viskit

A command line helper for Kony Visualizer (from now on Vis) projects.

Disclaimer:

Viskit is meant to be a community project, not part of the official Kony platform, and so it is NOT supported by Kony in any way.

Requirements

This project makes heavy use of async functions so it requires Node 7.6 or higher.

Installation

If you already have NPM installed all you have to do is open a command prompt and run:

npm install -g viskit

Usage

Once installed you'll be able to invoke Viskit from anywhere by simply typing in viskit in the command prompt -e.g.:

viskit --version

Is Classic Project

Determine whether a given path points to a Vis Enterprise project, according to the Eclipse .project file located at its root directory.

viskit is-classic-project|ivp path/to/workspace/FooApp

This is mostly a utility command on top of which others are built. It simply determines whether the given path points to the root directory of a Vis project or not.

Get Vis Quantum Version

For Vis Quantum projects, this determines the project version by parsing the projectProperties.json file located in its root directory.

viskit get-quantum-version path/to/workspace/FooApp
viskit gqv path/to/workspace/FooApp

This helps you determine which Vis version you would need in order to open a project without upgrading it. This is specially relevant when multiple developers must collaborate on a project.

Get Vis Classic Version

For Vis Classic projects, this determines the project version by parsing the plugins it requires, as listed in the konyplugins.xml file located in its root directory.

viskit get-project-version path/to/workspace/FooApp
viskit gpv path/to/workspace/FooApp

This helps you determine which Vis version you would need in order to open a project without upgrading it. This is specially relevant when multiple developers must collaborate on a project.

You can use this command to decide which Major.Minor to install and then use the set-vis-version command to install the right patch and hotfix versions on top of that -e.g. If the project is of version 8.2.6.2, then download version 8.2 from the Kony Downloads site and use set-vis-version to get the exact plugins to match 8.2.6.2.

Find Views

Find any views in the project of a specific view type, channel, or name.

viskit find-views|fv path/to/workspace/FooApp

This is useful to give you a rough idea of how big a project is in terms of the number of views it has. It's also a great way to see how reusable your work is, by comparing the count of forms and popups to the number of reusable components. Meaning if the count of views and popups is too high compared to the count of reusable components, then you could probably be doing a better job of harvesting reusable components from your app.

Find Widgets

Find any widgets in the project of a specific view type, channel or name.

viskit find-widgets|fw path/to/workspace/FooApp

This mostly a utility command on top of which others are built. It's still useful for resolving merge conflicts or if a project is broken by a reference to a widget which can't be found, perhaps because it has been renamed by another developer.

Count Widgets

Count the number of widgets for each view.

viskit count-widgets|cw path/to/workspace/FooApp

The fewer widgets a form has, the less memory it will consume and the better it will perform.

Forms with large amounts of widgets may suffer from performance issues, but this will also depend on how heavy those widgets are.

Forms with fewer heavy widgets may perform worse than forms with many light-weight widgets. Still, if a form is suffering from performance issues, this count may give you a clue on why.

Find Redundant Containers

Find any container widgets with one or no children.

viskit find-redundant-containers|frc path/to/workspace/FooApp

Container widgets are usually necessary when positioning two or more widgets as a group.

However, container widgets with a single child are usually not necessary as the child can be positioned on its own.

Empty containers may be accidental, although they're sometimes used as separators, shadows or place-holders.

Count Skin Uses

Count the number of times each skin is used and find broken skin references.

viskit count-skin-uses|csu path/to/workspace/FooApp --theme fooTheme

When you modify the appearance to the widgets in your project, Vis automatically creates new skins for you. If you then delete the widgets, the skins stay behind.

Furthermore, if you do not give these new skins mnemonic names that you can later recognise as you create them, over time you risk accumulating a large amount of unrecognisable skins, making it very hard to know which ones are actually in use and which ones are not.

The intent of this command is to count the number of times each skin is referenced. If the count of references to a skin is 0, you'll know it is safe to delete it. If the count is low -e.g.: 1 or 2, then perhaps you can delete it and instead reuse another. It also points out if any widgets are referencing missing skins.

Find Widgets with Undefined Dimensions

Find any widgets with undefined or preferred width or height.

viskit find-autogrow-widgets|faw path/to/workspace/FooApp

It's possible to create a widget without a defined width, by setting its left and right properties instead and letting it be as wide as it must to meet those.

It's also possible to create a widget without a defined height, by setting its top and bottom properties instead and letting it be as tall as it must to meet those.

It's also possible to set a widget's width or height to preferred, and let it be as wide or tall as it must in order to accommodate its content.

Any of the scenarios above will cause additional overhead to calculate the resulting width or height of the widget. Ergo it is better to define both the width and height whenever possible. If a specific form is suffering from performance issues, this command will give you a hint on whether too many widgets with undefined width or height may be part of the problem.

Find Orphaned Widgets

Find any widgets in the project structure not linked to a view.

viskit find-orphan-widgets|fow path/to/workspace/FooApp

A widget is considered an orphan when despite it being part of the project file structure, it is not in the corresponding form's tree of descendants. Meaning it points to a parent container which doesn't point back to it as a child.

Find Images

Find and classify image files and references in the project structure.

viskit find-images|fi path/to/workspace/FooApp

An image is considered unused when despite it being part of the project file structure, it is not used as the source, loading image or "not found" image by any image widget, nor as the background to any container widgets.

An image reference is considered broken when despite it being set in a widget, skin, splash screen, app icon or store art, it cannot be found in the project structure.

Find Skins

Find all the skins defined for a given theme.

viskit find-skins|fs path/to/workspace/FooApp --theme fooTheme

All themes in a Vis project must have the exact same set of skins. A skin will typically have a different appearance from one theme to another, but retain its name across themes. When a skin is created in one theme, an equivalent of the same name is created in all themes defined in the project. When a skin is deleted from one theme, its equivalents are deleted from all themes in the project.

However, a common issue when using SCM with Vis projects is that conflict resolutions may cause themes to have different sets of skins. When this occurs, the project is left in an inconsistent state.

This command is useful to find the skins defined for each theme, and so to help trouble-shoot such scenarios

Find Actions

Find event references to actions, unused actions and broken action references.

viskit find-actions|fa path/to/workspace/FooApp

In Vis it is possible to link app, form and widget events either to functions -in code- or to actions -using the Action Editor's low-code capabilities.

When using the latter it is not uncommon for a developer to link an event to an action and then change their mind and unlink it. However, when an action is unlinked from an app, form or widget event, the JSON file defining the action stays behind.

Disciplined use of your SCM tools should ward against committing these unused action JSON files into your codebase. However, it's not uncommon for undisciplined developers to simply commit every new file and over time accumulate large amounts of these JSON files polluting the codebase, making it hard to tell what's in use and what's not, as well as to troubleshoot eventual issues and solve merge conflicts.

This command is intended to help you find unused action JSON files so you can remove them from your codebase.

This command will also find any broken references to actions which do not exist.

Find Font References

Find all references to the fonts used in the project.

viskit find-font-references|ffr path/to/workspace/FooApp --theme fooTheme

Any given project will typically have its own style guide specifying every aspect of the application's look & feel. The font family to be used is one of such aspects. However, it's not uncommon for development teams working on large projects to miss a label here and a button there which are not using the required font family.

This command will help you scan your project to find which fonts you are actually using and where, so you'll be able to quickly identify if there are any widgets where you're using the wrong typography.

Set Fonts

Set the font family for all skins in a theme and channel.

viskit set-fonts|sf OpenSans-Regular path/to/workspace/FooApp --except OpenSans-Bold,FontAwesome

Any given project will typically have its own style guide specifying every aspect of the application's look & feel. The font family to be used is one of such aspects. However, it's not uncommon for development teams working on large projects to miss a label here and a button there which are not using the required font family.

This command allows you to do bulk updates of all the skins in your project to set them to the desired font family. You should use it to set the default font for all your skins and use the --except option to avoid changing any icon fonts as well as fonts which you know are already correct —e.g.: If you've already set some fonts to OpenSans-Bold and want all others set to OpenSans-Regular.

You should use it along with the find-font-references command to query what fonts you have, make the necessary changes and then query the results.

Note that by default the command runs in dry-run mode. Meaning it only tells you what it would do but does not really do it unless you use the --force option.

Find Duplicate Skins

Find any duplicated skins for a given theme.

viskit find-dupe-skins|fds path/to/workspace/FooApp --theme defaultTheme

As projects grow, it's likely that each developer will create whatever skins they need in order to deliver. This may result in several skins being exactly the same. As these duplicates proliferate, they put additional unnecessary IO and memory overhead on your project, both to load and to build.

This command helps detect such duplicate skins by calculating an MD5 signature for the skin's JSON file whilst ignoring the skin's unique identifier.

Note that it can only detect exact duplicates. It cannot detect near duplicates —e.g. where the two skins have slightly different font sizes or slightly different background colours.

Find Duplicate Translations

Find any duplicated translations for a given locale.

viskit find-dupe-i18ns|fdi path/to/workspace/FooApp --locale es_ES

As projects grow, it's likely that each developer will create whatever i18n keys they need in order to deliver. This may result in several i18n keys to localise the exact same text. This command helps detect duplicate translations.

Set Vis Version

Set the version of a Vis installation to match a given project.

viskit set-vis-version|svv path/to/KonyVisEnterpriseX.Y.Z path/to/workspace/FooApp

When working with two or more projects developed using different versions of Vis Classic, it is very cumbersome to switch between them. Projects developed with Vis versions older than the one you have installed can only be opened if you upgrade them. Projects developed with Vis versions more recent than the one you have installed can only be opened if you upgrade your installation, and then any upgrade may result in a more recent version than the one your project actually needs.

This forces you to either keep multiple installations of Vis or to manually switch the plugins in your Vis installation. This command attempts to help you shuffle the plugins in your Vis installation in an automated and reliable way.

Sadly it's not possible to make a single Vis installation service projects for 7.x and 8.x but this way you can at least try to use a single 7.x installation for all your 7.x projects and a single 8.x installation for all your 8.x projects.

Note: this will not work with projects of versions 6.x and below.

IMPORTANT: This command is HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL. Vis v8 introduced breaking changes to how Vis works with the JDK, Gradle and other dependencies. You should still keep at least a v7.x and a v8.x installation and not try to transform a v7.x into a v8.x or vice versa. Also keep in mind that the most recent Vis versions will require more recent Xcode and Android SDK versions. This command will do its best to let you know what the min versions of those external dependencies are.

SUPER-IMPORTANT: You should not try to transform Vis installations from one Major.Minor to another. It could break your installation. This command is safest to use when transforming an installation from one Patch or Hotfix version to another. E.g.:

• Transforming version 8.3.2.2 down or up a hotfix to 8.3.2.1 or to 8.3.2.3 is considered safe and should work.
• Transforming version 8.3.2 down or up a patch to 8.3.1 or 8.3.3 is considered safe and should work.
• Transforming version 8.3.x down or up a minor to 8.2.x or 8.4.x is known to work or break depending on the versions.
• Transforming version 8.x.y down or up a major to 7.x.y or 9.x.y is likely to break your installation.

Note: In the event of this command breaking your installation you can always restore the original plugins from the plugins_BACKUP directory created under your Vis installation.