Happy Monday Guys,
I have a question about visio.
I have a project where the user can input an UML-Diagram and at the end they receive an SCL-Code (Automation).
I have been thinking about using Visio, since it has UML-Diagram in it. But the question is if it is possible to generate the code from UML-Diagram in Visio. If yes, what is the output from Visio that can be processed?
Thank you
A standard for exchanging UML is XMI. It is described in the UML specification, well documented and is handled by most of the applications supporting drawing UML. I'm not sure if Visio can produce it, but Visio (like most MS produces) is rather poor at keeping standards and shouldn't be used as a reference.
So XMI as UML input is probably best solution for you.
Related
Can any one suggest a solution for drawing process flow diagrams in BPMN 2.0 , flow charts, use case diagrams programmatically.
We are planning to read the input from an excel file. If getting some ideas we can change the input template as well.
You could try to use the BPMN Sketch Miner, which can generate BPMN in XML/SVG/PNG formats starting from textual descriptions of the diagram as input.
For simplistic BPMN diagrams, which mainly consist of a large collection of sequential acticities/ tasks, with a few gateways, using Zeebe's YAML workflows might be an alternative to defining a custom Excel format.
Creating a YAML workflow can be done with a regular text editor and does not require a graphical modelling tool. It is inspired by imperative programming concepts and aims to be easily understandable by programmers. Internally, Zeebe transforms a deployed YAML file to BPMN.
Developing functional specifications is never a pleasurable experience, but I kind of find a sick pleasure in planning a project well. I think I have some father issues.
Regardless of my own issues, I can find any number of articles on how to create a single functional spec in varying degrees of usefulness. There are templates and examples aplenty, and I've got a good library of my own. However I am finding it difficult to find anyone who discusses a manner in which to produce multiple functional specs with any efficiency.
Does anyone know of a source discussing how to manage the process of quickly generating disparate types of functional specs? Say a company that delivers web apps, perhaps using a rapid development tool like ColdFusion or PhoneGap or something where the experience lies within the use of the tool not the end result. So the functional specs can have a wonderful array of difference in them.
Can anyone point me towards a way of managing this process to ease the burden of building each of these from scratch?
EDIT - I really like OmniGraffle, however I'm not trying to maintain a look and feel or do anything visual (saving past screen shots might be useful if they can be indexed). Code Snippets seems closer to what I wanted. But in actuality I think I am looking for the method to archive/index past blocks of text.
So if I described a purchase order system a year ago and I am building something similar today, I want to find that functional spec from a year ago to have some example text to start from.
In my head this is liek some novel writing software where like code snippets a block of text (either a scene, chapter or blurb or whatever can be written and then moved aroudn int eh body of the whole. yWriter does this. However I need to find a way to index/search through these large chunks of text for relevance. I am hoping to learn more about that kind of system.
Fleshing out the ambiguity
If you are asking about templates that are primarily textual, then your best bet is probably just to have a 'stationary' file that you can open a copy, adding pieces that are copies of the template structure you've saved to the 'stationary', and then save out the draft spec.
If you are referring to diagrams and other visual schematic that follow a 'spec language' that is unique to your development framework, then I would suggest a tool like OmniGraffle, Visio, or LucidCharts, which have active communities that develop 'stencil libraries' (e.g. graffletopia)
I think you more mean #1, in which case you might look to examples like OmniOutliner templates which can contain sophisticated stylization of fonts and format, akin to 'type styles' in Word documents.
Code Snippets are one mechanism for solving this, but you will only get snippet libraries for programming IDEs, which generally will lack text style features. Code Snippet libraries are like text macros: short strips that expand into large blocks of text. You could create your own snippets for the different structures of project spec that related to each kind of framework.
Another solution is to leverage the file interoperability of tools like OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner (or other pairings). WhenOmniGraffle opens an Outliner file, it displays the list structure as a tree of objects/nodes. After adding more nodes, the OmniGraffle file can be re-opened in OmniOutliner and viewed as a list, with all the attached Outliner styles.
This is a nice multi-modal approach, but locks you into a toolset. Probably unavoidable until more people demand tooling to do this kind of thing.
I'm a civil engineer designing a program that allows the user to define number of cross sections of a roadway and then calculate the quantity of the different materials used to build the roadway layers. I need to be able to plot a representation of the cross section that the users has defined. I'm not sure if this would be best accomplished by plotting various series on a chart, or drawing shape objects. Does anyone have any thoughts?
Yeah, not only is Excel pretty good for this, it's also pretty common to use it for this. The Newton Excel Bach blog may be where you want to spend some good time - it's an Excel for engineers site. He's got a great series on drawing with Excel. Here's one that addresses your immediate question: Drawing in Excel 7 – Creating drawings from coordinates
Since I know nothing about your problem domain or your programming skills, I can only give some general thoughts:
Excel is really good for modeling and building certain prototypes. Modeling this problem and building some charts by hand should give you and your users a good idea if the Excel solution is going to fly. If you can't get the graphics you want I would look elsewhere. Perhaps Visual Studio and Visual Basic or C#. These have mature drawing capabilities and also charting controls in recent editions.
Excel VBA has a pretty good programming layer for charts. You can also draw custom objects with VBA. I have not done this but I am sure there are references on the web. In any event, if the manually built Excel prototype looks good, it might be worthwhile to automate it with VBA.
Another factor is how many, and of what skill set will the users be? Fewer users, who know Excel pretty well make a case for using Excel. Supporting a large number of users could become onerous as it is possible to change the code in an individual file.
Finally, how long will this application be around? Versioning Excel applications can be done, but it easier to do this with more sophisticated programming environments. Also if you are going to continue to add features you might run into a wall with VBA's feature set. Hope this helps.
I would like to learn some VB because I am interested in a few industries that tend to use it exclusively. However, I find most resources far to slow in teaching the language and tools because they are aimed for those who haven't programmed before. Is there a good guide for programmers with experience in other languages like java and ruby?
Thanks,
Steven
The best way to learn is to fire up excel, or whatever version of VBA you're going to use (yes they are subtly different). Turn on the macro recorder, do some stuff, stop recording and then look at the code created. You'll immediately see some of the classes created, they can be looked at in more detail using the Object Explorer within the VBA environment. The syntax is just like any basic language. A couple of good practises, put the line 'Option Explicit' at the top of every source file, if not variables don't need to be declared, which is initially easy but leads to annoying bug hunts.
I'm not aware of a one stop shop to learn VBA, as you've already got programming experience it'll be a matter of unlearning some stuff - like OO, inheritance etc (yes I know VBA supports classes and interfaces but they're not the full enchilada).
BTW I noticed you tagged this as VB.Net, unfortunately VB.Net is not VBA - they're not related at all. Similarly VB and VBA are not the same although the overlap is about 90%.
Writing Excel Macros with VBA, 2nd Edition by Steven Roman, ch. 5-8 has a reasonably compact tour of VBA syntax, built-in functions, etc. You can find it on Google Books. Most of what it says should apply to VB6 as well.
There is also the Visual Basic 6.0 Programmer's Guide available for free on MSDN
However, MrTelly has the best advice if you're already familiar with programming in general. The Excel VBA editor, the macro recorder, and the F1 key are probably all you need, plus the basic help on specific syntax for control structures, etc.
This might be helpful.
Quite a few years ago a DDJ's columnist calling herself Verity Stob wrote a good summary of typical gotchas awaiting an experienced programmer starting developing with VB/VBA:
http://www.ddj.com/windows/184403996;jsessionid=HZEBCTTLEH5XGQSNDLPCKH0CJUNN2JVN?_requestid=378977
Excel is a good place to learn VBA.
A good resource is the book VB/VBA In a Nutshell
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Over the years, I have tried many times to find a good, easy to use, cross platform tool for some basic software system diagramming. The UML tools I have tried seemed to get in my way more than help. So far, the solution I keep returning to is Visio, which is both Windows-only and expensive. Although its far from ideal, it does provide some basic building block and allows things like grid placement and zooming. I wanted to see if there is a great tool out there that I'm just missing that fits at least some of the criteria mentioned.
Graphviz FTW!
What could be more hardcore than writing a text file to convert into a diagram etc...
GUI, we don't need no stinkin' GUI!
You could try DIA, though it is a bit basic it will keep out of your way when doing pure diagrams.
http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/
Well, I guess you mean for Windows. Otherwise for the Mac, nothing I know can beat OmniGraffle. Not only it is so easy my grandmother could use it, it can actually make really "beautiful" diagrams. It is really not too expensive (version 5 is now $99, but older ones used to be less than $40; still got a cheap one) and it can do it all, network diagrams, flow charts, UML digrams, UI mockups, etc. The app is clever, it thinks for you in a way, e.g. it will detect that you try to align objects on a line or have equal spaces between them and offer you hinted drag'n drop to make sure these criteria are met. As I said, it's really easy to work with OG.
And it can even also existing Xcode project (the standard Mac IDE for programmers) and automatically generate graphs from your source code. A complete UML chart by just pulling your Xcode project onto the icon :-) I guess it would be great if they could port that to Linux or Windows, but I'm afraid it will never happen.
Enterprise Architect (http://sparxsystems.com) is the best and very affordable.
I've used Edge Diagrammer... It does what you want simply and quickly. Supports grid placement and zooming. It's Windows-only, and it's gotten more expensive than I remember, but still cheaper than Visio.
I like Visio
If you have to use software, Visio is my favorite. (I get it for free through my school's CS program)
But... I find the best tool out there is a 17" x 11" sketchpad, sure it's made for artists but nothing beats a massive piece of paper for figuring out design problems.
The most productive diagramming, in my experience, is done on the whiteboard.
I capture in Visio, though, it has more tools and shapes than anyone else, and you can extend it to do code generation.
Sometimes I use yEd. It is a Graph Editor, but it is perfectly able to be used as a diagramming tool.
MagicDraw is quite good IMHO.
The best free solution that I'm aware of is Dia. It's marketed as a casual Visio replacement.
There's also Kivio, which I've heard good things about but haven't personally used. That one's multi-platform and free.
I use Violet UML Editor for most of my diagrams. It's not cluttered with code reverse engineering and code generation features and makes creating elegant simple diagrams very easy. Best of all it's free.
TopCased http://www.topcased.org/index.php
BOUML: http://bouml.free.fr/index.html