# maintaining openEHR's online UML  diagrams

**URL:** <https://discourse.openehr.org/t/maintaining-openehrs-online-uml-diagrams/14757>\
**Category:** Technical (archive)\
**Created:** [30 May 2008 11:12 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/maintaining-openehrs-online-uml-diagrams/14757 "2008-05-30T11:12:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![thomas.beale](https://discourse.openehr.org/user_avatar/discourse.openehr.org/thomas.beale/32/35_2.png) [@thomas.beale](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/thomas.beale)\
**Post date:** [30 May 2008 11:12 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/maintaining-openehrs-online-uml-diagrams/14757/1 "2008-05-30T11:12:23Z")

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Dear all,

most of you would be familiar with the online UML diagrams of the  
reference model - at  
[http://www.openehr.org/svn/specification/TAGS/Release-1.0.1/publishing/architecture/computable/UML/uml\_start\_view.html](http://www.openehr.org/svn/specification/TAGS/Release-1.0.1/publishing/architecture/computable/UML/uml_start_view.html)

David Lloyd started building these some 2 years or more ago using the  
MagicDraw tool, which appeared to be one of the better tools on the  
market. The current version of the model is in MagicDraw 9.5 and can be  
found at  
[http://www.openehr.org/svn/specification/TRUNK/architecture/computable/UML/MagicDraw/](http://www.openehr.org/svn/specification/TRUNK/architecture/computable/UML/MagicDraw/)  
David also had to (at my request) hack the publishing part of MagicDraw  
to make it publish the tabular form of classes in a vaguely sensible  
format - and these scripts will no longer work with later vresions of  
MagicDraw. This tool is also of course a paying tool.

The MagicDraw tool has changed fairly radically in later versions and it  
would be quite some work to upgrade the current expression of the model  
to the latest version. Possibly we should consider other tools or  
approaches to having online UML. Personally I have found every UML tool  
I have tried lacking, and don't use them in any serious production sense  
- I believe they are mainly useful for generating diagrams for  
communication purposes like we do in openEHR rather than actually using  
them in software building - thus from my point of view, the main  
requirement here is an HTML tree that we can publish.

We will need to be able to continue to update the UML HTML since  
modifications will be made to the reference model in coming releases.  
Are there suggestions on how to do this? Are there offers from someone  
in the community who could actually do it?

- thomas beale

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**Author:** ![erik.sundvall](https://discourse.openehr.org/user_avatar/discourse.openehr.org/erik.sundvall/32/1961_2.png) [@erik.sundvall](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/erik.sundvall)\
**Post date:** [30 May 2008 14:38 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/maintaining-openehrs-online-uml-diagrams/14757/2 "2008-05-30T14:38:59Z")

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Hi!

I have started an experiment working with openEHR UML using  
Eclipse-based tools, see:  
[http://www.openehr.org/wiki/display/dev/Experimental+generation+of+code+and+documentation+from+UML](http://www.openehr.org/wiki/display/dev/Experimental+generation+of+code+and+documentation+from+UML)  
The initial driving force for the experiment was creating a custom UML  
diagram for our MIE2008 openEHR tutorial. Some recent corrections etc.  
are not uploaded yet, but I'll try to do that on Monday.

Soon the next version of Eclipse will be official, and if I understand  
things correctly there will be improved support for generics in the  
UML2-related tools then. Let's have a serious look at tooling after  
that release.

Best regards,  
Erik Sundvall  
erisu@imt.liu.se [http://www.imt.liu.se/~erisu/](http://www.imt.liu.se/~erisu/) Tel: +46-13-227579

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**Author:** ![thomas.beale](https://discourse.openehr.org/user_avatar/discourse.openehr.org/thomas.beale/32/35_2.png) [@thomas.beale](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/thomas.beale)\
**Post date:** [30 May 2008 20:24 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/maintaining-openehrs-online-uml-diagrams/14757/3 "2008-05-30T20:24:19Z")

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Erik Sundvall wrote:

> Hi!
> 
> I have started an experiment working with openEHR UML using  
> Eclipse-based tools, see:  
> [http://www.openehr.org/wiki/display/dev/Experimental+generation+of+code+and+documentation+from+UML](http://www.openehr.org/wiki/display/dev/Experimental+generation+of+code+and+documentation+from+UML)  
> The initial driving force for the experiment was creating a custom UML  
> diagram for our MIE2008 openEHR tutorial. Some recent corrections etc.  
> are not uploaded yet, but I'll try to do that on Monday.
> 
> Soon the next version of Eclipse will be official, and if I understand  
> things correctly there will be improved support for generics in the  
> UML2-related tools then. Let's have a serious look at tooling after  
> that release.  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;

thanks Erik,  
that's a good start. Now, of course the problem is that whatever the  
next tool we choose, we need to get the current model into it. We can  
generate XML 1.3 I think it is from MagicDraw, but no better. Some  
manual work will be needed.

- thomas