visual studio 2010: dependency graph

Question

I have VS 2010 professional edition. What can I do to use "Dependency Graph". I do not have "architectural" edition. Is there a FREE plugin that I could use. If not, are there any FREE 3rd party tools that could help me do the same thing.

Thanks

Answer 1

I needed something similar, but didn't want to pay for (or install) a tool to do it. I created a quick PowerShell script that goes through the project references and spits them out in a yuml.me friendly-format instead:

Function Get-ProjectReferences ($rootFolder)
{
    $projectFiles = Get-ChildItem $rootFolder -Filter *.csproj -Recurse
    $ns = @{ defaultNamespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" }

    $projectFiles | ForEach-Object {
        $projectFile = $_ | Select-Object -ExpandProperty FullName
        $projectName = $_ | Select-Object -ExpandProperty BaseName
        $projectXml = [xml](Get-Content $projectFile)
        
        $projectReferences = $projectXml | Select-Xml '//defaultNamespace:ProjectReference/defaultNamespace:Name' -Namespace $ns | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Node | Select-Object -ExpandProperty "#text"
        
        $projectReferences | ForEach-Object {
            "[" + $projectName + "] -> [" + $_ + "]"
        }
    }
}

Get-ProjectReferences "C:\Users\DanTup\Documents\MyProject" | Out-File "C:\Users\DanTup\Documents\MyProject\References.txt"

_{(source: yuml.me)}

Answer 2

dependency-analyser can help you.

http://code.google.com/p/dependency-analyser/

Answer 3

http://dependencyvisualizer.codeplex.com/ might help. You didn't say if you need something that goes beyond project-level dependencies.

Answer 4

You have also the VS Solution Dependency Viewer which supports VS2010 and is free for freeware/evaluation projects. You can download it directly from GForge: VS Solution Dependency Viewer project page.