wuml

Description

wuml is a NodeJS based command line tool which is inspired by tools like yuml and based on the excellent work of scruffy. It's built on top of wsvg (see npm entry or github repo for further information) in order to create hand-drawn looking UML-diagrams whereas the input is provided in a simple ascii-format.

So as an example - it converts input like this:

[<<VaadinUI>>;MainUI|init(){bg:cornsilk}]-creates>[Menu|selectMenuItem(){bg:cornsilk}]                                     
                                                                                                                           
[<<Interface>>;ViewChangeListener|+beforeViewChange(ViewChangeEvent event);+afterViewChange(ViewChangeEvent event){bg:cornsilk}]^-.-adjust\nURI[<<VaadinUI>>;MainUI{bg:yellow}]
[<<Interface>>;Menu.MenuElementChangedListener|+handle(MenuElementChangedEvent event){bg:cornsilk}]^-.-switch\nContent[<<VaadinUI>>;MainUI]
[<<Interface>>;Menu.MenuElementChangedListener|+handle(MenuElementChangedEvent event)]<notifies-[Menu]                     
                                                                                                                           
[<<VaadinUI>>;MainUI]-creates>[WelcomeMainView{bg:lightgrey}]                                                              
[<<VaadinUI>>;MainUI]-creates>[TextSearchMainView{bg:lightgrey}]                                                           
[<<VaadinUI>>;MainUI]-creates>[GroupMainView{bg:lightgrey}]                                                                
[<<VaadinUI>>;MainUI]-uses>[MainLayout|{bg:cornsilk}]

into class-diagrams like that:

another example would be this sequence diagram input

[t:thread]-run()>[:Toolkit]
[:Toolkit]-callbackLoop()>[:Toolkit]
[:Toolkit]-create>[p:Peer]
[:Toolkit]-handleExpose()>[p:Peer]
[p:Peer]-.->[:Toolkit]
[:Toolkit]-destroy>[p:Peer]

which gets converted to:

Installation / Usage

CLI tool

Like wsvg, wuml provides a command line interface as well as the possibility to require it as an inline module in your node project (in any case be sure to check the prerequisites)

To install wuml from npm, run:

$ npm install -g wuml

After that you should be able to call the tool:

$ wuml --help

  Usage: wuml [options]

  Options:

    -h, --help                   output usage information
    -V, --version                output the version number
    -p, --png                    Export to PNG
    -t, --type [class|sequence]  Determines the graph-type to be created based on the given input (default is 'class')
    -c, --content <content>      UML-image content as input-string
    -i, --input <path>           Input UML description file
    -o, --output <path>          Filename for the output diagram file
    -w, --waggly                 Turns on the waggly-mode
    --fontFamily <font>          Set the output font-family (i.e. Purisa or Dadhand)
    --fontSize <size>            Set the size of the font to be used

Notice: fontFamily depends on the locally available fonts - so don't be disappointed, if there is no waggly font. Just check the font you've used.

node module

You can also embed the tool in your own project. All you'll have to do is to install it as a dependency like i.e.:

$ npm install --save wuml

Afterwards you should be able to require the tool using:

var wuml = require('./wuml');

var config = {
	waggly: true,
	type: 'class',
	fontFamily: 'Purisa',
	fontSize: 10
};

wuml.createDiagram('[Customer|+name;+age]', config, function(resultingDiagramAsSVG) {
	console.log(resultingDiagramAsSVG);
});

The module exposes one factory-method which returns the actual transformer based on the given configuration.

Prerequisites

In order to use the tool you'll have to install at least two additional dependencies - graphviz, rsvg-converter and plotutils (the installation of additional, hand-written looking fonts is up to your taste).

MacOS

On Mac you can install both tools via homebrew

• brew install graphviz
• brew install librsvg
• brew install plotutils

After that the upper mentioned npm install wuml -g should be enough to get started.

Linux

Well, depending on the specific distribution you use the packages may differ as well as the syntax to install 'em. On Ubuntu/Debian you can install the necessary dependencies with:

apt-get update
apt-get install -y librsvg2-bin graphviz plotutils

others

Well - there's also a Dockerfile contained in the git-repo you can use to get started. Just change into the folder, build the image and run it:

$ docker build -t="schoeffm/wuml" .
$ docker run --rm -ti schoeffm/wuml -h
Usage: wuml [options]

Options:
  -V, --version                        output the version number
  -f, --format [svg|png|jpg]           Optional: Determine your prefered output format (default is 'svg')
  -t, --type [class|sequence|usecase]  Determines the graph-type to be created based on the given input (default is 'class')
  -c, --content <content>              UML-image content as input-string
  -i, --input <path>                   Input UML description file
  -o, --output <path>                  Filename for the output diagram file
  -O, --orientation [LR|TD]            Optional: Orientation (Left-To-Right or Top-Down) (default will be determined automatically)
  -S, --splines [ortho|spline]         Optional: What kind of associations will be drawn (default is 'spline')
  -w, --waggly                         Turns on the waggly-mode
  --fontFamily <font>                  Set the output font-family (i.e. Purisa or Dadhand)
  --fontSize <size>                    Set the size of the font to be used
  -h, --help                           output usage information
    
$ docker run --rm -ti -v /absolue/path/to/test/data:/data schoeffm/wuml -i /data/input.wuml -o /data/output.png -w --fontFamily Purisa`