1. Introduction

1.1. About the CLI Guide

This guide is for engineers, consultants, and others who want to use the Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java (APPCAT) to migrate Java applications or other components. It describes how to install and run the CLI, review the generated reports, and take advantage of additional features.

1.2. About the Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java

What is the Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java?

The Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java (APPCAT) is an extensible and customizable rule-based tool that simplifies the migration and modernization of Java applications.

APPCAT examines application artifacts, including project source directories and application archives, and then produces an HTML report highlighting areas needing changes. APPCAT supports many migration paths, including the following examples:

  • Replatforming connectivity between applications and external resources to leverage Azure services

  • Assessing code patterns for Cloud hosted resources such as databases, messaging queues, logging systems, and more

  • Containerizing applications and making them cloud-ready

  • Assessing code patterns for better security

  • Upgrading OpenJDK versions and distributions

  • Upgrading commonly used libraries and frameworks

For more information about use cases and migration paths, see the Java to Azure migration strategy documentation.

How does the Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java simplify migration?

The Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java looks for common resources and known trouble spots when migrating applications. It provides a high-level view of the technologies used by the application.

APPCAT generates a detailed report evaluating a migration or modernization path. This report can help you to estimate the effort required for large-scale projects and to reduce the work involved.

About the CLI

The CLI is a command-line tool in the Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java that allows you to assess and prioritize migration and modernization efforts for applications. It provides numerous reports that highlight the analysis without the overhead of the other tools. The CLI includes a wide array of customization options, and allows you to finely tune APPCAT analysis options or integrate with external automation tools.

2. Installing and Running the CLI

2.1. Installing the CLI

You can install the CLI on Linux, Windows, or macOS operating systems.

Prerequisites

  • Java Development Kit (JDK) installed. APPCAT supports the following JDKs:

    • Microsoft Build of OpenJDK 11

    • Microsoft Build of OpenJDK 17

    • Eclipse Temurin™ JDK 11

    • Eclipse Temurin™ JDK 17

  • 8 GB RAM

  • macOS installation: the value of maxproc must be 2048 or greater.

Procedure

  1. Extract the .zip file to a directory of your choice.

    Note

    If you are installing on a Windows operating system:

    1. Extract the .zip file to a folder named appcat to avoid a Path too long error. Alternatively, extract the file with 7-Zip to a folder of any name you choose.

    2. If a Confirm file replace window is displayed during extraction, click Yes to all.

    When you encounter <APPCAT_HOME> in this guide, replace it with the actual path to your APPCAT installation.

2.2. Running the CLI

You can run APPCAT against your application or project source code folder.

Procedure

  1. Open a terminal and navigate to the <APPCAT_HOME>/bin/ directory.

  2. Execute the appcat script, or appcat.bat for Windows, and specify the appropriate arguments:

    $ ./appcat --input /path/to/example-app-1.0.0.war \
    --output /path/to/output \
    --target azure-appservice \
    --packages com.acme org.apache

    • --input: The application to be evaluated.

    • --output: The output directory for the generated reports.

    • --target: The target Azure service for the application migration.

    • --packages: The packages to be evaluated. This argument is highly recommended to improve performance and narrow scope.

  3. Access the report by opening the index.html file in the output folder.

2.2.1. APPCAT command examples

Running APPCAT on an application archive

The following command analyzes the org.airsonic package of the airsonic.war example WAR archive for migrating from Apache Tomcat to Azure App Service:

$ <APPCAT_HOME>/bin/appcat \
    --input /path/to/airsonic.war \
    --output /path/to/report-output/ \
    --target azure-appservice \
    --packages org.airsonic
Running APPCAT on source code

The following command analyzes the org.airsonic package of the airsonic-v10.6.2.zip example source code for migrating to Azure App Service.

$ <APPCAT_HOME>/bin/appcat
    --sourceMode \
    --input /path/to/airsonic-v10.6.2/airsonic-main \
    --output /path/to/report-output/ \
    --target azure-appservice \
    --packages org.airsonic
Overriding APPCAT properties

To override the default Fernflower decompiler, pass the -Dwindup.decompiler argument on the command line. For example, to use the Procyon decompiler, use the following syntax:

$ <APPCAT_HOME>/bin/appcat -Dwindup.decompiler=procyon \
    --input <INPUT_ARCHIVE_OR_DIRECTORY> --output <OUTPUT_REPORT_DIRECTORY> \
    --target <TARGET_TECHNOLOGY> --packages <PACKAGE_1> <PACKAGE_2>

2.2.2. APPCAT CLI Bash completion

The APPCAT CLI provides an option to enable Bash completion for Linux systems, allowing the APPCAT command-line arguments to be auto completed by pressing the Tab key when entering the commands. For instance, when Bash completion is enabled, entering the following displays a list of available arguments.

$ <APPCAT_HOME>/bin/appcat [TAB]
Enabling Bash completion

To enable Bash completion for the current shell, execute the following command:

$ source <APPCAT_HOME>/bash-completion/appcat
Enabling persistent Bash completion

The following commands allow Bash completion to persist across restarts:

  • To enable Bash completion for a specific user across system restarts, include the following line in that user’s ~/.bashrc file.

    source <APPCAT_HOME>/bash-completion/appcat

  • To enable Bash completion for all users across system restarts, copy the Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java CLI Bash completion file to the /etc/bash_completion.d/ directory as the root user.

    # cp <APPCAT_HOME>/bash-completion/appcat /etc/bash_completion.d/

2.2.3. Accessing APPCAT help

To see the complete list of available arguments for the appcat command, open a terminal, navigate to the <APPCAT_HOME> directory, and execute the following command:

$ <APPCAT_HOME>/bin/appcat --help

3. Accessing reports

When you run the Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java, a report is generated in the <OUTPUT_REPORT_DIRECTORY> that you specify using the --output argument in the command line.

The output directory contains the following files and subdirectories:

<OUTPUT_REPORT_DIRECTORY>/
├── index.html          // Landing page for the report
├── <EXPORT_FILE>.csv   // Optional export of data in CSV format
├── archives/           // Archives extracted from the application
├── mavenized/          // Optional Maven project structure
├── reports/            // Generated HTML reports
├── stats/              // Performance statistics
Procedure

  1. Obtain the path of the index.html file of your report from the output that appears after you run APPCAT:

    Report created: <OUTPUT_REPORT_DIRECTORY>/index.html
              Access it at this URL: file:///<OUTPUT_REPORT_DIRECTORY>/index.html

  2. Open the index.html file by using a browser.

    The generated report is displayed.

3.1. Reviewing the reports

The report examples shown in the following sections are a result of analyzing the com.acme and org.apache packages in the jee-example-app-1.0.0.ear example application, which is located in the APPCAT GitHub source repository.

The report was generated using the following command.

$ <APPCAT_HOME>/bin/appcat --input /home/username/appcat-cli-source/test-files/jee-example-app-1.0.0.ear/ --output /home/username/appcat-cli-reports/jee-example-app-1.0.0.ear-report --target eap:6 --packages com.acme org.apache

Use a browser to open the index.html file located in the report output directory. This opens a landing page that lists the applications that were processed. Each row contains a high-level overview of the story points, number of incidents, and technologies encountered in that application.

Application list
Figure 1. Application list
Note
 The incidents and estimated story points change as new rules are added to APPCAT. The values here may not match what you see when you test this application.

The following table lists all of the reports and pages that can be accessed from this main APPCAT landing page. Click the name of the application, jee-example-app-1.0.0.ear, to view the application report.

Page How to Access

Application

Click the name of the application.

Technologies report

Click the Technologies link at the top of the page.

Archives shared by multiple applications

Click the Archives shared by multiple applications link. Note that this link is only available when there are shared archives across multiple applications.

Rule providers execution overview

Click the Rule providers execution overview link at the bottom of the page.

Note that if an application shares archives with other analyzed applications, you will see a breakdown of how many story points are from shared archives and how many are unique to this application.

Shared archives
Figure 2. Shared archives

Information about the archives that are shared among applications can be found in the Archives Shared by Multiple Applications reports.

3.1.1. Application report

Dashboard

Access this report from the report landing page by clicking on the application name in the Application List.

The dashboard gives an overview of the entire application migration effort. It summarizes:

  • The incidents and story points by category

  • The incidents and story points by level of effort of the suggested changes

  • The incidents by package

Dashboard
Figure 3. Dashboard

The top navigation bar lists the various reports that contain additional details about the migration of this application. Note that only those reports that are applicable to the current application will be available.

Report Description

Issues

Provides a concise summary of all issues that require attention.

Application details

Provides a detailed overview of all resources found within the application that may need attention during the migration.

Technologies

Displays all embedded libraries grouped by functionality, allowing you to quickly view the technologies used in each application.

Dependencies

Displays all Java-packaged dependencies found within the application.

Unparsable

Shows all files that APPCAT could not parse in the expected format. For instance, a file with a .xml or .wsdl suffix is assumed to be an XML file. If the XML parser fails, the issue is reported here and also where the individual file is listed.

Remote services

Displays all remote services references that were found within the application.

EJBs

Contains a list of EJBs found within the application.

JBPM

Contains all of the JBPM-related resources that were discovered during analysis.

JPA

Contains details on all JPA-related resources that were found in the application.

Hibernate

Contains details on all Hibernate-related resources that were found in the application.

Server resources

Displays all server resources (for example, JNDI resources) in the input application.

Spring Beans

Contains a list of Spring Beans found during the analysis.

Hard-coded IP addresses

Provides a list of all hard-coded IP addresses that were found in the application.

Ignored files

Lists the files found in the application that, based on certain rules and APPCAT configuration, were not processed. See the --userIgnorePath option for more information.

About

Describes the current version of APPCAT and provides helpful links for further assistance.
Issues report

Access this report from the dashboard by clicking the Issues link.

This report includes details about every issue that was raised by the selected migration paths. The following information is provided for each issue encountered:

  • A title to summarize the issue.

  • The total number of incidents, or times the issue was encountered.

  • The rule story points to resolve a single instance of the issue.

  • The estimated level of effort to resolve the issue.

  • The total story points to resolve every instance encountered. This is calculated by multiplying the number of incidents found by the story points per incident.

Issues report
Figure 4. Issues report

Each reported issue may be expanded, by clicking on the title, to obtain additional details. The following information is provided.

  • A list of files where the incidents occurred, along with the number of incidents within each file. If the file is a Java source file, then clicking the filename will direct you to the corresponding Source report.

  • A detailed description of the issue. This description outlines the problem, provides any known solutions, and references supporting documentation regarding either the issue or resolution.

  • A direct link, entitled Show Rule, to the rule that generated the issue.

Expanded rule in the issues report
Figure 5. Expanded issue

Issues are sorted into four categories by default. Information on these categories is available at ask Category.

Application details report

Access this report from the dashboard by clicking the Application Details link.

The report lists the story points, the Java incidents by package, and a count of the occurrences of the technologies found in the application. Next is a display of application messages generated during the migration process. Finally, there is a breakdown of this information for each archive analyzed during the process.

Application Details report
Figure 6. Application Details report

Expand the jee-example-app-1.0.0.ear/jee-example-services.jar to review the story points, Java incidents by package, and a count of the occurrences of the technologies found in this archive. This summary begins with a total of the story points assigned to its migration, followed by a table detailing the changes required for each file in the archive. The report contains the following columns.

Column Name Description

Name

The name of the file being analyzed.

Technology

The type of file being analyzed, for example, Decompiled Java File or Properties.

Issues

Warnings about areas of code that need review or changes.

Story Points

Level of effort required to migrate the file.

Note that if an archive is duplicated several times in an application, it will be listed just once in the report and will be tagged with [Included multiple times].

Duplicate archive
Figure 7. Duplicate archive in an application

The story points for archives that are duplicated within an application will be counted only once in the total story point count for that application.

Technologies report

Access this report from the application report dashboard by clicking the Technologies tab.

The report lists the occurrences of technologies, grouped by function, in the analyzed application. It is an overview of the technologies found in the application, and is designed to assist users in quickly understanding each application’s purpose.

The image below shows the technologies used in the jee-example-app.

Technology report Application view
Figure 8. Technologies in an application
Transactions report

A Transactions report displays the call stack, which executes operations on relational database tables. The Enable Transaction Analysis feature supports Spring Data JPA and the traditional preparedStatement() method for SQL statement execution. It does not support ORM frameworks, such as Hibernate.

Source report

The Source report displays the migration issues in the context of the source file in which they were discovered.

Source Report
Figure 9. Source report

3.1.2. Technologies report across multiple applications

Access this report from the report landing page by clicking the Technologies link.

This report provides an aggregate listing of the technologies used, grouped by function, for the analyzed applications. It shows how the technologies are distributed, and is typically reviewed after analyzing a large number of applications to group the applications and identify patterns. It also shows the size, number of libraries, and story point totals of each application.

Clicking any of the headers, such as Markup, sorts the results in descending order. Selecting the same header again will resort the results in ascending order. The currently selected header is identified in bold, next to a directional arrow, indicating the direction of the sort.

Technologies used across multiple applications
Figure 10. Technologies used across multiple applications

3.1.3. Archives shared by multiple applications

Access these reports from the report landing page by clicking the Archives shared by multiple applications link. Note that this link is only available if there are applicable shared archives.

Archives shared by multiple applications
Figure 11. Archives shared by multiple applications

This allows you to view the detailed reports for all archives that are shared across multiple applications.

3.1.4. Rule providers execution overview

Access this report from the report landing page by clicking the Rule providers execution overview link.

This report provides the list of rules that ran when running the APPCAT migration command against the application.

Rule Provider Execution Overview
Figure 12. Rule providers execution overview

4. Exporting the report in CSV format

APPCAT provides the ability to export the report data, including the classifications and hints, to a flat file on your local file system. The export function currently supports the CSV file format, which presents the report data as fields separated by commas (,).

The CSV file can be imported and manipulated by spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Calc, or LibreOffice Calc. Spreadsheet software provides the ability to sort, analyze, evaluate, and manage the result data from an APPCAT report.

4.1. Exporting the report

To export the report as a CSV file, run APPCAT with the --exportCSV argument. A CSV file is created in the directory specified by the --output argument for each application analyzed.

All discovered issues, spanning all the analyzed applications, are included in the AllIssues.csv file that is exported to the root directory of the report.

Accessing the report from the application report

If you have exported the CSV report, you can download all of the CSV issues in the Issues Report. To download these issues, click Download All Issues CSV in the Issues Report.

Issues report with CSV download
Figure 13. Issues report with CSV download

4.2. Importing the CSV file into a spreadsheet program

  1. Launch the spreadsheet software, for example, Microsoft Excel.

  2. Choose File → Open.

  3. Browse to the CSV exported file and select it.

  4. The data is now ready to analyze in the spreadsheet software.

4.3. About the CSV data structure

The CSV formatted output file contains the following data fields:

Rule Id

The ID of the rule that generated the given item.

Problem type

hint or classification

Title

The title of the classification or hint. This field summarizes the issue for the given item.

Description

The detailed description of the issue for the given item.

Links

URLs that provide additional information about the issue. A link consists of two attributes: the link and a description of the link.

Application

The name of the application for which this item was generated.

File Name

The name of the file for the given item.

File Path

The file path for the given item.

Line

The line number of the file for the given item.

Story points

The number of story points, which represent the level of effort, assigned to the given item.

5. Optimizing APPCAT performance

APPCAT performance depends on a number of factors, including hardware configuration, the number and types of files in the application, the size and number of applications to be evaluated, and whether the application contains source or compiled code. For example, a file that is larger than 10 MB may need a lot of time to process.

In general, APPCAT spends about 40% of the time decompiling classes, 40% of the time executing rules, and the remainder of the time processing other tasks and generating reports. This section describes what you can do to improve the performance of APPCAT.

5.1. Deploying and running the application

Try these suggestions first before upgrading hardware.

  • If possible, run APPCAT against the source code instead of the archives. This eliminates the need to decompile additional JARs and archives.

  • Specify a comma-separated list of the packages to be evaluated by APPCAT using the --packages argument on the <APPCAT_HOME>/bin/appcat command line. If you omit this argument, APPCAT will decompile everything, which has a big impact on performance.

  • Specify the --excludeTags argument where possible to exclude them from processing.

  • Avoid decompiling and analyzing any unnecessary packages and files, such as proprietary packages or included dependencies.

  • Increase your ulimit when analyzing large applications on a Linux-like envrionment.

  • If you have access to a server that has better resources than your laptop or desktop machine, you may want to consider running APPCAT on that server.

5.2. Upgrading hardware

If the application and command-line suggestions above do not improve performance, you may need to upgrade your hardware.

  • If you have access to a server that has better resources than your laptop/desktop, then you may want to consider running APPCAT on that server.

  • Very large applications that require decompilation have large memory requirements. 8 GB RAM is recommended. This allows 3 - 4 GB RAM for use by the JVM.

  • An upgrade from a single or dual-core to a quad-core CPU processor provides better performance.

  • Disk space and fragmentation can impact performance. A fast disk, especially a solid-state drive (SSD), with greater than 4 GB of defragmented disk space should improve performance.

5.3. Configuring APPCAT to exclude packages and files

5.3.1. Excluding packages

You can exclude packages during decompilation and analysis to increase performance. References to these packages remain in the application’s source code but excluding them avoids the decompilation and analysis of proprietary classes.

Any packages that match the defined value are excluded. For example, you can use com.acme to exclude both com.acme.example and com.acme.roadrunner.

You can exclude packages by either of the following methods:

  • Using the --excludePackages argument.

  • Specifying the packages in a file contained within one of the ignored locations. Each package should be included on a separate line, and the file must end in .package-ignore.txt. For example, see <APPCAT_HOME>/ignore/proprietary.package-ignore.txt.

5.3.2. Excluding files

APPCAT can exclude specific files, such as included libraries or dependencies, during scanning and report generation. Excluded files are defined in a file with the .appcat-ignore.txt or .windup-ignore.txt extension within one of the ignored locations.

These files contain a regex string detailing the name to exclude, with one file listed per line. For example, you can exclude the library ant.jar and any Java source files beginning with Example with a file containing the following:

.*ant.jar
.*Example.*\.java

5.3.3. Searching locations for exclusion

APPCAT searches the following locations:

  • ~/.appcat/ignore/

  • ~/.windup/ignore/

  • <APPCAT_HOME>/ignore/

  • Any files and folders specified by the --userIgnorePath argument

Each of these files must conform to the rules specified for excluding packages or files, depending on the type of content to be excluded.

Appendix A: Reference material

A.1. About APPCAT command-line arguments

The following is a detailed description of the available APPCAT command line arguments.

Note

To run the APPCAT command without prompting, for example when executing from a script, you must use the following arguments:

  • --batchMode

  • --overwrite

  • --input

  • --target
Table 1. APPCAT CLI arguments
Argument Description

--additionalClassPath

A space-delimited list of additional JAR files or directories to add to the class path so that they are available for decompilation or other analysis.

--addonDir

Add the specified directory as a custom add-on repository.

--analyzeKnownLibraries

Flag to analyze known software artifacts embedded within your application. By default, APPCAT only analyzes application code.

Note

This option may result in a longer execution time and a large number of migration issues being reported.

--batchMode

Flag to specify that APPCAT should be run in a non-interactive mode without prompting for confirmation. This mode takes the default values for any parameters not passed in to the command line.

--debug

Flag to run APPCAT in debug mode.

--disableTattletale

Flag to disable generation of the Tattletale report. If both enableTattletale and disableTattletale are set to true, then disableTattletale will be ignored and the Tattletale report will still be generated.

--discoverPackages

Flag to list all available packages in the input binary application.

--enableClassNotFoundAnalysis

Flag to enable analysis of Java files that are not available on the class path. This should not be used if some classes will be unavailable at analysis time.

--enableCompatibleFilesReport

Flag to enable generation of the Compatible Files report. Due to processing all files without found issues, this report may take a long time for large applications.

--enableTattletale

Flag to enable generation of a Tattletale report for each application. This option is enabled by default when eap is in the included target. If both enableTattletale and disableTattletale are set to true, then disableTattletale will be ignored and the Tattletale report will still be generated.

--enableTransactionAnalysis

[Technology Preview] Flag to enable generation of a Transactions report that displays the call stack, which executes operations on relational database tables. The Enable Transaction Analysis feature supports Spring Data JPA and the traditional preparedStatement() method for SQL statement execution. It does not support ORM frameworks, such as Hibernate.

Note

enableTransactionAnalysis is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with any service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

--excludePackages

A space-delimited list of packages to exclude from evaluation. For example, entering com.mycompany.commonutilities excludes all classes whose package names begin with com.mycompany.commonutilities.

--excludeTags

A space-delimited list of tags to exclude. When specified, rules with these tags will not be processed. To see the full list of tags, use the --listTags argument.

--explodedApp

Flag to indicate that the provided input directory contains source files for a single application.

--exportCSV

Flag to export the report data to a CSV file on your local file system. APPCAT creates the file in the directory specified by the --output argument. The CSV file can be imported into a spreadsheet program for data manipulation and analysis.

--exportSummary

Flag to instruct APPCAT to generate an analysisSummary.json export file in the output directory. The file contains analysis summary information for each application analyzed, including the number of incidents and story points by category, and all of the technology tags associated with the analyzed applications.

--exportZipReport

This argument creates a reports.zip file in the output folder. The file contains the analysis output, typically, the reports. If requested, it can also contain the CSV export files.

--help

Display the APPCAT help message.

--immutableAddonDir

Add the specified directory as a custom read-only add-on repository.

--includeTags

A space-delimited list of tags to use. When specified, only rules with these tags will be processed. To see the full list of tags, use the --listTags argument.

--input

A space-delimited list of the path to the file or directory containing one or more applications to be analyzed. This argument is required.

--install

Specify add-ons to install. The syntax is <GROUP_ID>:<ARTIFACT_ID>[:<VERSION>]. For example, --install core-addon-x or --install org.example.addon:example:1.0.0.

--keepWorkDirs

Flag to instruct APPCAT to not delete temporary working files, such as the graph database and extracted archive files. This is useful for debugging purposes.

--legacyReports

Flag to instruct APPCAT to generate the old format reports instead of the new format reports.

--list

Flag to list installed add-ons.

--listSourceTechnologies

Flag to list all available source technologies.

--listTags

Flag to list all available tags.

--listTargetTechnologies

Flag to list all available target technologies.

--mavenize

Flag to create a Maven project directory structure based on the structure and content of the application. This creates pom.xml files using the appropriate Java EE API and the correct dependencies between project modules. See also the --mavenizeGroupId option.

--mavenizeGroupId

When used with the --mavenize option, all generated pom.xml files will use the provided value for their <groupId>. If this argument is omitted, APPCAT will attempt to determine an appropriate <groupId> based on the application, or will default to com.mycompany.mavenized.

--online

Flag to allow network access for features that require it. Currently only validating XML schemas against external resources relies on Internet access. Note that this comes with a performance penalty.

--output

Specify the path to the directory to output the report information generated by APPCAT.

--overwrite

Flag to force delete the existing output directory specified by --output. If you do not specify this argument and the --output directory exists, you are prompted to choose whether to overwrite the contents.

Important

Do not overwrite a report output directory that contains important information.

--packages

A space-delimited list of the packages to be evaluated by APPCAT. It is highly recommended to use this argument.

--remove

Remove the specified add-ons. The syntax is <GROUP_ID>:<ARTIFACT_ID>[:<VERSION>]. For example, --remove core-addon-x or --remove org.example.addon:example:1.0.0.

--skipReports

Flag to indicate that HTML reports should not be generated. A common use of this argument is when exporting report data to a CSV file using --exportCSV.

--source

A space-delimited list of one or more source technologies, servers, platforms, or frameworks to migrate from. This argument, in conjunction with the --target argument, helps to determine which rulesets are used. Use the --listSourceTechnologies argument to list all available sources.

--sourceMode

Flag to indicate that the application to be evaluated contains source files rather than compiled binaries. The sourceMode argument has been deprecated. There is no longer the need to specify it. APPCAT can intuitively process any inputs that are presented to it. In addition, project source folders can be analyzed with binary inputs within the same analysis execution.

--target

A space-delimited list of one or more target technologies, servers, platforms, or frameworks to migrate to. This argument, in conjunction with the --source argument, helps to determine which rulesets are used. Use the --listTargetTechnologies argument to list all available targets.

--userIgnorePath

Specify a location, in addition to ${user.home}/.appcat/ignore/, for APPCAT to identify files that should be ignored.

--userLabelsDirectory

Specify a location for APPCAT to look for custom Target Runtime Labels. The value can be a directory containing label files or a single label file. The Target Runtime Label files must use the .windup.label.xml suffix. The shipped Target Runtime Labels are defined within $APPCAT_HOME/rules/migration-core/core.windup.label.xml.

--userRulesDirectory

Specify a location, in addition to <APPCAT_HOME>/rules/ and ${user.home}/.appcat/rules/, for APPCAT to look for custom APPCAT rules. The value can be a directory containing ruleset files or a single ruleset file. The ruleset files must use the .windup.xml suffix.

--version

Display the APPCAT version.

--skipSourceCodeReports

This option skips generating a Source code report when generating the application analysis report. Use this advanced option when concerned about source code information appearing in the application analysis.

A.1.1. Specifying the input

A space-delimited list of the path to the file or directory containing one or more applications to be analyzed. This argument is required.

Usage
--input <INPUT_ARCHIVE_OR_DIRECTORY> [...]

Depending on whether the input file type provided to the --input argument is a file or directory, it will be evaluated as follows depending on the additional arguments provided.

Directory
--explodedApp --sourceMode Neither Argument

The directory is evaluated as a single application.

The directory is evaluated as a single application.

Each subdirectory is evaluated as an application.
File
--explodedApp --sourceMode Neither Argument

Argument is ignored; the file is evaluated as a single application.

The file is evaluated as a compressed project.

The file is evaluated as a single application.

A.1.2. Specifying the output directory

Specify the path to the directory to output the report information generated by APPCAT.

Usage
--output <OUTPUT_REPORT_DIRECTORY>

  • If omitted, the report will be generated in an <INPUT_ARCHIVE_OR_DIRECTORY>.report directory.

  • If the output directory exists, you will be prompted with the following (with a default of N).

    Overwrite all contents of "/home/username/<OUTPUT_REPORT_DIRECTORY>" (anything already in the directory will be deleted)? [y,N]

However, if you specify the --overwrite argument, APPCAT will proceed to delete and recreate the directory. See the description of this argument for more information.

A.1.3. Setting the source technology

A space-delimited list of one or more source technologies, servers, platforms, or frameworks to migrate from. This argument, in conjunction with the --target argument, helps to determine which rulesets are used. Use the --listSourceTechnologies argument to list all available sources.

Usage
--source <SOURCE_1> <SOURCE_2>

The --source argument now provides version support, which follows the Maven version range syntax. This instructs APPCAT to only run the rulesets matching the specified versions. For example, --source eap:5.

A.1.4. Setting the target technology

A space-delimited list of one or more target technologies, servers, platforms, or frameworks to migrate to. This argument, in conjunction with the --source argument, helps to determine which rulesets are used. If you do not specify this option, you are prompted to select a target. Use the --listTargetTechnologies argument to list all available targets.

Usage
--target <TARGET_1> <TARGET_2>

The --target argument now provides version support, which follows the Maven version range syntax. This instructs APPCAT to only run the rulesets matching the specified versions. For example, --target eap:7.

A.1.5. Selecting packages

A space-delimited list of the packages to be evaluated by APPCAT. It is highly recommended to use this argument.

Usage
--packages <PACKAGE_1> <PACKAGE_2> <PACKAGE_N>

  • In most cases, you are interested only in evaluating custom application class packages and not standard Java EE or third party packages. The <PACKAGE_N> argument is a package prefix; all subpackages will be scanned. For example, to scan the packages com.mycustomapp and com.myotherapp, use --packages com.mycustomapp com.myotherapp argument on the command line.

  • While you can provide package names for standard Java EE third party software like org.apache, it is usually best not to include them as they should not impact the migration effort.

Warning

If you omit the --packages argument, every package in the application is scanned, which can impact performance.

A.2. Supported technology tags

The following technology tags are supported in APPCAT 6.3.0:

  • 0MQ Client

  • 3scale

  • Acegi Security

  • AcrIS Security

  • ActiveMQ library

  • Airframe

  • Airlift Log Manager

  • AKKA JTA

  • Akka Testkit

  • Amazon SQS Client

  • AMQP Client

  • Anakia

  • AngularFaces

  • ANTLR StringTemplate

  • AOP Alliance

  • Apache Accumulo Client

  • Apache Aries

  • Apache Commons JCS

  • Apache Commons Validator

  • Apache Flume

  • Apache Geronimo

  • Apache Hadoop

  • Apache HBase Client

  • Apache Ignite

  • Apache Karaf

  • Apache Mahout

  • Apache Meecrowave JTA

  • Apache Sirona JTA

  • Apache Synapse

  • Apache Tapestry

  • Apiman

  • Applet

  • Arquillian

  • AspectJ

  • Atomikos JTA

  • Avalon Logkit

  • Axion Driver

  • Axis

  • Axis2

  • BabbageFaces

  • Bean Validation

  • BeanInject

  • Blaze

  • Blitz4j

  • BootsFaces

  • Bouncy Castle

  • ButterFaces

  • Cache API

  • Cactus

  • Camel

  • Camel Messaging Client

  • Camunda

  • Cassandra Client

  • CDI

  • Cfg Engine

  • Chunk Templates

  • Cloudera

  • Coherence

  • Common Annotations

  • Composite Logging

  • Composite Logging JCL

  • Concordion

  • CSS

  • Cucumber

  • Dagger

  • DbUnit

  • Demoiselle JTA

  • Derby Driver

  • Drools

  • DVSL

  • Dynacache

  • EAR Deployment

  • Easy Rules

  • EasyMock

  • Eclipse RCP

  • EclipseLink

  • Ehcache

  • EJB

  • EJB XML

  • Elasticsearch

  • Entity Bean

  • EtlUnit

  • Eureka

  • Everit JTA

  • Evo JTA

  • Feign

  • File system Logging

  • FormLayoutMaker

  • FreeMarker

  • Geronimo JTA

  • GFC Logging

  • GIN

  • GlassFish JTA

  • Google Guice

  • Grails

  • Grapht DI

  • Guava Testing

  • GWT

  • H2 Driver

  • Hamcrest

  • Handlebars

  • HavaRunner

  • Hazelcast

  • Hdiv

  • Hibernate

  • Hibernate Cfg

  • Hibernate Mapping

  • Hibernate OGM

  • HighFaces

  • HornetQ Client

  • HSQLDB Driver

  • HTTP Client

  • HttpUnit

  • ICEfaces

  • Ickenham

  • Ignite JTA

  • Ikasan

  • iLog

  • Infinispan

  • Injekt for Kotlin

  • Iroh

  • Istio

  • Jamon

  • Jasypt

  • Java EE Batch

  • Java EE Batch API

  • Java EE JACC

  • Java EE JAXB

  • Java EE JAXR

  • Java EE JSON-P

  • Java Transaction API

  • JavaFX

  • JavaScript

  • Javax Inject

  • JAX-RS

  • JAX-WS

  • JayWire

  • JBehave

  • JBoss Cache

  • JBoss EJB XML

  • JBoss logging

  • JBoss Transactions

  • JBoss Web XML

  • JBossMQ Client

  • JBPM

  • JCA

  • Jcabi Log

  • JCache

  • JCunit

  • JDBC

  • JDBC datasources

  • JDBC XA datasources

  • Jersey

  • Jetbrick Template

  • Jetty

  • JFreeChart

  • JFunk

  • JGoodies

  • JMock

  • JMockit

  • JMS Connection Factory

  • JMS Queue

  • JMS Topic

  • JMustache

  • JNA

  • JNI

  • JNLP

  • JPA entities

  • JPA Matchers

  • JPA named queries

  • JPA XML

  • JSecurity

  • JSF

  • JSF Page

  • JSilver

  • JSON-B

  • JSP Page

  • JSTL

  • JTA

  • Jukito

  • JUnit

  • Ka DI

  • Keyczar

  • Kibana

  • KLogger

  • Kodein

  • Kotlin Logging

  • KouInject

  • KumuluzEE JTA

  • LevelDB Client

  • Liferay

  • LiferayFaces

  • Lift JTA

  • Log.io

  • Log4J

  • Log4s

  • Logback

  • Logging Utils

  • Logstash

  • Lumberjack

  • Macros

  • Magicgrouplayout

  • Mail

  • Management EJB

  • MapR

  • MckoiSQLDB Driver

  • Memcached

  • Message (MDB)

  • Micro DI

  • Micrometer

  • Microsoft SQL Driver

  • MiGLayout

  • MinLog

  • Mixer

  • Mockito

  • MongoDB Client

  • Monolog

  • Morphia

  • MRules

  • Mule

  • Mule Functional Test Framework

  • MultithreadedTC

  • Mycontainer JTA

  • MyFaces

  • MySQL Driver

  • Narayana Arjuna

  • Needle

  • Neo4j

  • NLOG4J

  • Nuxeo JTA/JCA

  • OACC

  • OAUTH

  • OCPsoft Logging Utils

  • OmniFaces

  • OpenFaces

  • OpenPojo

  • OpenSAML

  • OpenWS

  • OPS4J Pax Logging Service

  • Oracle ADF

  • Oracle DB Driver

  • Oracle Forms

  • Orion EJB XML

  • Orion Web XML

  • Oscache

  • OTR4J

  • OW2 JTA

  • OW2 Log Util

  • OWASP CSRF Guard

  • OWASP ESAPI

  • Peaberry

  • Pega

  • Persistence units

  • Petals EIP

  • PicketBox

  • PicketLink

  • PicoContainer

  • Play

  • Play Test

  • Plexus Container

  • Polyforms DI

  • Portlet

  • PostgreSQL Driver

  • PowerMock

  • PrimeFaces

  • Properties

  • Qpid Client

  • RabbitMQ Client

  • RandomizedTesting Runner

  • Resource Adapter

  • REST Assured

  • Restito

  • RichFaces

  • RMI

  • RocketMQ Client

  • Rythm Template Engine

  • SAML

  • Santuario

  • Scalate

  • Scaldi

  • Scribe

  • Seam

  • Security Realm

  • ServiceMix

  • Servlet

  • ShiftOne

  • Shiro

  • Silk DI

  • SLF4J

  • Snippetory Template Engine

  • SNMP4J

  • Socket handler logging

  • Spark

  • Specsy

  • Spock

  • Spring

  • Spring Batch

  • Spring Boot

  • Spring Boot Actuator

  • Spring Boot Cache

  • Spring Boot Flo

  • Spring Cloud Config

  • Spring Cloud Function

  • Spring Data

  • Spring Data JPA

  • spring DI

  • Spring Integration

  • Spring JMX

  • Spring Messaging Client

  • Spring MVC

  • Spring Properties

  • Spring Scheduled

  • Spring Security

  • Spring Shell

  • Spring Test

  • Spring Transactions

  • Spring Web

  • SQLite Driver

  • SSL

  • Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT)

  • Stateful (SFSB)

  • Stateless (SLSB)

  • Sticky Configured

  • Stripes

  • Struts

  • SubCut

  • Swagger

  • SwarmCache

  • Swing

  • SwitchYard

  • Syringe

  • Talend ESB

  • Teiid

  • TensorFlow

  • Test Interface

  • TestNG

  • Thymeleaf

  • TieFaces

  • tinylog

  • Tomcat

  • Tornado Inject

  • Trimou

  • Trunk JGuard

  • Twirl

  • Twitter Util Logging

  • UberFire

  • Unirest

  • Unitils

  • Vaadin

  • Velocity

  • Vlad

  • Water Template Engine

  • Web Services Metadata

  • Web Session

  • Web XML File

  • WebLogic Web XML

  • Webmacro

  • WebSocket

  • WebSphere EJB

  • WebSphere EJB Ext

  • WebSphere Web XML

  • WebSphere WS Binding

  • WebSphere WS Extension

  • Weka

  • Weld

  • WF Core JTA

  • Wicket

  • Winter

  • WSDL

  • WSO2

  • WSS4J

  • XACML

  • XFire

  • XMLUnit

  • Zbus Client

  • Zipkin

A.3. About rule story points

A.3.1. What are story points?

Story points are an abstract metric commonly used in Agile software development to estimate the level of effort needed to implement a feature or change.

The Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java uses story points to express the level of effort needed to migrate particular application constructs, and the application as a whole. It does not necessarily translate to man-hours, but the value should be consistent across tasks.

A.3.2. How story points are estimated in rules

Estimating the level of effort for the story points for a rule can be tricky. The following are the general guidelines APPCAT uses when estimating the level of effort required for a rule.

Level of Effort Story Points Description

Information

0

An informational warning with very low or no priority for migration.

Trivial

1

The migration is a trivial change or a simple library swap with no or minimal API changes.

Complex

3

The changes required for the migration task are complex, but have a documented solution.

Redesign

5

The migration task requires a redesign or a complete library change, with significant API changes.

Rearchitecture

7

The migration requires a complete rearchitecture of the component or subsystem.

Unknown

13

The migration solution is not known and may need a complete rewrite.

A.3.3. Task category

In addition to the level of effort, you can categorize migration tasks to indicate the severity of the task. The following categories are used to group issues to help prioritize the migration effort.

Mandatory

The task must be completed for a successful migration. If the changes are not made, the resulting application will not build or run successfully. Examples include replacement of proprietary APIs that are not supported in the target platform.

Optional

If the migration task is not completed, the application should work, but the results may not be optimal. If the change is not made at the time of migration, it is recommended to put it on the schedule soon after your migration is completed. An example of this would be the upgrade of EJB 2.x code to EJB 3.

Potential

The task should be examined during the migration process, but there is not enough detailed information to determine if the task is mandatory for the migration to succeed. An example of this would be migrating a third-party proprietary type where there is no directly compatible type.

Information

The task is included to inform you of the existence of certain files. These may need to be examined or modified as part of the modernization effort, but changes are typically not required. An example of this would be the presence of a logging dependency or a Maven pom.xml.

For more information on categorizing tasks, see Using custom rule categories.

A.4. Additional Resources

A.4.1. Getting involved

To help the Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java cover most application constructs and server configurations, including yours, you can help with any of the following items.

  • Send an email to azure-appcat@microsoft.com and let us know what APPCAT migration rules should cover.

  • You can also contribute by providing feedback directly to our GitHub project at https://github.com/Azure/appcat-rulesets/issues.

  • Provide example applications to test migration rules.

  • Identify application components and problem areas that may be difficult to migrate.

    • Write a short description of these problem migration areas.

    • Write a brief overview describing how to solve the problem migration areas.

  • Try Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java on your application. Be sure to report any issues you encounter.

  • Contribute to the Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java rules repository.

    • Write a Azure Migrate application and code assessment for Java rule to identify or automate a migration process.

    • Create a test for the new rule.

    • Details are provided in the Rules Development Guide.

  • Contribute to the project source code.

    • Create a core rule.

    • Improve APPCAT performance or efficiency.

Any level of involvement is greatly appreciated!

A.4.3. Reporting issues

APPCAT uses GitHub as its issue tracking system. If you encounter an issue executing APPCAT, submit a an issue.





Revised on 2023-11-14 15:17:32 UTC