Appendix A. Reference material

A.1. About Maven Plugin arguments

The following is a detailed description of the available MTA Maven plugin arguments.

Table A.1. MTA Maven plugin arguments

ArgumentDescription

customLoggingPropertiesFile

An absolute path to a logging.properties file that contains a java.util.logging.LogManager logging configuration. If the specified path is invalid, or the option is not specified, then the logging reverts to using the logging.properties file included with the Maven plugin.

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.

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.

excludePackages

A list of packages to exclude from evaluation. For example, entering "com.mycompany.commonutilities" would exclude all classes whose package name begins with "com.mycompany.commonutilities".

excludeTags

A list of tags to exclude. When specified, rules with these tags will not be processed.

explodedApps

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. MTA creates the file in the directory specified by the outputDirectory argument. The CSV file can be imported into a spreadsheet program for data manipulation and analysis.

includeTags

A list of tags to use. When specified, only rules with these tags will be processed.

inputDirectory

Specify the path to the directory containing the applications to be analyzed. This argument defaults to {project.basedir}/src/main/.

keepWorkDirs

Flag to instruct MTA to not delete temporary working files, such as the graph database and unzipped archives. This is useful for debugging purposes.

packages

A list of the packages to be evaluated by MTA. This argument is required.

offlineMode

Flag to operate in offline mode, disabling network access features, such as scheme validation. Used to improve performance.

outputDirectory

Specify the path to the directory to output the report information generated by MTA. This argument defaults to {project.build.directory}/windup-report.

overwrite

Flag to force delete the existing output directory specified by outputDirectory. Defaults to true.

Warning

Be careful not to specify a report output directory that contains important information!

sourceTechnologies

A list of one or more source technologies, servers, platforms, or frameworks to migrate from. This argument, in conjunction with the targetTechnologies argument, helps to determine which rulesets are used.

sourceMode

Flag to indicate that the application to be evaluated contains source files rather than compiled binaries. Defaults to true.

targetTechnologies

A list of one or more target technologies, servers, platforms, or frameworks to migrate to. This argument, in conjunction with the sourceTechnologies argument, helps to determine which rulesets are used.

userIgnorePath

Specify a location for MTA to identify files that should be ignored.

userRulesDirectory

Specify a location for MTA to look for custom MTA rules. The value can be a directory containing ruleset files or a single ruleset file. The ruleset files must use the .windup.xml or .mta.xml suffix.

windupHome

An optional argument that points to the root of an extracted MTA CLI. By referencing a local installation of the CLI, the Maven plugin has direct access to all of the indexes, resulting in a performance increase.

windupVersion

Specify the version of MTA to run. By default, this is the Maven plugin’s build version.

A.1.1. Specifying the input directory

A path to the file or directory containing one or more applications to be analyzed. This defaults to {project.basedir}/src/main/.

Usage

<inputDirectory>
    <INPUT_ARCHIVE_OR_DIRECTORY>
</inputDirectory>

A.1.2. Evaluating an input file

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

Directory
--explodedApp--sourceModeNeither 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--sourceModeNeither 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.1.3. Specifying the output directory

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

Usage

<outputDirectory>
    <OUTPUT_REPORT_DIRECTORY>
</outputDirectory>

  • If omitted, the report will be generated in the {project.build.directory}/windup-report directory.
  • If the output directory exists, it will be overwritten based on the value of the overwrite argument. This argument defaults to true, and causes MTA to delete and recreate the directory.

A.1.4. Setting the source technology

A list of one or more source technologies, servers, platforms, or frameworks to migrate from. This argument, in conjunction with the targetTechnologies argument, helps to determine which rulesets are used.

Usage

<sourceTechnologies>
    <source>eap:6</source>
</sourceTechnologies>

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

A.1.5. Setting the target argument

A list of one or more target technologies, servers, platforms, or frameworks to migrate to. This argument, in conjunction with the sourceTechnologies argument, helps to determine which rulesets are used. This argument is required

Usage

<targetTechnologies>
  <target>eap:7</target>
</targetTechnologies>

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

Warning

When migrating to JBoss EAP, be sure to specify the version in the target, for example, eap:6. Specifying only eap will run rulesets for all versions of JBoss EAP, including those not relevant to your migration path.

See Supported migration paths in Introduction to the Migration Toolkit for Applications for the appropriate JBoss EAP version.

A.1.6. Selecting packages

A list of the packages to be evaluated by MTA. It is highly recommended to use this argument.

Usage

<packages>
  <package>
    <PACKAGE_1>
  </package>
  <package>
    <PACKAGE_2>
  </package>
</packages>

  • 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 the following snippet in your pom.xml.

    <packages>
      <package>com.mycustomapp</package>
      <package>com.myotherapp</package>
    </packages>
  • 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.

A.2. Default logging properties

The default logging.properties file included with the Maven plugin is provided below. This configuration omits many extraneous messages while allowing you to view the progress of the Maven plugin.

Default logging.properties file

# Licensed under the Eclipse Public License version 1.0, available at
# http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
#

# Additional loggers to configure (the root logger is always configured)
#loggers=
handlers=java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler
.level=INFO
#java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.level=INFO

#loggers=org.jboss.forge,org.jboss.weld,org.xnio,org.jboss.forge,org.ocpsoft.rewrite,org.jboss.windup.graph.GraphModelScanner,org.jboss.windup.reporting.xml.ClassificationHandler,org.jboss.windup.graph.GraphTyp$
org.jboss.forge.level=SEVERE
org.janusgraph.level=SEVERE
org.janusgraph.diskstorage.berkeleyje.BerkeleyJEKeyValueStore.level=SEVERE
org.janusgraph.diskstorage.berkeleyje.level=SEVERE
org.jboss.weld.level=SEVERE
org.xnio.level=SEVERE
org.jboss.forge.level=SEVERE
org.ocpsoft.rewrite.level=SEVERE
org.jboss.windup.graph.GraphModelScanner.level=SEVERE
org.jboss.windup.reporting.xml.ClassificationHandler.level=SEVERE
org.jboss.windup.graph.GraphTypeManager.level=SEVERE
org.jboss.windup.graph.GraphContextImpl.level=SEVERE
org.jboss.windup.rules.files.FileMapping.level=SEVERE
org.jboss.windup.exec.level=SEVERE
org.jboss.windup.config.level=SEVERE
com.thinkaurelius.level=SEVERE
org.jboss.windup=INFO

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 Migration Toolkit for Applications 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 MTA uses when estimating the level of effort required for a rule.

Level of EffortStory PointsDescription

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 Migration Toolkit for Applications cover most application constructs and server configurations, including yours, you can help with any of the following items.

  • Send an email to jboss-migration-feedback@redhat.com and let us know what MTA migration rules should cover.
  • 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 Migration Toolkit for Applications on your application. Be sure to report any issues you encounter.
  • Contribute to the Migration Toolkit for Applications rules repository.

    • Write a Migration Toolkit for Applications 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 MTA performance or efficiency.
    • See the Core Development Guide for information about how to configure your environment and set up the project.

Any level of involvement is greatly appreciated!

A.4.3. Reporting issues

MTA uses Jira as its issue tracking system. If you encounter an issue executing MTA, submit a Jira issue.





Revised on 2022-03-07 09:54:15 UTC