Declarative UML

Question

I'm looking for something along the lines of WebSequenceDiagram for other kinds of UML diagram types -- use cases and class diagrams in particular.

For example, the service would accept plain text input such as:

user = Actor();
admin = Actor();
register = UseCase(user);
post = UseCase(user, admin);
post_poll = UseCase(user, admin).extend(post);

...and get the corresponding image output, without having me worry about laying out the result.

Answer 1

Plantuml ?

PlantUML is a component that allows to quickly write :

* sequence diagram,
* use case diagram,
* class diagram,
* activity diagram,
* component diagram,
* state diagram
* object diagram

Diagrams are defined using a simple and intuitive language.

They can be generated in PNG or SVG format. It is also possible to generate ASCII art diagrams (only for sequence diagrams).

example:

@startuml img/usecase_img01.png

User -> (Start)
User --> (Use the application) : A small label

:Main Admin: ---> (Use the application) : This is\nyet another\nlabel

@enduml

or

@startuml img/classes04.png

abstract class AbstractList
abstract AbstractCollection
interface List
interface Collection

List <|-- AbstractList
Collection <|-- AbstractCollection

Collection <|- List
AbstractCollection <|- AbstractList
AbstractList <|-- ArrayList

ArrayList : Object[] elementData
ArrayList : size()

enum TimeUnit
TimeUnit : DAYS
TimeUnit : HOURS
TimeUnit : MINUTES

@enduml

Answer 2

For completeness I'll mention UMLGraph, it allows you to create class diagrams and sequence diagrams based on a java-like input files. It does not support use case diagrams at the moment.

Answer 3

If you want to make diagram fast, you may try Red Koda Community. Easy to install and use. It's really faster if you like short-cut key types product like photoshop.link text