Some Notes on Using Rational Rose

Class Diagrams

• Make sure that you are on Class Diagram: Logical View. If not, use explorer pane (“Browser”) on left to navigate
• To Create a Class – click on Class icon on side toolbar; type in name of the class
• To add attributes to the class –

• RightClick on the Class; choose New Attribute
• Type in the attribute name and type into the selected area.
• Hit return to create another attribute OR click outside the class to stop

• To add methods (operations) to the class –

1. RightClick on the Class; choose New Operation

2. Type in the method name, argument types and return type into the selected area.

3. Hit return to create another operation OR click outside the class to stop

• With the class selected, choose Edit \ Diagram Object Properties \ Show Operation Signature to display parameters for the methods
• To add links between classes
• First determine what type of link is needed (Generalization, Aggregation, Association are major types
• Click on the icon for the desired link type on the side toolbar
• Click and Hold on the “from” class
• Drag to the “to” class
• To Label the link between classes
• Double Click on the link
• Look for the tab for the info you want to change. Common things to want to do a) put “role” names for each class – done under General tab; b) put cardinalities for each class – done under Role A detail and Role B Detail (look for the pull down selection box). Note that in UML the cardinalities are on the opposite side than connectivities in E/R diagrams.

Use Case Diagrams

• Make sure that you are on Use Case Diagram: Use Case View / Main. If not, use explorer pane (“Browser”) on left to navigate
• First Actors and Use Cases will be created, then added to the diagram (you could add them directly to the diagram as we did with Classes in class diagrams – click on the appropriate icon on the side toolbar, but they (Quatrani) recommend going through identification and documentation first)
• To Create an Actor

1. Right Click on “Use Case View” in Browser pane, and choose New \ Actor

2. Type name of actor in the selected area

3. Repeat for as many times as desired actors.

• To Create a Use Case

1. Right Click on “Use Case View” in Browser pane, and choose New \ Use Case

2. Type name of use case in the selected area

3. Repeat for as many times as desired use cases.

• To Document a Use Case

1. Select a use case in the Browser pane

2. Go to the “documentation” pane – should be bottom left of the screen – and type in documentation. (More extensive documentation can be stored in documents outside of rational rose, with links to the use case RightClick on the use case in the Browser; select “Open Specification”; Select the Files tab; RightClick, Choose Insert File; browse to find the appropriate folder and file. Click Open to open. Click Ok to close the specification)

• To Create a Use Case Diagram

1. Make sure that you are on Use Case Diagram: Use Case View / Main. If not, use explorer pane (“Browser”) on left to navigate – Double click on “Main” to open it

2. Drag actor(s) from the Browser pane into the diagram window

3. Drag use case(s) from the Browser pane into the diagram window

4. Add links between actors and use cases

• First determine what type of link is needed (Association and unidirectional association are major types
• Click on the icon for the desired link type on the side toolbar
• Click and Hold on the “from” (actor or use case)
• Drag to the “to” (actor or use case)
• You can make additional use case diagrams (for a specific actor). RightClick on “Use Case View”; choose New Use Case Diagram; type the name of the actor while the text for name is selected; fill out diagram as before

Sequence Diagrams

• Create a Sequence Diagram – RightClick on Logical View; Select New / Sequence Diagram. Then type name of diagram into selected area.
• Double Click on the icon in the Browser for the sequence diagram in order to open it
• Drag initiating actor to the diagram
• Click on Object icon on side toolbar; click in sequence diagram to place object; while object rectangle is still selected, type name of object (presumably a class that you have defined in a class diagram already – could be a specific object – but usually a class of objects do the same sequence of actions) (You can also find the class and drag it in – and then the system knows it is a class)
• Repeat – bringing in all actors and objects to appear in the scenario
• Add Messages to the diagram

1. Decide on message (and type – message to self or Object Message – message to another object)

2. Click on appropriate icon on side toolbar

3. Click on the (time line for the) object or Actor sending the message and drag to the (time line for) object or actor receiving the message

4. While the message line is still selected, enter the name of the message (presumably this should be one of the operations identified in the class diagram, but no check is done - you could put garbage in (in fact, your sequence need not make sense either)