Introduction
The Transaction scope offers a view based on the individual Transactions that exist in the current Application:
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In ≥ 2.20.0
In ≥ 2.20.0, Transaction search modal is consistent with Global search. Note that in comparison to previous releases, there is no longer a filter for excluding transactions "with end-point" and "without end-point" - instead the search modal will systematically return both complete (with end-points) and broken transactions (without end-points) and make them available for selection:
In ≤ 2.18.0
For any Transaction, you cannot hide a grouped node.
Accessing the Transaction scope
To access the Transaction scope, click the Transaction entry in the Investigation panel:
Choose a specific Transaction to display. Transactions are listed in alphabetical order in the Search for Transactions dropdown - by default the first in the list is displayed in the view. The number in square brackets indicates the number of transactions that are available. If there are none, the option will be deactivated.
Filtering the list of available transactions
Sometimes the list of transactions is very large and it can therefore be difficult to locate the item you need. If this is the case, you can use the filter option to reduce the list:
This opens a set of filtering options - you can use any of these options in isolation, a combination, or all of them. Click Reset to clear any changes you have made, or Done to apply the filtering settings.
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| Input | Filter the available items based on the item's entry point. Choose an entry point from the list - only items that include the chosen entry point will be made available. | ||||||||
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| Link types | Filter the available items based on the link type used:
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| Output | Filter the available items with or without an end point. By default, the filtering is applied to WITH items: this means that only transactions WITH an end-point are displayed by default. You can alternatively (or in addition) choose an end point from the drop down list - only items that include the chosen end point will be made available. | ||||||||
| Tags | Available in ≥ 2.16. Filter the available Tags associated with the respective Transaction or Data Call Graph (DCG). Only items that include the chosen Tags will be displayed.
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| Technologies | Available in ≥ 2.17. Filter the available Technologies associated with the respective Transaction or Data Call Graph (DCG). Only items that include the chosen Technologies will be displayed.
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| Result list | The result list displays all items that match the filter applied in the left hand panel. If there are still too many items even after applying the filter, you can search the results using the Search bar at the top:
In addition, you can further refine the search options if required, using the icon highlighted below:
Note that it is possible to set a custom default setting for these two options via the Advanced Search Configuration options in Configuring display preferences. You can also sort on Name (by default the items are sorted in alphabetical ascending order) and No. of Objects (number of objects refers to the total number of objects in the Reduced Call Graph (not the Full Call Graph)):
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For example, to filter items where the entry point object type is a "Java Class", select the item, click Done and the right hand panel will update with the list of items that match your filter:
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Finally select the item you wish to investigate and it will be displayed in the view.
Perspective selection
By default, the perspective (how the data is displayed) will be set to CAST Taxonomy (the default layout configured by CAST Imaging and the only layout available) and Level 4 - you can find out more about the Perspective options in User Guide - GUI - Investigate panel.
Navigation flow
Levels
Levels 4, 5 and Objects are available for selection when CAST Taxonomy aggregation is selected in the Investigate panel - these levels provide ever greater details about the items within the selected layer:
Actions
In ≥ 2.18, Vignettes are replaced by Multiple Tabs (new tab/s).
| Action | Location | Result/Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Double click on node | Level 4 | In version ≥ 2.12, double clicking a node will transition to level 5. |
| Level 5 | Drill down to Vignette mode i.e.: Objects level + drill mode Children + Caller/Callee + Group by communities (depending on the object selected). See also User Guide - GUI - Investigate panel for more information on Drill and Communities modes. Click to expand
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| Vignette mode | Expand and investigate the selected object to show its sub-objects. Note that when all sub-objects of the selected object are displayed, a message is shown to explain this:
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| Objects | View source code of the object. See User Guide - Viewing source code. | |
| Right click on node | Level 4 |
If the object properties cannot be retrieved in a timely manner, a retry button will be displayed:
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| Level 5 |
If the object properties cannot be retrieved in a timely manner, a retry button will be displayed:
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| Vignette mode |
If the object properties cannot be retrieved in a timely manner, a retry button will be displayed:
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| Objects |
If the object properties cannot be retrieved in a timely manner, a retry button will be displayed:
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| Single click on edge | Levels 4 and 5 | N/A |
| Objects and Vignette mode | Displays all the methods that are linked between classes and provides additional actions such as:
See User Guide - Using the Method view for more information. | |
| Double click on edge | Levels 4 / 5 / Vignette / Objects | N/A |
Transaction call graph display modes
Transactions are displayed at object level in three different call graph modes depending on the number of objects in the call graph:
If the call graph contains less than 500 objects, then by default, the transaction call graph will always be displayed in Reduced Call Graph mode. This mode displays less objects than the Full Call Graph mode, which are determined during the application import process. | |
| Available in Imaging ≥ 2.17. If the call graph contains more than 500 objects, then by default the transaction call graph will always be displayed in Simplified call graph mode. This mode displays less objects than Reduced Call Graph and Full Call Graph mode. This mode can also be accessed manually by clicking the Show Simplified Call Graph button in the left hand panel. | |
| Full call graph | This mode displays ALL the objects in the call graph and therefore may take some time to display if there are a large number of objects. This mode is never displayed by default (even if there are only a small number of objects in the call graph) but it can be enabled in either of the other two modes by clicking the Full Call Graph button in the left hand panel. |
Reduced call graph
If the call graph contains less than 500 objects, then by default, the transaction call graph will always be displayed in Reduced Call Graph mode. This mode displays less objects than the Full Call Graph mode, in other words this is an "uncomplicated" transaction call graph: specific nodes and links that are less important will be removed from the view to improve performance. The nodes/links that are displayed are determined automatically during the Application export process.
Take the following example transaction which is displayed in reduced call graph mode:
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To view either the Full Call Graph or the Simplified Call Graph, click the relevant option in the left hand panel:
Simplified call graph
If the call graph contains more than 500 objects, then by default the transaction call graph will always be displayed in Simplified call graph mode. This mode displays only one level of objects along with associated Start and End points.
Manually switching to Simplified Call Graph mode
It is possible to switch manually into the Simplified Call Graph mode from either the Reduced Call Graph or the Full Call Graph by clicking the Show Simplified Call Graph button in the left hand panel:
If you click the Show Simplified Call Graph button and if the Simplified Call Graph view is unavailable (i.e., there are too few objects in the transaction) then CAST Imaging will stay in the current view. For example:
- When you click Show Simplified Call Graph button in Reduced Call Graph mode, and if there is no Simplified Call Graph, then the view will remain in Reduced Call Graph mode.
- When you click Show Simplified Call Graph button in Full Call Graph mode and if there is no Simplified Call Graph, then the view will remain in Full Call Graph mode.
Disabling Simplified Call Graph mode
It is also possible to switch manually back into Reduced Call Graph mode by clicking the Show Simplified Call Graph button, thereby disabling the mode:
Updating the simplified call graph results
When Simplified Call Graph mode is displayed, a dialog box (shown below in "1") is displayed indicating that it is possible to update the results, i.e. by changing the depth level. This dialog can also be toggled using the "i" button (2) when manually switching into Simplified Call Graph mode:
Clicking Update in the dialog box will display a configuration panel on the right hand side enabling you to change the depth level:
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| 1: Maximum number of hops | Maximum depth level for path from the source object. This is calculated by CAST Imaging when the configuration dialog box is displayed. |
| 2: Reset | Reset all options to their default (No. of depths is reset to "1" and not the maximum depth available for the current source object). |
| 3: Number of hops (depths of path) | Set the required depth level between the source object and the end points. By default this will be set to the current depth displayed in the view. |
| 4: Maximum number of hops (All depths of path) | Click to set the depth level to the maximum possible (indicated by "Maximum number of paths"). |
| 5: Load | Click to reload the view with the new configuration: nodes, edges and reference links will be added or removed on the same view based on number of depths you have chosen. If there are too many objects to display (i.e. the depth value is too high) then the following pop-up is displayed allowing you to cancel the process entirely (Cancel), or reconfigure your options (Update):
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| 6: Download | As an alternative to loading a view (which can sometimes take some time if the view contains many objects), you can download the results (in CSV format). The results provided in the .CSV file are based on the value chosen in the Number of hops option:
Selecting this option will start the generation of the data and a CSV format will be downloaded. This file contains the following information:
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Full call graph
This mode displays ALL the objects in the call graph and therefore may take some time to display if there are a large number of objects. This mode is never displayed by default (even if there are only a small number of objects in the call graph) but it can be enabled in Simplified Call Graph or Reduced Call Graph modes by clicking the Full Call Graph button in the left hand panel:
Disabling Full Call Graph mode
Clicking the Full Call Graph button in the left hand panel when this mode is active will automatically switch back to Reduced Call Graph mode:
Notify objects count
If the Full Call Graph contains more objects/nodes than the number defined in the Notify objects count setting configured in the display preferences panel, then a notification will be displayed to prompt you to choose whether:
| Release | Popup | Description |
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| ≥ 2.10.x |
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| ≤ 2.9.x |
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Transaction start and end points (input/output)
Transaction start (input) and end (output) points are highlighted in the view at Objects level using red circles around the items if they exist:
Legend
Click the Input or Output items in the right hand legend to highlight the items:
Shortest path
A related feature available at Object level is known as the Shortest Path feature and is controlled by the option in the left panel - it is disabled by default:
This option highlights the shortest path between the entry point and end point nodes, where multiple start end end nodes are present in the view:
| Shortest Path disabled | Shortest Path enabled |
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Note that if no shortest path exists, a message is displayed in the bottom right corner:
Huge Transaction, content is filtered
You may see the following message when looking through the list of available transactions:
This indicates that during the data export/import process, the tool identified that the transaction contained more than 10,000 objects, and therefore stopped the processing action for this specific transaction. In other words, the detail of this transaction has not been exported and is therefore unavailable.
It is possible to modify the threshold (default 10,000 objects) at which the CAST Imaging exporter tool will consider that a transaction is "huge" - see Configuring huge transaction or data call graph threshold.
Drill down behaviour at Objects level
When drilling down into a specific object at Objects level to view the object's sub-objects, and when all sub-objects of the selected object are displayed, a message is shown to explain this:
