JavaInspect - Utility to visualize java software
+ +1 General
+-
+
- This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify +it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as +published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the +License, or (at your option) any later version. + + +
- Program authors:
+
-
+
- Svjatoslav Agejenko
+
-
+
- Homepage: http://svjatoslav.eu + +
- Email: mailto://svjatoslav@svjatoslav.eu + +
- Other software projects hosted at svjatoslav.eu + +
+
+ - Tony Bargnesi
+
-
+
- GitHub fork for the project: +https://github.com/abargnesi/javainspect + +
+
+ - Svjatoslav Agejenko
+
1.1 Source code
+-
+
- Download latest snapshot in TAR GZ format + + +
- Browse Git repository online + + +
- Clone Git repository using command:
+
+git clone http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/git/javainspect.git +
+
+
2 Goal and operating principle
++Goal: simplify/speed up understanding the computer program code by +automatically visualizing its structure. +
+ ++See example produced graphs for Sixth 3D - 3D engine project. +
+ ++JavaInspect can be used as a standalone commandline utility as well as +java library. JavaInspect uses primarily Java built-in reflection to +discover and visualize any part of Java program. +
+ ++JavaInspect currently has no GUI, configuration files, embedded +scripting support, direct Maven or Ant integration. See usage to learn +how to instuct Javainspect what to do. +
+ ++After discovering application structure and optionally filtering out +unimportant parts, JavaInspect produces GraphViz dot file that +describes data to be visualized. Then launches GraphViz to generate +bitmap graph in PNG or SVG format. +
+ ++By default on your Desktop directory when operated in library mode or +current working directory when operated as standalone commandline +application. +
+ ++Notes: +
+-
+
- JavaInspect is developed and tested so far only on GNU/Linux. + +
- See: Madge - similar tool for JavaScript + +
3 Example graphs
+-
+
- A very simple example:
+
+
+
+
+
+Graph legend: +
+ + + +
+
+ - See example produced graphs for Sixth 3D - 3D engine project. + +
4 Usage
++JavaInspect can be controlled in 2 different ways: +
+ +4.1 usage as commandline utility
++To enable commandline support, (study and) execute script: +
++commandline launcher/install ++ +
+Warning: It was tested only on Debian Stretch linux. +
+ ++Available commandline arguments: +
+
+-j (existing files)…
+ JAR file(s) to render.
+
+-n (mandatory, string)
+ Graph name.
+
+–debug
+ Show debug info.
+
+-k
+ Keep dot file.
+
+-h
+ Hide orphaned classes.
+
+-w (one to many strings)…
+ Whitelist glob(s).
+
+-b (one to many strings)…
+ Blacklist glob(s).
+
+-d (existingdirectory)
+ Target directory. Default is current directory.
+
+-t (options: png, svg)
+ Target image type. Default is: svg.
+
4.2 usage via Java API
++Requires that classes to be visualised are available in the classpath. +
+ ++To get JavaInspect into same classpath with your projecs I so far came +up with 2 solutions: +
+ +-
+
- Add JavaInspect library in your project as a dependency. + + +
- Create new Java project for the purpose visualizing your other +projects and include JavaInspect and your projecs binary artifacts +(Jar's) into new project classpath. Built binary Jar's (with no +source code) are sufficient because JavaInspect operates via +reflection. + +
+Simple Java based control/configuration code needs to be written for +each project. I usually put such code into directories devoted for +JUnit tests. Because it needs not to be compiled/embedded into final +product or project artifact I'm just willing to visualize. +
+ ++Control code in general does the following: +
+-
+
- Create graph object. + +
- Java reflection/classloaders does not provide mechanism for
+discovering all classes under given package. Therefore you need to
+declare at least some classes to be added to the graph by:
+
-
+
- Manually adding individual classes to the graph. + +
- and/or: Let GraphViz recursively scan and parse specified +directories with Java source code files to discover class names. + +
- For every class added to the graph, GraphViz will recursively +inspect it and add all referecned classes to the graph as well. + +
+ - Graphs easilly get very big and complex so optionally we filter +important code using classname wildcards patterns based blacklist +and/or whitelist. + +
- Optionally we can tune some rendering parameters like:
+
-
+
- Possibility to remove orphaned classes (classes with no +references) from the graph. + +
- Specify target directory for generated visualization +files. (Default is user desktop directory) + +
- Keep intermediate GraphViz dot file for later inspection. + +
+ - Render graph. + +
4.2.1 example 1: individually picked objects
++This example demonstrates generating of class graph from hand picked +classes and visualizing GraphViz itself. +
+ +// Create graph +final ClassGraph graph = new ClassGraph(); + +// Add some random object to the graph. GraphViz will detect Class from +// the object. +graph.add(graph); + +// Also add some random class to the graph. +graph.add(Utils.class); + +// Keep intermediary GraphViz DOT file for reference. +graph.setKeepDotFile(true); + +// Produce bitmap image titled "JavaInspect.png" to the user Desktop +// directory +graph.generateGraph("JavaInspect"); ++
+Note: if desired, more compact version of the above: +
+new ClassGraph().add(randomObject, RandomClass.class) + .setKeepDotFile(true).generateGraph("JavaInspect"); ++
+Result: +
+-
+
- Generated DOT file: JavaInspect.dot + +
- Generated PNG image: JavaInspect.png + +
4.2.2 example 2: scan java code, apply filters
+// Create graph +final ClassGraph graph = new ClassGraph(); + +// Recursively scan current directory for Java source code and attempt +// to detect class names from there to be added to the graph. +graph.addProject("."); + +// Blacklist example classes from being shown on the graph +graph.blacklistClassPattern("eu.svjatoslav.inspector.java.structure.example.*"); + +// do not show single classes with no relationships on the graph +graph.hideOrphanedClasses(); + +// Produce bitmap image titled "JavaInspect full project.png" to the +// user Desktop directory. +graph.generateGraph("JavaInspect full project"); ++
+Result: +
+-
+
- Generated PNG image: JavaInspect full project.png + +
4.2.3 example 3: GraphViz embedded in another project
+-
+
- Download project Sixth code snapshot. + +
- Inspect and run *DataGraph.java*. + +
4.2.4 Embedding JavaInspect in your Maven project
++Declare JavaInspect as dependency: +
+<dependencies> + ... + <dependency> + <groupId>eu.svjatoslav</groupId> + <artifactId>javainspect</artifactId> + <version>1.6</version> + </dependency> + ... +</dependencies> ++
+Add Maven repository to retrieve artifact from: +
+<repositories> + ... + <repository> + <id>svjatoslav.eu</id> + <name>Svjatoslav repository</name> + <url>http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/maven/</url> + </repository> + ... +</repositories> ++
5 Requirements
++GraphViz - shall be installed on the computer. +
+ ++On Ubuntu/Debian use: +
+sudo apt-get install graphviz ++
6 TO DO
++Note: Because this is side project (and I have many of them) I can +only contribute few hours per year at average. Any help is welcome. A +LOT of cool ideas could be implemented. For intstance: +
+ +-
+
- BUG: Should not hide references if there are too many of them to +classes if referring classes are not visible anyway because of +blacklist/whitelist rules. Basically reference counting should +exclude not visible classes. + + +
- BUG: Orphaned class removal does not work always. There are many +bugs and corner cases to find and fix still. + + +
- BUG: Code is not very readable. Document and refactor for better +maintainability. + + +
- FEATURE: Create installable DEB package.
+
-
+
- Submit it to some Debian developer for integration or become +Debian package maintainer. + +
+
+ - FEATURE: Make it modular. That is: central part, an application
+model could be standalone and serializable.
+
+
-
+
- There could be multiple ways to acquire model:
+
-
+
- By introspecting application via Java reflections (current mode +of operation). + +
- By parsing java source. (unfinished) + +
+
+ - There could be ways to manipulate model:
+
-
+
- Store/load/compare. + +
- Trim uninteresting parts. + +
- Highlight important parts. + +
+
+ - There could be multiple ways to render model:
+
-
+
- PNG/SVG (currently implemented) + +
- PlantUML (TODO) + +
- Interactive 3D visualization (TODO) + +
+
+
+ - There could be multiple ways to acquire model:
+
- FEATURE: Replace internal java parser in package +eu.svjatoslav.inspector.java.methods with: https://javaparser.org/ + + +
- FEATURE: Integarte with PlantUML. + + +
- FEATURE: Add dark theme for generated graphs. + + +
- FEATURE: Sort Class fields by alphabet. + + +
- FEATURE: Visualize also concrete field values so it could be used as +ultra cool runtime logging/debugging framework. + + +
- FEATURE: Possibility to visualize structure and data from JVM +snapshot. + + +
- FEATURE: Possibility to attach to remote process to visualize +data/structure using JVM debug port and mechanism. + + +
- FEATURE: Possibility to attach to JVM using JVM agent. + + +
- FEATURE: Possibility to inspect graphs in 3D using Sixth 3D engine. + + +
- FEATURE: Possibility to select classes/fields/values to be +visualized in some graph query language. For greater flexibility in +comparison to currently supported glob syntax. + + +
- FEATURE: Add option to control JavaInspect via JSON or XML config +file. For example different graphs for given project could be +defined once in plain text config, possibly with the aid of some +interactive utility. Then defined graphs could be updated as part of +project build or release process. + + +
- FEATURE: Configurable maven plugin to generate graphs as part of the +project build/release process. + +