archgenxml 2.3

UML to code generator for Plone

Overview

With ArchGenXML you can create working python code without writing one single line of python. It is is a commandline utility that generates fully functional Zope Products based on the Archetypes framework from UML models using XMI (.xmi, .zargo, .zuml) files. The most common use case is to generate a set of custom content types, possibly with a few tools, a custom Member type and some workflows thrown in.

How it works

In practice, you draw your UML diagrams in a tool like ArgoUML which has the ability to generate XMI files. Once you are ready to test your product, you run ArchGenXML on the XMI file, which will generate the product directory. After generation, you will be able to install your product in Plone and have your new content types, tools and workflows available.

At present, round-trip support is not implemented: Custom code can’t be converted back into XMI (and thus diagrams). However, you can re-generate your product over existing code. Method bodies and certain protected code sections will be preserved. This means that you can evolve your product’s public interfaces, its methods and its attributes in the UML model, without fear of losing your hand-written code.

Supported Plone Versions

We support Plone Versions 2.5.x and >3.1.x. But if you have code generated with some ArchGenXML version below 2 you will need to adjust the generated model and code manually. There is no smooth migration. If you dont need to make your code run on Plone 3, stick to an older version of ArchGenXML.

Further Reading

The Manual documents most of ArchGenXML features. There are also plenty third party documentations in several languages. Just use Google to find more on this topic.