Better Diagrams generates class diagrams from source code. It aims to provide a unified model for visualizing object oriented architectures based on source code.
Better Diagrams currently supports the following input languages:
- Java
- GraphQL
It can generate the following formats:
- GraphViz: Class Diagrams
- LaTeX: Class Documentation
- Java: Source Code from Diagrams
Better Diagrams allows you to configure your diagrams in JavaScript. A simple configuration which shows all classes in a Java project might look like this:
const diagram = Diagram.fromJavaProject("path/to/project")
diagram
.viewAll()
.saveGraphViz("graph.gv")
If we also want to show the package boundaries, we can use buildPackageTree to obtain the package tree for our project.
const packageTree = buildPackageTree(diagram)
diagram
.view(packageTree)
.saveGraphViz("graph.gv")
A central concept in Better Diagrams is the View.
A View is a specific subset of a model.
Here we use views to only show the game.player package:
diagram
.view(packageTree.get(["player"]))
.saveGraphViz("graph.gv")
When only showing a single package, we might still want to understand its relationship to other packages.
The View.withAdjacent method allows us to show the context around the current view.
diagram
.view(packageTree.get(["player"]))
.withAdjacent() // Show context
.saveGraphViz("graph.gv")
You can add custom association relations between classes in a Java Project using the @assoc doc comment attribute.
public class A {
/**
* @assoc 1 roleA relationName *-> 0..* roleB $flat B
*/
private B myAttribute;
}
public class B {}
The last word in the @assoc attribute is always the target class.
The word that includes the - character represents the edge between the two classes.
Numbers or ranges (0..*) will be interpreted as the multiplicities of the objects.
Words starting with $ are visual attributes, they influence how the association will be displayed.
Roles and multiplicities before the edge belong to the first class, while any roles and multiplicities after the edge belong to the target object.
The edge can specify its tips on both ends:
| Character | Tip Type |
|---|---|
<, > |
Directed Edge |
o |
Aggregation |
* |
Composition |
Some common examples might include *-> for compositions, -> for directed associations and o-> for aggregations.
It is also possible to disable the automatic inference of associations for specific attributes or even entire classes using the @noassoc doc comment attribute.
Copyright 2022 Can Joshua Lehmann
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
http:/www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.