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Chapter 10: Investigating Your Project

In this session, you take a look at the Investigator tool and how to incorporate it into your system analysis.

Please see the Tutorials Map to check that you have run all necessary previous sessions.

10.1 Overview

Effective system analysis requires knowledge of the system and an organized plan to implement modifications. The Investigator tool enables you to load project components of varied types into one interface for extended analysis and organization.

10.2 Preparation

This session uses the project you created in the chapter Finding Points of Interest.

1. If you have closed Revolve, open it as before.

2. If you have closed it, open the Order project by selecting it from the "recently used files" list at the bottom of the Project menu.

10.3 Adding Items to the Investigator From Tools and Browsers

While working in Revolve's tools and browsers you can add items to the Investigator using the Revolve clipboard. For example:

1. Select Browsers > Variables.

2. Type *VALUE in the Match edit box.

3. Click Match or press Enter.

   Variables in your project that match the name selection criterion are displayed.

4. Click and drag the mouse, to select all the variables displayed in the window.

5. Right-click and select Capture Results.

6. Click Copy to Clipboard, then OK to close the Capture Results dialog box.

7. Click OK on the Capture to Clipboard message.

8. Click Enterprise > Investigator.

9. Click Cancel on the Selection Criteria dialog box.

10. Click Paste from clipboard.

11. Double-click the COBOL variable folder.

    The folder expands to display the variables that were copied from the Variables browser. In the Investigator you can remove elements from the display without removing them from the tool. Let's assume that the variables CAT-END-VALUE, and CAT-START-VALUE are unneeded variables in this analysis. However, you're not sure that you want to remove them entirely from the Investigator. In this case, you can place these variables on the Filtered list.

12. Select the variables CAT-END-VALUE and CAT-START-VALUE.

    
    
    Figure 10-1: Selecting unneeded variables in the Investigator

13. Click Exclude Selected.

    This excludes the variables from the displayed list. They are placed on the filtered list. You cannot see this immediately because the window has not been refreshed.

14. Click Show/Hide filtered list.

    This toggles to the Filtered list. It displays all items that match filters specified in the Selection Criteria dialog or are directly excluded by the user.

15. Double click COBOL variable folder to examine the filtered items.

    The E flag indicates that you excluded these elements. User-specified filters like this are also displayed on the User tab when you click Options....

16. Click on the Investigator to close it.

17. Click Yes to close the Investigator without saving the criteria.

18. Click Window > Close All Windows.

10.4 Creating Selection Criteria

Items can be added to the Investigator in two ways. This functionality provides flexibility in the system analysis environment. In this section, you add items directly to the Investigator using the Selection Criteria dialog box.

To add items directly to the Investigator, you can set up Selection Criteria:

1. Click Enterprise > Investigator.

   The Investigator tool and the Selection Criteria dialog are displayed.

2. In the Variable tab's Name field, type *VALUE.

   The name-matching pattern *VALUE searches the project for all variables that include VALUE at the end of their names.

3. Click Add.

   *VALUE is added to the list.

4. Click the Name filters check box.

   When this check box is checked, it indicates that all naming filters defined in the Name Filters dialog are applied to the Pattern Selection criteria.

5. Click the Name pushbutton.

   The Name Filters dialog opens. Name patterns specified here are not included in the Investigator's results.

6. Type CAT* in the Name field.

7. Click Add.

8. Click OK.

   This means that variables matching the *VALUE pattern but containing CAT at the beginning of their names will not be listed by the Investigator.

9. Click OK in the Selection Criteria dialog.

10. Click Yes in response to the apply new pattern criteria prompt.

    The Investigator searches the project for matching variables.

11. Double click the COBOL variable folder.

    The matching results are displayed. These items all correspond the name criteria *VALUE. Depending on the Display Format that is selected in the Utilities > Options... > User tab, detail may be abbreviated or extensive.

12. Click Show /Hide filtered list.

13. Double click the COBOL variable folder.

    These are the variables in the project that matched the filter criteria CAT*. The N flag indicates they are filtered because of their names.

14. Click Show /Hide filtered list again to return to the selected list.

10.5 Saving Selection Criteria

You can save selection criteria in a file so that you can reuse the same criteria later in your analysis. To do this:

1. On the Investigator toolbar, click Options....

   The Selection Criteria for the *VALUE variables are displayed. Let's add some more criteria.

2. Click the Data File tab.

   The Data File tab, like the Variable tab, adds items that correspond to the Pattern Selections and Filters. In this case, the items are references to external files.

3. Type PROD.* in the Name field.

4. Click Add.

   The name pattern is displayed in the list.

5. Click OK.

6. Click Yes in response to the apply new pattern criteria prompt.

   The elements that match the criteria are loaded into the Investigator.

7. Double click the file folder.

   The filenames that matched the name patterns are displayed.

8. Click Options... again.

9. Click Save.

   The Save Data Selection Criteria dialog is invoked. It enables you to save the existing criteria to a .sel file for use in other tasks and analysis.

10. Navigate to your \projects\shadows directory.

11. Name the file sample.

12. Click Save to save sample.sel.

    The Selection Criteria specifications have been saved.

13. Click OK in the Selection Criteria dialog box.

14. Close the Investigator by clicking .

15. Click Enterprise > Investigator.

16. Click Load, then navigate to the file you saved as sample.sel and open it.

17. Click Yes in response to the apply new pattern criteria prompt.

    The results are displayed just as they were before.

10.6 Translating PIC Clauses

In addition to loading and examining files, you can modify PIC clauses with the Investigator. To do this:

1. On the Investigator toolbar, click Options.

2. Click the PIC Translation tab.

   This tab enables you to define PIC translations that you apply to your project variables. In our project, there are some monetary data items defined as PIC 9(7)V99 that we're going to translate to PIC 9(9)V99.

3. Type 9(7)V99 in the From field.

4. Type 9(9)V99 in the To field.

5. Click Add.

   The translation is listed in the translation list.

   
   
   Figure 10-2: PIC Translations

6. Click OK.

7. Double click the COBOL variable folder.

   Notice the PIC clauses are displayed for the various variables that match the name patterns and filters in sample.sel. To apply the PIC translations to these variables we'll use the Modification Driver.

8. Select all the elements contained in the COBOL variable folder.

9. Click Modification Driver.

   The Modification Driver dialog box opens, referencing the first selected item. Use this dialog box to specify which code modifications you want to implement. The modification driver can insert blocks of text, tags, and other user-defined information into the source code of selected elements. In this case we want to implement the PIC translation for 9(7)V99 PIC clauses.

   The first selected variable in the Investigator might not have a PIC clause. This is indicated if the PIC Translation check box is disabled (grayed). If this is the case, click Skip until the first variable with a PIC clause is encountered and the check box is enabled.

10. Check PIC Translation.

    
    
    Figure 10-3: Modification Driver

    This specifies that the Modification Driver's function is to perform the PIC translations defined in the Investigator's PIC Translations tab.

11. Click Setup.

    The PIC Translation tab is displayed listing defined translations.

12. Click OK.

13. Click Execute All.

    The Modification Driver translates 9(7)V99 PIC clauses to 9(9)V99 in selected variables. When it encounters a PIC clause that is not 9(7)V99, it displays the PIC Translations tab for you to add further trnaslations if you want to. Notice the name of the variable is displayed along the top of the tab.

14. Click Cancel until the Modification Driver finishes running through the list.

    The non 9(7)V99 clauses are preserved while all 9(7)V99 clauses have been automatically translated.

15. Select a variable with a 9(7)V99 clause in the Investigator, like Line 132: 15 WS-LINE-VALUE PIC 9(7)V99.

16. Click View Source Code

    
    
    Figure 10-4: Example of PIC Translation

The source code has been modified to include the new PIC translation. Changes must be saved and the project must be parsed for these modifications to take effect on the project. However, only the Administrator of a shared project can update the project by parsing and remaking it.

To update the project to incorporate the changes:

1. Close the Investigator window, then click Yes on the Save File message.

2. Click Project > Make Administrator.

3. Click to open the Project Manager window.

4. Double-click the cobol files folder.

5. Click Status.

   Revolve checks time stamps on COBOL files to see which files have been modified. ONLINE1.CBL contained the changed PIC clauses. It displays a status of Out of Date.

6. Click Make.

   The project is parsed to incorporate all recent changes.

7. Double-click the cobol files folder again.

   The files have a status of Loaded. The PIC translations have been successfully implemented.

10.7 Summary

In this session you:

• Loaded the Investigator from tools and browsers

• Loaded with Selection Criteria

• Saved Selection Criteria

• Translated PIC clauses

This session completes the Revolve Enterprise Edition tutorials. For further information, please read the Revolve Enterprise Edition User's Guide, or see the online help system.

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