Step 2: Running the scan

The scan starts. The Progress Panel opens, and Application Data and Issues are updated in real-time.

During the Explore stage, AppScan crawls your application to discover its pages and content. In Data view the application tree is updated as this happens, and eventually shows a complete tree of the site. Then, during the Test stage, AppScan runs thousands of tests on the site and reports the issues found and fix recommendations. During this part of the scan, Security Issues view is selected automatically and the Result List displays a dynamically updated list of discovered issues.

A scan can have multiple phases (a phase is a cycle of Explore followed by Test). This happens when AppScan discovers new links during the test stage, and needs to a scan, it will create new tests based on these links, and run an additional scan phase. The subsequent phase is usually shorter than the previous one, as only the new links are scanned. AppScan will add phases as long as it finds new URLs, or until it has reached the configured "scan limit". The default limit is four phases.

When the scan is complete, the Progress Panel closes, and you can review the results (see Step 3: Reviewing Scan Results).