Invited review abstract

Magnetic reconnection, the energy release process central to most of the active phenomenas of the solar atmosphere, only occurs at specific location of the complex magnetic field which structure the solar corona.
The topological analysis of the magnetic field aims at identifying the key elements that allow to predict where the current sheets involved in
magnetic reconnection are likely to develop.
After having briefly introduced the importance of topology, I will introduce the building elements of topological analyses - null points, bald patches, separatrices, separators and quasi-separatrix layers - and show how these features can be interlinked. I will then review some recent results of dynamical topological analyses. I will first focus on issues related to flux emergence: what are the important topological structures involved? How do they evolve? I will finaly conclude on some questions related to the evolution of the topological structures just before the onset of magnetic reconnection.