Visualizing a congruency of versions of an application across phases of a release pipeline

• US 9,916,156 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2016
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Elder, Michael D., Russell, Sara, Santos, Lucinio, Shackelford, John-Mason P., Swanke, John E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Das, Chameli
• Application Number:
  US15/187,746
• Publication Number:
  US 20160306625A1
• Time in Patent Office: 631 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text

Abstract

A system for visualizing a congruency of versions of an application across phases of a release pipeline includes a selecting engine to select a phase from a number of phases; a representing engine to represent, via a user interface (UI), a congruency for a number of versions of an application compared against a target version of the application across the phases of a release pipeline, the congruency for the number of versions of the application represented with identifiers; a differentiating engine to differentiate a latest-deployed version of the application against a planned version of the application in a particular environment; and a comparing engine to compare, based on a selection, properties of the versions of the application.

Claims

1. A system for visualizing a congruency of versions of an application across phases of a release pipeline, the system comprising:

a processor;

a selecting engine to select a phase from a number of phases;

a representing engine to represent, via a user interface (UI), a congruency for a number of versions of an application compared against a target version of the application across the phases of a release pipeline, the congruency for the number of versions of the application represented with identifiers, wherein the target version is a specific version of the application against which other versions are compared;

a differentiating engine to differentiate a latest-deployed version of the application against a planned version of the application in a particular environment displayed in a foreground of the release pipeline;

a comparing engine to compare, based on a selection, properties of the versions of the application; and

a user interface to display the release pipeline for several applications.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein selection of a phase comprises selection of various versions of an application across several of the number of phases.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the representing engine is to identify the target version, which target version is a version of the application against which all other versions are compared.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein:

identifying the target version comprises selecting a version of the application associated with the selected phase as the target version.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the representing engine is to:

determine if each of the number of versions are rendered as a first identifier or a second identifier; and

render the number of the versions of the application in the UI as the first identifier or the second identifier.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the properties of the versions of the application that are compared comprise a header, an environment, a version, a status, a component, or combinations thereof.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the differentiating engine exchanges, based on a selection of a user, the latest-deployed version of an application and the planned version of the application to a foreground or a background of the UI.

8. A computer program product for visualizing a congruency of versions of an application across phases of a release pipeline, comprising:

a tangible computer readable storage medium, said tangible computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable program code embodied therewith, said computer readable program code comprising program instructions that, when executed, causes a processor to;

represent, via a user interface (UI), a congruency for a number of versions of several applications compared against a target version of the several applications across phases of a release pipeline, the congruency for the number of versions of the application represented as identifiers, wherein the target version is a specific version of the application against which other versions are compared;

display, via the UI, the release pipeline for the several applications; and

differentiate a latest-deployed version of the application against a planned version of the application in a particular environment displayed in a foreground of the release pipeline.

9. The product of claim 8, further comprising computer readable program code comprising program instructions that, when executed, cause said processor to select a phase from the number of phases.

10. The product of claim 8, wherein the identifiers comprise:

a first identifier to represent the versions of the application that match the target version; and

a second identifier to represent a degree to which the versions of the application match the target version.

11. The product of claim 10, wherein the first identifier indicates an age of a corresponding version of the application.

12. The product of claim 10, wherein:

the first identifier is at least one of a pattern and a color; and

the second identifier is an intensity of the pattern or the color.

13. The product of claim 10, wherein the identifiers further comprise a third identifier to represent whether a version is a latest-deployed version of the application.

14. The product of claim 8, wherein displaying, via the UI, the release pipeline for the several applications comprises representing the phases of the release pipeline as columns, each column comprising information pertaining to a corresponding phase.

15. The product of claim 14, wherein the information pertaining to a corresponding phase comprises an environment of the phase, a label for the phase, and a number of application versions in the phase.

16. A system for visualizing a congruency of versions of an application across phases of a release pipeline, the system comprising:

a processor;

a selecting engine to select a phase from a number of phases, wherein;

a phase is a stage of development for an application; and

each phase has multiple versions of an application;

a representing engine to represent, via a user interface (UI), a congruency for a number of versions of an application compared against a target version of the application across the phases of a release pipeline, the congruency for the number of versions of the application represented with identifiers wherein;

the identifiers comprise;

a first identifier, which is a pattern, to represent the versions of the application that match the target version; and

a second identifier, which is an intensity of the pattern, to represent a degree to which the versions of the application match the target version; and

a third identifier, which is a color, to represent whether a version is a latest-deployed version of the application; and

the phases are represented as columns;

a differentiating engine to differentiate a latest-deployed version of the application against a planned version of the application in a particular environment;

a comparing engine to compare, based on a selection, properties of the versions of the application, wherein the properties that are compared include a header, an environment, a version, a status, a component, or combinations thereof.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein a component of a version comprises at least one of a display component or a print component.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein representing a congruency for a number of versions of an application comprises representing the phases of the release pipeline as columns, each column comprising information pertaining to a corresponding phase.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the information pertaining to a corresponding phase comprises an environment of the phase, a label for the phase, and a number of application versions in the phase.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the first identifier is a dot pattern.