Rich recording and playback of program execution

• US 9,063,803 B1
• Filed: 04/29/2013
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lewkovitz, Adam Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Andy
• Application Number:
  US13/872,753
• Time in Patent Office: 785 Days
• Field of Search: 719/318
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software

Abstract

Information regarding the execution of a program is recorded. A program execution monitor detects the occurrence of events related to the execution of the program. In response to detecting an event, the program execution monitor creates an entry in an event list identifying the event and the time at which the event occurred. A playback component may utilize the event list to play back the recording of the program at a time corresponding to an identified event. In other embodiments, the program execution monitor stores the operational state of a program at the time an event is detected. The stored operational state can be utilized to recreate the state of the program at the time the event was detected and restart execution of the program at that time. Other types of inputs to the program might also be recorded and played back.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

execute a program on the computer;

during execution of the program on the computer, create a recording comprising an audiovisual output of the program;

determine if an event has occurred during the execution of the program;

in response to determining that an event has occurred during execution of the program, create an entry in an event list comprising data identifying the event and a time in the recording of the audiovisual output of the program at which the event occurred;

provide a user interface for selecting an entry in the event list;

receive a selection of an entry in the event list by way of the user interface; and

cause the recording of the audiovisual output of the program to play back beginning at a time specified by the selected entry in the event list in response to receiving the selection of the entry in the event list.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, having further computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

identify an entry in the event list having an associated time occurring during the playback of the recording of the audiovisual output of the program; and

play back an event specified by the identified entry.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the events comprise one or more of events defined by a programmer of the program and generated during the execution of the program, input events, output events, and system events.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the playback of the recording of the audiovisual output of the program is presented in conjunction with an advertisement for the program.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the recording further comprises a recording of one or more sensor outputs captured during execution of the program on the computer, and wherein the sensor outputs are also played back beginning at the time specified by the selected entry in the event list in response to receiving the selection of the entry in the event list.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the recording further comprises a recording of contextual data captured during execution of the program on the computer, and wherein the contextual data is also played back beginning at the time specified by the selected entry in the event list in response to receiving the selection of the entry in the event list.

7. A computer-implemented method for recording and playback of the execution of a program, the method comprising performing computer-implemented operations for:

causing the program to be executed;

creating a recording of an audiovisual output of the program during the execution of the program;

detecting an event occurring during the execution of the program; and

creating an entry in an event list in response to detecting the event occurring during the execution of the program, the entry in the event list comprising an identity of the event and a time in the recording of the audiovisual output of the program at which the event occurred.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the event comprises an event defined by a programmer of the program and generated by the execution of the program.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the event comprises an input being receiving by the program.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the event comprises an output being generated by the program.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the event comprises a system event.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

providing a user interface for presenting at least a portion of the event list;

receiving a selection of an entry in the event list by way of the user interface; and

in response to receiving the selection of the entry in the event list, playing back the recording of the audiovisual output of the program beginning at a time specified by the selected entry in the event list.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising recording sensor inputs received during the execution of the program.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising contextual data during the execution of the program.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising generating a transcript of operations performed by the program during the execution.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising saving an operational state of the program in response to detecting an event occurring during the execution of the program.

17. A computer-implemented method for recording and playback of the execution of a program, the method comprising performing computer-implemented operations for:

causing the program to be executed;

recording one or more of sensor outputs, audiovisual output, and contextual data during execution of the program;

detecting an event occurring during the execution of the program; and

in response to detecting the event occurring during the execution of the program,

saving an operational state of the program at the time the event is detected and

creating an entry in an event list, the entry in the event list comprising data identifying the event and data identifying the saved operational state of the program.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, further comprising:

providing a user interface for presenting at least a portion of the event list;

receiving a selection of an entry in the event list by way of the user interface; and

in response to receiving the selection of the entry in the event list, loading a saved operational state of the program associated with the selected entry in the event list and executing the program using the loaded operational state.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising:

recording one or more inputs to the program received during the execution of the program; and

playing back the recorded one or more inputs when the program is executed using the loaded operational state.