Combining Tikz concepts/librarys to draw a complex picture with relative alignment/distances

Question

I think all of the problems has been asked by me or others in the past. But my over all problem is that I am not able to combine all this solutions to the real picture I want to draw. Normally it is nice to seperate a complex problem into more simple ones and ask. But here I try to ask the complex question because I experienced that the solutions influence (in my case negativ) each other.

Description of the needs/prolems:

1. The left nodes (Phase) should be rotaed. I would prefere a solution with \rotatebox (node contents={\rotatebox{90}{#1}}}).
2. The nodes (better would be rows) on the right are centered horizontal.
3. Logical the picture have four rows and the nodes on the left and right need to display that. This means that one node (e.g. right of B) is centered vertical against its left node. Please see that PhaseC belongs to C1, C2 and long C3, so that the vertical alignment should represent that. (discussed here)
4. Connecting the nodes with arrow shouldn't be so hard I think.
5. All have to be done relative. That means no cm, mm, pt or something like that.
6. The number of nodes is not fixed. It could be that in row one are less nodes then in row four.

Some solutions:

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usepackage{xltxtra}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage[spelling=new]{german}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{scopes,matrix,positioning,chains}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    [
        items/.style = {
            draw,
            align=center},
        phase/.style = {
            items,
            fill=red!20,
            node contents={\rotatebox{90}{#1}}}
    ]
    {[
        start chain=P going below
    ]
        \node [on chain,phase=PhaseA];
        {[
            start branch=A going right,
            every on chain/.append style=items,
            every node/.style=on chain
        ]
            \node {One};
            \node {Two};
            \node {Three};
            \node {Four};
        }
        \node [on chain,phase=PhaseB];
        \node [on chain,phase=PhaseC];
        \node [on chain,phase=PhaseD];
        {[
            start branch=D going right,
            every on chain/.append style=items,
            every node/.style=on chain
        ]
            \node {D1};
            \node {D2};
        }
    }

    % B
    \node [right=of P-2,items] {right of B};

    % C
    \matrix (C) [
        matrix of nodes,
        row sep=5pt, %2\textheight doesn't work here, maybe a \nodeheight exists?
        every node/.append style=items,
        right=of P-3]
    {
        C1 \\
        C2 \\
        long C3\\
    };
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Produce this

Number 2 and 5 are not fullfilled. And I think number 6 would make problems in the future.

Answer 1

Here's how I would probably actually do this. I don't suggest this is an obvious solution, but the code is succinct and can be easily tweaked for the entire diagram.

If anybody wishes to try this at home, let me know and I will give you a copy of the experimental package it uses. (I hope to get its sister to CTAN shortly, and maybe this one as well, but it is not there yet.)

This uses forest version 2. It is not tested with version 1.

\documentclass[tikz, border=10pt, multi]{standalone}
\usepackage{justtrees}% version 0.07; forest version 2
\begin{document}
\forestset{%
  grouped/.style={
    !u.l sep=2.5pt,
    l=2.5pt,
    no edge
  }
}
\begin{justtree}
{
    for tree={
      draw,
      text height=1.5ex,
      l+=10mm,
      edge={->, thick},
      thick,
      font=\sffamily
    },
    just format={fill=red!20, rotate=90, anchor=south, yshift=2.5mm, xshift=.75ex, font=\sffamily}
}
  [one, left just=PhaseA]
  [two]
  [
    [right of B, left just=PhaseB, no edge, tikz+={\foreach \i in {1,2,4,5} \draw [<-, thick] (.child anchor) -- (!uu\i.parent anchor); }
      [C1
        [C2, left just=PhaseC, grouped
          [long C3, grouped
            [D1, left just=PhaseD]
            [D2]
          ]
        ]
      ]
    ]
  ]
  [three]
  [four]
\end{justtree}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Your MWE compile without error but result seems to be different from your sketch ... Since you already got answer on your similar questions, which answer also solve problems you emphasized in question, I made (on basis of mine previous answers) the following flowchart:

with following code:

\documentclass{article}
    \usepackage{tikz}
    \usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta,calc,chains,fit,positioning,scopes}
%%%% for show flowchart only
    \usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}
    \PreviewEnvironment{tikzpicture}
    \setlength\PreviewBorder{3mm}

    \begin{document}
%---------------------------------------------------------------%
%   forth example                                               %
%---------------------------------------------------------------%
    \begin{tikzpicture}
%---------------------------------------------------------------%
suspend join/.code={\def\tikz@after@path{}},
    node distance = 7mm and 5mm,
      start chain = MR going right,
      start chain = MB going below,
      base/.style = {% common parameters
            draw, minimum size=4ex, inner sep=1mm},
        MR/.style = {% My Row nodes
            base, on chain=MR},
        MB/.style = {% My right Branch nodes
            base, on chain=MB},
        ML/.style = {% My Left branch nodes
            draw=cyan!60!black, rounded corners, fill=cyan!30,
            minimum size=4ex,
            label=center:\rotatebox{90}{#1},
            node contents={\rotatebox{90}{\phantom{#1}}}},
     arrow/.style = {thick,-{Triangle[]}},
       }
%---------------------------------------------------------------%
% FIRST ROW, names MR-1 ... MR-4
\node [MR] {one};
\node [MR] {two};
\node [MR] {tree};
\node [MR] {four};
% RIGHT BRANCH, names MB-1 ... MB-4
%   start point is below of middle of the first row
    \begin{scope}[every node/.style={MB,join=by arrow}]
\node[below=15mm of $(MR-1.south west)!0.5!(MR-4.south east)$] 
        {belong to Phase B}; % name=MB-1,
\node   {belong to Phase C};
\node   {belong to Phase C};
\node   {also belong to Phase C};% name=MB-4,
    \end{scope}
% LAST ROW, names MR-5 ... MR-6
\node[MR,below  left=of MB-4.south]   {D1};% name=MR-5,
\node[MR,below right=of MB-4.south]   {D2};
% LEFT BRANCH, 
\node (ML1) [ML=Phase A,left=of MR-1.west];
\node (ML2) [ML=Phase B,left=of MR-1.west |- MB-1];
\node (ML3) [ML=Phase C, inner ysep=0pt,
             fit=(ML1 |- MB-2.north) (ML1 |- MB-4.south)];
\node (ML4) [ML=Phase D,left=of MR-1.west |- MR-5];
% ARROWS NOT DETERMINED BY "JOIN" MACRO
\foreach \i in {1,2,3,4}
\draw[arrow]    (MR-\i) -- (MB-1);
\draw[arrow]    (MB-4) -- (MR-5);
\draw[arrow]    (MB-4) -- (MR-6);
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The code for it is designed in the following assumptions:

• the widest row in right branch is the top row, so the left branch i aligned with its left side
• nodes in the first row in right chains are in chain going right
• right branch are below of center of the first row. It can be simply determined by $(MR-1.south west)!0.5!(MR-4.south east)$. Nodes in it are in chain and going below
• in the last row are only two nodes, so they are positioned relatively to node above it
• blue nodes in the left branch are positioned in respect to left side of the first row and positioning of belonging nodes in right branch with exception of node, "Phase C", which is fit on coordinates determined by (ML1 |- MB-2.north)and (ML1 |- MB-4.south) whre ML1 is coordinate of the top blue node and MB-2 and MB-4 names of belonging nodes in the right branch
• nodes are not in grid
• nodes in the top row, right branch haw own style, which differ in chain name
• blue nodes also have own style. Since text in nodes, which fit some coordinates is not centering anymore, for text is exploited label positioned in node center.

In case, that text in nodes in the right branch will have text in more lines, than you can add to node style text width and align=center (or left, depends on what you like to be aligned).