How to use the plugin ?

Question

After looking around in IntelliJ for a while I found the PlantUML tool under the View menu option.

However, after writing some simple code nothing shows in the window and there doesn't seem to exist
any documentation or if it does it is well hidden.

Where do I begin if I want to understand how to use this tool ?
It's pretty pointless to install a tool and then not being able to use it.

Comments

does plant uml can generate uml from existing classes? like simple uml plugin of intellij

Answer 1

Hi Anonymous,

I had the same problem as you, and ended up looked at the Eclipse demo to work out how to use the intellij plugin.

Here is what I did:

Select View -> Tool Windows -> PlantUML to bring up the viewing window.

In a comment section of one of the code files, type:

/*

* @startuml

* car --|> wheel

* @enduml

*/

In the PlantUML window you should see a diagram appear.

Hope that helps.

Comments

Hi,
I'm very new to programming and would like to use this tool, 
Regarding your answer, I have a dumb question, but I legitimately don't know the answer, so...
I assume when you write * car --|> wheel, you mean that this is the name of what you want to print on your diagram,

But if you want the program to draw a full program with multiple classes and packages, etc. How do you actually write it?

Hope you can help!

Answer 2

Creating a file *.puml should be enough.

Comments

Hi Leo,Could you give a step by step process of creating .puml file in IntelliJ, please.