CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaclassumldiagrams
GustyWind
GustyWind

Reputation: 3036

Generating Class Diagram

HI All I am at the end of the release of my project.So in order to keep working our manager asked us to generate Class Diagrams for the code we had written.Its medium project with 3500 java files .So I think we need to generate class diagrams.First I need to know how reverse engineering works here. Also I looked for some tools in Google(Green, Violet) but not sure whether they are of any help.Please suggest me how to proceed.Also a good beginning tutorial is appreciated.

Upvotes: 12

Views: 12978

Answers (10)

aditsu quit because SE is EVIL
aditsu quit because SE is EVIL

Reputation: 4089

ObjectAid is pretty nice. You can drag classes into a diagram and arrange them the way you want.

Upvotes: 2

miku
miku

Reputation: 188004

This is more a toolchain than a tool and I haven't tried it out myself. But it maybe a starting point. Using UMLGraph, ant and GraphViz. Explained step by step: in this article.

Upvotes: 3

anon
anon

Reputation:

I strongly recommend BOUML. Its Java reverse support is absolutely ROCK SOLID.

BOUML has many other advanteges:

  • it is extremely fast (fastest UML tool ever created, check out benchmarks),
  • has rock solid C++, Java, PHP and others import support,
  • it is multiplatform (Linux, Windows, other OSes),
  • has a great SVG export support, which is important, because viewing large graphs in vector format, which scales fast in e.g. Firefox, is very convenient (you can quickly switch between "birds eye" view and class detail view),
  • it is full featured, impressively intensively developed (look at development history, it's hard to believe that such fast progress is possible).
  • supports plugins, has modular architecture (this allows user contributions, looks like BOUML community is forming up)

Upvotes: 10

crowne
crowne

Reputation: 8534

You may be able to reverse engineer class diagrams with the open source modelleing tool ArgoUML http://argouml.tigris.org/

Upvotes: 2

Reputation:

I've been using Enterprise Architect for a number of years. A JBoss developer suggested it to me. It works very well for all types of UML modeling including the reverse engineering of class models (Java, C# and others). The basic version is currently $120 per seat, but it has most of the capabilities of much more expensive tools and it is much easier to learn. I particularly like its ability to generate HTML and RTF documentation.

It is very easy to synchronize code between the tool and your source code. Even bi-directional if you want.

Your PM may also like the activity and sequence diagrams that it can create. I also frequently use the deployment diagrams. It's very helpful to have all of this in one tool.

Upvotes: 0

chimp
chimp

Reputation: 1849

I guess if your boss just wants to keep you busy until the next project starts then there's no harm in it, but you will find pretty quickly that creating a class diagram with 3500 classes will tell you exactly NOTHING about your system. In fact, you don't really want a diagram with more than about 10 classes on it. So once you have reversed all the code into your modelling tool, you will want to start organizing and arranging to find the meaning. Create a new diagram, drop a single important class onto it and bring in all the classes that are directly related to that class. Repeat for maybe the 300 most significant classes. Don't worry, it isn't as horrible as it sounds, maybe a week's work.

For the record, my modelling tool of choice is Enterprise Architect by Sparx Systems. It will reverse java sources or .jar files. There is a free 30 day trial edition.

Upvotes: 1

user109623
user109623

Reputation:

I ve used Visual Paradigm for UML for what you want to do and it was quite good.

See here for details.

Just go Tools -> Instant reverse and select your packages.

Upvotes: 2

brianegge
brianegge

Reputation: 29852

The tool you want to use is Doxygen. It's similar to Javadoc, but works across multiple languages. If figures out the dependencies, and can call graphviz to render the class diagrams. Here's an example of a few Java classes run through Doxygen.

Upvotes: 6

Nick
Nick

Reputation: 1815

Visual Paradigm for UML Standard Edition (or Better) will reverse engineer Java files in to Class Diagrams.

Upvotes: 1

Peter Stuifzand
Peter Stuifzand

Reputation: 5104

There are some tools available that will help you generate these diagrams. These cost money.

Otherwise you could to try to parse your Java files. This could be as simple to create a simple parser that reads the Java files and writes the name of the class and all the import statements to a file and generates a class diagram from there, graphviz can help you there.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions