Smetana doesn't allow [hide] in connections?

Question

The built-in graphviz implementation does not seem to allow hidden connections in some diagrams. Is this intended or still missing?

Here's an example:

http://www.plantuml.com/plantuml/uml/ZP51JmCX48NlyokUlUzXTprvQk8Vy6wCcIoJ1Si20THKmt-tQuccj8SbOO0tttjpO9yon_o-M4e7um97Nc2DatmCWk3jSNsGDaemcJZPUazPelWLehiGULuOS-IWFypNg_8PRwT257Wwy2nuEfyzlWbenE5N12RBAU5nhNsLIjiuiwNkwwpnEclyosexznTJAjmf_-cUjL5At4jNmN-WHnVDh7D3Z0_OuURQNNXlX0zRhCEciTLJ02f4j1UdJl_w0m00

Comments

It is also not respecting the "skinparam linetype polyline".

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Looks like the problamatic line is:

!pragma graphviz_dot jdot

when commenting this line it does work. I think that the jdot program does not know how to handle hidden lines.

What is jdot?

Where does jdot come from?

Why no just use the Graphviz dot program?

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the jdot is the internal implementation of graphviz.

https://plantuml.com/smetana02

I'm using PlantUML in a CI Build, and for licensing  and platform reasons I cannot use graphviz, so I am starting to check this alternative.

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I didn't know about this possibility, very interesting for CI usage. Most likely the hidden possibility is still missing.

Note in the linked page it says:

As you can see, some feature are not implemented yet (drawing of arrow heads, for example).

though looking at the image the arrow heads are present, so probably this part of the documentation is lagging a bit as well.

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Yes, this is why I made this request - not sure if I should call it bug or missing feature..

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Hello Albert,

What is jdot?
Where does jdot come from?

FYI, here are some informations about jdot or Smetana (internal Java port of GraphViz/Dot):

• http://plantuml.com/smetana02.html
• https://github.com/plantuml/smetana

• https://forum.plantuml.net/4436
• https://forum.plantuml.net/5336

Why no just use the Graphviz dot program?

In fact the main goal, is for some infrastructure where Graphviz is missing or just to avoid to install Graphviz (and avoid also dependences with Graphviz).

If that can help,
Regards,
Th.

Answer 1

The built-in graphviz implementation does not seem to allow hidden connections in some diagrams. Is this intended or still missing?

It's indeed a bug that has just been fixed in last beta http://beta.plantuml.net/plantuml.jar

Tell us if it's not working for you and please go on in publish issue report about this built-in graphviz implementation.

the jdot is the internal implementation of graphviz.

Note that the directive has been renamed to !pragma graphviz_dot smetana
We do not use "jdot" name anymore now because there are some others projects using this code name and this is putting some more confusion to something already complex :-)

In fact the main goal, is for some infrastructure where Graphviz is missing or just to avoid to install Graphviz (and avoid also dependences with Graphviz).

Note that there are another long term goal we did not mention yet: once smetana will be completely working (don't expect that before 3 to 6 years!), our intention is to refactor it and to directly call internal GraphViz methods (so, in Java, in that long term future) that will allow us to overcome some limitations we have right now because we must use the "dot" language as intermediate (since we generate an intermediate "dot" file)

GraphViz is a treasure of powerfull algorithms that will allow us to generate better diagrams.
But don't hold your breath !