Archive for the ‘StarUML’ tag
Generating a Graphical User Interface
Remember my factory method design pattern example to compute the first name and last name from a full name?
No? It’s really easy. You only have to provide a full name, like “John Doe” or “Doe, John” and the business logic computes the correct first name and last name.
This time we are not interested in the business logic and data binding, but we are going to generate the graphical user interface!
First, we have to model the form. 
We can do that with UML. Use your favorite UML tool (StarUML), export to XMI. Finally, feed the XMI to a code generator (MyGeneration) using the right templates.
That’s all there is!
SmartDraw vs. Dynamic Draw!
To be honest with you: I am a Visionist.
I really like Microsoft Visio. I do. I use it a lot, but from a functional perspective I use a very narrow portion in respect to different diagrams available.
I almost always start with a Flowchart and extend it into something I like. Before I discovered StarUML, I modeled UML diagrams using Visio Stencil and Template for UML 2.2
Thus it was time to do some research i.e. query “alternative to visio”. Of course, there is Dia. To be honest with you, I find it a little bit… premature. I looks even premature on Ubuntu.
Other candidates are Dynamic Draw and SmartDraw. Dynamic Draw is open source, and for SmartDraw you need an open wallet.
First look at Dynamic Draw.
Although I find the user interface a little bit harsh, I do like Dynamic Draw. It has a rich functionality. It even has the ability to “Borrow Shapes from Visio”. No kidding.
A harsh, but perfect drawing suite.
The reverse is true with SmartDraw.
It has a really appealing user interface and a very large amount of shapes you can draw with. It also has a WPF-look. Nice, nice, nice. And you can import Visio, but you must have Visio installed.
I almost bought it, so slick it is….
But – unfortunately – it sucks. I hate to pay for buggy programs…
Just an example:
