Analyze and visualize software architecture in CAST Imaging

Created by Arpita Sinha (Cast Software)

Environment: Production

Technologies: Modernization

Workload: All other workloads

Summary

You can use CAST Imaging to navigate a complex software system visually, perform a precise analysis of the software structure, and make decisions about your application’s architecture, especially for modernization purposes. This pattern describes the steps for onboarding source code to CAST Application Intelligence Platform (CAST AIP) through CAST AIP Console to generate application data. The data is then published to CAST Imaging, where you can visualize and navigate your application architecture layer by layer.

Prerequisites and limitations

Prerequisites 

• An active AWS account.

• An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for Microsoft Windows Server Base or Core (see Windows AMIs) for CAST Imaging on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) with 32 GB RAM and 100 GB SSD.

• A CAST Extend account  for accessing downloads.

• CAST AIP and CAST Imaging license keys. You can obtain these by contacting CAST at [e-mail].

• The complete source code of the application you want to analyze, in extracted and compressed (.zip) format.

• Compliance with AIP Console deployment prerequisites.

Limitations 

• The CAST Web installer is available only for the Microsoft Windows operating system, and installs CAST AIP version 8.3.25 or later.

• CAST Extend doesn’t support Internet Explorer.

Product versions

• The CAST Web Installer (available from CAST Extend) automatically downloads the latest version of CAST AIP Core, CAST Console, CAST Storage Service, and CAST Imaging.

Architecture

The following workflow illustrates the onboarding of application source code to CAST AIP through AIP Console at a high level. CAST AIP generates application source code metadata by reverse-engineering front-end, middleware, and back-end code. The application data that is generated by CAST AIP is automatically imported into CAST Imaging for investigation purposes.

Here’s a snapshot of how this process works in AIP Console and CAST Imaging.

Tools

• CAST Web Installer – Installs all required software in one step, on a single machine, with minimum configuration required.

Epics

Set up the CAST AIP environment

Task	Description	Skills required
Download the CAST Web Installer.	Log in to CAST Extend and search for Webinstaller. (If you don't have an account, register first.) Download the CAST Web Installer, and then unzip it on your computer. Note: Keep your CAST Extend login credentials and license keys handy. You will be prompted for these in the next step.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders
Run the installer.	The CAST Web Installer (CASTWebInstaller.exe) installs the following components: CAST AIP Core, AIP Console and AIP Node package, CAST Storage Service for Windows (customized PostgreSQL RDBMS), and CAST Imaging for Windows. When the CAST Web Installer finishes the installation, a Readme window displays a summary of the installation.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders
Configure CAST AIP Console to publish results into CAST Imaging.	Log in to AIP Console. Go to Administration Center, System Settings, Imaging Settings to fully automate data import into CAST Imaging as part of the standard onboarding and rescan processes. This will ensure that when analysis processes are complete, all data is ready to use in CAST Imaging without requiring any additional manual actions.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders

Add an application

Task	Description	Skills required
Open the AIP Console home page.	Open the AIP Console home page at http://<server>:8081/ui/index.html, and enter your CAST credentials. For help, see the Login section of the AIP Console documentation.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders
Prepare your source code.	Before you begin the onboarding process, make sure that your source code is prepared in appropriate format in a single .zip file.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders
Add a new application in AIP Console.	Choose Add application, enter the application name, and then choose Add. You can see the progress of each step in AIP Console. For details, see the Add a new application section of the AIP Console documentation.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders

Add and analyze your source code

Task	Description	Skills required
Open the Delivery wizard.	Find the application that you created, and then choose Add version.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders
Add the source code.	Drag and drop the source code (.zip file) into the wizard, or choose the upload cloud icon to add a file by using the "open file" method.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders
Start the analysis process.	In the Delivery wizard, provide the version details and specify the configuration options as explained in the Standard onboarding section of the CAST Imaging documentation. Make sure that the Publish to CAST Imaging option is selected, and then choose Proceed. This will start the analysis process for the source code. The progress window in AIP Console shows each step, and displays a notification when analysis is complete.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders

Verify results and data published to CAST Imaging

Task	Description	Skills required
Check status and logs	When all actions have been completed, you should check the Progress window for a "success" message. You can check the individual logs for all the actions that have been performed immediately after they have completed. To check the logs, you can click the View log option in the Progress window.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders
Check applicaion details	Use the Application details panel to view information about the results produced by the analysis, including technologies discovered, Function Point information, source code organization etc.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders
Verify and access CAST Imaging	In the Application Management screen of AIP Console, verify that the version status of your application is Imaging processed. This means that the source code has been analyzed and uploaded to your CAST Imaging instance and you will see an Imaging icon with your version. Use the CAST Imaging icon to take you directly to the specific application data in CAST Imaging.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders

Get started with CAST Imaging

Task	Description	Skills required
Log in to CAST Imaging.	Open http://localhost:8083, enter your CAST administrator credentials, and select your application. For help, see the Login section of the CAST Imaging documentation.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders
Set up the imaging environment.	Configure the CAST Imaging environment through Admin Center to manage application data, user permissions, and other preferences. For more information, see the Configuration options section of the CAST Imaging documentation.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders
Verify that the application is available in CAST Imaging.	Open the Admin Center - Application management panel in CAST Imaging Admin Center and verify that the analyzed application is available.
Explore CAST Imaging features.	Use the Help icon to display the CAST Imaging Helper. This option provides a tutorial that helps you get started viewing your software architecture in CAST Imaging. For more information about these features, see the CAST Imaging user guide.	Software architects, Developers, Technical leaders

Related resources

• Setting up the AIP environment

• Configuring AIP Console

• Logging in to AIP Console

• Checking prerequisites for application onboarding

• Adding an application

• Adding a version and delivering source code

• Publishing data into CAST Imaging

• Verify results and data published to CAST Imaging

• Logging in to CAST Imaging

• Configuring CAST Imaging

• Exploring CAST Imaging features