Visual Expert server configuration guide

Step 1 – Install a new SQL Server instance, or use an existing one

This instance will host the Visual Expert Repository.

Any version of SQL Server could be used, except for Express Edition or Local DB, which do not use all the RAM and CPU available on the machine.

If you don't have a SQL Server license available, you can install SQL Server Developer Edition – free of charge – since it will be used in the context of your development activities, and not in an application production context.

For detailed instructions, refer to the dedicated guide:

• Install SQL Server Developer Edition
• System Requirements

Step 2 – Install a Visual Expert copy on a server

Download and install Visual Expert from this page.

Step 3 – Create a Repository, get a License Key

After the Visual Expert installation, a wizard will guide you to:

1. Connect to the SQL Server instance prepared in [Step 1].
2. Create a Visual Expert Repository.
3. Request a License Key.
   Once generated, you will receive a notification.
   Follow the instructions to download and install the key in the VE Repository.

For detailed instructions, refer to the dedicated guide:

• Create a VE Repository
• Request a VE License key

Step 4 – Create a Visual Expert project

This primarily consists in selecting the code & database(s) you wish to analyze.

Several options are available. You can combine them in a single project:

• Option A – You can select files and folders containing source code,
• Option B – You can connect to the application database(s), to extract and read stored procedures, functions, and a description of the data model.
• Option C – You can connect to a source control, to fetch and read source code.

Once the code selection is completed, the analysis will start. A window will show the analysis progress, and potential warnings.

For detailed instructions, refer to the dedicated guide:

• List of tutorials for analyzing your code, organized by code type and source.

Step 5 – Install and configure Visual Expert Web

Visual Expert Web allows your team to access code analysis results through a standard web browser, without installing any software on their workstations.

• Install Internet Information Services (IIS) on the server.
• Deploy and configure VE Web.
• Publish your VE Projects to make them accessible via the web interface.

For detailed instructions, refer to the dedicated guide:

• Install and configure Visual Expert Web

Step 6 – User registration

Before accessing VE Projects, each user must register to Visual Expert Web:

1. Users open the VE Web URL in their browser.
2. They create an account by registering with their email address.
3. Once registered, they can contact the administrator to request access to VE Projects.

For detailed instructions, refer to the dedicated guide:

• User registration for Visual Expert Web

Step 7 – Grant Access Rights to Individual Users

Once users have registered, an administrator must grant them access to the relevant VE Projects.

Assign Visual Expert permissions to your team members based on their roles and responsibilities in the project.

By default, registered users do not have access to any project. The administrator can:

• Grant access to specific projects.
• Assign permissions such as viewing analysis results, running code inspections, or exporting data.

For detailed instructions, refer to the dedicated guide:

• Manage VE users and grant them permissions

Step 8 – Automate Recurring Tasks

It is strongly recommended to schedule the code analysis, to refresh it automatically and take into account the recent code changes. Developers will then see the latest version of the code when they use Visual Expert.

You can also automate code inspection or documentation generation. In particular, this fits well with continuous integration and continuous delivery processes.

Go further:

• Schedule your Code Analysis
• Run VE in Command Line
• Create a Jenkins job (command line)
• Create a Jenkins job (Visual Expert Plugin)