Home

System, methods and apparatus for markup language debugging

1. It is noted that example configurations disclosed herein include the markup application 140 1 itself including the debug process 150 1 in the form of un executed or performing logic instructions and or data The markup appli cation 140 1 may be stored on a computer readable medium such as a floppy disk hard disk electronic magnetic opti cal or other computer readable medium The markup appli cation 140 1 may also be stored ina memory system 112 such as in firmware read only memory ROM or as in this example as executable code in for example Random Access Memory RAM In addition to these embodiments it should also be noted that other embodiments herein include the execution of the markup application 140 1 in the processor 113 as the markup process 140 2 including the debug process 150 Those skilled in the art will understand that the computer system 110 may include other processes and or software and hardware components such as an operating system not shown in this example A display 130 need not be coupled directly to computer system 110 For example the markup application 140 1 and debug process 150 can be executed on a remotely accessible computerized network device via the network interface 115 In this instance the graphical user interface 170 may be displayed locally to a user of the remote computer and execu tion of the processing herein may be client server based or remotely controlled US 7 721 2
2. US 7 721 262 B2 25 26 Defining a Document Processing Policy 3 Context Information This line of text details the input name the action and the output name Here is an example Step 2 Set Variable Action Contextetempvari Variable var local plainname Value snafu ErrorMode abort E OutputType dafault Figure 6 49 Step information 4 Context Display Buttons Use these buttons to control the main context display By default the Context Content button is active Cantext Variables Global Variables Figure 6 50 Context display buttons a Click Context Variables to display the value of any context variables These are variables created by either a Setvar action or by the stylesheet used in a previous action Here is an example of a Context Variables display Input Context tempvar4 of Step 5 BI p 4 BI p 3 O Step 5 Transform Action Inputetempyard Transform store encrypt xsl Outpute OUTPUT StylesheetParameterse OutputType default sa Global Variables Service Variables Variables in context tempvar4 name type value var Aocalplainname 000 _ string Figure 6 51 Context variables display Click Global Variables to display the value of global variables Global variables can be created in a number of ways All variables created as var system varname appear here These variables persist beyond the multistep processing scope see Contexts section
3. 20 25 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 steps 185 just as in step 200 above in FIG 3 Details of processing step 300 to be explained in steps 301 through 303 In step 301 the debug process 150 renders via a graphical user interface a selection of markup language processing services for which debugging can be enabled Services that can be activated in one configuration include a multiprotocol gateway service an XML firewall service a web proxy ser vice an XSL proxy service an XSL coprocessor service and a web application firewall In step 302 the debug process 150 receives a selection of a markup language processing service for which debugging is to be enabled The selected markup language processing ser vice allows the user to matching criteria for matching mes sages and rules to apply in the event of a match Each rule results in application of a sequence of steps 185 that define the processing pipeline or sequence e g a service configuration 171 in FIG 1 of markup language processing steps 185 FIG 1 includes an example screenshot of the graphical user interface 170 in which the user 108 has selected an XML firewall service 401 to be applied to input markup language data transactions 105 i e XML documents received by the computerized device 110 In this figure the user 108 is viewing a Probe Settings tab and can elect to turn multi stepped debugging on or off via radio button 402 Assume for this exam
4. line configuration for that service Activation of the debug process 150 allows the debug process 150 to insert debugging steps into the processing pipeline that are executed during a transaction i e during application of steps in the processing pipeline to XML input data 105 Each debug step allows capturing all of transaction data related to application of steps in the processing pipeline to the input transaction markup language data 105 The debug process 150 as will be explained more fully herein is thus able to augment or supplement the processing pipeline with additional debug steps inserted in between each of the regular processing pipe line steps e g before the first step in between each step and after the last step in order to allow a user 108 to examine a step by step manner specific processing applied within each step of the processing pipeline Each debug step can capture for example system variables input data output data and other data related to each of the processing steps performed by the markup application 140 as that markup application operates against markup language data or other data such as binary data encoded within the markup language data Depending upon the configuration the debug process 150 can either insert the debug steps 187 before application of the processing pipeline or can insert such steps in real time during invocation of the pipeline steps 187 on a transaction of markup language data 105
5. 21 The computerized device of claim 12 wherein upon the computer system performing the operation of capturing the debug data for at least one of the series of markup language processing steps in the processing pipeline the computer system performs the operation of executing a debug step between two pipeline steps to cap ture output of the proceeding pipeline step including i an execution trace of the pipeline step indicating how that pipeline step traversed an XML programming language ii information on XSLT extension functions used during processing in that pipeline step including an identify of an XSLT extension function that was called by the pipe line step what the XSLT function inputs were and what the XSLT extension function produced as output 22 The computerized device of claim 12 wherein upon the computer system performing the operation of capturing the debug data for at least one of the series of markup language 10 5 20 35 40 45 50 40 processing steps in the processing pipeline the computer system performs the operation of executing a debug step to capture pipeline step context including at least one of at least a part of an XML document portions of a parsed XML tree a binary data block an attachment to the input markup language data stylesheet parameters user defined global and local vari ables user defined for use by the pipeline service intrin sic data comprising system variab
6. Feb js inio tg LUNA pipeline The debugging step s 2 2005 efine processing to collect debug data associated with appli cation of the markup language processing steps to markup 51 Int Cl language data to be processed by the processing pipeline The G06 F 9 44 2006 01 system executes the series of markup language processing 52 US CI 717 124 steps including the debugging step s upon input markup 58 Field of Classification Search 717 124 language data as a transaction Execution of the debugging S lication file fi uses h his step s captures the debug data for at least one of the series of ee app ucation ie oricomplete Seats AINON markup language processing steps in the processing pipeline 56 References Cited The debug data allows analysis of operation of the markup U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 6 748 583 B2 6 2004 Aizenbud Reshef et al 717 127 6 817 010 B2 11 2004 Aizenbud Reshef et al 717 127 255 TRIGGER EVENTS 101 NETWORK TRIGGER EVENT DETECTOR DATA language processing steps of the processing pipeline on the input markup language data 23 Claims 6 Drawing Sheets TO NETWORK OR OTHER PROCESS 210 DEBUG 259 CONTROL SERVICE U S Patent May 18 2010 Sheet 1 of 6 US 7 721 262 B2 H Configure XML Firewall Service 401 Main Probe setungs X HTTP Options 130 120 114 COMPUTER SYSTEM I O INTERFACE PROCESSOR 140 1 MARKUP 1
7. US 7 721 262 B2 23 24 MultiStep Probe 2 Inputand Action Detail selector icons The top line of icons follow the various steps of the rule being probed v E P 4 p A p E p Figure 6 47 Steps f The selected input This is the input context to the action that follows it Pi Thus the leftmost magnifying glass is the INPUT context containing the document submitted to the service for processing The rightmost magnifying glass is the OUTPUT context containg the information output by the service to the configured output destination The selected action Clicking any of the action icons changes the main Ah display of the probe Rather than the context information trace information for the action itself is available as shown here Processing Step 1 A l gt 4 p 4 p 2 p 0 Step 1 Transform Action InputeINPUT Transformwlocal identity2 xsl Outputeternpvarl OutputType default Call Trace Execution trace seq template line trace output i no execution trace available VU Figure 6 48 Action trace display Click Call Trace to display information about actions that interact with resources outside of the service Specifically stylesheets that use any of the following extension functions will produce a Call Trace soap call radius authen url open netegrity authen ldap authen get kerberos ticket tivoli authen ocsp validate certificate Release 3 2 Draft 6 95
8. at the beginning of this chapter for more information All variables created as var context contextname varname appear here You will notice that variables created as var local varname also appear here as var context varname for each Release 3 2 Draft US 7 721 262 B2 24 28 MultiStep context that has been created since the variable was created Here is an example display Input Context tempvar4 of Step 5 gt 8 gt 51 Step 5 Transform Action Inputetempvar Transformestore encrypt xsl Output OUTPUT StylesheetParameterse OutputType default type value ontext scope start 2 string 2005 01 25721 41 01 05 00 var context tempvarl plainname string snafu context tempyard plainname costring snafu Figure 6 52 Global variables Release 3 2 Draft US 7 721 262 B2 29 Defining a Document Processing Policy 30 c Click Service Variables to display the various Service variables available to the processing steps These are read only with the exception of error protocol response which may be set by a stylesheet during processing Here is an example display Input Context tempvar4 of Step 5 p a p J p R gt O Step 5 Transform Action Input tempvard Transform store encrypt xsl Output OUTPUT StylesheetParameters OutputType default Context Content _ Context Variables Globel Variables List
9. debug process 150 executes the series of markup language processing steps 185 including the debug ging step s 187 upon input markup language data 105 as a transaction Execution of the debugging step s captures the debug data 210 for at least one of the series of markup lan guage processing steps 185 in the processing pipeline 251 The debug data 210 allows analysis of operation of the markup language processing steps 195 of the processing pipeline on the input markup language data as will be explained more fully herein Note that step 201 may be per formed as part of step 202 in real time As an example a debug step 187 between two markup language pipeline steps 185 captures output from the pro ceeding pipeline markup language processing step 185 and captures input to the next markup language processing step As an example each debug step 187 can capture step context including all or a part of an XML document 105 portions of a parsed XML tree a binary data block an attachment e g mime attachment to the message 105 stylesheet parameters global and or local variables user defined for use by the pipeline as service intrinsic data such as system variables client and peer identities URL information TCP IP port numbers and other protocol specific data and the like Addi tionally each debug step 187 between two pipeline steps 185 can capture output of the proceeding step 185 such as an execution trace of the step 185 indicat
10. e g extract XML encoded data for application processing purposes As an example a server can use XML software processing technologies such as the Document Object Model DOM or Simple Application programming interface for XML SAX to parse XML documents to gain 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 access to the encoded data In addition other XML related technologies such as XPath and the eXtensible Stylesheet Transformation Language XSLT allow a developer of an XML aware software application to define transformations of XML encoded data from one data format to another Exten sible Stylesheet Transformations XSLT is a language origi nally intended for converting or transforming documents written in XML into other formats including HTML and other XML vocabularies XSLT uses an XSL document to transform an XML document from one format to another A schema is a description in a meta language specifying the acceptable syntax or structure of an XML document A schema document is used to validate an XML document and guarantee that its syntax is correct Several schema languages exist A filter is one or more XPath expressions which may optionally be contained in an XSLT document or other con trol structure used to extract data from an XML document This data can be used to produce a decision on the accept ability of the input XML document based on an arbitrary set of criteria as expressed in the guery expres
11. explicitly reguiring devel opers to hard code custom rules for processing XML trans actions to view associated or related data This is cumbersome to encode and often results in debug data appearing in a user data Additionally such conventional debugging techniques that reguire manual modification to the processing pipeline could easily cause errors As an example if a user deletes the pre processing but doesn t remove the post processing errors may result In contrast the technology disclosed herein provides a multistep probe debugger that provides an IDE like interface to an xmlfirewall stylepolicy In one configuration the debugger operates by analyzing a configured seguence of transformations i e an XML pipeline of processing steps and inserting probes or debug steps into the seguence to collect input processing and output data The debug steps collect and analyze the data after the transaction has com pleted or the pipeline processing can be suspended in real time in i e after each step and a user or other processing can analyze the data in real time i e during each step of pipeline execution before the others steps in the pipeline operate More specifically embodiments disclosed herein provide methods and apparatus and systems for processing data that include a debug process One configuration the debug pro cess operates by identifying a processing pipeline defining a series of markup language processi
12. memory a processing pipeline defining a series of markup language processing steps including receiving a selection of a markup language processing service for which debugging is to be enabled the selected markup language processing service defining a respective processing pipeline of markup language pro cessing steps inserting at least one debugging step into the processing pipeline the at least one debugging step defining pro cessing to collect debug data associated with application of the markup language processing steps to markup lan guage data to be processed by the processing pipeline including identifying a configuration associated with the selected markup language processing service for which debugging is to be enabled and for each markup language processing step defined in the configuration inserting a debug step into the configura tion the debug step capturing a snapshot of debug data associated with that markup language processing step and executing on the processor the series of markup language processing steps including the at least one debugging step upon input markup language data as a transaction execution of the at least one debugging step capturing the debug data for at least one of the series of markup language processing steps in the processing pipeline the debug data allowing analysis of operation of the markup language processing steps of the processing pipeline on the input markup language data wherein
13. upon the computer system performing the opera tion of executing the series of markup language process ing steps including the at least one debugging step upon input markup language data as a transaction the com puter system performs the operation of detecting a trigger event during processing ofa transaction and in response indicating that the debug data collected from execution of the debug steps associated with the transaction is to be post processed and not discarded 25 30 40 45 65 38 13 The computerized device of claim 12 wherein the com puter system further comprises a display coupled to the inter connection mechanism and wherein upon the computer sys tem performing the operation of identifying a processing pipeline defining a markup language processing transaction as a series of markup language processing steps the computer system performs the operations of rendering via a graphical user interface on the display a selection of markup language processing services for which debugging can be enabled and receiving a transaction history count identifying a number of transactions for which to collect debug data from application of the processing pipeline to input markup language data 14 The computerized device of claim 12 wherein upon the computer system performing the operation of inserting a debug step into the configuration the computer system per forms the operations of inserting a first debug s
14. 110 is able to process input in the form of markup language data 105 The input markup language data 105 is processed as a transaction against a processing pipeline see FIG 2 config ured within the markup application 140 During application of markup language processing operations within the pro cessing pipeline the debug process 150 is able to insert addi tional debug steps to perform debug operations associated with the processing pipeline As an example suppose the markup application 140 is configured with a processing pipe 5 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 line to receive as input an XML document 105 and in a series of steps The pipeline 251 progresses in steps 185 from left to right and i performs XML document validation ii identifies an XML signature within the document iii vali dates the XML signature iv removes the XML signature from the document 105 and v forwards the XML document 105 after signature removal to a post processing service The user 108 may have selected this particular processing pipeline 251 for operation by activation of a markup language processing service available from the markup application 140 such as an XML firewall service via interaction with the graphical user interface 170 During activation of this XML firewall service the graphi cal user interface 170 allows the user to activate the debug process 150 to work in conjunction with the processing pipe
15. 185 are applied to the input markup language data 105 and this sequence is referred to herein as the pipeline 251 Upon selection of a service con figuration 171 the user 108 activates the debug controller 250 in order to insert debug steps 187 in between the markup language processing steps 185 within the processing pipeline 251 The debug controller 250 can insert the debug steps 187 either in real time during operation of the processing pipeline steps 185 or during instantiation of the processing pipeline 251 in the computerized device 110 Each debug step 187 operates to capture debug data 210 for analysis by either the debug controller 250 or a remotely located control service 259 Accordingly upon receipt of each input markup language data document 105 that markup language input data 105 is applied is a transaction to the processing pipeline 251 and each steps 185 is performed on the input data 105 In between each pipeline step 187 or before the first between each middle step 185 and after the last pipeline step each debug step 187 captures a set of debug data 210 that if certain trigger conditions 255 are met is eligible for post processing analysis or real time analysis in step by step mode as will be explained The user 108 can defined trigger events or conditions 255 that specify certain conditions that must be met in order to save or store the debug data 210 or to transfer the debug data 210 to the remotely operating contro
16. 21 262 B2 13 259 is instructed by the user 108 or another program to allow the pipeline to advance to the next step 185 Appendix A below is a user manual of a multi step markup language debugger configured in accordance with example embodiments disclosed herein This appendix includes screen shots of a graphical user interface 170 that shows a graphical view of the debug data captured from operation of a pipeline of processing steps 185 As shown the user can step through execution of each action in each rule Along the bottom of the graphical user interface 170 is a window show ing log messages for a transaction Along the side are win dows showing each multistep context and all of their contents all var context variables including system ones and all changes dynamically as the user steps through the action The input and output messages are automatically captured and displayed in their own windows In one configuration win dows showing the routing and arp tables with the relevant chosen route and arp entries highlighted as the action 14 progresses and messages are sent received So for each action a user can see the whole state of the pipeline which may be relevant for the transaction at that time The multistep debug ger pulls all of the disparate pieces of debug information together into a single real time view and gives the user a nice way to drive the debugging session rather than simply turning features on off for giv
17. 21 262 B2 31 32 MultiStep Probe Content of Context tempvar4 Ei message xsi schemaLocations http www example com message xml xmins http eiw example com xmlns xsi http www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema instance gt lt to gt Alice lt to from gt Bob lt from gt lt subject gt Important lt subject gt lt body gt I ll look for you in old Honolulu San Francisco Ashtabula Yer gonna have to leave me now know But I ll see you in the sky above In the tall grass in the ones I love Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go lt body gt lt message Ei prints xmins func http exsit org functions xm ns cate http exslt org dates and times lt transid 4702 transid lt urlin http 10 10 13 35 2051 urlin gt lt starttime gt 2005 01 25T21 41 01 05 00 lt starttime gt lt endtime 2005 01 25T21 41 02 05 00 endtime gt lt local gt snafu lt local lt prints gt Figure 6 54 Formatted content display To exit the probe close the popup windows it creates Release 3 2 Draft 6 99 US 7 721 262 B2 33 34 Defining a Document Processing Policy You can quickly access the Probe for any service from the catalog page for that service Here is an example for XML Firewalls Note the Probe column The icon indicates the probe is active for that service H Configure XML Firewall Service Logs Probe Local IP Address Poli Comments
18. 62 B2 7 FIG 2 illustrates an example architecture of the debug process 150 as it interacts with an example markup language processing pipeline 251 In this example the debug process 150 includes the debug controller 250 trigger events 255 a trigger event detector 257 and a control service 259 Gener ally the user 108 interacts 291 with the computerized device 110 to select a service configuration 171 from a plurality of available markup language processing services 170 operable within the computerized device to process markup language input data 105 Depending upon the selected service configu ration 171 the markup application 140 will instantiate or apply the processing pipeline 251 that includes a number of markup language processing steps 185 selected and arranged in seguence from left to right according to the selected service configuration 171 Each markup language processing step 185 that is part of the processing pipeline 251 performs a specific operation on one or more portions of the input markup language data 105 The collective set of steps 185 provides the selected service chosen by the user 108 Note that there may be several different pipeline configurations 251 for a single service and a particular pipeline i e a particular arrangement of steps 185 may be chosen by the markup application 140 based on certain criteria of the input markup language data 105 during runtime In each case how ever some sequence of steps
19. CCESSIVE STEP IN THE SERIES OF STEPS DEFINED IN THE CONFIGURATION OTHER THAN THE LAST STEP EACH SUCCESSIVE DEBUG STEP UPON EXECUTION CAPTURING A SNAP SHOT OF OUTPUT DATA PROCESSED BY THE FORMER STEP IN THE CONFIGURATION AND CAPTURING A SNAPSHOT OF INPUT DATA ASSOCIATED WITH THE NEXT STEP IN THE CONFIGURATION 309 INSERT A FINAL DEBUG STEP AFTER THE LAST STEP IN THE CONFIGURATION THE FINAL DEBUG STEP UPON EXECUTION CAPTURING A SNAP SHOT OF OUTPUT DATA PROCESSED BY THE LAST STEP IN THE CONFIGURATION TO STEP 310 FIG 5 U S Patent May 18 2010 Sheet 6 of 6 US 7 721 262 B2 FROM STEP 309 Y 310 EXECUTE THE SERIES OF MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS INCLUDING THE AT LEAST ONE DEBUGGING STEP UPON INPUT MARKUP LANGUAGE DATA AS A TRANSACTION EXECUTION OF THE AT LEAST ONE DEBUGGING STEP CAPTURING THE DEBUG DATA FOR AT LEAST ONE OF THE SERIES OF MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS IN THE PROCESSING PIPELINE THE DEBUG DATA ALLOWING ANALYSIS OF OPERATION OF THE MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS OF THE PROCESSING PIPELINE ON THE INPUT MARKUP LANGUAGE DATA 311 RECEIVE AN IDENTIFICATION OF A TRIGGER EVENT THAT INDICATES A CONDITION UPON WHICH TO SAVE DEBUG DATA ASSOCIATED WITH A TRANSACTION 312 RECEIVE INPUT MARKUP LANGUAGE DATA AS A TRANSACTION 313 APPLY THE PROCESSING PIPELINE DEFINING A SERIES OF MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS TO THE INPUT MARKUP LANGUAGE DATA APPLICATION OF THE PROCESSING PIPELINE INCLUDING OPERATING THE FIRST DEBU
20. Crypto enabled demo Demo document decryption decrypt validete and sign demo default document Encrypt ed encryption ssi 5 example an exampie XML firewall _ FirewallService 2 test 101 an example XML FirewallService Figure 6 55 Firewall catalog with probe icon Note The MultiStep Probe should not be left in the enabled state for production conditions Return to the object page for the service to disable the Probe before moving the configuration into production 6 100 Release 3 2 Draft US 7 721 262 B2 35 The invention claimed is 1 A computer implemented method for processing data in which a computer system performs operations comprising identifying a processing pipeline defining a series of markup language processing steps including receiving a selection of a markup language processing service for which debugging is to be enabled the selected markup language processing service defining a respective pro cessing pipeline of markup language processing steps inserting at least one debugging step into the processing pipeline the at least one debugging step defining pro cessing to collect debug data associated with application of the markup language processing steps to markup lan guage data to be processed by the processing pipeline including identifying a configuration
21. G STEP EACH SUCCESSIVE DEBUG STEP AND THE FINAL DEBUG STEP TO CAPTURE INPUT AND OUTPUT DATA AS DEBUG DATA FOR EACH STEP 314 INSERT THE FIRST DEBUG STEP EACH SUCCESSIVE DEBUG STEP AND THE FINAL DEBUG STEP INTO THE PROCESSING PIPELINE IN REAL TIME DURING EXECUTING THE SERIES OF MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS 1 DURING EXECUTION OF AT LEAST ONE OF THE DEBUGGING STEPS ENGAGE A MESSAGING PROTOCOL TO TRANSFER LEAST A PORTION OF THE DEBUG DATA TO A CONTROL SERVICE AND HALTING EXECUTION OF THE DEBUG STEP AND THE TRANSACTION UNTIL THE CONTROL SERVICE INDICATES VIA THE MESSAGING PROTOCOL THAT THE HALTED DEBUG STEP CAN PROCEED TO ALLOW THE TRANSACTION TO CONTINUE PROCESSING 316 DETECT THE TRIGGER EVENT DURING PROCESSING OF A TRANSACTION AND IN RESPONSE INDICATING THAT THE DEBUG DATA COLLECTED FROM EXECUTION OF THE DEBUG STEPS ASSOCIATED WITH THE TRANSACTION IS TO BE POST PROCESSED AND NOT DISCARDED 317 STORE DEBUG DATA FOR EACH STEP COLLECTIVELY AS A DEBUG RECORD ASSOCIATED WITH THE TRANSACTION FOR THE INPUT MARKUP LANGUAGE DATA AND OR 318 USE A MESSAGING PROTOCOL TO TRANSFER THE DEBUG DATA TO AN EXTERNAL SERVER FOR POST PROCESSING FIG 6 US 7 721 262 B2 1 SYSTEM METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR MARKUP LANGUAGE DEBUGGING CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of the filing date ofU S Provisional patent application No 60 649 189 entitled M
22. LECT ION OF MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING SERVICES FOR WHICH DEBUGGING CAN BE ENABLED 302 RECEIVE A SELECTION OF A MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING SERVICE FOR WHICH DEBUGGING IS TO BE ENABLED THE SELECTED MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING SERVICE DEFINING A RESPECTIVE PROCESSING PIPELINE OF MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS 303 RECEIVE A TRANSACTION HISTORY COUNT IDENTIFYING A NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS FOR WHICH TO COLLECT DEBUG DATA FROM APPLICATION OF THE PROCESSING PIPELINE TO INPUT MARKUP LANGUAGE DATA TO STEP 304 FIG 4 U S Patent May 18 2010 Sheet 5 of 6 US 7 721 262 B2 FROM STEP 303 304 INSERT AT LEAST ONE DEBUGGING STEP INTO THE PROCESSING PIPELINE THE AT LEAST ONE DEBUGGING STEP DEFINING PROCESSING TO COLLECT DEBUG DATA ASSOCIATED WITH APPLICATION OF THE MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS TO MARKUP LANGUAGE DATA TO BE PROCESSED BY THE PROCESSING PIPELINE 305 IDENTIFY A CONFIGURATION ASSOCIATED WITH THE SELECTED MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING SERVICE FOR WHICH DEBUGGING IS TO BE ENABLED 306 FOR EACH MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEP DEFINED IN THE CONFIGURATION INSERT A DEBUG STEP INTO THE CONFIGURATION THE DEBUG STEP CAPTURING A SNAPSHOT OF DEBUG DATA ASSOCIATED WITH THAT MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEP 307 INSERT A FIRST DEBUG STEP BEFORE THE FIRST STEP IN THE CONFIGURATION THE FIRST DEBUG STEP UPON EXECUTION CAPTURING A SNAPSHOT OF INPUT DATA ASSOCIATED WITH THE FIRST STEP 308 INSERT A SUCCESSIVE DEBUG STEP AFTER EACH SU
23. MARKUP PROCESS APPLICATION 108 150 DEBUG PROCESS DATABASE 125 115 COMM INTERFACE 113 880 e 16 210 FIG 1 US 7 721 262 B2 Sheet 2 of 6 May 18 2010 U S Patent JOINHIS 1041N09 682 ss300y4d YIHLO YO MYOMLIN OL Old 40123130 viva 1N3A3 YIDONMUYL 184 VOL 601 SIN3A3 X39918 052 MYOMLAN LOL U S Patent May 18 2010 Sheet 3 of 6 US 7 721 262 B2 200 IDENTIFY A PROCESSING PIPELINE DEFINING A SERIES OF MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS 201 INSERT AT LEAST ONE DEBUGGING STEP INTO THE PROCESSING PIPELINE THE AT LEAST ONE DEBUGGING STEP DEFINING PROCESSING TO COLLECT DEBUG DATA ASSOCIATED WITH APPLICATION OF THE MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS TO MARKUP LANGUAGE DATA TO BE PROCESSED BY THE PROCESSING PIPELINE 202 EXECUTE THE SERIES OF MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS INCLUDING THE AT LEAST ONE DEBUGGING STEP UPON INPUT MARKUP LANGUAGE DATA AS A TRANSACTION EXECUTION OF THE AT LEAST ONE DEBUGGING STEP CAPTURING THE DEBUG DATA FOR AT LEAST ONE OF THE SERIES OF MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS IN THE PROCESSING PIPELINE THE DEBUG DATA ALLOWING ANALYSIS OF OPERATION OF THE MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS OF THE PROCESSING PIPELINE ON THE INPUT MARKUP LANGUAGE DATA FIG 3 U S Patent May 18 2010 Sheet 4 of 6 US 7 721 262 B2 300 IDENTIFY A PROCESSING PIPELINE DEFINING A SERIES OF MARKUP LANGUAGE PROCESSING STEPS 301 RENDER VIA A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE AN SE
24. ULTISTEP PROBE DEBUGGER filed Feb 2 2005 that shares co inventorship and co pendancy herewith The entire teachings figures and contents of this pending Provisional application are hereby incorporated by reference herein BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Computer systems and computerized devices operate soft ware programs that exchange data in a variety of different data formats As an example conventional computer pro grams can format messages and data in a markup language data format such as the eXtensible Markup Language XML data format that encodes data in a platform independent man ner to allow different computer systems to share the XML encoded data The software industry commonly refers to data encoded in the XML data format as an XML document Software developers have created many different programs that are capable of performing a various processing opera tions on XML documents XML is a text based language that requires significant processing resources to encode and decode and otherwise process the data since XML is not in a native machine or processor format As an example of conventional XML processing in a con ventional web services architecture a server computer sys tem can provide access to processing functionality using a web services interface that is defined in a machine readable interface description such as Web Services Description Lan guage WSDL A particular service expressed or described in WSDL can provid
25. US007721262B2 a2 United States Patent 10 Patent No US 7 721 262 B2 Reinhardt 45 Date of Patent May 18 2010 54 SYSTEM METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR 7 251 809 B2 7 2007 Barclay et al 717 128 MARKUP LANGUAGE DEBUGGING 2002 0120918 Al 8 2002 Aizenbud Reshef et al 717 127 2002 0120919 8 2002 Aizenbud Reshef et al 717 127 75 Inventor Holger Reinhardt Berlin DE 2003 0056198 Al 3 2003 AI Azzawe et al 717 127 2003 0070030 A1 4 2003 Smith et al 710 309 N P 2003 0196192 1 10 2003 Barclay etal 717 128 73 igi 2 2004 0199526 Al 10 2004 Nishikawa et al 707 100 orporation Armonk NY US 2006 0031466 Al 2 2006 Kovach 709 224 Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this 2006 0265689 Al 11 2006 Kuznetsov et al 717 117 patent is extended or adjusted under 35 cited by examiner U S C 154 b by 1142 days y Primary Examiner Wei Y Zhen 21 Appl No 11 346 135 Assistant Examiner Yuntao Guo 22 Filed 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Chapin IP Law LLC iled eb 2 57 ABSTRACT 65 Prior Publication Data ON US 2006 0259898 A1 Nov 16 2006 A system apparatus and method process data by identifying a processing pipeline defining a series of markup language Related U S Application Data processing steps The system inserts at least one debugging 60 Provisional application No 60 649 189 filed on
26. associated with the selected markup language processing service for which debugging is to be enabled for each markup language processing step defined in the configuration inserting a debug step into the configura tion the debug step capturing a snapshot of debug data associated with that markup language processing step and executing the series of markup language processing steps including the at least one debugging step upon input markup language data as a transaction execution of the at least one debugging step capturing the debug data for at least one of the series of markup language processing steps in the processing pipeline the debug data allowing analysis of operation of the markup language processing steps of the processing pipeline on the input markup language data wherein executing the series of markup language processing steps including the at least one debugging step upon input markup language data as a transaction comprises detecting a trigger event during processing of a transaction and in response indicating that the debug data collected from execution of the debug steps associated with the transaction is to be post processed and not discarded 2 The method of claim 1 wherein identifying a processing pipeline defining a markup language processing transaction as a series of markup language processing steps comprises rendering via a graphical user interface a selection of markup language processing services for whic
27. ctively as a debug record associated with the transaction for the input markup language data 16 The computerized device of claim 14 wherein upon the computer system performing the operation of the inserting at least one debugging step into the processing pipeline the computer system performs the operation of inserting the first debug step each successive debug step and the final debug step into the processing pipeline in real time during executing the series of markup lan guage processing steps 17 The computerized device of claim 14 wherein upon the computer system performing the operation of inserting at least one debugging step into the processing pipeline the computer system performs the operation of inserting the first debug step each successive debug step and the final debug step into the configuration defining the processing pipeline prior to application and execu tion of any markup language processing steps in the processing pipeline upon input markup language data US 7 721 262 B2 39 18 The computerized device of claim 13 wherein the com puter system performs the operations of receiving an identification of the trigger event that indi cates a condition upon which to save debug data associ ated with a transaction 19 The computerized device of claim 18 wherein there are a plurality of debugging steps inserted into the series of markup language processing steps in the processing pipeline each debugging s
28. debug process 150 inserts the first debug step each successive debug step and the final debug step into the processing pipeline in real time during executing the series of markup language processing steps This allows insertion of debug steps one by one as each pipeline step is executed In an alternative arrangement the debug process 150 inserts the first debug step each successive debug step and the final debug step into the configuration defining the processing pipeline 251 prior to application and execution of any markup language processing steps 185 in the processing pipeline upon input markup language data Thus the pipeline with debug steps in this alternative configuration is precon figured with debug steps as opposed to inserting the debug steps in real time to allow faster execution of the pipeline and debug steps In step 315 during execution of the debugging steps 187 the debug process 150 operates a step by step probe mode and engages a messaging protocol 192 FIG 2 to transfer at least a portion ofthe debug data 210 to a control service 259 e g operating remotely or the debug controller 250 operat ing locally and halts execution of the debug step 187 and the transaction until the control service 259 indicates via the messaging protocol 192 that the halted debug step 187 can proceed to allow the transaction to continue processing to the next step 185 In this manner the control service 259 or debug controlle
29. e some predefined and specific process ing functionality Other computer systems e g other serv ers that want to access web service functionality can discover and invoke the web service offered by the web services server by submitting requests for the service to the web services server using XML data encoded in a remote method invoca tion protocol such as the Simple Object Access Protocol SOAP A requesting computer system can transfer XML SOAP requests to the web services server providing the web service over HTTP or over secure HTTP known as HTTPS When a server receives an invocation of a web service via an XML message or stream of messages encoded using SOAP HTTP the web services server decodes and processes the XML encoded data performs the web service processing 1 the application processing on the decoded data and can formulate an XML SOAP HTTP response The server then returns the response to the requesting computer system i e a client or another server in XML format via HTTP The XML SOAP HTTP web services computing paradigm thus allows distributed computing servers to share processing functionality with other computers such as other servers and or clients using XML encoded data Conventional XML processing technologies embedded within a web server allow the web server to interpret and process the XML encoded data in a variety of ways Several conventional XML technologies allow a software application to access
30. e steps 185 in that rule to be applied to that input data The matching criteria allows the device 110 to apply certain services to some messages by selecting which rule to run As an example if a message 105 arrives and indicates a signature is included then the services will run a signature rule that includes the steps 185 1 a processing pipeline to validate the XML signature remove the XML signature and transfer the message to another process e g back onto a network The user 108 can set up the order of the rules for a particular service and each rule defines a set of steps 185 to be applied Other examples of steps 185 include printing a message checking for illegal content performing schema validation encrypting messages and so forth The steps 185 that make up a rule for particular service configu ration 171 define the various processing pipeline 251 that are applied to input data 105 treated as a transaction across the set of steps for the processing pipeline Accordingly in step 306 for each markup language pro cessing step 185 defined in the configuration the debug pro cess 150 inserts a debug step 187 into the configuration The debug steps 187 capture a snapshot of debug data 210 asso ciated with that markup language processing step 185 be tween which it is inserted Steps 307 through 309 to illustrate details of processing In step 307 the debug process 150 inserts a first debug step before the first st
31. en time periods or thresholds While configurations of the system and method have been particularly shown and described with references to configu rations thereof it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention Accord ingly the present invention is not intended to be limited by the example configurations provided above Appendix A The following Appendix provides an example of a user manual for a multi step probe markeup language debugger that operates in accordance with one example configuration US 7 721 262 B2 15 16 MultiStep Probe MultiStep Probe The MultiStep Probe displays the contents of contexts and the value of variables at each step of a document processing rule which may contain one or many steps This is an invaluable tool for developing service applications Enabling the MultiStep Probe The MultiStep Probe is enabled on the Object pages for the service using the multistep processing policy These pages are covered in detail in the WebGUI Service Objects chapter An XML Firewall XSL Proxy and XSL Coprocessor can use the MultiStep Probe Use the following procedure to enable the MultiStep Probe 1 Open the Object menu area and click on the Edit XML Firewall Edit XSL Proxy or Edit XSL CoProcessor menu links A catalog page appears Click on the name of the service for which you want to enable the Mul
32. ently selected As an example the debug process 150 can receive a selection of an XSL proxy service an XML firewall service an XSL coprocessor service a Multi proto col gateway service a web proxy service or a Web applica tion firewall service Each service presents an application for use of the computerized device 110 against input data 105 A user 108 can configure a particular service to create a pro cessing policy that consists of a set of processing rules to be included in that service Each rule has a set of certain match ing criteria that the user can establish As an example service matching criteria can define a particular URL upon which input markup language data 105 is posted upon As another example service matching criteria can indicate a specific IP address protocol port number or other information upon which input data 105 is received Each rule if matched applies the service as a discrete number of N processing steps US 7 721 262 B2 11 185 the collection of which depending upon the configura tion of the service define the processing pipeline 251 to be applied to markup language input data documents 105 each processed as a transaction against the pipeline 251 Based on the matching criteria the device selects the rule of the service to be applied the rule defining a set of steps 185 for an input transaction 105 Once the system has matched a input markup language data message 105 to a rule it has defined th
33. ep 185 1 in the configuration The first debug step 187 1 upon execution captures a snapshot of input data associated with the first step 185 1 In step 308 the debug process 150 inserts a successive debug step 187 after each successive step in the series of steps defined in the configuration other than the last step Each successive debug step upon execution captures a snap shot of output data processed by the former step in the configura tion and captures a snapshot of input data associated with the next step in the configuration In step 309 the debug process 150 inserts a final debug step after the last step in the configuration The final debug step upon execution captures a snap shot of output data processed by the last step in the configuration In this manner process ing pipeline configuration 251 is augmented or supplemented with debug steps 187 that capture debug data 210 In step 310 the debug process 150 executes the series of markup language processing steps 185 including the debug ging step s 187 upon input markup language data 105 as a transaction Execution of each debug step 187 between two pipeline steps 185 or after the last pipeline step 185 can capture output of the proceeding pipeline step 185 such as an i an execution trace of the pipeline step 185 indicating how that step traversed the XML programming language 11 infor mation on XSLT extension functions used during processing in that step 185 suchas wh
34. g operating the first debug step each successive debug step and the final debug step to capture markup language specific input and output data as debug data for each step and storing collected debug data for each step collectively as a debug record associated with the transaction for the input markup language data 5 The method of claim 3 wherein the inserting at least one debugging step into the processing pipeline comprises inserting the first debug step each successive debug step and the final debug step into the processing pipeline in real time during executing the series of markup lan guage processing steps 6 The method of claim 3 wherein inserting at least one debugging step into the processing pipeline comprises inserting the first debug step each successive debug step 4 and the final debug step into the configuration defining the processing pipeline prior to application and execu tion of any markup language processing steps in the processing pipeline upon input markup language data 30 7 The method of claim 2 comprising receiving an identification of the trigger event that indi cates a condition upon which to save debug data associ ated with a transaction 8 The method of claim 7 wherein there are a plurality of 5 debugging steps inserted into the series of markup language processing steps in the processing pipeline each debugging step capturing markup language data constructs associated with the transaction as deb
35. h debug ging can be enabled receiving a transaction history count identifying a number of transactions for which to collect debug data from application of the processing pipeline to input markup language data 3 The method of claim 1 wherein inserting a debug step into the configuration comprises inserting a first debug step before the first step in the con figuration the first debug step upon execution captur ing a snapshot of input data associated with the first step inserting a successive debug step after each successive step in the series of steps defined in the configuration other than the last step each successive debug step upon execution capturing a snapshot of output data processed by the former step in the configuration and capturing a snapshot of input data associated with the next step in the configuration and inserting a final debug step after the last step in the con figuration the final debug step upon execution captur ing a snapshot of output data processed by the last step in the configuration 36 4 The method of claim 3 wherein executing the series of markup language processing steps including the at least one debugging step as a transaction upon markup language data comprises 5 receiving input markup language data as a transaction applying the processing pipeline defining a series of markup language processing steps to the input markup language data application of the processing pipeline includin
36. he Probe is now enabled You can generate traffic using CURL See http curl haxx se for more information about this utility Then click the MultiStep Probe button The MultiStep Probe Transaction History page appears in a new browser window view trans id inbound urt outbound url type rule client ip 2 1985 http 10 10 13 35 2051 http 0 0 0 0 2051 request Demo Encrypt Rule 0 10 10 100 151 2 1993 i http 0 0 0 0 2051 request Demo Encrypt Rule 0 10 10 100 151 SOO 28m 71755 requer Demgdneryp Rue 03 i040 100 4817 1 9 2009 htp 10 10 13 35 2051 http 0 0 0 0 20517 request Demo Encrypt Rule 0 10 10 200 151 002017 h p 10 104335 2081 http 0 0 0 0 2051 request Demo Encrypt Rule 0 1010100151 D 2028 10 13 U N 0 0 2051 10 10 100151 J 2033 Rittp 10 10 13 35 2051 hitpi 0 0 0 0 2051 request Demo Encrypt 0 10 10 100 151 2041 http 10 10 13 35 2051 http 0 0 0 0 2051 request Demo Encrypt Rule 0 10 10 100 151 2 2049 http 10 10 13 35 2081 hp 0 0 0 0 2051 request Demotnerypt Rule D 1040100451 2 2057 htpi 10 10 13 95 2051 httpj 0 D 0 0 2051 request Derno Entrypt Rule 0 10 10 100 151 Figure 6 45 Probe transaction list display The length of this transaction list is determined by the value ofthe Transaction History field of the Probe Settings page associated with the service Figure 6 44 above Click the leftmo
37. ich XSLT extension functions were called what the function inputs were and what the XSLT extension function produced as output Furthermore execu tion of a debug step 187 can also involve capturing debug step input or output context including all or a part of an XML document 105 portions of a parsed XML tree a binary data block an attachment e g a mime attachment to the message 105 stylesheet parameters global and or local variables user defined for use by the pipeline as service intrinsic data such 20 25 40 45 12 as system variables client and peer identities URL informa tion TCP IP port numbers and other protocol specific data and the like Steps 311 through 318 illustrate further details of processing In step 311 the debug process 150 receives an identifica tion of a trigger event 255 that indicates a condition upon which to save debug data 210 associated with a transaction 105 In step 312 the debug process 150 receives input markup language data 105 as a transaction In step 313 the debug process 150 applies the processing pipeline 251 defining a series of markup language processing steps 185 to the input markup language data 105 Application of the processing pipeline includes operating the first debug step each successive debug step and the final debug step to capture input and output data as debug data 210 for each step Steps 314 through 318 illustrate details of processing In step 314 the
38. il Generally then there are a variety of different processing operations that software programs can apply to XML encoded data BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Conventional mechanisms and technigues for the develop ment of software programs or hardware devices that process XML data suffer from a deficiency in that such conventional systems do not provide an efficient method mechanism or tool to debug processing operations or steps performed on XML data In particular processing operations performed on XML data tend to be step by step operations As an example an XML SOAP message may include a SOAP header an XML encoded digital signature and a SOAP message body To process such an incoming XML SOAP message an XML processing device or software program may have to perform various processing steps such as SOAP header validation XML signature validation and SOAP message body extrac tion Fach of these steps typically receives some input per forms some focused processing on this input and produces some output During development of XML processing soft US 7 721 262 B2 3 ware hardware or firmware to perform such processing conventional debuggers do not exist to allow the developer to control execution of the XML processing in a step by step manner Additionally no conventional debugger tool exists to allow the developer to inspect the inputs and outputs of each processing step in an XML processing pipeline As an example e
39. ing i how that step traversed the XML programming language ii information on XSLT extension functions used during processing in that step 185 such as which XSLT extension function was called what that function s inputs were and what the XSLT exten sion function produced as output The debug process can save this debug data into a zip file for subsequent post processing access Depending upon the configuration the multi step debug ger process 150 distinguishes between two levels of granu US 7 721 262 B2 9 larity The first one is the seguence of user configured actions defined within the pipeline 151 as user defined steps 185 as determined by the user selected service configuration 171 Those pipeline steps 185 can perform markup language trans form actions data and message routing actions fetching resources posting resources authentication and so forth In one configuration the debug process 150 controls the flow of information i e capturing of context between those actions or steps 185 by auto inserting the debug steps 187 in real time in between the user configured pipeline steps 185 Those inserted debug actions or steps 187 collect all useful opera tional data call and execution traces from the prior finished processing step 185 as well as the input parameters of the next processing step 185 In one configuration each debug step 187 sends the collected data to a prior configured passive or active probe server compo
40. ipeline step including 60 US 7 721 262 B2 37 i an execution trace of the pipeline step indicating how that pipeline step traversed an XML programming language and ii information on XSLT extension functions used during processing in that pipeline step including an identify of an XSLT extension function that was called by the pipe line step what the XSLT function inputs were and what the XSLT extension function produced as output 11 The method of claim 1 wherein capturing the debug data for at least one of the series of markup language process ing steps in the processing pipeline comprises executing a debug step to capture pipeline step context including at least one of at least a part of an XML document portions of a parsed XML tree a binary data block an attachment to the input markup language data stylesheet parameters user defined global and local vari ables user defined for use by the pipeline service intrin sic data comprising system variables client and peer identities URL information TCP IP port numbers and other protocol specific data 12 A computerized device comprising a memory a processor an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory and the processor the memory encoded with a markup application and debug process for processing markup language data that when executed on the processor produces a debug process that causes the computer system to perform operations of identifying in the
41. l service 259 via a messaging protocol 192 In other words the user 108 can define specific trigger events 255 that the triggered event detector 257 must identify as existing in order for the debug data 210 to be saved or pro cessed for analysis of application of one of the processing pipeline steps 185 In one configuration then the debug steps 187 are executed for each transaction of markup language input data 105 regardless if the debug data 210 they produce is to be saved or analyzed However only in situations upon which a triggered event 255 is detected by the triggered event detector 257 is the debug data 210 saved for analysis In an alternative configuration upon occurrence of a trigger event 255 the pipeline processing is halted in a debug step 187 and the currently captured debug data 210 and control is trans ferred to the control server 259 or to the debug controller 250 if analysis in step by step mode is being performed locally on the same computerized device 110 to allow the user 108 to inspect the current debug data for the most recently applied 5 35 40 45 50 8 pipeline step 185 The user can then allow execution of the pipeline to continue step by step and can view the processing applied at each step 185 upon occurrence of the next debug step 187 that debug step halting execution of the pipeline and engaging a messaging protocol 192 to transfer the debug data 210 to athe control server 259 or to
42. les client and peer identities URL information TCP IP port numbers and other protocol specific data 23 A computer readable storage medium including com puter program logic encoded thereon that represents an appli cation including a debug process that upon execution in a computer system causes the computer system to process data by performing the operations of identifying a processing pipeline defining a series of markup language processing steps including receiving a selection of a markup language processing service for which debugging is to be enabled the selected markup language processing service defining a respective pro cessing pipeline of markup language processing steps inserting at least one debugging step into the processing pipeline the at least one debugging step defining pro cessing to collect debug data associated with application of the markup language processing steps to markup lan guage data to be processed by the processing pipeline including identifying a configuration associated with the selected markup language processing service for which debugging is to be enabled for each markup language processing step defined in the configuration inserting a debug step into the configura tion the debug step capturing a snapshot of debug data associated with that markup language processing step and executing the series of markup language processing steps including the at least one debugging step upon input marku
43. llects an execution trace of each pipeline step 187 as it executes any stylesheet instruc tions The debug process 150 collects line instruction type variable values output generated and so forth as part of the debug data 210 The execution trace is collected by the debug step 187 that follows execution of the pipeline step 185 that executed the stylesheet instructions The debug data 210 is detailed enough to allow the user 108 to follow the execution flow after the stylesheet execution Combined with an active probe the user 108 is able to physically execute one of the pipeline processing steps 185 then execution control and collected debug data 210 are handed over to the user 108 and the user is able to step through the execution trace of the executed pipeline processing step 185 examine the collected debug data 210 modify the input to the next step 185 if required or desired and then return execution control back to multi step pipeline 251 and the next pipeline processing step 185 is executed In this manner the system disclosed herein enables step by step debugging of markup language process ing Further details will now be explained with a more detailed flow chart FIGS 4 through 6 are a single flow chart of processing steps that explain further details of the high level processing steps described above in FIG 3 In step 300 the debug process 150 identifies a processing pipeline defining a series of markup language processing
44. mbodiments disclosed herein are based in part on the observation that it would be beneficial to for example run a stylesheet that captures all input output contexts of process ing steps and makes them available for developer inspection but no conventional debugger exists providing this capability Embodiments disclosed herein significantly overcome such deficiencies and provide mechanisms and technigues to mix in additional processing steps into user specified mul tistep rules related to XML processing systems via a markup language debugger As an example using the system dis closed herein a developer is able to provide debug steps for a markup language processing pipeline that operate to Run a set of stylesheets before other processing Run a set of stylesheets after all other processing Run a set of stylesheets between processing steps As a more specific example the system disclosed herein provides the addition of WSDM style monitoring by operat ing debug steps before and after application of WSDM pro cessing pipeline steps to collect statistics and send debug data to a management station and external post processing ser vice The system allows the user to inject the debug steps between processing steps of a processing pipeline configured within an XML processing system Conventional technigues for analysis and examination of XML or other markup language transaction processing cur rently provide a poor solution by
45. nent such as the control server 259 via a messaging protocol e g XML SOAP 192 Ifthe control server 259 is operating as a passive probe then the processing policy will continue with the next pipeline step 185 and the process is repeated until all pipeline steps 185 and debug steps 187 are executed The collected debug data 210is correlated using seguence and transaction identifications and the user 108 is able to examine the transaction debug data 210 after completion of the pipeline allowing the user 108 to browse and analyze stored debug data 210 afterwards Inanalternative configuration the debug process 150 oper ates as an active probe and inserts debug steps 187 in real time into the pipeline 251 and allows the user 108 to halt the processing of the multi step processing pipeline 251 on a per debug step 187 basis as explained above Furthermore this configuration allows the user to for example change one or more values of input parameters prior to continuing execution of the next pipeline processing step 185 and allows for real time execution of these steps with the new value This lets users 108 experiment with different markup language data and modify input 105 during application of the steps 185 in the pipeline 251 In another configuration the other level of granularity includes individual instructions within one stylesheet In this configuration a compiler not shown operating in conjunc tion with the debug process 150 co
46. ng steps The debug pro cess inserts at least one debug or debugging step into the processing pipeline The at least one debugging step defines processing to collect debug data associated with application of the markup language processing steps to markup language data to be processed by the processing pipeline The debug process executes the series of markup language processing steps including the debugging step s upon input markup language data as a transaction Execution of the debugging step s captures the debug data for at least one of the series of markup language processing steps in the processing pipeline 20 25 30 40 45 50 4 The debug data allows analysis of operation of the markup language processing steps of the processing pipeline on the input markup language data Other embodiments of the invention include any type of computerized device network device workstation handheld or laptop computer or the like configured with software and or circuitry e g a processor to process any or all of the operations disclosed herein In other words a computerized device or a dedicated XML processor or network device that is programmed or configured to operate as explained herein is considered an embodiment of the invention Other embodiments of the invention that are disclosed herein include software programs to perform the steps and operations summarized above and disclosed in detail below One such embodiment com
47. of service variables name var service errar cade var service error headers var J service error message service error pratocal respanse service input size var service processor type var service system frontwsdl vars service time forwarded E i service time response complete service time started ivar Iservice transaction client service transaction id service transaction nama 1 service transaction rule name service transaction rule type service transaction session id N ivar Jservice URI _ var service URL in service URL out var service xmlmgr name n ni 971 type value string 0x00000000 _ string empty string string empty string string string 574 string XML Firewall string local Encrypt_generated wsdl string 1007 string 777 string O nn nn string 10 10 100 151 b _ string 4702 string Demo Enerypt string default Figure 6 53 Service variables 5 The main window of the Context display page shows the content of the currently selected context An alternate view of this content can be rendered See 6 below 6 Click Select to show formatted content at the bottom of the display when the Context Content button is active to view the context content as xml rather than text Here is an example of the display Release 32 Draft US 7 7
48. p language data as a transaction execution of the at least one debugging step capturing the debug data for at least one of the series of markup language processing steps in the processing pipeline the debug data allowing analysis of operation of the markup language processing steps of the processing pipeline on the input markup language data wherein executing the series of markup language processing steps including the at least one debugging step upon input markup language data as a transaction comprises detecting a trigger event during processing of a transaction and in response indicating that the debug data collected from execution of the debug steps associated with the transaction is to be post processed and not discarded
49. ple that the user enables the multistep probe which activates the debugging process 150 to apply the processing pipeline 251 that defines or includes processing steps 185 for application of an XML firewall service to input markup lan guage data 105 Returning attention back to the flowchart of processing steps in FIG 4 in step 303 the debug process 150 receives a transaction history count 403 in FIG 7 identifying a number of transactions for which to collect debug data 210 from application of the processing pipeline 251 to input markup language data 105 This transaction history count indicates how many sets of debug data to save at one time After processing step 303 debug process processing con tinues and step 304 in FIG 5 FIG 5 is a flowchart of processing that continues descrip tion of processing performed by the debug process 150 In step 304 the debug process 150 inserts at least one debugging step into the processing pipeline 251 just as in step 201 in FIG 3 Further details of processing step 304 will now be explained with respect to steps 305 through 309 below In step 305 the debug process 150 identifies a configura tion associated with the selected markup language processing service for which debugging is to be enabled Depending upon the service selected by the user 108 a particular service configuration 171 that defines which particular processing steps 185 are to be applied to the processing pipeline 251 is inher
50. prises a computer program prod uct that has a computer readable medium including computer program logic encoded thereon that when performed in a computerized device having a coupling of a memory and a processor and a display programs the processor to perform the operations disclosed herein Such arrangements are typi cally provided as software code and or other data e g data structures arranged or encoded on a computer readable medium such as an optical medium e g CD ROM floppy or hard disk or other a medium such as firmware or microcode in one or more ROM or RAM or PROM chips or as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit ASIC The software or firmware or other such configurations can be installed onto a computerized device to cause the computerized device to perform the techniques explained herein It is to be understood that the system of the invention can be embodied strictly as a software program as software and hardware or as hardware alone such as within a processor or within an operating system or a within a software application operating in a device for markup language processing Example embodiments of the invention may be implemented within products and or software applications manufactured by International Business Machines Corporation IBM of Armonk N Y USA BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS The foregoing and other objects features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from
51. r 250 allows step by step control and analy sis of the debug data before letting the steps in the pipeline 251 continue to process the transaction In step 316 the debug process 150 detects a trigger event 255 during processing of a transaction and in response indi cates that the debug data 210 collected from execution ofthe debug steps associated with the transaction is to be post processed and not discarded or passed to the control service 259 This step may be performed before or after step 315 Thus trigger events can cause only some transactions to have their debug data 210 analyzed or stored In step 317 the debug process 150 stores debug data for each step collectively as a debug record associated with the transaction for the input markup language data 105 In one configuration the debug process 150 saves all debug data in records within a zip file for post processing analysis In step 318 the debug process 150 uses a messaging pro tocol to transfer the debug data 210 to an external server e g control service 259 for post processing This step thus oper ates a debug server that receives the output of the debug step and saves the debug data 210 and transfers this data to a remote location allowing external control of the computer ized device 110 This step can involve the externally operat ing controller service 259 that does not allow pipeline execu tion to continue until the external control program or service US 7 7
52. sions A filter verifies the input document based on semantic or other con tent transformed or not transformed not typically related to syntax and so differs from a schema validation in this way An XSLT document can be used to transform an XML document and also to schema validate the XML document at the same time using a schema specified in the XML document or other out of band mechanism As an example a devel oper that creates an XML aware application e g for use on a web services server platform can create an XSLT transfor mation to convert XML encoded data to HTML encoded data A web server process that receives XML encoded data can apply such an XSLT transformation to the XML encoded data to convert this data for example from XML to HTML and the server can return this data to the client thus allowing the client browser to render the XML encoded data as HTML within a web browser If data security is a concern when performing transactions of XML encoded data between computer systems conven tional standards and common practices have emerged to allow a web server to use some of the above XML processing tools e g DOM SAX etc to perform XML processing such as digital signature validation encryption and decryption upon XML encoded data Other data messages such as email mes sages can be encoded in XML and software developers have created XML based email message processing applications to parse and process XML encoded ema
53. st magnifying glass icon to display the details of the transaction Here is an example of the MultiStep Probe display Release 3 2 Draft 6 93 US 7 721 262 B2 21 22 Defining a Document Processing Policy Input Content INPUT of Step 1 i 2 wl p p E p 0 p 3 Step i Transform Action Input INPUT Transform local Adentity2 xsl Outputetempvar1 OutputType default 4 Global Verisbles Content of context INPUT message xsi schemaLocation http uvu example com message xml xmins2 http www example com xmlns xsi http vuww v3 0rg 2001 XMLSchema instance xmlng env http schemas xmlsoap org soap envelope xmilns dp http wwu datapover com schemas management gt lt to gt Alice lt to gt lt from gt Bob lt from 5 gt lt subject gt Important lt subject gt lt body gt I ll look for you in old Honolulu San Francisco Ashtebula Yer gonna have to leave me now I know But I ll see you in the sky above In the tall grass in the ones I love Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go lt body gt lt message gt 6 select to show formatted content Figure 6 46 MultiStep Probe Content display Probe Display Elements 1 Step Navigation Buttons Press Previous or Next to move to the next step This is another way to achieve the same results as using the Input and Action Detail selector icons 6 94 Release 3 2 Draft
54. tep before the first step in the con figuration the first debug step upon execution captur ing a snapshot of input data associated with the first step inserting a successive debug step after each successive step in the series of steps defined in the configuration other than the last step each successive debug step upon execution capturing a snapshot of output data processed by the former step in the configuration and capturing a snapshot of input data associated with the next step in the configuration and inserting a final debug step after the last step in the con figuration the final debug step upon execution captur ing a snapshot of output data processed by the last step in the configuration 15 The computerized device of claim 14 wherein upon the computer system performing the operation of executing the series of markup language processing steps including the at least one debugging step as a transaction upon markup lan guage data the computer system performs the operations of receiving input markup language data as a transaction applying the processing pipeline defining a series of markup language processing steps to the input markup language data application of the processing pipeline including operating the first debug step each successive debug step and the final debug step to capture markup language specific input and output data as debug data for each step and storing collected debug data for each step colle
55. tep capturing markup language data con structs associated with the transaction as debug data and wherein upon the computer system performing the operation of executing the series of markup language processing steps including the at least one debugging step upon input markup language data as a transaction the computer system performs the operations of during execution of at least one of the debugging steps engaging a messaging protocol to transfer at least a portion of the debug data to a control service and halting execution of the debug step and the transaction until the control service indicates via the messaging protocol that the halted debug step can proceed to allow the trans action to continue processing 20 The computerized device of claim 19 wherein upon the computer system performing the operation of executing the series of markup language processing steps including the at least one debugging step upon input markup language data as a transaction the computer system performs the operation of using the messaging protocol to transfer the debug data to an external server for post processing and wherein receiving a selection of a markup language pro cessing service for which debugging is to be enabled comprises receiving a selection of at least one of a XSL proxy service an XML firewall service and an XSL coprocessor ser vice upon which to insert debugging steps for transac tions processed by the selected service
56. ter systems The memory system 112 is any type of computer readable medium and in this example is encoded with the markup application 140 1 that includes a debug process 150 that supports functional debugging operations as explained herein The markup application 140 1 may be embodied as software code such as data and or logic instructions e g code stored in the memory or on another computer readable medium such as a removable disk that supports processing functionality according to different embodiments described herein During operation of the computer system 110 the processor 113 accesses the memory system 112 via the inter connect 111 in order to launch run execute interpret or otherwise perform the logic instructions of the markup appli cation 140 1 Execution of markup application 140 1 in this manner produces processing functionality in a markup pro cess 140 2 that includes the processing of the debugger pro cess 150 In other words the markup process 140 2 represents one or more portions or runtime instances of the markup application 140 1 or the entire application 140 1 perform ing or executing within or upon the processor 113 in the computerized device 110 at runtime The debug process 150 is included in this processing and operates as explained herein to provide markup language debugging in a step by step manner According to the general operation of the markup applica tion 140 and debug process 150 the computer system
57. the debug controller 250 allowing the user to have step by step control Further details of processing in accordance with example embodiments will now be explained with respect to the flow charts of processing steps that follow FIG 3 is a flow chart of processing steps that a configura tion of the debug process 150 operating in the markup appli cation 140 performs to process markup language data 105 is a transaction within the processing pipeline 251 In step 200 the debug process 150 identifies a processing pipeline defining a series of markup language processing steps 185 Identification of the processing pipeline can take place when the user 108 selects a particular service to activate within the computer system 110 in order to apply the service configuration 171 associated with the user selected service to input markup language data 105 as it passes through the computer system 110 In step 201 the debug process 150 inserts at least one debugging step into the processing pipeline 251 The debug ging step s 187 define processing to collect debug data 210 e g next step input and previous step output and system variables and execution trace information associated with application of the markup language processing steps 185 to markup language data 105 that has been or is to be processed by the processing pipeline 251 Further details of this will be explained with respect the flowcharts in the figures that fol low In step 202 the
58. the following more particular description of embodiments of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings and figures in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views The drawings are not neces sarily to scale with emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the embodiments principles and concepts of the invention FIG 1 is a block diagram of a computerized device con figured with a markup application and debug process in accordance with one example embodiment FIG 2 is an example architecture of a debug process in accordance with one example configuration FIG 3 is a flow chart of high level processing steps that the debug process performs in accordance with example configu rations disclosed herein FIGS 4 through 6 are a flow chart of processing steps that a debug process performs to collect debug data from a markup language processing pipeline in accordance with example configurations DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG 1 is a block diagram illustrating example architecture of a computerized device or system 110 that executes runs US 7 721 262 B2 5 interprets operates or otherwise performs a markup applica tion 140 and process 141 that include a debug process 150 operable in accordance with example configurations dis closed herein The computer system 110 may be any type of computerized device such as a data communications or net work device e g s
59. tiStep Probe Here is an example XML Firewall object page Configure XML Firewall Service DG NUN E MEE VSV OI NAPIT XML Firewall Service Encrypt up Heie 4 Admin State enabled O disabled Local IP Address 0 0 0 0 Select Alias i i Comments demo default document encrypt ort Number 2051 Figure 6 42 Example XML Firewall object page 2 In every case there is a Probe Settings and a Probe Triggers tab Click the Probe Settings tab to enable the MultiStep Probe The Probe Settings page appears as follows Release 3 2 Draft 6 91 US 7 721 262 B2 17 18 Defining a Document Processing Policy H Configure XML Firewall Service Man Probe settings HTTP Options XML Firewall Service 550 Multistep Probe i Qon off i i Figure 6 43 Probe Settings page 3 Use the MultiStep Probe radio buttons to turn the Probe On Then click Apply The MultiStep Probe button appears on the page as shown here H Configure XML Firewall Service Ec A E Kama o Man Probe Settings XML Parser MIIPHS XML Firewall Service Encrypt up m Nene Muttistep Probe H i i Transaction History i Figure 6 44 MultiStep Probe button enabled 6 92 Release 3 2 Draft US 7 721 262 B2 19 20 MultiStep Probe Using the MultiStep Probe Send some traffic to the service for which t
60. ug data and wherein executing the series of markup language process ing steps including the at least one debugging step upon input markup language data as a transaction comprises during execution of at least one of the debugging steps engaging a messaging protocol to transfer at least a portion ofthe debug data to a control service and halting execution ofthe debug step and the transaction until the control service indicates via the messaging protocol that the halted debug step can proceed to allow the trans action to continue processing 9 The method of claim 8 wherein executing the series of markup language processing steps including the at least one debugging step upon input markup language data as a trans action comprises using the messaging protocol to transfer the debug data to an external server for post processing and 40 45 wherein receiving a selection of a markup language pro cessing service for which debugging is to be enabled comprises receiving a selection of at least one of a XSL proxy service an XML firewall service and an XSL coprocessor ser vice upon which to insert debugging steps for transac tions processed by the selected service 10 The method of claim 1 wherein capturing the debug data for at least one of the series of markup language process 65 ing steps in the processing pipeline comprises executing a debug step between two pipeline steps to cap ture output of the proceeding p
61. witch router or dedicated markup lan guage processing device computer workstation portable computing device console laptop network terminal or the like In a preferred configuration the computerized device 110 is a dedicated network based markup language process ing device that processes markup language documents as transactions such as XML documents to offload XML pro cessing from servers or other computer systems in a network environment As shown in this example the computer system 110 includes an interconnection mechanism 111 such as a data bus or other circuitry that couples a memory system 112 a processor 113 an input output interface 114 and a commu nications interface 115 An input device 116 e g one or more user developer controlled devices such as a keyboard mouse etc couples to processor 113 through I O interface 114 and enables a user 108 such as a network administrator to provide input commands and generally control the graphical user interface 170 that the markup application 140 provides on the display 130 Also in this example configuration a database 125 stores configuration and debug data 210 in accordance with techniques described herein within a com puter readable medium The communications interface 115 enables the computer system 110 to communicate with other devices i e other network devices or computer on a net work not shown This can allow access to the markup appli cation by remote compu

System, methods and apparatus for markup language debugging

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents