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141 <h1 class="title">JavaInspect - Utility to visualize java software</h1>
142 <div id="table-of-contents">
143 <h2>Table of Contents</h2>
144 <div id="text-table-of-contents">
146 <li><a href="#sec-1">1. General</a></li>
147 <li><a href="#sec-2">2. Example graphs</a></li>
148 <li><a href="#sec-3">3. Usage</a>
150 <li><a href="#sec-3-1">3.1. example 1: individually picked objects</a></li>
151 <li><a href="#sec-3-2">3.2. example 2: scan java code, apply filters</a></li>
154 <li><a href="#sec-4">4. Embedding JavaInspect in your Maven project</a></li>
155 <li><a href="#sec-5">5. Requirements</a></li>
156 <li><a href="#sec-6">6. <span class="todo TODO">TODO</span> </a></li>
162 <li><a href="http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/gitweb/?p=javainspect.git;a=snapshot;h=HEAD;sf=tgz">download latest snapshot</a>
165 <li>This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
166 it under the terms of version 3 of the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html">GNU Lesser General Public
167 License</a> or later as published by the Free Software Foundation.
172 <li>Svjatoslav Agejenko
174 <li>Homepage: <a href="http://svjatoslav.eu">http://svjatoslav.eu</a>
176 <li>Email: <a href="mailto://svjatoslav@svjatoslav.eu">mailto://svjatoslav@svjatoslav.eu</a>
181 <li><a href="http://svjatoslav.eu/programs.jsp">other applications hosted at svjatoslav.eu</a>
185 <div id="outline-container-sec-1" class="outline-2">
186 <h2 id="sec-1"><span class="section-number-2">1</span> General</h2>
187 <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-1">
189 Goal: simplify/speed up understanding the computer program code by
190 automatically visualizing its structure.
194 JavaInspect is a Java library that primarily uses Java reflection to
195 discover and visualize any part of Java program provided that
196 classes to be visualised are available in the classpath.
200 JavaInspect currently has no GUI, configuration files, embedded
201 scripting support, direct Maven or Ant integration. The only way to
202 instuct Javainspect what to do is by using its Java API.
206 To get JavaInspect into same classpath with your projecs I so far came
211 <li>Add JavaInspect library in your project as a dependency.
213 <li>Create new Java project for the purpose visualizing your other
214 projects and include JavaInspect and your projecs binary artifacts
215 (Jar's) into new project classpath. Built binary Jar's (with no
216 source code) are sufficient because JavaInspect operates via
222 After discovering application structure and optionally filtering out
223 unimportant parts, JavaInspect produces GraphViz dot file that
224 describes data to be visualized. Then launches GraphViz to generate
225 bitmap graph in PNG format. By default on your Desktop directory.
229 Note: GraphViz is developed and tested so far only on GNU Linux.
234 <div id="outline-container-sec-2" class="outline-2">
235 <h2 id="sec-2"><span class="section-number-2">2</span> Example graphs</h2>
236 <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-2">
238 <li>A very simple example:
242 <p><a href="example.png"><img src="example.resized.png" alt="example.resized.png" /></a>
252 <p><img src="legend.png" alt="legend.png" />
257 <li>Example visualization of <a href="http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/gitbrowse/sixth/doc/">Sixth</a> project: <a href="http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/projects/sixth/codegraphs/">architecture graphs</a>.
263 <div id="outline-container-sec-3" class="outline-2">
264 <h2 id="sec-3"><span class="section-number-2">3</span> Usage</h2>
265 <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-3">
267 Currently the only way to control JavaInspect is by using Java
268 API. Simple Java based control/configuration code needs to be written
269 for each project. I usually put such code into directories devoted for
270 JUnit tests. Because it needs not to be compiled/embedded into final
271 product or project artifact I'm just willing to visualize.
275 Control code in general does the following:
278 <li>Create graph object.
280 <li>Java reflection/classloaders does not provide mechanism for
281 discovering all classes under given package. Therefore you need to
282 declare at least some classes to be added to the graph by:
284 <li>Manually adding individual classes to the graph.
286 <li>and/or: Let GraphViz recursively scan and parse specified
287 directories with Java source code files to discover class names.
289 <li>For every class added to the graph, GraphViz will recursively
290 inspect it and add all referecned classes to the graph as well.
294 <li>Graphs easilly get very big and complex so optionally we filter
295 important code using classname wildcards patterns based blacklist
298 <li>Optionally we can tune some rendering parameters like:
300 <li>Possibility to remove orphaned classes (classes with no
301 references) from the graph.
303 <li>Specify target directory for generated visualization
304 files. (Default is user desktop directory)
306 <li>Keep intermediate GraphViz dot file for later inspection.
316 <div id="outline-container-sec-3-1" class="outline-3">
317 <h3 id="sec-3-1"><span class="section-number-3">3.1</span> example 1: individually picked objects</h3>
318 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-1">
320 This example demonstrates generating of class graph from hand picked
321 classes and visualizing GraphViz itself.
324 <div class="org-src-container">
326 <pre class="src src-java"><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">Create graph</span>
327 <span style="color: #F92672;">final</span> <span style="color: #66D9EF;">ClassGraph</span> <span style="color: #FD971F;">graph</span> = <span style="color: #F92672;">new</span> <span style="color: #66D9EF;">ClassGraph</span>();
329 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">Add some random object to the graph. GraphViz will detect Class from</span>
330 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">the object.</span>
333 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">Also add some random class to the graph.</span>
334 graph.add(Utils.<span style="color: #F92672;">class</span>);
336 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">Keep intermediary GraphViz DOT file for reference.</span>
337 graph.setKeepDotFile(<span style="color: #FF80F4;">true</span>);
339 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">Produce bitmap image titled "JavaInspect.png" to the user Desktop</span>
340 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">directory</span>
341 graph.generateGraph(<span style="color: #EEDC82;">"JavaInspect"</span>);
346 Note: if desired, more compact version of the above:
348 <div class="org-src-container">
350 <pre class="src src-java"><span style="color: #F92672;">new</span> <span style="color: #66D9EF;">ClassGraph</span>().add(randomObject, RandomClass.<span style="color: #F92672;">class</span>)
351 .setKeepDotFile(<span style="color: #FF80F4;">true</span>).generateGraph(<span style="color: #EEDC82;">"JavaInspect"</span>);
360 <li>Generated DOT file: <a href="JavaInspect.dot">JavaInspect.dot</a>
362 <li>Generated PNG image: <a href="JavaInspect.png">JavaInspect.png</a>
368 <div id="outline-container-sec-3-2" class="outline-3">
369 <h3 id="sec-3-2"><span class="section-number-3">3.2</span> example 2: scan java code, apply filters</h3>
370 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-2">
371 <div class="org-src-container">
373 <pre class="src src-java"><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">Create graph</span>
374 <span style="color: #F92672;">final</span> <span style="color: #66D9EF;">ClassGraph</span> <span style="color: #FD971F;">graph</span> = <span style="color: #F92672;">new</span> <span style="color: #66D9EF;">ClassGraph</span>();
376 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">Recursively scan current directory for Java source code and attempt</span>
377 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">to detect class names from there to be added to the graph.</span>
378 graph.addProject(<span style="color: #EEDC82;">"."</span>);
380 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">Blacklist example classes from being shown on the graph</span>
381 graph.blacklistClassPattern(<span style="color: #EEDC82;">"eu.svjatoslav.inspector.java.structure.example.*"</span>);
383 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">do not show single classes with no relationships on the graph</span>
384 graph.hideOrphanedClasses();
386 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">Produce bitmap image titled "JavaInspect full project.png" to the</span>
387 <span style="color: #8C8C8C;">// </span><span style="color: #8C8C8C;">user Desktop directory.</span>
388 graph.generateGraph(<span style="color: #EEDC82;">"JavaInspect full project"</span>);
395 <li>Generated PNG image: <a href="JavaInspect%20full%20project.png">JavaInspect full project.png</a>
402 <div id="outline-container-sec-4" class="outline-2">
403 <h2 id="sec-4"><span class="section-number-2">4</span> Embedding JavaInspect in your Maven project</h2>
404 <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-4">
406 Declare JavaInspect as dependency:
408 <div class="org-src-container">
410 <pre class="src src-xml"><<span style="color: #A6E22E;">dependencies</span>>
412 <<span style="color: #A6E22E;">dependency</span>>
413 <<span style="color: #A6E22E;">groupId</span>>eu.svjatoslav</<span style="color: #A6E22E;">groupId</span>>
414 <<span style="color: #A6E22E;">artifactId</span>>javainspect</<span style="color: #A6E22E;">artifactId</span>>
415 <<span style="color: #A6E22E;">version</span>>1.5-SNAPSHOT</<span style="color: #A6E22E;">version</span>>
416 </<span style="color: #A6E22E;">dependency</span>>
418 </<span style="color: #A6E22E;">dependencies</span>>
424 Add Maven repository to retrieve artifact from:
426 <div class="org-src-container">
428 <pre class="src src-xml"><<span style="color: #A6E22E;">repositories</span>>
430 <<span style="color: #A6E22E;">repository</span>>
431 <<span style="color: #A6E22E;">id</span>>svjatoslav.eu</<span style="color: #A6E22E;">id</span>>
432 <<span style="color: #A6E22E;">name</span>>Svjatoslav repository</<span style="color: #A6E22E;">name</span>>
433 <<span style="color: #A6E22E;">url</span>>http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/maven/</<span style="color: #A6E22E;">url</span>>
434 </<span style="color: #A6E22E;">repository</span>>
436 </<span style="color: #A6E22E;">repositories</span>>
442 <div id="outline-container-sec-5" class="outline-2">
443 <h2 id="sec-5"><span class="section-number-2">5</span> Requirements</h2>
444 <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-5">
446 <a href="http://www.graphviz.org/">GraphViz</a> - shall be installed on the computer.
450 On Ubuntu/Debian use:
452 <div class="org-src-container">
454 <pre class="src src-sh">sudo apt-get install graphviz
459 <div id="outline-container-sec-6" class="outline-2">
460 <h2 id="sec-6"><span class="section-number-2">6</span> <span class="todo TODO">TODO</span> </h2>
461 <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-6">
463 <li>BUG: Should not hide references if there are too many of them to
464 classes if referring classes are not visible anyway because of
465 blacklist/whitelist rules. Basically reference counting should
466 exclude not visible classes.
468 <li>FEATURE: add dark theme
470 <li>FEATURE: sort Class fields by alphabet
472 <li>FEATURE: visualize also concrete field values so it could be used as
473 ultra cool runtime logging framework
475 <li>FEATURE: possibility to visualize structure and data from JVM
478 <li>FEATURE: possibility to attach to remote process to visualize
479 data/structure using JVM debug port and mechanism.
481 <li>FEATURE: possibility to attach to JVM using JVM agent
483 <li>FEATURE: possibility to script javainspect behavior
485 <li>FEATURE: possibility to select classes/fields/values to be
486 visualized in SQL like syntax
488 <li>FEATURE: configurable maven plugin to generate graphs as part of the
489 project build/release process
495 <div id="postamble" class="status">
496 <p class="author">Author: Svjatoslav Agejenko</p>
497 <p class="date">Created: 2015-03-03 Tue 22:38</p>
498 <p class="creator"><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">Emacs</a> 24.4.1 (<a href="http://orgmode.org">Org</a> mode 8.2.10)</p>
499 <p class="validation"><a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer">Validate</a></p>