CodeSonar® Tour
Overview
CodeSonar® integrates with your normal build process to catch tricky bugs early. First, you configure CodeSonar to piggyback your build. Then, as you build your application, CodeSonar builds a CodeSonar project: an abstract model of your program. At the conclusion of a build, CodeSonar runs its analysis phase and sends its results to database, where you can view and explore any defects it has found with an ordinary web browser.
Getting Started
To begin using CodeSonar, first configure it to piggyback on your build. The process varies depending on whether you are using Windows, Linux, Solaris, or Mac OSX, but it requires little effort and does not involve replicating the build environment or modifying build scripts.
Running CodeSonar's SmashProof™ Analysis
Once configured to observe your build, CodeSonar creates an abstract model of your program and performs its SmashProof™ Analysis, sending the results to a hub: a shared database of analysis results with a web-based interface for exploration and visualization. The hub runs on one of your machines (i.e., CodeSonar is not software as a service). The hub need not be on the same machine that runs the analysis.
Viewing Analysis Results
Users can access CodeSonar's results with a regular web browser.
Hub Home Page
After authenticating to the hub and selecting an analysis to view, you will see a summary page, displaying information about the analysis.
A CodeSonar Web GUI analysis page (click to enlarge).
This page, known as the analysis page, contains a table with one line for each warning issued by the analysis. The columns of the table can be cusomized, if desired.
For large projects, where the list of warnings can be very long, there is a sophisticated search function to help you navigate through the generated warnings to identify those that match particular criteria. Searches can be refined, by adding more criteria, and can be saved for later use.
Warning Report
Clicking on a row on the analysis page navigates to the warning report page for the bug.
A CodeSonar Web GUI warning report page (click to enlarge).
The top part of the page provides information about the bug, such as its warning class. The middle part shows an execution path where the bug occurs, using extensive color-coding to make the path and warning easy to understand. Finally, at the bottom part of the warning report page, there are controls to prioritize, assign, and enter notes on the warning. This information persists across analysis runs and can be shared across your team.
Aggregate Data Reports
Out of the box, numerous high-level reports are provided so your team can track progress and identify where to focus testing efforts. Links on the Home, Project, and Analysis pages provide shortcuts to useful summary charts.
Built-in Summary Charts
Charts of warning counts are highly-interactive and are sensitive to the Visible Warnings setting.
Interactive Warnings Chart
The table of data associated with any chart is always available; you can easily swap between tabular and graphical views of the data.
CodeSonar Makes it Easy to Navigate Between Tabular and Graphical Views of Warnings
Finally, a charting wizard makes it easy to create custom reports.
Additional Features
Additional features include
- Source file listings, enhanced with comments at warning locations and hyperlinking.
- An SQL interpreter for direct interaction with the hub database.
- An API for integrating CodeSonar with other tools
- An API for creating custom warning classes and checks.
- And more
Free Trial
Sign up for a free trial and try CodeSonar on your own code.