Architecture that facilitates management of an application or service of a system. A catalog is provided that stores management information which is accessible to determine the status of the application of service. Code of the application or service to be installed on the system is attributed with management information. When installed, the application or service is processed to copy the management information into a manifest, which manifest is further stored in the catalog along with other manifests associated with different applications or services. The management information in a manifest is uniquely identified by a URI, which access to the management information is via the URI, and which leads to the associated application or service.

Use of attribution to describe management information

Techniques and tools relating to annotating program source code facilitate inferring annotations from source code based at least in part on a description (or specification) generated with a programmable tool. Described techniques and tools provide flexibility in annotation inference across different code bases and program states or properties of interest, and can reduce the overhead of adding annotations to “legacy” source code. For example, a specification is generated with a programmable specification tool that is separate from an inference engine. In the inference engine, one or more annotations for a computer program are inferred based at least in part on the specification.

Programmable annotation inference

A method and system for dynamically invoking and/or checking conditions of a computer test program. Test cases that verify class/component functionality are automatically created from the DbC contracts. When the classes/components that contain DbC contracts are added to the system, the invention automatically verifies whether the system uses them correctly. The information in the contract comments is used to generate more comprehensive and better quality test cases. In one embodiment, a code's specification information is analyzed and a class with extra bytecodes that describe how the class is supposed to work and be used is generated. Next, the instrumented class is integrated into the system, and the system is run. The system is monitored as it runs and contract violations are automatically detected.

Method and system for dynamically invoking and/or checking conditions of a computer test program

A debugger utility allows a graphically or visually created application program to be run in a debug mode. The graphically created program includes a block diagram that, in turn, has plurality of icons. The icons have pins thereby allowing the icons to be interconnected by one or more wire constructs. Using the debugger utility, the developer can insert a break point on any icon, pin or wire construct, preferably through graphical inputs. During execution, the debugger utility automatically pauses the application program when the inserted break points are reached. The debugger utility also changes the appearance of the block diagram during execution in debug mode to illustrate the program's execution sequence. One or more tools are provided that permit the developer to examine the state of the application program, including variable values, while it is being executed in debug mode.

Debugger for a graphical programming environment

The present invention is directed to systems and methods that treat the monitoring of a software application as a separate and independent concern from the software application itself. The present invention utilizes aspect oriented programming to intercept, analyze, decompose the application states of a software application and then to link appropriate non-invasive constructs into the software application code to provide application state information to an autonomic manager through a plurality of sensors. The autonomic manager analyzes the application state information for compliance pre-defined parameters, and takes appropriate corrective action including modifying the software application states using a plurality of effectors. The sensors and effectors are linked as non-invasive constructs to the software application, and in aspect oriented programming constitute aspects. In order to prevent any adverse or undesirable effects to the software application as a result of the application state analysis and selected action, a safety mechanism is included in communication with the effectors.

Approach to monitor application states for self-managing systems

A set of development tools is provided as part of an integrated development environment for supporting aspect-oriented programming such that aspects may easily be defined for embodying functionality which cross-cuts main program functionality in such a way that aspects transparently force their behavior on the main program. The editor and debugger of the integrated development environment embody functionality for accommodating this transparency.

Integrated development environment for aspect-oriented programming

An aspect oriented system for implementing the Design by Contract software development methodology is provided in which preconditions and postconditions defining the contract need not be coded into the program modules being developed. Rather, an aspect is provided which encapsulates these preconditions and postconditions. This behavior may easily and transparently be forced onto the resource by compiling the object class for the program module along with the contract aspect. When the software program in which the program modules is used is no longer needed, the preconditions and postconditions are removed simply by recompiling the resource object classes without the aspect.

Design by contract with aspect-oriented programming

An aspect oriented system for implementing system monitoring and tracing is provided in which the monitoring and tracing functionality needs not be coded into the resources being monitored or traced. Rather, an aspect is provided which encapsulates the monitoring/tracing behavior. This behavior may easily and transparently be forced onto the resource by compiling the object class for the resource along with the monitoring/tracing aspect. When the monitoring/tracing is no longer needed, it is removed simply by recompiling the resource object classes without the aspect.

Erik A. Hilsdale

Papers

Integrated development environment for aspect-oriented programming

Design by contract with aspect-oriented programming

Aspect-oriented system monitoring and tracing