Customizing the Analysis Tools

Chapter 9: Refining the Worksheet, Categorizing and Reporting

This chapter contains the last of the five tutorials, which together give a tour of EuroSmart. This tutorial describes some more analysis tools. It explains how to set categories and to produce some useful reports.

9.1 Overview

The target for this euro analysis is for all the monetary points of interest to be captured in the worksheet and for each entry to be assigned definite categories.

We have now completed the assessment related to monetary constants.

Although the earlier tutorials have given a flavor of the tools, the process followed is not complete. We have not yet explored all the necessary areas. There are also several other types of analysis that we need to perform to cover all the potential aspects of the application that may be impacted depending on the characteristics of your particular application.

For the areas we have examined, we have not yet looked at every point of interest to validate if a change to the code is required and to categorize the point of interest if a change is required.

In this tutorial you refine the worksheet, removing some unwanted data items and identifying some additional points of interest. You also update the categories of the worksheet entries, and produce some reports. In this tutorial you:

• Filter the worksheet, using Display Filters

• Remove unwanted items from the worksheet, using Remove from List

• Exclude an unwanted set from the worksheet, using Worksheet channel

• Make a set from the worksheet, using Worksheet channel

• Find impacted points of interest, using Type of statements and Data trace

• Refine categories in the worksheet, so that you can record the reasons for each entry being in the worksheet and suggest the type of solution required for each entry.

• Report on the final worksheet, using Reports

• Export points of interest to Micro Focus Mainframe Express, using the EuroSmart Extract POI Details wizard

This tutorial takes about 30 minutes.

9.2 Preparation

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

If you are continuing immediately from the previous tutorial, you need to reload the default worksheet for the Order project.

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

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

• If the title gives the name of the backup worksheet, such as Worksheet - EndofChap8, 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\EndofChap8.mdb, or whatever name you used for your latest backup.

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 EndofChap8.mdb intact in case you need it again.

9.3 Filtering the Worksheet

The worksheet very quickly fills with a tremendous numbers of entries, making it difficult to focus on the entries you are interested it. To solve this problem, you can filter the worksheet based on a wide range of attributes and show the subset of entries that you are interested in at a particular time.

This section shows how to filter the worksheet to display just a subset of entries.

1. Go to the Data items tab of the worksheet, and notice that there are 72 data items.

2. Click Display Filters on the worksheet.

3. Notice you can filter on the data item's name, its size, its category and so on. You can also use the wildcard *.

4. In the Data item field, enter *code*.

5. Make sure that Show removed candidates only at the bottom is unchecked.

6. Click OK.

The worksheet still has 72 data items, but it is now filtered and shows just 8 data items that have CODE in their names. Notice that Filtered in the information bar shows that 8 items are filtered.

9.4 Removing Unwanted Items from the Worksheet

Since some these data items with CODE in the name are unlikely to be monetary, they need removing. We assume for now that they all need removing.

1. Select all eight CODE data items and click Remove from List.

2. Enter a reason for removing these items, such as, "name implies not monetary", and click OK.

   Although the worksheet appears empty, notice that the count in the information bar shows that 64 data items remain in the worksheet and 8 data items are removed.

3. Display the full unfiltered worksheet again by unchecking Filtered in the information bar.

4. The data items are not actually removed from the worksheet, but are moved to the removed list. This enables you to keep a record of the removed items and to reinstate them if need be.

   To review the removed list, click Display Filters and clear *code* from the first field.. Check Show removed candidates only at the bottom and click OK.

   Notice that Filtered is checked in the information bar once again, and that 8 items are in this filtered list, which is the same as the removed list.

5. Reinstate the two data items that might be monetary after all, LTCODE-SHIP-ORDER-AT-COST, and LACODE-UNINVOICED-PROFIT.

   To do this, select the two data items and click Remove from List again. Click Yes to confirm reinstating the data items.

   Now the worksheet contains 6 removed data items and 66 remain in the worksheet.

6. Return to the unfiltered worksheet again by unchecking Filtered at the top.

7. Check that the reinstated items have been reinstated.

   Now, when you subsequently add a set to the worksheet, if the set contains any of those removed *CODE* data items, they won't be re-added to the worksheet, but will stay as removed.

The worksheet now contains 66 data items and 6 removed.

9.5 Excluding an Unwanted Set from the Worksheet

As well as adding items that might be of interest to the worksheet, you can exclude items that are definitely not of interest. Then, whenever you subsequently add sets, any items that definitely aren't monetary, don't get added.

To do this, you create a complete set of items that definitely aren't monetary and add these directly to the removed list of the worksheet.

1. Run Use of data items to find data items that are used in ways that imply they aren't monetary.

2. Check all the check boxes using Select All, and click OK.

   This set contains 41 data items.

3. Exclude this set from the worksheet, by dragging the set onto Worksheet channel. Then:
   • Specify a note in the edit box, below the list box, such as, "Used in specific nonmonetary way".
   • Click Exclude set.
   • Go to the Categories tab and specify A-No.
   • Click OK.

     Notice that 47 data items are removed, but 66 still remain. None of the existing items was actually removed. All the newly removed items came from the excluded set and have been added directly into the removed list..

4. Check the removed list to confirm that the items from the set are indeed removed and they have the A-No category.

   To do this, click Display Filters, clear all the fields and check Show removed candidates only. Click OK.

5. Uncheck Filtered to return to the full unfiltered worksheet again.

Now, any subsequent operations to add sets to the worksheet automatically exclude these items, because they are already in the removed list.

The worksheet contains 66 data items and 47 removed.

9.6 Making a Set from the Worksheet

In the same way as you can channel a set into the worksheet, you can channel entries the other way, from the worksheet into a set. This can be useful if you want to manipulate a set of worksheet entries to find related points of interest.

1. Double click Worksheet channel.

2. Click Extract set at the bottom right and uncheck all the boxes except Data items.

3. Go to the Categories tab and select A-Poss, so that only data items of this category are extracted.

4. Click OK.

   The resulting set has 71 data items and its title is "Worksheet channel".

Another way of making a set is to drag worksheet entries onto an analysis tool. This is quick but has drawbacks since you lose the audit trail, and so it is useful mainly in the early stages when you investigating which settings and tools are going to be appropriate for your application.

9.7 Finding Impacted Points of Interest

As a final check, there are several other types of analysis that might uncover new potential impacts on the application. For example, a monetary data item might impact the application through the statements involving that data item and also through the other data items in those statements.

In this section, you explore two analysis tools that might be useful is the final stages when double checking for impacted points of interest.

1. Drag the set "Worksheet channel" onto the Type of statements tool, and on the All Statements tab, click Select All. Click OK.

   The resulting set has 116 statements, some of which already exist in the worksheet, which you can see because they are grey.

2. Add this set to the worksheet, using Worksheet channel. This time specify the category A-Poss and a note of your choice. Click OK.

   The worksheet now contains 138 statements (74 plus 64 new ones).

3. Search for any other missing data items or statements. For now, just experiment with some of the other tools available, such as Data trace to find additional data items implicated.

   Note that Data trace can take a considerable time to run on large projects, so allow plenty of time and perhaps run it overnight, or even restrict the scope of programs on which the tool runs.

The worksheet now contains 138 statements.

9.8 Refining Categories in the Worksheet

As you investigate the application further, you need to record your analysis and your decisions. Part of this entails categorizing worksheet entries according to how definite you are that each is monetary, what sort of problem they are and what sort of code modification each one needs.

You can categorize points of interest in any way that suits your organization or the application. Although EuroSmart comes with a set of categories, you are free to create your own using Edit Categories. This is available as an administration function only, to enable you to provide a defined set of categories for your work group so that everyone categorizes consistently.

There are three types of category:

• A categories, such as A-Poss and A-Yes, which indicate how definite you are that an entry is of interest.
• B categories, which indicate the type of problem, such as a monetary constant or a BMS-related data item.
• X categories, which indicate the type of code modification required

This section adds the categories of worksheet entries.

1. At the Data items tab, sort the worksheet by note, by clicking on the Notes column heading.

2. Select all the entries at the top that have the note that starts "Associated with a constant".

3. Change the A category of these items from A-Poss to A-Yes as follows:
   • Click Select Category.
   • Select A-Poss and click Remove.
   • Click Select Category.
   • Select A-Yes and click Add.

4. Now add the X-AutoConv category to these entries in the same way. This category indicates that you intend to fix these entries by automatically converting the constant in some way.

5. Now select the worksheet entries for the BMS fields, which have the category B-BMS-Field.

6. Normally, you would go through these fields and determine which ones are definitely of interest and which aren't. Then you could change the A category to reflect your findings. We will skip this step for the purposes of the tutorial.

7. Assign the X-Comment category to the BMS entries, indicating that they don't need fixing, but do need a comment. These data items probably need to be regenerated from the BMS screen maps, but in the meantime they need to be flagged as potential problems.

9.9 Reporting on the Final Worksheet

This section shows how to produce a range of reports on the final worksheet, giving details of every point of interest, every file, every category, or whatever you require.

1. Click Reports and run the report Export worksheet details to Access.

2. Accept the default report name and choose to launch Access immediately.

3. In Access, double click each of the following reports in turn:
   • Points of Interest Summary by Program, which also subtotals the points of interest by category as well as by program

   • Program Details, which gives details of each point of interest, the notes associated with it and its category. These points of interest are organized by program.

9.10 Exporting Points of Interest to Mainframe Express

When you have found all the points of interest in your application, you are ready to modify the code, and to compile and test the modifications. You do this in your preferred development tool.

If you use Micro Focus Mainframe Express as your development tool, you can import the points of interest from EuroSmart, so that they are highlighted in the code ready for you to edit.

This section shows how to export the points of interest from the worksheet, so that you can import them into Mainframe Express and use them to identify the lines of code that need modifying.

1. Click Reports and run the report Export worksheet details to Access.

2. Accept the default report name and don't launch Access this time.

3. From the Start menu, click Programs > Micro Focus EuroSmart > EuroSmart Extract POI Details.

4. As you follow the wizard, you will need to specify the name of the report database containing the worksheet information Projects\Order\Final.mdb.

5. Specify the directory into which to store the POI files, such as Projects\Order.

6. In Mainframe Express, when you are editing the source files of the Order project, each line that contain a point of interest is marked with a bomb.

Customizing the Analysis Tools