Coati Software OG
Jakob-Haringer-Straße 1/127
5020 Salzburg
Austria

Contact
coati.io
mail@coati.io

QUICK START GUIDE

This short introduction will briefly guide you through the project setup and the user interface of Coati. The bullet point lists will tell you what to do:

Short description

Coati is an interactive source explorer that simplifies navigation in existing source code. Coati's aim is to give answers to all your questions about your source code. Coati first indexes your code and gathers data about its structure and then provides you a simple interface consisting of three interactive views, each playing a key role in getting information:

• Search: Use the search field to quickly find and select indexed symbols in your source code. The autocompletion box will instantly provide an overview of all matching results throughout your codebase.
• Graph: The graph displays the structure of your source code. It focuses on the currently selected symbol and directly shows all incoming and outgoing dependencies to other symbols.
• Code: The Code view displays all source locations of the currently selected symbol in a list of code snippets. Clicking on a different source location allows you to change the selection and dig deeper.

Coati currently only supports the languages C/C++ and Java. Much of the UI design is therefore based on these languages and might change as soon as other languages are supported. For more information have a look at supported languages.

Starting up Coati

Once you installed Coati successfully you are ready to run the application.

License Key Window

When running the full version of Coati for the first time you are greeted with the enter license window. You need to enter the license key you received via e-mail when you purchased your Coati license.

Start Window

On every start of Coati you are shown the start window. It allows for creating new projects or opening existing ones.

Creating a Project

When creating a new Coati project you will use the project setup wizard. This wizard splits the setup process into several subsequent steps.

Source Indexing

Coati will now ask you whether you want to start indexing. Click Start and wait for the indexing to finish, which might take a little while. The Indexing Dialog and the status bar will give you information about the progress. Otherwise the UI will be empty. Coati indexes all named symbols and their relationships throughout the provided source files.

After indexing has finished, Coati will show an overview of all indexed symbols in the graph view and some statistics in the code view. If the indexing yielded errors, the code view will display them. You can see the error message by hovering an error's location.

UI Intro

As already mentioned Coati's user interface is split into three main views. Their arrangement can be changed however you wish, you can even detach them from the main window and put them on different screens (see Window Widgets).

The three views show information about the currently selected symbol. The search field provides the name, the graph visualization shows its relationships to other symbols and the code view displays all locations the symbol gets referenced throughout the codebase.

Search Field

The search field allows for easy access to all indexed symbols. Use it to find all the classes and functions you wish to investigate. Apart from that is also holds the UI buttons for navigating back & forward as well as refreshing.

When entering a search query the autocompletion popup will provide you with a concise list of all matching symbols. Note that Coati uses a fuzzy matching algorithm, that allows you to skip characters while entering a query.

Graph Visualization

The graph visualization displays the currently selected symbol in an active state and all other symbols it shares relationships with. The visualization is made up of nodes and edges.

• Nodes: All named symbols in your source code will be displayed as different nodes, such as functions, classes or files. Nodes with members (like classes) can be expanded to show all their contents, the number at the expansion arrow shows how many members are hidden. Clicking a node will activate it and update all the views to the new selection. Dragging a node can be used to change its position.
• Edges: The relationships between the symbols are displayed as different edges, such as type use, function call or file include. Sometimes edges get bundled together and are displayed as an aggregation edge that shows a number of how many edges it contains. Clicking an edge will highlight its source location in the code view.

Colors:

The different node and edge types are also displayed using different colors. The default color scheme uses this convention:

Color	Node	Edge
gray	types and classes	type use
yellow	functions and methods	calls
blue	variables and fields	variable access

Hatching:

Nodes displayed with a striped hatching, are nodes that were used within your indexed source files, but were not defined. Clicking them shows all locations where they are used, without providing their declaration.

Code View

The code view displays all locations of the currently active symbol within the indexed source files. It does not allow for editing the source code. Syntax highlighting is used to increase readability. Source locations that are surrounded by a box when hovered can be clicked to activate the respective symbol. Active source locations are highlighted.

The source locations are displayed as code snippets, containing the line of interest and extra lines added to the top and bottom to give information about its context. Code snippets are then bundled together into files.

Note: A file can be selected as active symbol by clicking its name in the title bar. By clicking the icons on the right hand side of the title bar, the file can switch between 3 different states:

• Minimized: The file does not show any content
  
• Snippets: The file displays the snippets containing active locations separated by lines.
  
• Maximized: The whole content of the file is visible.
  

For more information please have a look at Code View Files.

Start exploring!

After reading this quick guide, you know the basics of Coati's user interface and you are able to start exploring your codebase. Coati will allow you to see your source code from a whole new perspective, by giving you a concise overview of its parts and a faster way of drilling down to its internals, while always maintaining the connection to the implementation details of the actual source code.

For more detailed information please have a look at the much more extensive instruction manual below.

If you have feedback for us, please don't hesitate and let us know by writing to support@coati.io, we'd be glad to hear from you.

The Coati team wishes you a good start with our product, lots of saved time, increased productivity and much cleaner code.

INTRODUCTION

About this document

This document is the official documentation of Coati and explains everything you need to know about working with it.

If you have questions not answered by this document, please write us an e-mail to support@coati.io.

Supported Languages

C

C support is powered by Clang 3.8. If you have a problem loading C code, please have a look at Clang language compatibility or report a bug at our bug tracker.

C++

C++ support is powered by Clang 3.8. For more Information please visit Clang C++ Status. If you have a problem loading C++ code, please have a look at Clang language compatibility or report a bug at our bug tracker.

Java

Coati 0.8 includes an early version of Java 8 support which is powered by JavaParser and JavaSymbolSolver. In this version Java support still has some minor issues when matching a method's call to a proper definition. If you encounter any of these issues, please let us know by providing a minimal example at our bug tracker.

FAQ

INSTALLATION

On Windows

Download and open the zip file and extract its contents into a temporary folder of your choice. Run the setup.exe and go through the wizard. You can now launch Coati from your start menu.

On Mac

Download and open the Coati.dmg file and drag Coati.app into the applications folder. You can now launch Coati from your Applications.

On Linux

Download Coati.tar.gz file and extract it. To start Coati run the Coati.sh script. Coati creates a folder ~/.config/coati at the first run, this is the folder for Coati settings. To Install Coati run the setup/install.sh Script with sudo, it will install Coati to /opt/coati and create /usr/bin/coati symlink.

Data folder

The data folder holds certain files that are used by Coati to run the program. After following the installation instructions the data folder should be located in the following locations on your platform.

Platform	Location
Windows	C:/Users/You/AppData/Local/Coati Software/Coati (used for dynamic data and settings) install_directory/Coati Software/Coati/data (used for static app data)
Mac	~/Library/Application Support/Coati
Linux	~/.config/coati

Finding System Header Locations

On Windows

These files usually ship with your compiler. For the Visual Studio IDE the system headers can be found at:

<path_to_visual_studio>/VC/include/

If you don't use the Visual Studio IDE you can also try to find your system headers in a subdirectory of:

C:/Program Files (x86)/Windows Kits/

On Mac

Run this command in your terminal:

gcc -x c++ -v -E /dev/null

You will find the header search paths your compiler uses in the output between these two lines:

#include <...> search starts here:
.
.
.
End of search list.

On Linux

gcc -x c++ -v -E /dev/null

or

clang -x c++ -v -E /dev/null

You will find the header search paths your compiler uses in the output between these two lines:

#include <...> search starts here:
.
.
.
End of search list.

Finding Java Runtime Library Location

The current version of Coati requires Java 8 to index any Java project. To locate the required library file, please refer to the applicable description below.

On Windows

The Java Runtime Library (called jvm.dll) can be found inside of your JRE install folder and looks like this:

<path_to_jre>/bin/client/jvm.dll

On Mac

The Java Runtime Library (called libjvm.dylib) can be found inside of your JRE install folder. Run the following command in your terminal to find the location of your default Java installation:

/usr/libexec/java_home

This should give you a path looking like this:

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/<jdk_version>/Contents/Home

The "libjvm.dylib" should be available at:

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/<jdk_version>/Contents/Home/jre/lib/server/libjvm.dylib

Insert the full path to libjvm.dylib into the Java Path setting in the Preferences Window.

On Linux

The Java Runtime Library (called libjvm.so) can be found inside of your JRE install folder and looks like this:

<path_to_jre>/lib/<arch>/server/libjvm.so

USER INTERFACE

Main Window

Widget Windows

Coati's three views are organized into Widgets Windows, which can be freely arranged within the Main Window or detached from it. Each Widget Window has a title bar displaying its name and 2 buttons for closing the Widget Window and for detaching it from the Main Window.

Interactions:

• Drag the Widget Window at the title bar to rearrange it within the Main Window, detach it or attach it again.
• Press the "x" icon to close the Widget Window. They can be reopened from the View Menu.
• Press the "□" icon to detach the Widget Window from the Main Window.

Statusbar

The Statusbar is located on the bottom of the Main Window and is used to convey information about Coati's status and currently running processes to the user.

If indexing yielded errors the status bar will display their count on the right side.

Interactions:

• Click on the error count to display the error locations in the Code View.

Windows

Start Window

On every start of Coati you are shown the start window. It allows for creating new projects or opening existing ones.

Interactions:

• Clicking New Project will lead you to Project Setup.
• Clicking Open Project will let you open an existing Coati project by choosing from a file dialog.
• Clicking on one of the Recent Projects will open this project. The list shows a maximum of 7 items ordered by recent first.
• Pressing ESC will close the window.

Path List Box

The Path List Box is a user interface element that is used within the Preferences Window and the Project Setup Wizard. It allows for entering a list of file and directory paths.

Interactions:

• Click the "+" icon to add a new path line.
• Click the "-" icon to remove a selected path line.
• Click a path line to select it.
• Enter the path by typing on your keyboard
• Click "..." within the path line to open a file dialog for choosing a file or directory path.
• Directly add multiple paths into the box by dropping elements from your filesystem.
• Click the pen icon in the bottom right corner to edit the list as plain text.

Plain Text Editing

By pressing the pen icon in the bottom right corner you can open the plain text edition dialog. It allows you to edit the whole list within a text field. Each line will be one list item.

Interactions:

• Add and remove list items through keyboard interaction.
• Click Cancel to cancel plain text editing.
• Click Save to save your changes to the list.

Preferences Window

The Preferences window lets you define settings for all projects. You can open the Preferences from the menu via Edit/Preferences.

Setting	Description
Font face	Define the font face used throughout the UI
Font size	Set the font size used throughout the UI. It can also be changed with the actions in the View Menu
Tab width	Define the space width of tabs in the code view.
Color scheme	Choose which color scheme Coati should display. The color schemes are located in data/color_schemes/
Scroll Speed	Define a multiplyer for the default scroll speed. Values smaller than 1 slow down scrolling while values greater than 1 increase the scroll speed.
Logging	Ticking this box enables logging to console and to a log file. This option is disabled by default to speed up Coati. If you encounter problems while running Coati, we recommend to enable this option so you have somewhere to start looking for a cause.
Indexer threads	Define how many parallel threads are used during indexing.
Non-Fatal Errors	Enable this option if you want Coati to display non-fatal errors in files that do not get indexed by Coati. Fatal errors will be displayed regardless of their location within the project because they tend to affect the indexers coverage.
Coati Port	Port number that Coati uses to listen for incoming messages from plugins.
Plugin Port	Port number that Coati sends outgoing messages to.
Java Path	If you want to use Coati on Java source code, please specify a path to your Java 8 runtime library. Please keep in mind that a 32 bit Coati requires a 32 bit version of Java while a 64 bit Coati requires a 64 bit Java to be working correctly. You can either use the button below for automatic detection or add the path manually. For instructions on how to find your Java runtime path see Finding Java Runtime Library Location.
Global Include Paths	Set header search paths that are used for all of your projects (e.g. std headers). An option for automatic detection of these paths is available for Clang, GCC and the Visual Studio compiler. For instructions on how to add paths manually see Path List Box. For instructions on how to find the system header paths see Finding System Header Locations.
Global Framework Search Paths	Mac only. Define the search paths for .framework files for all of your projects. An option for automatic detection of these paths is available for Clang and GCC. For instructions on how to add paths see Path List Box.

Project Setup Wizard

The Project Setup Wizard consists of a sequence of windows that let you create a new Coati project. After selecting the programming language for your project Coati offers several ways for you to provide all the required information.

Interactions:

• Select the language used in code project.
• Selecting a project type will determine how you enter all the required information.
• Clicking Cancel or pressing ESC will close the window.
• Clicking Next will take you to the next step of the setup process.

Create an Empty C/C++ Project

This is the way to go if you just have some source files you want to index. In case you have a build instructions file, you might want to check out one of the other options for project setup described below.

Project Meta Data

In the first step you need to enter meta information about the project.

Setting	Description
Name	The name of the project. This will also be the name of the .coatiproject file generated by Coati.
Location	Choose the location of the project file from the dialog.
Standard	Select the language standard that should be used for indexing your project. Usually the most recent language standard is preselected here. (See Language Support)

Interactions:

• Clicking Cancel or pressing ESC will close the window and abort the setup process.
• Clicking Next will take you to the next step of the setup process.
• Clicking Previous will take you to the previous step of the setup process. All the information you entered will be saved.

Project Paths

Provide the paths that contain your project's files. Coati will index all the source and header files in the specified paths, including subdirectories.

Setting	Description
Project Paths	Specify one or multiple locations that contain all the source and header files that should be indexed by Coati. (For instructions on how to add paths see Path List Box.)
Source File Extensions	Define the valid extensions for source files including the dot e.g. .cpp

Interactions:

• Clicking show files will display a list of all the files Coati will index with the current settings.
• Clicking Cancel or pressing ESC will close the window and abort the setup process.
• Clicking Next will take you to the next step of the setup process.
• Clicking Previous will take you to the previous step of the setup process. All the information you entered will be saved.

Include Paths

Coati needs you to specify all the include paths the indexed source and header files rely on. The include paths are those paths your project's #include directives are relative to. If your project requires additional includes to compile (e.g. Boost for C++, etc.), please specify their location here.

Additionally you can also specify Global Include Paths, which will be used by all your projects. These are usually the paths to system headers, which can also be auto detected by choosing a compiler below and pressing detect.

Setting	Description
Include Paths	These paths are used to find the files specified by #include directives. (For instructions on how to add paths see Path List Box.)
Lazy Include Search	When checked Coati also looks for included files within the project paths and all their subdirectories. Use this option if you are not familiar with the project to save yourself from figuring the projects include paths. Warning: When activated indexing speed is slower.
Global Include Paths	These Header Search Paths will be used in all your projects. (For instructions on how to add paths see Path List Box. For instructions on how to find the system header paths see Finding System Header Locations)

Interactions:

• Selecting a compiler from the dropdown list below and pressing detect will automatically detect system include search paths used by this compiler and add them to the Global Include Paths.
• Clicking Cancel or pressing ESC will close the window and abort the setup process.
• Clicking Next will take you to the New Project Summary Window.
• Clicking Previous will take you to the previous step of the setup process. All the information you entered will be saved.

Framework Search Paths (Mac only)

Coati needs you to specify the locations of .framework files, your indexed source and header files rely on.

Additionally you can also specify Global Framework Search Paths, which will be used by all your projects. They can also be auto detected by choosing a compiler below and pressing detect.

Setting	Description
Framework Search Paths	These paths are used to find .framework files used by your project. (For instructions on how to add paths see Path List Box.)
Global Framework Search Paths	These Framework Search Paths will be used in all your projects. (For instructions on how to add paths see Path List Box. For instructions on how to find the system header paths see Finding System Header Locations)

Interactions:

• Selecting a compiler from the dropdown list below and pressing detect will automatically detect system header search paths used by this compiler and add them to the Global Header Search Paths.
• Clicking Cancel or pressing ESC will close the window and abort the setup process.
• Clicking Next will take you to the New Project Summary Window.
• Clicking Previous will take you to the previous step of the setup process. All the information you entered will be saved.

Create a C/C++ Project from Visual Studio Solution

If you already have a Visual Studio solution file, this is the way to go. Just select the solution file in the file picker and Coati will automatically analyze it to prepopulate the New Project Summary Window (this may take a second or two).

Create a C/C++ Project from Compilation Database

If you are using CMake you can export compile commands by defining the CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS flag and then use the exportet .json file for Coati project setup.

For non-CMake projects you can use Bear. Bear generates a .json file during the simulated build process. Bear has been tested on FreeBSD, GNU/Linux and OS X.

Compilation Database Meta Data

In the first step you need to enter meta information about the project and define the compilation database.

Setting	Description
Name	The name of the project. This will also be the name of the .coatiproject file generated by Coati.
Location	Choose the location of the project file from the dialog.
Compilation Database	Select the compilation database .json for the project. Coati will index the project based on the compile commands in this file. If the compilation database changes you can Refresh Coati to the new files.

Interactions:

• Clicking Cancel or pressing ESC will close the window and abort the setup process.
• Clicking Next will take you to the next step of the setup process.
• Clicking Previous will take you to the previous step of the setup process. All the information you entered will be saved.

Compilation Database Headers

In the next step you can see which source files are in the compilation database and define the locations of the corresponding header files.

Header files will only be indexed if they are included in one of the source files.

Setting	Description
Source Files	Clicking show source files will show you a list of all source files in the compilation database
Indexed Header Paths	Specify one or multiple locations that contain the header files to the source files defined in the compilation database. (For instructions on how to add paths see Path List Box.)

Interactions:

• Clicking Cancel or pressing ESC will close the window and abort the setup process.
• Clicking Next will take you to the New Project Summary Window.
• Clicking Previous will take you to the previous step of the setup process.

Create an Empty Java Project

Choose this option if you want to use Coati on a Java code base.

Project Meta Data

This is the same window as described above.

Project Paths

In this step you provide all the information Coati needs to know about your code base.

Setting	Description
Project Paths	Provide the root path of your Java project. This is the path where all your package names are relative to. You may provide multiple paths here. For an example this may be required it your project's source code resides in one location but generated source files are kept at a different location.
Class Path	Add one entry per jar file that is required for the project to compile. You can also add the root path of the class files your project depends on, or add a mixture if you have class files for some of the dependencies and jar files for the rest of them.

New Project Summary

This window appears at the end of the Project Setup Wizard to summarize all the information entered before. It is the same as the Edit Project Window.

Edit Project Window

This window displays all the information relevant for your Coati project.

Setting	Description
Name	The name of the project. This will also be the name of the .coatiproject file generated by Coati.
Location	Choose the location of the project file from the dialog.
Language	This field displays the language you chose for the project. (See Language Support)
Standard	Select the language standard that should be used for indexing your project. Usually the most recent language standard is preselected here. (See Language Support)
Project Paths	Add all directories or files you want Coati to index. Providing a directory here will recursively add all the contained files. Usually these are all source and header files of your project or a subset of them.

Setting	Description for C/C++
Visual Studio Solution	Only when using Setup from Visual Studio Solution. Provide the path to your Visual Studio Solution. Clicking the refresh arrow inside the text box will refresh the Project Paths and the Header Search Paths below.
Compilation Database	Only when using Setup from Compilation Database. Provide the path to your Compilation Database.
Indexed Header Paths	Only when using Setup from Compilation Database. Even though the compilation database specifies all the include paths required to compile the project, you may not want to spend a lot of time indexing all of these. Every time Coati encounters a header it will check if the file is located in one of these paths to decide whether or not to index it.
Include Paths	Specify where Coati should be looking for included headers.
Lazy Include Search	If this checkbox is checked Coati also looks into the project paths (including subdirectories) when resolving #include directives. Use this option when you know that the project is self contained but don't know which paths you should specify as include paths.
Global Include Paths	Same as Include Paths but these are used application wide for all of your Coati projects.
Framework Search Paths	Mac only. Define the search paths for .framework files for your project. (For instructions on how to add paths see Path List Box.)
Global Framework Search Paths	Mac only. Same as Framework Search Paths but these are used application wide for all of your Coati projects.

Setting	Description for Java
Project Paths	Provide the root path of your Java project. This is the path where all your package names are relative to. You may provide multiple paths here. For an example this may be required it your project's source code resides in one location but generated source files are kept at a different location.
Class Path	Add one entry per jar file that is required for the project to compile. You can also add the root path of the class files your project depends on, or add a mixture if you have class files for some of the dependencies and jar files for the rest of them.

Advanced Setting	Description
Source File Extensions	Define extensions for source files including the dot e.g. .cpp or .java
Exclude Paths	Define files and directories that should not be indexed by Coati, although they appear in the Project Paths.

Advanced Setting	Description for C/C++
Compiler Flags	Define compiler flags used during indexing e.g. -v

Interactions:

• Clicking Cancel or pressing ESC will close the window and abort the setup process.
• Clicking Create will check your inputs, save the new project file and start indexing the source files.
• Clicking Previous will take you to the previous step of the setup process. All the information you entered will be saved.

Enter License Window

The Enter License Window appears on your first start of Coati and is used to enter and check your Coati license key.

Interactions:

• Copy and Paste your license key from your "Coati 0 License Key" e-mail into the textfield. The key should be formated as shown by the placeholder text.
• Clicking Activate will check if your license key is valid and close the window. Otherwise an error message will be displayed.

Indexing Dialogs

These dialogs will be used while Coati indexes your project. The whole user interface will be frozen as long as these dialogs are visible.

Start Indexing Dialog

This dialog displays the number of files for indexing and clearing before indexing starts.

Interactions:

• Clicking Cancel will abort indexing.
• Clicking Start will start the file clearing and indexing.

Progress Dialog

This dialog shows that Coati is currently doing processing that can't be interrupted.

Indexing Dialog

This dialog shows the indexing progress of your project, by displaying the number of already indexed files, the last file that was started indexing, the number of errors and a progress estimate in percent.

Interactions:

• Clicking Stop or pressing ESC will interrupt indexing. Coati will still wait for the already running indexer threads to finish. You can continue indexing later by refreshing.

Finished Indexing Dialog

This dialog is shown after indexing finished, giving you information about indexed files, duration and errors.

Interactions:

• Clicking OK will close the dialog and allow you to interact with the main window again.

Menu

Project

• New Project
  • Shortcut: New Project
  • Opens the New Project Dialog to define a new project and loads it after creation.
• Open Project
  • Shortcut: Open Project
  • Opens a file dialog to choose an existing Coati project file from your system's hard drive.
• Recent Projects
  • Opens a submenu to choose recent opened Coati projects.
• Edit Project
  • Opens the Edit Project Window prefilled with your project settings and allows for changing them.
• Exit
  • Quits Coati.

Edit

• Back
  • Shortcut: Back
  • Undoes the last navigation action.
• Forward
  • Shortcut: Forward
  • Redoes an undone navigation action.
• Refresh
  • Shortcut: Refresh
  • Refresh will check all indexed source files for updates and reindex the ones that changed and their depending ones.
• Force Refresh
  • Shortcut: Force Refresh
  • Force Refresh will reindex the whole project.
• Find Symbol
  • Shortcut: Find Symbol
  • This option will put the focus into the search field, so you can start typing your search query. Alternatively you can click the search field.
• Find Text
  • Shortcut: Find Text
  • This option will put the focus into the search field and start a new full text search query
• Code Reference Next
  • Shortcut: Code Reference Next
  • Use this option to iterate to the next source location of the active symbol in the code view.
• Code Reference Previous
  • Shortcut: Code Reference Previous
  • Use this option to iterate to the previous source location of the active symbol in the code view.
• To overview
  • Shortcut: To overview
  • This option will display the overview of the project.
• Preferences
  • Shortcut: Preferences
  • Opens the Preferences Window.

View

• Show Title Bars
  • Toggle the visibility of the bars above each Window Widget.
• Search Window
  • Toggle the visibility of the Search Window. This can also be done by closing the Search Window on clicking the "x" icon in it's title bar. (See Window Widgets)
• Graph Window
  • Toggle the visibility of the Graph Window. This can also be done by closing the Graph Window on clicking the "x" icon in it's title bar. (See Window Widgets)
• Code Window
  • Toggle the visibility of the Code Window. This can also be done by closing the Code Window on clicking the "x" icon in it's title bar. (See Window Widgets)
• Larger Font
  • Shortcut: Larger Font
  • Increase the font size within the Main Window's user interface.
• Smaller Font
  • Shortcut: Smaller Font
  • Decrease the font size within the Main Window's user interface.
• Reset font size
  • Shortcut: Reset font size
  • Decrease the font size to the original size.

Help

• About
  • Shows copyright information about Coati.
• Documentation
  • Opens the documentation of Coati in your web browser by URL.
• Bug Tracker
  • Opens Coati's bug tracker in your web browser by URL.
• Licences
  • Documents which third party licences Coati is using.
• Enter License...
  • Opens the Enter License Window.
• Show Data Folder
  • Opens the file explorer showing the data folder.
• Show Log Folder
  • Opens the file explorer in the directory data/logs where all log files are saved to. You can enable file logging in the Preferences Window.

Shortcuts

Shortcut	Windows	Mac OS X	Linux
Preferences	Ctrl + ,	Cmd + ,	Ctrl + ,
New Project	Ctrl + N	Cmd + N	Ctrl + N
Open Project	Ctrl + O	Cmd + O	Ctrl + O
Close Window	Alt + F4	Cmd + W	Ctrl + W
Hide Window		Cmd + H
Refresh	F5	Cmd + R	F5
Force Refresh	Shift + F5	Cmd + Shift + R	Shift + F5
Back	Ctrl + Z / Backspace	Cmd + Z / Backspace	Ctrl + Z / Backspace
Forward	Ctrl + Shift + Z	Cmd + Shift + Z	Ctrl + Shift + Z
Find Symbol	Ctrl + F	Cmd + F	Ctrl + F
Find Text	Ctrl + Shift + F	Cmd + Shift + F	Ctrl + Shift + F
Code Reference Next	Ctrl + G	Cmd + G	Ctrl + G
Code Reference Previous	Ctrl + Shift + G	Cmd + Shift + G	Ctrl + Shift + G
To overview	Ctrl + Home	Cmd + Home / Cmd + Up	Ctrl + Home
Larger Font	Ctrl + +	Cmd + +	Ctrl + +
Smaller Font	Ctrl + -	Cmd + -	Ctrl + -
Reset Font Size	Ctrl + 0	Cmd + 0	Ctrl + 0

Graph View

The graph view visualizes the currently selected symbol and all its relationships to other symbols as an interactive graph visualization.

Interactions:

Panning:

• Drag the background area with the mouse.
• Scroll left-right and up-down on the mouse pad.
• Use the keys W A S D.

Zooming:

• Hold Shift and scroll with mouse wheel or mouse pad.
• Press Shift + W or Shift + S.
• Press 0 to reset zoom.

Nodes

Colors are corresponding to the default color scheme.

Node Type	Image
File
Type & Template Parameter
Typedef
Class & Struct: Display their members nested, and separated by access type: public, protected, private. By default only members with edges are shown. The arrow icon allows to expand and collapse them. The number tells how many nodes are hidden.
Variable & Field
Function & Method
Enum
Undefined: Nodes that were not defined within the indexed files are shown with hatched background.
Bundle: A bundle node combines multiple nodes to reduce the size of the graph visualization. The name describes what kind of nodes are bundled. The number tells how many nodes are bundled.

Interactions:

• Click a node to activate it.
• Drag a node to change its position.
• Click the arrow icon in class nodes to expand and collapse it.
• Click a bundle node to expand it.
• Hover a node to see a tooltip that displays the node’s type.

Edges

Colors are corresponding to the default color scheme.

Edge Type	Image
File Include
Type Use
Variable Use
Function Call
Inheritance
Method Override
Template Parameter Use & Template Argument Use
Aggregation: Bundles multiple edges between the child nodes of the 2 nodes. The thickness gives an impression of how many edges are bundled. Hover the edge to get the number of bundled edges.

Interactions:

• Click an edge to see its location in the Code View.
• Click an aggregation edge to activate all its corresponding edges.
• Hover an edge to see a tooltip that displays the edge’s type.

Code View

The code view displays the corresponding source code of the currently selected symbols. The code view contains a list of one or more files.

Interactions:

• Scroll up and down to see the different source files.

Files

Each file has a title bar with the file's name and buttons to change its display state. There are 3 different states:

• Minimized: The file does not show its content.
  
• Snippets: The file displays the snippets containing active locations separated by lines.
  
• Maximized: The whole content of the file is visible.
  

Interactions:

• Hover the title to see the full file path.
• Click the title to activate the file's corresponding node.
• Click one of the three icons on the right to change the display state of the file.

Snippets

A code snippet contains the lines of interest for the currently active symbol surrounded by some more lines to provide some context. Other symbols that were indexed by Coati are framed by a box when hovered. Here Coati distinguishes between local symbols and symbols that can be related to any other part of the code base. In case the snippet is part of a class, function or namespace, an additional line at the top of the snippet provides information about the snippet’s context (e.g. the surrounding scope).

Interactions:

• Click the top line to show the whole scope around the snippet.
• Click a boxed symbol to activate it.
• Click a boxed local symbol to highlight all its usages in the visible code.

Search View

The Search View contains the search field and some other related user interface elements.

Back & Forward

The left Backward button lets you undo your last navigation actions (see Back) and the right Forward button lets you redo your undone navigation actions again (see Forward). Both buttons are only enabled when the respective actions are available at the moment.

Interactions:

• Hover the buttons to see a tool tip.
• Press the buttons to execute the respective action.

Refresh

The refresh button allows you to refresh the current project and reindex all updated, added and removed files. To reindex the whole project choose the Force Refresh option from the Edit Menu.

Interactions:

• Hover the buttons to see a tooltip.
• Press the refresh button to refresh the project.

Overview Button

Show the overview screen, which gives a summary of the loaded project. The overview screen is shown after the project was loaded. Alternatively use the shortcut To overview.

Interactions:

• Press the overview button to show the project overview.

Search Bar

The search bar allows you to enter search requests to find one of Coati's indexed symbols. It doesn't allow for full text searching across all files so far. The search field allows for most text editing interactions common to text fields. When typing your request the Autocompletion Popup will show you search results matching to your entered string.

Interactions:

• Focus the search field by clicking it or using the Find Symbol action.
• Enter your search request by typing on your keyboard.
• By pressing enter or clicking on the search icon on the right you send your request.
• The search field allows for most interactions known from other text fields such as moving the cursor, copy&paste and text selection.

Autocompletion Popup

The Autocompletion Popup displays all Nodes matching your search request within all indexed symbols. The match results are determined by a fuzzy matching algorithm, that allows you to skip characters. The popup shows which characters in the words are matching and displays their corresponding node color. The node type is displayed on the right.

Interactions:

• Use the up and down arrow keys to switch between search results.
• Pressing tab or clicking on the search result will insert it into the search field.
• Pressing enter will select the search result and send the search request.

Keywords

Additionally the search view provides specific keywords that select a certein group of symbols.

keyword	effect
overview	Shows an overview of all indexed symbols in the graph view and some statistics in the code view.
error	Shows all errors in the code view.

Full text search

Search for a certain string in all indexed files by putting ? at the front of your search query. The default full text search is case-insensitive, use ?? to search case-sensitive.

Interactions:

• Start a query with ? or use the Find Text action to do a case-insensitive full text serach.
• Start a query with ?? to do a case-sensitive full text search.

Log View

The Log View is a view with different tabs which provide information about your project. This view is by default hidden. Currently there is only the Error Tab

Tabs:

• Errorlist
• (in Development)

ErrorList

This list shows errors occured durring indexing.

The following informations are provided:

• Errormessage
• File
• Linenumber
• Indexed(if the file was in the indexed files)

Interactions:

• Click on a errorline to see the location in the Code View
• Click on the errors in the statusline opens the Errorlist
• Double click on table and select text for copy&paste

CODE EDITOR PLUGINS

In order to make Coati the perfect partner for your development workflow you can connect Coati with different code editors. You can find the plugins in Coati's download package located in the folder /ide_plugins. Have a look at the following list of supported code editors to find out what editors are currently supported.

We are eager to expand the range of supported editors, so if you can't find a plugin for the code editor you are using, please let us know by writing to support@coati.io.

The plugins are Opensource and available on github.

Supported Editors:

• Atom
• CLion
• Eclipse
• Emacs
• Sublime Text 2
• Sublime Text 3
• Vim
• Visual Studio 2012
• Visual Studio 2013
• Visual Studio 2015

The communication between Coati and the code editor is achieved using a local TCP connection. Coati uses the port 6667 to listen for incoming messages. Outgoing messages will be sent to the port 6666. The port numbers can be edited in the Preferences Window.

Outgoing messages are in the form:

moveCursor>>absolute/file_path>>line_number>>column_number<EOM>

Incoming messages are in the form:

setActiveToken>>absolute/file_path>>line_number>>column_number<EOM>

From Coati

If you want your editor to open a file at a specific location from within Coati, you can achieve this by either selecting the option Set IDE Cursor from the right-click menu in the Code View or by simply clicking into a line in the Code View while holding down the Ctrl or Cmd key.

To Coati

By using a Coati plugin for your code editor, you can select a location within a source file and Coati will show you all symbols found at this location. Please have look at the list below to see which plugins are currently available and how they are used.

Atom

Repo

https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/atom-coati

Installation

1. In Atom go to Settings with Edit -> Preferences or Ctrl + ,
2. Go to Install and search for coati
3. Install atom-coati

Use

To start the Tcp Server got Packages -> Coati -> Start Server

To send a location to Coati, place the cursor and right-click and select Send location to Coati or Packages -> Coati -> Send location to Coati

Clion/IntelliJ

Repo

https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/idea-coati

Installation

1. Go to File -> Settings
2. Plugins -> Browser Repositories
3. Search for coati
4. Install idea-coati
Use

If you want IntelliJ/CLion to activate a certain element in Coati, right-click that element to bring up the context menu and choose the “Sent Location” option.



Eclipse

Repo

https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/eCoati

Installation
• Updatesite:
  1. In Eclipse go in the menu to Help -> Install new Software...
  2. Add the Coati Updatesite
  • type https://CoatiSoftware.github.io/eCoati/updatesite into the Work with: field
  • or press Add... and add the address above
  3. Select all and finish the next step.
  4. Eclipse needs to restart and can now communicate with Eclipse.
• Manually:
  1. Download this eCoati-gh-pages.zip and unzip it.
  2. In Eclipse go in the menu to Help -> Install new Software...
  3. Click the Add... Button
  4. Click the Local... Button select the updatesite folder in the unzipped folder
  5. Select all and finish the next step.
  6. Eclipse needs to restart and can now communicate with Eclipse.
Use

If you want Eclipse to activate a certain element in Coati, right-click that element to bring up the context menu and choose the “Set active Token” option.



Emacs

Repo

https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/emacs-coati

Installation
• Manuelly
1. Download the coati.el from https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/emacs-coati
2. In Emacs press M + x and type in package-install-file
3. Type in the path to the downloaded coati.el file
• Melpa
1. Add Melpa to your package-archives
2. Press M + x and type list-packages
3. Search for coati and mark coati with i then press x and the confirm with yes
Use

If you want Emacs to activate a certain element in Coati, set your cursor to that element and M + x and type in coati-send-location.

To get Location from Coati the coati-mode need to be active. To active the coati-mode press M + x and type in coati-mode

Sublime Text

Repo

https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/sublime-coati

Installation
• Manually
1. To install the Coati plugin for Sublime Text copy the CoatiPlugin folder located in your ide_plugins/sublime_text to your SublimeText/Packages folder
2. restart Sublime
• Package Controll
1. If you dont have Package Controll for Sublime go to https://packagecontrol.io and install it
2. Open Command Pallete with Ctrl + Shift + P
3. Select Package Controll: Install Package
4. Install coati
Use

If you want Sublime to activate a certain element in Coati, click a location to place the cursor, right-click to bring up the context menu and choose the “Coati - Set active Token” option. Please note that the position of the cursor will be sent to Coati and not the position you opened the context menu at.



Vim

Repo

https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/vim-coati

Installation

Please visit the vim-coati repository on Github for details.

Use

If you want Vim to activate a certain element in Coati, go to the code location and use :CoatiActivateToken, now Coati should display your the chosen location.

Use:help coati.txt get get more information about the plugin

Visual Studio

Installation

To install the Coati plugin for any version of Visual Studio, just execute the corresponding vsix file located in your ide_plugins/visual_studio.

Use

If you want Visual Studio to activate a certain element in Coati, right-click that element to bring up the context menu and choose the “Set active Token” option.


Create Compilation Database (Beta)

You can create a compilation database (CDB) from your VS solution. Coati projects can be created from CDBs. This feature will replace solution parsing as implemented in current Coati versions. The workflow from VS to Coati will be automated in the future. As of now CDBs have to be loaded manually in Coati.

The CDB wizard is located in the Coati section in the VS menu bar. Note that the option is only useable if a solution containing at least one C/C++ project is loaded.



In the CDB wizard you can select projects you want to include in the CDB as well as the desired build target platform and configuration and a number of other options.



Option	Description
Select Projects	The list of C/C++ projects in your solution. Check all projects you want to be included in the CDB.
De/Select All	Will select all projects if at least one project is not selected. If all projects are selected they will all be unselected.
Configuration	A dropdown list of the available build configurations. The selected configuration determines include paths and compile flags for the CDB.
Platform	A dropdown list of the available target platforms. The selected platform determines include paths and compile flags for the CDB.
Browse	Opens a folder browser to select the directory where the CDB will be created in. By default it is the directory of your solution. Instead of using the folder browser you can also paste a path into the adjacent text field.
CDB Name	This is the name for the CDB file. By default it is the same name as your solution.
C Standard	A dropdown list of all C standards supported by Coati. If your projects contain C files select the appropriate standard. Note that we aim to automate this selection in the future.
Cancel	Aborts the process and closes the wizard.
Create	Creates the CDB using the specified options. Note that at least one project has to be selected to start creating.

Once the CDB was successfully created it can be found in the specified target directory. From this CDB you can create a Coati project as described above.

Settings

Network settings and logging options can be changed in the plugin's Tools/Options entry.




Option	Description
Coati Port	The port on which Coati will receive messages. Note that this must match the port setting in Coati itself.
VS Port	The port on which Visual Studio will receive messages. Note that this must match the port setting in Coati itself.
File Logging	Enable log output for the plugin. Additionaly to the output file, log messages will also be displayed in VS'
Log Obfuscation	Obfuscate project- and file names as well as directories in the log output. Note that already logged data will not be obfuscated retroactively. A dictionary, mapping obfuscated names to original names, will be created in a seperate file.

Logging

The plugin offers optional file logging. Should you ever have problems with the plugin we recommend to turn logging on. This will help to pinpoint and resolve the issue faster.

Logs will be created in ..\AppData\Local\Coati Software\Plugins\VS folder. A new log file will be created every time you restart VS and logging is enabled.



Note that the logs will include project- and file names as well as directories specific to your project. If you wish to keep this informatin secret you can use log obfuscation.

Project- and file names as well as directories will be replaced by an alphanumeric sequence. The sequence has the form a0, b0, c0,..., a1, b1, c1,.... Note that after switching on obfuscation, already logged data will not be obfuscated retroactively. No log files will be send to Coati Software automatically. You can check any file you may want to send us for sensible information before sending it.

A dictionary, mapping obfuscated names to original names, will be created in your log folder if log obfuscation is switched on. When during the support process we refer to project items by their obfuscated name you can still make sense of it. Do not send the dictionary to anybody else.

Lastly, log messages are also displayed in the VS output window. This is tied to file logging and is not en- or disabled separately.



IDE Communication Protocol

Coati's IDE plugins communicate with Coati via sockets, using TCP. Coati implements a number of messages to provide an interface for the plugins.

This chapter explains the general structure of those messages, followed by a list of possible message types.

Message Structure

The basic structure of the messages used by Coati plugins consists of a prefix to identify the message type, followed by no, one, or multiple parameters and ends with an 'end-of-message' token. Parameters and tokens are seperated by a 'divider' token.

Name	Token	Description
messageType	see below	A string that determines how the message will be interpreted by Coati or the plugin
divider	>>	Seperates the tokens of the message
parameter	see below	Typically an integer or string
endOfMessage	<EOM>	Helps to determine the end of a message

Messages have the following form:

messageType<<parameter<<...<<parameter<EOM>

Message Types

Coati does implement a number of message types that can be used by Coati plugins. In the following is a list of the messages that Coati may send to plugins and messages that may be sent by a plugin to Coati.

Note that you can chose which messages you want to implement. Coati will not make problems if you chose to ignore certain messages.

Incoming messages

These messages may be received by a plugin.

Message	Parameters	Description
moveCursor	fileLocation: string row: integer column: integer	Set the cursor of your editor or IDE to the given file location. Note that fileLocation is the absolute path and name of the target file.
createCDB		Coati may send this message to prompt your plugin to create a Compilation Database (CDB). Once the CDB is ready you may want to respond with a createCDBProject message.
ping		Coati may send a ping to determine if anybody is listening. Respond with a ping message yourself. Coati will not respond to this message.

Outgoing messages

Your plugin may send these messages to Coati.

Message	Parameters	Description
setActiveToken	fileLocation: string row: integer column: integer	Tells Coati to shift focus to the token located at the given position. Note that fileLocation is the absolute path and name of the target file.
createCDBProject	cdbPath: string headerPaths: string	If your plugin can provide a Compilation Database this message can prompt Coati to import it and display an appropriate dialog for the user. headerPaths is a list of the base project's header include paths. Seperate the single paths using the divider token. You can add as many paths as you need.
ping		Your plugin may send this message to Coati to tell it it's listening.