Web pages for the ArgoUML project.
This used to be located at http://argouml.tigris.org.ArgoUML provides the following features. Each feature is described briefly below.
The ArgoUML website provides easy installation with Java Web Start.
ArgoUML is written entirely in Java and uses the Java Foundation Classes. This allows ArgoUML to run on virtually any platform.
ArgoUML is compliant with the OMG Standard for UML 1.4. The core model repository is an implementation of the Java Metadata Interface (JMI) which directly supports MOF and uses the machine readable version of the UML 1.4 specification provided by the OMG.
ArgoUML has support for creating profiles, and distributing models that reference common online available profiles.
ArgoUML is delivered with profiles for:
ArgoUML uses GEF, the UCI Graph Editing Framework to edit UML diagrams. The following diagram types are supported:
For all diagrams:
Features for specific diagrams:
XMI is an XML based exchange format between UML tools. ArgoUML uses this as standard saving mechanism so that easy interchange with other tools and compliance with open standards are secured. Additionally, exporting the model to XMI is possible. XMI version 1.0 was used for UML 1.3. ArgoUML 0.20 imports XMI 1.0 (by converting UML 1.3 to UML 1.4). And ArgoUML imports the UML1.4 formats XMI 1.1 & 1.2, but only writes XMI 1.2.
Diagrams can be saved as GIF, PNG, PostScript, Encapsulated PS, PGML and SVG.
ArgoUML has been internationalized to American English, British English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Norwegian Bokmål and Chinese.
ArgoUML supports many diagram editing features that help you edit UML diagrams.
ArgoUML provides constraint modeling support on UML Classes and Features. The Dresden OCL toolkit enables ArgoUML to perform syntax and type checking on those constraints. OCL support has been provided by and developed at the Technical University of Dresden, thanks!
ArgoUML provides code generation for Java, C++, C#, PHP4 and PHP5. Other languages may be added since the code generation is a modular framework. The Java code generation works with the Java reverse engineering to provide basic round - trip engineering.
ArgoUML provides a modular reverse engineering framework. Currently Java source code is provided by default and there are modules for Java Jar and class file import.
Design critics are simple agents that continuously execute in a background thread of control. They analyze the design as the designer is working and suggest possible improvements. These suggestions range from indications of syntax errors, to reminders to return to parts of the design that need finishing, to style guidelines, to the advice of expert designers. Many critics offer to automatically improve the design. Critics are controlled so that their suggestions are relevant and timely to the design task at hand, based on information in Argo's user model. Critics never interrupt the designer, instead they post their suggestions to the designer's "to do" list.
Critics identify specific problems in the design and may offer specific solutions in the form of wizards or other corrective automations. These automations allow design improvements to be made faster and more reliably than they could be done by hand. Also, designers need not recall how to use the tool to achieve the suggested change.
One difficulty designers face is keeping track of the myriad of details of their task. It is all to easy to skip a step in the design process, leave part of the design unspecified, of make a mistake that requires revision. Argo provides the designer with a "to do" list user interface that presents action items in an organized form. These items can be suggestions from critics, reminders to finish steps in the process model, or personal notes entered by the designer. The choice control at the top of the "to do" list pane allow the designer to organize items in different ways: by priority, by decision supported, by offending design element, etc. Items are shown under all applicable headings. The "to do" list may also be viewed as a flat list.
Argo's user model maintains information about the designer and uses that information to make the tool more useful. One way that it does this is by controlling critics so that only critics that are timely and relevant to the task at hand can make suggestions. In the future, the corrective automations and explanations offered by critics will also be tailored to the designer.
Argo's user model consists of the following parts:
Checklists are currently widely used in design review meetings, in part, because they remind designers to cover all design details and avoid common design errors. Argo provides checklists that serve the same purpose, but have several advantages over passive printed lists:
Checklists are somewhat similar to critics (in fact, they share some of the same implementation), however they differ in the level of specificity so much that we feel that they should be presented separately to designers. Critics look for very specific problems and provide specific suggestions when those problems are detected. The designer still makes the final decision about any design changes, but the critic can automate much of the analysis and work. In contrast, checklist items are much more general and vague, they serve to remind the designer, but it is the designer who must do most of the analysis and work.
ArgoUML, like most tools, provides a tree view to allow the designer to access the various parts of their modeling project. Unlike other tools, ArgoUML provides 9 different explorer perspectives and a simple editor to customize these perspectives or author new ones. Each explorer perspective is made up of a set of rules. Each rule defines the possible children of a given design element. When rules are combined they yield the union of the children produced by each rule. About 70 rules are available for designers to use in explorer perspectives. A simple dialog box allows designers to specify the rules that make up each perspective.
Complex designs are made up of hundreds of elements with complex relationships to each other. Designers are better able to understand the design and make changes when they can see the elements and relationships that affect a certain design issue. No single diagram can clarify all design issues. Instead multiple diagrams and other presentations must be used.
ArgoUML allows multiple graphical representations of the same design element to be used in different diagrams. In this sense, the views are overlapping.
ArgoUML has 4 main views: Explorer, Diagram, Details, Critics.
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