So I'm currently studying UML and I have a question regarding the difference between a Domain Model how this is compared with an Activity Diagram. I a bit confused with the following terms:
Activity Diagram (AD)
Domain Model (DM)
OO Domain Model (OO DM)
Class Diagram (as a term)
Domain Class Diagram (CD)
Design Class Diagram (DCD)
In Visual Paradigm, you have two the option between Activity & Class Diagrams to draw out your designs. So far I have been using Class Diagrams for my Domain Model but a friend of mine told me you should not be using Class Diagrams for your Domain Model. So my question what's the difference and how does a program like Visual Paradigm differentials with the standards of the subject I'm trying to learn.
Domain model and domain diagram do not exist in UML, so all depends on the definition you use.
If I look at the literature it seems the 'standard' diagram to show a domain model is a class diagram, may be associated with object diagram to show example of instances.
An activity is a behavior, to use common word an 'algorithm'. An activity can be used to model the body of an operation. The goal of an activity and a class are totally different, one cannot replace the other.
Even the definition in Wikipedia is a domain model is a conceptual model of the domain that incorporates both behaviour and data the associated diagram in the article is a class diagram. In the article the word behaviour visibly refer to the rules the business uses in relation to that data.
Anyway, whatever, all depends on what you have to model, there is no definitive rules saying in case 1 use only class diagram, in case 2 use only activity diagram, and so on. You use all the diagrams you want while they are adapted for to say something useful
Activity diagrams are used for represent the behavior which shows flow of control or object flow with emphasis on the sequence and conditions of the flow.
Example:
The class diagram is used to specify the relations that exist between the classes from your model, also you can represent their attributes and methods.
Example:
Going back to your question, if you want to represent the behavior of your model, I should recommend using an activity diagram, but if you only want to specify classes that you want to use and their relation then you can use a class diagram.
Related
I had been doing some UML class diagram examples from the recent exams for my software design course, and I found one where it says:"Design a class model for a specific problem, by using MVC and STATE pattern, but no need to include getters and setters." Is this the same thing as the regular class diagram? I've been googling and I found nothing UML based by searching for class MODEL.
The model is abstract. A diagram is a view on the model. UML offers a number of different diagrams. There are mainly two categories: static and behavioral. Class diagrams fall under the static category and they show how the classes in the model are related to each other. You can create multiple class diagrams like one with all classes (assuming that you have a rather limited number of classes) and/or one per class with that in focus. Or you have sub-domains with related classes placed in one diagram. The behavioral diagrams shed light on how class instances communicate with each other at run time.
As a side note you can think of it in terms of Platon's Cave Allegory. The diagrams are the shadows of the real world projected by a fire to the wall you can see from you chained position.
"Design a class model" means: "Create one or more class diagrams that together form a consistent model".
A model in computer science is a graphical representation of (a piece of) software or of (a part of) the business domain in order to help people know or understand the subject the model represents (see wikipedia). This graphical representation may consist of one or more diagrams.
I've been struggling to understand the transition from a UML Class Design Diagram to a UML Sequence Diagram for a school assignment. My design class diagram contains a central DataManager class that connects the use case control classes to the data table classes (ie. user, product, employee), however, do I need to include the data table classes in my use cases' sequence diagrams?
Design Class Diagram
My Sequence Diagram Attempt
So, in the end, I didn't phrase my question as I wanted to. I was asking if communications between the database tables and the data manager class should also appear in the sequence diagram. The answer is, they should. The whole point of having a sequence diagram is to guide a developer in the "development" of a class. For my diagrams, all messages I used for this communication had a standard sql() operation for each message.
I'm working on sequence & class diagram for education website, should all objects in sequence diagram be a class in Class diagram?
For example in sequence diagram for registration process I need an object called "Data Base" which needed for saving information of user, should "Date base" be a class in class diagram? and what can be its functions? Is it just load & save?
I think it depends on the level of formality, abstraction, and the purpose of your UML model.
Martin Fowler talks about UML as Sketch, UML as Blueprint, and UML as Programming Language.
The terminology has gotten some good usage; and I think 'UML as Sketch' in particular has emerged as a popular mode, with the goal of human-to-human communication about the design of a system; not necessarily a formal engineering specification (i.e. a blueprint), nor suitable as an input to a code generator (i.e. a programming language).
If you want to use UML in Sketch mode, which is perfectly valid, then it's not a requirement for your sequence diagrams to use only the classes defined in your class diagram. In fact, some of the objects/lifelines in a sequence diagram aren't class instances at all:
They may be "actors" defined in a use case diagram (or not). Actors are often people, and as such are represented as stick figures. "End user" is a common actor to include in a sequence diagram. Plenty of examples here.
They may be external systems, like a database, that are not defined in your class model. Your system might have a class, or set of classes, to abstract the database, i.e. a "data access layer" or DAL. But then again, your system might not have a DAL; and even if it does, you might still want your sequence diagram to show the interactions across the boundary, between the DAL and the actual database.
Using UML as a sketch, the methods implemented by external actors or system components are really up to you. You could show a database query as execute query, or something more specific, like an actual SQL statement. The "correctness" of your diagram is in its ability to communicate effectively with your audience, at the right level of detail and formality.
Yes, the Database would be a class in Class Diagram and its functions can be validation() , generatingErrorMessage() etc.
i'm php developer using MVC architecture that i'm new to UML
i know use-case , class , object , activity, sequence diagrams but i don't know for modeling a application where i should start.
i know use-case and class diagrams are structural diagrams and activity and sequence are behavior diagrams
but my questions are:
1. for modeling a app when i should use use-case diagram and when i should use class diagram?
2. does class diagram has abstract concept? because when i'm developing web app i have some controller and model or view also several classes that i use for different purpose (like insert data to database - validate form inputs and so on) but they don't look like to examples of class diagram that i'v seen until now so my question is class diagram is used for show concept of our system and it doesn't need to generate real class code form it ?
for example modeling a ticket reservation that may have some classes like this:
but we don't write class codes like this and it can be different in programming but for view the concept we are using class diagrams . is it true ?
Use-case diagram is usually used for representing the business of the project, indicate who(actor) are going to utilize the system and what services(cases) does program provide?
The class-diagram is used for specifying the whole system structure, but there no code and exact behavior will be provided by the class, generally developers don't specify the exact behavior with each module in-detail.
for example, consider a simple login module. in use-case diagram, we just mention that user logins into the system.
In class diagram we specify the possible base classes are needed, in other word we apply the architecture (we are planning) basis.
In sequence diagram we focus more on what is going on each method(while this is not necessary).
In fact UMl is used for representing the system as abstract, not the exact(in-detail) functionality.
for example I pass the above class-diagram to a developer, and tell him about the detail login process as a separated document.
If I create a conceptual class diagram such that each class captures 'name' and 'attributes' but not 'operations', have I not basically created what would be otherwise considered an ERD? I'm trying to gain an understanding of what the differences are between creating a conceptual class diagram as I have described versus calling it a ERD? If these are still two different animals, can somebody please explain what the differences are?
The class diagram contains just the classes in your object model with eventual links/relationships connecting diagram elements. However those links don't necessarily correspond to physical relationships like in an ERD diagram, but instead they represent logical connections.
The class diagram is just the object model of your application and does not contain any persistence-specific information. When you think about the class diagram forget about the database or any other storage you may use.
The ERD diagram on the other side, is a persistence-specific diagram which display the entities (tables) existing in a (most often) relational database. It also displays the physical relations (and cardinalities) between those tables and all other database-specific information. The ERD diagram can sometimes look similar to the class diagram, but that doesn't mean is the same as a class diagram.
There´s little difference in the expressiveness of both (if we just focus on the attributes, classes and associations part) if you use Extended Entity Relationship diagrams (the most common case nowadays)
True, they look very different at the graphical level since they use different symbols for the elements but the "semantics" are quite similar. They both allow inheritance (again, I´m talking about EER), n-ary associations, association classes, ...
The ER diagrams I've seen (most frequently ERWin IE notation) have focused on the design for a database. They are concerned with primary keys, foreign keys, have unnamed relationships, and usually have no generalization / specialization.
A good UML conceptual class diagram, on the other hand, is not concerned with keys, reflects the problem domain, and has association-end properties that at least hint at the semantics of why things are related. This helps communicate the domain down to more junior developers so they don't have to guess.
It depends on the situation where you may not like to do the ER-D. But imagine if you have a seperate data layer where the data logic is handled. In this case many details of data shall not be shared with the application layer. And you class diagram shall not go beyond the application layer. I must stress that both the diagrams are not equal. And there are situations where you need to do both, mainly in multi-tier architecture, and there are situations where you may be able to just use class diagram; e.g. single-tier application.
I strongly advocate the view that class diagram doesn't abrogate the E-R diagram.
Design class diagrams are made from conceptual model and collaboration diagrams.
Design class diagrams include:
Classes, associations and attributes
Methods
Types of attributes
Navigability
Dependencies
IMO In Simple terms
Class diagram depicts the details of how will the system work.
ER diagram depicts how the system persists 'state' as a blue print.
Goal:
Detail out state and behavior of the components(classes) of the system.
Design 'efficient', flexile system(less coupling and more cohesion) using Solid principles.
Goal:
Design a blue print of how to 'efficiently' persist the state of the system.
Consider what kind of queries will be made (read vs write), are there any joins required
consequently figure out the columns for indexing
Use Normalization, ACID properties.
PS: notice the both the diagram tries to efficiently do thing in their on respect.