Adding Operations in the Activity Editor
In UML, the tasks to perform by an activity are implemented to action nodes. In the Designer, you can add actions to the activity diagram by dragging operations from the service panel and dropping them on the canvas.
Activities are modeled in activity diagrams. Refer to Modeling Activities for more information on how to create an activity diagram.
Adding Operations to the Activity Diagram
You can do this with any operation: Operations from your data model or the Base Types, as well as operations from imported libraries or connectors.
Dropping an operation on the activity diagram creates a call operation action and the related pins.
Adding Suboperations
If you want to create a new suboperation, you can click an operation icon in the elements toolbar and drag it to the diagram pane. You can create the following types of suboperations directly from the toolbar:
Activity operations (for sub-activities)
The example shows how to create an action script operation as suboperation:
When you create a new suboperation by dragging it from the elements toolbar, it inherits by default the Is static attribute of the operation (activity diagram) it has been created to. If necessary, you can change this attribute in the Attributes panel.
The new suboperation is now displayed in the activity diagram and you can enter its name directly into the element:
You can also change the name of an operation or suboperation already used in the diagram by double-clicking the element:
You can create parameters directly in the activity editor using the two options above the operation. They appear on mouse-over:
You can also create parameters via the service panel.
If you
add /delete a parameter in the activity editor,
add / delete a parameter in the service panel,
change the Is static attribute of an operation in the service panel,
the activity diagram is not updated automatically. You will get a warning message in the validation panel that you need to reload the activity diagram to see all pins of the relevant operation. You can click this warning message to highlight the relevant operation in the diagram.
The newly created operation is also displayed as a suboperation to the activity operation to which it was added in the Implementation folder of the service panel:
General Operation Options
The following options are available for both operations and suboperations:
Once added to the diagram, you can move operations any time. Click the operation and drag it to a new position:
You can resize operations by clicking the square in the bottom right corner of the element and dragging it:
You can hover over the operation to see a tooltip showing the full operation name and path:
Hovering over an operation pin shows the direction, the name and the full path of the type:
Deleting Operations from the Activity Diagram
Operations and suboperations can be deleted from the activity diagram.
The operation will be deleted from the activity diagram only. The corresponding operation remains in the implementation folder of the service panel and must be deleted there if desired.
Right-click on the corresponding element to open the context menu and select Delete:
You can also select the element and use the Del key on your keyboard.