality of objects and the at least one relationship, generate an object level hierarchy for the application, the object level hierarchy indicating a hierarchical association between the plurality of objects.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the host device further operates to:

receive the application from the server device or another device external to the host device;

execute the application;

execute the assembly code generation module to generate the assembly code for the executing application; and

provide at least the portion of the assembly code to the server device.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the server device is in communication with the host device using a wired connection and the assembly code is provided over the wired connection from the host device to the server device.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the host device further operates to:

extract, from the assembly code, the portion of the assembly code corresponding to an object type; and

provide the portion of the assembly code to the server device.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the object type is a user interface object type.

28. The system of claim 23, wherein the determining of the at least one relationship among the plurality of objects is based at least in part on analyzing address data for the plurality of objects within the assembly code.

29. The system of claim 23, wherein the receiving of at least the portion of the assembly code is responsive to a plurality of iterated requests to the host device, each iterated request being to request information for a parent relationship of a first object to a second object in the plurality of objects.

30. The system of claim 23, wherein the host device is an emulation of a physical device.