A tool for generating UML diagram from source code

Abstract

The aims of this project is to build a new freeware tool for user to generate different kinds of completed UML diagrams from program source code and edit the diagrams in script-based control so that the loss of the program’s structural and behavioural specification can be reduced in the generated diagram and time can be saved on drawing diagram with script editing. The important specific constraints of the current situation include the existing UML modeling tools only provides limited function, i.e., many UML diagram generators are limited to class diagram extraction; the completeness of the generated diagram is inacceptable; lots of manual work is required to edit the diagram in graphical-based control. The general idea of the system is to build a tool for user to generate the class diagram and sequence diagrams from program source code. The correctness and the completeness of the generated diagram are the major consideration through the development. Also, a script-based control which involves an external UML modeling tool called “PlantUML” is introduced for the user. The key point of this report is to demonstrate the design of the system and evaluate the results. The system, named as “PlantUML Diagram Generator (PDG)”, is deployed in Eclipse Rich Client Platform development with the Java SE 1.6 execution environment for different desktop operating systems. The achievement of this project is to develop PDG with class diagram generator, sequence diagram generator and PlantUML script editor. The strength and the weakness of the system are estimated and the results of the generated diagram are evaluated by comparing to the IBM Rational Rose. It is proved that the generator in this system can generated a much more complete and correct class diagram and sequence comparatively.