CiD: Automating the detection of API-related compatibility issues in Android apps

Li Li; Tegawendé F. Bissyandé; Haoyu Wang; Jacques Klein

doi:10.1145/3213846.3213857

CiD: Automating the detection of API-related compatibility issues in Android apps

Li Li
, Tegawendé F. Bissyandé
, Haoyu Wang
, Jacques Klein

Monash University
University of Luxembourg
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

139 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Android Application Programming Interface provides the necessary building blocks for app developers to harness the functionalities of the Android devices, including for interacting with services and accessing hardware. This API thus evolves rapidly to meet new requirements for security, performance and advanced features, creating a race for developers to update apps. Unfortunately, given the extent of the API and the lack of automated alerts on important changes, Android apps are suffered from API-related compatibility issues. These issues can manifest themselves as runtime crashes creating a poor user experience. We propose in this paper an automated approach named CiD for systematically modelling the lifecycle of the Android APIs and analysing app bytecode to flag usages that can lead to potential compatibility issues.We demonstrate the usefulness of CiD by helping developers repair their apps, and we validate that our tool outperforms the state-of-the-art on benchmark apps that take into account several challenges for automatic detection.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis
Editors	Eric Bodden, Frank Tip
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages	153-163
Number of pages	11
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450356992
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3213846.3213857
State	Published - 12 Jul 2018
Externally published	Yes
Event	27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, ISSTA 2018 - Amsterdam, Netherlands Duration: 16 Jul 2018 → 21 Jul 2018

Publication series

Name	ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis

Conference

Conference	27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, ISSTA 2018
Country/Territory	Netherlands
City	Amsterdam
Period	16/07/18 → 21/07/18

Keywords

API-related Compatibility Issue
Android
CiD
Framework Base

Access to Document

10.1145/3213846.3213857

Cite this

Li, L., Bissyandé, T. F., Wang, H., & Klein, J. (2018). CiD: Automating the detection of API-related compatibility issues in Android apps. In E. Bodden, & F. Tip (Eds.), ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (pp. 153-163). (ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1145/3213846.3213857

Li, Li ; Bissyandé, Tegawendé F. ; Wang, Haoyu et al. / CiD : Automating the detection of API-related compatibility issues in Android apps. ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis. editor / Eric Bodden ; Frank Tip. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2018. pp. 153-163 (ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis).

@inproceedings{73f0d27e8fe046ce990e996aa310e99f,

title = "CiD: Automating the detection of API-related compatibility issues in Android apps",

abstract = "The Android Application Programming Interface provides the necessary building blocks for app developers to harness the functionalities of the Android devices, including for interacting with services and accessing hardware. This API thus evolves rapidly to meet new requirements for security, performance and advanced features, creating a race for developers to update apps. Unfortunately, given the extent of the API and the lack of automated alerts on important changes, Android apps are suffered from API-related compatibility issues. These issues can manifest themselves as runtime crashes creating a poor user experience. We propose in this paper an automated approach named CiD for systematically modelling the lifecycle of the Android APIs and analysing app bytecode to flag usages that can lead to potential compatibility issues.We demonstrate the usefulness of CiD by helping developers repair their apps, and we validate that our tool outperforms the state-of-the-art on benchmark apps that take into account several challenges for automatic detection.",

keywords = "API-related Compatibility Issue, Android, CiD, Framework Base",

author = "Li Li and Bissyand{\'e}, \{Tegawend{\'e} F.\} and Haoyu Wang and Jacques Klein",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.; 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, ISSTA 2018 ; Conference date: 16-07-2018 Through 21-07-2018",

year = "2018",

month = jul,

day = "12",

doi = "10.1145/3213846.3213857",

language = "英语",

series = "ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis",

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Li, L, Bissyandé, TF, Wang, H & Klein, J 2018, CiD: Automating the detection of API-related compatibility issues in Android apps. in E Bodden & F Tip (eds), ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis. ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, pp. 153-163, 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, ISSTA 2018, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 16/07/18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3213846.3213857

CiD: Automating the detection of API-related compatibility issues in Android apps. / Li, Li; Bissyandé, Tegawendé F.; Wang, Haoyu et al.
ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis. ed. / Eric Bodden; Frank Tip. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2018. p. 153-163 (ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AU - Klein, Jacques

PY - 2018/7/12

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AB - The Android Application Programming Interface provides the necessary building blocks for app developers to harness the functionalities of the Android devices, including for interacting with services and accessing hardware. This API thus evolves rapidly to meet new requirements for security, performance and advanced features, creating a race for developers to update apps. Unfortunately, given the extent of the API and the lack of automated alerts on important changes, Android apps are suffered from API-related compatibility issues. These issues can manifest themselves as runtime crashes creating a poor user experience. We propose in this paper an automated approach named CiD for systematically modelling the lifecycle of the Android APIs and analysing app bytecode to flag usages that can lead to potential compatibility issues.We demonstrate the usefulness of CiD by helping developers repair their apps, and we validate that our tool outperforms the state-of-the-art on benchmark apps that take into account several challenges for automatic detection.

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Li L, Bissyandé TF, Wang H, Klein J. CiD: Automating the detection of API-related compatibility issues in Android apps. In Bodden E, Tip F, editors, ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. 2018. p. 153-163. (ISSTA 2018 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis). doi: 10.1145/3213846.3213857

CiD: Automating the detection of API-related compatibility issues in Android apps

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