buildzr 0.0.7

Structurizr for the `buildzr`s 🧱⚒️

Structurizr for the buildzrs 🧱⚒️

buildzr is a Structurizr authoring tool for Python programmers.

If you're not familiar with Structurizr, it is both an open standard (see Structurizr JSON schema) and a set of tools for building software architecture diagrams as code. Structurizr derive its architecture modeling paradigm based on the C4 model, the modeling language for visualizing software architecture.

buildzr offers flexible and fluent APIs to write software architecture models, leveraging the standard Structurizr JSON schema for interoperability with various rendering and authoring tools.

Quick Start 🚀

Installation

You can use pip to install the buildzr package:

pip install buildzr

Creating a workspace

The module buildzr.dsl contains all the classes you need to create a workspace containing all the architecture models.

Below is an example, where we:

1. Create the models (Person, SoftwareSystems, the Containers inside the SoftwareSystem, and the relationships between them)
2. Define multiple views using the models we've created before.

import os
import json

from buildzr.encoders import JsonEncoder

from buildzr.dsl import (
    Workspace,
    SoftwareSystem,
    Person,
    Container,
    SystemContextView,
    ContainerView,
    desc,
    Group,
)

w = Workspace('w')\
    .contains(
        Group(
            "My Company",
            Person('Web Application User').labeled('u'),
            SoftwareSystem('Corporate Web App').labeled('webapp')
            .contains(
                Container('database'),
                Container('api'),
            )\
            .where(lambda s: [
                s.api >> "Reads and writes data from/to" >> s.database,
            ])
        ),
        Group(
            "Microsoft",
            SoftwareSystem('Microsoft 365').labeled('email_system'),
        )
    )\
    .where(lambda w: [
        w.person().u >> [
            desc("Reads and writes email using") >> w.software_system().email_system,
            desc("Create work order using") >> w.software_system().webapp,
        ],
        w.software_system().webapp >> "sends notification using" >> w.software_system().email_system,
    ])\
    .with_views(
        SystemContextView(
            lambda w: w.software_system().webapp,
            key='web_app_system_context_00',
            description="Web App System Context",
            auto_layout='lr',
            exclude_elements=[
                lambda w, e: w.person().user == e,
            ]
        ),
        ContainerView(
            lambda w: w.software_system().webapp,
            key='web_app_container_view_00',
            auto_layout='lr',
            description="Web App Container View",
        )
    )\
    .get_workspace()

# Save workspace to a JSON file following the Structurizr JSON schema.
w.to_json('workspace.json')

Here's a short breakdown on what's happening:

• In Workspace(...).contains(...) method, we define the static C4 models (i.e., Person, SoftwareSystem, and the Containers in the software system).
• In the Workspace(...).contains(...).where(...), we define the relationships between the C4 models in the workspace. We access the models via the w parameter in the lambda function, and create the relationships using the >> operators.
• Once we have all the models and their relationships defined, we use (and re-use!) the static models to create multiple views to tell different stories and show various narrative to help document your software architecture.
• Finally, we write the workspace definitions into a JSON file, which can be consumed by rendering tools, or used for further processing.

The JSON output can be found here. You can also try out https://structurizr.com/json to see how this workspace will be rendered.

Why use buildzr?

✅ Uses fluent APIs to help you create C4 model architecture diagrams in Python concisely.

✅ Write Structurizr diagrams more securely with extensive type hints and mypy support.

✅ Stays true to the Structurizr JSON schema standards. buildzr uses the datamodel-code-generator to automatically generate the "low-level" representation of the Workspace model. This reduces deprecancy between buildzr and the Structurizr JSON schema.

✅ Writing architecture diagrams in Python allows you to integrate programmability and automation into your software architecture diagramming and documentation workflow.

✅ Uses the familiar Python programming language to write software architecture diagrams!

Contributing

Interested in contributing to buildzr?

Please visit CONTRIBUTING.md.