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AppDNA Current Release AppDNA 7.15
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Web Capture Import

Aug 14, 2017

You use the Web Capture Import tab in the Import Web Applications screen to capture web applications into an MSI and import that MSI into AppDNA in one operation. 

Note

It is not possible to import a web application by adding a URL (runtime HTML pages). To work around this issue: 

  1. Download the version of the .NET Framework Version 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK).  64-bit - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15354  32-bit - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=19988 
  2. Launch the setup and install the Tools and Debugger feature.

To capture web applications:

  1. From the AppDNA side bar, choose Import & Analyze > Web Applications.

  2. Click the Web Capture Import tab.

  3. To change import options, click Configuration to open the Web import settings.

  4. On the toolbar, click Add.

  5. In the Select Web Application dialog box, enter the details:

    • Name. The name to be used for the web application within AppDNA.
    • URL. To capture the web application by using the AppDNA directed spider to crawl over the runtime HTML pages, specify the URL of the web application by typing or pasting its URL into the text box.
    • Source folder. To capture the web application’s source files, specify their location. For the most comprehensive analysis, specify both a URL and a source folder.

  6. Click OK.

    A list of web applications appears.

  7. To add more web applications, repeat the previous three steps.

  8. To run the spider in manual mode, select the Use Manual Browser Navigation check box. To run the spider in automatic mode, clear the check box.

    • Manual mode. This option enables you to walk through the web application manually, following the links that are relevant. Use this for web applications that make significant use of JavaScript and related technologies (such as AJAX) to modify pages after they are loaded or if there is a complex single sign-on (SSO) scenario. You can optionally switch to automatic mode after capturing the SSO and AJAX pages, for example.
    • Automatic mode. This option (the default) uses the spider to walk through the web application, stopping only when it encounters an input form or dialog box, depending on the configuration options.

  9. In the list, select the web applications that you want to import.

  10. On the right-side of the toolbar, click Import.

If you included a web application’s URL, AppDNA opens the AppDNA directed spider and an Internet Explorer browser window. See Web Capture Processing for more information.

After you click Import, a message in the Import Web Applications screen shows the progress of the import. To view a log of the import process, click the Log icon to the right of the progress message. This shows the log information in a pop-up window.

Some special characters (such as “:” and “/” cannot be displayed on the Application list page.

Note: For web applications, AppDNA does not use the fingerprint mechanism that it uses for Windows applications. AppDNA treats each web application as a separate application, even if the same application has been imported previously.

Analysis and reporting

If you have a retail license, AppDNA begins analyzing applications immediately after they are imported, by default. For trial installations, you must run an analysis manually, by default.