I am looking for APIs that can draw UML Class diagrams and present them in a JPanel (or any other suitable UI entity) for a window application. It has to be embedded within the application, so I am not looking for some standalone tool that can generate UMLs based on java files or some plugin. I need actual jars that can be implemented for creating class diagrams so I can use them in a window application. I've looked into several but all of the sources that I am finding are either standalone programs or cannot be implemented within an application and need to take the user's focus away from the app. I am using NetBeans IDE, but I also have Eclipse installed.
SOLVED:
I used PlantUML API. I manually input a string in accordance with the PlantUML input language syntax and then used a simple and straightforward generateImage method to populate a byte array which I then converted into an image and saved it to my desktop. This fits what I wanted because it keeps the user focused on my application and mine alone. Alternatively, one can produce the buffered image on a window or something. The PlantUML API needs to be imported to the application package. This code creates an image in my desktop (don't forget to change the directory path) with a UML class image for the class, Person:
public class PaintUML {
/**
* @param args the command line arguments
*/
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
// TODO code application logic here
ByteArrayOutputStream bous = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
String source = "@startuml\n";
source += "class Person {\n";
source += "String name\n";
source += "int age\n";
source += "int money\n";
source += "String getName()\n";
source += "void setName(String name)\n";
source += "}\n";
source += "@enduml\n";
SourceStringReader reader = new SourceStringReader(source);
// Write the first image to "png"
String desc = reader.generateImage(bous);
// Return a null string if no generation
byte [] data = bous.toByteArray();
InputStream in = new ByteArrayInputStream(data);
BufferedImage convImg = ImageIO.read(in);
ImageIO.write(convImg, "png", new File("C:\\Users\\Aaron\\Desktop\\image.png"));
System.out.print(desc);
}
}
