Visualizing Dependencies in AppXaminer

In this section, you will explore how Workshop for JSP simplifies web application dependency management. You will use AppXaminer to view resource dependencies, check for missing links, and calculate the number of references to a specific resource.

Background

Web applications are comprised of many layers; these include presentation, business logic, and data integration layers. When you import an existing web application, AppXRay, the underlying technology behind Workshop, scans all of the artifacts of your web application. AppXRay maintains a hierarchy of relationships among these artifacts, including a map of all inter-dependencies among artifacts. Workshop for JSP visually presents this information through AppXaminer to provide a complete and in depth view of all web application dependencies providing automatic problem detection and ease of navigation throughout the environment.

Viewing Dependencies

1. In AppXplorer, open home.jsp.
2. Right click home.jsp and Show AppXRay Dependencies to launch AppXaminer.

AppXaminer outlines all of the dependencies going into and coming out of the home.jsp node. Expanding the branch next to a resource, such as errors.jsp, allows you to easily drill down through multiple levels to analyze the dependency chain and traverse the flow through the application. Double-clicking a dependency will open in it in the appropriate editor.

Checking for missing resources and broken links

In this section you will introduce an error into the shopping cart page to demonstrate how AppXaminer immediately detects and reports broken or missing resources.

1. In AppXplorer, right click on shoppingcart.jsp and Show AppXRay Dependencies.
2. Click the superscript "1" next to the errors.jsp and navigate to the <@%page> tag inside shoppingcart.jsp
3. Change the second line of shoppingcart.jsp to errorPage="error.jsp".
4. Click back to AppXaminer, and notice that the forward page now shows up in red, denoting that shoppingcart.jsp is referring to a non-existent page.
5. Change the shoppingcart.jsp errorPage back to errors.jsp.

Searching for references to a specific web resource

1. In AppXplorer, right click login.jsp and select Show AppXray Dependencies.
2. Many of the pages in the Workshop tour project refer to errors.jsp. To calculate the total number of references to that page, right click the errors.jsp and select FindAppXRay References.
3. While holding the Ctrl button, hover the mouse pointer over errors.jsp and notice that the resource becomes underlined. Left clicking on this element will navigate to the errors.jsp page.

Viewing included pages
Viewing web pages in a different locale

Click one of the following arrows to navigate through the tutorial: