• ORGMODE , DIAGRAMS

plantuml

One resource to revisit when you see sloppy PlantUML diagrams is this StackOverflow question.

ERD Diagrams

plantuml is a bit much to get going. You need to install java, you need to download the plantuml.jar file, and you need to set the org-plantuml-jar-path variable.

ERD diagrams are doable in plantuml, but you cannot (that I know of) link fields to one another. It might be good to generate an ERD with a full field listing for an overall view, and then another diagram that spells out field linkages.

First, we set the path to plantuml.jar

(setq org-plantuml-jar-path '"~/windows/plantuml/plantuml.jar")

Then we define our diagram

skinparam monochrome true
skinparam shadowing false

hide circle
hide empty members

title All Fields
entity email {
   * pkid
   * email2user
   * email
}
entity user {
   * pkid
   --
   * username
   first
   last
}
entity phone {
   * pkid
   * phone2user
   * phone
}

email}-||user
user||-{phone

Now we define our linkage:

skinparam monochrome true
skinparam shadowing false

hide circle


title Foreign keys
entity user {
  * pkid

}
entity email {
  * email2user

}
entity phone {
  * phone2user

}
email}-||user
user||-{phone

Even with only one field, the crows feet don’t line up perfectly, but at least you get to see the relationships.

Sequence Diagrams

You can also do sequence diagrams

skinparam monochrome true
 Foo -> Bar: synchronous call
 Foo ->> Bar: asynchronous call

Use case diagrams

And use case diagrams:

left to right direction
skinparam monochrome true
skinparam shadowing false
skinparam packageStyle rect
actor customer
actor clerk
rectangle checkout {
  customer -- (checkout)
  (checkout) .> (payment) : include
  (help) .> (checkout) : extends
  (checkout) -- clerk
}

class diagrams

You can build class diagrams:

skinparam monochrome true
skinparam shadowing false

interface Command {
    execute()
    undo()
}
class Invoker{
    setCommand()
}
class Client
class Receiver{
    action()
}
class ConcreteCommand{
    execute()
    undo()
}

Command <|-down- ConcreteCommand
Client -right-> Receiver
Client --> ConcreteCommand
Invoker o-right-> Command
Receiver <-left- ConcreteCommand

and more

There are many diagrams you can create with plantuml. You can see examples and example source code and real-world-plantuml.com.