- Extension ID
- What's new?
- Description
- Files analyzed
- Supported Python versions
- Function Point, Quality and Sizing support
- AIP Core compatibility
- Supported DBMS servers
- Prerequisites
- Framework support
- Dependencies with other extensions
- Download and installation instructions
- Source code discovery
- What results can you expect?
- Limitations
Summary: This document provides basic information about the extension providing Python support.
Extension ID
com.castsoftware.python
What's new?
Please see Python 1.4 - Release Notes for more information
Description
This extension provides support for Python.
In what situation should you install this extension?
If your application contains Python source code (both .py and .jy extensions are supported) and you want to view these object types and their links with other objects, then you should install this extension.
Files analyzed
| Icons | File | Extension | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Python | .py, | Python files - standard extension. |
| Jython | .jy | By convention, Python files to be run in a Java implementation of the Python interpreter. |
| - | YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) | *.yml, *.yaml, | Files related to the YAML language, commonly used for configuration purposes. Necessary to interpret Amazon Web Services deployment code. |
Supported Python versions
The following table displays the supported versions matrix:
| Version | Support |
|---|---|
| 3.x |  |
| 2.x | |
| 1.x |  |
- 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 | Security |
|---|---|---|
| | |
CAST AIP release | Supported |
|---|---|
| 8.3.x | |
Supported DBMS servers
This extension is compatible with the following DBMS servers:
DBMS | Supported |
|---|---|
| CSS / PostgreSQL | |
Prerequisites
| An installation of any compatible release of AIP Core (see table above) |
Framework support
Web Service Frameworks | Support |
|---|---|
| requests | |
| urllib | |
| urllib2 | |
| urllib3 | |
| httplib | |
| httplib2 | |
| http.client | |
| aiohttp | |
| flask | |
| falcon | |
| web2py | |
| Cherrypy | |
| FastAPI | |
Dependencies with other extensions
Some CAST extensions require the presence of other CAST extensions in order to function correctly. The Python extension requires that the following other CAST extensions are also installed:
- Web Services Linker (internal technical extension)
- CAST AIP Internal extension (internal technical extension)
Download and installation instructions
The extension will be automatically downloaded and installed in AIP Console when you deliver Python code. You can also manually install the extension using the Application - Extensions interface. When installed, follow the instructions below to run a new analysis/snapshot to generate new results:
- Modern application onboarding - run the initial deep analysis
- Legacy application onboarding - Step-by-step onboarding - Run the analysis
Source code discovery
A discoverer is provided with the extension to automatically detect Python code: a Python project will be discovered for the package's root folder when at least one .py or .jy (jython) file is detected in the root folder or any sub-folders. For every Python project located, one Universal Technology Analysis Unit will be created:
Analysis - Automatic skipping of unit-test code and external libraries
The analyzer skips files that are recognized as forming part of testing code, i.e., in principle, code not pertaining to production code. The reason to avoid inclusion of testing code is that many Quality Rule violations are overrepresented in test code, either because code tends to be of poorer quality (certainly not critical) or prevalence of particular testing patterns. Accounting for test code would negatively impact the total score of the project.
Similarly we skip folders that contain external python libraries. Currently we only skip the canonical folders site-packages and dist-packages (the latter being used in certain Linux distributions). Not only analyzing external libraries is discouraged, but it can interfere with correct interpretation of supported libraries and frameworks, and have a serious impact in memory consumption and overall analysis performance.
The heuristics used by the analyzer are based on detecting (unit-test) library imports, and file and path naming conventions as summarized in the table below:
Type | Value | HeaderLines | MinimumCount |
|---|---|---|---|
| FilePath | **/test_*.py | ||
| FilePath | **/*_test.py | ||
| FilePath | **/*_test_*.py | ||
| FilePath | **/test/*.py | ||
| FilePath | **/tests/*.py | ||
| FileContent | import unittest | 12 | |
| FileContent | from unittest import | 12 | |
| FileContent | from nose.tools import | 12 | |
| FileContent | self.assert | 2 | |
| FilePath | **/site-packages/** | ||
| FilePath | **/dist-packages/** | ||
| FilePath | **/Python*/Lib/** | ||
| FilePath | **/Python*/Scripts/** | ||
| FilePath | **/Python*/Include/** | ||
| FilePath | **/Python*/Bin/** |
- The ** symbol represents any arbitrary path string, whereas * represents any string without directory slashes.
- The heuristics above should also similarly valid for .jy (jython) files.
- FilePath match is case-insensitive
What results can you expect?
Once the analysis/snapshot generation has completed, you can view the results in the normal manner:
Python Class and method example
iOS Front-end connected to a Python Flask Back-end.
Objects
The following specific objects are displayed in CAST Enlighten:
| Icon | Description |
|---|---|
| Python Project, Python External Library |
| Python Module |
| Python Class |
 | Python Method |
 | Python Script |
 | Python GET (urllib, urllib2, httplib, httplib2, aiohttp) service |
 | Python POST (urllib, urllib2, httplib, httplib2, aiohttp) service |
 | Python PUT (urllib, urllib2, httplib, httplib2, aiohttp) service |
 | Python DELETE (urllib, urllib2, httplib, httplib2, aiohttp) service |
| Python Web Service Any Operation |
| Python Query, Python ORM Mapping, Python File Query |
| RabbitMQ Python QueueCall |
| RabbitMQ Python QueueReceive |
| Python Call To Java Program |
| Python Call To Generic Program |
| Amazon Web Services | |
| Python Call to AWS Lambda Function |
| Python Call to Unknown AWS Lambda Function |
| Python AWS Lambda GET Operation |
| Python AWS Lambda POST Operation |
| Python AWS Lambda PUT Operation |
| Python AWS Lambda DELETE Operation |
| Python AWS Lambda ANY Operation |
| Python AWS SQS Publisher, Python AWS SNS Publisher |
| Python AWS SQS Receiver, Python AWS SNS Receiver |
| Python AWS SQS Unknown Publisher, Python AWS SNS Unknown Publisher |
| Python AWS SQS Unknown Receiver, Python AWS SNS Unknown Receiver |
| Python S3 Bucket |
| Python Unknown S3 Bucket |
| Python DynamoDB Database |
| Python DynamoDB Table |
| Python Unknown DynamoDB Table |
| Python Email, Python SMS |
Python callable artifact
Python Script, Python Module and Python Method objects form part of Python (callable) artifacts.
Links
The following links are created:
- call links between methods
- inherit link between hierarchically related classes
- refer link from methods to class (constructor call)
- use link between modules through import
- call links between Python callable artifacts and Python Call objects
- call links between Python Call objects and external programs or lambda functions
The following links are created between Python ORM Mapping objects and database table objects:
- useSelectLink in case of SELECT operation
- useDeleteLink in case of DELETE operation
- useInsertLink in case of INSERT operation
- useUpdateLink in case of UPDATE operation
- call links in case of generic operation on S3 buckets
Structural Rules
The following structural rules are provided:
You can also find a global list here: https://technologies.castsoftware.com/rules?sec=t_1021000&ref=||
Expected results for supported frameworks
Refer the following pages for the results that you can expect for each supported framework:
Limitations
- Not fully supported Python Decorator function.
- Quality rules do not apply to code inside the class definition (class or "static" variables)
- The "Avoid disabling certificate check when requesting secured urls" for 'urllib3' is only partially supported by detecting the call to 'urllib3.disable_warnings'.
- Limited Python resolution that leads to missing links:
- No support for __all__
- No support for variable of type class, function
- Flask:
- Objects for other web service operations such as PATCH are not generated.
- The endpoint abstraction layer between functions and annotations is not considered. When using add_url_rule the endpoint argument is taken as the calling function name.
- Cherrypy:
Only support default request.dispatcher "cherrypy.dispatch.MethodDispatcher()".
- Django framework is not supported.
- Java-Python interoperability via Jython is not supported. However the files with the specific extension .jy for Jython is analyzed as a regular Python file.
- Message queues
- To generate queue message objects the queue name has to be initialized explicitly in the code (dynamic naming not supported).
