IS there a possiblity to align the text over the arrow for example to be aligned centered

Question

Pleae consider the below example

@startuml

a -> b : very long message so it will have many new lines as \n and \n and \n

b-> a : another very long message \n so we need to align the text centered

@enduml

Answer 1

Maybe it's not exactly what you are looking for, but you can have this:

@startuml
skinparam SequenceMessageAlign center
a -> b : very long message so it will have many new lines as \n and \n and \n
b-> a : another very long message \n so we need to align the text centered
@enduml

Comments

But this aligned the text as a whole over the arrow which is useful by the way but I want to align the text it self as centered, can't it be a required featured to be implemented next release?

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This has been implemented in release 7953. Enjoy!

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Can you say how it's been implemented?  Sorry I know this is an old post but I can't find this anywhere.

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Simply use the following syntax:

skinparam SequenceMessageAlign center

See:

http://www.plantuml.com/plantuml/uml/RSun3i8m50FGlQVm1RW00n87O69b-MsjD2BvWVpGqDlp1KWiJ5xi9zirwasgP9nvVr0ddcWcWSSKWsAYDjP1i3jWn1uhwuPKD21_Qh22sD1ZIbXa9RBe1cL7Yag362uAqVaNm-YOE2PQsiBw1_M9kvqESKOhaFSRRwFnsRwtEBy0

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Thank you!  Did the trick.

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Actually, I see now that this changes the alignment for the entire diagram.  I was looking to selectively change the text alignment depending on the arrow.  For full disclosure, i'd like text over -> to be left aligned, and text over <- to be right aligned, and I have several of each.

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Ok. This is not possible yet.
We will implement a new setting:

skinparam SequenceMessageAlign direction

that does what you are expecting

And also a skinparam SequenceMessageAlign reserveDirection that does the opposite.

This will be available in next beta (in a week or two). We'll post a message here when ready.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Answer 2

With last beta:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13064071/plantuml.jar

You can have:

@startuml
skinparam SequenceMessageAlign direction
Alice -> Bob : hello
return ok
@enduml


or

@startuml
skinparam SequenceMessageAlign reverseDirection
Alice -> Bob : hello with long text
Alice -> Bob : hello
return ok
@enduml

Is this what you are expecting ?
Thanks