Salt with minimum flowchat capabilities

Question

Currently, I can represent only one screen for each PlantUML file using Salt. It would be very nice if we could represent many screens and the transition between them.

Something like this:

@startuml

 

choose -right-> wait

 

wait -right-> success

wait -down-> error

 

choose:{+

<b>an example

choose one option

()one

()two

[ok]

}

 

wait:{+

<b>please wait

operation in progress

<&clock>

[cancel]

}

 

success:{+

<b>success

congratulations!

[ok]

}

 

error:{+

<b>error

failed, sorry

[ok]

}

 

@enduml

 

Answer 1

With the last beta:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13064071/plantuml.jar

There is a experimental feature that allows to include diagrams into notes & text.

You have to use {{ and }} as separator for this. And if you want to have salt diagram, you have to put "salt" on the first line.

Example:

 

@startuml

(*) --> "

{{

salt

{+

<b>an example

choose one option

()one

()two

[ok]

}

}}

" as choose

 

choose -right-> "

{{

salt

{+

<b>please wait

operation in progress

<&clock>

[cancel]

}

}}

" as wait

wait -right-> "

{{

salt

{+

<b>success

congratulations!

[ok]

}

}}

" as success

 

wait -down-> "

{{

salt

{+

<b>error

failed, sorry

[ok]

}

}}

"

@enduml

 

Note that this is not working with state diagram, because you cannot have long text in state diagram.

 

All these are really subject to change : we are not 100% satisfied by the syntax, so ideas & suggestions are welcome!

 

 

Comments

I tested it and found it's a good starting point. I agree the syntax is not the best, but it's something I can live with. For me, there are two fixes more important than the syntax:

1 - It's not possible to define the screen separated from the flow. It would be nice to have something like:

@startuml

alias choose = "{{
salt
{+
<b>an example
choose one option
()one
()two
[ok]
}
}}"

(*) --> choose

@enduml

2 - All the screens are inside an activity, which means they all have a red rectangle around them. I got a little better result playing with skinparam, but it's still far from ideal.

If just the fix (1) is made, we will adopt it here at work.

Thanks.

Answer 2

Using the last beta (8008beta3), you can have !define on severals lines (see http://plantuml.sourceforge.net/qa/?qa=1527/define-a-multi-line-macro )

So the following example is working with 8008beta3 :

@startuml
!definelong SALT(x)
"{{
salt
_##x
}}
" as x
!enddefinelong

!definelong _choose
{+
<b>an example
choose one option
()one
()two
[ok]
}
!enddefinelong

!definelong _wait
{+
<b>please wait
operation in progress
<&clock>
[cancel]
}
!enddefinelong

!definelong _success
{+
<b>success
congratulations!
[ok]
}
!enddefinelong
 
!definelong _error
{+
<b>error
failed, sorry
[ok]
}
!enddefinelong

(*) --> SALT(choose)
-right-> SALT(wait)
wait -right-> SALT(success)
wait -down-> SALT(error)

@enduml

Note that the SALT macro has to be defined before the others macros (and this is not working with the current official release).
You should probably use !include feature to define your screens in different files

Any thoughts ?
 

Comments

Is there anyway to comment the arrows?

---

You should be able to add Arrow labels in the normal way, eg

   wait -down-> SALT(error) : error

But this now gives IllegalArgumentException on PSystemSalt.createElement.

---

There have been some changes in the preprocessor.

You should now use this syntax.

---

I have few files with salt diagrams (or I can combine them in one)

I want to reuse them in activity diagram. how can I do it?

---

The last syntax doesn't work now, this one worked for me.