ArgoIdea - Basic Integration of ArgoUML into Intellij IDEA 8 and newer.

ArgoIdea supports running ArgoUML within Intellij IDEA. If you don't know what ArgoUML or IntelliJ IDEA is, then this site is probably not for you.

At the current stage the integration provides the benefit of keeping ArgoUML's and IDEA's project files in sync and it adds basic VCS capabilities to ArgoUML as the project file is automatically checked-out if it resides under a version controlled context.

Future versions of the plugin may add support for more advanced features like re-using IDEA's parsing engine to synchronize the model and support automatic diagram publishing. I will probably start diving into this topic when ArgoUML includes support for UML 2.0 (which is currently under development).

1. Resources

• The source code for the plugin can be found under http://sourceforge.net/projects/argoidea/develop
• The plugin space @ intellij.net is http://plugins.intellij.net/plugin/?idea&id=4374

2. Short Usage Instructions

2.1 Prerequisites

1. ArgoUML 0.28 or newer, resides in a local directory on the PC.

   Note: If ArgoUML is missing, download it from http://argouml.tigris.org/ and install or unpack it to your local PC.

2. IntelliJ IDEA 8 or newer is used, running on a JDK 1.6 or newer.

2.2 Initial Setup of the Plugin

1. Use IntelliJ IDEA's plugin manager to install the plugin "ArgoUML Integration"

   Node: Alternatively you can download the plugin jar and place it inside the plugins directory "${idea.user.home}\config\plugins".
   On windows and when using IntelliJ IDEA 9 this is directory can be found under: "%USERPROFILE%\.IntelliJIdea90\config\plugins".

2. The IDE must be restarted after installing new plugins.
3. Setup the path to the ArgoUML installation.

   Open the "Settings" dialog inside the IDE (CTRL + ALT + s) and select ArgoUML Integration inside the IDE Settings section:

   

4. Setup the default path for the ArgoUML project file and format to be used in new projects.

   Select ArgoUML Configuration inside the Template Project Settings section:

   

   Note: The ArgoUML project file is stored relative to the project base path used by the IntelliJ IDEA project file.

2.3 Usage of the Plugin

As ArgoUML is a full blown application, it is not started by default (configurable) to reduce resource usage when UML modeling is not needed.

Starting the ArgoUML integration:

1. Ensure all prerequisites are fulfilled and the initial setup was done.
2. Create or open a project and adjust the ArgoUML Configuration if needed.
3. Select "Initialize / Load ArgoUML" inside the Tools menu:

   

4. The 3 main panels of ArgoUML are added as docked windows inside IntelliJ:

   

   Hints:

   • When used to document existing code, use the "Synchronize" icon inside the "ArgoUML Explorer" to import sources into the UML model (currently this is a one way operation only).
   • When used to create code, don't forget to specify the source folders inside the package nodes (right click a package) to let ArgoUML know where source files should be created in.
     With current versions of ArgoUML, Java "Annotations" are not supported. Be careful when creating sources for existing classes.

   Note: For further usage instructions read the manual provided by ArgoUML itself.