The goal is to generate an image from a text file describing the object graph in DOT format.
Export the Object Graph to a DOT File
Launch at least one full scan to fill the object graph with data.
1. Go to the <DATADIR>/bin directory and start the cvdebug command-line tool.
2. Run the following command:
consolidation export-object-graph outputFile=<filepath> [instanceDir=<instance directory>] [instance=<Consolidation Server instance name>] [seedNode=<nodes to export>] [maxArcsPerNode=<integer>] [depth=<integer>]
Where:
Argument
Description
outputfile
Required to indicate the file path and name of the exported .dot file.
[instanceDir]
Optionally, it can be useful if you do not have a standard CV instance (for example, a debug instance or a copy of the object graph) and need to specify a Consolidation Server instance directory for the object graph to generate properly.
[instance]
Optionally, you can specify the Consolidation Server instance for which you want to generate the object graph. If no instance is specified, the default Consolidation Server instance cs0 is used.
[seedNodes]
Optionally, you can specify a comma-separated subset of nodes to export only a subpart of the object graph starting from these nodes. You cannot generate and display an SVG with millions of nodes and millions of arcs. This option therefore allows you to drastically reduce the graph to be exported.
[maxArcsPerNode]
Optionally, you can specify the object graph width. It takes the n first arcs of each node.
[depth]
Optionally, you can limit the graph exploration starting from the nodes specified with the seedNodes argument. The nodes which are beyond this maximum depth are not displayed in the graph.
Once the DOT file is generated, you see all the nodes and arcs according to the arguments passed to the export-object-graph command. Nodes that do not exist, but to which arcs are pointing, are highlighted in red in the object graph. This is useful to spot them.
Convert the DOT File to Another Image Format
From the generated DOT file, it is then possible to generate the image to SVG, PNG, etc. formats, using the dot binary delivered with the GraphViz free suite.
1. Use SVG as the output format, since it allows you to search for text within the graphical display. This is convenient when you want to find a node in the generated graph. Here is the typical command line used to create an SVG image from a text file describing the object graph in DOT format: dot -Tsvg store.dot -o store.svg