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API Usage Pattern Search Based on Model Checking

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Dependable Software Engineering. Theories, Tools, and Applications (SETTA 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 13071))

Abstract

Reusing existing class libraries can improve the productivity of software development. API usage patterns are useful resources for programmers in reusing class libraries. Existing approaches often exploit API graphs to model semantic relations between API elements of class libraries, and traversal graphs to capture API usage patterns. However, those approaches cannot describe the number of parameters and the number of overload methods, and may not search for various API usage patterns. In this paper, we propose an automatic and complete approach to searching for API usage patterns by model checking technique. We introduce a novel kind of API transition system model to completely describe the relations between all API elements of existing class libraries. We obtain API usage constraints from queries, namely the numbers and types of input and output objects and class types transformed based on APIs replacement model, and give the logical characterizations of the constraints by suitable CTL* (computation tree logic) formulas. Then, we can obtain suitable API usage patterns by model checking the logical formulas in related API transition system models based on model checker NuSMV. The experiments indicate that, in contrast to existing approaches, our approach can automatically and effectively search for various API usage patterns.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://spoon.gforge.inria.fr/.

  2. 2.

    https://sourceforge.net/projects/jboss/files/Javassist/.

  3. 3.

    http://nusmv.fbk.eu/.

  4. 4.

    https://stackoverflow.com/.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the editors and reviewers for their comments on this manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61672384, the Ningbo Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2019A610088), the Open Subject of Key Laboratory of Embedded and Service Computing of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. ESSCKF 2019–07).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Xue-er Ding, Jun Niu & Jia Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Embedded System and Service Computing Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, China

    Jun Niu

Authors
  1. Xue-er Ding
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  2. Jun Niu
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  3. Jia Wang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xue-er Ding or Jun Niu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK

    Shengchao Qin

  2. University of York, York, UK

    Jim Woodcock

  3. Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Wenhui Zhang

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Ding, Xe., Niu, J., Wang, J. (2021). API Usage Pattern Search Based on Model Checking. In: Qin, S., Woodcock, J., Zhang, W. (eds) Dependable Software Engineering. Theories, Tools, and Applications. SETTA 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13071. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91265-9_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91265-9_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-91264-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-91265-9

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