Non-intrusive measurement of content quality using dry runs with roll-back

• US 9,092,576 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2010
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Samantaray, Sarmistha, Sriramadhesikan, Sampathkumar
• Primary Examiner(s): SYED, FARHAN M
• Application Number:
  US12/823,277
• Publication Number:
  US 20110321012A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,859 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/368 for test version control, e.g. updating test cases to a new software version
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites

Abstract

Validation and determination of business application program content quality destined for loading on a target production computing environment is automated by receiving an application program into a controlled production computing environment, and, during a dry run test in the production computing environment, logging changes to content from an initial state as loaded by the application program; applying a business rule to the content during data loading to validate against business objects; capturing validation errors produced by the validation and structural change commands to the content into a log file; and automatically rolling back changes made to the content during the dry run test to the initial state thereby avoiding committing content changes to the production computing environment.

Claims

1. An computer-implemented method for validating and determining data and content quality of a business application to be loaded in a target production computing environment comprising:

during a dry run test of a first instance of an application program in a production computing environment in which end-users are actively using one or more additional instances of the application program also in the production computing environment;

logging changes made directly to application content in the production computing environment from an initial state as loaded by the first instance of the application program;

applying a business rule to the application content in the production computing environment during data loading to validate against a business object;

capturing validation errors produced by the validation and structural change commands to the application content in the production computing environment into a log file stored in at least one computer readable memory device, wherein the capturing comprises capturing a scope of data validation selected from the group consisting of a scope of validation which is local to a record being loaded, a scope of validation in which a business object depends upon another business object of a same type, and a scope of validations where one business object depends upon another business object of different type; and

automatically rolling back changes made to the application content in the production computing environment during the dry run test to the initial state according to the captured scope of data validation, thereby avoiding committing content changes to the production computing environment;

wherein the application program is executed by a computing platform having a processor, and wherein the application content in the production computing environment is stored in a non-transitory computer readable memory device.

2. The automated method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the structural changes are recorded into a log using Data Definition Language (DDL) while preventing the implementation of the structural changes indicated by the logged commands.

3. The automated method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the application content in the production computing environment comprises an Extensible Markup Language document.

4. A computer program product for validating and determining data and content quality of a business application to be loaded in a target production computing environment, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable non-transitory storage memory device;

program code stored by the computer readable storage memory device to cause a processor to;

during a dry run test of a first instance of an application program in production computing environment in which end-users are actively using one or more additional instances of the application program also in the production computing environment;

log changes made directly to application content in the production computing environment from an initial state as loaded by the first instance of the application program;

apply a business rule to the application content in the production computing environment during data loading to validate against a business object;

capture validation errors produced by the validation and structural change commands to the application content in the production computing environment into a log file stored in at least one computer readable memory device wherein the capturing comprises capturing a scope of data validation selected from the group consisting of a scope of validation which is local to a record being loaded, a scope of validation in which a business object depends upon another business object of a same type, and a scope of validation where one business object depends upon another business object of different type; and

automatically roll back changes made to the application content in the production computing environment during the dry run test to the initial state according to the captured scope of data validation thereby avoiding committing content changes to the production computing environment;

wherein the application content in the production computing environment is stored in a non-transitory computer readable memory device.

5. The computer program product as set forth in claim 4 wherein the structural changes are recorded into a log using Data Definition Language (DDL) while preventing the implementation of the structural changes indicated by the logged commands.

6. The computer program product as set forth in claim 4 wherein the application content in the production computing environment content comprises an Extensible Markup Language document.

7. A system for validating and determining data and content quality of a business application to be loaded in a target controlled production computing environment, comprising:

a computing system having a processor configured to execute a logical process;

a computer readable non-transitory storage memory device;

program code stored by the computer readable storage memory device to cause a processor to;

during a dry run test of a first instance of an application program in a production computing environment in which end-users are actively using one or more additional instances of the application program also in the production computing environment;

log changes made directly to application content in the production computing environment from an initial state as loaded by the first instance of the application program;

apply a business rule to the application content in the production computing environment during data loading to validate against a business object;

capture validation errors produced by the validation and structural change commands to the application content in the production computing environment into a log file stored in at least one computer readable memory device wherein the capturing comprises capturing a scope of data validation selected from the group consisting of a scope of validation which is local to a record being loaded, a scope of validation in which a business object depends upon another business object of a same type, and a scope of validation where one business object depends upon another business object of different type; and

automatically roll back changes made to the application content in the production computing environment during the dry run test to the initial state according to the captured scope of data validation thereby avoiding committing content changes to the production computing environment;

wherein the application content in the production computing environment is stored in a non-transitory computer readable memory device.

8. The system as set forth in claim 7 wherein the structural changes are recorded into a log using Data Definition Language (DDL) while preventing the implementation of the structural changes indicated by the logged commands.

9. The system as set forth in claim 7 wherein the application content in the production computing environment comprises an Extensible Markup Language document.