Sample: Deep Inheritance & Generic Services

This sample demonstrates Class Diagram generation for complex, multi-level inheritance hierarchies and generic service architectures. It showcases ProjGraph's expertise in resolving deep branch inheritance (5+ levels) and generic constraints.

🏙️ Domain: Corporate Structure

The sample models a typical corporate organizational chart with deep specialization:

  • Hierarchical Personnel: AuditableEntity -> Person -> Employee -> Manager -> CEO.
  • Generic Infrastructure: IService<T> and IRepository<T> patterns with specialized implementations.
  • Cross-Cutting Concerns: Audit logging via Base classes and specialized Enums for Access Levels.

📊 Visual Snapshot

Below is the deep specialized hierarchy for the CEO class:

classDiagram
    class AuditableEntity { <<abstract>> }
    class Person { <<abstract>> }
    class Employee
    class Manager
    class CEO

    AuditableEntity <|-- Person
    Person <|-- Employee
    Employee <|-- Manager
    Manager <|-- CEO
Tip

This model is perfect for testing the --depth parameter. Try increasing it to see how many levels of parent classes ProjGraph can discover. View the latest snapshot in complex-hierarchy.mmd.

🚀 Quick Start

To generate the full hierarchy for the CEO class including its 4 levels of ancestors, run:

projgraph classdiagram ./samples/classdiagram/complex-hierarchy/Domain/Models/CEO.cs --inheritance --dependencies --depth 5 --properties true --functions true > ./samples/classdiagram/complex-hierarchy/complex-hierarchy.mmd

Parameters explained

  • --depth 5: Ensures all 5 levels of inheritance from CEO back to AuditableEntity are captured.
  • --inheritance: Explicitly enables parent-class discovery across the project.

🛠️ Build and Test

This project tests deep-tree resolution. Build it using:

dotnet build ./samples/classdiagram/complex-hierarchy/

Analyze the hierarchy

# Analyze the CEO hierarchy (5 levels)
projgraph classdiagram ./samples/classdiagram/complex-hierarchy/Domain/Models/CEO.cs --depth 5

# Analyze the Service layer with generics
projgraph classdiagram ./samples/classdiagram/complex-hierarchy/Services/EmployeeService.cs

Key Features Demonstrated

1. Deep Ancestry Resolution

The tool follows the inheritance chain even through multiple files and namespaces.

2. Generic Interface Implementation

Visualizes how EmployeeService implements IRepository<Employee>.

3. Abstract vs Concrete Types

Distinguishes between abstract base classes and concrete implementations using <<abstract>>.

Running the Sample

  1. Navigate to the sample directory:

    cd samples/classdiagram/complex-hierarchy

  2. Run the class diagram tool:

    projgraph classdiagram Domain/Models/CEO.cs --depth 5
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