[KIEKER-1060] Interactive trace visualization (2D/3D)

[rju]

JIRA Issue: KIEKER-1060 Interactive trace visualization (2D/3D)
Original Reporter: Andre van Hoorn

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Brief explanation:

Kieker's TraceAnalysis tool allows to discover and visualize architectural information from trace information collected at runtime. Currently, supported visualizations include sequence diagrams, call trees, and dependency graphs in various (static) pixel and vector graphics formats, (PDF, SVG, PNG, etc.) using http://www.graphviz.org/GraphViz.

From our experience in analyzing large systems, we've seen that the most useful form of visualization are dependency graphs. However, for large systems, they include so many entities (servers, components, operations, relations, etc.) that it's hardly possible to analyze the recovered information in a meaningful way. For example, one has to switch between different PDF files showing the system assembly on the level of servers, components, or operations respectively; the PDF viewer's (limited) search/zoom functionality is not really suitable; irrelevant details cannot be hidden or faded out.

The goal of this project is to develop a possibility to interactively browse through architectural diagrams, such as dependency graphs: It would be nice to navigate through a combined unifying diagram, e.g., entering a component to see the operation view or zooming into a diagram with irrelevant elements being hidden or grayed out (this includes attached information like performance measurements). With respect to the used technology, it would be good if the developed solution integrates nicely with our Web-based UI; hence, SVG in combination with JavaScript/Ajax would be a possible option. We were mainly thinking of 2D offline visualization for this topic. However, online trace visualization or 3D are also of great interest.

For the evaluation of the developed solution, we have quite a large set of trace data from our industrial case studies (which could also be replayed using Kieker in the online trace visualization case).

Related tickets:

• KIEK-621: Feature wish: Dynamic layout for online trace visualization
• KIEK-1013: Feature wish: Interactive dependency graphs. Includes example Kieker dependency diagrams for which it would be nice to have them integrated into an interactive one:
  1. [Container level|/attachment/ticket/852/containerDependencyGraph.png]
  2. [Component level|/attachment/ticket/852/deploymentComponentDependencyGraph.png]
  3. [Operation level|/attachment/ticket/852/deploymentOperationDependencyGraph.png]
• KIEK-860: Feature Wish: Integration with Sotograph (supports interactive visualization of software structures)

Expected results:

After the successful completion of this project, Kieker provides an interactive way of visualizing and browsing through software architectural diagrams such as calling dependency graphs. The visualization may be a) generated offline or online and b) is in 2D or 3D.

Knowledge prerequisite:

The student working on this topic should

• be a practised Java developer
• have general interest in (interactive) information visualization
• have basic knowledge about software architecture concepts (can be gained during the project)
• be familiar with the chosen visualization technology (can be gained during the project)

Skill level:

• medium to high

Additional documentation:

• Some resources on the visualizations already supported by the TraceAnalysis tool:
  • Chapter 5 of the Kieker user guide documents the TraceAnalysis tool and its visualization features
  • André's Kieker Days 2012 talk includes trace visualizations from different case study systems:
    • van Hoorn, A. (2012) Kieker: Overview, Review, and Outlook (Talk) In: KoSSE-Symposium Application Performance Management (Kieker Days 2012), November 29/30, 2012, Kiel, Germany.
  • Bettual Richter's and Felix Magedanz's theses include visualizations from a COBOL and a C# system:
    • Richter, B. (2012) Dynamic analysis of COBOL system architectures for model-based testing (Diploma thesis, in German), Kiel University, Kiel, Germany, 116 pp
    • Magedanz, F. (2011) Dynamic analysis of .NET applications for architecture-based model extraction and test generation (Diploma thesis), Kiel University, Kiel, Germany, 132 pp
• Some resources on Kieker and 3D:
  • Waller, J. (2012) Analysis and Visualization of Monitoring Data in 3D (Talk) In: KoSSE-Symposium Application Performance Management (Kieker Days 2012), November 29/30, 2012, Kiel, Germany.
  • Döhring, P. (2012) Visualizing synchronization points in combination with static and dynamic information about a software system (Master's thesis, in German), Kiel University, Kiel, Germany, 112 pp]
  • Konarski, B. (2012) A 3D approach for visualizing core utilization in multi-processor systems (Diploma thesis, in German), Kiel University, Kiel, Germany, 93 pp
  • Wulf, C. (2010) Runtime Visualization of Static and Dynamic Architectural Views of a Software System to identify Performance Problems (Bachelor's thesis), Kiel University, Kiel, Germany, 74 pp]
• Visualization of performance anomaly detection results (combination architecture/data):
  • Marwede, N. S. (2008) Automatic Failure Diagnosis based on Timing Behavior Anomaly Correlation in Distributed Java Web Applications (Diploma thesis), University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany, 119 pp

Candidate Mentor(s):

The primary contact for this project idea is marked in bold font.

• André van Hoorn ([Kieker developer|Kieker:author/avh/]; researcher with University of Stuttgart)
• Florian Fittkau (researcher with Kiel University)
• Holger Knoche (senior software architect with b+m Informatik AG)
• Jan Waller ([Kieker developer|Kieker:author/jwa/]; researcher with Kiel University)

[rju]

author André van Hoorn -- Tue, 30 Jul 2013 16:31:16 +0200

On 07/30/2013 01:25 PM, Reiner Jung wrote:>
> Hi folks,
>
> Kieker has the ability to produce architectural and other diagrams out
> of trace information, which we use for monitoring and architecture
> recovery. Furthermore, we have a Kieker Web-GUI to present results. It
> would be nice to have something to present these Kieker models in the
> WebGUI.
>
> The Kieler project has recently developed a web-frontend for their
> layouting and rendering tool, which is able to view arbitrary models and
> allows to expand and collapse parts of models. In addition, the tool
> supports collaborative work on models, where one can change the model
> presentation and others can follow this.
>
> They prepared some demo videos for their tool, which can be found here:
>
> http://rtsys.informatik.uni-kiel.de/~uru/
>
> Especially:
>
- KlighDning_new.mp4 (general tool demo)
>
- KlighDning_sync.mp4 (two browsers with a shared view on a model)