Configuring
You configure a scan by choosing settings that best describe your application, and the kind of testing you want.
- Scan Configuration Wizards
  You can quickly configure basic scans using the wizards.
- Scan Configuration Dialog Box
  - URL and Servers view
    URL and Servers view of the Scan Configuration dialog box.
  - Login Management view
    Login Management view of the Scan Configuration dialog box.
  - Environment Definition view
    Environment Definition view of the Configuration dialog box.
  - Exclude Paths and Files view
    Exclude Paths and Files view of the Configuration dialog box.
  - Explore Options view
    Explore Options view of the Configuration dialog box.
  - Parameters and Cookies view
    Parameters and Cookies view of the Configuration dialog box.
  - Automatic Form Fill view
    Automatic Form Fill view of the Configuration dialog box contains the values used to fill forms in your application.
  - Error Pages view
    Error Pages view of the Configuration dialog box.
  - Multi-Step Operations view
    Multi-Step Operations view of the Configuration dialog box is for testing parts of the site that can only be reached by clicking links in a specific order.
  - Content-Based Results view
    Content-Based view of the Configuration dialog box. You can use this view to define a logical structure for the application tree, if AppScan® will not be able to do this based on URL structure.
    - Adding new Content-Based view rules
      Instructions and examples of adding rules to define the site's logical structure.
  - Communication and Proxy view
    Communication and Proxy (if AppScan needs a proxy to access the tested application) view of the Configuration dialog box.
  - HTTP Authentication view
    HTTP Authentication view of the Configuration dialog box.
  - 3rd Party Authentication view
    3rd Party Authentication view of the Configuration dialog box lets you configure AWS settings.
  - Test Policy view
    Test Policy view of the Configuration dialog box shows details of the current test policy.
  - Test Optimization view
    Test Optimization uses AppScan’s intelligent test filtering to achive faster scans, when speed is needed, with minimal loss of issue coverage. You choose between four optimization levels depending on your needs.
  - Test Options view
    Test Options view of the Configuration dialog box.
  - Privilege Escalation view
    Privilege Escalation view of the Configuration dialog box lets you compare results for different user levels.
  - Scan Expert view
    Scan Expert view of the Scan Configuration dialog box.
  - Advanced Configuration view
    The Advanced Configuration tab of the Scan Configuration dialog box is used to change advanced registry settings that affect specific scans (Scan Configuration > Advanced Configuration tab), and it should only be used by experienced AppScan users, or when instructed to do so by the support team to troubleshoot a problem.
- Scan file structure
  Explains the basic structure of an AppScan Standard SCAN file.
- Scan templates
  A scan template is simply a scan configuration that has been saved so that you can use it again.
- Changing the configuration during a scan

Content-Based Results view

Content-Based view of the Configuration dialog box. You can use this view to define a logical structure for the application tree, if AppScan® will not be able to do this based on URL structure.

If your site content is structured in such a way that the URLs reflect a folder-like hierarchy, the scan results will automatically reflect this, making them easy to navigate.
If your site uses "breadcrumbs", or other "content-based" navigational methods, so that the URLs do not indicate the user's "location" within the site, it is recommended that you "teach" AppScan® how the site is "logically" structured, so it can present the scan results in an easily understood format, rather than long lists of results under one or two URLs. This is not essential, but will make it easier for you to navigate the results.

For example, the code snippet below has a logical structure Home | Buy | Books and it would be useful to structure the results so that "Books" appears under "Buy", and "Buy" under "Home".

<td class="navigation">
    <a href="http://www.onlineshop.com/">Home</a> &gt;
    <a href="http://hub.onlineshop.com/buy?ssPageName=h:h:cat:US">Buy</a> &gt;
    <b>Books<b>
</td>

To do this, you define the rules that will enable AppScan® to identify and extract the relevant content (in this case "Home", "Buy" and "Books") to construct a content-based tree.

Once you have defined the rules, you can select the Content-Based option in the Application Tree, to display the results using this information. (See Security Issues: Application Tree.)

Note: The total number of security issues (shown at the top of the Result List) is a measure of the vulnerable locations in the site, and depends in part on how site is structured. If you define a content-based structure, the total number of issues in the application tree may not be the same as it is for the URL-based application tree (for the same results). When site structure is content-based (rather than URL-based), and content-based view is configured correctly, the issue count in content-based view represents more accurately the number of "vulnerable locations" that exist in the site. The total number of variants (at the top of the Result List in parentheses) is independent of site structure, and does not change between content-based and URL-based views.