a visualizer for ruby code (rails or otherwise), it analyze your code and extract the modules definitions and used classes/modules and render all these information as a directed force graph using D3.
this project is so small that the visualization looks like so
the idea is that the project opens every .rb file and parse it with parser gem then list all modules and classes definitions, and all constants that are listed inside this module/class and link them together.
Here are some output examples
| Gem | Visualization |
|---|---|
| rack-1.6.4/lib |  |
| actioncable-5.0.0/lib |  |
| railties-5.0.0/lib |  |
there are couple things you need to keep in mind:
- if your file doesn't have a valid ruby syntax it won't be parsed and will print warning.
- if you reference a class that is not defined in your project it won't be in the graph, we only display the graph of classes/modules you defined
- it statically analyze the code so meta programming is out of question in here
- rails associations are meta programming so forget it 😄
gem install rubrowser
Usage: rubrowser [options] [file] ...
-p, --port=PORT Specify port number for server, default = 9000
-v, --version Print Rubrowser version
-h, --help Prints this help
if you run it without any options
rubrowser
it'll analyze the current directory and open port 9000, so you can access the graph from localhost:9000
- interactive graph, you can pull any node to fix it to some position
- to release node double click on it
- zoom and pan with mouse or touch pad
- highlight node and all related nodes, it'll make it easier for you to see what depends and dependencies of certain class
- ignore node by name
- ignore nodes of certain type (modules/classes)
- hide namespaces
- hide relations
- change graph appearance (collision radius)
- stop animation immediately
- Module/class circle size on the graph will be relative to module number of lines in your code
- cyclical dependencies are marked in red
Because i didn't find a good visualization tool to make me understand ruby projects when I join a new one.
it's great when you want to get into an open source project and visualize the structure to know where to work and the relations between modules/classes.