MetaUML: Tutorial, Reference and Test Suite Copyright c 2005
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1. Picture X a Picture Y Picture Z Cyan Ty leftToRight top spacing X Y Z a Cyan leftToRight midy spacing X Y 2 B teya leftToRight bottom spacing X Y Z a pa Cyan a topToBottom left spacing X Y 2 Cyan 4 topToBottom midx spacing X Y Z Cyan a topToBottom right spacing X Y Z Cyan To make typesetting even quicker in frequent usage scenarios the following equivalent contructs are also allowed leftToRight midy spacing X Y Z leftToRight spacing X Y Z topToBottom midx spacing X Y Z topToBottom spacing X Y Z If you want to specify that some objects have a given property equal while the distance between them is given elsewhere you can use the macro same This macro accepts a variable number of parameters but at least two The following table gives the interpretation of the macro for a simple example 22 same top X Y Z X top Y top Z top same midy X Y Z X midy Y midy Z midy same bottom X Y Z X bottom Y bottom Z bottom same left X Y Z X left Y left Z left same midx X Y Z X midx Y midx Z midx same right X Y Z X right Y right Z right To specify the relative position of two points more easily one can use the macros below above atright atleft2. 40 HH 000 home home mtergace intergace AAA AAA Test 5 interface home User Test 6 User Test 7 Observer update src Object Test 8 Observer update src Object Test 9 Observer update src Object Test 10 AbstractClass al update src Object Test 11 AbstractClass a 10 update sre Object 13 5 2 Class template tests Test 1 foo AAA Person Test 2 Person 7 Test 3 a tt I int foo Very VeryLongClassName owed iT Shortie abracadabra long long int Shortie ce ie abracadabra long long int 13 5 3 Qualified Association tests Test 1 Person accountNumber int 00 1 Test 2 Person accountNumber int 00 1 foolang 42 13 6 Package diagram 13 6 1 Package tests Test 1 This package contains them all One class package java sun com Multipackage A class An instance A state An activity Test 2 Name on top By
3. B s 10 30 B s link inheritance cool link aggregationUni A n 30 30 B w Regardless of how amusing this feature might be it does become a bit of a nuisance to use it in its bare form When typesetting UML diagrams in good style one generally uses rectangular paths It is for this kind of style that MetaUML offers extensive support providing a syntactic sugar for constructs which can otherwise be done by hand but with some extra effort 8 1 Manhattan Paths The Manhattan path macros generate a path between two points consisting of one horizontal and one vertical segment The macro pathManhattanX generates first a horizontal segment while the macro pathManhattanY generates first a vertical segment In MetaUML it also matters the direction of a path so you can choose to reverse it by using rpathManhattanX and rpathManhattanY note the prefix r pathManhattanX A B pathManhattanY A B rpathManhattanX A B rpathManhattanY A B 18 Here is an example Class A A OO gt B Class B B OO B sw A ne 10 10 Ese drawObjects A B link aggregationUni rpathManhattanX A e B s link inheritance pathManhattanY A n B w 8 2 Stair Step Paths These path macros generate stair like paths between two points The stair can rise first in the direction of Ox axis pathStepX or in the direction of Oy axis pathStepY How much sh
4. 4 Packages MetaUML allows for the creation of packages in various forms Firstly we have the option of writing the package name in the middle of the main box Secondly we can write the name on the tiny box above the main box leaving the main box empty Lastly we can write the package name as in the second case but the main box can have an arbitrary contents classes other packages or even other UML items The macro that creates a package has the following synopsis Package name package name subitems list The parameter package name is a string or a list of comma separated strings representing the package s name The subitems list parameter is used to specify the subitems tipically classes or packages of this package its form is as comma separated list of objects which can be void Package P java lang O drawObject P java lang Below is another example Package P An important package drawDbject P An important package 12 If you wish to leave the main box empty you can use the following code Package P java lang java lang P info forceEmptyContent 1 drawObject P The same effect as above can be achieved globally by doing iPackage forceEmptyContent 1 More information on MetaUML s way of managing global and per object configuration data can be found in section 10 and section 12 Here is an example involving items contain
5. Let us assume that A and B are two points objects of type pair in MetaPost The following constructs are equiv alent B A 5 0 B atright A 5 B A 5 0 B atleft A 5 B A 0 5 B above A 5 B A 0 5 B below A 5 10 The MetaUML Infrastructure MetaPost is a macro language based on equation solving Using it may seem quite tricky at first for a programmer accustomed to modern object oriented languages However the great power of MetaPost consists in its versatility In deed it is possible to write a system which mimics quite well object oriented behavior Along this line METAOBJ Roegel 2002 is a library worth men tioning it provides a high level objects infrastructure along with a battery of predefined objects Surprisingly enough MetaUML does not use METAOBJ Instead it uses a custom written lightweight object oriented infrastructure provisionally called util METAOBJ s facilities although impressive were perceived by me as being a bit too much for what was initially intented as a quick way of getting some UML diagrams layed out Inspired by METAOBJ util was designed to fulfill with minimal effort the specific tasks needed to confortably position allign or group visual objects which include text Another library having some object oriented traits is the boxes library which comes with the standard MetaPost distribution Early versions of MetaUML d
6. Metadata Interchange XMI Specification Available from http www omg org 36 13 Test suite 13 1 Low level Test 1 nothing shown intentionally Test 2 nothing shown intentionally 13 2 Fonts Test 1 Font name pcrr stereotype lt lt a gt gt lt lt b gt gt lt lt c gt gt guard stillhungry closing paranthesis SHOWN after hungry still hungry closing paranthesis NOT shown after hungry J EI 0 hm constraint a constraint closing paranthesis NOT shown Test 2 Font name tyxbtt stereotype a b c guard stillhungry closing paranthesis SHOWN after hungry still hungry closing paranthesis NOT shown after hungry 1 LI Ihm constraint fa constraint closing paranthesis NOT shown Test 3 assembleElementLocalMatrix k KeyType mat LocalMatrixType a AssembleAction assembleElementLocalMatri k KeyType mat LocalMatrixType a AssembleAction assembleElntLocalMatri k KeyType mat LocalMatrixType a AssembleAction 37 13 3 Cliparts Locks i ee HO u e 13 4 Util library 13 4 1 Picture tests Test 1 nice ugly y ZE He feature Test 2 toof root bar foo Test 3 goof Test 4 goof moorian _ pp iF int _ aag goofl_ Aoorian pp If
7. a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format whose markup or absence of markup has been arranged to thwart or discour age subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent An image format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text A copy that is not Transparent is called Opaque Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without markup Texinfo input format LaTeX input format SGML or XML us ing a publicly available DTD and standard conforming simple HTML PostScript or PDF designed for human modification Examples of transparent image for mats include PNG XCF and JPG Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors SGML or XML for which the DTD and or processing tools are not generally available and the machine generated HTML PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for output purposes only The Title Page means for a printed book the title page itself plus such following pages as are needed to hold legibly the material this License requires to appear in the title page For works in formats which do not have any title page as such Title Page means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work s title preceding the beginning of the body of the text A section Entitled XYZ means a named subunit of the Do
8. default name is in the middle 13 7 Paths Contains class 43 13 8 Behavioral diagrams 13 8 1 Activity tests go to school while singing a 4 p 13 8 2 State Machine tests Test 1 N Test 2 7 7 Another nice state the light is visibly on Test 3 7 Interesting state OnEntry doVeryHappy OnExit doSomewhatSad Test 4 44 omposite state C FR state EA state Test 5 13 8 3 Usecase tests Test 1 Student he foy Bar in debug mode Xfooling around Test 3 45 cru asdf asdf ygh Sd fg s foo xasdf asdf as asdfa Log in for an eagerly awaiting user which spans the 3rd line User A2 doesn t looks all too nice by today s standards User A on two lines Test 6 Test 4 User A reloaded Test 7 A highly customizable usecase Foo bar Test 8 46 Test 9 13 9 Miscelaneous 13 9 1 Notes Test 1 Antananarivo Machupichu Test 2 Please take the other note very seriously T 1 Li L Please disregard this note N 13 9 2 Objects Class Instances Test 1 Bar int vall Booka very long text for testing purposes
9. giving them explicit names Having a name for an association item comes in handy when referring to its properties is later needed see the non UML compliant diagram below Note that the last parameter of the macro item is an equation which uses the item name to perform positioning Class P Person O O association name Class C Company O drawing code ommited Person works for Bank item aName iAssoc works for aName s 5 P w C wl draw aName n aName n 20 20 label urt association name infont tyxtt aName n 20 20 However giving names to every association item may become an annoying burden especially when there are many of them Because of this MetaUML also allows for anonymous items In this case the positioning is set by an equation which refers to the anonymous item as obj P and C defined as in the previous example Person 1 employee item iAssoc employee obj nw P s item iAssoc 1 obj ne P s works for other items are drawn similarly 0 employer Company 2 7 Dependencies and Stereotypes Stereotypes are frequently used with dependencies Below is an example 10 Class F Factory QQ Factory Class O Object OQO creates O n F s 0 50 drawObjects F 0 clink dependency F 0 Object item iStereo lt lt creates gt g
10. in the Document and any Warranty Disclaimers provided that you also include the original English version of this License and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer the original version will prevail If a section in the Document is Entitled Acknowledgements Dedica tions or History the requirement section 4 to Preserve its Title section 1 will typically require changing the actual title 9 TERMINATION You may not copy modify sublicense or distribute the Document except as expressly provided for under this License Any other attempt to copy modify sublicense or distribute the Document is void and will automatically terminate your rights under this License However parties who have received copies or rights from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance 10 FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE The Free Software Foundation may publish new revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns See http www gnu org copyleft Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this Li
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12. removing the need for the unaesthetic n and n vardef Person expr name _age attributes CH var string name var numeric age name name age age enddef 32 12 Customization in MetaUML Examples We have seen that in MetaUML the how to draw information is memorized into the so called Info structures For example the default way in which a Picture object is to be drawn is recorded into an instance of PictureInfo named iPict In this section we present a case study involving the customiza tion of Class objects The customization of any other MetaUML objects works similarly Here we cannot possibly present all the customization options for all kinds of MetaUML objects this would take too long Nevertheless an inter ested reader can refer to the top of the appropriate MetaUML library file where Info structures are defined For example class diagram related definitions are in metauml class mp activity diagram definitions are in metauml activity mp ete 12 1 Global settings Let us assume that we do not particularly like the default foreground color of all classes and wish to change it so something yellowish In this scenario one would most likely want to change the appropriate field in iClass iClass foreColor 9 9 0 After this we can obtain the following result Class ACAI OO EN Class B B OO Class C C QO B w A e 20 0 C n 5 A se B sw 0 10 dra
13. the MetaPost UML library drawObject A 6 3 Fork and Join A fork or join is created by the macro Fork name type length The parameter type is a string and can be either of h horiz horizontal for horizontal bars and either of v vert vertical for vertical bars The length gives the bar s length Fork forkA h 100 Fork forkB v 20 leftToRight 10 forkA forkB drawObject forkA forkB 6 4 Branch A branch is created by the macro Branch name Here is an example 15 Branch testA drawObject testA 6 5 Types of Links In activity diagrams transitions between activities are needed They are typeset as in the example below In section 7 1 such a transition is showed This type of link is also used for state machine diagrams link transition pointA pointB 7 State Diagrams The constructor of a state allows for aggregated sub states State name state name substates list The parameter state name is a string or a list of comma separated strings representing the state s name or description The substates list parameter is used to specify the substates of this state as a comma separated list of objects this list may be void An example of a simple state State s Take order Q Take order draw bject s 7 1 Composite States A composite state is defined by enumerating at the end of its constructor the inner states Interestingly enough the compos
14. MetaUML Tutorial Reference and Test Suite Copyright Q2005 2006 Ovidiu Gheorghies Permission is granted te copy distribute and or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License Version 1 2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invari ant Sections no Front Cover Texts and no Back Cover Texts A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License This page is left intentionally blank MetaUML Tutorial Reference and Test Suite Ovidiu Gheorghies March 21 2006 Abstract MetaUML is a GNU GPL MetaPost library for typesetting UML dia grams using a human friendly textual notation MetaUML offers a highly customizable object oriented API designed with the ease of use in mind Apart from being a reference this manual is also a tutorial but more importantly a living example You can look at its source code getting direct accounts on how things are done 1 Introduction Here are a few diagrams created with MetaUML just to give you a glimpse of its features A Class Diagram Client interface Component m Operation m Add Component 7 m Remove Component GetChild int Leaf Composite m Operation B Activity Diagram Eat something good from the kitchen still hungry had enough Read a book Listen to
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16. aUML uses it to determine the type of adornment to attach at the link ends if applicable In our example a white triangle denoting inheritance points towards the end of the path that is towards class A To sum up we present a short code and the resulting diagram typical for just about everything else in MetaUML The positioning of A does not need to be explicitly set because floating objects are automatically positioned at 0 0 by their draw method input metauml B A beginfig 1 m Class AC A QOQ Class B BD OO B e A w 20 0 drawObjects A B link inheritance B e A w endfig end From a user s perspective this is all there is to MetaUML With a reference describing how other UML elements are created one can set out to typeset arbitrary complex diagrams 2 Class Diagrams A class is created as follows Class name class name list of attributes list of methods The suffix name gives a name to the Class object which of course rep resents an UML class The name of the UML class is a string given by class name the attributes are given as a comma separated list of strings list of attributes the methods are given as a comma separated list of strings list of attributes The list of attributes and the list of methods may be void Each of the strings representing an attribute or a method may begin with a visibility marker for public for protected an
17. agram graphs as links A link is composed of a path and the heads possible none one or two For example an association has no heads and one must simply draw along the path with a solid pen An unidirectional aggregation has a solid path and two heads one is an arrow and the other is a diamond So the template algorithm for drawing a link is Reserve space for heads Draw the path except for the heads Draw head 1 Draw head 2 N ro 30 AB the path specified by the user en BED AA iLink widthA BB iLink widthB Figure 2 Details on how a link is drawn by MetaUML Each of the UML link types define how the drawing should be done in each of the cases 1 2 and 3 Consider the link type of unidirectional composition Its class is declared as vardef CompositionUniInfo LinkInf oct C widthA defaultRelationHeadWidth heightA defaultRelationHeadHeight drawMethodA drawArrow widthB defaultRelationHeadWidth heightB defaultRelationHeadHeight drawMethodB drawDiamondBlack drawMethod drawLine enddef Using this definition the actual description is created like this CompositionUniInfo compositionUni As shown previously is is the macro link which performs the actual drawing using the link description information which is given as parameter generally called iLink For example we can use link aggregationUni 0 0 40 0 Let us see now the inner work
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21. d for private MetaUML interprets this marker and renders a graphic stereotype in form of a lock which may be opened semi closed and closed respectively Here is an example Class A Point Point x int y int 2 x int set x int y int Y int getXO int set x int y int getYO int getX int debug void r get YQ int drawObject A amp debug void 2 1 Stereotypes After a class is created its stereotypes may be specified by using the macro classStereotypes classStereotypes name list of stereotypes Here name is the object name of a previously created class and list of stereotypes is a comma separated list of strings Here is an example Class A User interface classStereotypes A lt lt interface gt gt User lt lt home gt gt drawObject A 2 2 Interfaces and Abstract Classes At times it is prefered to typeset the name of an interface in an oblique font rather than using the interface stereotype This can be easily achieved by using the macro Interface name class name list of methods Here is an example Interface A Observer Observer update src Dbject update src Object drawObject A Note that Interface is a special kind of Class the declaration code above being equivalent to EClass A iInterface Observer update src Object Along the same li
22. dividual object This feature comes in very handy when working with a large number of settings as it is the case for MetaUML Let us imagine for a moment that we have two types of text to write one with a small font and a small margin and one with a big font and a big margin We could in theory configure each individual object or set back and forth global parameters but this is far for convenient It is preferable to have two sets of settings and specify them explicitly when they are needed The following code could be placed somewhere in a configuration file and loaded before any beginfig macro PictureInfoCopy iBig iPict iBig left iBig right 20 iBig top 10 iBig bottom 1 iBig boxed 1 iBig ignoreNegativeBase 1 iBig iFont name defaultfont iBig iFont scale 3 PictureInfoCopy iSmall iPict iSmall boxed 1 iSmall borderColor green Below is an usage example of these definitions Note the name of the macro EPicture The prefix comes form explicit and it s used to acknowledge that the how to draw information is given explicitly as a parameter rather than defaulted to what s recorded in iPict as with the Picture macro Having predefined configurations yields short convenient code EPicture a iBig yummy EPicture b iSmall cool yummy you can still modify a info b info cool b sw a se 10 0 drawObjects a b 10 3 Stacking Objects It is po
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24. ed in a package Class AC A OQ net metauml Class B B OO Package P net metauml A B A B leftToRight 10 A B drawObject P 4 1 Types of Links The nesting relation between packages is created by using the nest link infor mation X ay link nest X e Y w 5 Use Case Diagrams 5 1 Use Cases An use case is created by the macro Usecase Usecase name list of lines The list of lines is a comma separated list of strings These strings are placed on top of each other centered and surrounded by the appropriate visual UML notation Here is an use case example Usecase U Authenticate user by name password drawObject U Authenticate user by name password 13 5 2 Actors An actor is created by the macro Actor Actor name list of lines Here list of lines represents the actor s name For convenience the name may be given as a list of strings which are placed on top of each other to provide support for the situations when the role is quite long Otherwise giving a single string as an argument to the Actor constructor is perfectly fine Here is an actor example Actor A User drawObject A User Note that one may prefer to draw diagram relations positioned relatively to the visual representation of an actor the human rather than relatively to the whole actor object wh
25. edefined settings This usage scenario is perhaps more interesting Suppose that we have two types of classes which we want to draw differently Making the setting adjustments for each individual class object would soon become a nuisance MetaUML s solution consists in the ability of using predefined how to draw Info objects Let us create such objects ClassInfoCopy iHome iClass iHome foreColor 0 9 9 ClassInfo iRemote iRemote foreColor iRemote borderColor 9 9 0 green Object iHome is a copy of iClass as it might have been set at the time of the macro call Object iRemote is created just as iClass is originally created We can now use these Info objects to easily set the how to draw information for classes The result is depicted below please note the E prefix in EClass 34 EClass C iHome CartHome O EClass D iRemote CartRemote OO EClass A iHome UserHome O ponn n EClass B iRemote UserRemote OO 12 4 Extreme customization When another font or font size is used one may also want to modify the spacings between the attributes and methods baselines Figure below is the result of the unlikely code Class A Foo Foo a int b int fooQ bar garQ 2 a int b int A info iName iFont name metauml_defaultFontBold foo A info iName iFont scale 1 2 A info iAttributeStack iPict iFont scale 0 8 info iAttributeStack
26. em is addressed behind the scenes by the component This means for the Picture object that a native picture is created from the given string and around that picture certain margins are placed by means of MetaPost equations The margins come in handy when one wants to quickly place Picture objects near others so that the result doesn t look too cluttered If these equations were defined within the Picture constructor then an usability problem would have appeared because it wouldn t have been possible to modify the margins as in the code below question 1 what to draw Picture pict foo question 2 how to draw pict info left 10 pict info boxed 1 question 3 where to draw pict nw 0 0 now we can draw drawObject pict To allow for this type of code the equations that define the layout of the Picture object here what the margins are must be defined somewhere after the constructor This is done by a macro called Picture layout This macro 29 defines all the equations which link the what to draw information to the how to draw information which in our case is taken from the info member a copy of iPict Nevertheless notice that Picture Layouts is not explicitly invoked To the user s great relief this is taken care of automatically within the Picture draw macro There are times however when explicitly invoking a macro like Picture layout becomes a necessity This is because by contract i
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28. ftware needs free documentation a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does But this License is not limited to software manuals it can be used for any textual work regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference 1 APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS This License applies to any manual or other work in any medium that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License Such a notice grants a world wide royalty free license unlimited in duration to use that work under the conditions stated herein The Document below refers to any such manual or work Any member of the public is a licensee and is addressed as you You accept the license if you copy modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law A Modified Version of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it either copied verbatim or with modifications and or translated into another language A Secondary Section is a named appendix or a front matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Document s overall subject or to related matters and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subj
29. gativeBase 1 Who is iPict and what is it doing in our program MetaUML aims at separating the business logic what to draw from the interface how to draw In order to achieve this it records the how to draw information within the so called Info structures The object iPict is an instance of PictureInfo structure which has the following properties or attributes left right top bottom ignoreNegativeBase boxed borderColor The first four attributes specify how much space should be left around the actual item to be drawn The marvelous effect of ignoreNegativeBase has just been shown off while the last two attributes control whether the border should be drawn when boxed 1 and if drawn in which color There s one more thing the font to typeset the text in This is specified in a FontInfo structure which has two attributes the font name and the font scale This information is kept within the PictureInfo structure as a contained attribute iFont Both FontInfo and PictureInfo have copy constructors which can be used to make copies We have already the effect of these copy constructors at work when we used Picture a yummy a info boxed 1 A copy of the default info for a picture iPict has been made within the object a and can be accessed as a info Having a copy of the info in each object 25 may seem like an overkill but it allows for a fine grained control of the drawing mode of each in
30. ich also includes the text Because of that MetaUML provides access to the human of every actor object actor by means of the sub object actor human Actor A Administrator drawObject A draw objectBox A draw objectBox A human Administrator Note that in MetaUML objectBox X is equivalent to X nw X ne X se X sw cycle for every object X A human is considered a MetaUML object so you can use expressions like A human n or A human midx 5 3 Types of Links Some of the types of links defined for class diagrams such as inheritance asso ciation etc can be used with similar semantics within use case diagrams 6 Activity Diagrams 6 1 Begin End and Flow End The begin and the end of an activity diagram can be marked by using the macros Begin and End or FlowFinal respectively The constructors of these visual objects take no parameters Begin beginName End endName Below is an example 14 Begin b e Q End e FlowFinal f leftToRight 20 b e f drawObjects b e f 6 2 Activity An activity is constructed as follows Activity name list of strings The parameter list of strings is a comma separated list of strings These strings are centered on top of each other to allow for the accommodation of a longer activity description within a reasonable space An example is given below Activity A Learn MetaUML Learn MetaUML the MetaPost UML library
31. id use boxes as an infrastructure but this approach had to be abandoned even tually The main reason was that it was difficult to achieve good visual results when stacking texts more on that further on Also it had a degree of flexibility which became apparent to be insufficient 10 1 Motivation Suppose that we want to typeset two texts with their bottom lines aligned using boxit 23 boxit a yummy yummy cool boxit b cool yummy cool a nw 0 0 b sw a se 10 0 drawboxed a b or drawunboxed a b draw a sw b se dashed evenly withpen pencircle scaled 1 1 Note that despite supposedly having their bottoms alligned yummy looks slightly higher than cool This would be unacceptable in an UML class dia gram when roles are placed at the ends of a horizontal association Regardless of default spacing being smaller in the util library the very same unfortunate misalignment effect rears its ugly head 24 Picture a yummy yummy cool Picture b cool comment next line for unboxed lt lt a info boxed b info boxed 1 b sw a se 10 0 drawObjects a b However the strong point of util is that we have a recourse to this problem iPict ignoreNegativeBase 1 umm cool Picture a yummy OO stendene Picture b cool the rest the same as above drawObjects a b 10 2 The Picture Macro We have seen previously the line iPict ignoreNe
32. ings of macro link Its definition is vardef link text iLink expr myPath LinkStructure ls myPath iLink widthA iLink widthB drawLinkStructure 1s iLink enddef First space is reserved for heads by shortening the given path myPath by iLink widthA at the beginning and by iLink widthB at the end After that the shortened path is drawn with the method given by iLink drawMethod and the heads with the methods iLink drawMethodA and iLink drawMethodB respectively figure 2 31 11 2 Object Definitions Easier generic declare In MetaPost if somebody wants to define something resembling a class in an object oriented language named say Person he would do something like this vardef Person expr name _age 4 Of prefix can be seen as this pointer string C nane numeric Qitage name name age age enddef This allows for the creation of instances or objects of class Person by using declarations like Person personA Person personB However if one also wants to able able to create indexed arrays of persons such as Person student0 Person student1 etc the definition of class Person must read vardef Person expr name _age n str Ok generic declare string n name generic declare numeric _n age name name age age enddef This construction is rather inelegant MetaUML offers alternative macros to achieve the same effect uncluttering the code by
33. int _ aag Test 5 foo Test 6 x int an anounymous item foo bar cool 38 13 4 2 Group tests Test 1 po pl Test 2 Test picture in group 13 4 3 PictureStack tests Test 1 Test 2 foo bar int cool man nice Test 3 fooornika fooornika fooornika gar nichts gar nichts gar nichts nicelina nicelina nicelina 13 4 4 Positioning tests Test 1 aj XYZ al XYZ Test 2 Ha XYZ bee XYZ Test 3 al XYZ fal ra XYZ Test 4 39 XYZ XYZ Test 6 XYZ XYZ 13 5 Class diagram 13 5 1 Class tests Test 1 AAA AAA amp noo int amp noo int bar double bar double c Integer amp c Integer af int a f int 2 fo00 A noo bar 2 bar Test 2 AAA AAA foo int foo int bar double bar double a c Integer c Integer af int a f int Test 3 Sa AAA
34. ite state takes care of drawing the sub states it contains The transitions must be drawn after the composite state as seen in the next example Begin b End e link transition b s c n State c Component YO link transition c s e n State composite Composite b e c b midx e midx c midx c top b bottom 20 e top c bottom 20 composite info drawNameLine 1 drawObject composite 16 Composite 7 2 Internal Transitions Internal transitions can be specified by using the macro stateTransitions name list transitions Identifier name gives the state object whose internal transitions are being set and parameter list transitions is a comma separated string list An example is given below State s An interesting state An interesting state which is worth mentioning which is worth mentioning stateTransitions s DnEntry Open eyes DnExit Sleep well s info drawNameLine 1 OnEntry Open eyes OnExit Sleep well drawObject s 7 3 Special States Similarly to the usage of Begin and End macros one can define history states exit entry point states and terminate pseudo states by using the following con structors History nameA ExitPoint nameB EntryPoint nameC Terminate nameD 8 Drawing Paths The link macro is powerful enough to draw relations following arbitrary paths 17 path cool cool A e A e 20 10 B s 20 40
35. ize int A Vector i dra drawObjects A T The macro Template can also be used to create a template object but this time the resulting object can be positioned freely Template name list of templates Of course one can specify both stereotypes and template parameters for a given class 2 5 Types of Links In this section we enumerate the relations that can be drawn between classes by means of MetaUML macros Suppose that we have the declared two points A on the left and B on the right pair A B A 0 0 B 50 0 link association X e Y w X gt Y link associationUni X e Y w X gt Y link inheritance X e Y w link aggregation X e Y w link associationUni X e Y w link composition X e Y w link compositionUni X e Y w link dependency X e Y w 2 6 Associations In UML an association typically has two of association ends and may have a name specified for it In turn each association end may specify a multiplicity a role a visibility an ordering These entities are treated in MetaUML as pictures having specific drawing information spacings font The first method of creating association items is by
36. music and ignore it C Notes ARES Another note A D Use Case Diagram Authenticate user J Query database Sto User Authenticate by Authenticate by username password smartcard E State Machine Diagram Working Reading commands Processing commands F Package Diagram net foo bar netfoo Y LA B Preparing error report Writing result Database top nw n ne Test al height wm a2 Ce se a a3 a aLongMethod void bottom SW S se width left right Figure 1 Positioning properties of any MetaUML object here a class object is depicted The code which generates these diagrams is quite straightforward combining a natural object oriented parlance with the power of MetaPost equation solving for more information on MetaPost see Hobby 1992 An UML class for example can be drawn as follows Class A MyClass MyClass attri int attr2 int 2 attrl int methodi void a attr2 int method2 void method10 void method2 void bb A nw 0 0 optional implied drawObject A This piece of code creates an instance of Class which will be afterward iden tified as A This object has the following content properties a name MyClass a list of attributes attri attr2 and a list of me
37. n Objects Using the constructs presented above it is clear that one can draw links between diagram objects using a code like link transition directPath objA nw objB se There are times however this may yield unsatisfactory visual results espe cially when the appearance of the object s corners is round MetaUML provides the macro pathCut whose aim is to limit a given path exactly to the region outside the actual borders of the objects it connects The macro s synopsis is pathCut thePath objectA objectB Here thePath is a given MetaPost path and objectA and objectB are two MetaUML objects By contract each MetaUML object of type say X defines a macro X_border which returns the path that surrounds it Because of that pathCut can make the appropriate modifications to thePath The following code demonstrates the benefits of the pathCut macro 20 z A se 30 10 CED link transition pathCut A B A c z B c ES A 8 5 1 Direct Paths between Centers At times is quicker to just draw direct paths between the center of two objects minding of course the object margins The macro which does this is clink clink how to draw information objA objB The parameter how to draw information is the same as for the macro link objA and objB are two MetaUML objects Below is an example which involves the inheritance relation clink inheritance A B B 9 Arranging Diagram Items Using eq
38. ne here s how abstract classes can be drawn EClass A iAbstractClass Observable Observable observers Observer 0 observers Observer 0 taddObserver o Observer an addObserver o Observer notify ar notify drawObject A If you prefer you can use the syntactic sugar AbstractClass A Observable observers Observer 0 addObserver o Observer notify 0 2 3 Objects or Class Instances An UML object or class instance is created as follows Instance name object name list of attributes The suffix name gives a name to the Instance object The name of the object given by object name is typeset underlined The attributes are given as a comma separated list of strings list of attributes Instance order o Order o Order name book placed payed Annee book drawObject order placed tpayed 2 4 Parametrized Classes Templates The most convenient way of typesetting a class template in MetaUML is to use the macro ClassTemplate This macro creates a visual object which is appropriately positioned near the class object it adorns ClassTemplate name list of templates class object The name is the name of the template object list of templates is a comma separated list of strings and the class object is the name of a class object Here is an example Class A Vector 00 gles ClassTemplate T T s
39. ntrivial examples of program code we recom mend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license such as the GNU General Public License to permit their use in free software 56
40. opies under the same conditions stated above and you may publicly display copies 3 COPYING IN QUANTITY If you publish printed copies or copies in media that commonly have printed covers of the Document numbering more than 100 and the Document s license notice requires Cover Texts you must enclose the copies in covers that carry clearly and legibly all these Cover Texts Front Cover Texts on the front cover and Back Cover Texts on the back cover Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible You may add other material on the covers in addition Copying with changes limited to the covers as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly you should put the first ones listed as many as fit reasonably on the actual cover and continue the rest onto adjacent pages If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100 you must either include a machine readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy or state in or with each Opaque copy a computer network location from which the general network using public has access to download using public standard network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Do
41. ould a step rise is given by an additional parameter delta Again the macros prefixed with r reverse the direction of the path given by their unprefixed counterparts pathStepX A B delta pathStepY A B delta rpathStepX A B delta rpathStepY A B delta Here is an example stepX 60 stepY Ke link aggregationUni SW te pathStepX A e B e stepX A K gt stepY 20 V link inheritance lt pathStepY B n A n stepY i 8 3 Horizontal and Vertical Paths There are times when drawing horizontal or vertical links is required even when the objects are not properly aligned To this aim the following macros are useful pathHorizontal pA untilx pathVertical pA untilY 19 rpathHorizontal pA untilx rpathVertical pA untilY A path created by pathHorizonal starts from the point p and continues horizontally until coordinate untilX is reached The macro pathVertical con structs the path dually working vertically The prefix r reverses the direction of the path Usage example untilX B left C link association 2 foo int pathHorizontal A e untilX untilY untilY C bottom B link association A ab pathVertical A n untilY untilX 8 4 Direct Paths A direct path can be created with directPath The call directPath A B is equivalent to A B 8 5 Paths betwee
42. rbatim copying of that document 7 AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium is called an aggregate if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation s users beyond what the individual works permit When the Document is included in an aggregate this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the Document If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document then if the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate the Document s Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate or the electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate 8 TRANSLATION Translation is considered a kind of modification so you may distribute trans lations of the Document under the terms of section 4 Replacing Invariant Sec tions with translations requires special permission from their copyright holders 54 but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections You may include a translation of this License and all the license notices
43. rly useful for stacking text since it offers better visual appearance when iPict ignoreNegativeBase is set to 1 11 Components Design Each MetaUML component e g Picture PictureStack Class is designed according to an established pattern This section gives more insight on this In order to draw a component one must know the following information e what to draw or what are the elements of a component e how to draw or how are the elements positioned in relation to each other within the component e where to draw For example in order to draw a picture object we must know respectively e what is the text or the native picture that needs to be drawn e what are the margins that should be left around the contents 28 e where is the picture to be drawn Why do we bother with these questions Why don t we just simply draw the picture component as soon as it was created and get it over with That is why doesn t the following code just work Picture pict foo Well although we have the answer to question 1 what to draw we still need to have question 3 answered The code below becomes thus a necessity actually you are not forced to specify the positioning of an object because its draw method positions it to 0 0 by default question 1 what to draw Picture pict foo question 3 where to draw pict nw 10 10 now we can draw drawObject pict How about question 2 how to draw By default this probl
44. rsements provided it contains noth ing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties for example statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front Cover Text and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back Cover Text to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version Only one passage of Front Cover Text and one of Back Cover Text may be added by or through arrangements made by any one entity If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of you may not add another but you may replace the old one on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old one The author s and publisher s of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version 5 COMBINING DOCUMENTS You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions pro vided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all 53 of the original documents unmodified and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers
45. s Student linel e Example g Yummy line3 small lp ee d line4 color red line5 47 13 10 User requests Test 1 Test 2 Eat something good from the kitchen Read a book O 13 11 Skins Test 1 Test 1 HelloSkinGlobal a foo int bar void 48 14 GNU Free Documentation License Version 1 2 November 2002 Copyright 2000 2001 2002 Free Software Foundation Inc 51 Franklin St Fifth Floor Boston MA 02110 1301 USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document but changing it is not allowed Preamble The purpose of this License is to make a manual textbook or other func tional and useful document free in the sense of freedom to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it with or without modifying it either commercially or noncommercially Secondarily this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others This License is a kind of copyleft which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense It complements the GNU General Public License which is a copyleft license designed for free software We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software because free so
46. ssible to stack objects much in the style of setboxjoin from boxes library 26 Picture a0 yummy umm Picture al cool cool Picture a2 fool fool setObjectJoin pa sw pb nw joinObjects scantokens listArray a 3 drawObjects scantokens listArray a 3 or drawObjects a0 al a2 The listArray macro provides here a shortcut for writing a0 al a2 This macro is particularly useful for generic code which does not know beforehand the number of elements to be drawn Having to write the scantokens keyword is admittedly a nuisance but this is required 10 4 The Group Macro It is possible to group objects in MetaUML This feature is the cornerstone of MetaUML allowing for the easy development of complex objects such as composite stats in state machine diagrams Similarly to the macro Picture the structure GroupInfo is used for spec ifying group properties its default instantiation is iGroup Furthermore the macro EGroup explicitely sets the layout information Here is an example iGroup left 20 fool iGroup right 15 iGroup boxed 1 cool iPicture boxed 1 yummy Picture a yummy Picture b cool Picture c fool b nw a nw 20 20 A a nw 15 40 B c nw Group g a b c g nw 10 10 4 C drawObject g Note that after some objects are grouped they can all be drawn by invoking the drawObjec
47. t obj w 5 F s 0 n 3 Notes A note is created as follows Note name list of lines The suffix name is the name of the Note object The comma separated list of strings list of lines gives the text contents of the note object each string being drawn on its own line Here is an example Note A This note has two lines This note N drawObject A has two lines 3 1 Attaching notes to diagram elements Notes can be attached to diagram elements by using a link of type dashedLink Note A This is a class This is a class IN Class C Object OQO SZ Pa Pa a A sw C ne 20 20 Object drawObject A C clink dashedLink A C Now let us see a more complex example which demontrates the ability of accessing sub elements in a MetaUML diagram 11 Note nA This is the class name EEE This is the class name N Note nB This is a key attribute a Note nC This is a nice method id int 4 This is a key attribute D a clone ME ialize mm Class C Object id int serialize Tins isa mee eos clone serialize topToBottom left 10 nA nB nC leftToRight 10 C nB drawObjects C nA nB nC clink dashedLink C namePict nA clink dashedLink C attributeStack pict 0 nB clink dashedLink C methodStack pict 1 nC Macros like leftToRight and topToBottom are presented in section 9
48. t is only after the layout macro is invoked that the final dimensions width height of an object are defi nitely and permanently known Imagine that we have a component whose job is to surround in a red filled rectangle some other objects This component needs to know what the dimensions of the contained objects are in order to be able to set its own dimensions At drawing time the contained objects must not have been drawn already because the red rectangle of the container would overwrite them Therefore the whole pseudo code would be Create objects ol 02 ok Create container c o1 02 ok Optional modify info s for ol o2 ok Optional modify info for c layout c requiring layout of ol o2 ok establish where to draw c draw red rectangle defined by c draw components oi 02 ok within c Note that an object mustn t be laid out more than once because otherwise inconsistent or superfluous equations would arise To enforce this by contract any object must keep record of whether its layout method has already been invoked and if the answer is affirmative subsequent invocations of the layout macro would do nothing It is very important to mention that after the layout macro is invoked over an object modifying the info member of that object has no subsequent effect since the layout equations are declared and interpreted only once 11 1 Notes on the Implementation of Links MetaUML considers edges in di
49. t macro solely on the group that aggregates them Another important remark is that it is necessary only to set the relative positioning of 27 objects within a group line A and B afterward one can simply move the group to a given position line C and all the contained objects will move along 10 5 The PictureStack Macro The PictureStack macro is a syntactic sugar for a set of pictures stacked according to predefined equations and grouped together iStack boxed 1 foo iStack iPict boxed 1 bar int 1 ee foo cool man centered ar int infont tyxtt nice nicely centered infont defaultfont nice vcenter drawObject myStack Note the last parameter of the macro PictureStack here vcenter It is used to generate appropriate equations based on a descriptive name The spac ing between individual picture objects is set by the field iStack spacing Cur rently the following alignment names are defined vleft vright vcenter vleftbase vrightbase vcenterbase All these names refer to vertical align ment the prefix v alignment can be at left right or centered The variants having the suffix base align the pictures so that iStack spacing refer to the distance between the bottom lines of the pictures The unsuffixed variants use iStack spacing as the distance between one s bottom line and the next s top line The base alignment is particula
50. thods method1 method2 The one thing remaining before actually drawing A is to set its location In A nw we refer to the north west of the class rectangle that is to its upper left corner In general every MetaUML object has the positioning prop erties given in figure 1 These properties are used to set where to draw a given object whether by assigning them absolute values or by setting them relatively to other objects Suppose that we have defined two classes A and B Then the following code would give a conceivable positioning A nw 0 0 B A B e A w 20 0 After the objects are drawn one may draw links between them such as inheritance or association relations between classes in class diagrams or tran sitions between states in state machine diagrams Whichever the purpose is MetaUML provides a generic way of drawing an edge in a diagram s graph link how to draw information path to draw The how to draw information is actually an object which defines the style of the line e g solid dashed and the appearance of the heads e g nothing arrow diamond One such object called inheritance defines a solid path ending in a white triangle The path to draw parameter is simply a MetaPost path For example the following code can be used used to represent that class B is derived from A link inheritance B e A w Note that the direction of the path is important and Met
51. top 10 A info iAttributeStack spacing 11 gt gt info iMethodStack iPict iFont scale 2 info iMethodStack spacing 17 A info iMethodStack bottom 10 gt drawObject A Both iAttributeStack and iMethodStack are instances of PictureStackInfo which is used to control the display of PictureStack objects As font names you can choose from the globally defined metauml defaultFont metauml defaultFontOblique metauml defaultFontBold metauml defaultFontBoldOblique or any other name of a font that is available on your system References Roegel 2002 Roegel D 2002 The METAOBJ tutorial and reference man ual Available from www loria fr roegel TeX momanual pdf Knuth 1986 Knuth D E 1986 The TEXbook Addison Wesley Publishing Company Lamport 1994 Lamport L 1994 BTgX a Document Preparation System Addison Wesley Publishing Company 2nd edition 35 Hobby 1992 Hobby J 1992 A User s Manual for MetaPost Available from http www tug org tutorials mp Gjelstad 2001 Gjelstad E 2001 uml sty 0 09 09 Available from http heim ifi uio no ellefg uml sty Diamantini 1998 Diamantini M 1998 Interface utilisateur du package pst uml Available from http perce de LaTeX pst uml Palmer 1999 Palmer D 1999 The umldoc UML Documentation Package Available from http www charvolant org elements OMG 2003 Object Management Group 2003 XML
52. uations involving cardinal points such as A nw B ne 10 0 is good enough for achieving the desired results However programs are best to be written for human audience rather than for compilers It does become a bit tiresome to think all the time of cardinal points and figure out the direction of positive or negative offsets Because of that MetaUML offers syntactic sugar which allows for an easier understanding of the intent behind the positioning code Suppose that we have three classes A B C and their base class Base We want the base class to be at the top and the derived classes to be on a line below A code like the following will do A ne B nw 20 0 B ne C nw 20 0 Base s B n 0 20 Now look at the code again What strikes you is that you cannot visualize what it is all about unless you really try decoding the intent line by line What this code lacks is a feature called self documenting the code is good only if you can read it as a story and understand its meaning Perhaps the following version of the code will make the point All you need to know is that the numeric argument represents a distance 21 leftToRight 20 A B C Base topToBottom 20 Base B A B Below there are examples which show how these macros can be used Sup pose that we have the following definitions for objects X Y and Z also let s assume that spacing is a numeric variable set to 5
53. wObjects A B C 12 2 Individual settings When one wants to make modifications to the settings of one particular Class objects another strategy is more appropriate How about having class C stand out with a light blue foreground color a bigger font size for the class name and a blue border 33 iPict foreColor 9 9 0 ES L Class A AY OO Class B B OO C Class c C O0 C info foreColor 9 7 7 C info borderColor green C info iName iFont scale 2 positioning code ommited drawObjects A B C As an aside note that for each Class object its info member is created as a copy of iClass the actual drawing is performed using this copied information Because of that one can modify the info member after the object has been created and still get the desired results Another thing worth mentioning is that the ClassInfo structure contains the iName member which is an instance of PictureInfo In our example we do not want to modify the spacings around the Picture object but the characteristics of the font its contents is typeset into To do that we mod ify the iName iFont member which by default is a copy of iFont an in stance of FontInfo defined in util picture mp If for example we want to change the font the class name is rendered into we would set the attribute iName iFont name to a string representing a font name on our system as used with the MetaPost infont operator 12 3 Pr
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