ArchFLoc: Locating and explaining architectural features in running web applications

Feature location is a critical step in the software maintenance process where a developer identifies the software artifacts that need to be changed in order to fulfill a new feature request. Much progress has been made in understanding the feature location process and in creating new tools to help a developer in performing this task. However, there is still lack of support for locating architectural features, ones that require a developer to touch on more than one architectural component. We demonstrate a tool called ArchFLoc that can be used to discover and highlight architectural level features that are otherwise hidden in a software system. ArchFLoc is integrated into user interfaces, so the developer can express a feature query by directly interacting with user interface elements at runtime. Based on the user query, ArchFLoc discovers relevant code artifacts and dependencies, and assembles documentation to explain their roles in the overall architectural design.