Module specific tracing in a shared module environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016196201-A1
Application number	US-201615068996-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 14, 2016
Priority date	Sep 4, 2013
Publication date	Jul 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A module-specific tracing mechanism may trace the usage of a module on behalf of the module developer. The module may be used by multiple application developers, and the tracing system may collect and summarize data for the module in each of the different applications. The data may include usage data as well as performance data. Usage data may include anonymized data for each time the module may be invoked and called, and performance data may include the processing time, memory consumption, and other metrics. The module-specific tracing may be enabled or disabled by an application developer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising:
at least one processor; a tracing database; a preprocessor system that:
collects tracing output from a plurality of applications, each of said applications comprising a first reusable module and a tracing mechanism, said tracing mechanism configured to gather tracing data from said first reusable module;
stores said tracing data in said tracing database;
a tracing data server that:
receives a request for module tracing data; and
returns at least a portion of said tracing data in response to said request, said at least a portion of said tracing data being displayable on one of a plurality of user interfaces;
a first user interface accessible to a module developer, said first user interface being accessible after receiving authentication from said module developer, said first user interface being one of said plurality of user interfaces; a second user interface accessible to a third party, said second user interface being accessible without authentication, said second user interface being one of said plurality of user interfaces; said first user interface comprising a first set of tracing data; and said second user interface comprising a subset of said first set of tracing data.

2 . The system of claim 1 , said tracing mechanism being invoked from within said module.

3 . The system of claim 1 , said tracing mechanism being invoked from outside said module.

4 . The system of claim 1 , said tracing mechanism being configurable from settings within each of said plurality of applications.

5 . The system of claim 1 , said tracing data being anonymized.

6 . The system of claim 5 , said tracing data being anonymized by said preprocessor system when said tracing data are collected.

7 . The system of claim 1 , said tracing data comprising performance data.

8 . The system of claim 7 , said performance data comprising resource usage.

9 . The system of claim 8 , said tracing data further comprising usage data.

10 . The system of claim 9 , said usage data comprising usage data for each of a plurality of functions within said module.

11 . The system of claim 10 , said usage data comprising a count of number of different applications that have incorporated said module.

12 . The system of claim 1 , said second user interface comprising a badge, said badge comprising at least one metric derived from said module tracer data.

13 . The system of claim 12 , said at least one metric being a number of observations within said module tracer data.

14 . The system of claim 13 , said observations being executions of said module.

15 . The system of claim 13 , said observations being a number of said applications comprising said module.

16 . A method performed on at least one computer processor, said method comprising:
collecting tracing output from a plurality of applications, each of said applications comprising a first reusable module and a tracing mechanism, said tracing mechanism configured to gather tracing data from said first reusable module; storing said tracing data in said tracing database; receiving a first request for module tracing data; determining that said first request is authenticated; returning a first user interface comprising a first subset of said tracing data in response to said first request; receiving a second request for module tracing data; determining that said second request is not authenticated; and returning a second user interface comprising a second subset of said tracing data in response to said second request, said first subset of said tracing data being larger than said second subset of said tracing data.

17 . The method of claim 16 further comprising:
anonymizing at least a portion of said second subset of data as displayed on said second user interface.

18 . The method of claim 17 , said first subset of data comprising non-anonymized data.

19 . The method of claim 16 further comprising:
receiving permission from an application developer to collect said tracing output

20 . The method of claim 19 further comprising:
determining a tracing configuration from each of said applications prior to collecting said tracing output.

21 . A system comprising:
at least one processor; an application trace database; a module trace database; a data preprocessor executing on said at least one processor, said data preprocessor that:
collects tracing data from an application, said application comprising application specific code and reusable module code;
identifies module trace data and stores said module trace data in said module trace database;
identifies application trace data and stores said application trace data in said application trace database;
an analysis engine that:
creates a first application-specific view of said application trace data; and
creates a first module-specific view of said module trace data.

22 . The system of claim 21 , said module-specific view comprising module trace data collected from a plurality of applications.

23 . The system of claim 22 , said module-specific view comprising performance metrics for said module.

24 . The system of claim 23 , said performance metrics comprising resource usage for said module.

25 . The system of claim 24 , said performance metrics being defined for each of a plurality of functions contained in said module.

26 . The system of claim 22 , said module-specific view comprising usage metrics for said module.

27 . The system of claim 26 , said usage metrics being defined for each of a plurality of functions contained in said module.

28 . The system of claim 27 , said usage metrics being defined for each of said plurality of applications.

29 . The system of claim 21 , said module-specific view comprising a reliability metric.

30 . The system of claim 29 , said reliability metric being a single metric for said module.

31 . The system of claim 29 , said module-specific view comprising a reliability metric for each of a plurality of functions in said module.

32 . A system comprising:
a module specific database comprising use data and performance data for modules incorporated into applications, said modules comprising reusable code available in a repository; an application specific database comprising use data and performance data for said applications; an access portal configured to:
receive a first request for module specific data, said first request comprising a request for a first module;
determining that said first request is not an authenticated request and returning a first summary set of statistics for said first module;
receive a second request for said module specific data, said second request comprising a request for said first module;
determining that said second request is an authorized request and returning detailed set of statistics for said first module.

33 . The system of claim 32 , said access portal further configured to:
receive a third request for application specific data, said third request identifying a first application; and determining that said third request is an authenticated request and returning a detailed set of statistics for said first application.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Seto Tetsuo
• Gounares Alexander G
• Krajec Russell S

Classifications

• G06F11/34

  Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation {; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment} · CPC title

• G06F2201/865

  Monitoring of software · CPC title

• G06F11/3466

  Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring · CPC title

• G06F21/31

  User authentication · CPC title

• G06F11/3409

  for performance assessment · CPC title