Create UML Diagrams (Sequence Diagrams) from Text
January 13, 2010
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Create UML Diagram (Sequence Diagram) from text using Trace2UML. This is a free open source tool to quickly create sequence diagrams from text files.
Trace2UML is a free program to convert tracefiles in text format to UML diagrams. It has the following functionalities.
- Read special trace files, which can easily be auto generated, to convert to UML sequence diagrams
- Draws graphical UML sequence diagrams
- The trace files can be quickly created by hand using a few notations
- It is also easy to modify the sequence diagrams
- the trace file can also be used as a debug trace
- Easy to compare the planned sequences and the recorded ones by using a text diff tool
How to create a tace file to generate UML Sequence Diagram with Trace2UML?
The following are a few notations to be used for generating the tracefile from which UML can be generated.
- ; – lines starting with ‘;’ are comments. They are not drawn.
- # – lines starting with ‘#’ are visible comments. They are drawn with a horizontal line.
- ! – this is used to notify the existence of an object (the creation is not in the scope of the trace). This is automatically inserted when you use an object name not mentioned before.
- (!) – this is used to notify an object creation.
- (X) – this is used to notify an object deletion.
- >– – this is used to notify an asynchronous message send.
- –> – this is used to notify an asynchronous message receive.
- >-> – this is a shortcut when typing traces by hand. Creates both an asynchronous message send and a corresponding message receive.
- ==> – this is used to notify a synchronous function call.
- <== - this is used to notify a synchronous function return.
- >>> – this is used to notify a state change.
- [...] – everything set into square brackets is treated as user data. It stays in the trace line without having any effect on the graphics. this can be used for timestamps or remarks.
Free download Trace2UML from here and quickly create UML Sequence Diagrams.
You can also try Dia, a more complete tool to create flow chart and other network diagrams.
