RAVEN: a Node.js Static Metadata Extracting Solution for JavaScript Applications

• Autor(a) principal: Carlos Maria Antunes Matias
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/88870
• topic: Engenharia electrotécnica, electrónica e informática; Electrical engineering, Electronic engineering, Information engineering

Metadata provide useful information about any type of digital resource. Examples of metadata are author and date of creation of a file. By extracting additional metadata from source code files, through static analysis, one can collect additional information, besides the already existent, and gather a better understanding of the resources and compare them with similar ones. Static analysis consists in examining code files without the need of executing them. This type of analysis allows the creation of a representation of the code which can be used for obtaining more metadata, in the form of software metrics. Software metrics are the result of measurements made over software. Lines of code and code complexity are examples of software metrics. The aim of this dissertation is to develop a metadata extraction solution for JavaScript applications, by leveraging the Node.js environment. This solution will statically analyze JavaScript code, where distinct approaches are possible. The analysis results in a group of software metrics that, in conjunction with other data such as frameworks in use, will produce a valuable tool for the proponent of this dissertation and allow the comparison of files regarding their complexity/quality.