Linking diagnostic visualizations to application code

• US 9,146,836 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2011
• Issued: 09/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Rapp, James, Griffing, Daniel, Dadiomov, Alexander, Jacobs, Matthew, Nesson, Ben, Campbell, Drake A., Agarwal, Mayank, Janotti, Paulo Cesar Sales, Ji, Xinhua, Ledoux, Eric, Kamenev, Alexey, Van Leeuwen, Jared Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Morshed, Hossain
• Application Number:
  US13/324,488
• Publication Number:
  US 20130152052A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,386 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/321 Display for diagnostics, e.g. diagnostic result display, self-test user interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for linking diagnostic visualizations to regions of application code. Diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of an application are displayed. The diagnostic visualizations partially represent the abstract objective of the application (e.g., as envisioned by a developer). Diagnostic data for at least one of a plurality of components is displayed. The diagnostic data indicates the performance of the at least one of the plurality of components during execution of the application. The displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations and the displayed diagnostic data is correlated to link the one or more diagnostic visualizations to the at least one of the plurality of components. Linking the one or more diagnostic visualizations to the at least one of the plurality of components can better indicate how the application'"'"'s behavior reconciles the abstract objective.

Claims

1. At a computer system, the computer system including a processor and system memory, a method for presenting diagnostic data for an application, the method comprising:

displaying, at a visualization user interface that represents a timeline of execution of the application, a first swim lane user interface element along the timeline, the first swim lane including one or more diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of the application, the one or more diagnostic visualizations comprising one or more spans that each represent a duration along the timeline of performance of an abstract objective of the application using one or more hardware components during execution of the application, the one or more diagnostic visualizations including a particular span associated with particular one or more hardware components;

displaying, at the visualization interface, a second swim lane user interface element along the timeline that corresponds to the first swim lane and that is parallel to the first swim lane, the second swim lane including diagnostic data indicating one or more instants in time along the timeline of occurrence one or more events at the one or more hardware components during execution of the application, the diagnostic data including particular one or more events that occurred at the particular one or more hardware components during execution of the application; and

within the visualization interface, visually correlating the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data, including using a same color for the particular span and for the particular one or more events that occurred at the particular one or more hardware components associated with the particular span during execution of the application.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein visually correlating the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data comprises assigning a same identification to the first swim lane and the second swim lane.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein visually correlating the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data comprises displaying each of the diagnostic visualizations adjacent to the corresponding diagnostic data.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein displaying one or more diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of the application comprises visually distinguishing one or more types of information from the displayed diagnostic visualizations including a plurality of flags, a plurality of messages, and a plurality of spans.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein visually distinguishing one or more types of information from the displayed diagnostic visualizations including a plurality of flags, a plurality of messages, and a plurality of spans comprises visually distinguishing the plurality of spans from one another by assigning one of a plurality of different graphical symbols to each span.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein visually distinguishing one or more types of information from the displayed diagnostic visualizations including a plurality of flags, a plurality of messages, and a plurality of spans comprises visually distinguishing the plurality of flags from one another by assigning one of a plurality of different graphical symbols to each flag.

7. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the plurality of messages are used to notify a user of a plurality of events within the duration of the application.

8. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein visually distinguishing one or more types of information comprises allocating one of a plurality of visual enhancements to each of the one or more types of information, the plurality of visual enhancements including a plurality of icons, a plurality of colors, a plurality of marks, and a combination thereof.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein displaying one or more diagnostic visualizations emitting during execution of the application further comprises decomposing the diagnostic visualizations into a plurality of sub diagnostic visualizations, wherein each of the plurality of sub diagnostic visualizations represents one of a plurality of abstract sub-objectives of the application.

10. A computer program product comprising one or more hardware storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a computer system to present diagnostic data for an application, including at least the following:

displaying, at a visualization user interface that represents a timeline of execution of the application, a first swim lane user interface element along the timeline, the first swim lane including one or more diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of the application, the one or more diagnostic visualizations comprising one or more spans that each represent a duration along the timeline of performance of an abstract objective of the application using one or more hardware components during execution of the application, the one or more diagnostic visualizations including a particular span associated with particular one or more hardware components;

displaying, at the visualization interface, a second swim lane user interface element along the timeline that corresponds to the first swim lane and that is parallel to the first swim lane, the second swim lane including diagnostic data indicating one or more instants in time along the timeline of occurrence one or more events at the one or more hardware components of the computing system during execution of the application, the diagnostic data including particular one or more events that occurred at the particular one or more hardware components during execution of the application; and

within the visualization interface, visually correlating the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data, including using a same color for the particular span and for the particular one or more events that occurred at the particular one or more hardware components associated with the particular span during execution of the application.

11. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein visually correlating the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data comprises assigning a same identification to the first swim lane and the second swim lane.

12. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein visually correlating the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data comprises displaying each of the diagnostic visualizations adjacent to the corresponding diagnostic data.

13. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein displaying the one or more diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of the application comprises visually associating a plurality of spans with the one or more diagnostic visualizations, the plurality of spans representing the duration of the one or more portions of the application, each of the plurality of spans being visually distinguishable from others of the plurality of spans.

14. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein the plurality of visually distinguishable symbols includes a plurality of flags, a plurality of messages, and a plurality of spans.

15. The computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein the plurality of flags represent the plurality of events within the duration of the application, the plurality of flags allowing the user to interact with the computer system, each of the plurality of flags being visually distinguishable.

16. The computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein the plurality of messages notify the user of the computer system of the plurality of events within the duration of the application.

17. The computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of visually distinguishable symbols is assigned with a combination of a plurality of icons, a plurality of colors, and a plurality of marks.

18. The computer program product as recited in claim 17, wherein the combination of a plurality of icons, a plurality of colors, and a plurality of marks represents a plurality of different levels of importance.

19. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein displaying one or more diagnostic visualizations emitting during execution of the application comprises decomposes the diagnostic visualizations into a plurality of sub diagnostic visualizations, wherein each of the plurality of sub diagnostic visualizations represents one of a plurality of abstract sub-objectives of the application.

20. A computer system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to present diagnostic data for an application, including at least the following;

displaying, at a visualization user interface that represents a timeline of execution of the application, a first swim lane user interface element along the timeline, the first swim lane including one or more diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of the application, the one or more diagnostic visualizations comprising one or more spans that each represent a duration along the timeline of performance of an abstract objective of the application using one or more hardware components during execution of the application, the one or more diagnostic visualizations including a particular span associated with particular one or more hardware components;

displaying, at the visualization interface, a second swim lane user interface element along the timeline that corresponds to the first swim lane and that is parallel to the first swim lane, the second swim lane including diagnostic data indicating one or more instants in time along the timeline of occurrence one or more events at the one or more hardware components of the computing system during execution of the application, the diagnostic data including particular one or more events that occurred at the particular one or more hardware components during execution of the application; and

within the visualization interface, visually correlating the displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations with the displayed diagnostic data, including using a same color for the particular span and for the particular one or more events that occurred at the particular one or more hardware components associated with the particular span during execution of the application.