JP2001229051A - Sequence diagram display method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] When investigating the cause of a software malfunction by using a sequence diagram, it is difficult to identify a location where an error has occurred, and the number of man-hours required for investigating the cause has increased. An event notifying an abnormality is displayed in a different form from other events, thereby supporting a specific operation of a location where an abnormality has occurred.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display method of a sequence diagram for visually expressing the operation status of software based on the execution result of software, and in particular, software for embedded devices is specified in a specification. The present invention relates to a display method of a sequence diagram used to determine a cause of a malfunction when the operation is not performed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some software such as software for embedded devices is constituted by software execution units called tasks. Generally, a plurality of tasks are running when executing software.
Information called events is transmitted between tasks. By this event, each task executes a process while cooperating.

When software composed of a plurality of tasks malfunctions, a designer investigates the cause of the malfunction by referring to the operation state of the tasks and the state of information transmission between the tasks. The sequence diagram is a diagram that graphically illustrates the operation states of the tasks and information transmission between the tasks. By using the sequence diagram, it is possible to reduce the number of work steps required to determine the cause of a malfunction. As for the display method of the sequence diagram, the following prior arts are known.

[0004] For example, "Method and apparatus for generating a message sequence" (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-152684, Japanese Patent Application No.
322430), there is a method in which a user specifies conditions and generates a sequence diagram. According to this method, the amount of information to be displayed on the sequence diagram is adjusted according to conditions, and a sequence diagram that can easily grasp the operation state of software is created. In this method, a plurality of tasks are represented by vertical lines arranged in parallel. The vertical line also represents the time axis at the same time, indicating that time elapses from top to bottom. Also, the events in the task are represented by circles,
Express events from one task to another with diagonal or horizontal arrows. The arrow indicates the direction in which information is transmitted, and indicates that information is flowing in the direction of the arrow.
Conditions for creating a sequence diagram include selection of a task to be displayed.

[0005] Furthermore, "notation of sequence diagram by UML" (http: //www.asahi-net.o)
r. jp / ~ dp8t-asm / java / tips /
UMLSequenceDiagram. html), there is a method of displaying a sequence diagram in which the operation status of a task is symbolized. In this way, multiple tasks
Expressed by vertical lines arranged in parallel. The vertical line also represents the time axis. The main states of a task include a running state and a stopped state. The time zone portion in the latter state is represented by a thin vertical line, and the time zone portion in the former state is represented by a thick vertical line or a square, thereby schematically illustrating the operation state of the task.

[0006]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problems.

First, there is a problem in that it takes time to specify the location where a malfunction has occurred. According to the display method of the related art, an event for notifying an abnormality and another event are displayed in the same shape. Therefore, when specifying the location where an abnormality has occurred, the designer must individually confirm the sequence of events and the detailed contents of the events in the entire sequence diagram. Further, there is also a problem that it is difficult to perform the above-mentioned checking work unless the designer is familiar with the operation specifications of the software.

Second, when a sequence diagram is created by designating conditions, if the conditions are not met, an event for notifying an abnormality, which is information necessary for investigating the cause of a malfunction, is not displayed on the sequence diagram. There is a problem. At this time, if the designer does not change the conditions many times, the work of investigating the cause of the malfunction cannot be performed, and the number of steps increases.

For the above reasons, the sequence diagram display method according to the prior art cannot significantly reduce the number of steps required to find the cause of software malfunction.

A first object of the present invention is to provide a sequence diagram which enables even a designer who is not familiar with the operation specifications of software to easily identify a place where a malfunction occurs.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide a sequence diagram in which a designer does not overlook important information which assists in finding the cause of a malfunction.

[0012]

According to a first aspect, in order to achieve the first object of the present invention, an event for notifying an abnormality is displayed on a sequence diagram in a color and shape different from other events. Provide a display method to output.

In a second aspect, in order to achieve the second object of the present invention, when creating a sequence diagram of an appropriate size by designating conditions, not only events meeting the designated conditions, but also events Also, a display method for outputting an event for notifying an abnormality on a sequence diagram is provided.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited by the embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for realizing the sequence diagram display method of the present invention.

This system uses sequence information (10
0), a sequence diagram display process (101), a display device (102), an input device (103), a designated condition matching event extraction process (104), and an abnormality notification event extraction process (105). .

FIG. 2 is an exemplary view of the sequence information (100). The sequence information is a set of event data, and includes an event ID (200), an event transmission time (201), event transition information (202), a type of information to be notified (203), and information to be notified. It consists of detailed contents (204).

The ID (200) is an identifier for distinguishing individual events. The transmission time (201) is the time at which the task transmitted the event. Reception time (20
2) is the time when this task was received by the task.
Generally, when information is notified from one task to another task, a difference occurs between the transmission time and the reception time. In the case of an internal event within a task, no time difference occurs. The transition information (203) indicates from which task to which task the information is notified. However, ID “3” (21
For internal events such as 3) and “4” (214), only the task in which the event occurred is recorded. The type (204) indicates the classification of the information notified by the event. There are two types of information classification, a "normal" state and an "abnormal" state. The detail (205) indicates the detailed content of the information notified by each event.

Hereinafter, the first embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The first embodiment is an example in which, when a sequence diagram is displayed, an event that notifies an abnormality that has occurred during task execution is highlighted.

FIG. 3 shows the sequence information (1) shown in FIG.
00) is a display example when displayed as a sequence diagram. A vertical line (300) represents a task, and a character string (301) above the vertical line is an identifier of the task. The horizontal arrow (302) represents an event, and the transmission time of the event (303), the difference between the reception time and the transmission time (304), and the detailed content (305) are described above the arrow. The circle (306) represents an internal event.

According to the present invention, when an event is displayed, the event is displayed in a different color in the sequence diagram display processing (101) according to the value of the type of information to be notified (203). In the above example, the internal event with the ID “3” (213) is displayed as a black circle (306) because the type (203) is “normal”, and the internal event with the ID “4” (214) is type ( 203) is “abnormal” and is indicated by a red circle (305). Similarly, if the ID is “2” (21
The event (2) is indicated by a black arrow (302) because the type (203) is “normal”, and the event with ID “7” (217) is indicated by a red arrow (203) because the type (203) is “abnormal”. 308).

In the prior art, all events are displayed in the same color. Therefore, when investigating the cause of a malfunction, confirm that the transmission time and reception time are appropriate for each event on the sequence diagram, and check the details of the event to determine where the malfunction occurred. Identified. However, according to the display method of the present invention, if the classification of the information notified by the event is “abnormal”, the information is displayed in a different color, and the designer pays attention before and after this event, so that a malfunction may occur. The location of occurrence can be specified.

According to the above-described embodiment, it is possible to construct a system for displaying a sequence diagram that can easily identify a place where a software malfunction occurs.

Next, a second embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. Generally, in the case of software having a large number of tasks, if a sequence diagram is created using all the sequence information, the sequence diagram becomes huge, and a great deal of man-hour is required to find the cause of the malfunction. Therefore, there are many cases where a designer specifies a task to be displayed and a time range, creates a sequence diagram of an appropriate size, and carries out a cause investigation. The second embodiment is an example in which, when a sequence diagram is created by specifying a display condition, an event for notifying an abnormality is displayed on the sequence diagram even if the event is out of the display condition.

The designer operates the input device (103) to
Enter the conditions to be displayed. Examples of the condition include an identifier of a task to be displayed and a time range to be displayed.

[0026] Designated condition matching event extraction processing (104)
Extracts an event that matches the input condition from the sequence information (100), and passes the extraction result to a sequence diagram display process (101). Specifically, the input conditions are tasks “B” and “C”, and time “00: 00: 1”.
If “0.00” to “00: 00: 20.00”, the designated condition matching event extraction process (104) includes “B” or “C” in the transition information (202).
And the transmission time (201) or the reception time is “00: 0”
An event between “0: 10.00” and “00: 00: 20.00” is extracted.In the above example, the ID is “3”
(213), the events “5” (215) and “6” (216) are extracted.

Next, the abnormality notification event extraction processing (10
5) Extracts an event notifying an abnormality from the sequence information (100), and passes only an event different from the result extracted by the above-described designated condition matching event extraction process (104) to the sequence diagram display process (101). . Specifically, an event whose type (203) is “abnormal” is extracted. In the above example, the IDs are “4” (214) and “7” (2
17) The event is extracted.

Next, sequence diagram display processing (101)
Creates a sequence diagram using the event information received from the designated condition matching event extraction process (104) and the abnormality notification event extraction process (105), and displays the sequence diagram on the display device (1).
02).

FIG. 4 is a display example when the extraction result of the above example is displayed as a sequence diagram.

For an event in which a task different from the input condition is a transition destination or transition source, a task identifier is written next to the horizontal arrow (400). Horizontal dotted line (401)
Represents the event extracted in the abnormality notification event extraction process (105).

In the example shown in FIG. 4, even if the event does not match the condition specification, the event for notifying the abnormality is unconditionally output on the sequence diagram, but the location where the malfunction occurred can be specified to some extent. In such a case, there is a case where it is not necessary to output an event notifying the abnormality that is outside the specified time range.

Therefore, there is a case where the output of an event outside the specified time range is controlled by adding an optional condition to the condition specification. At this time, in the abnormality notification event extraction process (105), only the event whose ID is "4" (214) is extracted. In the case of the above example, the ID is “4” (21
The dotted line (401) representing the event 4) is displayed, but the dotted line (402) representing the event with the ID “7” (217) is not displayed.

FIG. 5 is a display example of a sequence diagram according to the prior art. In the related art, even if the event notifies an abnormality, the event is not displayed on the sequence diagram unless the condition specified by the designer is met. Therefore, if the information necessary for investigating the cause of the malfunction does not appear on the sequence diagram, it is necessary to repeat the condition specification many times.

According to the above-described embodiment, even if a designer specifies a display condition to display a sequence diagram of an appropriate size, a system that does not lose information useful for specifying a place where a software malfunction has occurred is provided. Construction becomes possible.

[0035]

According to the sequence diagram display method of the present invention, even a designer who is not familiar with the operation specifications of software can change the event line colors and shapes on the sequence diagram.
The location where a malfunction occurs can be easily specified. Therefore, when investigating the cause of the malfunction, it is possible to finish the cause investigation work in a short period of time by verifying the sequence diagram focusing on the location.

Further, even when a large sequence diagram is processed into an appropriately sized sequence diagram by designating conditions, an event for notifying an abnormality is not lost from the sequence diagram. Therefore, even if the cause of the malfunction is investigated using the processed sequence diagram, the designer does not overlook the place where the abnormality has occurred, and the number of times of re-designating the condition can be reduced. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the man-hours required for the cause investigation work.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary diagram of sequence information.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a first display example of a sequence.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a second display example of a sequence.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of a sequence according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

100: sequence information, 101: sequence diagram display processing, 102: display device, 103: input device, 104:
Specified condition matching event extraction processing, 105... Abnormality notification event extraction processing.

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Yoshifumi Suenaga 1st Horiyamashita, Hadano-shi, Kanagawa F-term in Enterprise Server Division, Hitachi, Ltd. 5B042 MA10 MC09 MC36 MC40 NN04 NN09 NN13

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A display system for displaying an operation of software as a sequence diagram using an information processing apparatus having a computer and an interactive terminal, wherein the event is called a task and represents information transmission between software execution units. Is displayed in different colors or shapes depending on the state of the event. 2. A display system for displaying an operation of software as a sequence diagram using an information processing apparatus having a computer and an interactive terminal, wherein a sequence diagram of a huge size is designated by specifying a condition. When displaying an image with an appropriate size, in addition to the event that meets the condition, the event that represents a specific state should be displayed as a horizontal straight line or horizontal dotted line with a length equal to the width of the displayable range. Display method characterized by the following.