1.0.0

Installing a new release

CAST does not support the upgrade of CAST Architecture Checker from any previous release. Therefore, CAST recommends uninstalling the previous release of CAST Architecture Checker and then installing the new release from scratch.

Updates

New icons for Architecture Checker

New icons have been introduced for Architecture Checker:

Architecture Checker specific connection profiles

It is now possible to create Connection profiles from within the Architecture Checker GUI (in previous beta releases, this was not possible). See CAST Architecture Checker - Connect and select application for more information:

Open Model folder location persists

Persistence for the location of the most recently used folder for the Open Model option has been introduced. The behavior is as follows:

By default the current user's Documents folder will be opened the first time that the Open Model option is used.
Subsequent uses of the Open Model option will open the folder where a .CASTArchitect/.CASTRule file was most recently selected and opened. This location is stored in the following file:

%APPDATA%\CAST\Archi-Checker-QR\<version>\archichecker.properties

...using the following key:

dataset.currentDirectory=C\:\\Users\\James\\Desktop\\ArchiChecker

Exporting Quality Rule Models now requires all Documentation fields to be populated

All Documentation fields in the model Properties dialog box must be populated before exporting the Quality Rule Model:

The Description field in the General tab is also required:

If any fields are not populated, the following error will be displayed (example with no Documentation fields populated):

This requirement is in addition to the existing requirements to enter an ID and define at least one Technical Criterion. See CAST Architecture Checker - Exporting a Quality Rule Model to a new extension package.

Export Quality Rule Model details persist

Persistence for the export Quality Rule Model details has been introduced. The behavior is as follows:

The first export will have blank details in the export dialog box and user is required to enter the details for the export.
The next export will display the details used in the previous export. If the model is new, Architecture Checker will add it in to the previous export package extension, but users can change this if required.

The details are stored in the following file:

%APPDATA%\CAST\Archi-Checker-QR\<version>\archichecker.properties

...using the following keys:

dataset.exportDirectory
dataset.exportName
dataset.exportVersion
dataset.exportAuthor
dataset.exportTitle

1.0.0-beta2

Installing a new release

At the current time, CAST does not support the upgrade of CAST Architecture Checker. Therefore, CAST recommends uninstalling the previous release of CAST Architecture Checker and then installing the new release from scratch.

Updates

User can see which links are dynamic and which are not

When working with an Architecture Model and viewing the links that violate the model, it is now possible to see whether the link between the two objects is a Dynamic Link and additional information about the Dynamic Link. Two new columns have been added to represent this information. See CAST Architecture Checker - Check model for more information:

Batch for installation: do not store the user/password of db connection

In the previous release, the batch script used to install a Quality Rule Model extension was using hard coded credentials for the target CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL server. This presented a security risk and it also meant that users that were not using the default credentials were not able to use the batch script.

This behaviour has now been changed and the batch script will now prompt for the database credentials:

Improvements to Properties dialog box

When building selection criteria for Set or Layer blocks using the Identification category in the Properties dialog box:

Model specific criteria are now available (in previous releases, the same options were available regardless of the model being edited, causing issues for Quality Rule Models). See also CAST Architecture Checker - Working with block elements.

Architecture Model
Quality Rule Model

1.0.0-beta1

First official beta release of the standalone CAST Architecture Checker.

Updates

CAST Architecture Checker now standalone with its own setup installer

The CAST Architecture Checker has been decoupled from CAST AIP and will now be developed as a standalone application with its own lifecycle. CAST Architecture Checker has its own setup installer and no longer requires that CAST AIP is installed on the same workstation. The existing "legacy" CAST Architecture Checker shipped with CAST AIP will continue to be shipped with CAST AIP for the moment, but no new updates will be applied to it, instead all updates and new features will be added in the standalone CAST Architecture Checker.

New model type introduced

This release of the CAST Architecture Checker introduces a new type of model in addition to the existing Architecture Model. This new model is known as the Quality Rule Model (.CASTRule file), and its goal is to enable you to develop a rule to check specific architecture violations:

See CAST Architecture Checker - Define a new Quality Rule Model for more information.

Check the Quality Rule Model interactively

You can connect to a CAST AIP Management Service schema and check your Quality Rule Model against a "real" application. Violations of the rule can be seen immediately via a number in the "Violation" set heading:

See CAST Architecture Checker - creating an example Quality Rule Model from A to Z for more information.

Export the model as a CAST AIP extension

The Quality Rule Model can be exported as a standard CAST AIP extension - one model is equivalent to one "rule" when the extension is installed in CAST AIP. A batch script is made available for easy installation of the extension in your CAST AIP schemas.