Feature Improvements

Technology support changes

Please see Technology coverage changes in CAST AIP 8.3.x for more detailed discussion of this subject.

Installation and Deployment

CAST AIP installer (setup)

Three new screens have been added to the CAST AIP installer (setup). These screens are visible only when installing CAST AIP in a non-upgrade scenario (i.e. CAST AIP from the same major/minor release track does not already exist on the machine) and allow you modify the locations for various CAST log, temporary and miscellaneous files. These locations will be valid for all CAST applications. There is no requirement to change these path locations unless you need to - the paths suggested in each screen are the default locations used by CAST AIP. The locations can be overridden once the setup has completed by modifying the CastGlobalSettings.ini file. See Install CAST AIP from setup.

Example screen:

Installation of Health Dashboard, Engineering Dashboard, RestAPI on IBM Websphere Application Server

CAST now supports the installation of the Health Dashboard, the Engineering Dashboard and the CAST RestAPI on IBM Websphere Application Server (WAS) 8.5.x, provided that WAS is installed in a Linux environment. See Deployment on IBM WebSphere Application Server for more information.

Engineering Dashboard

Dashboard renamed

The CAST Application Engineering Dashboard (AED) has been renamed as the "Engineering Dashboard" (ED). Documentation has been updated to reflect this name change. In addition, certain items and components have been renamed within the dashboard interface itself.

Education feature

The Engineering Dashboard now features the ability to add violations (objects) to an "Education list" (see Engineering Dashboard - Education) to highlight specific issues that may not be corrected, but require tracking, monitoring. In essence the Education list:

• enables an Architect or Technical Lead to identify the main issues in an Application and add them to the list to "educate" his team about the Quality Rules related to the violation
• the violations in the list may not necessarily be corrected because they may be too costly, however, the Architect or Technical Lead can use the list to explain to his development team the issues that exist (i.e. the violations can be shown) and how to avoid the issues in the future (i.e. by highlighting the associated Quality Rule documentation)
• Quality Rules in the Education list can be configured so that all NEW violations to the Quality Rule are automatically added to the Engineering Dashboard - Action Plan when the next snapshot is generated.
• links to the violations can be sent to development team members directly from the Education list to "share and promote" best practices or how to adhere to specific Quality Rules.

Change Language option

The top user menu now has an additional drop down menu item called "Change Language". This allows a user to change the language of the text items in the dashboard, providing an administrator has configured the language:

In addition, a parameter called "default" has been added to the ced.json file to allow a specific language to be set by default.

Export to Excel

It is now possible to export data to Excel file at Violation level in the Application Investigation and Transaction Investigation views, for example:

Health Dashboard

Dashboard renamed

The CAST Application Analytics Dashboard (AAD) has been renamed as the "Health Dashboard" (HD). Documentation has been updated to reflect this name change. In addition, certain items and components have been renamed within the dashboard interface itself.

CAST Management Studio

ID required for Architecture Models

A unique identifier for your Architecture Model must be defined in the CAST Architecture Checker GUI for all models assigned to Applications in CAST AIP ≥ 8.3.2. This ID is used to identify the Architecture Model throughout the CAST Management Studio and the CAST dashboards (the ID will be saved to a table in the CAST Management Service schema).

• A positive and even number above 2,000,000 can be assigned as an ID (values less than this are already reserved for use by CAST). CAST recommends using CAST Extend to reserve a range of IDs for your use. See Managing ID ranges for custom extensions for more information about this.
• If an Architecture Model has already been assigned to an Application with ID = X, then even if the Architecture Model is subsequently edited in the CAST Architecture Checker and the ID changed (to ID = Y, for example), the Model will retain the same ID in the CAST Management Service schema as long as it is not removed from the Application.
• The ID must be unique in the CAST Management Service schema. If two Architecture Models with the same ID are associated to an Application, only the first Model will be used and the second will be ignored.
• If the ID is set to 0 (default) or blank, then the Architecture Model will be ignored when the snapshot is generated.

The following checks are performed for Architecture Model IDs during a snapshot generation and results will be logged in the CASTMSxx_log.txt file:

• Different ID = Check Architecture Model _<Project_filename>_ : The Id from File _<ID>_ is ignored because different from original Id _<Original_ID>_ in CAST-MS
• Duplicate ID = Check Architecture Model _<Project_filename>_ : The Model is ignored. Its Id _<ID>_ is already used by another Model in CAST-MS.
• Wrong ID = Check Architecture Model _<Project_filename>_ : The Model is ignored. Wrong Id _<ID>_. The Id should be positive, even and > 2000000
• Undefined ID = Check Architecture Model _<Project_filename>_ : : The Model is ignored. Id is Missing.

CLI

ConfigurePlatformPreferences

The option jobLogRootPath has been removed and can no longer be used with the command ConfigurePlatformPreferences. Please use logRootPath instead. See Automating CAST Management Studio tasks.

CAST Transaction Configuration Center

GUI

"Estimated" changed to "Default FP Value"

The term used to indicate the value given to empty Function Points has been changed from "Estimated" to "Default FP Value", for example in the Compute settings and in the AFP Calibration node:

Show Rules now available in AFP Calibration child nodes

New column "Number of objects"

A new column called "Number of objects" is displayed in the following nodes:

• By naming
• By Inheritance
• By type
• Free definition

This shows how many objects have been identified by the rule. This column will only update after using the Compute option or generating a snapshot.

New Ratios information in Enhancement node right hand panel

A new panel of information called "Ratios" is now available in the Enhancement node, providing information about the elements (artifacts, objects etc.) that comprise the current Application and snapshot:

Adjusted links now highlighted

Links that have been modified using the Transaction Graph Adjustment feature are now highlighted as dashed black lines in the Call Graph and Full Call Graph. For example (click to enlarge):

CLI

CAST is now delivering a bespoke executable for running automated CAST Transaction Configuration tasks. Previously, command line tasks could be run using CAST-TransactionConfig.exe, however, CAST highly recommends that all automated command line tasks now use CAST-TransactionConfig-CLI.exe.

See Automating CAST Transaction Configuration Center tasks.

Log file naming and path changes

In addition to the log file change that was implemented in CAST AIP 8.3.1, a further change has been added in CAST AIP 8.3.2:

• the log file will now be stored in a folder named TCC in %ALLUSERSPROFILE%/CAST/CAST/Logs, or in a folder named TCC in the the location specified by CAST_LOG_ROOT_PATH if that variable has been defined in the CASTGlobalSettings.ini file.

CAST Architecture Checker

GUI

Changing model properties

Following the introduction of the ability to change model properties directly in CAST Architecture Checker introduced in CAST AIP 8.3.1, if you open a Architecture Model created and saved with a previous release of CAST AIP (≤ 8.3.0), then you may be warned as follows:

This means that the Architecture Model was created with an older release of CAST AIP that did not include the ability to set Properties on the model. As such, the CAST Architecture Checker has initialized these Properties in the Architecture Model with default values. These default values may not correspond to the values you may have set in the CAST Management Studio and therefore may impact results when the Architecture Model is used in an analysis. The Properties will remain as they are set in the CAST Management Studio until you open the model with the CAST Architecture Checker.

ID required for Architecture Models

A unique identifier for your Architecture Model must now be defined in the CAST Architecture Checker GUI for all models assigned to Applications in CAST AIP ≥ 8.3.2. This ID is used to identify the Architecture Model throughout the CAST Management Studio and the CAST dashboards (the ID will be saved to a table in the CAST Management Service schema).

• A positive and even number above 2,000,000 can be assigned as an ID (values less than this are already reserved for use by CAST). CAST recommends using CAST Extend to reserve a range of IDs for your use (if you have not done so already). To do so, sign in to CAST Extend and select ID Ranges > Quality Range Reservation > Reserve Rule ID Range:
  • The Extension ID field is of the form: com.castsoftware.uc.<free-form text>. Where <free-form text> can be any string that describes your initiative or your project.
  • For the Range amount field, choose a number between 1 and 10. 1 corresponds to a range of 1000 IDs, therefore if you enter 3, you will be granted 3000 IDs.
  • After you have clicked on Reserve, a range of rule IDs are defined and ready for your use. See Managing ID ranges for custom extensions for more information about this.
• If an existing Model from CAST AIP ≤ 8.3.1 (where IDs were not available) is opened, then the ID will be set to the default value (0).
• If an Architecture Model has already been assigned to an Application in the CAST Management Studio with ID = X, then even if the Architecture Model is subsequently edited in the CAST Architecture Checker and the ID changed (to ID = Y, for example), the Model will retain the same ID in the CAST Management Service schema as long as it is not removed from the Application.
• The ID must be unique in the CAST Management Service schema. If two Architecture Models with the same ID are associated to an Application, only the first Model will be used and the second will be ignored.
• If the ID is set to 0 (default) or blank, then the Architecture Model will be ignored when the snapshot is generated.
• When saving the Model, the following is checked. If any of the below checks fail, an error will be displayed:

Check	Error
That an even number has been used
That a number above 2,000,000 has been used
That an invalid number has not been used (for example a very large number, or a negative number)

Result size option

A new option has been added to govern the number of links that are displayed when the Check model option is run. By default, a maximum of 1000 links will be displayed by default for performance reasons (the more links that are available, the longer the Check model process will take). You can choose from one of the following available options:

• 1000
• 5000
• 10000
• Unlimited

Log file naming and path changes

In addition to the log file change that was implemented in CAST AIP 8.3.1, a further change has been added in CAST AIP 8.3.2:

• the log file will now be stored in a folder named ArchiChecker in %ALLUSERSPROFILE%/CAST/CAST/Logs, or in a folder named ArchiChecker in the the location specified by CAST_LOG_ROOT_PATH if that variable has been defined in the CASTGlobalSettings.ini file.

CAST Delivery Manager Tool

GUI

A new option "Exclude test code" has been added to the Package Configuration tab in the CAST Delivery Manager Tool. When ticked, this option will force all folders containing the word "test" to be excluded from the packaging:

Resolved Issues

The following table lists all bugs fixed in CAST AIP 8.3.2