Query-based software dependency analysis

A system comprising:

• one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
• maintaining a database of software elements in a project, wherein the database stores a plurality of attributes for each distinct software element in the project;
• receiving a query that defines a dependency between the software elements in a project, wherein the query specifies one or more source attributes of a source software element of the dependency, one or more target attributes of a target software element of the dependency, and a relationship between the one or more source attributes of the source software element and the one or more target attributes of the target software element;
• searching the database to identify matching source software elements having the one or more source attributes and target software elements having the one or more target attributes;
• identifying pairs of matching source software elements and matching target software elements having the specified relationship;
• generating, for each pair of matching source software elements and matching target software elements having the specified relationship, a new dependency in a raw dependency graph, the new dependency being a dependency from a source software element of the pair to the target software element of the pair;
• and
• generating data representing an aggregated dependency graph from the raw dependency graph and a hierarchy graph of the software elements in the project.

A computer program product, encoded on one or more non-transitory computer storage media, comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

• maintaining a database of software elements in a project, wherein the database stores a plurality of attributes for each distinct software element in the project;
• receiving a query that defines a dependency between the software elements in a project, wherein the query specifies one or more source attributes of a source software element of the dependency, one or more target attributes of a target software element of the dependency, and a relationship between the one or more source attributes of the source software element and the one or more target attributes of the target software element;
• searching the database to identify matching source software elements having the one or more source attributes and target software elements having the one or more target attributes;
• identifying pairs of matching source software elements and matching target software elements having the specified relationship;
• generating, for each pair of matching source software elements and matching target software elements having the specified relationship, a new dependency in a raw dependency graph, the new dependency being a dependency from a source software element of the pair to the target software element of the pair;
• and
• generating data representing an aggregated dependency graph from the raw dependency graph and a hierarchy graph of the software elements in the project.