Hallucinating In UML

_

10 min readMay 25

We are used to having chart studio tools to drag and drop the component templates. Sometimes, we keep existing templates for use. A good way is to have everyone in the same meeting space and work out the drawing together from the same template framework. This is quite the simplest until we move to another company where they use a different diagram charting studio.

UML has been around for years. It is incorporated in many programming language packages. What if we can translate the meeting notes to UML we arrive on the workflow, use case scenarios, work plan milestone staging, etc, and get a tool to draw them for us? The scripts can be modified easily when scripted cleanly and be re-used. The tool will get it drawn for us within seconds and leaving us the next 2 hours for better use.

Knowing some syntax in UML, we can draw graphs quite readily by describing it to the tool.

@startuml
state Generic_Secret_Life_Cycle {
/' Define states
   --------------
   Each state is tagged with an index. 
'/
  state Generation : 0
  state Ready : 1
  state Distribution_And_Synch : 2
  state Operational : 3
  state Suspension : 4
  state Destruction : 5
  
  '----- state transition start -----'
  Generation -> Ready : 0.1
  
  Ready -> Generation : 1.0
  Ready -> Distribution_And_Synch : 1.2
  
  Distribution_And_Synch -> Operational : 2.3
  Distribution_And_Synch -> Suspension : 2.4
  
  Operational -> Suspension : 3.4
  Operational -> Destruction : 3.5
    
  Suspension -> Ready : 4.1
  Suspension -> Destruction : 4.5
  '----- state transition end -----'
}
@enduml

Use [*] for the starting point and ending point of the state diagram.
Use --> for arrows.

@startuml
State S1
State S2
S3 -up[#black]-> Sx
S1 -[#DD00AA]-> S2

state S1 ##[dotted]green {
state inner1 ##[dotted]yellow
}

S3 -left[#green]-> S1
S1 -up[#red,dashed]-> S4

state S4 #palegreen;line:green;line.dashed;text:green

S1 -right[dotted,#blue]-> S5

S5 -> X1
state S5 ##[bold]green {
state agent ##[dotted]yellow
}


S5: a a a\na

note on link 
  this is a state-transition note 
end note

X1 -[dashed]-> X2

note "This is a floating note" as N1

note top of X1 : this is a short\nnote

note right of X2
  A note can also
  be defined on
  several lines
end note

X1: actor

Z1 -[dotted]-> Z2
Y1 -[#blue,bold]-> Y2
X1 -> Z2
Z2 -> Y2
Y2 -> S3


@enduml