Quick Web Sequence Diagrams

Want to create a sequence diagram and don't want to spend more than 5 minutes on it ? In the past when I have used Visio I have spent 20+ minutes tweaking boxes and lines lengths.

This web site http://www.websequencediagrams.com/ uses a notation to draw UML diagrams.

The site is very easy to use. By clicking on the example on the right side it inserts the template into text area. The diagrams are basic and it --does-- discourage lots of tweaking of box sizes and line lengths that are just a waste when you have a job to do. Its also easy to use your favorite text editor to clone sections of the UML and rename them for repetitive work flows.

Example:

Browser->ActionServlet: Authentication Request
activate ActionServlet
note right of ActionServlet: Dispatches to custom actions.
ActionServlet-->Browser: Authentication Response
deactivate ActionServlet

Produces:

Want to produce entities with multiple lines of text ?

Just add a '\n' in the text:

Browser->ActionServlet \nController: Authentication Request
activate ActionServlet \nController
note right of ActionServlet \nController: Dispatches to custom actions.
ActionServlet \nController-->Browser: Authentication Response
deactivate ActionServlet \nController

There may be an easier way but I haven't read the documentation yet.

There are even several predefined styles that can be selected by a simple combobox:

You can also predefine each of the entities ahead of time for complex sequence flows:

entity User
entity Computer

Browser->ActionServlet: Authentication Request
activate ActionServlet
note right of ActionServlet: Dispatches to custom actions.
ActionServlet-->Browser: Authentication Response
deactivate ActionServlet

Best of all this demonstrates that you can type in little bit of code at the time to preview the results.

Update: Since I originally wrote this article, you can now even add UML Diagrams to you Wiki.

Good stuff!

-Rob