Needing to prepare a process meta-level model I had a look at what others were doing and decided a UML class diagram was best suited to my needs.
As I use Eclipse Europa I initially extracted the Omondo plug-in. This worked perfectly but I found the tool too oriented to Java programming.
Through a few iterations I realised that I needed to upgrade to Eclipse Ganymede in order to use Eclipse’s native UML2 modeling tool-set which isn’t bound so tightly to Java development. A monumental download later and I was happily creating the first outline of my process model.
Then I caught a snag. I wished to organise my classes into packages. Either embedded or linked, I wasn’t troubled how, but I couldn’t understand how to do this. No end of searching through help, tutorials and other web resources could unearth an answer.
So I began to think about using a tool built on top of the core Eclipse UML modeling capability. I was again concerned that I would install a tool created for Java coding and so ruled out Soyatec (perhaps unfairly). In the end I plumped for Papyrus.
The install was from the update site (certainly much more convenient than unzipping downloads):
http://www.papyrusuml.org/home/liblocal/docs/updates/papyrus
I installed the Papyrus UML Modeler 1.10.1 from the options the Eclipse Update interface gave me. The install went without a hitch.
Papyrus provides the smoother UML class diagram design experience I was looking for and allows for vanilla looking models to be created.
Update
A day of working with Papyrus and I concluded that it wasn’t the tool I was looking for. Associations are all uni-directional, Association Class is not supported, the pop-up menus get in the way, but most important of all the diagram cannot be exported as a .bmp or similar.
So, I downloaded the Umlet plugin, but this was rather clunky although the model could both be copied or exported. I finally installed Topcased using the Update site:
http://topcased-mm.gforge.enseeiht.fr/release/update-site
I was able to copy my existing .uml file from Papyrus and recreate the diagram within Topcased. Nested Packages did not appear in the diagram so a little bit of manual rejig was needed. Topcased is a cleaner and more friendly implementation than Papyrus. I’ve exported the model as a .bmp that I can open in Opera to view.
Anyone with other ideas for process meta-modeling then please leave a comment.
Euroside 