QAT REFACTOR FAQ

What is QAT ReFactor?

QAT ReFactor is a plug-in for CA Gen that provides sophisticated Action Diagram view substitution between unlike Entities, Work Sets and their Attributes. Individual action diagrams, complete call chains or the entire model can be targeted for the ReFactor operation. The ReFactor operations even allow attributes with unlike domains to be matched and substituted in the Action Diagrams.

Here are some of the ReFactor operations provided. All of these ReFactor operations can target a single action block, an entire call chain or the entire model.

You can ReFactor your Action Diagram(s) to:

• Substitute an Entity View for a Work Set View with all attributes mapped according to a designed match.
  
• Substitute an Entity/Work Set View for a different Entity/Work Set View with all attributes mapped according to a designed match.
  
• Substitute selected Attributes from an Entity/Work Set View with Attributes from a different Entity/WorkSet View.

Are these types of ReFactoring operations dangerous because they may break existing code?

It is true that the ReFactor operations may break existing code. However, consider that CA Gen has always allowed the domain of Entity or Work Set Attributes to be changed from the Data Model or Work Set diagrams. These operations also break code. It would be too restricting if the tool required all code to be removed before allowing this type of change. The same logic applies to operations provided by QAT ReFactor. The operations should be used with the full understanding of the impact they may have, but the time saved is very significant.