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Dependency Extractor

This is a static analysis tool which parses the imports from javascript or typescript code, and then outputs them to .dependencies/**/*.yaml files that other tools can process more easily later on.

The .dependencies folder has the following properties:

  1. The **/*.yaml files mirror the original project's source code.
  2. The .yaml files have imports relative to the project root. So if two files from different directories import the same util, the yaml files will have the same path even though the relative imports from the original files would be different.

For concrete examples, see the test cases. If run on {case}/project, this tool creates a {case}/project/.dependencies with contents that match {case}/expectations.

Usage

# Run the CLI script against a project
cargo run -- -b ../path/to/your/project/root

# Run the test suite. Make sure the tool generates `cases/{case}/expectations`
# when run on `cases/{case}/project`.
cargo test

Use cases

The primary value in this tool is its .dependencies folder and .yaml output. Although no other known tooling exists (yet), I can foresee a few benefits to this approach:

Visualizing the project

Many ecosystems have graph visualizers. Some examples:

Unfortunately these tools are monolithic: they parse the code and draw the graph.

A visualization tool using .yaml files be reusable regardless of the source language.

Validating dependencies

The dependency-cruser can also validate dependencies. As a monolithic tool, this one is tied to the Node ecosystem.

A dependency validator using .yaml files could be used across all lanaguages.

Unlocking new code complexity measurements

Common code complexity metrics (lines of code, cyclomatic complexity) examine code in isolation. I personally find this unsatisfying: "simple" code which imports and calls a "complex" function is still complex code.

By combining complexity metrics with the import graph, it seems to me like we can improve our metrics overall.

Perhaps this tool could contribute to a solution by extracting that import graph.

Contributing

Open an issue if you:

  1. Have suggestions to improve or future-proof the .yaml file format. I consider this the most important thing to get "right."
  2. Found a bug, but don't plan to fix it.
  3. Have a feature request, even if you're willing to implement it.
  4. Want to volunteer to add support for parsing a new language.

Open a PR directly if you:

  1. Have found/fixed a bug.
  2. Have documentaiton improvements.
  3. Are refactoring something for clarity or performance.
  4. Are adding or enhancing a test to make it more thorough.

Bugfix PRs must include a regression test.