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A Project Dependency Graph Utility for Visual Studio 2008

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17 Jun 2009CPOL3 min read 187.8K   3.5K   103   42
Review your project dependencies.

ProjectDependencyGraph

ProjectDependencyGraph

Introduction

I recently wanted to look at the dependencies of a fairly large set of projects in a solution (not the one in the screenshot), and discovered that while there are apps/tools that do that, they are either Code Project articles for previous versions of Visual Studio or they create an unreadable smear of boxes and lines, because they were never designed to handle a solution with 50 or more projects. So, I decided to create a textual, treeview based browser of dependencies.

It's very simple, offering both a hierarchical view of project dependencies or a flattened list of dependencies, and also a tree-view showing projects that are dependencies of other projects (the right-hand side of the image above).

Limitations

  • Will undoubtedly become obsolete with VS2010
  • Works only with C# projects (any other project type is not parsed)
  • Works only with VS2008 solution files

Hierarchical View of Project Dependencies

Image 3

Note how the view is hierarchical, allowing you to drill into each project's dependencies.

Flattened View of Project Dependencies

In this view, the application drills into project dependencies for you and presents all unique dependencies in a flattened list:

Image 4

Project's Dependency on Other Projects

You can also pick a project and find out what projects reference the selected project:

Image 5

The Code

The code is really simple. Very little error checking and pretty much brute force implementation. The one annoying thing I discovered is that the solution file is not an XML document, whereas the project files (csproj) are. Makes one wonder.

Reading the Solution File

Basically, this involves a lot of string checking and processing, in which a dictionary of project names and project paths is created.

C#
public class Solution
{
  protected Dictionary<string, string> projectPaths;

  public Dictionary<string, string> ProjectPaths 
  {
    get { return projectPaths; }
  }

  public Solution()
  {
    projectPaths = new Dictionary<string, string>();
  }

  // Example:
  // Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "NumericKeypadComponent", 
  //   "NumericKeypadComponent\NumericKeypadComponent.csproj", 
  //   "{05D03020-4604-4CE9-8F99-E1D93ADEDF15}"
  // EndProject

  public void Read(string filename)
  {
    StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(filename);
    string solPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(filename);

    while (!sr.EndOfStream)
    {
      string line = sr.ReadLine();

      if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(line))
      {
        if (line.StartsWith("Project"))
        {
          string projName = StringHelpers.Between(line, '=', ',');
          projName = projName.Replace('"', ' ').Trim();
          string projPath = StringHelpers.RightOf(line, ',');
          projPath = StringHelpers.Between(projPath, '"', '"');
          projPath = projPath.Replace('"', ' ').Trim();

          // virtual solution folders appear as projects but don't end with .csproj
          // gawd, imagine what happens if someone creates a foo.csproj 
          // virt. solution folder!
          if (projPath.EndsWith(".csproj"))
          {
            // assume relative paths. Probably not a good assumption
            projPath = Path.Combine(solPath, projPath);

            // we don't allow projects with the same name, even if different paths.
            projectPaths.Add(projName, projPath);
          }
        }
      }
    }

    sr.Close();
  }
}

Reading a Project File

Ah, an XML file! Woohoo! It took a while for me to realize that I needed to specify the XML namespace along with the element name. As in, several hours of fussing, pulling hair out, and finally stumbling across some documentation in MSDN that gave an example of using Elements with a namespace. Sigh.

Similar to the Solution class, this class builds a dictionary of referenced projects, where the key is the referenced project name and the value is the referenced project path.

C#
public class Project
{
  protected Dictionary<string, string> referencedProjects;
  protected List<Project> dependencies;

  public string Name { get; set; }

  public Dictionary<string, string> ReferencedProjects
  {
    get { return referencedProjects; }
  }

  public List<Project> Dependencies
  {
    get { return dependencies; }
  }

  public Project()
  {
    referencedProjects = new Dictionary<string, string>();
    dependencies = new List<Project>();
  }

  // Example:
  // <Project ToolsVersion="3.5" DefaultTargets="Build" 
  // xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  // <ItemGroup>
  // <ProjectReference Include="..\Cx.Attributes\Cx.Attributes.csproj">
  // <Project>{EFDBD81C-64BE-47F3-905E-7618B61BD224}</Project>
  // <Name>Cx.Attributes</Name>
  // </ProjectReference>

  public void Read(string filename)
  {
    XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load(filename);
    XNamespace ns = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003";

    foreach (var projRef in from el in 
       xdoc.Root.Elements(ns + "ItemGroup").Elements(ns + "ProjectReference")
    select new
    {
      Path = el.Attribute("Include").Value,
      Name = el.Element(ns + "Name").Value
    })
    {
      string projPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(filename);
      projPath = Path.Combine(projPath, projRef.Path);
      referencedProjects.Add(projRef.Name, projPath);
    }
  }
}

Parsing the Solution File

A separate method is used to put the solution and projects together into yet another dictionary, this time the key being the project name and the value being a Project instance. This method also populates the Dependencies collection in the Project class (yeah, that's really bad practice, I know).

C#
protected Dictionary<string, Project> projects;

protected void ParseSolution(string filename)
{
  projects = new Dictionary<string, Project>();
  Solution sol = new Solution();
  sol.Read(filename);

  foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> kvp in sol.ProjectPaths)
  {
    Project proj = new Project();
    proj.Name = kvp.Key;
    proj.Read(kvp.Value);
    projects.Add(proj.Name, proj);
  }

  foreach (KeyValuePair<string, Project> kvp in projects)
  {
    foreach (string refProjName in kvp.Value.ReferencedProjects.Keys)
    {
      Project refProject = projects[refProjName];
      kvp.Value.Dependencies.Add(refProject);
    }
  }
}

Populating the Dependency Graph

There are two ways of populating the dependency graph: hierarchical or flat. The code for both is similar--the big difference is that child nodes aren't being created. And another ugly kludge in the flattened implementation is how I search for assemblies already in the node collection. Yuck!

C#
/// <summary>
/// Sets up initial project name and first level of dependencies.
/// From there, child dependencies are either added hierarchically or flattened.
/// </summary>
protected void PopulateNewLevel(TreeNode node, ICollection<Project> projects)
{
  List<string> nodeNames = new List<string>();

  foreach (Project p in projects)
  {
    TreeNode tn = new TreeNode(p.Name);
    node.Nodes.Add(tn);

    if (asTree)
    {
      PopulateNewLevel(tn, p.Dependencies);
    }
    else
    {
      // flatten the dependency hierarchy, removing duplicates
      PopulateSameLevel(tn, p.Dependencies);
    }
  }
}

protected void PopulateSameLevel(TreeNode node, ICollection<Project> projects)
{
  foreach (Project p in projects)
  {
    bool found = false;

    foreach (TreeNode child in node.Nodes)
    {
      if (child.Text == p.Name)
      {
        found = true;
        break;
      }
    }

    if (!found)
    {
      TreeNode tn = new TreeNode(p.Name);
      node.Nodes.Add(tn);
    }

    PopulateSameLevel(node, p.Dependencies);
  }
}

Populating the "Is Dependency Of" Graph

Also straightforward, also has a kludge to remove duplicate project names.

C#
protected void PopulateDependencyOfProjects(TreeNode node, ICollection<Project> projects)
{
  foreach (Project p in projects)
  {
    TreeNode tn = new TreeNode(p.Name);
    node.Nodes.Add(tn);

    foreach (Project pdep in projects)
    {
      foreach (Project dep in pdep.Dependencies)
      {
        if (p.Name == dep.Name)
        {
          bool found = false;

          // the project pdep has a dependency on the project p.
          // p is a dependency of pdep
          foreach (TreeNode tnDep in tn.Nodes)
          {
            if (tnDep.Text == pdep.Name)
            {
              found = true;
              break;
            }
          }
  
          if (!found)
          {
            TreeNode tn2 = new TreeNode(pdep.Name);
            tn.Nodes.Add(tn2);
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Conclusion

Hopefully someone will find this useful and maybe even build upon it! It was a short and fun to write application. One thing I'd like to add is sorting the project names.

History

6/17/2009 - Initial Version

6/25/2009

  • Projects are now sorted alphabetically 
  • Added a synchronize option, which finds the project in the opposing tree, selects it, and opens the tree.  This is really useful to look at both project dependencies and dependencies of a project at the same time. 

7/5/2009 - Added rendering of graph using graphviz.  Thanks to Dmitri Nesteruk for making the original changes to this application and for making his rendering code public.

   

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Architect Interacx
United States United States
Blog: https://marcclifton.wordpress.com/
Home Page: http://www.marcclifton.com
Research: http://www.higherorderprogramming.com/
GitHub: https://github.com/cliftonm

All my life I have been passionate about architecture / software design, as this is the cornerstone to a maintainable and extensible application. As such, I have enjoyed exploring some crazy ideas and discovering that they are not so crazy after all. I also love writing about my ideas and seeing the community response. As a consultant, I've enjoyed working in a wide range of industries such as aerospace, boatyard management, remote sensing, emergency services / data management, and casino operations. I've done a variety of pro-bono work non-profit organizations related to nature conservancy, drug recovery and women's health.

Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionVote 5 Pin
Matan Fihman9-Dec-13 3:00
Matan Fihman9-Dec-13 3:00 
AnswerRe: Vote 5 Pin
Marc Clifton9-Dec-13 3:06
mvaMarc Clifton9-Dec-13 3:06 
QuestionRuntime Error Pin
Member 86133661-Feb-12 7:00
Member 86133661-Feb-12 7:00 
AnswerRe: Runtime Error Pin
daiwuju5-Jun-12 2:55
daiwuju5-Jun-12 2:55 
Generalsearching................... Pin
raj vaasu yadav27-Jan-12 18:55
raj vaasu yadav27-Jan-12 18:55 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
Kanasz Robert1-Dec-11 2:47
professionalKanasz Robert1-Dec-11 2:47 
Generalsimple to use javascript variant Pin
Member 35155522-Jan-11 15:59
Member 35155522-Jan-11 15:59 
GeneralGreat stuff Pin
bstabile31-May-10 9:22
bstabile31-May-10 9:22 
GeneralRe: Great stuff Pin
Marc Clifton31-May-10 9:25
mvaMarc Clifton31-May-10 9:25 
GeneralNice little tool! Pin
dgaudian11-Apr-10 21:37
professionaldgaudian11-Apr-10 21:37 
Thanks for this nice tool.
I made a few minor changes for our special needs - are you interested receiving the changes back?
- Delayed population of left treeview on expansion of nodes (for large solutions with many dependencies)
- Check boxes before the nodes to exclude Projects from rendering
- Colors for different project types (libraries, exes, winexes)
- Small optical and layout enhancements
Greetings,
Dirk
GeneralRe: Nice little tool! Pin
Marc Clifton12-Apr-10 3:13
mvaMarc Clifton12-Apr-10 3:13 
QuestionDownload not Working ?? Pin
Bill Elsey13-Oct-09 3:20
Bill Elsey13-Oct-09 3:20 
AnswerRe: Download not Working ?? Pin
Marc Clifton13-Oct-09 4:18
mvaMarc Clifton13-Oct-09 4:18 
GeneralBinding XDocument content to treeview Pin
mukhtharsal31-Jul-09 0:38
mukhtharsal31-Jul-09 0:38 
GeneralThanks Pin
Johan Fourie12-Jul-09 17:44
Johan Fourie12-Jul-09 17:44 
GeneralRe: Thanks Pin
Marc Clifton13-Jul-09 4:04
mvaMarc Clifton13-Jul-09 4:04 
QuestionWhere is the graph? Pin
Dmitri Nеstеruk27-Jun-09 20:43
Dmitri Nеstеruk27-Jun-09 20:43 
AnswerRe: Where is the graph? Pin
Marc Clifton28-Jun-09 9:22
mvaMarc Clifton28-Jun-09 9:22 
AnswerRe: Where is the graph? Pin
Dmitri Nеstеruk28-Jun-09 9:34
Dmitri Nеstеruk28-Jun-09 9:34 
GeneralRe: Where is the graph? Pin
Marc Clifton28-Jun-09 9:38
mvaMarc Clifton28-Jun-09 9:38 
AnswerRe: Where is the graph? Pin
Dmitri Nеstеruk28-Jun-09 9:50
Dmitri Nеstеruk28-Jun-09 9:50 
GeneralRe: Where is the graph? Pin
Dmitri Nеstеruk28-Jun-09 9:53
Dmitri Nеstеruk28-Jun-09 9:53 
GeneralRe: Where is the graph? Pin
Marc Clifton28-Jun-09 10:01
mvaMarc Clifton28-Jun-09 10:01 
GeneralGood job, but can be slow for large solutions Pin
ZTransform22-Jun-09 6:06
ZTransform22-Jun-09 6:06 
GeneralRe: Good job, but can be slow for large solutions Pin
Marc Clifton22-Jun-09 10:31
mvaMarc Clifton22-Jun-09 10:31 

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