Note that the C Family extension has been renamed as the Objective-C Analyzer extension.

On this page:

Target audience:

Users of the extension providing support for applications written in Objective-C.

Summary: This document provides information about the extension supporting applications written in Objective-C.

Description

This extension provides support for applications written in Objective-C.

In what situation should you install this extension?

If your application contains Objective-C source code and you want to view these object types and their links with other objects, then you should install this extension.

How does the CAST Delivery Manager Tool deal with discovering source code?

The C Family extension does not contain any CAST Delivery Manager Tool Discoverers of its own, therefore:

Traditional Microsoft Visual C/C++ projects will automatically be detected by the discoverers embedded in the CAST Delivery Manager Tool and there is no need to manually create an Analysis Unit in the CAST Management Studio.
Other source code projects are not automatically detected by the CAST Delivery Manager Tool (for example non-Microsoft project types) and in this situation, you will need to create an Analysis Unit manually.

For more information about discovery, please see C - Cpp - Objective-C - Project discovery.

What are the differences with the legacy C/C++ analyzer?

CAST AIP has provided support for analyzing C/C++ source code via its C/C++ analyzer (provided out of box in CAST AIP) for some time now. The aim of this C Family extension is to provide improved support for C/C++ as well as introducing support for Objective-C (which the legacy analyzer does not support). The extension makes extensive use of the open source tools LLVM and Clang to analyze the source code.

The legacy C/C++ analyzer and the C Family extension will both produce differing results in terms of objects/links and Quality Rules if the two are used to analyze the same application source code.

What are the differences with the CAST AIP extension for iOS?

CAST AIP has provided support for analyzing C/C++ source code via its C/C++ Analyzer (provided out of box in CAST AIP and as an extension (see C and Cpp Analyzer) for some time now. The aim of this C Family extension is to provide support for Objective-C (which the C/C++ Analyzer does not support). The C Family extension makes extensive use of the open source tools LLVM and Clang to analyze the source code.

Function Point, Quality and Sizing support

This extension provides the following support:

Function Points (transactions): a green tick indicates that OMG Function Point counting and Transaction Risk Index are supported
Quality and Sizing: a green tick indicates that CAST can measure size and that a minimum set of Quality Rules exist

Function Points (transactions)	Quality and Sizing

CAST AIP compatibility

This extension is compatible with:

CAST AIP release	Supported
8.2.x
8.1.x
8.0.x
7.3.x

Supported DBMS servers

This extension is compatible with the following supported DBMS servers:

CAST AIP release	CSS	Oracle	Microsoft
All supported releases

Prerequisites

An installation of any compatible release of CAST AIP (see table above)

Dependencies with other extensions

Some CAST extensions require the presence of other CAST extensions in order to function correctly. The C Family extension requires that the following other CAST extensions are also installed:

Web services linker service (internal technical extension)

Note that when using the CAST Extension Downloader to download the extension and the Manage Extensions interface in CAST Server Manager to install the extension, any dependent extensions are automatically downloaded and installed for you. You do not need to do anything.

Download and installation instructions

Please see:

The latest release status of this extension can be seen when downloading it from the CAST Extend server.

Packaging, delivering and analyzing your source code

Once the extension is installed, no further configuration changes are required before you can package your source code and run an analysis. The process of packaging, delivering and analyzing your source code is as follows:

Packaging and delivery

Using the CAST Delivery Manager Tool:

create a new Version
create a new Package for your C Family source code using the Files on your file system option:

Define the root folder of your Application source code:

Run the Package action: depending on this type of project you are packaging, the CAST Delivery Manager Tool will either discover a project or not:

Microsoft Visual C/C++ project - project discovered

Non-Microsoft project - no project discovered

Deliver the Version

Configuring the source code in the CAST Management Studio

Using the CAST Management Studio in the Application editor:

Accept and deploy the Version in the CAST Management Studio. Depending on the type of project that has been packaged, Analysis Units will have been created automatically or not:

Microsoft Visual C/C++ project

If your source code contains Microsoft Visual C/C++ projects, then an Analysis Unit will have been automatically created in the Current Version tab for each project discovered by the CAST Delivery Manager Tool:

You now need to change the analyzer engine to the new Clang based analyzer.
Open each Analysis Unit created automatically and move to the Analysis tab.
Change the Analyzer to invoke option to the Clang-based analyzer option as shown below:

Note that it is possible to change this option at Application level, however, this will change the option for all C/C++/Objective-C Analysis Units, which may not be appropriate.

Non-Microsoft project

If your source code contains Non-Microsoft Visual projects, then no Analysis Units will have been automatically created in the Current Version tab - this is the expected behaviour:

You will now need to create an Analysis Unit for each of your projects. In the Current Version tab, add a new Analysis Unit selecting the Add new C/C++/Objective-C Analysis Unit option:

Edit the new Analysis Unit and configure in the Source Settings tab:
- a name for the Analysis Unit
- define the location of the deployed project source code (the CAST Management Studio will locate this automatically in the Deployment folder):

You now need to change the analyzer engine to the new Clang based analyzer.
Move to the Analysis tab.
Change the Analyzer to invoke option to the Clang-based analyzer option as shown below:

Note that it is possible to change this option at Application level, however, this will change the option for all C/C++/Objective-C Analysis Units, which may not be appropriate.

Analysis/snapshot generation

Run a test analysis on the Analysis Units
Make sure you have manually run the Import Assessment Models option.
Generate a new snapshot.

What results can you expect?

Once the analysis/snapshot generation has completed, you can view the results in the normal manner:

CAST Enlighten

CAST Management Studio analysis content

Objects

The following objects are displayed in CAST Enlighten:

C/C++

Icon	Description
	Constructor
	Class
	Class Folder
	Destructor
	Directory
	Enum
	Enum Item
	Free Function
	Global Variable
	Macro
	Member Function
	Member Variable
	Namespace
	Parameter
	Root Directory
	Source File
	Template Class
	Template Class Instance
	Template Constructor
	Template Constructor Instance
	Template Free Function
	Template Free Function Instance
	Template Member Function
	Template Member Function Instance
	Template Parameter
	Template Union
	Template Union Instance
	Typedef
	Union
	Additional File