Model Entity with Custom Column Types

/0 Comments/in , , /by

tomcat-thumbVisual Paradigm support wide range of databases for user to model the data structure of their systems. Once the data model is done you can generate persistent layer source code in Hibernate and use it as the out-of-the-box data access layer for building your database applications. All the data types which covered by Hibernate are directly supported by Visual Paradigm. But what if your model involved some domain specific data type which not covered by Hibernate? In this case you can make use of the User Type property to model it. To model with non-supported column types:

 

Read more

Specifying details for your association

/0 Comments/in /by

Association is a very comment relationship between classifiers. The association is not a simple connector, it carry lots of information related to the relationships between classifiers. Those information may/may not presented on diagram, but they are vital to the definition of your models. In Visual Paradigm there are several ways to define the details for your association and in this article we will show you one by one. Read more

How to create different notations in a single diagram

/0 Comments/in /by

Visual Paradigm supported modeling with various notations, including the Unified Modeling Language (UML), System Modeling Language (SysML), Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), Data Flow Diagram (DFD), Organization Chart, etc… When creating diagrams very often you may want to cross reference the notations from other diagram type, or even from other notation standards. In Visual Paradigm you can do it easily by customizing the diagram toolbar. In this article we will show you how it works. Read more

Show Details of Model Elements in Tabular Form

/43 Comments/in /by

When the default attributes do not suffice to describe your model elements, you can add your own custom ones by using tagged values. These custom attributes can be added to model elements in various diagrams, such as an actor in use case diagram.

So if you are looking at model elements in a diagram, just how do you show their tagged values? This tutorial will show you how.

As an example, we will walk you through how to show tagged values associated with devices in an ArchiMate diagram.

Read more

Working with Master View

/3 Comments/in /by

When your project is simple, you are able to express all of the design ideas with just a few diagrams. The diagrams are simple and self-explanatory. Each of them represents a distinct design idea and there is no overlapping between diagrams.

When you are dealing with a complex project, you may need to draw multiple diagrams to represent different contexts. You need to borrow shapes from a diagram to make them appear in other diagrams (i.e. contexts). In fact, this is extremely common when modeling with class diagram and business process diagram. Take UML class diagram as an example, there may be a domain diagram that presents all the entity classes and, another diagram that presents the associations and dependencies between a specific controller class and its related entity classes. So in this case, both diagrams contain the same set of entity classes.

Instead of re-creating those classes again and again in different diagrams, Visual Paradigm allows you to “re-use” them. Through simple copy and paste (Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V), you can easily copy a shape from one diagram to another. Each shape is formally known as a “view”. So with this, you can create multiple views for a model element in representing different contexts. Changes made on a shape are all synchronized to other instances that appear in other diagrams without extra effort. This is great, but there is a drawback though.

Read more

How to Generate Unique ID for Model Elements

/2 Comments/in /by

ID is a very useful property for a model elements. Having an unique ID for your model elements not just can ease the communication between your team but also help to structure your model in a more systematic way. Visual Paradigm can help you to generate unique ID for your model elements. Besides, you can apply customized patterns to the ID to accommodate your needs in different situations. In this article, we will show you how to configure the ID generator to generate customized ID for your model elements with Visual Paradigm. Read more

How to Find Text in Description

/1,216 Comments/in , /by

The find feature allows you to search for specific words or sentences within text in the description editor. Finding starts from the beginning of the description, regardless of the position of text cursor. The first occurrence of text that matches with the entered search text will be highlighted. You can move to the next occurrence by clicking on the Next button. You can perform finding in all the RTF description editors, such as the description editor in specification window.
Read more

10 Tips to Create Professional Use Case Diagram

/4 Comments/in , /by

There are two common misunderstanding about use case modeling or UML use case diagram. One is that, use case diagram is too simple, as it does not explain anything important and it is not worth drawing. Another misunderstanding is just opposite to the first one. Some people believe that use case diagram is so powerful that can represent many different aspects of a software, from describing system requirements to modeling the internal behaviors of the system. So what is use case? What is use case diagram and is use case modeling simple or powerful?

Use case modeling is simply an answer to “What do the users (customers) want”. It allows you to visually represent the goals that users want to achieve through using the final end product, which can be a system, a software, a program, etc. Use case modeling is a useful technique in establishing a solid foundation for software developers to develop software system that meets with customers’ needs. While the notations applied in a use case diagram seem simple and do not express much detailed, the way how use cases are collected, organized and elaborated do significantly influence the direction of the software development lifecycle and thus the quality of the final software product. In this article, we will go through ten tips that can maximize the effect of drawing use case diagram. We are not going to explain what are use cases in detail but some of the key concepts regarding to UML modeling, use case diagram and requirements capturing will be covered.

Read more

How do I Know Which Shape in a Diagram Has Description Entered

/31 Comments/in /by

For every model element, there is a description property that allows you to describe detailed information about individual element, so that readers can understand the intended use, intended behavior and other important information. For example, specific implementation guideline can be written in a UML class or class diagram, and precautions can be written in a BPMN task in a business process diagram.

Sometimes, we may not have the information we need to enter in the description at the time the model element is being created. We may leave it first and enter it later on. But then the problem comes: After several days or weeks, how do I remember which shapes in a diagram has description missing? To check shape-by-shape is time-consuming…

In this article, we will show you how to indicate in diagram shapes that has description entered. This allows you to concentrate on shapes that have no description entered. Besides, it allows readers to check and read the description of shapes only when description has been entered which makes the diagram more legible.

Read more

How to Paste Text to Description Editor without Rich Text Format

/46 Comments/in , /by

When you copy and paste formatted text into a description editor in Visual Paradigm, it automatically brings along the formatting properties. This sounds reasonable and is quite a nice behavior if you really want to keep the style of text contents. However, there are several reasons why you might not want to keep the formatting. First, when you copy from web page, it may bring along crappy HTML contents, say the hidden table borders and layers. In fact, when CSS is widely used in most of the modern websites, what you copy from a webpage is not necessarily what you can get when pasting without the existence of the CSS. Second, you may not want to mix up the style of text in your description with the source. Third, although the crappy formatting properties may look invisible in the description editor, they may affect the content in generated documentations. After all, to clear those formatting tags is time consuming and error prone.

Account for the reasons above, it would be nice to have certain ways to paste text without including formatting properties, which means, to paste as plain text. In Visual Paradigm, the “Paste without formatting” function is provided to serve this purpose.

Read more