Tricks for plug-in development.

Retrieve Flow Sequence in Business Process Diagram using Open API

tomcat-thumbVisual Paradigm’s Open API is a powerful tool which allow user to extend the functionalities of Visual Paradigm software. Open API provide full access to the model information within the project, and user can retrieve the diagram and model information in programmatic approach. For most of the case user can obtain the diagram and model information as a collection where the elements are sorted based on the creation order. But in Business Process Diagram there is a special way to retrieve the elements according to their flow order. In this article we will show you how it works. Read more

Adding Elements to Diagram Layers using Open API

tomcat-thumbVisual Paradigm support create diagram with multiple layers. The layer function allow you to assign different shapes into different layers. It help in hiding unnecessary information in your diagram. The layer information can also being access via Open API. In this article we will show you how to work with layers using Open API, including create layers and assign the shapes and connectors in your diagram to different layers. Read more

Control Shape Caption Placement using Open API

tomcat-thumbWhen creating diagrams sometimes you might want to have the caption not showing in the default location, i.e. to have better layout for the containing elements while not having the name being covered. In this case you may adjust the caption position to reserve space for the child elements. To do this you can specify the caption placement of the individual element via the user interface. But instead of manually specify the caption placement shape by shape, you can also do this via the Open API. In this article we will use Component as sample to demonstrate how to control its caption position with Visual Paradigm’s Open API. Read more

How to retrieve a diagram in your project using Open API

Visual Paradigm’s Open API allow user to access the model data in your project in programmatic way by creating plugin. With Open API you can create new diagram or model elements to your project, also retrieve the diagram or model elements form your project and manipulate it. Read more

How to retrieve model element in your project using Open API

tomcat-thumbVisual Paradigm’s Open API allow user to access the model data in your project in programmatic way by creating plugin. With Open API you can create new diagram or model elements to your project, also retrieve the diagram or model elements form your project and manipulate it. When dealing with model element there are 2 approach we can use to retrieve it from your project. In this article we will teach you how to obtain the model element via Open API. Read more

Creating document with Doc. Composer using Open API

The Doc. Composer allows you to create document for your model in a fully customized way. You can  customize the layout of your document by simply modifying the XML templates and specify what’s inside your document by drag & drop the templates into it, just like creating a diagram. But the drag & drop is a manual process, which you need to do it every time when you want to create a new document. Also after adding new contents, you will need to update it manually by adding the new elements into your existing document. In this article, we will show you how you can make use of the Open API to construct a document in a programmatic way, which can save you a lots of time. Read more

How to format the date property obtained from diagram or model element

Date is a very important property in model since it recorded the timestamp when a diagram or model element was being created or modified. In Visual Paradigm all diagrams and most of the model elements are having date property for storing its creation date time, as well as the last modified date time. In this article we will show you how to retrieve the date time property and format it into human readable text. Read more

How to highlight element on diagram using Open API

tomcat-thumbVisual Paradigm’s Open API not just provides a way to extend the functionality of Visual Paradigm, but also offer you a door to integrate Visual Paradigm with 3rd party software. The integration is not necessary to single direction, from model to 3rd party software, but also from your 3rd party software to models in your Visual Paradigm project. i.e. models being updated by external system. In this situation an indication on diagram could be very helpful to indicate what model elements being updated. Starting from v13.1 Visual Paradigm’s Open API support highlight diagram elements on your diagram. This can help you to indicate what element was being updated by your 3rd party software. In this article we will show you how to highlight the elements in your diagrams. Read more

Capture Application Events using Open API

tomcat-thumbOpen API is a powerful tool for developers to extend the functionality of Visual Paradigm software. It does not just allow you to have full access to the model data within your project, but also allow you to alter the behavior of the software. In this article, you will learn how to capture various events which has been fired during the execution of the software, and you can make use of these events to insert custom actions to achieve your goal. Read more

Debug your plugins with Eclipse

tomcat-thumbVisual Paradigm Open API provides an interface for developers to develop plugins and extend the functionalities of Visual Paradigm. Plugin development could be time consuming especially during debug phrase since you constantly need to deploy your plugin to Visual Paradigm, even just with slightly changes. Instead of deploy the plugin to VP every time after you made changes, you can directly launch VP with your plugin from Eclipse to perform debugging. This article teaches how to configure Eclipse to perform debugging on your plugins. Read more