Explore project dependency diagram

Open project dependency diagram

tip

If the coupling analysis is enabled, building the dependency diagram for large solutions can take some time. However, the analysis is performed asynchronously and without building the solution. So you can continue working with code while the diagram is being built.

Understand links between projects

ReSharper builds the diagram in two steps:

1. Build the dependency diagram based on the project references.

   This step is done automatically when you open the diagram and it takes almost no time even for large solutions.

2. Perform the coupling analysis to calculate numbers of usages in the referencing project.

   This step is resource-intensive and can take up to several minutes, but it runs in the background. The progress of the analysis is reflected on the status bar at the top of the Architecture View.

   The state of the coupling analysis corresponds to the state of the Enable Coupling Analysis button. The coupling analysis is a resource-intensive process and may affect performance on large solutions. If you experience any lags when working with the diagram, you can use this button to disable the coupling analysis, adjust the diagram as needed, and then enable the analysis again. The analysis algorithm first calculates the coupling of the displayed projects and then processes projects hidden from the view.

Links between projects in the diagram can be displayed in the following ways:

Show and hide items

You can show or hide specific solution items (projects, folders, solution folders) in the diagram using check-boxes for the corresponding items in the left.

There are also several ways to show/hide items right from the diagram area:

• To select some items in the diagram and hide others, Ctrl-click items you want to select, then right-click the selection and choose Selection | Show only selected modules.

• To select two linked items, right-click the link between them and choose Selection | Show only selected modules.

• To hide an item, you can select it in the diagram and press Delete.

• Another way to focus on specific items is to display the dependent or referenced projects and hide all other items. To do so, select one or more items (projects or grouping items), right-click the selection and choose Show This/These and Dependent/Referenced. Note that these commands only hide the irrelevant items and do not add any referenced/dependent nodes, which are currently hidden.

• To display all items referenced by or dependent on the specific projects, even if these items are currently hidden from the view, select one or more items and choose Selection | Add referenced/dependent modules.

If necessary, you can reverse changes made in the diagram (shown/hidden projects) step by step by clicking Undo or pressing Ctrl+Z. To reverse the Undo commands, click Redo or press Ctrl+Y.

Pan and zoom the diagram

To pan and zoom the diagram, use the controls in the upper left corner of the diagram area. Alternatively, you can pan the diagram using your touchpad, scroll bars or click anywhere in the diagram area outside the diagram items and drag while the hand cursor is shown. You can also use the mouse wheel for zooming.

Rearrange items on the diagram

The diagram layout is calculated automatically, but you can change it if necessary: all items can be moved. To move an item, first click it to select, and then click and drag it while the cross cursor is shown.

Group projects on the diagram

Using the Group by selector, you can group projects by solution folders or by file system structure. The grouping applies both in the left part and in the diagram.

If necessary, you can collapse and expand grouping items in the diagram in one of the following ways:

• Click the down arrow in the left top corner of the grouping item. When collapsed, the sign changes into an up arrow, which you can click to expand the item.

• Select a grouping item in the diagram and press Ctrl + Left Arrow and Ctrl + Right Arrow.

• Click Collapse Graph and Expand Graph on the toolbar to collapse or expand all grouping items.

Analyze project references

To learn more about the usages of types from one project in another, select the corresponding link between the projects and press Shift+F12 or right-click and choose Show Usages. ReSharper will show the usages in the Find Results window.

If the coupling analysis is over for a specific reference and ReSharper highlights it as unused (with a dotted line), you do not need to switch from the diagram to remove the unused reference - just select it and press Ctrl+Shift+R or right-click and choose Refactor This. Then press Ctrl+R D or click Safe Delete Assembly Reference.

Detect possible architecture problems

If you are trying to follow the best practices in solution architecture, your application probably has the layered structure with separate layers that communicate with each other.

The Show possible paths button allows you to find out whether the application layers are designed correctly, not only in terms of grouping, but also in terms of communications between the layers. In short, when the button is on, you can see whether two specific projects have a path between them consisting of other referenced projects that are currently hidden from the view. These paths are shown in green dotted lines. The button is only enabled if there are hidden intermediary projects that would link any two of the currently displayed projects.

To illustrate the way it works, consider the following example:

1. Imagine that we have a large solution and are now analyzing the 'Services' architecture layer which is represented by the corresponding solution folder. We show the two projects that we are interested in, others are hidden:

   

2. The two projects do not have direct project references between them, however, if we enable the Show possible paths button, we'll see that there is a path between these projects through other projects:

   

3. To see how these two projects can depend on each other, we right-right on the path link and choose Show path. The intermediary projects appear on the diagram, and we can see that they all are in another layer:

   

Based on this information, we can see that the application structure may need to be reworked.

Export the diagram to a file

At any point of exploring dependencies, you can use the following toolbar buttons to export the diagram to a file:

• Export to PNG to export the current view of the diagram to a PNG image.

• Export to GraphML to export the diagram in the GraphML format for external analysis.

• Export to XPS to export the diagram in the XPS format if you need to print a large diagram.

Compare saved snapshots to the current solution state

At any time you can save a snapshot of the current state of your solution to a file and use it for future references. To do so, click Save Architecture Graph on the toolbar and then choose where to save the snapshot file.

tip

The proprietary file format of the diagram snapshots .argr can be also used with JetBrains Rider.

You can load and study saved snapshots later by choosing ReSharper | Architecture | Compare With Saved... in the main menu and selecting a diagram snapshot file .argr.

The snapshot will open in a new editor tab and you will be able to see differences between the current state of the solution and the state saved in the snapshot.

If the dependency diagram was opened from file, the Show Diff button becomes available and toggled on by default. You can use this button to show or hide the differences between the snapshot and the current solution state.