Release Notes for Pramati DesignViewer 1.1

System Requirements

Platform	JDK version
WinNT 4.0, SP5	JDK 1.3.1_01, JDK 1.3.1_02, JDK 1.4.1
Windows 2000	JDK 1.3.1_01, JDK 1.3.1_02, JDK 1.4
RedHat Linux 6.2	JDK 1.3.1_01, JDK 1.3.1_02

Memory Requirements

• Minimum 256 MB RAM
• Recommended 512 MB RAM

Updates for DesignViewer 1.1

• Model > Import now brings up a wizard, that includes a 'Project Discovery' panel.
  The Project Discovery panel shows project details upfront for selective model creation.
• Archive based component abstraction. The J2EE components
  are shown in their respective archives (WAR, EJB-Jar).
• Importing exploded web application is supported now.
• Visualizing J2EE resources(DB, Mail, JMS and URL) is possible now.
• Flow Marker and Spotlight tools are introduced for understanding the application flow.
• Improved Component browser with added filters, relationship views and package view.
• Added canned views for visualizing the application based on logical and functional groups.
• Support for exporting the model as a comma separated values (CSV) file or a HTML file.
• EJB accessing helper classes can also be visualized.
• White boarding (Creating a new J2EE application) support is provided now. Model > New
  can be used to create a new application.
• Support for incrementally adding new components to the existing model is also provided.
• Importing exploded web application is supported now.
• Impact analysis can now be performed for a selected J2EE component.
• Drag and Drop support is provided for importing J2EE applications.

Features Overview

Pramati DesignViewer is a J2EE application visualization tool for identifying the J2EE components and their relationship with an intuitive graphical interface. The current version has support for creating new J2EE application using the unique 'White Board' interface.It also has powerful navigational tools aiding in better understanding of the application.

A broad outline of the features supported by DesignViewer 1.1 is listed below:

Improved Visualization

• Wizard Framework for importing J2EE applications has
  • Import Archive Panel (For importing application and setting source and class path)
  • Project Discovery Panel (For showing discovered components with an option for not parsing selected components)
  • Project Loading Panel (For showing the progress of the application importing process)
• Archive based abstraction. Visualizing of valid J2EE archives including Web and EJB. The resources are shown in an archive form.
• Use-Bean visualization.Visualizing use bean links in JSPs.
• Properties Dialog for EJBs has an enhanced interface.
• Helper classes access is shown for Servlets, JSPs and EJBs including the methods invoked.
• Visualization of exploded web application.

White Boarding Interface

• Creating new J2EE applications using Model > New.
• Support for creation of EJB, Web archives and Resources.
• Can create all types of beans.
• Support for creation of web components like JSP, HTML, Servlet, Filter, Listener and Use-Bean.
• Creation of dependencies/relationships between components confined to J2EE standard. The supported J2EE relationships are listed below
  • Forwards, Include-Directives, Include Action, Form Submits and Hyperlinks.
  • EJB Reference, EJB Local Reference, Resource Reference and CMRs.

Export Options

• The Pramati DesignViewer model can be exported as
  • Comma Separated Values (.csv) file, showing the project statistics.
  • HTML
  • JPEG - Includes title, legend and mouse over information.

Save Options

• The Pramati DesignViewer model can be saved as Pramati Model Archive (.pmar) for the following
  • Existing J2EE application
  • Created J2EE application
  • Existing Struts based application

Navigational Tools

• The Pramati DesignViewer now features the following powerful tools for easier navigation and better comprehension of the application flow.
  • Flow Marker for highlighting custom paths in the application.
  • Spotlight for identifying dependent components.
  • Component Browser provides archive, component and package level views for an application.

Canned Views

• The Pramati DesignViewer now features the following functional and logical views of a J2EE application.
  • Archive View, Web View and EJB View.
  • CMR View, Business Model View and Entity View.
  • User Screen View and Control View.
  • Struts based application has a base view and the Struts View.
  Custom views also can be configured.

Known Issues

UI Issues

• While inserting an annote for an artifact, replying option does not work for JDK 1.3.1_03 and JDK 1.4.
• While creating a J2EE application, drawing more than one link between components will overlap the previously drawn link.
  Workaround:
  
  Refresh the layout by selecting one of the layout options.

Updates for DesignViewer 1.0

• Open Pramati DesignViewer Archive file (pmar).
  File > Open will open DesignViewer Model Archive.
  File > Create will open a J2EE application.
  File > Save As can be used to save the opened J2EE application as pmar, svg or jpeg.
  
• Component Browser has Filters option for viewing components of a similar type.
• Named Views have been added to configure and use custom views for a J2EE application. Thus 'View only EJB' or 'View only Web' views can be set up.

Known Issues in DesignViewer 1.0

• Component Browser repainting issue. First time invocation of Component browser shows up a blank window. Move the window or resize it to see the fields.
• Helper Classes does not show Property dialog.
• Recent files issue. DesignViewer shows the recently open model file, even if the model file is removed from the system.

Features Overview

DesignViewer is a J2EE application visualization tool, which can be used to view the components and its relations in a J2EE archive, in an intuitive graphical interface.

A broad outline of the features supported by DesignViewer 1.0 Beta is listed below:

Visualizing J2EE Applications

• Opening archives-ear, war and ejb-jar

View Web Archives

• Visualize all Web components.
• Shows all standard-specification attributes.
• Shows flow of control between the components including forwards, links, form-submits.
• Shows EJB access from web components when sources are provided.
• View all J2EE Properties for artifacts.

View EJB Archives

• Shows all EJB Components.
• Visualizes the references between the EJB components.
• Analyze the CMRs between the components.
• Shows all standard specification related attributes.
• View all J2EE Properties for artifacts.

Analyze the Application Flow

• Shows the includes, forwards, hyperlinks, form-submits and redirects found in Servlets when sources are provided.
• Shows includes, forwards, hyperlinks, taglibs, usebeans, form-actions found in JSPs.
• Show Helper Classes accessing EJBs when sources provided.
• Visualize the dependencies between JSP/Servlets and EJBs when sources are provided.
• View the action paths in Struts application based on Struts-Config.xml
• Shows the conditional forwards.

Customize the view abstraction level

• Use View Filters to Group/hide/delete similar components
• Group artifacts.
• Show/Hide various artifacts.

Opening Existing Projects

• Open archives (ear, jar, war).
• Open archive with and without source.
• Save the model as JPEG or SVG.

Support for Application Framework

• DesignViewer can visualize applications built on Struts framework.
• Support is provided for Struts 1.1 and 1.0 configuration XMLs.

Known Issues

Functionality Issues

1. Javascript support not provided

Links referenced in Javascript will not be shown, while visualizing web applications.

2. Dynamic construction of links may not be resolved for some components.
3. Web Application Frameworks other than Struts are not supported.

(Note: The Java Pet Store application cannot be visualized completely in the current release build).

4. If there are files with different extension and having the same name (for e.g. index.jsp, index.htm) the first encountered file will be parsed and hence the links occurring in the other file will not be shown.
5. Saving the model (as .pmar) is not available in this version.

Struts Issues

1. Tiles Framework support is not available.
2. Multi-modular applications are not supported.
3. The Struts taglib files (.tld) should have a value for the URI element. Otherwise, DesignViewer will not be able to get information from taglibs.
4. Struts tag libraries URI should be listed in the tagliburi.properties file if not listed earlier under the lib/pramati directory under the DesignViewer installation directory.

UI Issues

1. In Linux, the tool tips and cursor may not appear properly and varies with various distributions.
2. In JDK 1.4, the horizontal and vertical tool bar look different.

Issues when opening applications

1 Opening large applications may take longer time and sometime throw 'Out of Memory Exception'.

Workaround:

In run.bat make the change as shown below for Xms and Xmx

java -Xms128m -Xmx256m com.pramati.designer.tools.viewer.Viewer

 

2. `ClassNotFoundException' may occur for some archives. This may be due to the non-loading of Jars specified in the Manifest or the classes to be loaded are in some external Jars.

Workaround:

Try opening the application again by specifying the class path in the 'Create Model' dialog. Or in run.bat, specify the classspath.