I want to generate UML class diagrams from my actual Java code. I used Visual Pa
ID: 661601 • Letter: I
Question
I want to generate UML class diagrams from my actual Java code. I used Visual Paradigm when I had an academic License but as it is rather expensive I would like some recommendations.
Required
See links between classes
It allows me to modify the UML after generation (svg could work).
Free, even for commercial use
Linux
Nice plus
Does not depend on KDE (has small dependencies)
See which fields are linked from a class to another
See links between packages
Open Source
Light weight (Visual Paradigm is terribly heavy and that was annoying sometimes)
I don't mind if it is an eclipse plugin or a standalone application.
Follow up
I tried Umlet which I really liked for its lightness and speed but it does not show the links between classes and that makes it almost useless for me.
I tried papyrus as suggested but it does not do the expected work. At least if I have a lot of spare time some day I will know what project to work on.
Explanation / Answer
I had a need to do this a while ago, and I had the best outcome via umlgraph .. by modifying the ant build files (in the javadoc section), you get UML diagrams generated for you whenever you do an ant-build of a target that includes javadoc.
Under the hood, umlgraph uses graphviz, so you will need graphviz installed but I am sure that will be in the standard repo of whatever distribution you are using.
I found this article really useful when I had to do this ..
Some alternatives
ydoc (from yworks) does a javadoc doclet .. functions similar to umlgraph in embedding SVG or flash based class (and other UML) diagrams within generated javadoc files .. Unlike umlgraph, it is a full stand-alone GUI tool
ObjectAid costs only $19 and was quite promising and very very useful.
I kept some notes of other tools (including some that are eclipse based plugins) .. and can dig them up, if you are interested in looking at some other alternatives.
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