The CAST workbench is a vital tool for our applications here at Williams Energy, and, in September 2000, I wrote a case study of how we applied the CAST workbench to our Natural Gas application to assist in learning about our object structure. This summer, CAST is going to release a newer version of the CAST workbench, and I've had a chance to look it over and run it through in advance. There are two primary new features.

CAST has improved its support of Oracle database objects - which means PL/SQL stored procedures - and will now analyze your Java objects as well.

The new version of CAST will still perform many of the same basic tasks as CAST 3X versions. The primary function of CAST is to act as an object repository and object-mapping tool. What this means to programmers everywhere, and what it meant to us at Williams, is that it's a way to reverse engineer the connectivity of database objects (tables, stored procedures, triggers, and views) and our PowerBuilder (and now) Java objects.

CAST will trace a relationship between any objects that touch, for example, between a table and its triggers. CAST represents the triggers in the maps with a specific character (the triangle) and lines are drawn between the table and its triggers. This is just a single example of what CAST can do.

CAST also allows you to draw the relationships between your PowerBuilder objects, which was its first appeal to me. You can choose a nonvisual and it will connect the dots between it and its various methods, between the nonvisual and any windows that might call it, or whatever method might be used to initialize or destroy it. All of this is drawn in picture form, and CAST will document it in text format as well. We used CAST to map our big application and teach newbie programmers how to find their way around the app.

CAST 4.0 offers a number of new features I found easy to use and accessible. CAST can map your Java objects now. Although our area doesn't use them often, the few objects we do use map easily, and the relationships are clear.

CAST is marketing itself as an application-mining tool, which is a good way of saying that it will help you reverse engineer. This was important to us as we went into our application-learning mode. The Java module, however, is the best new feature (see Figure 1). Object legibility has been cleaned up and it's easier to see in the viewer portion (not really a gripe of mine, though). CAST has also bolstered its PL/SQL area.

Making the Oracle portion of its product more robust is a big help. Sybase has a strong presence in certain DB markets, but, let's face it folks, Oracle has a lion's share of the average database. CAST, therefore, is wise in making its tool stronger for Oracle.

CAST has also added an HTML report viewer that can make your object analysis available to a wider audience. If your developers work from different locations (as ours do - with contractors in Arkansas and Vancouver), having a reporting process online makes it more convenient for some of our programmers to access the maps. This even helps us across subsidiary companies; we have numerous locations in town, with many network connections and domains. I'm not on the same domain as a user on the 34th or 38th floor of the Williams Tower here in Tulsa, but we still have to be able to communicate - and the Web is the best way.

The Oracle module has several advantages; its debugger works and it can trace null objects and constraints. CAST also gives you some analysis on performance types of issues in the SQL, how your Where clause is structured, and it will also give you some code optimizer hints, which we all like.

CAST is expensive at first blush. The pricing scheme can range from $10,000 to $100,000, depending on the number of objects in the repository - and depending on the number of business users. The cost, however, of installation is not an issue as the software installs and then you build the repository. There also is no cost involved in that building process. To discuss pricing or system demos, call Dan Blanchard at (800) 507-CAST.

CAST has made a number of improvements to its new software, but the primary new module is for Java objects, with improvements to the Oracle module, which many of us can use. It's still somewhat expensive when it comes right down to it, but CAST is also willing to partner with vendors and consulting companies, depending on your inclination, so it can pay to explore options. The bottom line is CAST saves us money in the long run on training, documentation, and programmer support time - and the new version will do the same and more.

CAST Software
3, rue Marcel Allégot
92 190 Meudon
Paris, France
Web: www.castsoftware.com
Phone: +33 1 46 90 21 00
Fax: +33 1 46 90 21 01