MTX databases

Project Metrics

Project Metrics uses .mtx files to store the metrics. Each .mtx file represents one analysis run (of one project or solution).

The Databases command in the File menu allows you to select a search path for .mtx files, to edit the database files, and to delete old .mtx files.

Search paths

Project Metrics uses search paths to look for .mtx databases. You can define as many search paths as you want. As an example, you can use a local path to store metrics for your private projects, and a network path to your team's shared repository.

By adjusting the search paths you can temporarily drop databases from Project Metrics without deleting the files.

Database file edit

You can edit the following data within a .mtx file.

Project. This string identifies the project or solution. Different versions of the same project should have the same project name. Project Metrics Viewer uses this string to group projects together (in the Project in time and Latest analyses tabs). This string is usually your project or solution filename, but any string will do. If you have renamed your project, you can re-group the databases by adjusting this field. Example: myproject.vbp
Title. The descriptive, human-readable title of the analyzed system. Each project and each analysis can have a different title. You can use whatever string you like. Examples: MyProject v1.2, MySystem 2006 Standard, MySystem 2006 Pro.
Date. Last modified date of the code in format year-month-day (yyyy-mm-dd). This date is used to sort different versions of the same project. It is also displayed in many locations as the project date and used for the time axis in certain charts. By default, this field contains the date of the newest file analyzed. You can adjust it to any valid date. Adjustment is necessary if the newest file date is newer than what the code really is. Say you analyzed an old program but the files are dated today due to copying or source code control. This field is the same as the DATE metric. The DATEF metric, on the other hand, always shows the original disk file dates.

MTX file format

The .mtx database is a proprietary file format optimized for metrics. It does not require the installation of any database drivers. The .mtx files store the following information about your code. It's the same information you see in the viewer main window.

Metric values
File names
Class names
Procedure names
Variable names (MTX v2.0 and later only)

You can freely exchange .mtx files with other people. They do not contain any sensitive information such as constant values or source code.

MTX file version compatibility

Project Metrics Viewer is backwards compatible. It can load old MTX files without problems. Newer MTX files may not be compatible with older viewers, however. This is an issue if your colleagues use a different Project Analyzer version from yours.

MTX version	Project Analyzer version	Project Metrics Viewer compatibility
1.1	v7.0–v7.1	v1.0 and later
2.0	v8.0–v8.1	v2.0 and later
2.1	v9.0	v3.0 and later
3.0	v10	v4

Compatibility note: Version 2.1 MTX files also load up in Project Metrics Viewer v2.x, but non-ASCII characters show up as garbage.

You can verify the MTX file version via the File|Databases command. Press Edit file to view the file version and other details.

XML export

The .mtx file format is a proprietary binary format. You can convert a .mtx file into a .xml file for importing into XML aware applications. See XML export

Project Metrics