Creating or modifying a custom extension using the CAST Universal Analyzer framework on Documentation - V2

What is the CAST Universal Analyzer and Framework

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

If you want your custom extension to analyze a language not already supported by CAST, then you need to configure the Universal Analyzer to do so using the proprietary CAST Universal Analyzer Framework (a set of categories that describe a language and how to analyze that language).

This is a three step process:

Define the language and objects for the language you want to analyze
Define how to analyze the language you want to analyze - only necessary if analyzing source code
Test the configuration files for completeness and then include the configuration files in a custom extension

Info

Please note that this is NOT a simple process and is more often reserved for CAST Administrators.

Appendix - Special Cases

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Objects with no end pattern and siblings that are recognized using

Defining an object in the xxxLanguagePattern file that has:

no end pattern
siblings whose properties are identified using the element

can cause Universal Analyzer to incorrectly identify the end of the object because it in fact contains the start of the following object. If this is the case, you need to make sure that in the localization pattern for the sibling objects (i.e. those that have a property recognized using the element) you include a Regular Expression that takes into account the property that is recognized using the element.

Ensuring your existing Universal Analyzer extension files are compatible with CAST AIP

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

On this page:

Target audience:

CAST Administrators

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Summary: This page describes what you need to do if you have existing custom Universal Analyzer extensions (language packages) used with previous versions of CAST AIP and you want to use them with this release and any future release of CAST AIP.

Introduction

CAST has made changes to the way in which Universal Analyzer extensions (language packages) are handled:

The Universal Analyzer is unicode compliant, therefore it can work with unicode encoded source files. As such, the extension’s configuration XML files also need to be unicode compliant.
CAST uses the Perl Regular Expression engine called BOOST (previously the TCL engine was used), therefore Regular Expressions that are defined in your extension files must use the BOOST Regular Expression format.
A change to the metamodel format has also been introduced.
For those working on custom Universal Analyzer extensions created for use with CAST AIP 6.4.x, a specific change is required.

Each change is detailed below.

Configuring CAST to accept your Universal Analyzer language package

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

On this page:

Info

Summary: Once you have created your language package, there are various steps you need to go through to ensure that CAST takes your package into account correctly. This section describes the required actions.

Step 1 - Validation

The first step is to validate your language package. This is done using the UA Assistant (UAAssistant.exe) that can be found at the root of your CAST installation. This tool checks that your language packages are correct and conform to the required standards before they are used, thus avoiding errors during an analysis.