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The Unified Modeling Language™, (UML®) is a graphical language for organizing, analyzing, and planning software projects before coding begins. The UML specification is maintained by the Object Management Group™ (OMG™) and was created in 1997 by combining of the strengths of three competing software modeling technologies. The current specification (UML 2.1) reflects changes, suggestions, and enhancements resulting from years of applying UML in practice. Learn about UML software development and support for UML in Altova applications below.

A set of UML diagrams forms a model that may be compared to an architect’s blueprint. This model helps software developers and project managers to verify that the application logic is correct and end user needs will be met. Since UML provides a graphical view of a software application, it can be understood by non-programmers and facilitates communication between developers and other project stakeholders. An accurate and detailed UML model lends itself to the application of advanced tools and technologies that can automate and accelerate development tasks.

Altova UModel® 2008 combines a rich visual interface with advanced features previously available only in much more expensive UML modeling tools. UModel takes the mystery out of UML, making visual software design practical for programmers and project managers. It is the simple, cost-effective way to draw upon UML.

UML modeling traces its roots to brainstorming sessions conducted at whiteboards. Unfortunately, many UML tools continue to create diagrams that have a crude, oversimplified appearance. Poorly implemented UML applications intimidate new users with overwhelming and confusing arrays of menu options, toolbars, and dialog boxes.

UModel makes visual software design practical for programmers and project managers everywhere. Combining a rich visual interface with superior usability features, UModel offers intelligent, context-sensitive drawing and editing aids: color coding, entry helpers, fast editing buttons, palettes, pull-down menus, cascading styles, multiple views, helper windows, specialized toolbars and more.

The UML 2.1 specification defines 13 major diagram types and over 1,000 graphical and textual language elements, plus extension mechanisms. Complexity is a problem facing developers who want to learn UML. Which diagrams and elements pertain to the problem at hand? How do various diagram types interact and in what sequence should they be drawn?

UModel supports all the mainstream and most-requested UML diagrams for project requirements, data structures, activities and interactions, and application architecture, to satisfy a variety of modeling styles and yield immediate benefits to programmers, managers, and other project stakeholders, including use case diagrams, class diagrams, object diagrams, sequence diagrams, activity diagrams, state machine diagrams, composite structure diagrams, packages, component diagrams, deployment diagrams, and Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) diagrams.

In the past, UML was criticized because it can extend planning and analysis steps at the beginning of a software project. Some developers and project managers became concerned that their projects would be considered “behind schedule” because code-writing was viewed as delayed when compared to previous development efforts.

However, the payoffs come in several forms. Detailed models can be used to generate code automatically, freeing programmers to concentrate on the project’s business logic and overall architecture. Also, more rigorous up-front analysis means the delivered product is more likely to fulfill business requirements and contain fewer defects.

UModel includes a code generator to automatically create Java, C#, or VB.NET source code files based on your class diagrams and component diagrams. Code generation encourages the style of iterative development process encouraged by today’s leading software development authorities. You can make revisions to the model and generate updated code without manual re-writing.

Maintenance programmers are frequently tasked with the responsibility of fixing bugs or adding features long after the original developers have moved on to other projects. Unfamiliar source code and inadequate documentation make critical business applications difficult to adapt to new requirements. Maintaining compatibility with changes in the computing environment, such as a new OS release, can also be an issue. In UML software development, reverse engineering describes the ability to read existing source code and automatically generate appropriate UML models. This graphical UML representation helps programmers understand complex applications more quickly and comprehensively.

Reverse engineering in UModel allows you to read Java, C#, or VB.NET source code files generated by XMLSpy® 2008 or MapForce® 2008 – as well as your own Java, C#, or VB.NET project files – and automatically create UML diagrams in a UModel project. You can use the model as a starting point to enhance an existing application, or reuse components in a new project.

At some point in the development process, software engineers coming from a code-writing background will shift attention from the UML model to the actual implemented source code. Over time, as the project advances through test and debug cycles and more changes are implemented in the source code, the model becomes less accurate and less useful as a documentation and collaboration tool.

UModel round trip engineering keeps your model synchronized as you edit and enhance your source code. Round trip engineering is not a one-time operation, you can continuously choose the best location for each project revision: edit your code or revise a UML diagram, then synchronize models or synchronize code to update your changes.

XMI (XML Metamodel Interchange) is a part of the UML specification that describes the method for software tools to save UML models in a common format, enabling users to share models even if they do not all use the same UML applications.

UModel can import and export UML models according to the XMI 2.1 specification to ensure interoperability and to enable models created in more expensive or cumbersome tools to be opened and edited simply and cost-effectively.

Find out how easy it can be to create a superior graphical blueprint of your software development project. Download a free trial of Altova UModel® 2008 today.

UML®, OMG™, Object Management Group™, and Unified Modeling Language™ are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Object Management Group, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.