Generating Sequence Diagrams for all methods?

[Amit Paleja]

I am using EclipseUML 2.2 on Galileo to generate sequence diagrams for a piece of Java code. Is there a way by which we can generate sequence diagrams for all the methods in a class at one go?

Thanks

[Jimmy Clark]

A Class diagram is used to show some or all of the methods of a Class or a group of Classes.

A Sequence diagram is used to show the communication, i.e. method calls, between a group of Objects for a specific execution path.

It is unclear as to why you would want to show all of the methods for a single Class in a Sequence diagram. This is what a Class diagram does.

[Amit Paleja]

I am sorry Jimmy, what i meant was - does the plugin support generating separate sequence diagrams for all methods of a class at one go?

My class has lots of methods and it would be very nice if we could generate sequence diagrams for all the methods rather than a method at a time.

Any idea if this or any other plugin supports such a functionality?

[Jimmy Clark]

No problem.

A Sequence diagram is used to show the communication, i.e. method calls, between a group of Objects for a specific execution path.

I put the important part in bold text above. Sequence diagrams show how multiple objects communicate, not a single object.

There could be hundreds and maybe thousands of possible execution paths involving many objects. There is no way to create a program that can create Sequence diagrams. Sequence diagrams are created manually and by a human. The human is deciding what goes on the Sequence diagram.

You keep mentioning that you want to show all the methods of a Class. Why don't you create a Class diagram then that shows this?

[James Sabre]

Jimmy Clark wrote: There is no way to create a program that can create Sequence diagrams. Sequence diagrams are created manually and by a human.

I use a very old copy of Together 6 and it has a feature that reverse engineers Sequence Diagrams from Java source code. One just has to specify an entry point and let Together do the rest. UML diagrams are meant to condense a design/implementation BUT the Sequence diagrams reverse engineered by Together include every nut,bolt and wart. This makes them pretty much unusable. There are ways to limit the detail but they are not that effective. I can see that almost any tool to reverse engineer Java classes and create Sequence Diagrams must perform in a similar way to Together and is likely to to do exactly what Together does and produce too much detail.

[Jimmy Clark]

This makes them pretty much unusable.

I'm not sure that I would want to create a product that produces stuff that is unusable. Maybe that is why I have never heard of a product called "Together." lol

[James Sabre]

Jimmy Clark wrote:

This makes them pretty much unusable.

I'm not sure that I would want to create a product that produces stuff that is unusable. Maybe that is why I have never heard of a product called "Together." lol

Together was created by some Russians and bought by Borland a few years ago and is now marketed by them. Version 6 (the Russian version) is a great product for both system analysis, Java design and Java development and it does a pretty good job of reverse engineering Java classes to create class diagrams. It does not do a great job of reverse engineering sequence diagrams.

I still use Together 6 for Design and Analysis though I don't use it these days for programming since it does not deal with Java features introduced in Java 5. Obviously the newer versions of Together will handle Java 5+ but the product is very expensive and I can't justify the cost of buying an upgrade.

[Jimmy Clark]

Does it create Use Case diagrams from Java code?

[James Sabre]

Jimmy Clark wrote:Does it create Use Case diagrams from Java code?

Together version 6 does not. I find the concept of reverse engineering Java code to create Use Cases difficult to comprehend.