yWorks UML Doclet 3.0_01 User's Guide

Contents

  1. Introduction
    • System Requirements
      • Installing yDoc
        • Running yDoc
        • yDoc Features
        • Configuring yDoc
        • Limitations
          • Acknowledgments

            1. Introduction

            Welcome to the yWorks UML Doclet User's Guide.
            This guide explains how to use yWorks UML Doclet or yDoc for short, a javadoc extension (more specifically a doclet/taglet bundle) that provides

            • functionality to auto-generate, customize, and include UML diagrams in the API documentation of your Java products
            • a filter interface which allows for custom suppression of class, field, or method documentation
            • an easy to use mechanism for defining simple custom tags via XML

            Although, yDoc is designed in such a way that it allows user's to continue using all the features they know from standard javadoc, some basic knowledge about javadoc usage in general and doclet usage specifically is required to successfully use yDoc.

            Detailed information on javadoc is available at http://java.sun.com/j2se/javadoc/.
            Detailed information on doclets is available at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/javadoc/doclet/overview.html.

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            2. System Requirements

            yDoc 3.0_01 requires JDK 1.5.0 or JDK 1.6.0 installed on your system.
            To view UML class diagrams in SVG or SVGZ format, you either need a browser with native SVG support or a SVG plug-in. For Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can download one such plug-in from the Adobe SVG website. To view UML class diagrams in SWF format, you need a browser with a Flash Player plug-in. Flash Player plug-ins are available from Adobe, too.
            If you want to run yDoc under Unix/Linux operating systems, you need to have an X server installed and running, since yDoc makes use of the java awt and/or swing packages (for UML generation only).

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            3. Installing yDoc

            Unzip the yDoc archive (ydoc-3.0_01-jdk1.4.zip or ydoc-3.0_01-jdk1.5.zip respectively) into a directory of your choice. It will create a lib/, a doc/, and a resources/ subdirectory.
            The lib directory contains the java classes you need to run the ydoc expansion as jar libraries.
            The doc directory contains the yDoc User's Guide in HTML and PDF format, the DocFilter and PathResolver API Documentation in HTML format, and several usage samples.
            The resources directory contains various configuration files which you can use to customize the behaviour of the yDoc expansion. See Configuring yDoc and Using the XML driven taglet factory for more details.

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            4. Running yDoc

            Basically you run javadoc. The only difference is, that you tell javadoc to use the facilities provided by yDoc as a plug-in.
            Read on for detailed information on how to do that. You can skip this part, if you are already familiar with using custom doclets for javadoc.

            Using the yDoc doclet

            We recommend running javadoc either using a build tool such as ANT (version 1.5.2 or better) or directly from commandline. Before running javadoc from commandline, put your commandline options into a file called "options" and run javadoc by invoking
                javadoc @options @packages
            where "packages" is the filename of a file containing the java packages you want to be documented.

            See yDoc Quick Start for simple examples on how to use yDoc.

            For detailed documentation on the javadoc options, see the javadoc tool homepage at http://java.sun.com/j2se/javadoc/index.html.

            To use the yDoc expansion the following options are especially important:

            • -docletpath docletpathlist
              This option tells javadoc where to look for the yDoc expansion.
              The docletpathlist must contain the path to the library ydoc.jar
                   <ydoc_install_dir>/lib/ydoc.jar
              and the resources directory
                   <ydoc_install_dir>/resources
              Important:
              If you want to use the yDoc UML generation, docletpathlist must also contain the path to your compiled, unobfuscated Java class files (*.class), for which you want to generate the API documentation, and to all libraries needed to compile your Java source files.
            • -doclet ydoc.doclets.YStandard
              The -doclet ydoc.doclets.YStandard option finally tells javadoc to actually use the YStandard doclet, which is the core class of the ydoc expansion.

            See yDoc Features for information on (custom) commandline options and on how to use the specific capabilites of yDoc.

            A sample options file on a Win32 operating system could look like this:

              -d <destination directory>
              -sourcepath <source directory>
              -breakiterator
              -generic
              -umlautogen
              -author
              -docletpath <YID>/lib/ydoc.jar;<YID>/resources;<some path>/myapp.jar
              -doclet ydoc.doclets.YStandard
              -filterpath <YID>/lib/ydoc.jar
              -filter ydoc.filters.ExcludeFilter
              -tagletpath <YID>/lib/ydoc.jar
              -tag param
              -tag return
              -tag see
              -ytag y.uml
                        

            where <YID> denotes the <ydoc_install_dir>.
            On Unix/Linux operating systems, you will have to use " : " as a path separator instead of " ; ".

            Using the yDoc doclet from within a Java IDE

            Running yDoc from within Eclipse 3

              1.    Select Export from the File menu.
              2.    Choose Javadoc from Select an export destination.
            Go to the next tab.
              3.   

            Select Use Custom Doclet then specify Doclet name and Doclet class path.

            Name has to be ydoc.doclets.YStandard and path has to be <yid>/lib/ydoc.jar.
            <yid> denotes the absolute path to the yDoc directory.

            Go to the next tab.

              4.   

            Add in Extra Javadoc options
            -docletpath <yid>/resources

            If your sources depend on additional libraries, you also need to append the path to these libraries to the above line.

            Any other options you want to use, e.g. -d <destination> or -umlautogen, need to be specified in this input area, too.

              5.    Optionally, add -J-Xmx1024m in VM options.
            You may want to play with the numerical value depending on available RAM and project size.

            Running yDoc from within IntelliJ Idea 6

              1.    Select Generate JavaDoc ... from the Tools menu.
              2.   

            Add in Other command line arguments
            -docletpath "<yid>/lib/ydoc.jar" -doclet ydoc.doclets.YStandard -resourcepath "<yid>/resources"
            <yid> denotes the absolute path to the yDoc directory.

            If your sources depend on additional libraries, you also need to append the path to these libraries to the -docletpath option.

            Any other options you want to use, e.g. -d <destination> or -umlautogen, need to be specified in this input field, too.

              3.    Click Start.

            Running yDoc from within Netbeans 5.5

              1.    Switch to Projects view.
              2.    Open context menu for Source Packages (by right clicking).
            Choose Properties.
              3.    Expand Build.
            Choose Documenting.
              4.   

            Add in Additional Javadoc Options
            -docletpath "<yid>/lib/ydoc.jar" -doclet ydoc.doclets.YStandard -resourcepath "<yid>/resources"
            <yid> denotes the absolute path to the yDoc directory.

            If your sources depend on additional libraries, you also need to append the path to these libraries to the -docletpath option.

            Any other options you want to use, e.g. -d <destination> or -umlautogen, need to be specified in this input field, too.

              5.    Choose Generate Javadoc for "<project name>" from the Build menu.

            yDoc Quick Start

            This section demonstrates how to use yDoc to generate a Javadoc page of a sample class that will automatically include an UML diagram depicting that class.

            • yDoc from commandline

              Look in <YID>/doc/examples for sample options files and sample Java sources to test yDoc.
              All you need to do is invoking javadoc in <ydoc_install_dir> with either
                   javadoc @doc/examples/options.sample.linux
              or
                   javadoc @doc/examples/options.sample.win32
              depending on your operating system.

            • yDoc in ANT

              Using ANT 1.5.2 or better, you can use ANT's javadoc task to run yDoc.

              Look in <YID>/doc/examples for a sample ANT build file and sample Java sources to test yDoc.
              All you need to do is invoking ant in <ydoc_install_dir> with
                   ant -buildfile doc/examples/build-sample.xml test-ydoc

            The generated API pages can now be found in <ydoc_install_dir>/doc/api/examples.

            Note that the generated UML diagrams are in PNG format. If you want to generate the uml diagrams in a different format (SVG, SVGZ, SWF, GIF, JPG) simply change the value of formats.fileformat in the yDoc configuration file <ydoc_install_dir>/resources/ydoc.cfg accordingly.

            The next tutorial step would be to look in <ydoc_install_dir>/doc/examples for the sample option/build files and sample Java sources which have been used in this example. Once you understand the options and tags, you are ready to use yDoc in your own project.

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            5. yDoc Features

            Generating UML class diagrams

            yDoc will generate UML diagrams, if one or more of the following commandline options are used:

            • -umlgen
            • -umltypegen
            • -umlpackagegen
            • -umloverviewgen
            • -umlautogen

            All UML diagrams feature hyperlinks for the displayed packages, types, and type members, which allow direct access to the corresponding documentation.

            See Custom command line options for additional details.

            yDoc supports several output formats for UML diagrams, including SVG, SWF, and PNG and will automatically integrate the diagrams into the generated HTML API documentation.
            Moreover, yDoc provides many settings which allow to customize the generated UML diagrams in great detail.

            See Configuring yDoc for details.

            Important:
            yDoc uses the Java Reflection API to generate the class diagrams, therefore you need to specify the path to your compiled, unobfuscated Java class files (*.class) and to all libraries needed to compile your Java source files in the -docletpath option. Your class files may be located in a jar file.

            Alternatively, yDoc can embed predefined diagrams instead of generating them. Predefined diagrams have to be available in GraphML. GraphML is a generic graph interchange file format. Diagrams in this format can, e.g., be created using yEd, yWorks' free graph editor.

            For yDoc to be able to find and read such diagrams, a diagram locator has to be specified.

            The distribution comes with one predefined diagram locator. For this default locator to work successfully, predefined diagram files have to meet the following criteria:

            • Overview diagrams must be in the same directory as your overview.html. The diagram files have to be named overview<id>.graphml, where <id> denotes the diagram ID (see also Configuring yDoc).
            • Package diagrams must be in the same directory as your package.html. The diagram files have to be named package<id>.graphml, where <id> denotes the diagram ID (see also Configuring yDoc).
            • Type diagrams must be in the same directory as the corresponding source file. The diagram files have to follow the same naming convention as the Java source file except for the .graphml file extension.

            To use this default diagram locator, you need to specify the following two commandline options:
                -diagramlocatorpath <ydoc_install_dir>/lib/ydoc.jar
                -diagramlocator ydoc.resolvers.DefaultDiagramLocator

            To create and use your own diagram locators, all you have to do is implementing the ydoc.resolvers.PathResolver interface and register the locator similar to the above example. The mechanism to register locators works similar to the one used for doclets.

            PathResolver API

            Documentation for the ydoc.resolvers.PathResolver interface, which comprises the PathResolver API.

            General Layout of UML class diagrams

            Associations
            structural relationships between a whole and its parts, i.e. has a or instantiates
            Every declared field constitutes an association.
            Dependencies
            semantic relationships in which a change to one thing may effect the semantics of the other thing
            There are several heuristics as to what constitues a dependency. See Configuring yDoc.
            Generalizations
            specialization/generalization relationships, i.e. is a or subclass/superclass
            For interfaces there may be more than one generalization relationship.
            Realizations
            semantic relationships between classifiers, i.e. interface/implementing class
            For interfaces there are no realization relationships.

            Using filters

            yDoc provides a sophisticated filter framework, which lets you exclude parts of your API from documentation using customizable filter criteria.

            The distribution comes with one predefined filter, which lets you exclude classes/interfaces, fields, and/or methods from documentation, if their documentation comment contains an @y.exclude tag.
            To use this filter, you need to specify the following two commandline options:
                -filterpath <ydoc_install_dir>/lib/ydoc.jar
                -filter ydoc.filters.ExcludeFilter

            To create and use your own filters, all you have to do is implement the ydoc.filters.DocFilter interface and register the filter similar to the above example. The mechanism to register filters works similar to the one used for doclets.

            DocFilter API

            Documentation for the ydoc.filters.DocFilter interface, which comprises the DocFilter API.

            Using the XML driven taglet factory

            By specifying the -generic option, you can tell yDoc to register simple taglets, which are more powerful than the ones created by the standard -tag option and are defined in the resources/taglet_definitions.xml and resources/taglet_templates.xml files.
            By adding more definitions to those files, you can use/register more simple taglets.

            The basic idea is to have template definitions that define taglet behaviour and taglet definitions that define scope, name, and which template to use.

            For examples on how to define taglets, see the two mentioned xml files.

            Taglet Definitions

            The following XML elements are used to define taglets:

            • <taglet>
              Each of these elements results in the registration of one particular taglet.
              The value of the name attribute specifies the javadoc tag for the taglet. The value of the attribute allowMultipleTags specifies if more than one appearance of the javadoc tag per doc element is allowed. If not, all but the first tag will be ignored.
            • <usage>
              Required element that specifies the taglet scope as per the taglet API.
            • <headline>
              Required root element for <singular> and <plural>.
            • <singular>
              Required element that specifies the headline for the tag comment if only one javadoc tag or no <plural> element is present.
            • <plural>
              Optional element that specifies the headline for the tag comment if multiple javadoc tags are allowed and present.

            In general, it is a good idea to use at least one '.' character in the name of custom tags to avoid potential conflicts/overrides.

            Template Definitions

            The following XML elements are used to define templates:

            • <template>
              Each of these elements results in the creation of one particular template.
              The value of the name attribute has to be unique among all templates. It is used to reference the template in the taglet definition.
            • <headline>
              Required element that specifies the HTML code for the headline of the tag comment.
              You may specify one parameter sign, i.e. #0.
              You may use a single parameter multiple times, e.g. <headline> <![CDATA[bla #0 bla#0bla]]> </headline>
              The element should contain unparsed character data, i.e. <![CDATA[....]]>
            • <content>
              Required element that specifies the HTML formatting for the tag comment.
              The value of the separator attribute specifies if and how to break down the comment into parameters.
              Possible values are:
              -   any single character     breaks the comment at each occurance of the specified character
              -   the token "first-whitespace"     breaks the comment at the first occurance of a whitespace
              -   the token "whitespace"     breaks the comment at each occurance of a whitespace
              -   the token "none" (default)     results in one token only, namely the whole comment
            • <content-item>
              Required element that specifies the HTML code to wrap the tag comment in. If multiple javadoc tag are present for a particular doc element, then one content item is created for each tag comment.
              You may specify up to ten parameter signs, i.e. #x, where -1 < x < 10.
              You may use a single parameter multiple times.
              The element should contain unparsed character data.
            • <content-sep>
              Optional element that defaults to "".
              Its value will be inserted between content items.
              The element should contain unparsed character data.
            • <content-start>
              Optional element that defaults to "".
              Its value will be inserted directly after the headline, before the first content item.
              The element should contain unparsed character data.
            • <content-end>
              Optional element that defaults to "".
              Its value will be inserted directly after the the last content item.
              The element should contain unparsed character data.

            In general, it is a good idea to use the <DT> tag for headlines and the <DD> tag for content, since all output generated by javadoc taglets appears in definition lists.

            Custom command line options

            yDoc provides several custom command line options:

            • -diagramlocator class
              Specifies the class file for the diagram locator to be used. Use the fully-qualified name for class. Use the -diagramlocatorpath option to specify the path to the diagram locator.
            • -diagramlocatorpath -diagramlocatorpathlist
              Specifies the search paths for finding diagram locator class files (*.class). The diagramlocatorpathlist can contain multiple paths separated by the system-dependant path-separator.
            • -filter class
              Specifies the class file for the filter to be applied. Use the fully-qualified name for class. Use the -filterpath option to specify the path to the filter.
            • -filterpath filterpathlist
              Specifies the search paths for finding filter class files (*.class). The filterpathlist can contain multiple paths separated by the system-dependant path-separator.
            • -generic
              The taglet definitions in resources/taglet_definitions.xml and resources/taglet_templates.xml are used to create and register simple taglets.
            • -license file
              Specifies the path to the license file.
            • -resourcepath resourcepathlist
              Specifies the search paths for finding resource files (i.e. taglet definition files, ydoc configuration file, ydoc license file). The resourcepathlist can contain multiple paths separated by the system-dependant path-separator.
            • -umlautogen
              Same as using -umltypegen, -umlpackagegen, and -umloverviewgen in combination
            • -umlfileformat formatname
              Overrides the uml_file_format property in resources/ydoc.cfg
              See the section about UML file formats for a list of supported formats.
            • -umlgen
              UML diagrams will be created and embedded for all documented files with an @y.uml tag.
              @y.uml may be used in type, package, and overview documentation.
            • -umloverviewgen
              An UML overview diagram will be created and embedded, even if there is no @y.uml tag in overview.html.
            • -umlpackagegen
              UML diagrams will be created and embedded for all documented packages, not only for those with an @y.uml tag.
            • -umltypegen
              UML diagrams will be created and embedded for all documented classes and interfaces, not only for those with an @y.uml tag.
            • -ytag
              Allows to specify the position of custom yDoc tags (i.e. @y.uml or tags defined via the taglet factory) in relation to standard tags.
            Back to Contents

            6. Configuring yDoc

            resources/ydoc.cfg

            resources/ydoc.cfg is yDoc's main configuration file.
            It uses a simple XML format consisting of nested group and property elements.

            Following is the complete list of recognized group and property declarations.

            Group diagrams

            Encapsulates settings that determine all aspects of yDoc's UML generating mechanism. These settings are grouped into the categories overview, package, and type in correspondance to the available diagram types.
            You may have multiple diagram subgroups in each of the above mentioned three categories. For each diagram group, one UML diagram will be generated and embedded into the corresponding HTML file.

            Group diagrams.overview.diagram

            • Property style accepts an arbitrary text value interpreted as a file name.
              This property specifies the path to a yDoc style definition file, which determines the visual properties of the generated UML diagram, such as line colors or font sizes.
              See UML Styles for more information.
            • Property type accepts one of the following values:
              • dependency
                Dependency diagrams depict package-level dependencies in your project.
              • inheritance
                Inheritance diagrams depict project-wide inheritance trees.
              This property specifies the overview diagram type.
            • Property id accepts an arbitrary text value.
              This property specifies a diagram ID, which is used to distinguish between multiple overview diagrams.
              The value of this property has to be unique among all diagrams.overview.diagram ID values.

            Group diagrams.overview.diagram.include

            • Property dependencies accepts one of the following values:
              • all
                All package dependencies are displayed.
              • reduced
                No transitive dependencies are displayed.
              This property specifies whether transitive dependencies should be displayed.
              This property is only respected for overview diagrams of type dependency.
            • Property groups accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether package nodes should be grouped according to the -group options. If no -group option is used, this property is ignored.
            • Property packages accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether type nodes should be grouped according to their containing packages.
              This property is only respected for overview diagrams of type inheritance.

            Group diagrams.overview.diagram.insets

            • Property group accepts non-negative integer values.
              This property specifies the distance from a group node's border to the package nodes contained in the group node.
            • Property package accepts non-negative integer values.
              This property specifies the distance from a package node's border to the type nodes contained in the package node.

            Group diagrams.overview.diagram.layout

            • Property BUS_ROUTING accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether multiple relations (e.g. in the case of a class having multiple subclasses) should be routed in a bus style manner.
            • Property CYCLE_LAYERING_POLICY accepts one of the following values:
              • DEFAULT_POLICY
                All backwards relation edges as determined by a depth-first-search on the diagram nodes are temporarily removed for layering.
              • ASSIGN_CYCLES_TO_SAME_LAYER_POLICY
                Diagram nodes with cyclic dependencies are put into the same layer.
              • BREAK_CYCLES_BY_WEIGHT_POLICY
                Cyclic dependencies are resolved by temporarily removing the least significant relation edges for layering.
              This property specifies the layering policy for cyclic dependencies.
            • Property GROUP_COMPACTION accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether package and group digram nodes should be kept as small as possible.
            • Property ORIENTATION accepts one of the following values:
              • TOP_TO_BOTTOM
              • LEFT_TO_RIGHT
              • RIGHT_TO_LEFT
              • BOTTOM_TO_TOP
              This property specifies the layout orientation.
            • Property RECURSIVE_GROUP_LAYERING accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether layering should be performed locally on a per group basis or globally for the whole diagram.
              This property is ignored, if the diagram does not contain node groups.
            • Property REVERSE_EDGES accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether the direction of relation edges should be reversed during layout calculation. Reversing the edge directions does e.g. affect the alignment of the diagram nodes.
            • Property ROUTE_ORTHOGONAL accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether relation edges should be routed orthogonally or polyline-style.

            Group diagrams.package.diagram

            • Property style accepts an arbitrary text value interpreted as a file name.
              This property specifies the path to a yDoc style definition file, which determines the visual properties of the generated UML diagram, such as line colors or font sizes.
              See UML Styles for more information.

            Group diagrams.package.diagram.include

            • Property packages accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether type nodes should be grouped according to their containing package.

            Group diagrams.package.diagram.insets

            • Property group accepts non-negative integer values.
              This property specifies the distance from a group node's border to the package nodes contained in the group node.
            • Property package accepts non-negative integer values.
              This property specifies the distance from a package node's border to the type nodes contained in the package node.

            Group diagrams.package.diagram.layout

            • Property BUS_ROUTING accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether multiple relations (e.g. in the case of a class having multiple subclasses) should be routed in a bus style manner.
            • Property ORIENTATION accepts one of the following values:
              • TOP_TO_BOTTOM
              • LEFT_TO_RIGHT
              • RIGHT_TO_LEFT
              • BOTTOM_TO_TOP
              This property specifies the layout orientation.
            • Property REVERSE_EDGES accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether the direction of relation edges should be reversed during layout calculation. Reversing the edge directions does e.g. affect the alignment of the diagram nodes.
            • Property ROUTE_ORTHOGONAL accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether relation edges should be routed orthogonally or polyline-style.

            Group diagrams.type.diagram

            • Property style accepts an arbitrary text value interpreted as a file name.
              This property specifies the path to a yDoc style definition file, which determines the visual properties of the generated UML diagram, such as line colors or font sizes.
              See UML Styles for more information.

            Group diagrams.type.diagram.exclude.pattern

            • Property associations accepts a pattern text value.
              Type names matching the pattern text will not be displayed among the diagram's association types.
            • Property dependencies accepts a pattern text value.
              Type names matching the pattern text will not be displayed among the diagram's dependency types.
            • Property generalizations accepts a pattern text value.
              Type names matching the pattern text will not be displayed among the diagram's generalization types.
            • Property realizations accepts a pattern text value.
              Type names matching the pattern text will not be displayed among the diagram's realization types.

            Pattern text values are a comma-separated list of full-qualified typename patterns where the '?' character denotes a wildcard of length one and the '*' character denotes a wildcard of arbitrary length.

            Group diagrams.type.diagram.include

            • Property associations accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether association nodes should be displayed.
            • Property dependencies accepts one of the following values:
              • all
                Any non-primitive type referenced in a type's byte code is considered a dependency.
              • none
                No dependency information is calculated.
              • parameters
                Any non-primitive parameter types of constructor and method signatures are considered dependencies.
              • parameters-returntype
                Any non-primitive parameter types of constructor and method signatures as well as all non-primitive method return types are considered dependencies.
              This property specifies the heuristic approach as to what constitutes a dependency. Note, that types which are associations will not appear as dependencies no matter which heuristic is chosen.
            • Property packages accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether type nodes should be grouped according to their containing package.
            • Property paramters accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether parameter types should be displayed in constructor and method signatures.

            Group diagrams.type.diagram.insets

            • Property package accepts non-negative integer values.
              This property specifies the distance from a package node's border to the type nodes contained in the package node.

            Group diagrams.type.diagram.order

            • Property fields accepts one of the ordering enumeration values.
              This property specifies the order of fields in type diagrams.
            • Property constructors accepts one of the ordering enumeration values.
              This property specifies the order of constructors in type diagrams.
            • Property methods accepts one of the ordering enumeration values.
              This property specifies the order of methods in type diagrams.

            The following ordering enumeration values are available:

            • lex
              Members are sorted according to their qualified names (and signatures in case of constructors and methods).
            • lex-ic
              Same as lex, but case insensitive.
            • mod-lex
              Members are sorted according to their modifiers. Modifiers are considered to imply the following order:
                 static public < public < static protected < protected < static package-private < package-private < static private < private
              If two (or more) members are equal according to this ordering, they are sorted according to their qualified names (and signatures in case of constructors and methods).
            • mod-lex-ic
              Same as mod-lex, but case insensitive.

            Group diagrams.type.diagram.layout

            • Property PACKAGE_DISTANCE accepts values non-negative decimal values.
              This property specifies the distance between adjacent package nodes.
            • Property RELATION_BUS_ROUTING accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether multiple generalization or realization edges should be routed in a bus-style manner.
            • Property RELATION_DISTANCE accepts values non-negative decimal values.
              This property specifies the distance between the detailed type node and related type nodes.
            • Property RELATION_TYPE_ALIGNMENT accepts one of the following values:
              • LEFT
              • CENTER
              • RIGHT
              • SHORTEST_DISTANCE
                Association nodes will be right aligned, dependency nodes left aligned.
              • LONGEST_DISTANCE
                Association nodes will be left aligned, dependency nodes right aligned.
              This property specifies specifies the alignment policy for association and dependency type nodes. If package nodes are displayed, alignment calculation is done on a per relation package basis.
            • Property RELATION_TYPE_DISTANCE accepts values non-negative decimal values.
              This property specifies the distance between adjacent relation type nodes.
            • Property RELATION_LABEL_LAYOUT_POLICY accepts one of the following values:
              • AS_IS
                No new label position is calculated.
              • OUTWARDS
                For labels outside of a type node a new label position is calculated. For labels belonging to generalization or realization types, the new position is above the node, for labels belonging to association types the new position is to the left of the node, and for labels belonging to dependency types, it is to the right of the node.
              This property specifies the label layout policy for labels of relation type nodes.

            Group formats

            Settings related to file formats of the generated UML diagrams and the way they are embedded into the HTML API documentation.

            • Property fileformat accepts one of the following values:
              • GIF
                Well-known image format.
              • JPG
                Well-known image format.
              • PNG
                Well-known image format, the default.
              • SVG
                Scalable Vector Graphics, a XML-based vector graphics format.
              • SVGZ
                Compressed SVG.
              • SWF
                Shockwave Flash, a popular binary vector graphics format.
              This property specifies the file format for the generated UML diagrams.

            Group formats.vectorgraphics.display

            • Property scaling accepts one of the following values:
              • FIXED_SIZE
                The diagram will be displayed in a fixed size canvas (specified by properties width and height).
              • ACTUAL_SIZE
                The diagram will be displayed in a canvas sized to the diagram's actual size.
                This mode ignores properties width and height.
              • ACTUAL_SIZE_MAX_WIDTH
                The diagram will be displayed in a canvas sized to the diagram's actual size up to a fixed canvas width specified by property width).
                This mode ignores property height.
              • ACTUAL_SIZE_MAX_HEIGHT
                The diagram will be displayed in a canvas sized to the diagram's actual size up to a fixed canvas height (specified by property height).
                This mode ignores property width.
              • ACTUAL_SIZE_MAX_WIDTH_MAX_HEIGHT
                The diagram will be displayed in a canvas sized to the diagram's actual size up to a fixed canvas size (specified by properties width and height).
              • FIT_TO_SIZE
                The diagram will be scaled to fit into a canvas with fixed width and fixed height (specified by properties width and height).
              • FIT_TO_SIZE_BY_WIDTH
                The diagram will be scaled to fit into a canvas with fixed width (specified by property width).
                This mode ignores property height
              • FIT_TO_SIZE_BY_HEIGHT
                The diagram will be scaled to fit into a canvas with fixed height (specified by property height).
                This mode ignores property width.
              • SHRINK_TO_SIZE
                The diagram will be scaled to fit into a canvas with fixed width and fixed height (specified by properties width and height), unless it already fits.
              • SHRINK_TO_SIZE_BY_WIDTH
                The diagram will be scaled to fit into a canvas with fixed width (specified by property width), unless it already fits.
                This mode ignores property height.
              • SHRINK_TO_SIZE_BY_HEIGHT
                The diagram will be scaled to fit into a canvas with fixed height (specified by property height), unless it already fits.
                This mode ignores width.
              This property specifies the display scaling policy for UML diagrams. All policies will retain the diagram's original aspect ratio.
            • Property width accepts positive integer values.
              This property specifies the canvas width for the generated UML diagram.
            • Property height accepts positive integer values.
              This property specifies the canvas height for the generated UML diagram.
            • Property reserveMinimum accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether yDoc should reserve a canvas at least the size of width and height when embedding UML diagrams into HTML API documentation.

            Group formats.vectorgraphics.svg

            • Property workaround accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether yDoc should use alternative HTML code for SVG embedding.
              Due to changes in the plug-ins API in the gecko code base, the current version of the Adobe SVG Plugin 3.0 crashes browsers of the gecko family (Mozilla, Netscape 6+7, ...) when displaying HTML with embedded SVG images.
              There is an experimental workaround by wrapping the <EMBED> tag(s) in <IFRAME> tags, albeit with a significant disadvantage: It is no longer possible to use javascript based hyperlinks in SVG, which are neccessary to make URI fragments work properly.

            Group formats.image

            • Property quality accepts values ranging from 0.0 to 1.0.
              This property specifies the compression quality for image formats that support compression (e.g. PNG, JPG).
              A compression quality setting of 0.0 is most generically interpreted as high compression is important, while a setting of 1.0 is most generically interpreted as high image quality is important.
            • Property antialiasing accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether anti aliasing should be used in UML diagram image files.
            • Property progressive accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether UML diagram image files should be encoded in progressive mode for image formats that support progressive encoding.
              Progressive encoding will result in image streams containing a series of scans of increasing quality.

            Group formats.image.tiling

            • Property enabled accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether UML diagrams should be written to multiple small image files instead of a single large one, if the image's width or height exceeds the corresponding maximum.
            • Property width accepts non-negative integer values.
              This property specifies the maximum width for UML diagram image tiles.
            • Property height accepts non-negative integer values.
              This property specifies the maximum height for UML diagram image tiles.

            Group misc

            • Property warnings accepts values true and false.
              This property specifies whether yDoc should emit warnings each time an explicit link (i.e. the result of @see or @link) to a documentation member, which was not accepted by the registered filters, is suppressed.

            Group misc.gc

            • Property frequency accepts non-negative integer values.
              This property specifies the number of UML diagrams to be generated between explicit calls to the Java garbage collector. A value of 10, for example, would result in a call to the garbage collector after every tenth diagram, whereas a value of 1 will call garbage collection after each diagram.
              A value of 0 will prevent yDoc from explicitly calling the Java garbage collector.

            UML Styles

            A style set defines the visual features of UML diagrams and is specified in a XML file which conforms to the yDoc style definition schema.
            The yDoc distribution comes with several predefined style files, see resources/styles.
            You can customize colors (main, border, text), fonts, shapes, and lines by either modifying an existing style file or creating a new one.
            The yDoc 3.0_01 distribution includes StyleEd, a GUI-based style editor, that greatly simplifies customization. The editor is completely written in Java and will run on any Java 1.4.x or higher platform. All files needed to run StyleEd are contained in the executable JAR file lib/styleed.jar, i.e. double-clicking the file or invoking
            java -jar <YID>/lib/styleed.jar
            will start StyleEd.
            Aside from style file editing, StyleEd also allows users to experiment with layout settings for the various diagram types.

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            7. Limitations

            • The yDoc Evaluation version will only document ten classes.
              If one or more of those are excluded from documentation via the @y.exclude tag, they still count against that limit.
            • In UML class diagrams generated by the yDoc Evaluation version, the associations list and the dependencies list will only display the ten above mentioned classes.
            Back to Contents

            8. Acknowledgments

            This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).
            yDoc uses Batik to generate SVG files. Batik is distributed under the Apache Software License, Version 2.0:

            
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