Evaluation of some CASE tools for reverse engineering and application generators

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Evaluation of some CASE tools for reverse
engineering and application generators
University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical
Engineering and Computing Krešimir Fertalj
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Computer-aided software engineering

• Computer-aided software engineering (CASE)
• Software to support software development and
  evolution processes Sommerville.
• Automated software tool used by systems analysts
  to develop information systems Hoffer et al.
• CASE Classification Sommerville
• Functional perspective
• Tools are classified according to their specific
  function.
• Process perspective
• Tools are classified according to process
  activities that are supported.
• Integration perspective
• Tools are classified according to their
  organisation into integrated units.

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Tool classification
Functional perspective
Process perspective
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CASE integration

• Tools
• Support individual process tasks such as design
  consistency checking, text editing, etc.
• Workbenches
• Support a process phase such as specification or
  design, Normally include a number of integrated
  tools.
• Environments
• Support all or a substantial part of an entire
  software process. Normally include several
  integrated workbenches.

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Components of CASE Hoffer et al

• Upper CASE
• CASE tools designed to support the information
  planning and the project identification and
  selection, project initiation and planning,
  analysis and design phases of the SDLC
• Lower CASE
• CASE tools designed to support the implementation
  and maintenance phases of the SDLC
• Cross life-cycle CASE
• CASE tools designed to support activities that
  occur across multiple phases of the SDLC
• Integrated CASE (I-CASE)
• Automated systems development environment that
  provides numerous tools to create diagrams, forms
  and reports, and code generation facilities, by
  using the central repository
• Types of CASE tools
• Diagramming tools
• Computer display and report generators
• Analysis tools used to check for incomplete,
  inconsistent or incorrect specifications
• A central repository
• Documentation generators
• Code generators

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UML Tools for Reverse Engineering
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Evaluation of Reverse Engineering Capabilities

• Basic reverse engineering steps (in general)
• Decompilation of executables to get the source
  code
• Analysis of software components to produce the
  models
• Evaluation of CASE tools capable of source code
  analysis
• Analysis of application Bank, described in
  Rational Application Developer V6 Programming
  Guide, available at ftp//www.redbooks.ibm.com/red
  books/SG246449/6449code.zip

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Candidate Tools
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AmaterasUML Eclipse plugin

• Does not recognize relationships between classes.
• No automatic layout feature.
• Diagram can be saved only as JPEG image.
• Eclipse can crash for models with 50 classes or
  more.
• No automatic synchronization between diagram and
  source code.

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ArgoUML

• The tool can analyze whole folders but has no
  filter to choose only interesting components
• Raster formats (PNG i GIF) and vector formats
  (SVG, PS and EPS)
• Check list of actions recommended to improve the
  code
• Automatic sync of source code with diagrams, but
  not vice versa

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IBM Rational Software Architect 7.0

• Dragdrop selection of components to be analyzed
• Raster (GIF, BMP, JPEG, PNG) and vector (SVG)
  formats
• RSA recognizes inheritance but not associations
  (although the tested code was generated by the
  RSA v6 !?)
• Full sync of code and diagrams

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jGRASP

• Import of individual components into project
• Shows only classes, not attributes nor methods
• Missing associations, other relationships are
  shown only when the source is compiled by using
  the tool
• Several automatic layout features, all of them
  weak
• No feature to export diagrams as graphics

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NetBeans

• Complete development environment
• Good automatic layout features (hierarchical,
  orthogonal, symmetric)
• Raster (JPEG, PNG) and vector (SVG) formats
  supported
• No sync between diagrams and code
• Very robust

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StarUML

• Java analyzed package by package
• Automatic layout supported by default
• Raster (JPEG i BMP) and vector (EMF i WMF)
  exports supported
• Synchronization between diagrams and code
  possible
• For models with over 50 classes, some objects may
  not be shown on diagram

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VisualParadigm for UML

• Instant reverse wizard
• Analysis of folders and ZIP archives
• The tool is capable of analyzing both JAR and
  class files
• Good automatic layout feature
• Raster (JPEG, PNG) and vector (SVG i EMF) formats
• Generation of various reports (HTML, PDF, Word,
  etc.)
• Java Round-trip feature to keep source and
  diagrams in sync

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Conclusions regarding evaluated UML tools

• Visual Paradigm is the only tool that enables
  preview of complete structure of the project. It
  can be integrated into Eclipse and NetBeans IDEs.
• ArgoUML, NetBeans and StarUML very useful where
  there is no need to analyze project as a whole.
• IBM Rational Software Architect shows some
  unexpected weaknesse.
• The other tools are not mature enough.

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Code Generators
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Forms of Active Code Generation Herrington

• Code munging
• inputs source code files, most likely using
  regular expressions or simple source parsing, and
  then uses built-in or external templates to build
  output
• Inline code expanding
• takes source code as input and creates production
  code as output, by expanding special markups
• Mixed-code generation
• reads a source code file and then modifies and
  replaces the file in place, e.g. by looking for
  and filling specially formatted comments
• Partial-class generation
• reads an abstract definition file that contains
  enough information to build a set of classes.
  Next, it uses templates to build the output base
  class libraries.
• Tier or layer generation
• the generator builds one complete tier of an
  n-tier system.
• An example of tier generation is model-driven
  generation, wherein a UML authoring application
  is used in conjunction with a generator and an
  input definition file (often in XML) to output
  one or more tiers of a system.

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CodeSmith

• Some features
• CodeSmith Studio - IDE
• Fast Compiler Template Caching compilation
  and execution of templates
• Template Debugging
• XML support
• Console client automated generation
• SQL script execution

• Template based tool that generates C, VB, J or
  any other ASCII based programming language.
• The templates can be customized by using the
  syntax similar to ASP.NET
• Standard and Pro edition.

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Iron Speed

• Generator of .NET Web Applications
• generates UI, web page logic, data access layer
• cappable of generating almost 80 of application
• application logic should be coded manually
• Enterprise, Pro and Free edition.

• Some features
• Application wizard
• Page style templates
• Role based security
• Menu configuration
• ...

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MyGeneration

• Template based generator
• Templates can be written by using JScript,
  VBScript, C, VB.NET.
• Supported architectures
• dOOdads, EntitySpaces, EasyObjects.NET/EntLib,
  Gentle.NET, Opf3, NHibernate, Microsoft's DAAB,
  DotNetNuke, iBatis.
• Supported databases
• Microsoft SQL, Oracle, IBM DB2, PostgreSQL,
  Microsoft Access, FireBird, Interbase, VistaDB,
  SQLite, MySQL, Advantage, Pervasive

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Mia-Generation

• Model based generator, link between UML modeling
  tools and IDEs
• Main features
• UML model based
• Support for Rose, Rhapsody, Together, Poseidon
  and other XMI tools
• Code generation based on templates
• Templates written in Java
• Integration of manually written source code
• Support for all major technologies (Microsoft,
  Java/J2EE, etc)

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Conclusions Regarding Code Generators

• Properly used, the source code generators can
• Shorten the coding time
• Reduce the number of errors
• Make customization of programs more efficient
• Contribute to writing of consistent and quality
  code
• Potential risks
• Dependability on producer of the tool
• Bad applications as the result of bad templates
• Use of inadequate tools or templates can be
  contra productive

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Web Application Generators
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Web Application Generators Context

• Web applications today
• more and more common and complex
• replacing stand-alone applications in many areas
• often object-oriented, n-tier
• extensive data input, reporting
• common problems with development
• slower than development of stand-alone or client
  applications
• client and server code
• Evaluated Tools
• CodeCharge
• CodeJay
• Visual Studio .NET
• ASP.NET WebMatrix

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Supported Technologies

• Web Servers
• often determine the programming language used
  (i.e. IIS and ASP)
• script engine process the dynamic Web pages
• Web Programming Languages
• ASP, JSP, PHP, ColdFusion, Perl, ASP.NET, Java
  servlets,...
• languages compiled, interpreted object-oriented
• sometimes require unique approach for problem
  solution
• Databases
• database connection technologies OLEDB, ODBC,
  JDBC, ...
• different databases supported
• Informix, Access, SQL Server, Oracle, mySQL,
  PostgreSQL,...
• Web applications usually optimized for one
  database
• different connection settings, SQL commands,
  features
• generating SQL statements using visual
  relationships between tables (WebMatrix)

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Features of Web Application Generators

• Integrated Development Environments (IDE) and
  Wizards
• HTML designer, code editor, Web page preview,
  debugger
• application builders and wizards
• Visual Studio.NET advanced development
  platform, but lacking code generation features
• editing projects with other development tools
• Security management
• Often depending on systems architecture,
  database design, user roles, use of cookies, etc.
• Some simple/more advanced autorization scenarios
  can be generated automatically given specific
  parameters (CodeCharge)

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Features of Web Application Generators

• Forms
• Basis of the majority of Web applications
• Most challenging part of the application (user
  input data validation, database access,
  interaction with other controls on the page)
• Errors in design can result in corrupted data in
  the database and application instability
• Knowing the database table structure most
  generators can generate different types of forms
• User-friendly forms often require manual
  modification of generated code good quality
  code is essential
• Reports
• Easier to implement, especially reports with no
  user input
• Common problems multiple level selection
  reports, paging
• Visual representation of data is helpful

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Features of Web Application Generators

• Templates and customizable design
• Consistent appearance accross pages helps users
• Templates often use CSS to achieve that
• Changing the template involves updating links to
  all pages to new style sheet (CodeCharge)
• Menus and navigation
• Limited support by Web application generators
• Stand-alone menu with links to other pages
• Various third party components for Web menus
• Publishing
• LAN, FTP, FrontPage extensions
• Synchronization of files

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Quality of Generated Code

• Separation of server-side code and Web page
  design
• Should be used when supported by the language
• ASP.NET provides framework for that separation
• ASPX files HTML and bound fields
• Code behind files getting the data and preparing
  it for display
• Easier design changes
• Better code reuse
• Linear or Object-oriented design
• Large applications require further code
  separation
• database access classes
• business layer(s)
• Database access class enables
• Multiple database support
• Easier error handling and logging
• Generating one form may result in many files and
  classes
• OO approach also useful in defining general page
  layout

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Quality of Generated Code

• Code Maintenance and Modification
• Can all desired functions be generated?
• Code readability
• Support for external developer tools and
  integration
• Use on existing projects
• Code duplication or library
• Database Access Code and Stored Procedures
• Support for both SQL statements in code and
  stored procedures (both needed in some cases)
• Using stored procedures as data source
• Generating stored procedures
• SQL statements outside database access classes
  usually harder to maintain and reuse
• Mixing SQL and HTML code should be avoided
  (CodeJay)

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Quality of Generated Code

• Error Handling and Logging
• Centralized error handling supported by several
  programming languages (e.g. ASP.NET)
• Logging all relevant events and errors (with
  context) to database increases security and
  debugging
• Comments and Documentation
• Generated code needs customization
• Comments explaining generated code
• Comments showing where to insert the custom code
• Automatic generation of documentation often not
  supported

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Conclusions regarding Web application generators

• Many Web application generators on the market
• Quick results on new projects, harder
  customization
• Often not implementing best programming practices
• Inability to fully customize code generation
  process
• A limited number of real projects can fully
  benefit from Web application generators

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References
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References

• F. Budinsky et. al Automatic Code Design from
  Design Patterns, Toronto Software Laboratory,
  T.J. Watson Research Center.
• E. Eilam Reversing Secrets of Reversing
  Engineering, Wiley Publishing, Inc.,
  Indianapolis, Indiana. 2005.
• T. Helman, K. Fertalj A Critique of Web
  Application Generators, Proceedings of the 25th
  International Conference on Information
  Technology Interfaces, June 16-19, 2003, Cavtat,
  Croatia, ISBN 953-96769-6-7, pp. 639-644.
• J. Herrington Code Generation in Action, Manning
  Publications, 2003.
• J. A. Hoffer, J. F. George, J. S. Valacich
  Modern Systems Analysis and Design, 3/e, Prentice
  Hall College Div, 2001.
• R.S. Pressman Software Engineering A
  Practitioner's Approach, 6/e, McGraw-Hill, 2004.
• I. Sommerville Software Engineering, 7th ed.
  Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. 2004.

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URLs

• http//amateras.source.jp
• http//argouml.tigris.org
• http//www.codecharge.com
• http//www.codejay.com/
• http//www.codesmithtools.com/
• http//www.codegeneration.net/
• http//www.jgrasp.org/
• http//www.ironspeed.com/
• http//www.mia-software.com
• http//www.mygenerationsoftware.com
• http//www.netbeans.org/
• http//www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/architect
  /swarchitect/index.html
• http//staruml.sourceforge.net/en
• http//office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/default.as
  px
• http//www.visual-paradigm.com
• http//www.asp.net/webmatrix/