Dependency Analyzer

Dependency Query tool for .NET. This tool helps you determine if a project references another project somewhere down the line. It is like a queryable database of references. This is useful for large projects where dependency diagrams can get complex on paper (gigantic UML diagrams per-se).

##Getting Started

1. Make sure you install the dependencies listed below.
2. Clone this repository to your computer. Let's call the place you cloned it "C:\CloneRoot"
3. Open the command line and change directory to "C:\CloneRoot\ReferenceCreator"
4. execute "rake 'reference[myProject,myProject2]'" (case sensitive!) and you will see "Yes a direct reference was found."

That's it! There's a simple lookup of a pretend project referencing another pretend project. Now you should run the executeable to generate a file that will lookup all your own projects. But first you need to tell the program where your solution files are located.

##Now that was easy. So let us setup your own environment

1. Edit "C:\CloneRoot\ReferenceCreator\ExtractReferences.exe.config" with your solution paths E.G.:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <startup> 
      <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5.1" />
  </startup>
 <appSettings>
  <add key="root" value="D:\Projects\"/><!--Optional.  Leave blank if you want to specify full paths or paths do not have a common root -->
  <add key="solutions" value="Path\to\Project\Project.sln,Path2\Project2.sln,And\So\On\blah.sln"/>
</appSettings>
</configuration>

2. execute "rake generate" (no quotes). This creates the required Sample.pro (prolog file.) at "C:\CloneRoot\ReferenceCreator\Sample.pro". Overwrites original.
3. execute "rake 'reference[myProject,myProject2]'" (where myProject is the Assembly name generated by your own .NET project.)

##Dependencies

1. https://github.com/ruby/rake

Rake is used to run commands at the command line. This makes setup a lot easier.

2. http://www.swi-prolog.org/

A Prolog interpreter. (Mac uers I recommend installing this program with homebrew: http://brew.sh/)

• Edit "C:\CloneRoot\ReferenceCreator\Rakerile.rb" near the top to match your install location:

swiplLocation = '"D:\Program Files (x86)\swipl\bin\swipl.exe"' #(note the double quotes)

##Notes

• Make root empty in the app.config if you don't have all your solutions in the same place. Specify full paths for each *.sln file:

<add key="root" value=""/>
<add key="solutions" value="C:\Path\to\Project\Project.sln,C:\Path2\Project2.sln,C:\And\So\On\blah.sln"/>

• When running "rake 'reference[myProject,myProject2]'" do not use ".dll". Just the project's assembly name in ALL LOWER CASE. All project names are made lower case.
• I recommend looking at the Sample.
• A prolog file is generated by this program at: ReferenceCreator/Sample.pro. Regenerating this file overwrites the original.
• Do not specify *.proj files in the solutions. Only solutions.