Legacy application data flow tracking

A method of tracking data flow in a given application on a computer, the method comprising:

• performing a contextual analysis of the given application to identify specified features of the given application;
• generating contextual tracking data for the given application, wherein the contextual tracking data moves through the given application;
• tracing the movement of the contextual tracking data through the given application;
• generating specified information about the contextual tracking data and the movement of the contextual tracking data through the given application;
• recording a tracing log including said specified information about the contextual tracking data and the movement of the contextual tracking data through the given application;
• creating a data flow sequence for the given application from the information in the tracing log;
• and
• when one of the contextual tracking datum is deleted before said one of the contextual tracking datum has completed moving through the given application, regenerating the deleted one contextual tracking datum and replacing the deleted one of the contextual tracking data with the regenerated one of the contextual tracking data.

A computer system for tracking data flow in a given application, comprising:

• a data store for holding data;
• a computer operatively connected to the data store for transmitting data to the data store, and comprising one or more processor units, wherein a given application runs on the computer, and the one or more processor units are configured for:
• performing a contextual analysis of the given application to identify specified features of the given application;
• generating contextual tracking data for the given application;
• inserting the contextual tracking data into the given application, wherein the contextual tracking data moves through the given application;
• identifying positions of the contextual tracking data as the contextual tracking data move through the given application;
• using said identified positions of the contextual tracking data for tracing the movement of the contextual tracking data through the given application;
• generating specified information about the contextual tracking data and the movement of the contextual tracking data through the given application;
• recording a tracing log including said specified information about the contextual tracking data and the movement of the contextual tracking data through the given application;
• and
• creating a data flow sequence for the given application from the information in the tracing log.

A computer readable program product for tracking data flow in an application on a computer, the computer readable program product comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therein, the program instructions executable by a specified computer to cause the specified computer to perform the method of:
• performing a contextual analysis of the given application to identify specified features of the given application;
• generating contextual tracking data for the given application;
• inserting the contextual tracking data into the given application, wherein the contextual tracking data moves through the given application;
• identifying positions of the contextual tracking data as the contextual tracking data move through the given application;
• using said identified positions of the contextual tracking data for tracing the movement of the contextual tracking data through the given application;
• generating specified information about the contextual tracking data and the movement of the contextual tracking data through the given application;
• recording a tracing log including said specified information about the contextual tracking data and the movement of the contextual tracking data through the given application;
• and
• creating a data flow sequence for the given application from the information in the tracing log.