Diagram interchange
The Diagram Interchange (DI) is a partial specification of the Unified Modeling Language 2.0 (UML2). The DI is a standard of the Object Management Group (OMG), which is used to define the exchange format for the layout of diagrams in the context of UML 2.0.
Description of the basic concept
The DI essentially assumes that all diagrams are viewed as graphs . There are elements that describe the nodes and edges. The position and extent of the nodes and the waypoints of the edges are defined.
The concrete appearance of the elements is not specified. How a node is represented, for example, depends on which element of the semantic model of the UML it is connected to. A UML actor is only a node in the DI. The DI does not specify that this actor is represented as a stick figure.
Another basic concept of the DI is its nesting structure. Nodes and edges can contain any nodes and edges, so that, for example, a class is represented as a node that further contains nodes that represent, for example, the attribute and operation compartment. In turn, the attributes of the class are nested in an attribute compartment.
The extension of the UML 2.0 metamodel by the DI is shown in the following diagram (formulated in MOF ):
specification
- UML 2.0 Diagram Interchange version 1.0 (PDF; 450 kB)