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The Complete Guide to UML Diagram Types with Examples
UML stands for Unified Modeling Language which is used in object oriented software engineering. Although typically used in software engineering it is a rich language that can be used to model an application structures, behavior and even business processes. There are 14 UML diagram types to help you model these behavior. They can be divided into two main categories structure diagrams and behavioral diagrams. All 14 UML diagram types are listed below with examples, brief introduction to them and also how they are used when modeling applications.
List of UML Diagram TypesTypes of UML diagrams with structure diagrams coming first and behavioral diagrams starting from position 8. Click on any diagram type to visit that specific diagram types description.
- Class Diagram
- Component Diagram
- Deployment Diagram
- Object Diagram
- Package Diagram
- Profile Diagram
- Composite Structure Diagram
- Use Case Diagram
- Activity Diagram
- State Machine Diagram
- Sequence Diagram
- Communication Diagram
- Interaction Overview Diagram
- Timing Diagram
UML Diagram Types
Structure diagrams show the things in a system being modeled. In a more technical term they show different objects in a system. Behavioral diagrams shows what should happen in a system. They describe how the objects interact with each other to create a functioning system.
Class Diagram Class diagrams are arguably the most used UML diagram type. It is the main building block of any object oriented solution. It shows the classes in a system, attributes and operations of each class and the relationship between each class. In most modeling tools a class has three parts, name at the top, attributes in the middle and operations or methods at the bottom. In large systems with many classes related classes are grouped together to to create class diagrams. Different relationships between diagrams are show by different types of Arrows. Below is a image of a class diagram. Follow the link for more class diagram examples.UML Class Diagram with Relationships
Component DiagramA component diagram displays the structural relationship of components of a software system. These are mostly used when working with complex systems that has many components. Components communicate with each other using interfaces. The interfaces are linked using connectors. Below images shows a component diagram.
Simple Component Diagram with Interfaces
Deployment DiagramA deployment diagrams shows the hardware of your system and the software in those hardware. Deployment diagrams are useful when your software solution is deployed across multiple machines with each having a unique configuration. Below is an example deployment diagram.
UML Deployment Diagram ( Click on the image to use it as a template )
Object DiagramObject Diagrams, sometimes referred as Instance diagrams are very similar to class diagrams. As class diagrams they also show the relationship between objects but they use real world examples. They are used to show how a system will look like at a given time. Because there is data available in the objects they are often used to explain complex relationships between objects.
UML Object Diagram Example
Package DiagramAs the name suggests a package diagrams shows the dependencies between different packages in a system. Check out this wiki article to learn more about the dependencies and elements found in package diagrams.
Package Diagram in UML
Profile DiagramProfile diagram is a new diagram type introduced in UML 2. This is a diagram type that is very rarely used in any specification. For more detailed technical information about this diagram type check this link.
Basic UML Profile Diagram structure
Composite Structure DiagramComposite structure diagrams are used to show the internal structure of a class. For a detailed explanation of composite structure diagrams click here.
A simple Composite Structure Diagram
Use Case DiagramMost known diagram type of the behavioral UML diagrams, Use case diagrams gives a graphic overview of the actors involved in a system, different functions needed by those actors and how these different functions are interacted. It’s a great starting point for any project discussion because you can easily identify the main actors involved and the main processes of the system. Click through to read more about use case diagram elements and templates.
Use Case diagram showing Actors and main processes
Activity DiagramActivity diagrams represent workflows in an graphical way. They can be used to describe business workflow or the operational workflow of any component in a system. Sometimes activity diagrams are used as an alternative to State machine diagrams. Check out this wiki article to learn about symbols and usage of activity diagrams.
Activity Diagrams with start, end, processes and decision points
State Machine DiagramState machine diagrams are similar to activity diagrams although notations and usage changes a bit. They are sometime known as state diagrams or start chart diagrams as well. These are very useful to describe the behavior of objects that act different according to the state they are at the moment. Below State machine diagram show the basic states and actions.
State Machine diagram in UML, sometime referred to as State or State chart diagram
Sequence DiagramSequence diagrams in UML shows how object interact with each other and the order those interactions occur. It’s important to note that they show the interactions for a particular scenario. The processes are represented vertically and interactions are show as arrows. This article explains the purpose and the basics of Sequence diagrams.
Sequence Diagrams in UML shows the interaction between two processes
Communication DiagramCommunication diagram was called collaboration diagram in UML 1. It is similar to sequence diagrams but the focus is on messages passed between objects. The same information can be represented using a sequence diagram and different objects. Click here to understand the differences using an example.
Communication Diagram in UML
Interaction Overview DiagramInteraction overview diagrams are very similar to activity diagrams. While activity diagrams shows a sequence of processes Interaction overview diagrams shows a sequence of interaction diagrams. In simple term they can be called a collection of interaction diagrams and the order they happen. As mentioned before there are seven types of interaction diagrams, so any one of them can be a node in an interaction overview diagram. ( img – http://www.sa-depot.com/?page_id=645 )
Interaction overview diagram in UML
Timing DiagramTiming diagrams are very similar to sequence diagrams. They represent the behavior of objects in a given time frame. If its only one object the diagram is straight forward but if more then one objects are involved they can be used to show interactions of objects during that time frame as well. ( img – http://blog.tangcs.com/2008/01/10/uml-2-diagrams/ )
Timing Diagram in UML
Mentioned above are all the UML diagram types. The links given in each section explains the diagrams in more detail and covers the usage, symbols etc. UML offers many diagram types and sometimes two diagram can explain the same thing using different notations.Check this blog post to learn which UML diagram best suits you.If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to leave a comment.
This posts was originally published at Creately blog. Click The Complete Guide to UML Diagram Types with Examples to visit the blog post. Visit the Creately website to learn more about Online Diagramming Tools.
iPhone Mock-Up Tool and iPhone Mock-Up Templates by Creately
We are exited to announce the release of our new Creately iPhone mockup tool, a comprehensive tool packed with fully customizable objects and iPhone templates. Whether you are an iPhone application developer or an entrepreneur with an idea for an iPhone application you need to come up with iPhone mock-ups to convince others of your ideas or application. The Creately iPhone mock-up tool will help you turn that idea into beautiful mockups. Plus the built in group sharing features will help you get feedback instantly and make you more productive. Below image shows some of the object available in the library for iPhone mockup tool.
Some of the objects available for iPhone mock-up tool
The above image covers most of the items but there are plenty more. You can even import your own specific images like logos, application specific images etc. There is a contextual toolbar specifically for iPhone mock-ups to reduce the clutter.
Unique Features in the iPhone Mockup ToolIt’s a very comprehensive iPhone mockup tool with special emphasis on fully customizable individual objects .
- Easy Editing for Quick Customization’s- Double click, change the text and you get the new output in seconds. Can editing objects get any easier ( Below image explains things in detail )
Changing a Alert Box is a simple matter of changing text
Tables are frequently used to navigate when using iPhones, this simple to edit table object makes creating table mock-ups very easy. List , web picker and multi picker are few other object that have this functionality.
Similar thing done to iPhone Table, Comment section shows how to edit and add different icons
- Objects Within Objects for Easy Customization – An object like the iPhone frame has many more smaller objects embedded into it. So you can customize each object individually without altering the general layout. And every object in the library are sized to fit perfectly to the iPhone frame ( You have the option of re-sizing to your liking). The below iPhone frame example has four objects embedded show in different colors. Status bar ( green ) , screen ( yellow ), app icons ( blue ) , page control ( grey ) , dock ( dark green ). The selected object is the status bar and you can control what appears in that using the check boxes in the properties side bar. In detail customization like that make it the best iPhone mockup tool in the market.
Object within objects, individual styling for different objects makes it one of the best iPhone mockup tools in the market
- High Level of Customization to Make it as Realistic as Possible- Most objects have individual controls and properties so you can make it very realistic. The above image shows individual properties for the status bar so you can select which ones to show. Below image shows the properties for the keyboard object which has five keyboard types.
By changing the type property you can access the five type of keyboards available in iPhones
It’s great to have all the above customization’s available but sometime you just need to have quick mock-up done with few customization. That’s why we have added some iPhone mockup templates, so you can start creating them even faster. Below are some of the templates available to the users.
Mock-up template for the iPhone player
Mock-up template using the map object in iPhone
Check out all iPhone Mockup Templates >>>
Feedback on the iPhone Mockup ToolDon’t have something you need ? Have an idea to improve the tools, icons or interfaces ? Feel free to mention in the comments section or send us a mail to support@creately.com. You can even reach us via Twitter or Facebook.
This posts was originally published at Creately blog. Click iPhone Mock-Up Tool and iPhone Mock-Up Templates by Creately to visit the blog post. Visit the Creately website to learn more about Online Diagramming Tools.
New Confluence Release and Recent Creately Features
A quick update! we released a new version of Creately Confluence plugin. It is now compatible with Confluence 4 and also includes the below features and more
- Easy migration from Confluence 3 to 4
- Compatibility fixed for Confluence version 3 and 4
- Diagram preview in edit mode ( Confluence 4 )
- Quick add/edit diagrams in edit mode ( Confluence 4 )
- Automatic diagram type suggestion
Add/Edit Diagrams Easily in Confluence using Creately
Drawing Gantt Charts in ConfluenceMany understand the importance of Gantt charts but few bother drawing them. Its even harder in Confluence because of the lack of tools. Now you can easily create Gantt charts in Confluence using our Gantt chart tool. Its simple to use and we added some templates to make it even more easier. Below are two of the many templates available for users.
Creately Gantt Chart Template
Creately Gantt Chart Template
Enjoy the new templates and have fun drawing Gantt charts in Confluence. If you have any suggestions about Gantt charts or anything in general feel free to contact support with your suggestions. The flowchart guide was very popular and thanks for the feedback. We will surely publish more guides in the future. Merry Christmas and Enjoy the Holidays.
This posts was originally published at Creately blog. Click New Confluence Release and Recent Creately Features to visit the blog post. Visit the Creately website to learn more about Online Diagramming Tools.
Flowchart Tutorial Covering Symbols, Usage and Swim Lanes
Top 5 Community Diagrams of the Week
Top 5 Community Diagrams of the Week!
Draw Gantt Charts Online Easily Using Creately
Top Five Community Diagrams of the Week!
Top 5 Community Diagrams of the Week!
Creately Confluence Plugin now Supports Confluence 4.0
Creately name a top innovation in Australia at Tech23
Top 5 Community Diagrams of the Week!
Creately 2011 Survey Winners Announced
Ultimate Flowchart Guide ( Complete Flowchart Tutorial with Examples )
This is the only Flowchart guide you will ever need. Creately blog and the website has some really awesome articles covering various things related to flowcharts like Meanings of flowchart symbols, how to use swim lanes in flowcharts, flowchart best practices , case studies and many more. This blog post will simply gather all that information and present them in a logical way . Since this will be a somewhat long post I added sections to make it easier to navigate. So you can go to best practices quickly if you are not interested about the history.
- History of Flowcharts
- Flowchart Symbols Meaning
- How to Draw a Flowchart
- Flowchart Templates and Examples
- Flowchart Best Practices
- Common Mistakes Made when Drawing Flowcharts
- Flowchart Case Studies
- Feedback on Flowchart Guide
Flowcharts were introduced by Frank Gilberth in 1921, and they were called “Process Flow Charts” at the beginning . Allan H. Mogensen is credited with training business people on the use of Flowcharts. Wikipedia has a great summary about the history of flowcharts, read more in this wiki section.
Flowchart Symbols MeaningFlowchart Symbols
Before drawing flowcharts you need to understand the different symbols used in Flowcharts. Most people are aware of basic symbols like processes and decision blocks. But there are many more symbols to make your flowchart more meaningful. Below image shows all the standard flowchart symbols.
Most people don’t know about some rarely used flowchart symbols like Sequential access storage, Direct data, Manual Input etc. Check the flowchart symbols page for a detailed explanation of different symbols. Although these are the standard symbols available in most diagram software, some people do use different shapes for different meanings. The most common example of this is the using circles to denote start and end. The examples in this flowchart guide will stick with the standard symbols.
How to Draw a FlowchartFlowcharts can be categorized into four main types. Document flowchart, System flowchart, data flowchart and program flowchart. Not everyone agrees with this categorization, but the core principals of drawing a flowchart remains the same. You need to consider few things when drawing a flowchart, Check out 6 useful tips on drawing flowcharts before you start.
If you are drawing a flowchart with many responsible parties you can group them together using swim lanes. Swim lanes are a powerful technique to increase the readability of you flowchart so you should use them according to the situation. Read using swim lanes in flowcharts to learn more about the process.
Below video shows how to draw a flowchart using Creately. It is very simple to use and one click create and connect helps you draw them faster as well. You can drag and drop symbols from the library or drag images to your diagram by doing an image search.
Flowchart Templates and ExamplesAlthough you can start drawing flowcharts by scratch it is much easier to use templates. They help you reduce errors and reminds you about the best practices to follow. If you want to use a ready made template, go to flowchart templates page and click on the flowchart that best suits you. Click on the use at template after the image and you are ready to draw your flowchart. Below are two templates out of hundreds of flowchart templates available to the user. Click on any of them to start drawing flowcharts immediately.
Bank Teller Flowchart Template
Support Process Flowchart Template
Flowchart Best PracticesThere are few things you can do to make your flowchart universally accepted. And there are some things that you can do to make it visually pleasing to others as well. Using standard symbols will make it understandable for a wide audience. However it is important to remember that the idea is to give out information in a easy to understand manner. It is perfectly acceptable to use an alternative image instead of the document symbol as long as the audience understands it. Keeping the arrow flow to one side, using same size symbols, naming the decision blocks, processes, arrows etc are few things you can do to make it better. The common mistakes section covers most of these practices in detail.
Common Mistakes Made when Drawing FlowchartsThis section highlights the common mistakes made when drawing flowcharts. Some of the things mentioned here are for better looking and more understandable flowcharts, not having them in your flowchart wont make it wrong. Since there are two posts covering these mistakes in depth I will link to them from this flowchart guide.
15 mistakes you would unintentionally make with flowcharts ( Part 1 )
15 mistakes you would unintentionally make with flowcharts ( Part 2 )
Effective Use of Flowcharts – Case StudiesA flowchart guide isn’t complete without some case studies.Below are three case studies and real life examples on how flowcharts can help you make decisions.
- Ten Flowchart Ideas for Your Business – How flowcharts can be used in making business decision and to optimize the current business processes
- Analyzing Sales Funnel with Flowcharts – How to analyze the Google analytic sales funnel using a flowchart.
- Flutterscape Case Study – How one of our customers used flowcharts to enhance their processes.
I hope this flowchart guide will help you to come up with awesome flowcharts. Flowcharts are a great way present complex processes in a simple to understand manner and they are used all over the world in many industries. If you have a question about drawing flowcharts or have any suggestions to improve this post, feel free to mention in the comments section.
This posts was originally published at Creately blog. Click Ultimate Flowchart Guide ( Complete Flowchart Tutorial with Examples ) to visit the blog post. Visit the Creately website to learn more about Online Diagramming Tools.
A Basic intro to Use Case Diagrams
Top 5 Community Diagrams of the Week
The diagramming community is gaining steam and we are fine tuning the features to make it more awesome. If you’re creating public diagrams make sure to rate them as well as diagrams submitted by other users. The objective is to filter out the best diagrams so other users can benefit from them. It sure is much easier to come up with this post now since diagrams are automatically selected for me . So below are the top 5 community diagrams of the week.
5.Your Professional Presence Venn DiagramWe start with a Venn diagram submitted by Pretty Ponies. Although a Venn diagram you can qualify it as an infographic as well. We are very pleased to see our users making full use of our extensive image library.
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4. Issue Resolving FlowchartNext up is a flowchart submitted by Miki Yarkoni. Although it is a relatively simple diagram we appreciated the fact that it uses swim lanes. Swim lanes are a great way to organize your flowchart according who is responsible for various activities. Read this article about flowchart with swim lanes to learn more about the process.
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3. Reporting System UML Class DiagramThen we have a UML class diagram submitted by Chris Butchart. The diagrams could do with some colors but we appreciated the effort put into creating a detailed diagram.
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2. Phone System Database schemaNext we have a colorful database schema submitted by Maurice Bennet. The relationships are clearly defined and we love the use of colors. Diagrams that uses colors are more likely to get a higher rating and it is much more pleasing to look at as well.
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1. Contract Management ER diagramFinally we have a contract management ER diagrams submitted by Akash Jain. Although lot of effort is put in drawing the diagram he could have named it much better .
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Enjoy the diagrams and keep submitting more, you could be next in the featured post.
This posts was originally published at Creately blog. Click Top 5 Community Diagrams of the Week to visit the blog post. Visit the Creately website to learn more about Online Diagramming Tools.
All you Need to Know about Flowcharting
Top 5 Community Diagrams of the Week!
I hope you had fun using our simple Gantt chart drawing tools and your Creately experience is going to get even better with the launch of Creately Diagramming Community this week. While we are working on those things Creately users have created some awesome diagrams and now is the time to highlight the best of them. Below are our top five community diagrams of the week.
5. Event Planning Website FlowchartFirst up is a Flowchart drawn by Jasmin Walker. The processes are clearly defined and Jasmin has used colors nicely to separate different flows.
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4. Hotel Reservation System Use Case DiagramThen we have a hotel reservation system use case diagram drawn by Omer Baykal. Another in depth use case diagram with lots of information about the system.
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3. Company Network DiagramThis lovely network diagram was submitted by Chaminda Attale. We really liked the fact that he has made use of different object available to him and even adding different images for different server types.
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2. File Alerts Database DiagramThis database diagrams was submitted by Shaun Baker and it is obvious he has put an lot of effort to come up with this diagram. Different colors for different entities etc make it really nice to look at and easily understandable for viewers as well.
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1. CD Recording System Class DiagramLast we have a class diagram submitted by Vinicius Rocha. Another detailed diagram following all the standards.
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By the look of things Creately users sure love creating detailed diagrams, and with the launch of diagramming community hope to see many more beautiful diagrams created with Creately.
This posts was originally published at Creately blog. Click Top 5 Community Diagrams of the Week! to visit the blog post. Visit the Creately website to learn more about Online Diagramming Tools.
Say hello to our versatile 3D objects!
Draw Gantt Charts Online Easily Using Creately
We are excited to announce our new Gantt Chart Objects! It’s really simple and easy to draw Gantt charts or come up with a quick time line for planning things.
Most times you simply need to explain your thinking about a project schedule, a sequence of events with a Gantt chart or a timeline, you end up having to use a tool like Microsoft Project or draw it manually using a drawing software. We have gotten rid of that complexity and have added some nifty features to make it faster and easier to draw Gantt charts, so you can have fun while planning your projects. Below are some templates created using our tools ( click to open in new window )
Below are some of the new Gantt chart features
1/ Quickly Draw Graphs with Drag and Drop ElementsGantt Specific objects like Gantt Container, Timeline to quickly start drawing diagrams. Just drag and drop the elements to the drawing area.
2/ Easily Add Columns and RowsDouble click on the Gantt Container and You will be taken to a text editor. Add a row by simply adding a line break and add a column by adding a comma
3/ Smart Objects that Adjust AutomaticallyIncreasing the length of the object automatically increases the unit number, dragging tasks adjust the connectors etc
4/ One Click Create to Add Dependent TasksCreate dependent tasks easily with connecting arrows automatically created for you
5/ Show Completed Percentage Within TasksEasily track the progress of the task by showing completed percentage within the bar
6/ Timeline only Object for Simple Planning
Sometime people don’t want complicated graphs with columns and rows, and simple planning object is the tool to do exactly that.
The above new features combined with the already existing features of Creately makes it a great online tool to draw Gantt charts. Check out the below video to see how easy it is to create Gantt charts using Creately.
Have fun drawing Gantt charts and time lines with our tools and feel free to share your ideas and suggestions in the comments section.
This posts was originally published at Creately blog. Click Draw Gantt Charts Online Easily Using Creately to visit the blog post. Visit the Creately website to learn more about Online Diagramming Tools.
