Introduction

Microservices - also known as "microservice architecture" - is an approach to developing a single application as a suite of small services, each running in its own process and communicating with lightweight mechanisms, often an HTTP resource API. These services are built around business capabilities and independently deployable by fully automated deployment machinery (see https://martinfowler.com/tags/microservices.html). CAST AIP is able to detect these microservices during an analysis (with the assistance of a dedicated extension) and the subsequent results are made available in the CAST Imaging Service scope:

Click to enlarge

CAST Imaging > User Guide - Service scope > microservices.jpg

Enabling the Service scope

The Service scope requires that the Application in question has been analyzed with a specific extension installed, before it is exported/imported into CAST Imaging. Therefore the process is as follows:

Download, install and enable the following extension: https://extend.castsoftware.com/#/extension?id=com.castsoftware.architecture&version=latest for your Application
Run a new analysis of your Application
Export/import the Application into your CAST Imaging instance
Ensure you grant the appropriate permissions to access the application (if necessary)

Accessing the Service scope

To access the Service scope, click the Services scope entry in the Investigation panel (if there are no microservices available in the selected application, the entry will be greyed out), then choose a specific microservice from the list of those available in the Select Service dropdown:

CAST Imaging > User Guide - Service scope > microservices_access.jpg

Which will drill down to Level 4 of the selected microservice using the CAST Taxonomy aggregation (standard grouping of items):

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CAST Imaging > User Guide - Service scope > microservices_drill1.jpg

Navigating the view

Aggregated by

In Service mode, only the standard CAST Taxonomy layout is available. See User Guide - GUI - Investigate panel for more information about this.

Levels

Levels 4 and 5 are available for selection when a specific microservice is selected in the Investigate panel - these levels provide ever greater details about the items within the selected microservice:

CAST Imaging > User Guide - Service scope > microservices_levels.jpg

Actions

Action	Location	Result/Behavior
Double click on node	Level 4	N/A
	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 for more information on Drill and Communities modes. Click to expand
	Vignette mode	Expand and investigate the selected object.
	Objects	View source code of the object. See User Guide - Viewing source code.
Right click on node	Level 4	Properties > Displays information about the node in the right hand slide in panel (see User Guide - Properties panel): If the object properties cannot be retrieved in a timely manner, a retry button will be displayed:
	Level 5	Children + X > Drill down into Vignette mode for further investigation. See also User Guide - GUI for more information on Drill and Communities modes. Add edge > See User Guide - Working with custom links. Search > Invokes the standard search options for the selected object. See User Guide - Search for items. Properties > Displays information about the node in the right hand slide in panel (see User Guide - Properties panel): If the object properties cannot be retrieved in a timely manner, a retry button will be displayed:
	Vignette mode	Expand All > Expand and investigate the selected object (same as double click) Hide node > Use this to hide selected nodes. To unhide, either use the "Undo" option or refresh the page. It is not possible to hide a concept node or a group node, in which case the option will not be available. Properties > Displays information about the node in the right hand slide in panel (see User Guide - Properties panel): If the object properties cannot be retrieved in a timely manner, a retry button will be displayed:
	Objects	Add callers/callees > Retrieves all caller/called objects. Links are added to the selected object and to any other objects present where a link exists. The number in square brackets in the contextual menu indicates the number of items available. Add linked objects > See User Guide - Using the Add Linked Objects feature for more information. Add 2 levels of Callers/Callees > Same principal as the Add Callers/Callees options, but instead displays two levels of objects. Associate to custom aggregation > See User Guide - Creating a custom aggregation mode. Show source code > See See User Guide - Viewing source code. Hide node/object > Use this to hide selected nodes. To unhide, either use the "Undo" option or refresh the page. It is not possible to hide a concept node or a group node, in which case the option will not be available. Remove object > Use this option to remove the object from the current view. When you reload the view the object will be re-displayed. Properties > Displays information about the object in the right hand slide in panel (see User Guide - Properties panel): If the object properties cannot be retrieved in a timely manner, a retry button will be displayed:
Single click on edge	Levels 4 and 5	N/A
Single click on edge	Objects and Vignette mode	Displays all the methods that are linked between classes and provides additional actions such as: view source code method information add caller/callees See User Guide - Using the Method view for more information.
Double click on edge	Levels 4 and 5, Objects and Vignette	N/A