SolutionErdXrmToolBoxPlugin 0.1.0.1

Solution ERD Builder

An XrmToolBox tool that draws entity relationship diagrams of the tables in a Dataverse solution and exports them to draw.io.

Alpha. It works, but it has only been tried on a handful of solutions. Please report problems and ugly diagrams in GitHub issues.

Why another ERD tool

Most ERD tools draw every relationship of every table on one canvas, and the result is unreadable. This one is built around readability:

• System relationships are hidden by default: created by, modified by, owner, owning team or business unit, currency, process stage and similar.
• Large solutions are split into subject-area pages of closely related tables. An overview page shows the areas and how many lookups run between each pair.
• Each line leaves from its lookup row and ends at the related table's key, with crow's-foot ends.
• Lookups to tables on other pages or outside the solution are row text ("→ Account") instead of extra boxes and long lines.
• Shortcut lookups are row text too. When a table already reaches a target through another lookup (Component → Structure → Project), its direct Project lookup reads "→ Project (via Structure)".

Nothing is dropped: every relationship is either a line or text on its lookup row, and options bring the lines back.

Using it

1. Connect to an environment and open Solution ERD Builder.
2. Pick a solution (Load solutions refreshes the list) and click Draw ERD, or double-click the solution.
3. Move between pages with the tabs under the diagram. Zoom with Ctrl+mouse wheel or the toolbar, and drag to pan.
4. Export draw.io... writes one .drawio file with a page per subject area. Open it in draw.io desktop or at app.diagrams.net. draw.io can save it as Visio (.vsdx) through File > Export as.

The tool only reads metadata: the solution list, the solution's table components and those tables' columns and relationships. It doesn't read or change any records.

Saved metadata

Save metadata... writes what the tool read to a JSON file, and Open metadata... draws from such a file without a connection. Use it to draw diagrams offline, or to send someone a solution's structure without giving them access to the environment.

Options

Keyboard

Status

Installation

From the XrmToolBox Tool Library

Search for Solution ERD Builder in the Tool Library once it is listed.

Manual installation

1. Build: .\build.ps1
2. Deploy to XrmToolBox: .\deploy.ps1 -Force

Repository layout

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/HurleySk/xrmtoolbox-erd.git
cd xrmtoolbox-erd
dotnet build SolutionErd.sln --configuration Release
dotnet test SolutionErd.sln --configuration Release

Rendering a metadata file without XrmToolBox

The CLI renders a saved metadata file the same way the tool does, and prints layout metrics:

src\SolutionErd.Cli\bin\Release\net48\solution-erd.exe render fixtures\synthetic\project-delivery.json out

Testing in XrmToolBox

1. .\deploy.ps1 -Force (closes XrmToolBox if it is running, builds, deploys and relaunches)
2. If the tool doesn't appear, delete %APPDATA%\MscrmTools\XrmToolBox\Plugins\manifest.json and restart XrmToolBox.

Releasing

Set the version in src/SolutionErdXrmToolBoxPlugin/SolutionErdXrmToolBoxPlugin.csproj and Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs (four parts, last part not zero), update PackageReleaseNotes, push, then push a tag v<version>. The Release workflow builds, tests, checks the versions and the package layout, publishes to nuget.org with trusted publishing and creates a GitHub release. A version already on nuget.org (uploaded by hand, say) is not pushed again; the workflow only creates the release. Run it by hand with "dry run" to check a build without publishing.

The plugin DLL goes in Plugins/; SolutionErd.Core.dll and AutomaticGraphLayout.dll go in Plugins/Dependencies/.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Author

Samuel Hurley - HurleySk

Built on XrmToolBox by Tanguy Touzard. Layout uses MSAGL.