Web Application Tracer for Automated Debugging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional debugging techniques struggle to detect and correct errors in web-based applications due to difficulties in recreating the user's environment, and limitations in collecting telemetry data.
Innovation Solution
The method involves providing an instrumented web page application with a tracer that logs tracing data, allowing for the recreation of user interactions and errors. This data is used to generate a sequence of events that can be executed on a developer device, enabling error detection and debugging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional debugging techniques are used, then developers can work with standard tools, but they struggle to detect and correct errors due to inability to recreate user environment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a copy of the user's execution environment by instrumenting the web application to capture telemetry data (spans, events, performance metrics) and recreating this data in a test execution engine. This allows developers to analyze errors in a replicated environment without needing to physically recreate the user's system configuration, browser version, or network conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary instrumentation of the web application during the development phase, embedding tracing logic that automatically captures execution data before errors occur. This pre-prepared telemetry infrastructure ensures that when errors happen, the data is already collected and structured for analysis, eliminating the need for manual environment setup during debugging.
2Measurement precision
If comprehensive telemetry data is collected from user interactions, then error detection accuracy improves, but data collection complexity and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments telemetry data collection into distinct hierarchical levels: root spans representing major user interactions (clicks, navigations), child spans representing sub-operations (API calls, DOM manipulations), and leaf spans representing individual execution steps. This segmentation allows selective collection and processing of data at appropriate granularity levels, reducing overall complexity while maintaining detection accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a telemetry processing intermediary layer that sits between the instrumented application and the analysis system. This intermediary automatically aggregates, filters, and structures raw telemetry data into standardized formats (JSON traces, performance metrics), reducing the complexity of data handling for developers while preserving comprehensive error detection capabilities.
3Loss of information
If telemetry data is collected and processed manually, then detailed analysis is possible, but debugging time and productivity decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service automation where the test execution engine automatically receives telemetry data, reconstructs the user's execution context, identifies errors, and generates diagnostic reports without manual intervention. The system serves itself by processing its own collected data through automated comparison and analysis algorithms, preserving full execution details while eliminating manual debugging steps.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical debugging processes (step-by-step manual analysis, environment setup, error reproduction) with automated computational processes. The test execution engine computationally reconstructs execution traces, compares expected vs. actual behavior, and identifies discrepancies algorithmically, substituting human manual labor with automated systems that preserve execution fidelity while increasing speed.
4Loss of information
If a tracer is embedded in the web application to log tracing data, then execution details are captured, but application complexity and performance overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal tracer component that serves multiple functions: capturing user interactions, timing performance metrics, tracking error states, and generating structured telemetry data. This multi-functional tracer reduces overall system complexity by consolidating what would otherwise require separate instrumentation mechanisms into a single integrated component that handles all tracing needs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates lightweight, disposable span objects that represent individual execution units. These spans are created temporarily to capture specific operations, then automatically discarded after their data is collected. This approach minimizes memory overhead and complexity by avoiding persistent tracing structures, allowing comprehensive tracing without long-term storage burdens.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed techniques relate to error detection and debugging. In an example, a method involves providing, to a client device, an instrumented web page application that includes a tracer. The method further involves receiving a tracing log including a hierarchy of spans associated with execution of the web page application. Each span represents an execution of operations associated with an event and has an associated timestamp. The method further involves identifying, from the hierarchy of spans, one or more spans. The one or more spans are associated with a respective interaction by the user with the web page application. The method further involves deriving a sequence of events, by extracting, for each identified span and the associated timestamp, a respective event. The method further involves executing the sequence of events within an additional instance of the web page application on a developer device.