Technical Frequently Asked Questions

ProjectCodeMeter

Technical Frequently Asked Questions

Are my source code files secure?

Yes. ProjectCodeMeter is a desktop application, your source never leaves your PC. The main application doesn't connect to the internet (only the license manager application connects once at activation, with user approval). See the Changing License Key section for further details.

Where are XLS spreadsheet reports (for Excel)?

ProjectCodeMeter generates CSV reports, as well as special HTML report files that can be opened in spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft Excel, Gnumeric and OpenOffice Calc. You may rename the HTML reports to XLS if you want them to be opened by your spreadsheet application upon double-click. See the Reports section for further details.

Why do the same measurements have different values in various places?

This stems from different rounding done in different contexts, for example when only whole numbers are displayed, days would be rounded up, but minutes would be rounded down, as it's more intuitive to the user this way. However if the measurement is displayed with a decimal point, no rounding is done.

Why numbers don't add up?

Because the algorithm uses high precision decimal point to calculate and store data, and numbers usually shown with no decimal point (integers), the result is that several numbers added may appear to give higher sum than expected, since the software includes the fraction of a decimal point value. For example 2 + 2 may result in 5, since the real data is 2.8 + 2.9 = 5.7, but the user only sees the integer part. This is a good thing, since the calculation and sum is done in a higher precision than what is visible. Please note that while Differential analysis has an advanced detection for code changes and refactoring, it is not perfect, therefore some refactored or moved code will show higher differential effort than actual.

Why are all results 0?

1. You may have the files open in another application like your Developer Studio, please save them and close all other applications.
2. Leaving the Price per Hour input box empty or 0 will result in costs being 0 as well.
3. Enabling the Differential Comparison checkbox causes ProjectCodeMeter to compare the source to another source version, if that source version is the same then the resulting time and costs will be 0, as ProjectCodeMeter only shows the differences between the two versions. Disable this checkbox to get a normal analysis.
4. If the files you analyze contain only visual graphic elements markup (HTML / CSS / RES), the effort will show 0 as GUI design is not measured.
5. Your source file name extension may not match the programming language inside it (for example naming a PHP code with an .HTML extension), see the programming languages section.

Why are report files or images missing or not updated?

Make sure you close all other applications that use the report files, such as Excel or your Web Browser, before starting the analysis.
Reports will be written to the Project Folder, so make sure it is writable and you have access permissions to it, of example the Program Files folder is usually read-only for normal users, so please copy your Project Folder somewhere else before analyzing.
On some systems, you may also need to run ProjectCodeMeter under administrator account, do this by either logging in to Windows as Administrator, or right clicking the ProjectCodeMeter shortcut and select "Run as administrator" or "Advanced-Run under different credentials". For more details see your Windows help, or contact your system administrator. NOTE: only Microsoft Excel supports updating HTM and HTML report files correctly (including the XLS reports generated by ProjectCodeMeter).

You may need more disk space, if you can't free any, try preventing word list reports from being generated by turning them off in the Advanced Configuration menu.

If you're upgrading from an older ProjectCodeMeter version by installing the new version over the old, the new version reports WON'T be used since you may have made modification to the report templates and want to preserve them. In order to use the new reports, select the menu option "Reset Templates Folder.." but be careful since this will delete any changes you made to the templates (so backup your modified templates if you need them).

Why is the History Report not created or updated?

The History report is only updated after a Cumulative Differential Analysis (selected by enabling the Differential Comparison checkbox and leaving the Older Version text box empty).

Reports generation is slow, what can i do?

ProjectCodeMeter creates many reports, one for each template file from the template folder. You can delete templates of reports you don't need in order to speed up the generation. Use the menu option "Open Templates Folder" and delete files from there. If you want to restore some of the files you deleted you can always copy the original from the ProjectCodeMeter install folder (usually under the "Program Files" folder by default), or in case you want to return all templates to their original factory defaults you can use the "Reset Templates Folder" menu option (which will lose any custom reports you changed/created). Of course a faster CPU with more L2 cache per core will speed up the entire software operation.

Why can't I see the Charts (there is just an empty space)?

You may need to install the latest version of Adobe Flash ActiveX for Internet Explorer.
If you are running ProjectCodeMeter on Linux Wine (possible but not advised), you will not be able to see the charts, because of Flash incompatibility issues, installing the Flash ActiveX on wine may cause ProjectCodeMeter to crash.

I analyzed an invalid code file, but I got an estimate with no errors, why?

Given invalid or non-standard source code ProjectCodeMeter will do the best it can to understand your source. It is recommended that the source code be valid (and preferably compilable), but that's optional. ProjectCodeMeter is NOT a code error checker, rather a coding good practice guider (on top of being a cost estimator). For error checking please use a static code analyzer like FindBugs / CppCheck as well as code coverage, and code profiler tools.

Can I install without internet connection?

Activation of either Trial or a Full License requires an internet connection, after that point you may disconnect from the internet. If this is not possible and you need a special licensing method please contact support. For further details see the Changing License Key section.

Why header (.h) files aren't measured?

Using modern development tools header files are automatically generated. Coding style where code is placed into header files is currently not supported, see Supported File Types for further detail.

Why do results differ from older ProjectCodeMeter version?

While WMFP cost model stays the same, our file comparison and analysis engines improve, detecting new code types and fixing bugs. To consistently compare source code size one should use the same ProjectCodeMeter version to analyze both - however it is advised to always use the latest ProjectCodeMeter version, as it offers improved estimation accuracy.
As a general rule, ProjectCodeMeter versions with the same major and first minor digits are feature compatible, with only bug fixes introduced (for example version 1.20 and 1.26)

Why is estimation too high/low?

Please make sure you didn't include files that shouldn't be measured (such as tests, auto-generated, pre-existing). Another common mistake is selecting Quality Guarantee which is higher than actual, make sure the code passed all the testing required for the quality setting or choose a lower one that reflects what was actually tested.
Please remember WMFP +APPW are statistical models, that fit most project well but others less, see the Accuracy section for details.

ProjectCodeMeter stuck or crashed, what can i do?

First, Please make sure you are using the latest version (from our website), as it may be a bug we already fixed. Several reasons may be at fault:
Low memory:
Trying to analyze large source code or with 1000s of file might use up all your PC memory, try analyzing smaller amount of source code, for instance analyze each folder separately (with up to 18000 files or 500MB for each Gigabyte of PC RAM)
Unstable Adobe Flash animation:
Flash might be unstable in some systems, try running without flash by running the "ProjectCodeMeter_Safe_Mode" shortcut from the start menu. Alternatively run from command line (or the "Run.." box, or Cortana search) like so:
"C:\Program Files\ProjectCodeMeter\ProjectCodeMeter.exe" /NOFLASH
Note this crash/hang mostly happens after all files were analyzed and reports created, so you probably don't need to analyze again, just look in the reports folder for results.
Another application is using the source or report files:
If you viewed or edited these files, that software might still be deny access to them. Some Ant-Virus and Anti-Spam apps also deny access to files until they finish scanning them, which can take a long time. Please close all other applications, or restart Windows, then try again.