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README.md

Example 13 - Dependency and Code Analysis

This example demonstrates the dependency and code analysis cmdlets introduced in PSScriptBuilder 1.1.0. Unlike the previous examples, no build is performed — the focus is entirely on analyzing and visualizing component relationships and codebase metrics. PSScriptBuilder's own source code is used as the subject, providing a real-world codebase with 60+ components, multiple inheritance hierarchies, and cross-subsystem dependencies.

New in this example

Get-PSScriptBuilderDependencyAnalysis — analyzes all component relationships without building
Export-PSScriptBuilderDependencyGraph — exports the dependency graph as Mermaid or Graphviz DOT
Get-PSScriptBuilderComponentDependency — traverses the graph from a named component in either direction
ConvertTo-PSScriptBuilderComponentDependencyTree — renders traversal results as a hierarchical tree
-EdgeType parameter on Get-PSScriptBuilderComponentDependency — restricts traversal to specific relationship types (e.g. Inheritance only)
Multiple Class collectors with distinct -CollectionKey values in a single ContentCollector

Key concepts

Four new analysis cmdlets:

Cmdlet	Purpose
Get-PSScriptBuilderDependencyAnalysis	Runs full dependency analysis, returns HasCycles, HasCrossDependencies, OrderedComponents, and more
Export-PSScriptBuilderDependencyGraph	Exports the graph as Mermaid (.md) or Graphviz DOT (.dot)
Get-PSScriptBuilderComponentDependency	BFS traversal from a named component — Dependencies or Dependents direction
ConvertTo-PSScriptBuilderComponentDependencyTree	Converts traversal results to a Unicode tree string

Scoped analysis for readable diagrams: The full PSScriptBuilder project has 60+ components — too large for Mermaid. The example intentionally scopes diagram exports to subsystems:

Mermaid: Dependencies subsystem (8 classes) — directly renderable in VS Code, GitHub, MkDocs
DOT: Collectors + Core + Dependencies (~17 classes) — shows cross-subsystem edges with type annotations

Pipeline-first design: All analysis cmdlets accept pipeline input via ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName on the DependencyGraph property. The common pattern is:

$analysis = Get-PSScriptBuilderDependencyAnalysis -ContentCollector $cc
$analysis | Get-PSScriptBuilderComponentDependency -Name 'MyClass' -Direction Dependencies |
    ConvertTo-PSScriptBuilderComponentDependencyTree

Multiple collectors of the same type: When using more than one Class collector in a single ContentCollector, each must have a unique -CollectionKey. The default key CLASS_DEFINITIONS applies when -CollectionKey is omitted, so a second Class collector without an explicit key causes an error.

$cc = New-PSScriptBuilderContentCollector |
    Add-PSScriptBuilderCollector -Type Class -CollectionKey 'COLLECTORS' -IncludePath $collectorsPath |
    Add-PSScriptBuilderCollector -Type Class -CollectionKey 'CORE'       -IncludePath $corePath

Scenarios

#	What it shows
1	Full project overview: component counts, total nodes/edges, cycle and cross-dependency flags
2	Cycle check — confirms the project is cycle-free
3	Ordered components — topological sort result for the full project
4	Mermaid diagram export scoped to the Dependencies subsystem
5	Graphviz DOT export with edge-type annotations scoped to Collectors + Core + Dependencies
6	Drill-down: full dependency tree of PSScriptBuilderBuildOrchestrator
7	Drill-down: inheritance subtree of PSScriptBuilderCollectorBase (-EdgeType Inheritance)
8	Drill-down: all components that depend on PSScriptBuilderDependencyGraph
9	Top 5 components with the most transitive dependencies
10	All inheritance relationships as a flat table and as per-root inheritance trees

Output files

Running the script creates an output\ directory with two files:

File	Format	Content
output\dependency-graph.md	Mermaid	Dependencies subsystem — 8 classes
output\dependency-graph.dot	Graphviz DOT	Collectors + Core + Dependencies — ~17 classes with edge type labels

Clean up after running:

.\Reset-Example.ps1

How to run

cd examples\13-dependency-analysis
.\Run-Example.ps1

For verbose collector progress:

.\Run-Example.ps1 -Verbose

PSScriptBuilder/examples/13-dependency-analysis at main · PSScriptBuilder/PSScriptBuilder · GitHub

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