UML Designer User's Guide

Finding protocols for participants

When you transform a responsibility into a message specification, the types of the generated parameters and return values must be specified as protocols. Depending upon your selections, UML Designer can use several different methods of choosing which protocol to use for a parameter or return value.

If a responsibility specifies a participating thing, UML Designer uses the implementing protocol of the thing as the type for the corresponding message parameter.

However, participants are optional for responsibilities using the Value or Identifier idioms, even though some of the generated messages take parameters. If you do not specify a participant, UML Designer chooses a default parameter type as follows:

  1. If you have specified English link labeling in the system settings, UML Designer looks for a noun in the responsibility implementation name. For example:

    If you have not specified English link labeling, UML Designer uses the entire implementation name. (For more information about the system settings, see System settings.

  2. Using the noun or implementation name, UML Designer then looks for a Thing whose name matches. If it finds one, and the thing has an implementing protocol, it uses that protocol. For example:
  3. If no Thing element matches, UML Designer then looks for a protocol whose name matches the noun or implementation name. If it finds one, it uses that protocol.

    For example, Date matches the protocol <Date>.

  4. If Relationships Browser cannot find a matching thing or protocol, it uses <Object>.


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