Left sidebar menus

IconActionDescription

Welcome PageSee User Guide - GUI - Welcome Page.

Toggle (i.e. show or hide) the Investigate panel, OR return to the Investigate panel if working in the Welcome Page.

Access Saved Views.See Saved view.

Reports

Available in CAST Imaging ≥ 2.7.0.

See User Guide - Reports.

Node Snapping

Use this option to help build layouts with nodes/objects that are equidistance from each other. When enabled, additional guide lines will be added to the view when arranging nodes/objects:

Provides three menu options:


Rectangle selection - allows the selection of multiple items.

Lasso selection - allows the selection of multiple items free hand.

Reverse Selection - allows reverse selection of items.

You may use this option to select all the unselected nodes and deselect the selected nodes from the current view.

See User Guide - GUI - Keyboard shortcut keys.

Note that you can also select items in the view as follows:

  • Hold down the CTRL key and then left click one-by-one on the items in the view
  • Hold down the ALT key and then hold down the left mouse button - this will activate the "rectangle" selector.
  • Hold down the CTRL key and then hold down the left mouse button - this will activate the "lasso" selector.

Group Feature

The selection enables you to group specific sets of objects/technologies into single nodes:

  • Grouping of nodes functions only at Level 5 in Saved views.
  • In releases ≥ 2.19, the following icons are hidden in the levels where it is not applicable.

    • The 'Group selected nodes' icon is hidden in Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4
    • The 'Group selected nodes' icon is hidden in the "App to App" view at the Application Level

To group selected nodes:

  • Select the nodes, using either Rectangle or Lasso selection.
  • Use the Grouping Features option and select Group selected nodes. All the selected nodes are grouped:

  • Right click on "Grouped node" to rename the group (optional):

To ungroup, right click the grouped node and click Ungroup:

Visual Grouping

There are two types of Visual Grouping:

  • Levels 1 - 5
    OFF by default, but can be applied using the button on the toolbar. This type of grouping allows you to apply level 1 grouping when you are in level 5

  • Object level
    Available in ≥ 2.16, ON by default. This groups objects according to the "aggregated by" option you have chosen. E.g. if you have chosen "Module", then objects are automatically "grouped" by Module.
    You have to double click a link between nodes to get to object level and then the grouping is applied automatically.




In releases ≥ 2.19, you may do manual visual grouping. It implies you may: 

  • View the objects present in the grouped node all the time.
  • Drag and drop the object to the grouped node.
  • Remove/Ungroup the object present in the grouped node.

In releases ≥ 2.19, the 'Visual Grouping' icon is hidden in Level 1.

In releases ≥ 2.16

Visual Grouping is enabled by default and is applicable when working in the objects level in specific "aggregated by" modes.

You may visually group the objects in Module, Service, Architecture Model aggregated by scopes on drill down of edges (links).

Visual grouping can be triggered and removed from the left menu visual group option. It can also be triggered or removed using shortcut keys alt+c and alt+v respectively.

Grouping and un-grouping (removing the grouping) will not change the position of node/s (as shown in below screens).


You may see the edges (or links) between visually grouped objects by clicking on the objects (as shown in the below screen). This feature helps to view/understand the relationship between object and parent. Type/name of the edge is displayed when a node is selected (as show in the below screen).

You may change the display by changing the layout or by changing the direction in visual grouping (as shown in the below screen).

Visual grouping in level mode (Applicable to all releases)

The Visual Grouping option enables you to visualize a specific level grouping in another level. For example, if you are working in level 5 you can choose to view the nodes in level 5 using the grouping from any of the other levels 1 - 4. Choosing Level 1 when in Level 5 (for example) will show the following: the rectangle shapes are added to the view to indicate which nodes would be grouped in their respective grouping - e.g. in this example:

  • Service
  • User Interaction
  • Data Services

To remove the visualization, choose the Remove Visualisation option:


Add tags feature

Only visible when working in drill down investigation mode, beyond Level 5.

See User Guide - Working with tags.

Add Object type nodeSee User Guide - Working with custom Object type nodes. Only available in Application layers view mode at Level 5 and not in drill down beyond Level 5.

Diagram options:

  • Object Label
  • Relationship Label
  • Badge




Object Label: Hide/unhide:

This option helps to hide and unhide the Object Label.

Relationship Label: Hide/unhide:

This option shows the relationship between two objects.

Badge: Shows the number of objects in a node (it does not include objects of other nodes). You can hide/unhide it.

Ungroup/group links
Only functions when working in drill down investigation mode, beyond Level 5.

Toggles between grouped links/edges (default position) and ungrouped.

Explanation: some links/edges in the drill down view will be "highlighted". This indicates that there is more than one link between the objects and therefore these links/edges are grouped:

Using the Ungroup links option, all links between the two objects will be displayed:

Use the option again to toggle between the two states (grouped/ungrouped).

Hide/Unhide
Only visible when working in drill down investigation mode, beyond Level 5.

Enables you to hide selected objects from the view. Also available in the right click contextual menu.

Annotation featureSee User Guide - Using the Annotate feature for more information.

Access the Tutorial feature.

Only visible when the Tutorial feature is enabled for your login.

Displays the Tutorial - an interactive guide to help understand the various features available in CAST Imaging. It provides an application walkthrough using three major steps to explain application architecture, drill down capabilities and annotations. Each step has a set of actions defined for you to work through. Certain actions also have a help button to identify the elements. Following all the steps and actions will provide a better understanding of the core CAST Imaging capabilities:

In releases  2.16, when you complete the tutorial, following screen is displayed.

Access the external documentation.N/A

Provides three menu options:

  • What's new
  • Help
  • Documentation

Access

  • What's new
  • Help
  • Documentation

Available in CAST Imaging ≥ 2.18.0

Lets you access the following pages:

Click to enlarge

Other "on view" icons

Top right corner

CloseVisible only when an object has been double clicked in Level 5 and the Investigation window is open - this icon allows you close the Investigation window.

Show Object Properties

When a node is selected, clicking this icon will show the Object Properties dialog:

If the object properties cannot be retrieved in a timely manner, a retry button will be displayed:

Show callees

In ≥ 2.15Show callees has been renamed as Highlight callees and moved into the right click contextual menu. See: User Guide - Using the Highlight options.

Visible only in the Object level view in all scopes when at least one object is selected. The Show callees option highlights all objects that are called by the selected object. In the example below, the selected object is "SalesCreated.html" and two other objects are shown as being called: the display_date function (part of the date.js file) and the date.js file itself:

Click to enlarge

Show path

In ≥ 2.15, the existing option Show Path has been renamed as Highlight Path and moved into the right click contextual menu. See: User Guide - Using the Highlight options.

Visible only in the Object level view in all scopes when at least one object is selected. The Show path option highlights all paths between selected objects - if a path exists:

  • By default, the button is displayed but disabled when one object is selected:

  • When two objects are selected (use the mouse click and the CTRL key to select the additional object) the button is enabled:

When the Show path button is clicked, if a path exists between the two selected objects, it will be highlighted, otherwise a message will explain that no paths can be found.

Example

In the example below, the selected source object is "CreateOrdersInvoice" (SQL Server Procedure) and the SQL Server Table object "Invoice" has been selected as the target. Then, ALL paths between the two are highlighted in red:

A similar feature called Path Finder is available in User Guide - Using the Path Finder feature.

The difference between Path Finder and Show Paths:

  • Show Paths displays all paths between two selected objects
  • Path Finder not only displays all paths between two selected objects, but also the shortest path between the objects and the link types between the objects

Bottom left corner

Create View

In releases ≥ 2.16, the options "Maximum number of views"  and "Create view"  (available in Saved view and Custom view) are removed. 

This icon is only visible in in Saved views and Search views modes. It enables you to create multiple "views" or "vignettes" to investigate a specific set of items. Vignettes can be created from the "base" view in Saved views and Search views modes.

View creation

To create the view, select the items you are interested in, then click the Create View option. The view "vignette" will be created (click to enlarge):

By default a maximum of 6 views can be created. This restriction can be changed in Configuring display preferences.

View

  • Each view can be dragged holding on to the drag icon present in the bottom right and dragging it.
  • The view can be re-centered by clicking the icon in the bottom left.

Save view

You can save the contents of the currently selected vignette in a "saved view", by clicking the Save icon in the top right;

Please note the following:

  • if creating vignettes from a saved view, when you perform a save, you will lose the original saved view as CAST Imaging will update this original view with the objects from the vignette.
  • if you have created more than one vignette, you can only save one of those vignettes to a saved view (the one that is selected when you click save).

Delete view

  • Each view can be deleted by clicking the close icon in the top right corner of the view. You will be prompted before the delete occurs.

Transaction Details

Update Start and End points

Transaction details option lets you view, update and download the transaction details. This icon is visible only in the "Simple Call Graph" mode. See User Guide - Transaction scope#Updatingtheresults.

Update Start and End points option lets you Update Start and End points. See User Guide - Using the Get Start and End points feature#Updatingtheresults.

Current view searchSee Current view search.

Zoom inZoom in to view more detail. You can also use the roller button on your mouse to zoom in.

Focus centerFocus center option lets you auto-adjust, to include all nodes.

Zoom outZoom out to view less detail. You can also use the roller button on your mouse to zoom out.

Undo/Redo

These options are available only at Level 5 and Objects mode (and also in Saved views which have objects and sub-objects included). They allow you to undo/redo actions such as:

  • adding callers/callees
  • repositioning objects
  • adding custom objects/links
  • ungrouping manual and auto-grouped objects
  • hide/unhide objects

The keyboard commands CTRL + X and CTRL + Y are also supported.

Bottom right corner



Object level switcher

Use this to change levels. Only available in Application scope and CAST Taxonomy aggregation mode. This has the same effect as using the drop down:

 

Stop (disabled and enabled)

In the majority of scenarios, this button will be disabled (gray). However, when accessing a node (double click) which contains more than 1000 child nodes, or more than 2000 edges (thresholds can be changed in Configuring display preferences), a progressive rendering system is invoked in order to avoid situations where the rendering process locks the browser. Portions of the full graph are displayed progressively in steps and when this occurs, a message will be displayed in the bottom right corner:

Closing the message will reveal the Stop icon enabled and flashing in a blue colour. You can click this button to stop the progressive loading.

This behaviour is only for ≤ 2.9.0 and has been replaced with the Stop Layout button.

 

Expand All / Collapse All

Visible only in Level 5 views when using the view/vignette, or in other views in where the vignette is available (Architecture model modeModule view mode etc.):

The options will:

  • expand all (ungroup) all nodes in one go
  • collapse all (regroup) all nodes in one go (only displayed once the Expand All option has been selected).

Full screenTo view the entire graph/view in browser (full screen mode).

Centre

Stop Layout
  • In releases ≥ 2.16, to decrease the time taken to plot enormous graphs the progressive rendering behavior is eliminated (where you had to click "Stop layout" to halt the animation) from Imaging for all large graphs (due to the improved turn around time).
  • This feature works for releases from  2.10 till 2.15.

The Stop Layout button allows the user to stop the graph loading when a very large graph is requested. 

When accessing a node (double click) which contains more than 1000 child nodes, or more than 2000 edges (thresholds can be changed in Configuring display preferences), a progressive rendering system is invoked in order to avoid situations where the rendering process locks the browser. Portions of the full graph are displayed progressively in steps and when this occurs, a message will be displayed in the centre:

Click to enlarge

The Stop Layout button replaces the existing stop icons in the bottom right corner and has the same behaviour as stop icons.

Legend

The legend is displayed in all scopes and views and provides an interactive list of the current objects/nodes in the current view. By default, the legend is in "expand mode", showing information about Objects, such as the object type, any relationships (links) between objects, any tagged objects and any object properties such as external libraries. 

For details refer: User Guide - GUI - Legend panel.

Interactivity

All items in the legend are interactive:

Objects / RelationshipsClicking either of these items in the legend will hide/show any matching object/node in the view.
Properties / Tags

Clicking either of these items in the legend will highlight any matching object/node in the view. For example, the tag "TEST" has been clicked and one object is highlighted in the view which has been tagged with this tag: