Profile

The collection of standard and custom profile files contain all the filtering and presentation rules available to the diagram editor.

Structure

All profile files have a file name with the extension .ajsvp. AgileJ StructureViews ships with a set of standard profile files which allow you to get going with creating and viewing diagrams using a collection of vanilla Diagram Styles. When you need finer control of the appearance of your diagrams, you can create your own profile files and within them create your own custom Diagram Styles.

Here is a partial view of the structure of the Profile:

Note that:

• Multiple profile files exist
• Profile Part is the general term for any profile component
• Inside a Profile File there can be any number of Profile Parts
• There is no direct association between Element Sets and Class Display Styles.
• It is only through the Element Binding acting as an agent that a Diagram Style associates a Class Display Style with the Java elements, classes in this case, contained within an Element Set.

Rendering Java Elements

The mechanism behind the rendering of Java Elements on diagrams according to a customized presentation requires interaction between the Diagram, the Eclipse JTD and various Profile Parts.

There is nothing in the diagram which knows how to render the types it contains. No colors, sort orders, fonts, sizes or text formats. Remember, a diagram file just contains a list of type names and (x,y) co-ordinates. The sequence diagram below illustrates the process of determining how to display a Java element, in this case a class, on the screen. The diagram editor loads the name of the next type from the diagram file, and asks the Eclipse JDT to resolve it. It then presents the resolved type to the current Diagram Style which returns a Class Display Style detailing colors and all other display-related information. The way the Diagram Style finds the appropriate Class Display Style is by checking its Bindings until one with an Element Set which includes that Java element is found.

Element Sets

Element Sets are defined by a list of inclusion (and exclusion) rules for Java model elements.

Below is an examples.

protected non-test fields

To be included in this Element Set the Java element must:

• be a field
• have a visibility of 'protected'
• be called 'test'

Element Display Styles

Element Display Styles hold presentation-related information like colors, orders and sizes. Note that an Element Display Style controls how to display an element, without saying anything about which elements should be displayed that way.

(Note that for simplicity FieldDisplayStyle was shown derived directly from ProfilePart on the Profile structure diagram.)

Profile Part Selection

Editing diagrams and profile files both require making Profile Part selections. For example, selecting Diagram Style, setting the scope of a diagram or choosing the Element Set of an Element Binding. In all these cases, the same dialog is presented.

The tree only ever has a depth of two: the roots are the profile file names (with the '.ajsv' extension omitted) and the leaves are the selectable Profile Parts. There may be other Profile Parts declared in the profile files listed, but these will have been filtered out. For example, the bootstrapProfileParts file actually contains a Diagram Style, Colors, TextStyles, but in this instance only Element Sets are presented.