Rename Expander

1. Introduction

Rename Expander identifies renaming opportunities by expanding conducted renamings. Once a rename refactoring is conducted manually or with tool support, the proposed approach recommends to rename closely related software entities whose names are similar to that of the renamed entity. The rationale is that if an engineer makes a mistake in naming a software entity it is likely for her to make the same mistake in naming similar and closely related software entities. The main advantage of the proposed approach is that it does not involve difficult semantic analysis of source code or complex natural language understanding. Another advantage of this approach is that it is less influenced by subjective factors, e.g., experience and preference of software engineers.

2. How to Install

Eclipse: the tool is tested on Kepler Service Release 2. We expect it to work on any Eclipse that relies on jdt.core.manipulation_1.5.0

Files needed:

RenameExpander jdt.core.manipulation ltk.core.refactoring

Installation:

1) Copy all of the three jar files into the plugins folder of your Eclipse (recommended)

e.g., C:\eclipse\plugins

2) Install via the update site:

http://www.sei.pku.edu.cn/~liuhui04/tools/rename/RnameExpandUpdateSite

* The update site cannot replace the jdt or ltk plugins (that are distributed with Eclipse) with the customized versions. Consequently, if you install the Rename Expander via update site, please manually copy the following two jar files into the plugins folder of your Eclipse.

jdt.core.manipulation ltk.core.refactoring

3. How to Use

1) Open Java Editor and select a software entity to rename

2) Rename the selected entity (with rename refactoring tool provided by Eclipse)

3) The tool tries to recommend renaming opportunities. If any opportunities are identified, the red mark is presented on the left margin beside the renamed entity.

4) Click on the red mark, and suggestions are presented as follows

5)

6) Double click the suggestion, and the cursor goes to the suggested entity that needs to be renamed

7) If you decide to rename it, the tool will try to recommend new renamings based on it.

*The Java document used through as the illustrating example in this document is PreprocessPanel.java of open-source application Weka 3-3-4. You can try it to make sure the tool has been installed successfully.

4. Source Code

The source code could be download here. You can change and redistribute the source code as you will.

5. Video

Demo.wmv