Drawing UML Diagrams with UMLGraph

Diomidis Spinellis
Department of Management Science and Technology
Athens University of Economics and Business
Athens, Greece
dds@aueb.gr

Introduction

UMLGraph allows the declarative specification and drawing of UML class and sequence diagrams. The specification is done in text diagrams, that are then transformed into the appropriate graphical representations.

There is no rule specifying that models should appear in a graphical form. A model is a simplification of reality, so a model for a software artifact could really be an outline of that artifact; think of a class definition without code in the method bodies. However, we usually prefer to examine many of our models in a graphical representation: UML employs ten different diagrams for visualizing different perspectives of a system.

Designers typically create their model diagrams using a drawing editor. However, all drawing editors require the tedious placing and manipulation of drawing shapes on the canvas. The effort and the motor coordination skills required for this activity are mostly irrelevant to the end result: unlike architectural or mechanical engineering models the appearance of a software system's model diagram is only marginally related to the quality of the represented software design.

Computer power and automatic graph drawing algorithms have now sufficiently advanced so as to allow the automatic placement of graph nodes on the canvas and the near optimal routing of the respective edges. We can therefore design models using a declarative textual representation and subsequently view, publish, and share them in graphical form. UMLGraph's support for declaratively specifying class and sequence diagrams is part of an ongoing effort aiming to support all ten types of UML diagrams.

Creating models in a declarative, textual notation offers a number of advantages.

Consider how your favorite model editor handles the following tasks and how you could handle them using a simple Perl script or a text-processing pipeline applied to the declarative model specification: All the above tasks can be easily performed in text files using Unix commands such as grep, wc, grep ... | sort ..., and diff.

Installation

To install UmlGraph follow these steps.
  1. Copy the files in lib to a directory you will use for storing UmlGraph's installation (for instance, /usr/local/lib).
  2. Copy the file bin/umlgraph (for Unix) or bin/umlgraph.bat (for Windows) to a directory of your execution path (for instance, /usr/local/bin).
  3. Adjust the above file, setting UMLGRAPH_HOME to point to the directory where you installed the UmlGraph library files.

UMLGraph is implemented as a javadoc doclet (a program satisfying the doclet API that specifies the content and format of the output generated by the javadoc tool). Furthermore, the output of UmlGraph needs to be post-processed with the Graphviz dot program. Therefore, to draw class diagrams with UmlGraph class you will need to have javadoc and Graphviz (http://www.graphviz.org/) installed on your computer. Both programs are freely available, from Sun and AT&T respectively, for many platforms including Unix and Windows. Javadoc is part of the Sun JDK, so a typical JDK installation will also include javadoc.

To draw UML sequence diagrams you must also install the free GNU plotutils (http://www.gnu.org/software/plotutils/plotutils.html) system.

Class Diagrams

One specifies a class diagram using the Java syntax complemented by javadoc tags. Running the UmlGraph doclet on the specification will generate a Graphviz (http://www.graphviz.org/) diagram specification that can be automatically processed to create PNG, SVG, EMF, Postscript, GIF, JPEG, fig, or Framemaker drawings.

The following is an example of a specification and the resulting UML class diagram:
class Person {
        String Name;
}

class Employee extends Person {}

class Client extends Person {}
Simple UML class diagram

Class Diagram Operations

UMLGraph's input follows the Java syntax and semantics. However, since the main purpose of UMLGraph is the declarative specification of UML diagrams there is no need to flesh-out each class's methods, to completely specify each class, or to specify package information. You only specify the details you want to appear on the graph. If you wish your (Java) implementation to evolve together with the design feel free to include code or additional details. You can hide these details from the UML diagram using the javadoc @hidden tag applied to classes, methods, and fields. In theory you can also use UMLGraph to reverse engineer existing Java code. Note however that UMLGraph was not originally designed for this purpose; the resulting graphs may be large and unwieldy.

There are various ways to invoke UMLGraph, each providing a different balance between convenience and flexibility.

Option 1: Using the Supplied Script

This is the simplest option. If umlgraph (or umlgraph.bat) is correctly installed, you can run UMLGraph by simply specifying the basename of the Java file containing the diagram specification and the file type of the generated diagram (e.g. gif, ps, png, svg). Example:
umlgraph Test png
Any additional UMLGraph or javadoc arguments can be added at the end of the command line. This command will read the specification file (e.g. Test.java) and generate directly a diagram of the appropriate type (e.g. Test.png).

Option 2: Running Java

This option provides the maximum flexibility. In order to run, javadoc needs to access tools.jar. You can accomplish this in two ways.
  1. Specify the location of tools.jar as a part of Java's classpath and specify the full name of the UMLGraph doclet as an argument to Java. This is an invocation example under Windows
    java -classpath "lib/UmlGraph.jar;c:\program files\java\jdk1.6.0_02\lib\Tools.jar"
        org.umlgraph.doclet.UmlGraph -package Test.java
    and under Unix
    java -classpath '/usr/share/lib/UmlGraph.jar:/opt/Java-1.6/lib/tools.jar' \
    org.umlgraph.doclet.UmlGraph -package Test.java
  2. Place the UmlGraph.jar file in a directory that also contains the Java SDK tools.jar file. You can accomplish this either by copying UmlGraph.jar to the SDK lib directory where tools.jar resides, or by copying the JDK tools.jar file into the directory where you installed UMLGraph. You then run
    java -jar /path/to/UmlGraph.jar yourfile1.java ...
You can use any of the javadoc general options; -private is usually needed to avoid having to explicitly specify public elements. Example:
java -jar /usr/jvm/java-1.5.0/lib/UmlGraph.jar -private Simple.java

To generate a diagram of all classes in the package specify as arguments to the Java invocation the name of the package and the directory where it resides. The following example generates a diagram of all UMLGraph classes.

java -classpath ... org.umlgraph.doclet.UmlGraph -sourcepath src/main/java org.umlgraph.doclet

Specifying some packages before the list of source files will designate those packages as local. When you specify a package list, the SVG output UMLgraph generates will contain local hyperlinks for the local classes and hyperlinks to the Sun Java API documentation for all other classes.

Option 3: Running Javadoc

Alternatively, you can also run UMLGraph from within javadoc. This can be useful if your IDE provides additional support for running javadoc. In this case you run javadoc with arguments -doclet org.umlgraph.doclet.UmlGraph -docletpath /path/to/UmlGraph.jar and append at the end the file(s) that contain your diagram specification. Example:
javadoc -docletpath UmlGraph.jar -doclet org.umlgraph.doclet.UmlGraph -private Simple.java

Running Dot

The last two options, will generate the UML diagram in Graphviz dot format. This is a text file that can be processed by the Graphviz dot program to layout and draw the graph. javadoc will create by default a file named graph.dot in the current directory. A command line like the following will convert the graph.dot file into Postscript:
dot -Tps -ograph.ps graph.dot
or PNG
dot -Tpng -ograph.png graph.dot
Refer to the dot documentation for information on creating other file formats or adjusting the UMLGraph output.

You also can pipe the result of UMLGraph directly into dot:

java -jar /.../UmlGraph.jar -private -output - Simple.java | dot -Tgif -ograph.gif

Note that when you use dot for generating SVG diagrams your should specify the -outputencoding UTF-8 option to UMLGraph. This option will correctly render the stereotype guillemot characters in the dot output and the corresponding SVG file.

Class Modelling

The UMLGraph class diagrams allows you to model All relationship tags apart from @extends take four arguments:
  1. The source adornments (role, multiplicity, and visibility)
  2. The relationship name
  3. The target adornments (role, multiplicity, and visibility)
  4. The target class
Arguments can be space-separated, or enclosed in quotes if they need to contain the space character. The - character is used as a placeholder to denote empty arguments. You can use the \n sequence to separate the first three adornments in separate centered lines; the \l and \r sequences can also be used to generate left and right aligned lines. You can use the < and > characters in the relationship name to enclose stereotype names. These will be automatically enclosed in guillemots. Note that a relationship's target class is not implicitly defined; it should also be specified using the Java class syntax. The target can be specified by simple name, java class lookup rules (imports and visibility) will be used to determine the actual class. The following is an example of a relationship specification and the resulting UML diagram:
class Tyre {}
class Engine {}
class Body {}

/**
 * @composed 1 - 4 Tyre
 * @composed 1 - 1 Engine
 * @composed 1 - 1 Body
 */
class Car {}
UML relationship diagram

Notes in Class Diagrams

In UMLGraph you can easily add a note (comment) to an element, using the @note tag. The corresponding text will be split into lines, as specified in the note. Multiple tags can be used to add more notes to the same element. More complicated, (one to many) relationships can be established by creating an element with a note shape, setting its contents to its comment text through the @opt commentname tag, and associating it with other elements with the @assoc tag.
/**
 * @opt shape node
 * @note Located in the
 * machine room
 * @note Sun Blade 6048
 * @depend - - - MapLocation
 * @depend - - - DataMine
 */
class Server{}

/** @opt shape component */
class MapLocation {}

/** @opt shape component */
class DataMine {}

/**
 * CPU-munching
 * components that must
 * run on this server
 * @opt shape note
 * @opt commentname
 * @assoc - - - MapLocation
 * @assoc - - - DataMine
 */
class munchComment {}
UML note example

Class Diagram Options

A number of options contol the operation of UMLGraph class diagram generator. These can be specified on the command line, and most can also be specified through javadoc tags within the diagram, affecting all or some elements.

What Gets Drawn

-all
Same as -attributes -operations -visibility -types -enumerations -enumconstants
-attributes
Show class attributes (Java fields)
-commentname
Name the element using the text in the javadoc comment, instead of the name of its class.
-constructors
Show a class's constructors
-enumconstants
When showing enumerations, also show the values they can take.
-enumerations
Show enumarations as separate stereotyped primitive types.
-hide
Specify entities to hide from the graph. Matching is done using a non-anchored regular match. For instance, "-hide (Big|\.)Widget" would hide "com.foo.widgets.Widget" and "com.foo.widgets.BigWidget". Can also be used without arguments, in this case it will hide everything (useful in the context of views to selectively unhide some portions of the graph, see the view chapter for further details).
-operations
Show class operations (Java methods)
-qualify
Produce fully-qualified class names.
-types
Add type information to attributes and operations
-view
Specify the fully qualified name of a class that contains a view definition. Only the class diagram specified by this view will be generated.
See the views chapter for more details.
-views
Generate a class diagram for every view found in the source path.
-visibility
Adorn class elements according to their visibility (private, public, protected, package)

Visual Appearance

-bgcolor
Specify the graph's background color.
-autosize
Fits generated graph to the width of the page/window. Defaults to true.
-collapsible
Enhance the javadoc HTML files containing UML diagrams with Javascript that provides a link for showing the (initially collapsed) diagrams.
-edgecolor
Specify the color for drawing edges.
-edgefontcolor
Specify the font color to use for edge labels.
-edgefontname
Specify the font name to use for edge labels.
-edgefontsize
Specify the font size to use for edge labels.
-horizontal
Layout the graph in the horizontal direction.
-nodefillcolor
Specify the color to use to fill the shapes.
-nodefontabstractname
Specify the font name to use inside abstract class nodes.
-nodefontclassabstractname
Specify the font name use for the class name of abstract classes.
-nodefontclassname
Specify the font name to use for the class names.
-nodefontclasssize
Specify the font size to use for the class names.
-nodefontcolor
Specify the font color to use inside nodes.
-nodefontname
Specify the font name to use inside nodes.
-nodefontpackagename
Specify the font name to use for the package names (used only when the package name is postfixed, see -postfixpackage).
-nodefontpackagesize
Specify the font size to use for the package names (used only when it package name is postfixed, see -postfixpackage).
-nodefontsize
Specify the font size to use inside nodes.
-nodefonttagname
Specify the font name to use for the tag names.
-nodefonttagsize
Specify the font size to use for the tag names.
-nodesep
Specify the horizontal separation between the class nodes (0.25 by default). Decreasing this can make a diagram more compact.
-noguillemot
Specify that guillemot characters should not be used to denote special terms like "interface" and stereotype names. This is used on some platforms to circumvent problems associated with displaying non-ASCII characters.
-postfixpackage
When using qualified class names, put the package name in the line after the class name, in order to reduce the width of class nodes.
-ranksep
Specify the vertical separation between the class nodes (0.5 by default). Decreasing this can make a diagram more compact.
-shape
Specify the shape to use for the rendered element(s). The following UML shapes are available:

All colors can be either a symbolic name (e.g. blue), a triple specifying hue-saturation-brightness as values 0-1 (e.g. ".13 0.9 1"), or a triple specifying red-green-blue values as hexadecimal digits prefixed by a # (e.g. "#ff8020"). The symbolic color names are derived from the X Windows System; you can find a complete list in the Graphviz documentation (http://www.graphviz.org/doc/info/colors.html)

Font names are passed directly to the dot graph generation back-end. In general the Postcript standard names Times, Helvetica, Courier, and Symbol are safe to use.

Relationship Inference

-collpackages
Specify the classes that will be treated as containers for one to many relationships when inference is enabled. Matching is done using a non-anchored regular match. Empty by default.
-inferdep
Try to automatically infer dependencies between classes by inspecting methods and fields. See the class diagram inference chapter for more details. Disabled by default.
-inferdepinpackage
Enable or disable dependency inference among classes in the same package. This option is disabled by default, because classes in the same package are supposed to be related anyway, and also because there's no working mechanism to actually detect all of these dependencies since imports are not required to use classes in the same package.
-inferdepvis
Specifies the lowest visibility level of elements used to infer dependencies among classes. Possible values are private, package, protected, public, in this order. The default value is private. Use higher levels to limit the number of inferred dependencies.
-inferrel
Try to automatically infer relationships between classes by inspecting field values. See the class diagram inference chapter for further details. Disabled by default.
-inferreltype
The type of relationship inferred when -inferrel is activated. Defaults to "navassoc" (see the class modelling chapter for a list of relationship types).
-useimports
Will also use imports to infer dependencies. Disabled by default, since it does not work properly if there are multiple classes in the same source file (will add dependencies to every class in the source file).

API Hyperlinks

-apidocmap
Specify the file name of the URL mapping table. The is a standard Java property file, where the property name is a regular expression (as defined in the java.util.regex package) and the property value is an URL "root" as described above. This table is used to resolved external class names (class names that do not belong to the current package being processed by UMLGraph). If no file is provided, external classes will just be mapped to the on-line Java API documentation.
-apidocroot
Specify the URL that should be used as the "root" for local classes. This URL will be used as a prefix, to which the page name for the local class or package will be appended (following the JavaDoc convention). For example, if the value http://www.acme.org/apidocs is provided, the class org.acme.util.MyClass will be mapped to the URL http://www.acme.org/apidocs/org/acme/util/MyClass.html. This URL will then be added to .dot diagram and can be surfaced in the final class diagram by setting the output to SVG, or by creating an HTML page that associates the diagram static image (a .gif or .png) with a client-side image map.
-link
A clone of the standard doclet -link (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/tooldocs/windows/javadoc.html#link) option, allows UMLGraph to generate links from class symbols to their external javadoc documentation (image maps are automatically generated in UMLGraphDoc, you'll have to generate them manually with graphviz if using UMLGraph).

Operation

-compact
Generate compact dot files, that is, print HTML labels in a single line instead of "pretty printing" them. Useful if the dot file has to be manipulated by an automated tool (e.g., the UMLGraph regression test suite).
-d
Specify the output directory (defaults to the current directory).
-dotexecutable
Specify the path of the dot executable.
-linkoffline
Specify links to javadoc-generated documentation for external referenced classes. The -linkoffline option takes two arguments: the first for the string to be embedded in the href links, the second telling it where to find the package-list. Example:
-linkoffline http://developer.android.com/reference file:/home/doc/android/
See the javadoc documentation for more details.
-output
Specify the output file (default graph.dot). If the output directory is provided, -output can only specify a file name, otherwise a full path is accepted as well. If the filename specified is a dash, then the results are printed on the standard output, and can be directly piped into dot. Note that, in order to avoid javadoc messages to contaminate UMLGraph's output, you must execute UMLGraph directly as a jar, not through javadoc.
-outputencoding
Specify the output encoding character set (default ISO-8859-1). When using dot to generate SVG diagrams you should specify UTF-8 as the output encoding, to have guillemots correctly appearing in the resulting SVG.
-verbose2
Will print on the standard output details regarding the progress of graph generation. (Note that -verbose is a javadoc option with a different meaning).

Specifying class Diagram Options

Since the options are really a part of the generated graph you want in many cases to include them in the diagram specification. You can do that by adding javadoc @opt tags in front of a class named UMLOptions, as in the following example:
/**
 * @opt horizontal
 * @opt all
 * @hidden
 */
class UMLOptions {}

Similarly, you can also globally specify options for all the note elements. through a class named UMLNoteOptions, as in the following example:

/**
 * @hidden
 * @opt nodefontcolor "blue"
 */
class UMLNoteOptions{}

You can also change the UMLGraph operation on a per-class basis by using @opt attributes on individual classes. In this case the @opt specification temporarily overrides the particular global setting for the class being processed.

Finally, you can reset an option to its default value by prefixing it with an exclamation mark. For example:

/**
 * @opt !attributes
 * @opt !nodefontsize
 */
class MyClass {}
will disable attribute listing for MyClass, and reset the node font size to its default value (10).

Javadocs and UML class diagrams with UMLGraphDoc

UmlGraphDoc is a standard doclet wrapper that combines the standard doclet output (javadoc documentation) along with auto-generated class diagrams for both packages and classes. The UmlGraphDoc process is driven by all the parameters that can be specified for UMLGraph and the standard doclet; each will be passed to the appropriate doclet. Diagram generation is based on the idea of context: The actual content of the diagrams depends on the kind of relations declared on the class files (with the UMLGraph javadoc annotations) and/or on the kind of automated inference that UMLGraph is allowed to use. UMLGraph javadocs are now generated with UmlGraphDoc with the following ant target:
<target name="javadocs" depends="compile">
        <javadoc sourcepath="${src}" packagenames="org.umlgraph.doclet.*" destdir="${javadoc}" 
                 private="true">
                <doclet name="org.umlgraph.doclet.UmlGraphDoc" path="${lib}/UMLGraph.jar">
                        <param name="-inferrel"/>
                        <param name="-inferdep"/>
                        <param name="-hide" value="java.*"/>
                        <param name="-collpackages" value="java.util.*"/>
                        <param name="-qualify"/>
                        <param name="-postfixpackage"/>
                        <param name="-nodefontsize" value="9"/>
                        <param name="-nodefontpackagesize" value="7"/>
                        <param name="-link" value="http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/javadoc/doclet/spec"/>
                        <param name="-link" value="http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5/docs/api"/>
                </doclet>
        </javadoc>
</target>
When generating documentation with UmlGraphDoc you will encounter at some point the "fur ball" effect: some central classes that have very complex context diagrams. To reduce this, you can avoid dependency inference altogheter, or reduce the number of inferred dependencies by using the -inferdepvis options. If you find that this is not enough and have suggestions on how to improve the situation further, we are eager to listen.

Class Diagram Views

Documenting a big project often requires multiple diagrams: each to show a specific and limited portion of the system. Each diagram is usually composed of few classes, possibily using a different detail level.

The @view tag, marks a special class used to describe a single class diagram. Similarly to UMLOptions, the view can define its own general options, but allows to define overrides that allow to adopt different options for different classes based on regular expressions matching. The general syntax for defining a view is:

/**
 * @view
 * @opt [!]viewOption1
 * @opt [!]viewOption2
 * ...
 * @match matchtype regularExpression1
 * @opt [!]option1.1 [argument]
 * @opt [!]option1.2 [argument]
 * ...
 * @match matchtype regularExpression2
 * @opt [!]option2.1 [argument]
 * @opt [!]option2.2 [argument]
 * ...
 */
At the moment UMLGraph supports only the 'class' match type, in the future other types of match will be added (tags, implemented interfaces, superclasses, just to name a few possibilities).
The view options are applied to every class in the view (so they are the global options for this class diagram).
The regular expression will be used to match a single class, a group of classes, or a package, and the options that follow will be applied to those classes.
Multiple matches will be evaluted in the order of specification.
Refer to the Pattern (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html) class documentation for details on a proper regular expression specification.

Each view will generate a .dot file whose name is the name of the view, unless the "output" option is specified to override it.

View inheritance

View classes can inherit from other view classes, allowing views to share a set of common matches. The standard java inheritance mechanism is used to specify inheritance.
Abstract view classes won't be used to generate diagrams, the common idiom is to declare a base abstract view to share common options and overrides, and have concrete view classes that extend for diagram generation.

Class Diagram Example: Shapes

/**
 * @hidden
 * @opt nodefontcolor "blue"
 */
class UMLNoteOptions{}

/**
 * Structural Things
 * @opt commentname
 * @note Notes can
 * be extended to
 * span multiple lines
 */
class Structural{}

/**
 * spelling.java
 * @opt shape component
 * @opt commentname
 * @note Component
 */
class Component extends Structural{}

/** @opt shape node */
class Node extends Structural{}

/**
 * Chain of
 * responsibility
 * @opt shape collaboration
 * @opt commentname
 * @note Collaboration
 */
class Collaboration extends Structural{}

/**
 * Place order
 * @opt shape usecase
 * @opt commentname
 * @note Use Case
 */
class UseCase extends Structural{}

/**
 * Business rules
 * @opt shape package
 * @opt commentname
 * @note Package
 */
class Package{}

/**
 * @opt all
 * @note Class
 */
class Counter extends Structural {
        static public int counter;
        public int getCounter();
}

/**
 * @opt shape activeclass
 * @opt all
 * @note Active Class
 */
class RunningCounter extends Counter{}

UML diagram showing the shapes supported by UMLGraph

Class Diagram Example: Generalisation Relationships

/*
 * Generalisation
 * UML User Guide p. 141
 */

/* Basic categorisations */
class Asset {}
class InterestBearingItem {}
class InsurableItem {}

/* Asset types */
/**
 * @extends InsurableItem
 * @extends InterestBearingItem
 */
class BankAccount extends Asset {}
/** @extends InsurableItem */
class RealEstate extends Asset {}
class Security extends Asset {}

/* Securities */
class Stock extends Security {}
class Bond extends Security {}

/* Bank accounts */
class CheckingAccount extends BankAccount {}
class SavingsAccount extends BankAccount {}
UML diagram showing generalization relationships

Class Diagram Example: Advanced Relationships

/*
 * Advanced relationships
 * UML User Guide p. 137
 */

/**
 * @opt attributes
 * @opt operations
 * @hidden
 */
class UMLOptions {}

class Controller {}
class EmbeddedAgent {}
class PowerManager {}

/**
 * @extends Controller
 * @extends EmbeddedAgent
 * @navassoc - - - PowerManager
 */
class  SetTopController implements URLStreamHandler {
        int authorizationLevel;
        void startUp() {}
        void shutDown() {}
        void connect() {}
}

/** @depend - <friend> - SetTopController */
class ChannelIterator {}

interface URLStreamHandler {
        void OpenConnection();
        void parseURL();
        void setURL();
        void toExternalForm();
}
UML diagram showing dependency and navigation relationships

Class Diagram Example: Relationships Inference

import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;

/**
 * @opt inferrel
 * @opt collpackages java.util.*
 * @opt inferdep
 * @opt inferdepinpackage
 * @opt hide java.*
 * @hidden
 */
class UMLOptions {}

class Person {
    House[] houses;
    List<Dog> dogs;
    
    public Room getFavouriteRoom(House house) {}
}

/**
 * @opt inferreltype composed
 */
class House {
    Map<String, Room> nameRoomMap;
}

class Room {}

class Dog {
    Person owner;
}

UML diagram with relationship inference

In this diagram we enabled both relationship and dependency inference.
To make sure Person.dogs and Person.friends are interpreted as one to many relationship the collpackage option has to be specified.

Class Diagram Example: Schema

/*
 * Schema model
 * UML User Guide p. 112
 */

/**
 * @opt operations
 * @opt attributes
 * @opt types
 * @hidden
 */
class UMLOptions {}

/* Define some types we use */
/** @hidden */
class Name {}
/** @hidden */
class Number {}

/**
 * @has 1..* Member * Student
 * @composed 1..* Has 1..* Department
 */
class School {
        Name name;
        String address;
        Number phone;
        void addStudent() {}
        void removeStudent() {}
        void getStudent() {}
        void getAllStudents() {}
        void addDepartment() {}
        void removeDepartment() {}
        void getDepartment() {}
        void getAllDepartments() {}
}

/**
 * @has 1..* AssignedTo 1..* Instructor
 * @assoc 1..* - 1..* Course
 * @assoc 0..* - "0..1 chairperson" Instructor
 */
class Department {
        Name name;
        void addInstructor() {}
        void removeInstructor() {}
        void getInstructor() {}
        void getAllInstructors() {}
}

/**
 * @assoc * Attends * Course
 */
class Student {
        Name name;
        Number studentID;
}

class Course {
        Name name;
        Number courseID;
}

/**
 * @assoc 1..* Teaches * Course
 */
class Instructor {
        Name name;
}
UML diagram showing a database scheme model

Class Diagram Example: ER

The following was generated by annotating the source code (https://github.com/istlab/Alitheia-Core/tree/master/alitheia/core/src/main/java/eu/sqooss/service/db) of the Alitheia Core (https://github.com/istlab/Alitheia-Core/) project. Georgios Gousios, who created it, wrote:

I've used UMLgraph to generate an E-R diagram out of the DAOs we use in Alitheia Core. I've just annotated a few classes with @assoc tags, removed the super class DAObject from all entities with sed, did some tweaking by hand in the .dot output, et voila, an E-R depicting almost 30 classes in less than 30 minutes!

UML diagram showing an entity relationship diagram

Class Diagram Example: Element Visibility

/**
 * Attribute and operation visility
 * UML User Guide p. 123
 *
 * @opt operations
 * @opt attributes
 * @opt types
 * @opt visibility
 * @hidden
 */
class UMLOptions {}

/** @hidden */
class Tool {}

class Toolbar {
        protected Tool currentSelection;
        protected Integer toolCount;
        public void pickItem(Integer i) {}
        public void addTool(Tool t) {}
        public void removeTool(Integer i) {}
        public Tool getTool() {}
        protected void checkOrphans() {}
        private void compact() {}
}
UML diagram showing attribute and operation visility

Class Diagram Example: Association Types

/**
 * Associations with visibility
 * UML User Guide p. 145
 *
 * @opt horizontal
 * @hidden
 */
class UMLOptions {}

/** @assoc * - "*\n\n+user " User */
class UserGroup {}

/** @navassoc "1\n\n+owner\r" - "*\n\n+key" Password */
class User{}

class Password{}
UML diagram showing association types

Class Diagram Example: Real Example (Catalina Classes)

/*
 * Interface and generalization relationships in Jakarta Catalina
 */

class HttpResponseBase
        extends ResponseBase
        implements HttpResponse, HttpServletResponse {}

abstract class HttpResponseWrapper
        extends ResponseWrapper
        implements HttpResponse {}

class HttpResponseFacade
        extends ResponseFacade
        implements HttpServletResponse {}

abstract class ResponseWrapper implements Response {}
abstract interface HttpResponse extends Response {}
abstract class ResponseBase implements Response, ServletResponse {}
abstract interface HttpServletResponse {}
class ResponseFacade implements ServletResponse {}

abstract interface ServletResponse {}
abstract interface Response {}
UML diagram of representative Cataline classes

Class Diagram Example: Class Stereotypes and Tagged Values

/*
 * Class stereotypes and tagged values
 * UML User Guide p. 439
 */

/**
 * @opt attributes
 * @opt operations
 * @opt types
 * @hidden
 */
class UMLOptions {}

/** @hidden */
class Action {}

/**
 * @stereotype container
 * @tagvalue version 3.2
 */
class ActionQueue {
        void add(Action a) {};
        /** @tagvalue version 1.0 */
        void add(Action a, int n) {};
        void remove(int n) {};
        /** @stereotype query */
        int length() {};
        /** @stereotype "helper functions" */
        void reorder() {};
}
UML diagram of class stereotypes and tagged values

Class Diagram Example: Fonts, Colors, Global and Local Options

/**
 * @opt edgecolor "yellow"
 * @opt nodefontname "Times"
 * @opt bgcolor ".7 .9 1"
 * @opt nodefillcolor "#a0a0a0"
 * @opt nodefontsize 14
 * @hidden
 */
class UMLOptions{}

/**
 * @opt nodefontname "Helvetica-Bold"
 * @opt nodefontcolor "white"
 * @composed - - - Red
 * @composed - - - Green
 * @composed - - - Blue
 * @opt attributes
 * @opt visibility
 * @opt types
 */
class Pixel {
        private int x, y;
        public void setColor(ColorValue v) {}
}

/** @opt nodefillcolor red */
class Red {}

/** @opt nodefillcolor green */
class Green {}

/** @opt nodefillcolor blue */
class Blue {}

/** @hidden */
class ColorValue{}
UML diagram demonstrating the use of colors
package net.sf.whatever.test;

/**
 * @hidden
 * @opt postfixpackage
 * @opt edgefontname arialbd
 * @opt nodefontname arial
 * @opt nodefontsize 9
 * @opt nodefontabstract ariali
 * @opt nodefontclassname arialbd
 * @opt nodefontclassabstractname arialbi
 * @opt nodefonttagsize 6
 * @opt nodefonttagname ariali
 * @opt nodefontpackagesize 8
 * @opt operations
 * @opt attributes
 * @opt qualify
 * @opt types
 */
class UMLOptions{}

/**
 * @stereotype base
 * @tagvalue since 1.0
 */
abstract class AbstractBase {
    /** @tagvalue since 1.5 */
    private int field;
    public abstract void abstractMethod();
    public int concreteMethod() { return 1; }
}

/**
 * @composed 1 has * from.Outer.Space.AlienClass
 */
class Composite extends AbstractBase {}

public class Style extends AbstractBase {}
UML diagram demonstrating the use of fonts

Class Diagram Example: Multiple Views Through Command-Line Options

Vadim Nasardinov noted that an advantage of UMLGraph over many GUI-oriented UML drawing tools is the ability to generate different views of a diagram from the same source description. The following two diagrams were generated from the same source; a Makefile illustrates a way to organize this process.

Class Overview

Class overview

Detailed Class View

Detailed class view

Java Description

// Author:  Vadim Nasardinov

import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * @assoc "1..1" - "0..n" Adapter
 * @assoc "" - "0..n" ObjectType
 * @assoc "" - "0..n" ObjectMap
 * @assoc "" - "0..n" Table
 * @assoc "" - "0..n" DataOperation
 **/
class Root {
    private Map m_adapters;
    private List m_types;
    private List m_maps;
    private List m_tables;
    private List m_ops;

    public Adapter getAdapter(Class klass) {}
}

class Adapter {
    public Root getRoot();
}

abstract class Element {
    Root getRoot() {}
}

class ObjectType extends Element {}

/**
 * @has "1..1" - "1..1" ObjectType
 **/
class ObjectMap extends Element {
    private ObjectType m_type;
}

class Table extends Element {}

class DataOperation extends Element {}

Makefile

# Author:  Vadim Nasardinov (vadimn@redhat.com)
# Since:   2004-05-26
# See:     http://www.spinellis.gr/umlgraph/doc/ceg-mv.html

# Requires: graphviz
# Requires: javadoc
# Requires: JAVA_HOME/lib/tools.jar

.PHONY : clean all dot png

UMLGRAPH  := /var/vadim/binaries/UMLGraph-4.8
uml_graph := $(UMLGRAPH)/lib/UmlGraph.jar

java_files := $(shell find diagrams -name *.java)
dot_files  := $(subst .java,.dot,$(java_files))
dot_files  := $(foreach dot, $(dot_files), build/$(dot))
dot_files  += $(subst .dot,-small.dot,$(dot_files))

png_files := $(subst .dot,.png,$(dot_files))

jd:=javadoc
jd_flags := -docletpath $(uml_graph) -doclet org.umlgraph.doclet.UmlGraph -private

jd_flags += -nodefontsize 9 -edgefontsize 9
jd_flags += -nodefillcolor LemonChiffon
detailed_flags := -attributes -operations -types

all: png

clean:
	rm -rf build

build/%.dot : %.java
	mkdir -p $(dir $@)
	$(jd) $(jd_flags) $(detailed_flags) -output $@ $<

build/%-small.dot : %.java
	mkdir -p $(dir $@)
	$(jd) $(jd_flags) -output $@ $<

%.png : %.dot
	dot -Nheight=0.2 -Elabelfontcolor=DarkSlateBlue -Elabelfontsize=8 -Tpng -o $@ $<

build/%.png : %.fig
	mkdir -p $(dir $@)
	fig2dev -L png -S 4 $< $@

dot: $(dot_files)

png: $(png_files)

build/%.png : %.png
	mkdir -p $(dir $@)
	cp $< $@

# Example usage:
#   make debug-java_files
#   make debug-png_files
debug-%:
	@echo $* is $($*)

Class Diagram Example: Built-in Support for Views

Views are special classes that allow the generation of a custom class diagram based on a set of diagram global options and a set of option overrides for classes matching user specified conditions. The @view tag, marks a class used to describe a single class diagram. The general syntax for defining a view is:
/**
 * @view
 * @opt viewOption1
 * @opt viewOption2
 * ...
 * @match matchtype regularExpression
 * @opt option1.1 [argument]
 * @opt option1.2 [argument]
 * ...
 * @match matchtype regularExpression
 * @opt option2.1 [argument]
 * @opt option2.2 [argument]
 * ... 
 */
The @match tags allow to specify option overrides for classes that satisfy the match condition. The match types are:

The class match type is intended to be used with a regular expression, the others are usually performed against a class/interface name rather than a real regular expression, but the syntax allows for a regular expression to retain some flexibility (for example, a regular expression can be used to match multiple classes, as in "(A|B|C)").
Refer to the Pattern (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html) API docs for details on regular expression specifications.

Matches will be evaluted in the order of specification, each applying its overrides to the current options. This means that options for a specific class are built in the following order, where each item overrides only the options specified locally, leaving the other options intact:

Each view will generate a .dot file whose name is the name of the view, unless the "output" option is specified to override it. Along with the "-views" parameter on the command line, this allows for multiple views to be generated in a single doclet invocation.

View inheritance

View classes can inherit from other view classes, allowing views to share a set of common matches. The standard java inheritance mechanism is used to specify inheritance.
Abstract view classes won't be used to generate diagrams, the common idiom is to declare a base abstract view to share common options and overrides, and have concrete view classes that extend for diagram generation.

When using view inheritance the option building order is:

Class Diagram Example: Views With Different Specification Details

The makefile-based multiple view example can be generated by using internal view support by means of the following sources (note the use of UmlOptions to set the common appearance options, and the views to generate multiple diagrams at different detail level).
// Author:  Vadim Nasardinov
// Author:  Andrea Aime

import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * @assoc "1..1" - "0..n" Adapter
 * @assoc "" - "0..n" ObjectType
 * @assoc "" - "0..n" ObjectMap
 * @assoc "" - "0..n" Table
 * @assoc "" - "0..n" DataOperation
 **/
class Root {
    private Map m_adapters;
    private List m_types;
    private List m_maps;
    private List m_tables;
    private List m_ops;

    public Adapter getAdapter(Class klass) {}
}

class Adapter {
    public Root getRoot();
}

abstract class Element {
    Root getRoot() {}
}

class ObjectType extends Element {}

/**
 * @has "1..1" - "1..1" ObjectType
 **/
class ObjectMap extends Element {
    private ObjectType m_type;
}

class Table extends Element {}

class DataOperation extends Element {}

/**
 * @hidden
 * @opt nodefontname luxisr
 * @opt nodefontabstractname luxisri
 * @opt edgefontname luxisr
 * @opt nodefontsize 8
 * @opt edgefontsize 8
 * @opt nodefillcolor LemonChiffon
 */
class UMLOptions {}

/**
 * @view
 * @opt attributes
 * @opt operations
 */
class DetailedView {}

/**
 * @view
 */
class Overview {}
and by invoking the following commands (assuming UmlGraph.jar is in the current directory):
javadoc -doclet org.umlgraph.doclet.UmlGraph -private -docletpath UmlGraph.jar -views RootViews.java
dot -Tpng -o root-small.png Overview.dot
dot -Tpng -o root.png DetailedView.dot
The javadoc invocation asks UMLGraph to build a diagram for every view (-views) contained in the RootViews.java file. Notably, there's no class RootViews in the source file: this is not needed to make javadoc work on a single class. Respecting the java rules for file and class naming is anyway advised in any real situation.

Class Diagram Example: Views for Different Packages

Views are especially interesting in big projects, since they allow to generate package specific diagrams and overview diagrams in a quick and consistent way.
As an example we include a few class diagrams that have been generated from the DBCP connection pool (http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/dbcp), without altering the sources and using association and dependency inference instead.
The base view defines commons options, in particular the use of inference, common class coloring and class visibility (in particular, we hide the java runtime classes, with the exclusion of a few java.sql classes). To avoid visual clutter, we have first shown the java.sql package contents, and then hid selected classes. The Overview view provides a full view of the DBCP package, generating quite a big diagram (click on the diagram to show a full size version).
package org.apache.commons;

/**
 * @view
 * @opt inferrel
 * @opt inferdep
 * @opt useimports
 *
 * @match class .*
 * @opt nodefillcolor LightGray
 *
 * @match class org.apache.commons.*
 * @opt nodefillcolor PaleGreen
 *
 * @match class org.apache.commons.dbcp.*
 * @opt nodefillcolor LemonChiffon
 *
 * @match class java.*|org.xml.*
 * @opt hide
 *
 * @match class java.sql.*
 * @opt !hide
 *
 * @match class java.sql\.(Ref|Time|Timestamp|Array|Date|Time|Clob|Blob|SQLException|.*MetaData.*|SQLWarning)
 * @opt hide
 */
public abstract class BaseView {
}

/**
 * @view
 */
public class Overview extends BaseView {
}
Overview

The CommonsDbcp view concentrates on the content of org.apache.commons.dbcp package, hiding other packages and subpackages available in the sources (click on the diagram to show a full size version).

package org.apache.commons;

/**
 * @view
 *
 * @match class org.apache.commons.*
 * @opt hide
 *
 * @match class org.apache.commons.dbcp..*
 * @opt !hide
 *
 * @match class org.apache.commons.dbcp..*\..*
 * @opt hide
 */
public class CommonsDbcp extends BaseView {}
Overview

Finally, the Statement view shows only the Statement related classes and their dependencies.

package org.apache.commons;

/**
 * @view
 *
 * @match class org.apache.commons.*
 * @opt hide
 *
 * @match class org.apache.commons.dbcp\..*Statement.*
 * @opt !hide
 *
 * @match class org.apache.commons.dbcp..*\..*
 * @opt hide
 */
public class Statement extends BaseView {
}
Statement

Running the Doclet from Ant

To run the UMLGraph doclet from ant, use a rule, like the following.
<target name="uml" depends="prepare">
       <property name="uml.dir" value="${basedir}/uml"/>
       <property name="src.uml.dir" value="${src.dir}/uml"/>
       <mkdir dir="${uml.dir}"/>
       <path id="uml.source.path">
           <pathelement path="${src.uml.dir}/"/>
           <pathelement path="${src.java.dir}"/>
         </path>
       <javadoc sourcepathref="uml.source.path" packagenames="*" package="true">
           <doclet name="org.umlgraph.doclet.UmlGraph" path="${basedir}/lib/UmlGraph.jar">
               <param name="-d" value="${uml.dir}"/>
           </doclet>
       </javadoc>
       <apply executable="dot" dest="${uml.dir}" parallel="false">
         <arg value="-Tpng"/>
         <arg value="-o"/>
         <targetfile/>
         <srcfile/>
         <fileset dir="${uml.dir}" includes="*.dot"/>
         <mapper type="glob" from="*.dot" to="*.png"/>
       </apply>
   </target>

Notes

Sequence Diagrams

One specifies a sequence diagram using pic macros to define objects and method invocations. The GNU plotutils (http://www.gnu.org/software/plotutils/plotutils.html) pic2plot program can then process the sequence diagram to create a PNG, PNM, (pseudo)GIF, SVG, AI, Postscript, CGM, FIG, PCL, HPGL, Regis, or TEK drawing.

The following is an example of a specification and the resulting UML sequence diagram:
.PS
copy "sequence.pic";

# Define the objects
object(O,"o:Toolkit");
placeholder_object(P);
step();

# Message sequences
active(O);
step();
active(O);
message(O,O,"callbackLoop()");
inactive(O);
create_message(O,P,"p:Peer");
message(O,P,"handleExpose()");
active(P);
return_message(P,O,"");
inactive(P);
destroy_message(O,P);
inactive(O);

# Complete the lifelines
step();
complete(O);
.PE
Simple UML sequence diagram
The diagram is drawn from its source code specification using a command like:

pic2plot -Tgif FILENAME.pic >FILENAME.gif

Syntax of Sequence Diagram Definitions

Sequence diagrams consist of objects, their lifelines (also known as smimming lanes), and the exchanged messages. Sequence diagrams are defined in UMLGraph using the pic syntax.

A sequence diagram file must start with the sequence:

.PS

copy "sequence.pic";
The .PS marks the beginning of pic commands. The sequence copy "sequence.pic"; loads the macros defining the sequence diagram operations. The file sequence.pic, part of the UMLGraph distribution, must exist in the directory where pic2plot will be executed.

Sequence diagram files must end with the sequence:

.PE

The sequence diagrams are defined by calling function-like pic macros. Each function call is terminated with a semicolon. Space is not significant between macro calls; on the other hand adding a space character between a macro's arguments can lead to surprises and should be avoided. Objects are referenced using variable-like alphanumeric identifiers. Strings are enclosed in double quotes.

As an example, the following defines an object O that will be identified in the diagram as o:Toolkit

object(O,"o:Toolkit");

Comments start with a # character.

# This is a comment

Defining a Simple Sequence Diagram

A sequence diagram is defined in three main phases:
  1. Object definition
  2. Message exchange
  3. Object lifeline completion
The following is an example of a very simple UMLGraph sequence diagram (from now on we will ommit the .PS/.PE and copy "sequence.pic"; elements.)
.PS
copy "sequence.pic";

# Object definition
object(S,"s:Switch");
object(P,"p:Pump");

# Message exchange
message(S,P,"run()");
message(S,P,"stop()");

# Object lifeline completion
complete(S);
complete(P);

.PE
The above code, defines two objects, S and P, labeled as "s:Switch" and "p:Pump". Objects are placed in the diagram from left to right, in the order they are defined. All defined objects are initially inactive.

The code then sends a messages from S to P labeled "run()", and another one labeled "stop()". Each message automatically advances the sequence diagram timeline by a single step.

Finally, the code completes the lifelines of the two objects.

The resultant diagram is
Simple sequence diagram

An Improved Sequence Diagram

Let us try to improve the simple sequence diagram.
# Object definition
object(S,"s:Switch");
object(P,"p:Pump");
step();
active(S);
active(P);

# Message exchange
message(S,P,"run()");
message(S,P,"stop()");

# Object lifeline completion
step();
complete(S);
complete(P);
Here, we have manually advanced the timeline of our diagrams with a step(); call after we defined the objects, to provide them with a bit of breathing space. We also added a similar step call at the end of the diagram. Finally, we made both objects active, after their definition. Calling active on a given object will change the drawing of its lifeline, from the dashed format indicating an inactive object, to a thick swimming-lane, active object, format.

The resultant diagram is
Improved sequence diagram

Creating and Destroying Objects

Objects do not always appear at the top of a UML sequence diagram; they are often constructed by other objects. In this case, a placeholder object is defined at the beginning of the diagram, to leave the appropriate space of the object. Later a create message will actually create an object with the given label. Any object can also receive a destroy message, that will stop its life. The lifeline of destroyed messages is not typically completed.

The following definition extends our previous diagram with a dynamically created flow object.

# Define the objects
object(S,"s:Switch");
object(P,"p:Pump");
placeholder_object(F);
step();
active(S);
active(P);

# Message sequences
message(S,P,"run()");
create_message(P,F,"f:Flow");
active(F);
message(S,P,"stop()");
destroy_message(P,F);

# Object completion
step();
complete(S);
complete(P);

The resultant diagram is
Sequence diagram with object construction and destruiction

Sequence Diagram Operations

The following calls can be used to define a sequence diagram.
object(name,label);
Defines an object with the given name, labeled on the diagram as specified.
placeholder_object(name)
Defines a place where the named object will later be created. Can also be written as pobject.
actor(name,label);
Defines an actor with the given name, labeled on the diagram as specified. Actors are typically used instead of objects to indicate operations initiated by human actions.
complete(name);
Completes the lifeline of a given object (or actor) by drawing its lifeline to the bottom of the diagram.
message(from_object,to_object,label)
Draws a message between two objects, with the given label. Self messages (where an objects sends a message to itself) are supported.
return_message(from_object,to_object,label)
Draws a return message between two objects, with the given label. Can also be written as rmessage.
create_message(from_object,to_object,object_label);
Has from_object create the to_object, labeled with object_label. The message is labeled with the «create» stereotype. Can also be written as cmessage.
destroy_message(from_object,to_object);
Sends a message labeled with the «destroy» stereotype from the from_object to the to_object. The object to_object is marked as destroyed, with an X at the end of its lifeline. The object's lifeline need not be otherwise completed. Can also be written as dmessage.
active(object);
Changes the object's status to active, and changes its lifeline drawing style correspondingly. An active call in an already active object will result in a swimlane showing a nested object activation.
inactive(object);
Changes the object's status to inactive, and changes its lifeline drawing style correspondingly. An inactive call on a nested object invocation will result in showing a simple active swimlane.
delete(object);
The object deletes itself, drawing an X at the end of its lifeline. The object's lifeline need not be otherwise completed.
lifeline_constraint(object,label);
Displays a constraint label (typically given inside curly braces) for the given object. The constraint will appear on the right of the object's lifeline at the time it appears. Can also be used to place an message label on the left of a message arrow, rather than its center. Can also be written as lconstraint.
lconstraint_below(object,label);
same as lconstraint, but it will be shown below the current line instead of above.
object_constraint(label)
Displays an object constraint (typically given inside curly braces) for the last object defined. Can also be written as oconstraint.
step();
Steps the time by a single increment, extending all lifelines.
async();
All subsequent messages are asynchronous and will be drawn correspondingly.
sync();
All subsequent messages are synchronous and will be drawn correspondingly.
begin_frame(left_object,name,label_text);
Begins a frame with the upper left corner at left_object column and the current line. The specified label_text is shown in the upper left corner.
end_frame(right_object,name);
Ends a frame with the lower right corner at right_object column and the current line. The name must correspond to a begin_frame's name.
comment(object,[name],[line_movement],[box_size] text);
Displays a comment about the object. The name can be used with connect_to_comment(object2,name); to get additional connecting lines to the comment. line_movement changes the position of the comment and box_size its size. Note that there's no comma between box_size and text. text is the (multiline) comment-text that will be displayed. name, line_movement and box_size are optional (but the commas must still appear).
connect_to_comment(object2,name);
See comment.

Sequence Diagram Variables

The value of pic variables can sometimes be modified by assignment to achieve a better-looking result. The following two lines change the width of the object boxes to 1.1" and the spacing between objects to 0.5".
boxwid = 1.1;
movewid = 0.5;
The following variables can be redefined to change the layout of a drawing.

Variable NameDefault ValueOperation
boxht0.3Object box height
boxwid0.75Object box width
awid0.1Active lifeline width
spacing0.25Spacing between messages
movewid0.75Spacing between objects
dashwid0.05Interval for dashed lines
maxpswid11Maximum width of picture
maxpsht11Maximum height of picture
underline1Underline the name of objects

Sequence Diagram Example: Nested Activation and Complex Interactions

The following diagram, based on the one appearing on p. 436 of the UML User Guide, contains the most important elements of an interaction. It also uses nested active inactive calls to show a nested object activation.

Diagram

UML User Guide: Appendix A, p. 436

Diagram Source Code

# UML User Guide: Appendix A,p. 436

.PS

copy "sequence.pic";

# Define the objects
pobject(E,"External Messages");
object(T,"t:thread");
object(O,":Toolkit");
pobject(P);

step();

# Message sequences
message(E,T,"a1: run(3)");
active(T);
message(T,O,"run()");
active(O);
message(O,O,"callbackLoop()");
cmessage(O,P,"p:Peer"," ");
active(O);
message(O,P,"handleExpose()");
active(P);
rmessage(P,O,"");
inactive(P);
inactive(O);
dmessage(O,P);
inactive(T);
inactive(O);

step();

complete(T);
complete(O);

.PE

Sequence Diagram Example: Concurrent Processes and Activations

The following diagram, based on the diagram appearing on p. 70 of UML Distilled, contains self calls, object activation, self-deleted objects, and asynchronous messages.

Diagram

UML Distilled: Concurrent processes and activations

Diagram Source Code

# UML Distilled: Figure 5-2 p. 70

.PS

copy "sequence.pic";

boxwid = 1.3;

# Define the objects
pobject(X);
pobject(T);
pobject(C);
pobject(A1);
pobject(A2);

# Message sequences
cmessage(X,T,"a: Transaction");
active(T);
async();
cmessage(T,C,"a: TransCoord");
inactive(T);
active(C);
cmessage(C,A1,"a1: TransCheck");
active(A1);
cmessage(C,A2,"a2: TransCheck");
active(A2);
message(A1,C,"ok");
        sync();
        step();
        active(C);
        message(C,C,"all done?");
        inactive(C);
        async();
        step();
delete(A1);
inactive(C);
step();
message(A2,C,"ok");
active(C);
        sync();
        step();
        active(C);
        message(C,C,"all done?");
        inactive(C);
        async();
        step();
delete(A2);
message(C,T,"beValid");
inactive(C);
active(T);
step();

complete(T);
complete(C);

.PE

Sequence Diagram Example: Create and Destroy

The following diagram, based on the one appearing on p. 247 of the UML User Guide, illustrates the dynamic creation and destruction of objects, an object constraint, and the changing of the focus of control.

Diagram

UML User Guide: Figure 18-2, p. 247

Diagram Source Code

# UML User Guide: Figure 18-2

.PS

copy "sequence.pic";

boxwid = 1.1;
movewid = 0.5;

# Define the objects
object(C,"c:Client");
pobject(T);
object(P,"p:ODBCProxy");

# Message sequences
step();
active(C);
cmessage(C,T,":Transaction");
oconstraint("{Transient}");
step();
message(C,T,"setActions(a,d,o)");
active(T);
message(T,P,"setValues(d,3.4)");
active(P);
step();
inactive(P);
message(T,P,"setValues(a,\"CO\")");
active(P);
rmessage(T,C,"committed");
inactive(T);
inactive(P);
async(); dmessage(C,T);
step();
inactive(C);
step();

complete(C);
complete(P);

.PE

Sequence Diagram Example: Lifeline Constraints

The following diagram, based on Figure 18-4 appearing on p. 252 of the UML User Guide, illustrates constraints on an object's lifeline, used both as genuine constraints, and to place a message label on a particular position. In addition, this diagram also uses nested activation.

Diagram

UML User Guide: Figure 18-4, p. 252

Diagram Source Code

# UML User Guide: Figure 18-4

.PS

copy "sequence.pic";

movewid = 0.5;

# Define the objects
object(S,"s:Caller");
object(W,":Switch");
pobject(C);
object(R,"r:Caller");

# Message sequences
step();
active(W);
async(); message(S,W,"liftReceiver"); sync();
active(S);
message(W,S,"setDialTone()");
async(); message(S,W,"*dialDigit(d)"); sync();
lconstraint(W,"{dialing.executionTime < 30s}");
active(W);
message(W,W,"routeCalls(s,n)");
inactive(W);
cmessage(W,C,"c:Convers");
active(C);
message(C,R,"ring()");
active(R);
async(); message(R,C,"liftReceiver"); sync();
message(C,W,"connect(r,s)");
message(W,S,"connect(r)");
# Specify label as a "constraint" to allign on W
message(W,R,""); lconstraint(W,"connect(s)");
step();

complete(S);
complete(W);
complete(C);
complete(R);

.PE

Sequence Diagram Example: External Actor

The following diagram, based on Figure 7-1 appearing on p. 102 of the UML User Guide, illustrates an interaction diagram with an external actor.

Diagram

UML User Guide: Figure 7-1, p. 102

Diagram Source Code

# UML User Guide Figure 7-1.
.PS

copy "sequence.pic";

actor(A,"");
object(T,":OTaker");
object(F,":OFulfill");
step();

message(A,T,"submitOrder");
message(T,F,"placeOrder");
message(F,A,"acknowledgeOrder");

step();
complete(A);
complete(T);
complete(F);

.PE

Sequence Diagram Example: A DNS Query

The following diagram, illustrates the operating system calls of a typical DNS query. It will appear in the book Code Quality: The Open Source Perspective (http://www.spinellis.gr/codequality) (Addison-Wesley 2006). The diagram was the original motivation behind the UMLGraph sequence diagram drawing facility.

Diagram

DNS Query Messages

Diagram Source Code

#/usr/bin/pic2plot -Tps
#
# Run as pic filename | groff | ps2eps
#
# DNS query collaboration diagram
#
#

.PS

copy "sequence.pic";

boxwid = 1.3;

# Define the objects
object(B,":Web Browser");
object(W,":Workstation Kernel");
object(S,":Server Kernel");
object(D,":DNS Server");
step();

# Message sequences
active(B);
active(D);
active(W);
active(S);
message(D,S,"select");
inactive(D);
message(B,W,"socket");
message(B,W,"connect");
message(B,W,"sendto");
message(W,W,"send packet");
message(W,S,"DNS A query");
message(B,W,"recvfrom");
inactive(B);
message(S,S,"receive packet");
rmessage(S,D,"select returns");
active(D);
message(D,S,"recvfrom");
message(D,S,"sendto");
message(S,S,"send packet");
message(S,W,"DNS A reply");
message(W,W,"receive packet");
rmessage(W,B,"recvfrom returns");
active(B);
message(B,W,"close");

complete(B);
complete(W);
complete(S);
complete(D);

.PE

Sequence Diagram Example: A Comments and Frames

The following sequence diagram demonstrates the use of the frame and comment elements.

Diagram

Database GUI interface

Diagram Source Code

# usage-example for the comment extensions to the
# Written by Sebastian Setzer

.PS
copy "sequence.pic";

# Define the objects
actor(U, "");
object(G,"g:GUI");
placeholder_object(Dummy1); # more space
placeholder_object(D);
step();

# Message sequences
active(G);
step();

create_message(G,D,"db:DB");
active(D);
step();
inactive(D);

async(); # use asynchrone messages (not-filled arrowheads)

comment(D,C,down 1 right, wid 1 ht 0.7 "waiting for" "condition" "dbMailbox")

message(U,G,"openBrowser");
message(G,D,"query()"); active(D);
message(D,G,"result"); inactive(D);

connect_to_comment(D,C)

message(U,G,"scroll");
message(G,D,"query()"); active(D);
message(D,G,"result"); inactive(D);

connect_to_comment(D,C)

message(U,G,"Exit");
step();
begin_frame(G,F,"OnExit");
message(G,D,"shutdown()"); inactive(G); active(D);
comment(G,C,down .2 right .2, wid 2 ht 0.25 "wait for cond. dbShutdown")
step();
comment(D,C,right, wid 2 ht 1 \
        "all queries preceeding the" \
        "shutdown in the mailbox" \
        "are answered already." \
        "DbQuery-Objects can" \
        "be destroyed")
message(D,G,"done"); inactive(D); active(G);

sync();
destroy_message(G,D,"");

step();
end_frame(D,F);

step();
inactive(G);

# Complete the lifelines
step();
complete(G);
complete(U);
.PE

Frequently Asked Questions

Contents

What is the command line sequence to generate a UMLGraph class diagram?

Assuming that you diagram's description is in the file Diag.java, issue the command:
umlgraph Diag png
java -jar path-to/UmlGraph.jar -package -output - Diag.java | dot -Tpng -oDiag.png Diag.dot
In the above you can change png to another file format, and add more UMLGraph switches at the end of the line.

Why are the SVG diagrams dot generates malformed?

UMLGraph uses guillemot characters for representing the angle brackets around stereotypes, as in «interface». By default these are encoded as ISO-8859-1 characters, which are illegal in the UTF-8 output that dot generates for SVG. When using dot to generate SVG output, you should also specify -outputencoding utf8 to UMLGraph.

How can I improve the quality of the bitmap images I generate?

Both dot and pic2plot can directly produce bitmap images in formats like GIF, PNG and PNM. However, if you want to produce presentation-quality output the a vector output format like Postscript or SVG is preferable. If you do require a bitmap format, it might be worth to create it at a higher resolution from a Postscript image, and then downsample it. This procedure (used for the diagrams appearing on the UMLGraph web site) will create an antialiased image of a higher quality than what the default bitmap output options produce. The following pipeline is an example of how you can achieve this effect:
dot -Tps FILENAME.dot |
gs -q -r360 -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pnm -sOutputFile=-  - -c quit |
pnmcrop |
pnmscale 0.25 |
ppmtogif >FILENAME.gif
(David Griffiths reports that he had to add to the gs command -sPAPERSIZE=a4 or -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=1000 to avoid getting his results chopped-off.)

One other possibility for converting the sequence diagram into Postscript is to pass it through pic and groff. Tools like ps2epsi and ps2eps can then be used to convert the Postscript into encapsulated Postscript. Of course, groff users will just use the pic program as part of their processing pipeline.

How can I improve the layout of my class diagrams?

Try manipulating the dot parameters ratio, minlen, ranksep, and nodesep. For example, Arnaud Rogues recommends running dot with command-line arguments as follows.
dot -Gratio=0.7 -Eminlen=2

A class appears multiple times in a class diagram. Why?

Most probably your class diagram uses packages, and you are not qualifying the classes with the respective package names in the tags you use. The tags are not smart enough to do the package resolution, so you will have to prepend the package name to the class, or avoid using packages.

Problematic Specification

package test;
abstract class AbstractNode {}
/** @composed 1 has * AbstractNode */
class InnerNode extends AbstractNode {}
class Leaf extends AbstractNode {}

First Approach: Class Name Qualified with the Package

package test;
abstract class AbstractNode {}
/** @composed 1 has * test.AbstractNode */
class InnerNode extends AbstractNode {}
class Leaf extends AbstractNode {}

Second Approach: No Package Specification

abstract class AbstractNode {}
/** @composed 1 has * test.AbstractNode */
class InnerNode extends AbstractNode {}
class Leaf extends AbstractNode {}

Shouldn't static fields appear underlined?

Yes they should. Unfortunately, dot does not (yet) support a way to underline single labels, and thus UMLGraph can not show the static fields underlined.

Where can I find a pic2plot executable for Windows?

A port of pic2plot for Windows can be found in GNU PlotUtils, which is part of the GnuWin32 (http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html) project.

Under Windows the output of pic2plot appears empty. Why?

On Windows platforms note that the current version of pic2plot appears to be very picky about carriage return (CR - \r) characters (by default, CR is part of the platform's end of line sequence) appearing in its input file. Therefore, you will probably want to instruct your editor to create Unix-style files, or filter the files to remove the carriage return characters. The following Perl invocation is such a filter:
perl -p -e "BEGIN {binmode(STDOUT);} s/\r//"
In addition, pic2plot appears to require that the last input file be properly terminated (with a newline). Apparently, some Windows editors may leave the last line unterminated, so if your editor is in this category it may be safer to add a blank line in the end.

I have a problem with Maven's Dotuml plugin. Can you help me?

Sorry, I did not develop this plugin, and therefore can not offer help. Have a look at the project's documentation and mailing lists available through plugin web page (http://maven-plugins.sourceforge.net/maven-dotuml-plugin/).

How can I make the UMLGraph doclet generate sequence diagrams?

You can't. You have to write the pic code for the sequence diagrams by hand.

Why do the options specified in the UMLOptions class stop working, when I pass the packagenames option to javadoc?

When you pass the packagenames option to javadoc, the default (unnamed) package (and the UMLOptions class located in it) is ignored. In such cases you should include the UMLOptions class within a named package.

Why doesn't UMLGraph run under Mac OS X?

Make sure you are running Java 1.5 (run java -version to see). If you are not running 1.5 you may need to adjust the symbolic links in /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions.

Can I create UML class diagrams from C++ code?

This blog entry (http://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20060921/) describes a simple solution that has worked for me. Depending on your requirements YMMV.

How can I get around a UMLGraphDoc crash with a ClassCastException?

This happens due to a know javadoc bug (http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6442982). By fixing the classpath used for the UNLGraph invocation you can avoid this problem. Olivier Duysens notes:

JBuilder users need to go to Preferences/Build/Ant, and tick the box "Use project libraries when running ant" to solve the issue.

Under what license is UMLGraph distributed?

UMLGraph is distributed under the BSD license (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html) (see the file LICENSE in the distribution). For uniformity with the rest of the web content appearing on this site, the web site of UMLGraph appears under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/) license. This affects only the UMLGraph home page; all other material (for example the documentation) is also part of the UMLGraph distribution, and can therefore be used under the BSD license.

Why do I get an exception java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/sun/tools/javadoc/Main?

This exception will occur when you execute UMLGraph directly as a jar (not throughjavadoc), and the files UmlGraph.jar and tools.jar are not in the same directory. Either copy UmlGraph.jar in the directory where the tools.jar of the JDK distribution is located (and execute UmlGraph.jar from there), or copy tools.jar to the directory where UmlGraph.jar is located. (The file tools.jar is typically located in the lib directory of your JDK distribution.)

How can I prevent clipped SVG images in sequence diagrams?

This appears to be a limitation of pic2plot. You can work around it, by increasing the width and height values appearing in the SVG XML file that pic2plot generates.

How can I instruct UMLGraph to include private fields in its output?

You need to pass the -private flag to javadoc. Note that when processing code that includes annotations defined by libraries outside the core J2SE distribution, it is a good idea to include the library jars to the classpath. Otherwise, javadoc (and concequently UMLGraph) will fail to process the input classes correctly. This is a known issue (http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=1521148) with javadoc, but only manifests in certain occasions when running UMLGraph, for example when processing private class fields.

Bibliography

Projects Based on UMLGraph

Here are other programs or efforts that build on UMLGraph's code or ideas.

Version History

Version 5.7 Under development
Version 5.6 2012-05-31
Version 5.5 2012-05-13
Version 5.4 2011-01-08
Version 5.3 2010-05-24
Version 5.2 2008-12-03
Version 5.1 2008-08-27
Version 5.0 2007-11-29
Version 4.9 2007-09-28
Version 4.8 2007-05-10
Version 4.7 2007-03-26
Version 4.6 2007-02-05
Version 4.5 2006-12-14
Version 4.4 2006-07-19
Version 4.3 2006-03-05
Version 4.2 (internal release)
Version 4.1 2005-11-15
Version 3.3 2005-10-19
Version 3.2 2005-07-19
Version 3.1 2005-03-26
Version 2.10 2004-11-19
Version 2.9 2004-10-07
Version 2.8 2004-08-09
Version 2.7 2004-08-06
Version 2.6 2004-08-03
Version 2.5 2004-06-15
The object swimlanes in a sequence diagram can now show nested object invocations. This very useful and non-trivial change was contributed by Jonathan R. Santos.
Version 2.4 2004-05-29
Will now generate local URL hyperlinks for packages specified in the command line; and links to the Sun documentation for all other packages. Many thanks to Nascif Abousalh-Neto for contributing this change.
Version 2.3 2004-05-27
Version 2.2 2004-05-25
SVG class diagrams containing guillemot characters for stereotypes can now be made valid through a new -outputencoding option. Use "-outputencoding UTF-8" when using dot to generate SVG diagrams. Many thanks to Nascif Abousalh-Neto for bringing this problem to my attention.
Version 2.1 2004-05-16
The guillemot characters used for the create and destroy stereotypes are now portable between groff and pic2plot. Many thanks to Scott Johnson (Duluth, MN) for recommending the change.
Version 2.0 2004-05-09
Version 1.24 2003-07-30
Changes by Art Hampton (thanks):
Version 1.23 2003-05-7
Added -output command-line option, and an ant-based build file. Modified the dot output to avoid triggering a graphviz bug that made escape codes visible.
Version 1.20 2003-04-25
Fixes by Nick Efthymiou (thanks): will generate SVG hyperlinks to Javadoc documentation, better handling of abstract class fonts, and correct listing of interfaces.
Version 1.19 2002-09-20
New options: nodefontname, nodefontabstractname, nodefontsize, nodefontcolor, edgefontname, edgefontsize, edgefontcolor, edgecolor, bgcolor.
Version 1.18 2002-08-26
Version 1.15 2002-07-26
First public release.

Acknowledgements

UMLGraph was developed and is being maintained by Diomidis Spinellis (http://www.spinellis.gr). Andrea Aime has contributed the functionality for adding UML diagrams to javadoc pages, for inferring relationships, and for multiple diagram views.

In addition, the following individuals have contributed useful comments and code. UMLGraph would not be in its current state without their contributions.