ReArchJBs: a tool for automated software architecture recovery of JavaBeans-based applications

Currently, more and more software systems are developed based on the component technologies, such as JavaBeans. It is significant to recover software architecture from the implementation for the purpose of software maintenance and evolution. In this paper, a general framework for architecture recovery of component-based applications is proposed, identifying the principle and requirements for architecture recovery. Based on this framework, we developed a tool, ReArchJBs, to support automated architecture recovery of JavaBeans-based applications. It recovers architecture model in a graphical way from the perspective of structure and behavior, including the component view, the assembly view and the interaction view. The paper discusses in details key issues involved in the implementation of ReArchJBs, and illustrates this tool by the result of a case study.