NetBeans Architecture Answers for UI Gestures Collector Infrastructure module

General Information

Question (arch-what): What is this project good for?
Answer:

XXX no answer for arch-what

Question (arch-overall): Describe the overall architecture.
Answer:

This module tracks certain UI gestures produced by user and collects a log of his actions. It is capable to display such log and also upload it to a central server for additional processing and analysis.

Question (arch-usecases): Describe the main use cases of the new API. Who will use it under what circumstances? What kind of code would typically need to be written to use the module?
Answer:

Gather information about UI gestures

Primary purpose of this module is collect information about the user actions that take place in the running NetBeans based application.

UI_LOGGER_NAME - The info about various UI events in the system is collected thru listening on log records send to Logger.getLogger(UI_LOGGER_NAME_VALUE) , where UI_LOGGER_NAME_VALUE is a value of UI_LOGGER_NAME resource bundle key, defining the name of the UI usage logger. Any code in the system can get instance of this logger or any child logger and send useful informations to it. At the end of the session the last few hundereds events is taken and displayed to the user for further processing. METRICS_LOGGER_NAME - The info about various UI events in the system is collected thru listening on log records send to Logger.getLogger(METRICS_LOGGER_NAME_VALUE) , where METRICS_LOGGER_NAME_VALUE is a value of METRICS_LOGGER_NAME resource bundle key, defining the name of the metrics logger. Any code in the system can get instance of this logger or any child logger and send useful informations to it. At the end of the session the last few hundereds events is taken and displayed to the user for further processing.

Presenting usage statistics

Important part of the behaviour of this module is the ability to cooperate with information analyzing tools and present their results. This is done thru special HTTP contracts, where the module reads and understands various server responses and is able to open browser after submitting data to analysis.

WELCOME_URL - There is a key in the org.netbeans.modules.uihandler.Bundle that specifies the location of the page on a server one shall query and display to the user when the module is about the submit usage data for analysis. METRICS_URL - There is a key in the org.netbeans.modules.uihandler.Bundle that specifies the location of the page on a server one shall query and display to the user when the module is about the submit metrics data for analysis. ERROR_URL - There is a key in the org.netbeans.modules.uihandler.Bundle that specifies the location of the page on a server one shall query and display to the user when the module is about the submit an error report. WelcomePageContent - The page pointed by WELCOME_URL can contain any XHTML text, but it also should contain a <form/> tag that defines <input type="hidden" name="submit" value="localizedName"/>. The localizedName is then going to be used for a button for the dialog displaying the summary. When this button is invoked, the "action" URL is then feed with data from the UI logs. The server is then supposed to process the data, create some analytics pages and return them back to the client. If the returned page contains tag like <meta http-equiv='Refresh' content='3; URL=somepage'> an (external) browser is opened with the specified URL and the user can then interact directly with the server, thru pages it serves. org.netbeans.modules.uihandler.Submit - For testing purposes one can specify different URL for upload of files, by setting org.netbeans.modules.uihandler.Submit property when invoking NetBeans.

Adding own UI gestures

The base module is in fact just an infrastructure which collects data about UI gestures, but the actual gestures need to be delivered to it somehow. Here is the description of the ways how one can extend own modules to cooperate with this UI gestures infrastructure.

To feed own data about special UI gestures one can just create own Logger.getLogger(UI_LOGGER_NAME_VALUE+".ownname") and send own log records to it. UI_LOGGER_NAME_VALUE is a value of UI_LOGGER_NAME resource bundle key, defining the name of the logger. The format of the log messages shall follow the one described by the structured logging document, e.g. the LogRecord shall have associated ResourceBundle and the record's getMessage shall point to a key in that bundle. ICON_BASE - there is an extension to the regular formatting done by the logging formatter that, in order to achieve nicer appearance to the user, allows each record to be associated with an icon. Just define MSG_KEY_ICON_BASE in the bundle associated with the LogRecord (where the MSG_KEY is the string returned by record.getMessage()) and the value is then going to be used for the Node representing the UI gesture.

Sometimes direct logging may not be possible. For example for performance data it might be meaningful to collect the information over a longer time period and only at the end output some statistics. This is supported as well. Just implement and register one of the CallbackInterfaces - interfaces from the API of this module and properly register them and the implementation will be called when the logger module is activated or when the user finishes the work with the application. In order to keep dependencies clean, it is strongly adviced to make modules that implement this API eager, so they get enabled as soon as the UI logger module is enabled.

These usecases are realized as described in here in provided UI specification.

Question (arch-time): What are the time estimates of the work?
Answer:

The module shall work with NetBeans 6.0. As it needs certain cooperation with modules in standard distribution, like UI-Actions-org.openide.awt - which log info about invoked actions and UI-Actions-org.openide.windows - which log info about invoked actions by keystrokes .

Question (arch-quality): How will the quality of your code be tested and how are future regressions going to be prevented?
Answer:

Client side is going to be covered with unit tests to certain extent.

Question (arch-where): Where one can find sources for your module?
Answer:

The sources for the module are in the Apache Git repositories or in the GitHub repositories.

Project and platform dependencies

Question (dep-nb): What other NetBeans projects and modules does this one depend on?
Answer:
• org.openide.explorer - The module uses explorer view to present the results before they get submitted to the analysis server.
• uihandler-hooks - This module makes on of its Handler implement Callable<JButton> which is a signal for core providing the exception dialog to include such a JButton in its list of options. That way this module can enhance the dialog with "Report..." button.
Question (dep-non-nb): What other projects outside NetBeans does this one depend on?
Answer:

XXX no answer for dep-non-nb

Question (dep-platform): On which platforms does your module run? Does it run in the same way on each?
Answer:

XXX no answer for dep-platform

Question (dep-jre): Which version of JRE do you need (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, etc.)?
Answer:

XXX no answer for dep-jre

Question (dep-jrejdk): Do you require the JDK or is the JRE enough?
Answer:

XXX no answer for dep-jrejdk

Deployment

Question (deploy-jar): Do you deploy just module JAR file(s) or other files as well?
Answer:

XXX no answer for deploy-jar

Question (deploy-nbm): Can you deploy an NBM via the Update Center?
Answer:

XXX no answer for deploy-nbm

Question (deploy-shared): Do you need to be installed in the shared location only, or in the user directory only, or can your module be installed anywhere?
Answer:

XXX no answer for deploy-shared

Question (deploy-packages): Are packages of your module made inaccessible by not declaring them public?
Answer:

XXX no answer for deploy-packages

Question (deploy-dependencies): What do other modules need to do to declare a dependency on this one, in addition to or instead of the normal module dependency declaration (e.g. tokens to require)?
Answer:

Modules may use functionality of this module either by depending on its presence and registering callback interfaces provided by its API. Or the modules do not need to depend on this module at all, and just generate log records to the UI_LOGGER_NAME_VALUE+".someloggername" logger. These records are then going to be consumed by this module, if enabled.

Compatibility with environment

Question (compat-i18n): Is your module correctly internationalized?
Answer: There are several resource bundle keys related to branding. These are:
• userNameURL - The URL used to report Exception reporter results, the user name is appended to the URL.
• userIdURL - The URL used to report by user identity, when user name is not defined. The user identity is appended to the URL.
• ReportPanel.loginField.AccessibleContext.accessibleName - The accessible name of the application's user name field
• ReportPanel.loginField.AccessibleContext.accessibleDescription - The accessible description of the application's user name field
• REGISTRATION_URL - The URL to register a new user
• ReportPanel.jLabel11.text - A label next to the application's user name field
• ReportPanel.jPasswordField1.AccessibleContext.accessibleDescription - The accessible description of the application's user password field
• no_data_found - Description text about a connection problem.
• METRICS_LOGGER_NAME - The logger name of metrics logging.
• UI_LOGGER_NAME - The logger name of UI usages logging.
• UI_PERFORMANCE_LOGGER_NAME - The logger name of performance-related logging.
• UI_USER_CONFIGURATION - Text of a configuration log message. Following three keys are used to provide the application version:
  • ApplicationVersionResourceBundle - A resource bundle the application version is read from
  • ApplicationVersionResourceKey - A key with the application version number
  • ApplicationVersionSysPropertyResourceArg - A system property, that is used as an argument to the application version number key
• WELCOME_URL - The URL with the welcome text
• METRICS_URL - The URL to upload metrics logs to
• ERROR_URL - The URL to upload errors to
• CHECKING_SERVER_URL - The URL to authenticate the user with password
• LOG_FILE - The application's log file relative to the user directory
• MSG_ConnetionFailedReport - This message is displayed when connection to the server fails.
• LBL_BottomText1, LBL_BottomText2, LBL_BottomText3 - Text displayed on the usage statistics dialog.
• METRICS_INFO_URL - This URL is displayed in a browser to provide more information about the metrics usage tracking.
Question (compat-standards): Does the module implement or define any standards? Is the implementation exact or does it deviate somehow?
Answer:

XXX no answer for compat-standards

Question (compat-version): Can your module coexist with earlier and future versions of itself? Can you correctly read all old settings? Will future versions be able to read your current settings? Can you read or politely ignore settings stored by a future version?
Answer:

XXX no answer for compat-version

Question (compat-deprecation): How the introduction of your project influences functionality provided by previous version of the product?
Answer:

XXX no answer for compat-deprecation

Access to resources

Question (resources-file): Does your module use java.io.File directly?
Answer:

var-log-uigestures - The module stores its loggging information in $userdir/var/log/uigestures and $userdir/var/log/uigestures.1 files. There are written whenever a UI action happens and read when the data are send to server. Each of these files is supposed to contain at most 1000 of actions

Question (resources-layer): Does your module provide own layer? Does it create any files or folders in it? What it is trying to communicate by that and with which components?
Answer:

XXX no answer for resources-layer

Question (resources-read): Does your module read any resources from layers? For what purpose?
Answer:

XXX no answer for resources-read

Question (resources-mask): Does your module mask/hide/override any resources provided by other modules in their layers?
Answer:

XXX no answer for resources-mask

Question (resources-preferences): Does your module uses preferences via Preferences API? Does your module use NbPreferences or or regular JDK Preferences ? Does it read, write or both ? Does it share preferences with other modules ? If so, then why ?
Answer:

org.netbeans.modules.autoupdate.ideIdentity - This module shares the identity with autoupdate and reads it from its preferences node. org.netbeans.modules.uihandler.autoautoSubmitWhenFull - This property allows other parts of the system to turn on/off the automatic submission of log files to the server. This can be used for example by installer to query the user and on his confirmation create config/Preferences/org/netbeans/modules/uihandler.properties file in user dir or in nbX.Y cluster with one line saying: autoSubmitWhenFull=true. This works since version 1.30 of this module.

nb.show.statistics.ui - System property "nb.show.statistics.ui" controls if UI for Usage statistics is displayed in General panel. If this property is non null (for IDE) UI is shown. This property contains key of preference used to save status - true if usage statistics are collected and uploaded, false if not. Key is "usageStatisticsEnabled" and is described below. org.netbeans.core.usageStatisticsEnabled - Key "usageStatisticsEnabled" is read and controls if metrics logging is enabled or disabled. Installer has also similar UI to set this and stores it into NetBeans install dir nb/config/Preferences/org/netbeans/core.properties

Lookup of components

Question (lookup-lookup): Does your module use org.openide.util.Lookup or any similar technology to find any components to communicate with? Which ones?
Answer:

XXX no answer for lookup-lookup

Question (lookup-register): Do you register anything into lookup for other code to find?
Answer:

XXX no answer for lookup-register

Question (lookup-remove): Do you remove entries of other modules from lookup?
Answer:

XXX no answer for lookup-remove

Execution Environment

Question (exec-property): Is execution of your code influenced by any environment or Java system (System.getProperty) property? On a similar note, is there something interesting that you pass to java.util.logging.Logger? Or do you observe what others log?
Answer:

MSG_USER_CONFIGURATION - Before the results are submitted one more LogRecord is added. This LogRecord message is set to MSG_USER_CONFIGURATION . Four upto six parameters are added. Four common parameters are added always before sending logger info and two error parameters are added only if an exception rised.

• Operating system name, version and architecture
• Virtual machine name and version
• Application version and build number
• User name
• Error summary
• User's comment to an error situation
REGISTRATION_URL - There is a key in the org.netbeans.modules.exceptions.Bundle that specifies the location of the page on a server. This page should be display to the user when he uses a "register here" link on ReportPanel.
Question (exec-component): Is execution of your code influenced by any (string) property of any of your components?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-component

Question (exec-ant-tasks): Do you define or register any ant tasks that other can use?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-ant-tasks

Question (exec-classloader): Does your code create its own class loader(s)?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-classloader

Question (exec-reflection): Does your code use Java Reflection to execute other code?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-reflection

Question (exec-privateaccess): Are you aware of any other parts of the system calling some of your methods by reflection?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-privateaccess

Question (exec-process): Do you execute an external process from your module? How do you ensure that the result is the same on different platforms? Do you parse output? Do you depend on result code?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-process

Question (exec-introspection): Does your module use any kind of runtime type information (instanceof, work with java.lang.Class, etc.)?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-introspection

Question (exec-threading): What threading models, if any, does your module adhere to? How the project behaves with respect to threading?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-threading

Question (security-policy): Does your functionality require modifications to the standard policy file?
Answer:

XXX no answer for security-policy

Question (security-grant): Does your code grant additional rights to some other code?
Answer:

XXX no answer for security-grant

Format of files and protocols

Question (format-types): Which protocols and file formats (if any) does your module read or write on disk, or transmit or receive over the network? Do you generate an ant build script? Can it be edited and modified?
Answer:

XXX no answer for format-types

Question (format-dnd): Which protocols (if any) does your code understand during Drag & Drop?
Answer:

XXX no answer for format-dnd

Question (format-clipboard): Which data flavors (if any) does your code read from or insert to the clipboard (by access to clipboard on means calling methods on java.awt.datatransfer.Transferable?
Answer:

XXX no answer for format-clipboard

Performance and Scalability

Question (perf-startup): Does your module run any code on startup?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-startup

Question (perf-exit): Does your module run any code on exit?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-exit

Question (perf-scale): Which external criteria influence the performance of your program (size of file in editor, number of files in menu, in source directory, etc.) and how well your code scales?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-scale

Question (perf-limit): Are there any hard-coded or practical limits in the number or size of elements your code can handle?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-limit

Question (perf-mem): How much memory does your component consume? Estimate with a relation to the number of windows, etc.
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-mem

Question (perf-wakeup): Does any piece of your code wake up periodically and do something even when the system is otherwise idle (no user interaction)?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-wakeup

Question (perf-progress): Does your module execute any long-running tasks?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-progress

Question (perf-huge_dialogs): Does your module contain any dialogs or wizards with a large number of GUI controls such as combo boxes, lists, trees, or text areas?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-huge_dialogs

Question (perf-menus): Does your module use dynamically updated context menus, or context-sensitive actions with complicated and slow enablement logic?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-menus

Question (perf-spi): How the performance of the plugged in code will be enforced?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-spi