UML has four types of interaction diagrams:<\/p>\n
Interaction Overview Diagram<\/b>\u00a0is one of the fourteen types of\u00a0diagrams<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Unified Modeling Language<\/a>\u00a0(UML), which can picture a control flow with nodes that can contain\u00a0interaction diagrams<\/a>.<\/sup><\/p>\n The interaction overview diagram is similar to the\u00a0activity diagram<\/a>, in that both visualize a sequence of activities. The difference is that, for an interaction overview, each individual activity is pictured as a frame which can contain a nested\u00a0interaction diagram<\/a>. This makes the interaction overview diagram useful to “deconstruct a complex scenario that would otherwise require multiple if-then-else paths to be illustrated as a single sequence diagram”.<\/sup><\/p>\n The other notation elements for interaction overview diagrams are the same as for activity diagrams. These include initial, final, decision, merge, fork and join nodes. The two new elements in the interaction overview diagrams are the “interaction occurrences” and “interaction elements.”<\/p>\n A\u00a0sequence diagram<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0system sequence diagram<\/b>\u00a0(SSD) shows\u00a0process<\/a>\u00a0interactions arranged in time sequence in the field of\u00a0software engineering<\/a>. It depicts the processes involved and the sequence of messages exchanged between the processes needed to carry out the functionality. Sequence diagrams are typically associated with use case realizations in the\u00a04+1 architectural view model<\/a>\u00a0of the system under development. Sequence diagrams are sometimes called\u00a0event diagrams<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0event scenarios<\/b>.<\/p>\n For a particular scenario of a\u00a0use case<\/a>, the diagrams show the events that external actors generate, their order, and possible inter-system events. <\/sup>All\u00a0systems<\/a>\u00a0are treated as a\u00a0black box<\/a>; the diagram places emphasis on events that cross the system boundary from actors to systems. A system sequence diagram should be done for the main success scenario of the\u00a0use case<\/a>, and frequent or complex alternative scenarios.<\/p>\n A sequence diagram shows, as parallel vertical lines (lifelines<\/i>), different processes or objects that live simultaneously, and, as horizontal arrows, the messages exchanged between them, in the order in which they occur. This allows the specification of simple runtime scenarios in a graphical manner.<\/p>\n A system sequence diagram should specify and show the following:<\/p>\n A\u00a0communication diagram<\/b>\u00a0in the\u00a0Unified Modeling Language<\/a>\u00a0(UML) 2.0, is a simplified version of the UML 1.x collaboration diagram.<\/p>\n A Communication diagram models the interactions between objects or parts in terms of sequenced messages. Communication diagrams represent a combination of information taken from\u00a0Class<\/a>,\u00a0Sequence<\/a>, and\u00a0Use Case Diagrams<\/a>\u00a0describing both the static structure and dynamic behavior of a system.<\/p>\n However, communication diagrams use the free-form arrangement of objects and links as used in Object diagrams. In order to maintain the ordering of messages in such a free-form diagram, messages are labeled with a chronological number and placed near the link the message is sent over. Reading a communication diagram involves starting at message 1.0, and following the messages from object to object.<\/p>\n Communication diagrams show much of the same information as sequence diagrams, but because of how the information is presented, some of it is easier to find in one diagram than the other. Communication diagrams show which elements each one interacts with better, but sequence diagrams show the order in which the interactions take place more clearly.<\/p>\n A\u00a0timing diagram <\/b>in the\u00a0Unified Modeling Language<\/a>\u00a02.0 is a specific type of\u00a0interaction diagram<\/a>, where the focus is on timing constraints.<\/p>\n Timing diagrams are used to explore the\u00a0behaviors<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0objects<\/a>\u00a0throughout a given period of time. A timing diagram is a special form of a\u00a0sequence diagram<\/a>. The differences between timing diagram and sequence diagram are the axes are reversed so that the time increases from left to right and the lifelines are shown in separate compartments arranged vertically.<\/p>\n There are two basic flavors of timing diagram: the\u00a0concise notation<\/i>, and the\u00a0robust notation<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sequence diagram<\/h3>\n
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Communication diagram<\/h3>\n
Timing diagram<\/h3>\n