Date and time simulation for time-sensitive applications
View Patent ↗A process for providing a simulated date and/or time to a time-sensitive application is disclosed herein. Such a process may include detecting the invocation of a time handler method configured to retrieve system time. Upon detecting the invocation, the contents of a call stack may be captured and analyzed to determine which requester method initiated the invocation. The process may then determine whether the requester method should receive a real or simulated system time. A real system time may be returned to the requester method in the event it should receive the real system time. A simulated system time may be returned to the requester method in the event it should receive the simulated system time. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also disclosed and claimed herein.
1. An apparatus for providing a simulated date and/or time to a time-sensitive application, the apparatus comprising:
a detection module to detect an invocation of a time handler method, the time handler method configured to retrieve the system time of a computing system;
a capture module to capture the contents of a call stack once the invocation is detected;
a stack walk module to walk the call stack until reaching a requestor method that initiated the invocation;
a stack analysis module to analyze the contents of the call stack to determine which requestor method initiated the invocation;
the stack analysis module further configured to determine whether the requestor method that initiated the invocation is to receive one of a real system time and a simulated system time;
a return module configured to return a real system time in the event the requestor method is to receive the real system time; and
the return module further configured to return a simulated system time in the event the requestor method is to receive the simulated system time.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the stack analysis module is further configured to ignore intermediate methods that did not initiate the invocation.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the stack analysis module is further configured to reference a configuration file listing requestor methods that are to receive a simulated time.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a call module to call an operating system service that returns the real system time.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a call module to call a time/date simulation application that returns the simulated system time.
6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the requestor method is a java requestor method.
7. A computer program product for providing a simulated date and/or time to a time-sensitive application, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied therein, the computer-usable program code comprising:
computer-usable program code to detect an invocation of a time handler method, the time handler method configured to retrieve the system time of a computing system;
computer-usable program code to capture the contents of a call stack upon detecting the invocation;
computer-usable program code to walk the call stack until reaching a requestor method that initiated the invocation;
computer-usable program code to analyze the contents of the call stack to determine which requestor method initiated the invocation;
computer-usable program code to determine whether the requestor method that initiated the invocation is to receive one of a real system time and a simulated system time;
computer-usable program code to return a real system time in the event the requestor method is to receive the real system time; and
computer-usable program code to return a simulated system time in the event the requestor method is to receive the simulated system time.
8. The computer program product of claim 7 , further comprising computer-usable program code to ignore intermediate methods that did not initiate the invocation.
9. The computer program product of claim 7 , further comprising computer-usable program code to read a configuration file listing requestor methods that are to receive a simulated time.
10. The computer program product of claim 7 , further comprising computer-usable program code to call an operating system service that returns the real system time.
11. The computer program product of claim 7 , further comprising computer-usable program code to call a time/date simulation application that returns the simulated system time.