Chapter 11   Instant Reverse

Besides code reverse engineering facilities, VP-UML also provides a handy way to reverse engineer other sources (including binary files). This feature is called Instant Reverse.

 

In this chapter:

    What is Instant Reverse?

    Currently Supported Format

    Using Instant Reverse

Instant Reverse is a facility which allows you to reverse engineer different types of source or binary files into VP-UML. With Instant Reverse, you can reverse java source, java classes, .NET binaries, etc…into your projects (More types will be supported soon).

Instant Reverse current supports three types of sources (Instant Types), they are Java source, Java class and .NET binaries (.NET dll and exe files). For reversing Java source, you can supply a single source file or a directory. For reversing Java classes, you can supply a single class file, a jar file, a zip file or a directory. For reversing .NET binaries, you must supply a single binary file (.dll or .exe), and the related files must in the same directory as the source file.

Supported Instant Type	Extension	Remarks
Java Source	Dir/.java
Java Class	Dir/.class/.jar/.zip
Dynamic Link Library	.dll	Must be created by Microsoft® Visual Studio .NET Only need to supply one .dll file. All other required .dll files will be lookup automatically.
Windows Executable	.exe	Must be created by Microsoft® Visual Studio .NET

Table 11‑1 Currently supported Instant Type

To use Instant Reverse, click Tools -> Instant Reverse on the menu bar.

or you can select the type of your source that you want to reverse under the Instant Reverse sub-menu.

The Instant Reverse Options dialog appears. You can select the Instant Type for reverse engineer, the Update Type and the source to reverse.

Selecting the Instant Type

You can select the Instant Type in the Instant Type combo box. If you open the Instant Reverse Options dialog by selecting a type under Instant Reverse sub-menu, the related Instant Type will be selected automatically. Different Instant Types will have a different file chooser when selecting sources to reverse.

Select the Update Type

The action performed can be specified when duplicate models appear when reversing the source. If you select Update in the Update Type, the model in the repository will be updated by the reversed model automatically. If you select Overwrite, the model in the repository will be replaced by the reversed model.

Specifying the source path

You must specify the path of the source which you want to reverse. To define the source path, you can enter the path directly in the Path text field, or press the … button to open the file chooser and select the path. For different Instant Type, the allowed file types will be shown in the file chooser automatically.

When everything is ready, press the OK button to start reverse. Whilst reversing the source, a progress bar indicates that Instant Reverse is in progress. When Instant Reverse has finished, a message will popup.

  

Switch to the Project Explorer into the Model Tree View and see the reversed models. To create diagrams with the reversed models, you can simply drag it out and put it in the diagram pane or using the Form Diagram facility (see Chapter 1  ).

If Instant Reverse fails, a dialog will popup with the reason why it failed to reverse the source.