Sequencediagram org examples how to#
Sequencediagram org examples software#
Sequencediagram org examples code#

If I’m working with a more free-form tool, I prefer to use LucidChart. Years ago this would have been common sense, but today most online tools automatically save your work so it takes a little getting-used-to. So, you have to remember to save your diagrams to some other storage location or you’ll lose them. One downside of this tool is that you can’t set up an account. It’s fairly easy to start using, because the diagram updates with every line of valid text you add to the markup in the sidebar. My favorite tool for sequence diagramming is called, which is a text-based diagramming tool that generates a diagram.

Sequencediagram org examples software#

My preference is to model in software that is strongly opinionated about how diagrams should be created. Many people choose to make diagrams in software that provides a lot of flexibility.

To that end, I think it’s very important to follow conventions. Sequence diagrams do have a unified modeling language (UML) specification, which can provide better, more authoritative advice than I can offer in this blog post.Īgain, the purpose of these documents is to communicate ideas.

Sequencediagram org examples how to#

How to Make Sequence DiagramsĪs long as you follow the conventions above, there is no wrong way to create a sequence diagram. So, if you read a sequence diagram and don’t understand what it describes, ask your Solutions Architect for more clarity. The purpose of the diagram is for the people who make it and who read it to understand each other. Sequence diagrams can describe a whole software system, or they can describe a part of the system that is hard to understand or to explain in words. Something like this would look like a box around some arrows on the diagram with a label indicating the condition for the enclosed sequence. You might show conditions under which certain parts of the sequence run. You can introduce more complexity into the diagram, as well. The next arrow from the top is the second arrow in the sequences. This action occurs between the component whose vertical line the arrow starts on and the component whose vertical line the arrow ends on. At the top of the diagram, the first arrow shows the first action in the sequence. If one component sends information to another component which sends information back to the first component, the second component will have its own arrow and its own description extending to the first component. The arrows are all one-directional, that is, they don’t have arrowheads on both ends. The arrows are labeled with descriptions of the type of information that will be sent back and forth. These are the parts of the system that need to communicate with one another for the application to work as expected.Īrrows are drawn between the vertical lines to indicate actions where data or information needs to be transmitted between components. Their names are inside the box, and they have lines extending vertically below the boxes. The components are listed at the top of the diagram in boxes. I have more productivity hacks on the website – you can start at this page if you like.Sequence diagrams show the flow of information through a system I hope this helped you speed up your day.

Sequencediagram org examples code#

Nice to get the code to do the heavy lifting! Conclusion See how I’ve added a note, and deleted irrelevant classes, all through a nice GUI. This original diagram has a lot going on:īut now it’s in PlantUml format on SequenceDiagram, it’s easy to modify. With that PlantUML file saved off to my file system, I have a template I can then load it into and change my diagram to suit my needs. Luckily, as well as generating images for export, it can also export to PlantUML, which is a format used by the popular website. I don’t want every single low level detail, and I want to be able to add notes where needed, change class names in the diagram etc. I want better control over the sequence diagram from my code. However the sequence diagram plugin can generated quite ‘noisy’ output initially. The problem is, I want to show some, but not all of the AWS operations to my colleague. Later I’ll use to add notes, and remove superfluous classes to make my point clearer. Here I’m illustrating a concept from the AWS DynamoDBLocal libraries to a colleague using the Intellij Sequence Plugin. To start with, I can use the popular IntelliJ Sequence Diagram plugin. For example, I have a new idea for something, but it’s quicker to use existing code to create the high level components in Intellij. Sometimes you just want something to do the grunt work, which you can refine later.

Then you can use a better editor to refine the content you wish to share with your colleagues. The sequence diagram plugin is the best way to stay within Intellij to generate the first cut. A useful combo for using the IntelliJ Sequence Diagram plugin to generate sequence diagrams and then handing off to an online editor.