[Feature Request]: Class Diagram : Change text color of attributes and/or operations

[Vasileios Pothos]

Hi.

I was experimenting to use Class Diagrams in order to generate different version of APIs (see attached mdj as example). To this end I would like to denote any attribute or operations changes with other color (i.e. red) thus the comparison between the two diagrams to come in ease. Color coding also in attributes and operations aids to group functionality or interface levels.

However I noticed, that even if I select the wanted object, (i.e. in the image below the Shutdown() operation) and change any color of the three (background, lines, font) nothing happens!

Is it a bug? If not, could this be a feature to be implemented in next versions (and not only for the class diagram, but for all relative such diagrams)?

 

Thanks

[StarUML]

Hi,

Because attributes and operations automatically inherit their styles from their parents, they do not support individual colors.

If individual colors were supported, you would not be able to change the color of the entire text of the class and would have to manually select all attributes and operations to change their styles.

Thanks,

2024년 7월 16일 화요일 오전 3시 38분 46초 UTC+9에 vasileio...@gmail.com님이 작성:

[Oliver Reinhard]

Dear StarUML team

I usually agree on your reasoning why some feature requests cannot or should not be done. However, in this case your arguments are of technical nature where really I can see no reason it cannot be done.

Because attributes and operations automatically inherit their styles from their parents, they do not support individual colors.

It was exactly Vasileios' request to enhance that. :-)

 

If individual colors were supported, you would not be able to change the color of the entire text of the class and would have to manually select all attributes and operations to change their styles.

This is how inheritance works also in programming languages: take the default or overwrite it — including the consequences like not have changes to the superelement propagated to overwritten subelements. Just give us an option to set deviated attribute colors back to use class color, and problem solved.

Sharing model evolution with a team or a customer is one of the features not offered by StarUML. It is hard enough to get business teams (sometimes even members of a developer team) to accept UML diagrams even though they are so much more precise and expressive than a Powerpoint drawing or text in a Jira issue. But it is even harder to convey to them changes to a model (a.k.a. model evolution) without them having to print copies of two versions of a diagram and holding them against the light … Thus a feature to at least manually highlight attributes would make a modeler's job much easier. Right now, all I can do is (ab-) use a stereotype like «changed» or «new» and assign it to changed or new attributes in order to highlight the change to the team. But stereotypes on attributes take so much space on a class diagram. Colors would be really of great help here. And then, before I implement the next version of a diagram, I set all the attribute colors back to their classes' color and start highlighting any new attribute changes in color to make them stand out to my customer or colleagues.

Thanks, and please keep up the good work!

--

oliver

[Oliver Reinhard]

Hi Vasileios

This is a feature I would have wished to have for a long time. I've been a StarUML user for 6 years :-)

Thanks for posting the request.

--

oliver

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[StarUML]

Hi,

We understand the need. We'll see what we can do to support it without breaking existing usage. First, we've filed a feature request in our issue tracking system.

Thanks,

2024년 7월 16일 화요일 오후 9시 33분 14초 UTC+9에 oliver....@gmail.com님이 작성:

[Jean-Marie Favre]

Hi,
There are indeed plenty of usages for coloring at the attribute levels.
In particular it would be really nice for extensions to highlight diagram "slices".
Some other modeling tools provide this feature and this is cool.
I think that using the "inheritance" model is ok : if a color is changed at the attribute level this overriding remains.
Looking forward to see this feature implemented !
Thanks for your work
Best regards
    Jean-marie

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[StarUML]

Now support in v6.3.0 release. (Need to uncheck "Inherit Style" of compartment items)

[Oliver Reinhard]

Dear StarUML team

Thank you so much for the introduction of this new feature. I really appreciate it because this will be of great value to me in the collaboration of the stakeholders of my models.

I think you implementation with the "Inherit Style" checkbox is the right one, HOWEVER, by requiring the user to untick the checkbox for the newly set attribute color to have any effect, you created unneeded cognitive friction: many users will now try to set a distinct color to an attribute while not unchecking the box at the same time — to find out that you cannot (apparently) change the attribute color.

Please adapt the user interface so that the "Inherit Style" checkbox is automatically unchecked when a color other than the inherited color is set. Likewise, when a different color than the inherited one is set and the user now explicitly sets the inherited color, the checkbox should automatically be checked. If you want to be really forthcoming to the user, you could let him/her know that StarUML has implicitly adapted the "Inherit Style" checkbox state when he/she uses that feature for the first time.

Anyway, thank you so much for your continuous improvements to StarUML. I have been using UML tools for 24 years and StarUML — while not being the most feature-rich — is the one I have been using the longest and have successfully onboarded many of the stakeholders of my models to update the models themselves. This has only been possible because StarUML is relatively easy to use BECAUSE the advanced features (they wouldn't need anyway!) do not get in the way. Good work!

Best wishes

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oliver

On Sun, 3 Nov 2024 at 03:53, StarUML <sta...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Now support in v6.3.0 release. (Need to uncheck "Inherit Style" of compartment items)

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[StarUML]

Thank you for your feedback. We have added it to our backlog and will review whether to implement the requested feature.

Thank you,

2024년 12월 17일 화요일 오후 3시 59분 1초 UTC+9에 oliver....@gmail.com님이 작성: