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Getting started

Quick start

Below you can find instructions that will set up a demo of ExplorViz' frontend component with exemplary data, i.e., mocked backend and target application. You can also try out our hosted demo instance:

1. Clone the deployment repo and cd into the directory of the frontend demo.

git clone https://github.com/ExplorViz/deployment.git
cd deployment/frontend-demo/

2. Use docker compose to start the software stack. The frontend will run on port 8080. You can change all ports in the (hidden) .env file.

docker compose up --pull=always -d

3. Open http://localhost:8080 in your web browser, e.g. Mozilla Firefox.


Visualize a Java application

Instead of using the approach that is shown above, you can also start the complete software stack of ExplorViz to visualize and explore your desired Java application's runtime behavior. Below you can find instructions that will set up ExplorViz' complete software stack with a dynamically analyzed example application.

Start ExplorViz

1. Clone the deployment repo and cd into the correct directory.

git clone https://github.com/ExplorViz/deployment.git
cd deployment/docker/

2. Use docker compose to start ExplorViz' software environment and its services. The frontend is served via nginx and by default runs on port 8080. You can change ports and hostnames in the (hidden) .env file.

docker compose up --pull=always -d

3. Open http://localhost:8080 in your web browser, e.g. Mozilla Firefox.

4. You will see a Software Landscape called "Default Landscape" in a table. Click on the icon to see the Landscape Token's (normally auto-generated) value and secret. This pair of data is used in the upcoming instrumentation configuration. With that, every incoming data record can be mapped to a user and the software landscape which is identified by the landscape token.

Start the target Java application

5. cd into the example applications directory. We use the Spring PetClinic as an example for now.

cd deployment/example-applications/petclinic-demo/

6. Open the hidden .env file. Normally, this is the instrumentation configuration file where you would paste your token's value and secret. Since we use the default token for this instruction, you don't need that.

7. Use docker compose to start the PetClinic.

docker compose up --pull=always -d

Explore the runtime behavior

1. Open http://localhost:18080 in your web browser and generate some load by clicking around.

2. Open http://localhost:8080 in your web browser and click on "Default Landscape" to open the visualization of the Spring PetClinic's runtime behavior.

3. The visualization is updated every tenth second and shows the aggregated runtime behavior of the Spring PetClinic.

4. (Optional) Right click the white background to access the context menu.

5. (Optional) On the top right corner you can find a button to open a sidebar. There you will find visualization settings and the collaboration tab that enables you to join or host a collaborative session.