Feature Improvements

Technology support changes

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

Maven discovery limitation removed

The limitation documented here has been removed when using the JEE analyzer with CAST AIP ≥ 8.3.8.

Installation and deployment

CAST Server Manager - CLI

Two new commands have been added - see Automating CAST Server Manager installation tasks for more details. 

Note that -INSTALL_CONFIG_FILE and -UPGRADE are deprecated and you should use the above commands instead.

-INSTALL_COMBINED

This option is equivalent to the Schema Installation option in the GUI for "combined" and will:

  • create a combined installation from scratch (Management, Analysis and Dashboard Service schemas)
  • provide a means to specify any additional extensions that need to be installed to the new combined installation (over and above the extensions that are always installed with CAST AIP)
  • configure the Delivery folder path for the combined installation (not currently used)

-MODIFY_COMBINED

This option is a multi-functional command that is aimed at two scenarios:

  • Upgrade an existing combined installation (Management, Analysis and Dashboard Service schemas) to a new release of CAST AIP - equivalent to the Upgrade Installation option in GUI.
  • Install new extensionsupgrade existing extensions or deactivate existing extensions to an existing combined installation (Management, Analysis and Dashboard Service schemas) - equivalent to the Manage Extensions option in the GUI.
  • A combination of the above can also be run.

Upgrade

Batch script

A change has been made to the upgrade batch script - previously it was necessary to specify a <mngt_prefix> in CASTUpgrade_Schemas.txt. This option has been changed and now it is necessary to specify the full name of the Management Service schema:

<management_schema_name>:<extension_list_to_install>:<assessmentModelUpgrade>:<discoverers_to_enable>

CAST Transaction Configuration Center

Excluding items as "technical" objects on a per-snapshot basis

When the default Automated Enhancement Points (AEP) measure is in use for snapshot generation (the default measure), it is now possible to configure all objects in an Excluded Item set as "technical" objects on a per-snapshot basis.  In other words:

  • objects which may be (but not necessarily) entry points, data entities and end points will be considered as "technical objects" and they will not impact the status of Transactional Functions in the next snapshot when the Automated Enhancement Point (AEP) measure is being used
  • if the objects are entry points, data entities or end points, the complete Data Function or Transactional Function which have these objects as entry points, data entities or end points will not be considered at all for Function Point calculations in the next snapshot and the objects will be considered as "technical objects".

Values for previous snapshots will not be impacted by this new option, which is in contrast to excluding objects in the Enhancement node, which is global to all snapshots.

Objects can be set as "technical" in any of the sub-nodes of the Excluded Items node:

Enhancement node - exclusion behavior change

In CAST AIP 8.3.8 the behaviour of exclusions in the Enhancment node was changed as follows:

  • In CAST AIP ≥ 8.3.8 this exclude option will impact only the current snapshot (when you click the Recompute checksums and snapshot statuses option) and any future snapshot data. Existing snapshots are not impacted.
  • In CAST AIP ≤ 8.3.8 this exclude option will impact all snapshots (existing, current and future).

Enhancement node - layout changes

The button Recompute checksums and snapshot statuses has now been removed and is now available as a right click menu option on the snapshot:

A new option is available in the right click menu to view the excluded objects in the selected snapshot:

This dialog is then displayed: the Processed in snapshot column indicates the status of the object's exclusion in the current snapshot and the Exclude type column shows how the object was excluded (through a "set", or manually in the Enhancement node):

A right click on an object in the Show excluded objects dialog and then selecting Snapshots will display a new dialog listing the exclusion status of the object in each snapshot where the object is present (Processed column):

The Keep existing exclusion checkbox has been removed from Shared objects exclusion dialog box. Now the objects identified by the sharing counter will be excluded and appended to the already existing exclusion objects. If needed, you can un-exclude any objects in the Enhancement Panel:

Additional column "ORIGIN" displayed in AETP export list

When using the Export List of Objects button in the Enhancement node, a new column has been added to the output .CSV file. This column is called "ORIGIN" and indicates:

  • RULE: Objects that have been captured through a set
  • MANUAL: Objects that have been manually excluded

Resolved Issues

The following table lists all bugs fixed in CAST AIP 8.3.8 

Call IDComponent/sSituationSymptomsInternal ID
13119CMS Snapshot/AnalysisWhen looking at the results of a Mainframe Cobol analysis.There are missing "BelongsTo" links between DB segments and DB segment parent objects.SCRAIP-32924
13187CMS Snapshot/Analysis - Run Copy Paste Metrics CalculationWhen looking at the results of the rule "Avoid Artifacts with high Commented-out Code Lines/Code Lines ratio - 7126".When there is no change in source code or configuration between successive analyses, the violation status for random objects for this rule will change (i.e. some objects that previously were not listed as violating the rule in the first analysis are now violating the rule in the second analysis).SCRAIP-32977
13272CMS Snapshot/Analysis - Run AnalyzerWhen looking at the results of a Mainframe analysis.There are no links between COBOL programs and copybooks where a dot (.) does not exist in the code at the end of the END-EXEC in the EXEC SQL block: 

EXEC SQL 00 
INCLUDE DLI05901 00 
END-EXEC 00
SCRAIP-33864
13358Transaction Configuration Center (TCC)When looking at the results of a snapshot in the CAST Transaction Configuration Center and after having ignored/merged/deleted some datafunctions.The DET value for the ignored/merged/deleted datafunctions is set to 0 which is unexpected.SCRAIP-33863
13427Delivery Manager Tool - Projects DiscoveryWhen attempting to package a .NET application where an @ is present in the Include attribute of a Reference tag.The packaging fails.SCRAIP-33862
13526,13869CMS Snapshot/Analysis - Dashboard AutomationWhen attempting to generate a snapshot and the URL entered in the "URL" field in the CAST Management Studio Dashboard Service editor uses the https protocol.The snapshot fails with an error.SCRAIP-33861
13727Extension DownloaderWhen using the Extension Downloader.There is no Close or Cancel button in the authentication Window.SCRAIP-33394
13898Delivery Manager ToolWhen using the JEE Maven Http Extractor extension.There is no Package Alerts tab in the CAST Delivery Manager Tool for this extension.SCRAIP-33533
14048CMS Snapshot/Analysis - Compute SnapshotWhen generating a snapshot.Activity related to "DssEngine" is much slower in 8.2.11 than in 8.2.8.SCRAIP-33860
14051Server Manager - Update databaseWhen attempting to upgrade to CAST AIP 8.3.x.The upgrade stalls during the function dedouble_all and does not end.SCRAIP-33714
14162Delivery Manager Tool - Projects DiscoveryWhen attempting to package a .NET project.The CAST Delivery Manager tool incorrectly includes the full path to a DLL file (rather than just the DLL file name) which causes a missing project alert to be raised even though the corresponding project exists in the source code.SCRAIP-33859
14172Application Engineering Dashboard (AED)When using the CAST Engineering Dashboard.Critical violation details are not visible in the Application Investigation view when the critical violations filter is active. However, the same critical violations are visible in the Quality Model view when the critical violations filter is active. in other words the critical violations filter does not seem to be functioning correctly.SCRAIP-33636
14204CMS Analysis UnitWhen looking at the results of an analysis that includes .wsdl files.The .wsdl files are not analyzed automatically: it is necessary to select a Web Services framework in CMS manually.SCRAIP-33675
14240Application Engineering Dashboard (AED)When attempting to link direct to a specific violation in the CAST Engineering Dashboard.The link is correct, however, the dashboard redirects the user to the first violation in the list, rather than the specific violation that is requested.SCRAIP-33764
14324Server Manager - Update databaseWhen attempting to run an upgrade on a combined installation where there are multiple Analysis Service schemas (locals) associated to the Management Service schema.The upgrade fails with the error - " - Error during Cast-MS command execution (error code: 1000).\r\nThe logging framework was not initialized in the current thread. A default logger will be used 
Missing translation for id Input received: null 
Missing translation: Input received: null
SCRAIP-33690
14350
When packaging a JEE application with the CAST Delivery Manager Tool (DMT).The DMT raises an alert for a "missing library" even though project file is missing.SCRAIP-33708
14353CAST Update Tool (CUT)When using the CAST Update Tool to perform an upgrade.The process gets stuck at a cleanup query "migr_clean_duplicated_objects.sql" for more than 24hrs.SCRAIP-33858
14469CMS Snapshot/Analysis - Run AnalyzerWhen looking at the results of the rule "Avoid artifacts having recursive calls - 7388".Violations are being raised on objects that do not contain recursive calls.SCRAIP-33762
14516Application Analytics Dashboard (AAD)When SAML authentication is enabled.The user needs to click "Access" in the CAST dashboard login screen after successfully authenticating via the SAML provider.SCRAIP-33800
14583CMS Analysis Unit - SettingsAttempting to configure Execution unit annotations for C++ analysis units.It is not possible to do so.SCRAIP-33832
14665Application Analytics Dashboard (AAD)When using the Health Dashboard and disabling the "Only critical rules" option.No data is displayed for TQI and Transferability health measures.SCRAIP-33897
14748
When looking at the results of a SAP ABAP analysis.There are incorrect and missing links between objects and as a result "undefined objects" are created.SAP-125
14819
When attempting to run a PL/1 analysis.The analysis fails with the error Unexternalized exception - Message is 'access violation'.SCRAIP-33911


When looking at the results of a snapshot in the CAST Transaction Configuration Center and after having ignored/merged/deleted some datafunctions.The DET value for the ignored/merged/deleted datafunctions is set to 0 which is unexpected.SCRAIP-33850


When attempting to run CAST Architecture Checker from the AIP Console.CAST Architecture Checker will crash or freeze during the launch.SCRAIP-33923