Extend and customize UML with UML profile

January 07, 2010
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Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general purpose modeling language which is widely used in modeling software systems. In some occasions UML may not be precise enough for modeling specific problem domain. The UML Profile is an extension mechanism for customizing the models for specific domains or platforms. Starting from Visual Paradigm for UML 7.2, UML Profile has been supported and you can create customized profile visually in diagram to fit for your need. This tutorial will teach you how to create customized profile in VP-UML.

To create customized profile:

Switch to Model Explorer, right click on the project root node and select Create Profile.
Name the profile as Vehicle Engineering Profile.
Right click on Vehicle Engineering Profile, and then select Sub Diagrams > New Profile Diagram.
Now you can model the profile in the profile diagram. Let's create a stereotype in the diagram.
The Select Base Type of Stereotype dialog will be shown, which allows you to specify the type of target model element for using the stereotype you are creating. Let's select Statics > Class as the base type.
Now a stereotype is being created in diagram. Name the stereotype as Vehicle.
Right click on Vehicle stereotype and select Open Specification.
Switch to Tagged Value Definitions tab and now you can define tagged values for this stereotype.
Press the Add button and you can select the type of tagged value you want to create from the drop down menu. Let's select Floating Point Number Tag.
Name the tagged value as speed-limit, with Default Value as 0.0.
Repeat the steps to create the following tagged values, and press OK to close the specification dialog.
Stereotypes can associate with each other via composition. Let's create a stereotype Body for modeling the body of a vehicle in specific. Click on the Vehicle stereotype and drag out the composition icon.
A new stereotype Body is created, which has class specified as base type automatically.
Besides composition, you can also create specialized stereotypes. Let's create a stereotype Pickup Trunk which is a specialized type of vehicle. Click on the Vehicle stereotype and drag out the generalization icon.
Here is the completed profile diagram.
Now your profile is ready to use. Let's create a class diagram and create a class Light Motor Vehicle.
Right click on Light Motor Vehicle, and select Stereotypes > Pickup Trunk.
Right click on Light Motor Vehicle again and select Open Specification, switch to Tagged Values tab. Now you can see the tagged values defined in Pickup Trunk stereotypes are added to Light Motor Vehicle, including tagged values from Vehicle stereotype.
From our profile diagram the super-stereotype of Pickup Trunk is composite of various stereotypes, such as Body and Interior. We can add the tagged values associated to those stereotypes directly to Light Motor Vehicle. Press the Add button and select Body.
A new tagged value entry for the Body stereotype has been inserted.
Click the ... button in the Value cell of Body tagged value, the Sub-level Tagged Values dialog will be displayed. You can specify the tagged values of the Body stereotype directly here.