Work with the application visualization

The Visualization tab displays the application nodes and dependencies in graphical format. The initial view on the Visualization tab is the main view. The circles represent nodes, and the arrows show dependencies and direction between nodes, incoming or outgoing. By default, no groups are created. The main view reflects any updates you make to your groupings.

Features of the AWS Microservice Extractor for .NET visualization tool

You can perform the following tasks from the Visualization (nodes and dependencies) page to help you group your application nodes to extract as a smaller service.

Task	Description
Create custom groups to visualize a segmentation of the service	You can create groups in the following ways: Drag and drop (main view only) — Select one or more nodes by clicking on them, then drag the node or nodes together. Choose or right-click (main view) — Choose or right-click a node to open the Actions menu. From the Actions menu, you can choose to Add node to group. The Add node(s) to group pane appears on the right, where you can choose to add nodes to an existing group or create a new group, and select the Group name and, optionally, the Group color . Groups are indicated by dotted rectangles. You can collapse and expand groups by choosing the minimize and maximize icons in the left corner of each rectangle. Collapsing a rectangle helps to reduce visual noise as you focus on other areas of the service.
View node details	Select one or more nodes. Selected nodes are indicated by a dotted circle. Incoming and outgoing dependencies for the selected nodes are highlighted as red (outgoing) or blue (incoming). If you select more than one node, each selected node will appear as dotted, and the dependencies will be highlighted for all of the selected nodes. When you choose or right-click on a node, you can select View node details from the Actions menu. The Node details panel appears on the right. Node details include the following tabs and information for one or more selected nodes: General — Shows the selected nodes, their dependencies, and runtime profiling information. The arrows, or Edges show the direction of the dependency, incoming or outgoing. The call count for each node dependency is also displayed. .NET Core portability — Shows the selected nodes and their .NET Core portability status. If a node is not compatible for .NET Core portability, hover over the status message to view the details and potential remediation.
Reset view	Choose Reset view to reset the visualization to the original state, or as it was arranged when you first launched it. All new groups are removed, and all changes will be discarded.
Show dependencies	Choose Show dependencies to show or hide the incoming and outgroing dependencies between nodes. By default Show dependices is selected, and incoming and outgoing dependencies are displayed on the visualization.
Node filter	From the Visualization Nodes and Dependencies view, you can use the Node filter search box to change the displayed nodes in the following ways: Project — When a project name is entered in the text box and selected, the visualization displays nodes that are a part of that project. The name of a project node filter begins with P. Namespace — When a namespace name is entered and selected, the visualization displays nodes that are part of that specific namespace. The name of a namespace node filter begins with N. Clear all filters— This option removes all selected node filters from the visualization and the view is returned to the default view.
View options	When node filters are applied you can switch between a visualization with the filters applied or a visualization with no filters. To do this, under View options select All nodes to view the visualization with no filters or select Filtered nodes to apply your selected node filters.
View Legend	The Legend displays the meanings of the symbols in the visualization. A gray shaded circle indicates a node. A dotted circle indicates a selected node. A gray rectangle indicates a group. A gray rectangle that contains an expand icon indicates a collapsed group. A gray cube that indicates a class with minimal logic. A gray connected cirle and half circle that indicates the entry point into the application. A gray cylinder that indicates the code in that node accesses data. A gray wrench and screwdriver indicates the code invokes an external service. A gray circle with three smaller circles indicates a node can fit into two or more classifications. A gray folder icon indicates a project node. A gray set of curly brackets indicates a namespace node. A blue arrow indicates a dependency incoming to a node. A red arrow indicates a dependency outgoing from a node.
View Group classification	Choose Group classification from the bottom of the visualization to view the name, ID, and color assigned to each group in the visualization.
View runtime profiling information	You can view the number of call counts from the main view by hovering over the arrows in the visualization.
Edit group name and color	After you have created a group, you can edit the name and color of the group by choosing or right-clicking it to open the Actions menu, then choosing Edit group name and color. You can update the group name and color in the Edit group name and color pane that appears on the right.
Add or delete canvas (main view only)	A canvas displays a specific layout of nodes, edges, and groups. After you onboard your application, the default canvas is automatically created. You can perform graph tasks on each canvas, such as viewing node details, rearranging nodes, or creating groups. You can also add a new canvas or delete an existing one (excluding the default canvas) by selecting the option from the Actions dropdown menu.
Get automated groupings (main view only)	You can get automated artificial intelligence-generated grouping recommendations by selecting one of the following options on the Get automated groupings pop-up: To preserve the existing groups in the visualization and get grouping recommendations for only the non-grouped nodes, select Maintain existing group nodes. To delete all of the existing groups and get grouping recommendations for all of the nodes in the application, select Reset existing groups.

Main visualization

After you onboard an application, Microservice Extractor displays its nodes and dependencies as a graph. No groups are created by default. You can create groups, modify them, or create new groups to associate with a functionality that guides refactoring. Use the main visualization to view your groups and prepare for extraction after creating groups in the main visualization, or after exploring recommended groupings.

Manually remove node dependencies to prepare parts of your application for extraction as smaller services. The parts are displayed as groups in the graph. Microservice Extractor can also extract API endpoints as separate services by isolating the code that underlies the API endpoints and replacing local calls with network calls. This creates a new implementation of the calling class in a new solution, while preserving the interface and original solution. You can then develop, build, and deploy the new repositories independently as services.

For more information about actions you can take from the main visualization, see Features of the AWS Microservice Extractor for .NET visualization tool.