Techniques are provided to facilitate tracking events associated with a user interface display of an application at runtime. In at least one implementation, one or more information structures that associate an event tracking indicator with a view selector are stored, wherein the event tracking indicator indicates an event to be tracked, and the view selector indicates one or more constraints to be matched to select a view of the application. During execution of the application, the view selector is evaluated with views used by the application to determine whether each of the one or more constraints of the view selector matches properties of the views. In response to determining that each of the one or more constraints of the view selector matches the properties of at least one of the views, an occurrence of the event indicated by the event tracking indicator associated with the view selector is tracked.
Techniques to facilitate provision of different user experiences to different groups of users of a mobile application are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, a manifest provided by an application development and optimization platform is received that defines a plurality of user segments and a plurality of feature variants individually associated with the plurality of user segments. The manifest is processed to determine a segment of the plurality of user segments associated with a user of the mobile application along with a feature variant of the plurality of feature variants associated with the segment of the user. Execution of the mobile application is monitored for an occurrence of an event that triggers a default feature of the mobile application, and responsive to the event, the default feature is replaced with the feature variant associated with the segment of the user.
Techniques are provided to facilitate tracking events associated with a user interface display of an application at runtime. In at least one implementation, one or more information structures that associate an event tracking indicator with a view selector are stored, wherein the event tracking indicator indicates an event to be tracked, and the view selector indicates one or more constraints to be matched to select a view of the application. During execution of the application, the view selector is evaluated with views used by the application to determine whether each of the one or more constraints of the view selector matches properties of the views. In response to determining that each of the one or more constraints of the view selector matches the properties of at least one of the views, an occurrence of the event indicated by the event tracking indicator associated with the view selector is tracked.
Techniques to facilitate provision of different user experiences to different groups of users of a mobile application are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, a manifest provided by an application development and optimization platform is received that defines a plurality of user segments and a plurality of feature variants individually associated with the plurality of user segments. The manifest is processed to determine a segment of the plurality of user segments associated with a user of the mobile application along with a feature variant of the plurality of feature variants associated with the segment of the user. Execution of the mobile application is monitored for an occurrence of an event that triggers a default feature of the mobile application, and responsive to the event, the default feature is replaced with the feature variant associated with the segment of the user.
An application includes main program code, but also a call handler and an update module. When a specific method or function in the operating system is called, the call is redirected to the call handler in the application. The call handler then calls the function in the operating system. The function retrieves an object to present in a user interface to the application. But before the object is rendered, program control is returned to the call handler, which calls into the update module. The update module determines whether or not the appearance of the object should be changed, for example, in accordance with an A/B test or any other type of update. If so, visual characteristics of the object are changed. Control reverts back to the operating system from the call handler and the object, in its changed form, is presented in the user interface.
Techniques are described herein for enhancing software application development and software design-for-test (DFT) technology by facilitating dynamic management and control of embedded dynamic test features via an application development and optimization platform. In some embodiments, an application development and optimization platform is described that can track, manage and rollout features of native mobile applications without the need to wait for public app store releases.
Techniques are provided to facilitate tracking events associated with a user interface display of an application at runtime. In at least one implementation, one or more information structures that associate an event tracking indicator with a view selector are stored, wherein the event tracking indicator indicates an event to be tracked, and the view selector indicates one or more constraints to be matched to select a view of the application. During execution of the application, the view selector is evaluated with views used by the application to determine whether each of the one or more constraints of the view selector matches properties of the views. In response to determining that each of the one or more constraints of the view selector matches the properties of at least one of the views, an occurrence of the event indicated by the event tracking indicator associated with the view selector is tracked.
An application includes main program code, but also a call handler and an update module. When a specific method or function in the operating system is called, the call is redirected to the call handler in the application. The call handler then calls the function in the operating system. The function retrieves an object to present in a user interface to the application. But before the object is rendered, program control is returned to the call handler, which calls into the update module. The update module determines whether or not the appearance of the object should be changed, for example, in accordance with an A/B test or any other type of update. If so, visual characteristics of the object are changed. Control reverts back to the operating system from the call handler and the object, in its changed form, is presented in the user interface.
Techniques to facilitate provision of different user experiences to different groups of users of a mobile application are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, a manifest provided by an application development and optimization platform is received that defines a plurality of user segments and a plurality of feature variants individually associated with the plurality of user segments. The manifest is processed to determine a segment of the plurality of user segments associated with a user of the mobile application along with a feature variant of the plurality of feature variants associated with the segment of the user. Execution of the mobile application is monitored for an occurrence of an event that triggers a default feature of the mobile application, and responsive to the event, the default feature is replaced with the feature variant associated with the segment of the user.
An application includes main program code, but also a call handler and an update module. When a specific method or function in the operating system is called, the call is redirected to the call handler in the application. The call handler then calls the function in the operating system. The function retrieves an object to present in a user interface to the application. But before the object is rendered, program control is returned to the call handler, which calls into the update module. The update module determines whether or not the appearance of the object should be changed, for example, in accordance with an A/B test or any other type of update. If so, visual characteristics of the object are changed. Control reverts back to the operating system from the call handler and the object, in its changed form, is presented in the user interface.
Techniques to facilitate modifications to program execution in an application at runtime are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, a copy of a code block associated with code is created. A flag associated with the copy of the code block is modified to mark the copy of the code block as having a native code version of the code. Metadata associated with the copy of the code block is modified to identify alternative code to run instead of the native code version of the code. A pointer associated with the code block is modified to point to a trampoline function. The trampoline function checks whether the code block is associated with a modification, and when the code block is associated with the modification, then the trampoline function calls the copy of the code block to invoke the alternative code by virtue of the flag and the metadata.
Techniques are provided to facilitate tracking events associated with a user interface display of an application at runtime. In at least one implementation, one or more information structures that associate an event tracking indicator with a view selector are stored, wherein the event tracking indicator indicates an event to be tracked, and the view selector indicates one or more constraints to be matched to select a view of the application. During execution of the application, the view selector is evaluated with views used by the application to determine whether each of the one or more constraints of the view selector matches properties of the views. In response to determining that each of the one or more constraints of the view selector matches the properties of at least one of the views, an occurrence of the event indicated by the event tracking indicator associated with the view selector is tracked.
Techniques to facilitate acquisition of analytics associated with an application are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, an analytics function call from main program code of the application to a third party analytics function is monitored. Responsive to the analytics function call, the analytics function call is intercepted and a call handler function is invoked instead of the third party analytics function. The call handler function processes the analytics function call to extract analytics data from the analytics function call. A copy of the third party analytics function is then called.
Techniques to facilitate prevention of just-in-time (JIT) translations of application functions are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, a JIT translation function of an operating system is modified in memory to redirect the JIT translation function to execute alternative code when the JIT translation function is called. When the JIT translation function is called for an application function, the alternative code is executed to determine whether the application function has been modified. When the alternative code determines that the application function has been modified, the JIT translation function is prevented from translating the application function into a native machine code version. When the alternative code determines that the application function has not been modified, the JIT translation function is allowed to translate the application function into the native machine code version.
Techniques to bypass system context checks to facilitate opening shared-object libraries are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, a copy of a header of a shared-object library loaded by a runtime system is created. The header of the shared-object library loaded by the runtime system is patched with code configured to call an open function, wherein the code patched into the header of the shared-object library executes and calls the open function from the shared-object library loaded by the runtime system, the call to the open function is recognized as within a context of the runtime system, and the shared-object library is allowed to be opened. A pointer to the shared-object library opened in memory is received, and the header of the shared-object library is restored to an original version using the copy of the header of the shared-object library.
Techniques to facilitate previewing changes to visual elements of a mobile application at different display sizes are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, screenshot capture instructions provided by an application development and optimization platform are received that indicate at least one requested display size at which to provide a view of the mobile application. An actual screenshot of the view of the mobile application is captured, and a virtual screenshot of the view is rendered by resizing the actual screenshot to the requested display size indicated in the screenshot capture instructions. The actual screenshot of the view and the virtual screenshot of the view rendered at the requested display size are transferred for delivery to the application development and optimization platform.
G06F 3/0484 - Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI] for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
Techniques to facilitate modification of content displayed in a webview embedded into a mobile application are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, webview modification instructions provided by an application development and optimization platform are received that indicate modified webview content associated with a uniform resource identifier (URI) accessed by the mobile application in the webview. Execution of the mobile application is monitored for an occurrence of an event that triggers loading of the URI in the webview of the mobile application. Responsive to the event, the webview modification instructions are executed to present the modified webview content in the webview of the mobile application.
Techniques to facilitate provision of different user experiences to different groups of users of a mobile application are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, a manifest provided by an application development and optimization platform is received that defines a plurality of user segments and a plurality of feature variants individually associated with the plurality of user segments. The manifest is processed to determine a segment of the plurality of user segments associated with a user of the mobile application along with a feature variant of the plurality of feature variants associated with the segment of the user. Execution of the mobile application is monitored for an occurrence of an event that triggers a default feature of the mobile application, and responsive to the event, the default feature is replaced with the feature variant associated with the segment of the user.
Techniques are described herein for enhancing software application development and software design-for-test (DFT) technology by facilitating dynamic management and control of embedded dynamic test features via an application development and optimization platform. In some embodiments, an application development and optimization platform is described that can track, manage and rollout features of native mobile applications without the need to wait for public app store releases.
Techniques to facilitate demonstrating changes to mobile applications are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, an instance of a virtual mobile device is executed on a computing system, wherein the virtual mobile device comprises at least one mobile application. Instructions are received to change at least one visual element of the at least one mobile application. The instructions are processed to generate a screenshot of the change to the at least one visual element. The screenshot of the change is transferred for delivery to a remote computing system, wherein the remote computing system displays the screenshot of the change.
Techniques to facilitate acquisition of analytics data in a mobile application are disclosed herein. In at least one implementation, a software module of the mobile application monitors for an analytics function call from main program code to third party analytics code. The analytics function call is intercepted to redirect the analytics function call to a call handler function. The call handler function processes the analytics function call to extract analytics data from the analytics function call. The analytics function call is then passed to the third party analytics code.
Implementations are disclosed herein for enhancing swizzling technology. In at least one implementation, functions are hooked by modifying their machine code implementations to jump to a central callback function. The central callback function may then route to other target functions that serve to replace the hooked functions. In another implementation, the machine code implementations are modified to jump to intermediate functions. The intermediate functions invoke dispatch functions that can call into a central callback function. The central callback function may return to the hooked functions.
G06F 3/00 - Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computerOutput arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
Implementations are disclosed herein for enhancing swizzling technology. In at least one implementation, functions are hooked by modifying their machine code implementations to jump to a central callback function. The central callback function may then route to other target functions that serve to replace the hooked functions. In another implementation, the machine code implementations are modified to jump to intermediate functions. The intermediate functions invoke dispatch functions that can call into a central callback function. The central callback function may return to the hooked functions.
G06F 3/00 - Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computerOutput arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
A method is provided to modify a view used by an application to generate a user interface element on a display screen of an electronic device; a view selector information structure identifies a hierarchy of selector visual property constraints and associated selector structural property constraints; modification information indicates one or more modifications to one or more views selected using the view selector; in the course of running the application on the electronic device, a determination is made as to whether an application subview hierarchy matches the selector information structure; in response to determining a match, a modification indicated by the modification information is imparted to one or more views of the matching application subview hierarchy.