> Howdy all, > > I am working for a research group that has been testing Dia extensively as > a > permenant tool for drawing modeling diagrams. This seems to have resulted > in > positive responses from all the users, except that there are no ORM > diagram > elements available as in the provided ER, Flow charts, etc. > > No problem as it is open source and they have asked me to look into > creating a > plug-in (is this the right idea?) for ORM diagrams. > > I have looked at the lists a bit (this is not my first Open Source > project), > checked your site and even took a brief look at the sources. I noted that > your project would like to be contacted (on the developers page) about > "Other > diagram types" so here I am! > > Where could I best start looking to implement such an ORM diagram into > Dia? Do > you have examples, others working on such a thing, ideas, comments for me?
Haven't heard of ORM before, and I've certainly not heard of anyone working on it. The best sources are the sources (*grin*) and the Dia TWiki (http://faemalia.org/wiki/view/Technical/DiaEditor). You should be aware of the difference between shapes and objects, shapes are very easy to create, but very limited in functionality. You can mix the two in a sheet. Making new objects involves a fair amount of boilerplate (ought to make something that can generate it:), but there's very little that takes actual though, mostly the drawing part where you have to calculate margins and other stuff as needed. Looking at some samples (http://www.orm.net/pdf/ORMwhitePaper.pdf), I don't see any major problems in implementing this. You'll want to look at the movable text label (see the FS lines). The fact boxes will need a bit of work -- if you want arbitrarily many fact connections, it'll be a little tricky (need PROP_LIST), but if you just want two or three facts, it can be hardcoded with the little arrows, connection points etc. One warning: Do not look to the UML Class object for inspiration, it is horrible. -Lars _______________________________________________ Dia-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/dia-list FAQ at http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/faq.html Main page at http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia
