papauorg/DependenSee

Dotnet project and package dependency visualizer.

DependenSee

Dotnet project and package dependency visualizer.

Install

Requires .NET 6 Runtime

dotnet tool install DependenSee --global

available on Nuget

Uninstall

dotnet tool uninstall DependenSee --global

How to Run

DependenSee root/of/projects path/to/output.html

See full documentation

Sample Output (HTML, interactive)

Download this as html and open in a browser for a demo.

Why DependenSee over 'X'

Current popular options are to either use NDepend, VS Architecture Explorer or Code Map. While these options are feature rich, they also has a licensing cost. If all you want is to see the dependency graph, and nothing else, it may be hard to justify the licensing cost. Then DependenSee is for you.

If you need to see the Type structure, relationships between your methods or types .etc. then you should use one of the options above instead. DependenSee is mean to be very simple, easy, straight forward to use and FREE! DependenSee does not intend to compete with the above. See Limitations

Features

• Creates the dependency graph for your solution.
• Can only include or exclude certain namespaces so the result is not overwhelming or filled with noise.
• Can create HTML, XML, JSON and Graphviz outputs
• Can return output to STDOUT for further processing by other command line tools

For full docs run without any arguments DependenSee

Documentation

Usage - DependenSee <SourceFolder> [<OutputPath>] -options

Help

Shows help descriptions. Help is also displayed if no arguments were provided.

Shorthand: -H

Examples

• DependenSee -Help
• DependenSee -H
• DependenSee

SourceFolder [Required]

Root folder (usually solution folder) to look for csproj files recursively. If no explicit options are specified, the first argument is assumed to be this option.

If your path has spaces, you will need to enclose it in double quotes.

Examples

• DependenSee \Source\MySolutionFolder
• DependenSee -SourceFolder \Source\MySolutionFolder
• DependenSee -S \Source\MySolutionFolder

OutputPath

Path to write the result. Not required if writing the output to stdout. If no explicit options are specified, the second argument is assumed to be this option.

If your path has spaces, you will need to enclose it in double quotes.

Shorthand: -O

Examples

• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html
• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O \Test\MyOutput.html
• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -OutputPath \Test\MyOutput.html

IncludePackages

Whether to include external (Nuget) packages in the result.

Shorthand: -P

Default: False

Examples

• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html -P
• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html -IncludePackages

OutputType

Type of output to produce. Following types are available.

• Html - Creates an html document.
• Json - Creates a JSON file.
• Xml - Creates a XML file.
• Graphviz - Creates a Graphviz/DOT file.
• ConsoleJson - Writes JSON output to stdout
• ConsoleXml - Writes XML output to stdout
• GonsoleGraphviz - Writes Graphviz output to stdout

When a Console... type output is specified, the -OutputPath can be ommitted.

To visualize Graphviz output, either use

• Use an online visualizer such as https://dreampuf.github.io/GraphvizOnline

• or use tooling from https://graphviz.org

  • once installed you can use .\dot.exe DependenSee-OutputFile.dot -oTargetFile.Svg -Tsvg
  • dot.exe is located at your-graphvis-installation/bin
  • see Graphviz docs for command line usage and supported output types

Shorthand: -T

Default: Html

Examples

• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html -T Xml
• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html -OutputType Json
• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -T ConsoleJson

HtmlTitle

Document title for Html output. Ignored when creating output types other than Html.

If your title has spaces, you will need to enclose it in double quotes. The title should not be HTML-encoded ahead of time as DependenSee will do this automatically.

Shorthand: -HT

Default: DependenSee

Examples

• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html -HtmlTitle "My Graph Title"
• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html -T Html -HtmlTitle my-graph-title
• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html -HT "My Graph Title"

IncludeProjectNamespaces

Comma separated list of project file prefixes to include. Wildcards not allowed. Only the filename is considered, case insensitive.

If you want to include spaces between items, make sure you enclose the parameter value in double quotes.

Shorthand: -IPrN

Default: <empty string>

Examples

• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -IncludeProjectNamespaces MyApp.Extensions,MyApp.Core
  • Includes only projects starting with MyApp.Core and projects starting with MyApp.Extensions
• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -IPrN MyApp.Extensions,MyApp.Core
  • Includes only projects starting with MyApp.Core and projects starting with MyApp.Extensions

ExcludeProjectNamespaces

Comma separated list of project file prefixes to exclude. Wildcards not allowed. Only the filename is considered, case insensitive. This must be a subset of includes to be useful.

If you want to include spaces between items, make sure you enclose the parameter value in double quotes.

Shorthand: -EPrN

Default: <unspecified>

Examples

• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -ExcludeProjectNamespaces MyApp.Extensions, MyApp.Helpers
  • Excludes projects starting with MyApp.Extensions and projects starting with MyApp.Helpers
• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -EPrN MyApp.Extensions, MyApp.Helpers
  • Excludes projects starting with MyApp.Extensions and projects starting with MyApp.Helpers

IncludePackageNamespaces

Comma separated list of package name prefixes to include. Wildcards not allowed. Only the package name is considered, case insensitive. If specified, -IncludePackages is overridden to True.

If you want to include spaces between items, make sure you enclose the parameter value in double quotes.

Shorthand: -IPaN

Default: <empty string>

Examples

• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -IncludePackageNamespaces Xamarin,Microsoft
  • includes only packages starting with Xamarin and packages starting with Microsoft
• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -IPaN Xamarin,Microsoft
  • includes only packages starting with Xamarin and packages starting with Microsoft

ExcludePackageNamespaces

Comma separated list of package name prefixes to exclude. Wildcards not allowed. Only the filename is considered, case insensitive. If specified, -IncludePackages is overridden to True. This must be a subset of includes to be useful.

If you want to include spaces between items, make sure you enclose the parameter value in double quotes.

Shorthand: -EPaN

Default: <unspecified>

Examples

• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -ExcludePackageNamespaces Microsoft.Logging,Azure
  • Excludes packages starting with Microsoft.Logging and packages starting with Azure
• DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -EPaN Microsoft.Logging,Azure
  • Excludes packages starting with Microsoft.Logging and packages starting with Azure

Privacy and Security Note

In the output, the full path to project files is used as the unique identifier. So your file structure is exposed in the generated output. It attempts to only use the subdirectory structure, so an attempt is made to hide the full path, however it is possible these paths may include your username for example, if your project was located in the default VS path/repo clone location of C:\Users\<username>\Repos\....

Keep this in mind and inspect the output if you're distributing the outputs from this tool.

Limitations

• Currently only traverses csproj files. No other file types are supported.
• No compile results are inspected. Only the project structure is used.

License

MIT License

Support

If you are experiencing issues, please open an issue with details and reproduction steps.

Contributions

Pull requests welcome. ♥

Please branch off of dev branch and put a PR to dev for your changes. If you have a contribution you're not sure about, please feel free to open an issue. However a prior approval is not necessary for a PR to be merged.

Once approved, all pending changes (possibly multiple PRs) will be merged to main for a release to be distributed via NuGet.

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