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| Below are answers to the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) about Altova UModel® 2012, the starting point for successful software development.
- What is UModel® 2012 and what does it do?
Altova UModel® 2012 is an affordable UML modeling application with a rich visual interface and superior usability features to help software developers to visually design a software application or analyze the design of an existing application.
UModel® 2012 helps software developers work more effectively with other project stakeholders who are not programmers to clearly define project requirements early in the development process.
UModel® 2012 also encourages your development team to thoroughly plan the application logic before coding begins, similar to drawing up architectural blueprints before starting construction of a building.
By representing software in a graphical format, UModel® 2012 improves communication between programmers assigned to individual pieces of a large project.
UModel® 2012 also includes advanced features such as code generation, reverse engineering, round-trip engineering, project documentation, and XMI support that help improve productivity and accelerate software development and are typically only found in much more expensive UML tools.
Back to Top - Which diagrams does UModel® 2012 support?
UModel® 2012 supports all 14 UML 2.3 diagram types, and includes a special UML-style diagram for XML Schema.
Specifically, UModel® 2012 supports:
- Use case diagrams
- Activity diagrams
- Class diagrams
- Communication diagrams
- Component diagrams
- Composite structure diagrams
- Deployment diagrams
- Interaction overview diagrams
- Object diagrams
- Package diagrams
- Sequence diagrams
- State machine diagrams and protocol state machine diagrams
- Timing diagrams
- Profile diagrams
- UML database diagrams
- XSD diagrams
- Business process (BPMN) diagrams
UModel® 2012 also supports all 9 SysML 1.1 diagrams for modeling embedded systems:
- SysML activity diagrams
- SysML block definition diagrams
- SysML internal block diagrams
- SysML package diagrams
- SysML parametric diagrams
- SysML requirements diagrams
- SysML sequence diagrams
- SysML state machine overview diagrams
- SysML use case diagrams
Back to Top - Who is UModel® 2012 used by?
UModel® 2012 is used by software developers and system architects, typically those with a code-writing background, who want to bring the benefits of UML modeling and code generation into the software development process.
In addition, UModel® 2012 can be used by non-programmers who have an interest in a software development project. UModel® 2012 use case diagrams can be reviewed by a project manager or even presented to customers to verify that a project design adequately addresses the problem requirements.
Business analysts use UModel® 2012 to graphically illustrate business rules for both a non-technical audience and for developers who implement business systems software.
UModel® 2012 diagrams can also be used by quality assurance teams as a guide to the design of validation tests for the project.
UModel® 2012 supports flexible subproject organization and a wide variety of source conrol systems to assist teams working together on large projects.
Back to Top - What are the benefits of using UModel® 2012?
UModel® 2012 encourages rigorous analysis of the problem at hand before coding begins. This in turn can reduce errors and omissions that are difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to resolve when they are discovered later.
During actual code development, UModel® 2012 reinforces use of widely-supported object-oriented programming practices. UModel® 2012 diagrams also become an important part of the project documentation.
UModel® 2012 saves time by generating Java, C#, or Visual Basic .NET code automatically, saving programmers from this tedious and error-prone process not only during the original implementation, but for each subsequent rework and revision cycle.
The graphical nature of UModel® 2012 lets developers quickly understand portions of the project they do not personally work on. This improved clarity also promotes reusability of components in future projects.
All these benefits contribute to faster software development with fewer errors and defects.
Back to Top - Why is UModel® 2012 support for UML 2.3 so important?
UML 2.3 is the latest version of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) released by the Object Management Group (OMG). Each revision to the UML specification includes features and enhancements that are a direct response to limitations of previous versions that forced developers to create non-standard diagrams and workarounds.
New editions of programming languages introduce new language constructs. Since UModel supports reverse engineering of existing Java, C#, and Visual Basic source code to create UML models for analysis and enhancement, the most recent UML specification offers the most functionality for representing diverse code libraries.
UModel fully supports the XMI model interchange for import and export of models in UML 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 notations, offering a comprehensive migration path for users of other more cumbersome and expensive UML tools.
Altova has demonstrated a record of timely support for each new version of the UML specification since the initial launch of UModel, shortly after the introduction of UML 2.0.
Back to Top - What advanced UML modeling features are supported in UModel® 2012?
UModel® 2012 supports code generation, reverse engineering, and round-trip engineering.
UModel® 2012 can generate Java, C#, or Visual Basic .NET code based on the class diagrams created during the analysis and design phase, freeing programmers from the mundane task of writing low level infrastructure code so they can concentrate on the business logic and overall architecture of the project.
UModel® 2012 also lets developers generate code from state machine diagrams that is fully executable, so they can quickly begin testing the logic captured in a state machine diagram very early in the project. UModel® 2012 examples even include Visual Studio solution files for C# and Visual Basic, and a Java tester application that demonstrates execution of the state machine code and is easily adaptable to use with your team's state machine diagrams.
Reverse engineering allows software developers to apply UModel® 2012 to automatically create UML models from the Java, C#, or Visual Basic .NET source code and binary files for existing applications. This makes the appliation easier to analyze and enhance, and can accelerate the addition of new features or the re-use of existing components in a new project.
UModel® 2012 round trip engineering frees programmers to work in the most efficient method. As a project evolves, developers may want to modify and add to the original base of code generated by UModel® 2012, working directly in the application source code files. The Altova UModel® 2012 round-trip engineering feature reads the modified code and automatically updates the UML diagrams to keep the models accurate and relevant.
UModel® 2012 supports Model Driven Architecture (MDA) through platform-independent models and a Model Transformation selection in the Project menu that transforms all code relevant modeling elements to and from C#, Visual Basic, Java, databases, and XSD. Model Driven Architecture allows project architects and developers to focus on the project logic and the problem domain during the design phase without concern for the details of any particular source code language implementation.
Documentation is an important part of any software development project – to measure progress toward completion, to communicate functionality among team members, and to provide a project roadmap later on when the application needs to be updated. UModel® 2012 accelerates this step by automatically generating project documentation in HTML, Microsoft Word, or rich text (RTF) formats. UModel® 2012 supports integration with Altova StyleVision® 2012 and application of an SPS stylesheet for highly customized documentation for your UML project.
Back to Top - What versions of application source code does UModel® 2012 support?
UModel® 2012 supports Java 1.4, Java 5.0, Java 6.0, C# 1.2 , C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, Visual Basic .NET 7.1, Visual Basic .NET 8.0, and Visual Basic .NET 9.0 for code generation, reverse engineering existing application source code, and round-trip engineering of UML models.
UModel® 2012 fully supports new features introduced in Java 5.0, including generics (templates) and enumerations. UModel® 2012 also supports C# and Visual Basic .NET generics, with their strong type checking and instantiation at runtime.
UModel® 2012 also provides compatibility with new language constructs introduced in C# 3.0 and VB9.0 that directly support XML.
UModel® 2012 database diagrams can be automatically created from existing SQL databases. Changes in database diagrams generate SQL change scripts compatible with popluar relational databases.
Back to Top - Does UModel® 2012 support interoperability with other UML tools?
Yes, Altova UModel® 2012 can import and export UML models in the latest industry standard XMI 2.1.1 format. This means you can inexpensively expand the use of UML in your development team by adding UModel alongside – or even to replace – expensive, legacy UML tools, and you can import existing UML works in progress that are stored in XMI files.
UModel® 2012 also supports the earlier XMI 2.0 and XMI 2.1 standards for both import and export of UML models.
UModel® 2012 gives you affordable access to all the high end features, including code generation in Java, C#, and Visual Basic .NET, reverse engineering of existing Java, C#, and Visual Basic .NET applications, round-trip engineering, and XMI import and export.
Back to Top - How does UModel® 2012 work with other Altova products?
UModel® 2012 can model XML Schema as part of a UML project. During code generation for projects containing schema diagrams, UModel® 2012 writes XSD files compatible with XMLSpy® 2012.
UModel® 2012 can import XSD files created or edited by Altova XMLSpy® 2012, and XMLSpy® 2012 can export XML Schema as a UModel® 2012 project file.
Additionally, XMLSpy® 2012 Enterprise Edition can generate Java, C#, or Visual Basic .NET source code for object-oriented classes based on XML Schema. The reverse engineering feature of UModel® 2012 can import the source code files created by XMLSpy® 2012 to create UML diagrams for further development, for documentation, or for reuse.
You can also use XMLSpy to open and examine XMI 2.1 files exported by UModel® 2012 or other UML tools, since XMI is an XML-based format.
Altova MapForce® 2012 Enterprise Edition has the ability to generate Java, C#, or Visual Basic .NET source code for sophisticated data integration and Web services applications. UModel® 2012 can reverse engineer the MapForce® 2012 generated source files to graphically document the application or to enhance it with additional features.
UModel® 2012 can send SQL database change scripts directly to a SQL editor window in DatabaseSpy® 2012.
UModel® 2012 project files are compatible with the quick comparison feature when comparing directories using Altova DiffDog® 2012.
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