stevebuik / graphvizforce-lightning

Automatic Entity-Relationship diagrams and SOQL queries for Salesforce

Graphvizforce for Lightning

A Salesforce Entity Relationship diagramming and visual SOQL builder.

Status: BETA Stable. Needs minor features and bug fixes.

Distributed as a managed package but we will convert to an unlocked package as soon as they are available.

Continuous Integration Build Status:

Installation

Install into a Production or DE Org using tiny.cc/gvf2p

Install into a Sandbox Org using tiny.cc/gvf2t

Features

Watch the videos

Developers

If you would like to contribute to this project, we welcome any help. Please first look at the issues marked help wanted and contact us to check if anybody else is already working on it.

Then follow these instructions to setup your development environment.

You might also want to clone/setup this project to learn some of the techniques we use. You can also read the posts on this blog, as we will explain the design in more detail there.

Architecture

We document our architectural decisions using a standard Architecture Review Document format.

These documents can be seen in the ADR dir.

Issues

We manage our roadmap and defects as Github issues

Acknowledgements

Thanks Jason Guan for working on v1 and initiating the v2.

Thanks Andrew Fawcett for the UML Canvas project. We used 2 classes from that project to create the Auto-Build feature.

Thank you if you are using this tool. We volunteer our time for the satisfaction of knowing that people use the tools that we make.

Licence

Graphvizforce is free and unencumbered public domain software. For more information, see http://unlicense.org/ or the accompanying UNLICENSE file.

graphvizforce-lightning's Issues

Google Analytics support

for navigation and other events to that the GVF team can see usage and understand if future features are worth building

later on, add a global config option to disable this if the user doesn't want to be tracked. But track when this is disabled

remove mdaapi src from repo

Persistence

Diagrams are saved to SFDC somewhere. maybe as JSON in the Docs or Files tab

Show API Names instead of Labels

try out Mermaid for diagram generation

https://github.com/knsv/mermaid

we'd like to know how the diagrams look and what level of interactivity is possible and how well port connections will work

this can be a new component that is in a tab next to download so users can choose if they want to use it

Create new auto-build from Page Layouts

Requires a new Apex class, following the conventions in AutoBuildTrigger

Update of Object meta in SFDC is never seen in diagram if Object already there

discovered when changing shape of data sent to client but would also apply when changes/adds/deletes happen to objects already in the diagram so needs to be fixed.

Solution will be to only store object/field references (by name, not id so they can be exported across orgs) in persisted JSON diagram data

toolbar icon to toggle display of types in the diagram

this is the showTypes option. see TODO in graphviz.js

User can see the diagram as a SOQL query

Prototype the idea that this can be used as a query builder to reach a wider audience.

It will need the user to pick the "from" entity from the list of visible entities.

SOQL Query Runner

A natural next step after building a query is to run it and examine the results.

Since join results are basically a list of trees, a Lightning Component could be built to execute the current query (simplest is just send to apex and use Database.query) and display the results graphically.

The UI could use the lightning:treegrid https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/component-library/bundle/lightning:treeGrid/example#lightningComponentDemo:exampleTreeGridBase

Not sure how easy it will be to map nested sobjects into a tree grid but it will need to support:

1. top level from entity/attributes
2. ancestor entity/attributes
3. children entity/attributes
4. ancestors of children entity/attributes

Results can be displayed in a new tab next to the download tab

Apex autobuild fails/hangs when trying to analyse a class from a managed package

The message is " from a managed package cannot be saved"

Also hangs the console when this occurs (because the console watches the tooling api via a websocket)

Solution: detect the lack of source for classes from managed packages and skip them i.e. use a predicate method for skipping classes.

Also add a try/catch block to better handle generic errors and report to user in progress component

sort available Object list to show related entities first

When adding Objects, it's natural to want to add those that are related to the one you just added. Currently the list of all objects is alphabetic.

If the most recently added entity (from Apex) is stored in an attribute, then the sorted list of Objects can be split into two sets of sorted entities. The top one shows all entities related to the most recently added. The lower section shows all other entities not related.

For extra bonus points, the transitively related entities can also be included in the top section but they are sorted lower in the list.

This would drastically improve the manual creation of diagrams

Relationship names are labelled

Maybe a diagram specific config can enable/disable this

Show required fields in diagram

Maybe copy the red bar indicator used in the Schema Builder

Show record types as text instead of Id value

suggested by a user in Germany

Fix incorrect error message display

I removed a broken markup block in 0c414da

Looks like it was pasted in from somewhere else but not tested.

Create a VF tab for autobuildbridge for Classic orgs

Back button support

Create a History Manager component which detects the browser back button and syncs changes in the URI to navigation events which the app can respond to

Investigate problems with getting object describes from managed packages

Twitter thread describes the problem

https://twitter.com/rsoesemann/status/1017392952040214533?s=12

diagram JSON storage shape needs to store object/field api names only

This will fix quite a few bugs, including when a user adds a new field to SFDC.

User can download graphviz text

If a user wants to open the diagram in Graphviz on local machine (to support SVG, PDF etc) then we need a button to download the content (was originally a VF page) or a modal with the text displayed so it can be copied.

debouncing composable component

for search keystrokes

Bug: Clone diagram fail to save

Clone diagram fail to save to SF via LDS

d3 based diagram UI component

a d3 force directed graph where the nodes are html tables could replace the diagram with a lot more interactive features

• drag/drop repositioning of the entities. in d3 it's possible to lock a node in place so any node that is dropped can lock in place, the others will adjust automatically.
• the edges in the chart will be lines but it should be possible to calculate the two right angled lines horizontal/vertical lines to make a better connector with an arrow on the end
• when groups are added to graphviz diagrams, d3 supports auto-calculated grouping containers so these be be used for groups https://bl.ocks.org/bumbeishvili/f027f1b6664d048e894d19e54feeed42
• entities can be drag/dropped from one group to another
• better visualisation/animation of entities that are part of a SOQL query

any of these features needing data persisted can add a section to the JSON schema / persisted document shape

it can be another tab next to download, giving the user choice.

FROM entity in diagram should stand out more and be persisted

this is the fromEntity option. see TODO in graphviz.js

should produce a green colored title bar for that single entity.

this will require a new titleColor attribute in the JSON schema for view objects.

Speed up Apex auto-build using composite rest calls

https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api_tooling.meta/api_tooling/intro_rest_resource_examples.htm

The tooling api supports sending multiple/chained requests in one http call. The apex ToolingAPI class could use this to speed up

Create auto-build from All Reports

Requires a new Apex class, following the conventions in AutoBuildTrigger

SOQL Renderer

add a fn to static resource:
2 args: persisted JSON and from entity
result = SOQL string

using Jasmine etc to dev/test this

User can see difference between Master-Detail and Lookup relationships

autobuild sends object/fields to add to client instead of persisting on server side

this removes the need for a duplicate of the JSON diagram classes in Apex. big win in less code.

just return the data in a Map<String,List> where key = entity apiName and vals are lists of field apiNames.

no real downside in having the client make an on-change diagram save instead of the server

User can exclude owner relationship in diagram

Same as feature in VF version, but specific to the diagram instead of global

Clean up names

Camel all and name events EventFoo

get rid of ERD prefix

CI runs all tests in a scratch org on every push

Master-Detail relationships not showing as solid lines

in graphviz.js, the isMDOrCascadeDelete attr is used to control this.

Is this the wrong way to know if a relationship is a master detail?

Auto-build apex does not find fields for objects already in diagram

If a diagram has Account already in it and a class refers to Account.Name, the Name field will not be added to the diagram

diagram can zoom in/out

when the diagram gets large, it's useful to be able to zoom and maybe even pan around. zoom out (with a reset) at least would be useful.

is this possible with SVG? there are js libs that can zoom and pan svg but not sure if they work under the LockerService and without Lightning renderer conflicts.

SOQL generates parent -> child -> parent fields

In SOQL, it's supported to join from an entity, down to a child and then from there, up to other ancestors of the child entity.

The SOQL generator currently doesn't include those fields in the query or the selected fields data for the diagram.

setup CI tests

Travis or something similar

toolbar icon to toggle API names vs Labels in diagram

this is the showAPINames option. see TODO in graphviz.js

Remove groups from diagram configuration section

User can see field which creates a relationship

Using GV ports to connect to the right place.

If the FK field is not visible, do we show the relationship? If so, at which port?

Rename all code to use gvf2_ prefix

and then copy meta-data into src folder and commit

double comma in SOQL rendered query

when a query has a parent -> child join, copy or view the rendered SOQL and there will be a double comma after the from fields and before the child joins

Create new auto-build from Page Layouts

Requires a new Apex class, following the conventions in AutoBuildTrigger

Add grouping feature (same as in old graphviz VF tool)

the persistence JSON already supports groups. In order to add this feature, you will need to add:

1/ the graphviz.js/diagramAsText fn/template will need to add extra graphviz markup to display the groups.

2/ a lightning UI/component to manage the groups. this could use the Lightning duelling lists component. it should probably replace the entity/fields editor when active so that instant UI feedback is possible. It can include a colour picker for each group.

automatically choose the from entity to maximise reach of SOQL query

when a developer want to maximise the entities that are returned by a SOQL they need to try various from entities to see which includes the most entities.

When extracting the from options from the persisted JSON, the "entities" pure fn could return objects instead of strings. Those objects can contain the "from" entity name and also a label with (n) appended. N would be the count of entities included when that entity is used as the from for a SOQL query.

This makes it easy for the user to know which entity has the greatest reach without needing any new UI components i.e. keeping UI clean

stop using Lightning Data Service

It is not providing much value i.e. more client code than if we just used Apex and harder to test.

Also, it's not supported in Lightning Out.

So delete the DiagramDataService and replace it with apex methods to read/write a diagram

toolbar button to show/hide parent->child relationship labels

is a render option called showEdgePluralLabels. see TODO in graphviz.js

auto-build fails with mutation event handling error

Use auto-build on classes and you will see:

This page has an error. You might just need to refresh it. Action failed: gvf2:ERDContainer$controller$onDiagramMutate [Cannot read property 'RecordTypeId' of undefined] Callback failed: apex://gvf2.AutoBuild/ACTION$pollSource Failing descriptor: {gvf2:ERDContainer$controller$onDiagramMutate}

toolbar button to show/hide child->parent relationship labels

is a render option called showEdgeSingularLabels. see TODO in graphviz.js