Moose tools

Moose comes with many tools. This page lists them, grouped by the step of an analysis they help with: getting a model, exploring it, querying it, visualizing it, running specialized analyses, and extending Moose.

Each tool is marked with how you get it:

• Default the tool is part of the default Moose image. Most tools are opened from the Moose menu of the menu bar.
• Load the tool must be loaded first, from the Library menu, under Famix > Load additional modules.

When a tool has its own documentation, its name links to it.

How the Moose IDE tools work together

The Moose IDE browsers exchange entities through buses: you propagate entities from one browser to the others listening to the same bus. See Moose IDE Overview and Creating a new bus. In the tables below, the Input column says what a browser expects to receive from the bus.

1. Getting a model into Moose

Before any analysis you need a model of your system. It can be produced by a parser outside of Moose (for example VerveineJ for Java), then imported. See also Importing and exporting models.

Tool	What it does	Availability
Models browser	The entry point of Moose. Lists the models in the image, imports new ones, and propagates the selected model. Imports from a JSON or MSE file, from a folder of files, or from Pharo code already in the image.	Default
Github Importer	Searches GitHub for a project, downloads the versions you choose, parses them with VerveineJ, and imports one model per version. Java projects only for now. Also available from the Models browser toolbar.	Default
Moose Nexus	Build automation and dependency management for models, similar to Maven or Gradle. Resolves the dependencies of a Java project (Maven, Gradle), runs VerveineJ, and keeps versioned models.	Load
Famix Java Fusionner	Scripting API (FamixFusionnerJava). Merges two Java models by replacing the stub entities of one model with their full definition from another model (for example a library).	Default

2. Exploring a model

General-purpose tools to navigate a model, look at its entities and script on it.

Tool	What it does	Input	Availability
MooseIDE Overview	Shows all open browsers and the buses they listen to. Use it to manage buses.	—	Default
Moose Inspector	The Pharo inspector connected to the buses. Navigates any entity and its relations.	A Moose entity	Default
Moose Playground	The Pharo playground connected to the buses. Write scripts on your models. Each model of the image is available as a variable, and the last received entity as receivedEntity.	Anything	Default
Notebook	A notebook mixing text cells (Microdown) and code cells, to document an analysis and export it as a report.	An entity of a model	Default
Source code	Shows the source code of an entity, with highlighting.	An entity with a source anchor	Default
Files	Explores the root folder of a model and shows the entities defined in each file.	A model with a root folder	Default
Aggregator Browser	Collects entities propagated from several tools, then propagates them all together.	Entities	Default
Logger	Shows the history of what was propagated on each bus.	—	Default
Spotter	The Pharo Spotter (Shift + Enter), extended to search entities in the models.	—	Default

3. Querying and checking rules

Select the entities that answer your question, and check rules on a model. See also MooseQuery and Typical queries.

Tool	What it does	Input	Availability
Queries Browser	Builds queries step by step, without code: filter by type, property, name, navigate relations, combine queries. Propagates the result.	A group of entities	Default
Queries dashboard	Shows predefined queries that apply to a model, with their results.	An entity of a model	Default
Moose Critic Browser	Defines rules as queries and lists their violations on a model. Rules can be exported and imported.	Entities	Default
MoTion	Declarative pattern matching on objects. Describes the shape of the entities you look for instead of writing navigation code. Scripting only.	—	Load

4. Tagging

Tags let you mark entities by hand (or by script) to record what you learn during an analysis: “to remove”, “UI layer”, “checked”… Many visualizations can color entities by tag.

Tool	What it does	Input	Availability
Tag browser	Creates tags, gives them a name and a color, puts them in a hierarchy, and adds or removes tagged entities. Tags can be exported and imported.	An entity of a model	Default

5. Visualizing

Structure of the system

Tool	What it does	Input	Availability
Architectural map	Shows the containment hierarchy of entities (packages, classes, methods…) as nested boxes, with their tags.	Entities	Default
Distribution map	Shows how a property (for example a tag) is distributed over parts of the system (for example packages).	Entities	Default
Heat map	Like the distribution map, with entities colored by a numeric property.	Entities	Default
System complexity	Shows the class hierarchies, each class drawn as a box whose size and color show metrics (attributes, methods, lines of code).	A group of classes	Default
Class Blueprint	Shows the internal structure of one class: its methods and attributes, how they call each other, and which are dead.	A class	Default
UML	Draws a UML class diagram of the received types. Found under Moose > Old browsers.	Types	Default
Layer visualization	Partitions a model into layers and shows the links between them. Each system must describe its layers by subclassing MiLayerVisualizationModel. Not in the menu.	An entity of a model	Default
ClassName Distribution	Shows how the words used in class names (the concepts) are distributed over class hierarchies, for Java and Pharo. Opened from the Library menu once loaded.	A model	Load

Dependencies

Tool	What it does	Input	Availability
Butterfly map	Shows the clients (left) and the providers (right) of a central entity, over several levels.	An entity	Default
Dependency Structural Matrix	Shows the dependencies between entities as a matrix and highlights the cycles.	Entities depending on each other	Default
Co Usage Map	Shows which containers (for example methods) use which used entities (for example attributes). Useful to split a class or to find cohesive groups.	A group of entities	Default
API Browser	Shows the dependencies between two subsystems: what a client subsystem uses from a provider subsystem. Listens to two buses, one per subsystem.	Methods or classes, on each bus	Load
Java call graph	Builds the call graph of Java methods, solving polymorphic calls. Also loads FAST Java.	Java methods	Load
Java call graph v2	Second version of the Java call graph builder. Work in progress.	Java methods	Load

6. Specialized analyses

Tool	What it does	Input	Availability
Dead code browser	Finds dead methods or functions, with a choice of heuristics. A first run finds the dead entities, and a recursion then adds the entities called only by dead ones.	Methods or functions	Default
Duplication browser	Finds code clones and shows the duplicated fragments side by side.	Entities with source code	Default
Bulk editor	Scripting API (MiBulkEditor). Rewrites Java source files in bulk, for example to comment out or remove a list of dead methods.	—	Default
Moose Security	Finds possible security vulnerabilities in a system, tags them and shows them. Work in progress.	—	Load

7. Exporting results

Tool	What it does	Input	Availability
Entities exporter	Exports entities as a CSV file, with a comment per entity.	Entities	Default
Model Report	Generates a statistical report on a model in Markdown. You can edit it before exporting.	An entity of a model	Default
Model export	Exports a whole model as JSON or MSE, from the Models browser or by script.	A model	Default

The Notebook and the Model Report (above) also produce documents you can export.

8. Meta-models (languages)

A model follows a meta-model, which depends on the language of the analyzed system. Moose includes some meta-models by default, and others can be loaded.

Famix meta-models

Meta-model	Language	Availability
Famix Java	Java	Default
Famix Smalltalk	Pharo code, imported directly from the image.	Default
MoosePy	Python	Load
Famix-Fortran	Fortran	Load
Famix-Cpp	C++	Load
Famix-SQL	SQL	Loaded by script

FAST meta-models (abstract syntax trees)

Famix models stop at the level of methods. FAST models describe what is inside them: statements and expressions. See FAST.

Meta-model	Language	Availability
FAST Java	Java	Load
FAST Pharo	Pharo	Load
FAST Python	Python, with analyses such as control flow graphs, SSA and local resolution.	Load
FAST Fortran	Fortran	Load

9. Extending Moose

Tools for people who build new meta-models, parsers or tools. See the Developers section.

Tool	What it does	Availability
Famix meta-model builder	Defines a new meta-model by describing its entities and relations, and generates its code.	Default
Fame	The meta-meta-model below Famix. Also handles reading and writing models (JSON, MSE).	Default
Meta Browser	Browses a meta-model: its entities, their properties and their relations. Found under Moose > Old browsers.	Default
Famix UML Documentor	Scripting API (FamixUMLDocumentor). Generates a UML diagram of a meta-model, exported as PlantUML, Mermaid, LaTeX, text or Roassal.	Default
MooseQuery	The query API used by all the tools: navigate containment and dependencies between entities, whatever the meta-model.	Default
Roassal	The visualization engine used by the Moose visualizations. Use it to build your own.	Default
PetitParser	A framework to build parsers (PetitParser2).	Load
SmaCC	A parser generator, used for example to write importers for new languages.	Load