Reviews : Aqris RefactorIT 1.3.2 :

Using RefactorIT Standalone or With Your IDE

Before I get into the details of installing and working with RefactorIT, I would like to go over some of the possibilities using RefactorIT (or a similar tool) can bring to the enterprise. Primarily, refactoring allows companies to set new standards, but it does require integrating this product into the overall development process of your organization. Some of the possibilities include:

• Creating and enforcing new coding standards such as having a required comment density (to ensure future programmers know what is going on quickly).
• Allowing for simple code audits (programmers could first do this from within their IDEs to avoid embarrassment).
• API comparisons allow for architects and senior programmers to see what their underlings are getting accomplished.
• Eliminate extraneous imports and other easy-to-miss sloppiness that always happen as code is modified. Theoretically: no more spaghetti code.
• Find out where code is used before deciding to make a change, and allowing for removal of unused code.
• The list goes on. Why aren't you refactoring yet?

Installation and Requirements

RefactorIT can be used on Sun Solaris 7 & 8, RedHat 6.0 & 7.0, Mandrake 8.1, Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and Mac OS X 10. Installing RefactorIT is a straightforward walkthrough for the supported environments and can be done using tarred or zipped files or using JARs. The current 1.3.2 version can also be installed using the NetBeans Update Center Wizard. Make sure you have at least 128 MB RAM and JRE 1.3 or 1.4.

Using RefactorIT Standalone

RefactorIT standalone looks almost like an extremely paired-down IDE. Figure 1 shows a screen capture of the RefactorIT standalone. On the left is a project window which shows the project and its structure, on the left is a large window where code is displayed and the bottom of the screen is a console where metrics, auditing and other program information is displayed. The refactoring work, such as moving classes and running audits, is done through the Tools menu. The other menus give the predictable operations: open, create new and save through the File menu, toggle the console and change global settings through the View menu, edit project information through the Project menu and get help through the Help menu. The main step of using the standalone is to setup your projects correctly, you will need to make sure that you add all of the directories where Java (.java) source files for your project reside, as well as all of the JAR files.

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