Detect API Breaking Changes

If you deliver a .NET API to your client you must avoid breaking them when releasing a new version. NDepend provides several rules in the category API Breaking Changes. These rules are executed only if the NDepend baseline is defined. Each of this rule queries the code delta between the baseline and the current snapshot to detect changes that breaks the public surface of your API.

API Breaking Changes: Types: This rule warns if a type publicly visible in the baseline, is not publicly visible anymore or if it has been removed. Clients code using such type will be broken.
API Breaking Changes: Methods: This rule warns if a method publicly visible in the baseline, is not publicly visible anymore or if it has been removed. Clients code using such method will be broken.
API Breaking Changes: Fields: This rule warns if a field publicly visible in the baseline, is not publicly visible anymore or if it has been removed. Clients code using such field will be broken.
API Breaking Changes: Interfaces and Abstract Classes: This rule warns if a publicly visible interface or abstract class has been changed and contains new abstract methods or if some abstract methods have been removed. Clients code that implement such interface or derive from such abstract class will be broken.
Broken serializable types: This rule warns about breaking changes in types tagged with SerializableAttribute. To do so, this rule searches for serializable type with serializable instance fields added or removed since the baseline. Notice that it doesn't take account of fields tagged with NonSerializedAttribute.
Avoid changing enumerations Flags status: This rule matches enumeration types that used to be tagged with FlagsAttribute in the baseline, and not anymore. It also matches the opposite, enumeration types that are now tagged with FlagsAttribute, and were not tagged in the baseline.

In the same category 3 code queries are proposed to let you browse new public API elements: