Setting up ArgoUML to provide tagged values and stereotypes in a dropdown menu

by David Bain — last modified Dec 30, 2008 05:48 PM
ArgoUML supports the ability to load a "definition" file with predefined tagged values and stereotypes. This makes it possible to have all the custom tagged values and stereotypes used by a Plone project available in dropdown menus within ArgoUML.

Background and Notes

The screenshot below shows ArgoUML with the custom tags from the definition file. Having many of the possible options available from a menu has the following benefits:

  • saves time - sometimes clicking is faster than typing
  • reduces errors - no more mispelled tags
  • presents a learning opportunity - seeing new tags and stereotypes provides a springboard for further investigation


This walks you through how I setup ArgoUML on my Ubuntu Breezy (Linux) desktop system. The methodology should be easily adjusted to other platforms.

Assumptions

These are my assumptions:

  • You already have java (sun j2re 1.5) installed


Getting ArgoUML and the definition file

At the time of this writing the version I used was 0.20.
Download and unpack the file from tigris.org

wget http://argouml-downloads.tigris.org/nonav/argouml-0.20/ArgoUML-0.20.tar.gz
sudo mkdir /usr/local/ArgoUML && sudo tar xvfz ArgoUML-0.20.tar.gz -C /usr/local/ArgoUML

In the new '/usr/local/ArgoUML' directory download the definition file

cd /usr/local/ArgoUML
sudo wget http://plone.org/products/archgenxml/issues/30/18/at_download/attachment
sudo mv attachment  ArchGenXMLprofile.xmi

Launching ArgoUML with definition file

To launch the file I go to the '/usr/local/ArgoUML' directory and run the command shown below

cd /usr/local/ArgoUML
/usr/lib/j2re1.5-sun/bin/java -Dargo.defaultModel=ArchGenXMLprofile.xmi -jar argouml-mdr.jar

You may need to change the location of your java.
These are the raw instructions and can be refined with a launch script etc....

Why ArgoUML?

Just a few notes on why I'm using ArgoUML.

  • Mature - it supports the important stuff (at least as far as ArchGenXML goes), state diagrams, tagged-values, stereotypes.
  • It is pretty lightweight, which is important when your laptop only has 256 MB of RAM and a PIII 700 Mhz processor. Poseidon Community Edition, though nice, is just too memory hungry.
  • Price is good (free) :)

I'm keeping my eye on the python based UML editor Gaphor but it doesn't do everything I need yet.