Populating the Worksheet

Refining the Worksheet, Categorizing and Reporting

Chapter 8: Customizing the Analysis Tools

This chapter contains the fourth in a set of five tutorials, which together give a tour of EuroSmart. This tutorial shows how to customize the analysis tools and their settings.

8.1 Overview

This tutorial shows how to customize the analysis tools to look for the monetary elements that are peculiar to the Order project. Every application has its own peculiarities and you need to get to know your application, so that you can establish the settings and tools that will produce the most relevant assessment of where changes are required. This tutorial:

• Creates a new group of default settings with the literals and data item names that are appropriate to the Order project.

• Shows how to pass the new settings to other users, so they can use them without having to work out the relevant settings for themselves.

• Creates a tool specifically designed for searching for the relevant monetary constants in the Order application. This new tool combines the sequence of tools that you used to create the set of monetary constants and captures the settings you used for each tool. In this way, you produce a tool that can automatically reproduce the results that you created manually earlier.

We recommend that you spend some time initially establishing the tools and settings appropriate to your application. You do this as part of your initial analysis, by selecting individual programs and files in your project and investigating them and determining the best way to analyze them. Later, when you have the tools and settings established, you can analyze the whole application in earnest.

In this tutorial, you:

• Customize the country settings, using the Configuration wizard

• Copy customized settings to other PCs

• Edit a settings file, so that you can share it

• Capture a composite tool by right clicking the the history pane of a set view and clicking Create Tool

• Share a collection of composite tools

• Edit a composite tool, using the Tool Composition Editor

This tutorial takes about 30 minutes.

8.2 Preparation

This section explains how to open the appropriate worksheet for the Order project.

If you are continuing immediately from the last tutorial, you need to reload the worksheet for the Order project, as follows:

1. Check which worksheet is open by looking in the title bar of the worksheet.

2. If the title is Euro Worksheet Order, you are using the default worksheet for the Order project and you can go straight on to the next section.

3. If the title gives the name of the backup worksheet, such as Worksheet -EndofChap7, reopen the default worksheet for the project. To do this:

   Click Load from File and select the Order.mdb.

If you stopped following the tutorials, to experiment independently or to close down EuroSmart, start this tutorial as follows:

1. If EuroSmart is not running, restart it in the same way as before.

2. Open the Order project by selecting it from the recent files list at the bottom of the Project menu.

3. Check that your analysis tools settings and options are set correctly for the tutorials, as described in the Preparation section of the Finding Sets of Monetary Points of Interest chapter.

4. Confirm that Options on the worksheet shows the following settings, and reset them if necessary:
   • Check Show information bar.
   • Uncheck Prefix index in statements.

If you have already started this tutorial and now want to restart it, you need to reopen the backup worksheet that you made at the end of the previous tutorial. To do this:

1. At the worksheet, click Load from File and select the backup worksheet from the previous chapter Order\EndofChap7.mdb, or whatever name you used for your latest backup.

   Depending on how you have Windows set up, the worksheet names are displayed with or without the .mdb extension.

2. Click Save to File.

3. Specify Order.mdb as the worksheet into which to save the backup worksheet.

4. Click Yes to confirm overwriting the existing project worksheet that you no longer want.

   Now, you can work on the project worksheet Order.mdb, and leave the backup EndofChap7.mdb intact in case you need it again.

8.3 Customizing the Country Settings

The default settings for the analysis tools are supplied with EuroSmart. When you first install you choose a country, so that the default settings appropriate to that country are applied. However you can change to another country's settings later, using the Country option on the Euro menu.

You can customize the settings and create your own versions of them. You can then choose between your customized settings and the default settings.

1. If the Analysis Tools window isn't displayed, click Analysis Tools on the Euro menu.

2. Double click Configuration wizard on Analysis Tools, read the wizard text and click Next when you are ready to move on to the next screen.

3. You need to create your own group of settings so that you can customize them, so click Create a new settings group.

4. Specify the name Order for your new group of settings, since these settings will apply to the Order project. These settings will be based on the only other group of settings, Defaults.

   The new group of settings will contain settings for all the countries. At the moment, we are just configuring the settings for United Kingdom, but all the other countries' settings are copied unchanged from the Defaults group into the new Order group.

   Click OK and then click Next.

5. All the analysis tools are listed and some are highlighted indicating that there are settings for these tools in the group on which your new settings will be based.

   Click any of the tools to toggle its selection and the highlighting.

   Note: deselecting a tool means that no settings will be defined for that tool.

6. Click Back and then Next to reselect the tools that currently have settings in the group on which you are basing the settings.

   Click Next.

7. The wizard now offers the settings dialogs for each selected tool in turn. You can see the tool's name in the title bar of the wizard. For each tool, keep or change the settings and click Next after each one, as follows:
   • For Names of data items, keep the existing defaults and import the Criteria.txt file as before, from EuroSmart\Revolve\Sample\Euro\Order\Other. These will now become part of your default settings for this Order project.

   • For Use of data items, remove some of the checks, such as SET UP/DOWN BY and on the second page Unused 01/77 items. From our knowledge of the Order project, we know that these constructs are never used and so removing them helps to speed up the tool.

8. Click Finish at the end of the wizard.

   The settings you specified are saved in the Order group of settings for the United Kingdom.

9. Click Yes when asked if you want to use your new settings.

   Notice that the status bar at the bottom of Analysis Tools now shows Settings: Order\United Kingdom.

10. Now double click each of the tools you customized in turn to check that the new defaults are applied. Click Cancel after reviewing each tool as you don't need to run them again.

The settings you have specified for these tools remain intact even if you close down the product.

8.4 Copying Settings to Another PC

If you are working in a group, you might all want to use the same settings, so that the results from your analysis are consistent and reproducible. If one user develops some improved settings, you might all want to adopt those settings.

Currently, the facilities for sharing settings are limited. However you can copy files from one user's PC to another.

This section describes how to copy customized settings to another PC.

1. Using Windows, go to the directory, EuroSmart\Revolve\Fixlib\Settings\Euro. This directory now contains:
   • Defaults - this is a directory structure containing one subdirectory for each country. Each country directory contains the country settings supplied with EuroSmart. These are read-only and you cannot change them.

   • Order - this directory also contains one subdirectory for each country. The United Kingdom country directory contains the country settings that you customized. The other country directories contain copies of the supplied settings, which have write access so that you can customize them.

2. Copy the EuroSmart\Revolve\Fixlib\Settings\Euro\Order directory structure to the other PCs, putting it under the directory EuroSmart\Revolve\Fixlib\Settings\Euro, so that it is in parallel with the Defaults subdirectory.

Now, if you look on the other PC and go to Country on the Euro menu, the Order group of settings will be available.

8.5 Additional Settings Files and Sharing Them Centrally

In some situations, you need both positive and negative settings for a tool. For example, you might want settings that find unwanted data items so that you can remove them from the worksheet, and you might want other settings that find genuine points of interest so that you can add them to the worksheet. You can create search criteria files for any tools that have an Import button, and then you can import the criteria when you run the tool.

This section describes how to create a file of search criteria for the Names of data items tool.

1. Using a text editor, such as Notepad, open the file EuroSmart\Revolve\Sample\Euro\Order\Other\Criteria.txt. This is the supplied search criteria file for the Names of data items tool.

   Notice that each setting is typed exactly as it would be in the dialog for the analysis tool, except that case is not significant.

2. Remove all the existing non-monetary names and add some monetary names, such as *price*, *cost*, and *value*. Case is unimportant. Each name must be on a separate line.

3. Save this file as a different file, so you keep the original. Save this as Criteria-money.txt in the same directory as the original. You now have two search criteria files:
   • Criteria.txt - this is the original file and contains non-monetary data item names and is for finding false points of interest

   • Criteria-money.txt - this is the new file you have just created and contains monetary data items names and is for finding genuine points of interest

4. Close Notepad.

5. Run Names of data items, clear the existing names and import this new search criteria file.

   The resulting set contains 39 data items with monetary names. Notice that many of the items are gray indicating that they are already in the worksheet. The only items that aren't in the worksheet are related to BMS screen fields and if you examine their PICTURE clauses, you can see that they are single digit items and so don't hold monetary values.

You can store the search criteria files centrally, so that all the users in your group can use the file.

8.6 Capturing a Composite Tool

During your analysis, you might need run the same sequence of tools on several different programs or sets. You can create a tool that mimics the way you produced a set manually, which might have involved running several analysis tools, subtracting or intersecting sets, and running further tools.

The new tool is known as a composite tool and comprises the sequence of tools together with their settings that you used manually. The new tool appears on the analysis tools list, from where you can run the new tool and automatically produce sets in the same way as the manually produced set.

This section explains how to capture the process used to generate the "Monetary constants" set, and to create a composite tool "Find monetary constants".

1. Double click "Monetary constants" in the Named Sets window.

2. Right click the right-hand pane of the Set View, and click Create Tool.

3. In the Name field, type a name for the new tool, such as "Find monetary constants", and click OK.

4. In Analysis Tools, double click the new tool Find monetary constants, and click No to run the tool.

   The resulting set contains 60 items, which is the same as the first time you produced this set manually. You might expect the number to be different because you changed the default settings with the Configuration wizard. However, a composite tool always adopts the settings used to produce the previously created set.

You now have a composite tool made from an audit trail, and you can run this tool on other programs to repeat exactly the same process.

8.7 Editing a Composite Tool

When you are developing tools, you might need to change part of it without recreating it from scratch again, perhaps to adopt some new settings.

We recommend that you finish developing and refining tools on a selection of source files before you go on to do the full analysis. The problem is that if you change a composite tool half way through your full analysis, your later audit trails will refer to the same tool as the earlier audit trails, but the settings will be different. This gives the potential for confusion.

This section shows how to edit the new tool Find monetary constants so that it uses the settings that you configured for the Names of data items tool, and to include an additional data item name.

1. Right click the new composite tool Find monetary constants in Analysis Tools.

2. Click Properties.

3. Click Yes to confirm that you want to edit the settings of the composite tool.

4. Right click on the last instance of Names of data items.

5. Click Properties.

6. Click Defaults to pick up the configured settings and to add an additional name with wildcards *CODE*.

7. Click OK twice.

8. Now run the new tool Find monetary constants in the same way as before.

   The resulting set has 45 entries, and not the 60 originally produced from this composite tool. The difference of 15 represents 6 data items with *code* in their names, and 9 statements that use those data items. The last tutorial investigates this further.

9. Close the new set of 45 items, since for the purposes of demonstration we don't need it.

8.8 Sharing Composite Tools

Currently, facilities for sharing composite tools are limited. All your composite tools are stored in one file and there is currently no way to merge your tool file with anyone else's.

To work round this problem, one person needs to maintain the master tool file, and be responsible for distributing updated versions to the users. We suggest you nominate someone, such as a team leader, to be administrator. The administrator then does most of the investigation and creation of new tools, and also owns the master composite tool file.

If a user develops a new tool, there is currently no way to pass that tool to the administrator for merging. The user needs to explain or demonstrate the process to the administrator, so that the administrator can mimic the process manually. The administrator can then capture the new composite tool, so that it is recorded in the master composite tool file.

The file containing the composite tools is Toolcomp.dat and is located in the project directory, which is Projects\Order for the tutorials. Note that this file is saved automatically when you close down EuroSmart, but not until then.

When the administrator has updated the master file, everyone needs to copy it into their project directory.

8.9 Before Continuing

The worksheet is persistent and is continually saved, and so it is automatically up to date if you shut down.

However, it is good practice to save a backup of the worksheet, so that you can go back to a previous copy.

1. At the worksheet, click Save to File.

2. Specify the filename, EndofChap8.mdb, for the backup worksheet for this chapter.

   If you already have a backup with this name, give a new name such as EndofChap8-1.mdb.

You can close EuroSmart, if you want to stop for now. You can then continue with the next tutorial some other time.

Populating the Worksheet

Refining the Worksheet, Categorizing and Reporting