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Customizable Data-Types
UML is theoretically a modeling language independent to particular programming language(s). Yet, it is possible to transform between UML models to a software applications or systems. While the pre-defined data-type set works well in the UML world, there is enormous need to ensure the design can be applied to programming source code. Problems comes from the fact that programming languages, by nature, are unlikely to share the same set of data-types suggested by UML. A typical example is about the use of boolean. 'boolean', 'bool' and 'Boolean' are adopted by UML and Java, C# and VB.NET respectively. But they are all referring to the same thing — boolean.
Visual Paradigm lets you choose a programming language that your UML project should be based on. When modeling, you can easily select a data-type that is allowed for the chosen language, without typing it. Besides, new languages and data types can be added, which increase the flexibility of working under different domains.
| Configure Programming Language for your project |
| Programming language can be set when creating a new project. It is also possible to switch to another language in the middle of your design. Let's take a look at how things work: |
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Right-click on the project root node under Diagram Navigator / Model Pane / Class Repository |
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Select Configure Programming Language... from the pop-up menu. |
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This shows the Programming Language dialog box. |
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Select the language to switch to. |
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The way how data-type will be mapped from the current language to the chosen language is listed in the table, following the data-type definition of that language. |
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| Using data-type |
| Data-type can be assigned to attributes, operations (as return type) and parameters. This section shows you how to assign data-type through the specification dialog box. |
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| Attribute |
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| 1. |
Select the target class |
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Select the attribute |
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Right-click on it and select Open Specification from the pop-up menu. |
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From the Attribute specification dialog box, select the attribute type from the Type drop-down menu. |
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| Operation |
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Select the target class |
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Select the operation |
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Right-click on it and select Open Specification from the pop-up menu. |
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From the Operation specification dialog box, select the return type from the Return type drop-down menu. |
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| Parameter |
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Follow the first three steps show in the above section to open the Operation specification dialog box |
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Open the Parameters tab |
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Select the parameter. |
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Right-click on it and select Open Specification from the pop-up menu. |
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From the Parameter specification dialog box, select the parameter type from the Type drop-down menu. |
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| Customizing Programming Language and Data-Types |
| By default, there are six types of (programming) languages for you to choose with. They are: |
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| • Java |
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• XML Schema |
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• C++ |
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• Visual Basic |
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• C# |
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• UML |
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| Each of them consists of a set of supported data types. Besides working with those default languages and types, you can add your own languages and add data types to it. Here are the steps: |
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Select Tools > Options... from the main menu |
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This shows the Options dialog box. |
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Open the Data Type page |
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Press on the plus sign to add a language |
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Enter its name, and press OK to confirm. |
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Press Add... to add a data-type to the chosen language. |
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Enter its name, and press OK to confirm. |
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From now on, once you have set your own language as the language for your project, you can pickup the associated data-types as attribute type, operation return type and parameter type. |
Resources
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