VBFlowchartingExtension

OVERVIEW

This is an Extension for Visual Studio which can flowchart any Visual Basic Procedure using a flowcharting method named Nassi–Shneiderman diagram (NSD) which is a graphical design representation for structured programming. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassi%E2%80%93Shneiderman_diagram.

EXAMPLE DIAGRAM

SETUP

Download the .VSIX file or choose Install while in Visual Studio. While Visual Studio is open, some first –time initialization needs to be done. Go to View-->Other Windows… and click Flowcharting Tools Window(Dockable). This should open up a Tool Window which has the key controls for the extension. The window looks as follows:

Since this tool window is dockable, it is suggested it be placed between the Solution Explorer and the Properties window as shown below:

This window should now stay in its place regardless of the number of times VS is started. One other detail. If you have code that is conditionally compiled it is strongly suggested that you download and install a helper program, which can be downloaded at: https://tablacus.github.io/scriptcontrol_en.html

OPERATION AND USE

Open Visual Studio and open a project or solution containing Visual Basic code. Click anywhere (place the cursor) on a procedure you want to be flowcharted and click the Flowchart Button ( the one with the flowchart icon with tool-tip-text “Make flowchart of Procedure at current cursor position”). The Flowchart should be generated and displayed. The font in the flowchart can be changed by selecting the font in the VB Flowcharting Tools window and clicking the Flowchart button again. If you click the flowchart options button the following screen will be displayed:

The changes to the options window will only take effect when the next flowchart is generated. Feel free to “play” with the options.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

• Additional flowchart and options buttons can also be found on the tool bar and in the Tools menu

• There is a provision for placing your flowcharts into a Company Drawing format. Not sure how useful this may be

• Once a flowchart is generated, you can click anywhere on the flowchart and the line of code where you clicked should be highlighted on the code page.

• If there are Breakpoint(s) on the procedure you flowcharted, they are highlighted on the flowchart with a Dark Brown (Siena) background. If this is not desired, delete the breakpoints and generate the flowchart again.

• The Next and Prev buttons on the Chart window will go forward or backward and generate a flowchart of the next or previous procedure in the current module. If you go forward at the end or hit Prev at the beginning, the program will sound a beep.

FINAL COMMENTS

• This Extension will always be intended to be free. It is placed in the preview mode, and comments, suggestions, and bug reports are welcome. Please, just be kind. Any information pertinent to making the bug reproducible would be helpful. Try not to send code that you feel would be proprietary to you or your company.

• Hopefully a help file will be provided soon

• I assume many will want support for flowcharting other languages. This may eventually happen depending on the interest.

• The source is not available to the public. However, this may change.

• A future addition may include being able to do debugging graphically with the flowchart. (Such features as setting breakpoints, single stepping through the flowchart, etc.)