ACTIVITY Diagram - Events going left to right as opposed to top to bottom?

Question

Hey guys,

First of all just wanted to say that I love Plant UML is has been amazing to use! Have had great success with automating the Component, Use Case, and Sequence Diagrams with ease and perfection.

Now I am onto to the Activity Diagram and I am having issues.

I don’t mind the swimlanes being the way they are from left to right, however I find that the current structure of the activity inside the diagram goes against the flow of the swim lanes. By this I mean that in its current state a ‘split’ or ‘decision’ that goes across multiple swimlanes, then going downwards does not look aesthetically pleasing and is buggy.

Is it possible to have the activity diagram going left to right as opposed to top to bottom (whilst keeping the swimlanes as is)?

Cheers!

Answer 1

Hello,

It would be nice if you could post here an concrete example so that we can discuss about it.

This would make things simpler!

Regards,

Comments

Hi thank you for your response!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/p235x165/10869701_420619384757905_403907159284975512_o.jpg
I have lost the code for the sample image above... But basically whenever I try a split/if decision across multiple swim lanes in it's default "hierarchical top to bottom format" it looks messy (and some of the lines go missing)


The Hierarchical format wouldn't be a problem if it was structured from left to right instead of top to bottom (see below a sample mock up diagram I edited myself manually)

SAMPLE MOCK UP IMAGE: https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/p235x165/10869701_420619384757905_403907159284975512_o.jpg

Is it possible to do this at the moment/introduce it into plantUML in the near future?

Many thank you for your time.

---

Using your image, we figure out that there are indeed some bugs when mixing swimlanes and split:

@startuml
|S1|
:decision;
split
:foo1;
split again
|S2|
:foo2;
split again
|S3|
:foo3;
end split
end
@enduml

We will fix that first.
We'll post a message here when this will be ready.
Thanks for your example and report!

---

Hi team,

Many thanks for your response. May I add some additional feedback for an additional diagram I have drawn (and had to manually mock up).

Here is the Code:
  @startuml
 skinparam activityFontSize 18
skinparam activityDiamondFontSize 18
skinparam activityArrowFontSize 18
skinparam defaultFontSize 18
skinparam noteFontSize 18
|Channels|
|ODS|
|GHS|
|Other  Legacy Systems|
|Custom GL Pre-Processor|
|CHS|
|CHS-GL|
|EIG|
|Oracle GL|
|Channels|
:Customer Transaction]
|ODS|
:Transaction Types/
|CHS|
split
:Update Customer Accounts;
|CHS-GL|
:Accounting Treatment (Walker CoA);
|EIG|
:Walker to Oracle CoA Mapping;
|Oracle GL|
:Journal Posting (Oracle CoA);
|GHS|
split again
:Update Customer Accounts;
|Custom GL Pre-Processor|
:Accounting Treatment (Walker CoA);
|EIG|
:Walker to Oracle CoA Mapping;
|Oracle GL|
:Journal Posting (Oracle CoA);
|GHS|
split again
:Update Customer Accounts;
|Custom GL Pre-Processor|
:Accounting Treatment (Walker CoA);
|EIG|
:Walker to Oracle CoA Mapping;
|Oracle GL|
:Journal Posting (Oracle CoA);
|Custom GL Pre-Processor|
split again
:Accounting Treatment (Walker CoA);
|EIG|
:Walker to Oracle CoA Mapping;
|Oracle GL|
:Journal Posting (Oracle CoA);
end split
 @enduml

PlantUML Output Diagram:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/q85/s2048x2048/10911288_421831294636714_4295113821578163503_o.jpg

My manual mock-up Diagram I drew: https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t31.0-8/10945746_421830241303486_6254694537224878657_o.jpg


Issues:
1) Would like the arrows to go across as opposed to top-to-bottom hierarchy which makes it look messy
2) Allowing multiple arrows in a split to join at the same unique box

If you guys could introduce these to further perfect the Activity Beta then that would be amazing    !!

Love your work!
MJ

---

We are working on having a better rendering on your example.
It makes take some time, because mixing split and swimlane was not really tested.
We'll post a message here when this will be ready.
Regards,

---

Hi Thank you so much for your responses!
Is there is any tentative date for enhancement release of these issues for Activity Beta ?
Thank you.

---

There will probably be a release this week-end, with all corrections present in the current beta.