Preparing to Scan Code for a .NET Web Application

In this section, you will learn how to configure the Globalyzer scanner by inspecting your source code files and then setting up project and scan information.

Please open a browser and navigate to a download link. There are two download links available:

• Project for Visual Studio 2008: https://www.globalyzer.com/gzserver/help/tutorials/tutorialNET/simplefor2008.zip
• Project for Visual Studio 2010: https://www.globalyzer.com/gzserver/help/tutorials/tutorialNET/simplefor2010.zip

1. To set up to build and run the sample application, unzip the source into your IIS root directory, such as C:\Inetpub\wwwroot, so that the simple directory is located directly below wwwroot.

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   Note: Unzipping to your IIS root directory is only necessary if you plan on running the application. If you prefer, you may unzip the source anywhere and skip to step 3.

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   The Visual Studio project expects the URL to be http://127.0.0.1 or http://localhost. If this is the correct url, you can simply use Open Project/Solution within visual studio and choose simple.sln from your unzip directory. If you have deployed the application to a different server, you have two options. First, you can edit this project accordingly. Alternatively, you can create a new project, importing the following files from the .zip archive into the new project via Project=>Add Existing Item

   • AControl.cs
   • Resourcer.cs
   • simple.aspx
   • simple.aspx.cs
   • simpleSuccess.aspx
   • simpleSuccess.aspx.cs
   • User.cs

2. Once you are able to build the project, browse to simple.aspx in your browser or right-click on simple.aspx in the Solution Explorer and select View in Browser. If you have the project set up correctly, you will see the following page:

   

   Clicking on the Submit Query button will trigger a JavaScript alert. When you click the OK button in the alert, you should see a static list of books displayed in simpleSuccess.aspx page.

   

3. Now that you have the tutorial source code ready, you create a Globalyzer Workbench Project by selecting File=>New=>Project... and then General=>Project. In the next page of the dialog give the project the name Simple, uncheck Use default location and enter "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\simple" (or where ever you have unzipped the source code) as shown here:

   

4. Click Finish. You have now created an Eclipse project for your source. You should see the following, where you can either associate the Eclipse project with an existing Globalyzer project, or create a new Globalyzer project.

   

   Click Close for the purpose of this tutorial.

5. The Globalyzer Workbench requires a one-to-one association between an Eclipse project (what you just created) and a Globalyzer project. You can create the Globalyzer project either by clicking New after creating the Eclipse project, or by giving the Eclipse project a Globalyzer Nature. To add a Globalyzer Nature for our tutorial, right-click on Simple in the Project Explorer view and select Globalyzer=>Add/Remove Globalyzer Nature menu item:

   

   The Select Globalyzer Project dialog should appear again. This time, select New.

6. Globalyzer will automatically create an associated Globalyzer Project and will then display the Manage Scans Wizard so that you can create your first Scan for the project. In the Scan Name field enter HTML Scan. In the Description field enter A scan based on the tutorial HTML Rule Set.

   In the Rule Set dropdown, select html.

   You may then choose to click on the Select all files and directories button shown highlighted in the screenshot below, or alternatively leave everything unselected. If all items are left unselected while creating a scan, Globalyzer will assume that everything should be scanned. If some items are selected while others are unselected, then Globalyzer will only scan the selected items.

   

   Note: The Source Files directory listing will only show files that are associated with the selected Rule Set (in this case, html). If you have a project where you want to scan a certain type of file and they are not showing up, the reason is that the file type is not added in the Rule Set on the server. You can add or subtract these file types by editing the Source File Extensions of your Rule Set on the server, then selecting Project=>Reload Rule Sets within the client, and then reopening Manage Scans Wizard by selecting Scan=>Manage Scans.

7. Click Next. You are presented with the Globalyzer Scanning page of the wizard. To disable or enable scanning for specific types, you check or uncheck the types in the Detect pane. These types correspond to the Detection Rules in your Rule Set, and tell Globalyzer what to look for. If selected, the scanner will detect and locate in your source code each of these categories of items: Embedded Strings, Locale-Sensitive Methods, General Patterns, and Static File References. Note that since HTML does not support methods, the Locale-Sensitive Method option is grayed out.

   Uncheck Static File References, but let Embedded Strings and General Patterns remain checked.

   This is also where you set Source File Encoding, which tells Globalyzer the file format of your source files. If your files match the default file format of your local machine, then leave the setting as SystemDefault. Otherwise, you can choose the correct file format from the dropdown.

   Note: The Source File Encoding field is an important field when it comes to setting up a Globalyzer Scan for your application. Globalyzer uses this field to determine how to open source files for scanning and for fixing i18n issues, such as externalization of strings. Usually, files are encoded in the default format of the local machine. However, sometimes source files may be in a different encoding. To ensure that files are read and written properly, Globalyzer will try to detect the encoding of a source file, regardless the Source File Encoding setting. As long as the source file has BOM bytes (bytes at the beginning of files that indicate the encoding), Globalyzer will be successful. This way, if most of your source is encoding in SystemDefault but there are some files encoded in a file format with BOM (e.g. UTF-16 with BOM), Globalyzer will be able to correctly handle differently-encoded files.

   For this tutorial, leave the Source File Encoding as SystemDefault.

   The last set of fields, Comments, are used to instruct the Globalyzer scanner to skip over a line or block of source code, ignoring any i18n issues, and also to mark a line as To Do for later refactoring. Note that these comments will be inserted into the source code. You'll see later in this tutorial how you can also use "soft" statuses when you want to skip or ignore i18n issues without actually modifying the source code.

   

8. Click Next, then Finish.

   You have just created your first scan. To create more scans in the future, select Scan=>Manage Scans from the Menu bar. Alternatively, right click on your project and then go to Globalyzer=>Manage Scans.

9. To demonstrate that your Eclipse project is now associated with a Globalyzer project, right click on it within the Project Explorer view again. Hover your mouse over the Globalyzer menu option:

   

   You should now see the new menu items displayed above.

10. Although with this simple tutorial it's not necessary to run the File Inspector, in a larger, more complex application you will find it very helpful in scoping your internationalization effort. Select Project=>Run Project Files Inspector... from the Menu Bar. The File Inspector dialog displays:

    

11. Take a moment to look at the fields. You set the Source Path to the base of your Source Code files and the Excel Output path to the file path of the generated Excel file. The Extension and Language Group columns list the source file extensions that Globalyzer is to search for and how to group them. For example, .asp is a VB Classic file extension, whereas acsx, aspx and asax fall under the ASP .NET language group. You can add and delete entries using the Add Extension and Remove Extension buttons. To restore the list back to Globalyzer's default, click Restore Defaults.

12. Click Add Extension:

    

    To add a new file extension to an existing group, use the exact same name in the Language Group field. To add a new group, fill in a new language group name. For this tutorial, we can use Globalyzer's default groups, so click Cancel.

13. Fill in or browse to the location of your C# tutorial source code and enter Simple_FileInspection.xls in the Output Excel field as shown below.

    

14. Click Generate to create the Excel file.

15. Open Simple_FileInspection.xls. The Summary worksheet lists and counts files that are grouped in the File Inspector dialog box. It also lists suggested Rule Sets that you may need to create in the Suggested Rule Set(s) column.

    

16. The other worksheets in the File Inspector Excel file give the details of the grouped files. For example, the following screenshot shows our CS files in the C# worksheet.

    

    Notice that there are several language groupings and that each grouping has its own worksheet. In addition, any files that do not fall into a File Inspector Group will display in the Other worksheet. After looking at the Other worksheet, you may want to add file extensions to a File Inspector group as well as to the associated Rule Sets. In summary, the File Inspector tool helps in determining:

    • additional Rule Sets to create (select Project=>Create Rule Set to create a rule set from the Globalyzer Workbench; click on the View Rule Sets button to quickly navigate to the Globalyzer Server when you are ready to customize the new rule set)

      

    • file extensions to add to existing Rule Sets
    • additional file extensions and language groupings to add to the File Inspector
    • out-of-scope directories and files to apply to either your Rule Set File Extension Filters or to your Globalyzer Project Scan directories

17. The last change we need to make is to turn off Globalyzer's Dictionary feature. By default, Globalyzer will compare each detected Embedded String against its dictionary files, and filter those that have no matching words. However, in the case of our tutorial, the application consists of displaying book titles, which may or may not be contained in a dictionary, but may require translation. Therefore, we are going to uncheck this option. Select Window=>Preferences from the Menu Bar, and navigate to Globalyzer.

    

18. Uncheck Filter Strings Without Dictionary Words. Your preferences window should now resemble the screenshot above.

19. Click OK.

With your Project Properties saved and your HTML Scan set up, you're now ready to scan your code.