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<p>The <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT-UML2">Eclipse UML2</a> project provides an implementation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Modeling_Language">Unified Modeling Language (UML) 2.1</a> metamodel in Java. The fact that the underlying technology is the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/emf/">Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF)</a> makes it possible to use the <a href="http://www.dinkla.net/groovy/emf.html">EMFBuilder</a> with the UML2 metamodel.</p>

<p>The <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/mdt/uml2/docs/articles/Getting_Started_with_UML2/article.html">introductory article</a> by Ken Hussey explains how to create UML2 models with the Eclipse editor and how to create them programmatically with Java code. Here we will use Groovy and the <a href="http://www.dinkla.net/groovy/emf.html">EMFBuilder</a>.</p>

<p>We use the UMLFactory for the EMFBuilder.</p>
<table class="wysiwyg-macro" data-macro-name="code" style="background-image: url(/plugins/servlet/confluence/placeholder/macro-heading?definition=e2NvZGV9&amp;locale=en_GB&amp;version=2); background-repeat: no-repeat;" data-macro-body-type="PLAIN_TEXT"><tr><td class="wysiwyg-macro-body"><pre>
def builder = new EMFBuilder(UMLFactory)
</pre></td></tr></table>
<p>We create a model as the root node and then we create two primitive types and store them in Groovy variables because we have to reference them later on.</p>
<table class="wysiwyg-macro" data-macro-name="code" style="background-image: url(/plugins/servlet/confluence/placeholder/macro-heading?definition=e2NvZGV9&amp;locale=en_GB&amp;version=2); background-repeat: no-repeat;" data-macro-body-type="PLAIN_TEXT"><tr><td class="wysiwyg-macro-body"><pre>
def epo2Model = builder.Model(name: 'epo2') {
	packagedElement {
		def intPrimitiveType = PrimitiveType(name: 'int')
		def stringPrimitiveType = PrimitiveType(name: 'String')
</pre></td></tr></table>
<p>We define an enumeration OrderStatus with three literals.</p>
<table class="wysiwyg-macro" data-macro-name="code" style="background-image: url(/plugins/servlet/confluence/placeholder/macro-heading?definition=e2NvZGV9&amp;locale=en_GB&amp;version=2); background-repeat: no-repeat;" data-macro-body-type="PLAIN_TEXT"><tr><td class="wysiwyg-macro-body"><pre>
def orderStatusEnumeration = Enumeration(name: 'OrderStatus') {
			ownedLiteral {
				EnumerationLiteral(name: 'Pending')
				EnumerationLiteral(name: 'Back Order')
				EnumerationLiteral(name: 'Complete')
			}
		}
</pre></td></tr></table>
<p>The following code snippet shows the definition of the classes Address and USAddress. All the attributes are defined as a Property. The primitive types stringPrimitiveType and intPrimitiveType defined above are used. The class USAddress is a subclass of the abstract class Address. This is expressed with the Generalization object.</p>
<table class="wysiwyg-macro" data-macro-name="code" style="background-image: url(/plugins/servlet/confluence/placeholder/macro-heading?definition=e2NvZGV9&amp;locale=en_GB&amp;version=2); background-repeat: no-repeat;" data-macro-body-type="PLAIN_TEXT"><tr><td class="wysiwyg-macro-body"><pre>
def addressClass = Class(name: 'Address' ,isAbstract: true) {
			ownedAttribute {
				Property(name: 'name', type: stringPrimitiveType, lower: 0, upper: 1)
				Property(name: 'country', type: stringPrimitiveType, lower: 0, upper: 1)
			}
		}
		def usAddressClass = Class(name: 'USAddress') {
			generalization {
				Generalization(general: addressClass)
			}
			ownedAttribute {
				Property(name: 'street', type: stringPrimitiveType, lower: 0, upper: 1)
				Property(name: 'city', type: stringPrimitiveType, lower: 0, upper: 1)
				Property(name: 'state', type: stringPrimitiveType, lower: 0, upper: 1)
				Property(name: 'zip', type: intPrimitiveType, lower: 0, upper: 1)
			}
		}
</pre></td></tr></table>
<p>Compare this code to the original code in the article! The code is much more concise and is a direct representation of the UML2 diagram. No auxiliary methods are needed.</p>

<p>See the homepage of the <a href="http://www.dinkla.net/groovy/uml2.html">UML2 Builder</a> for further details.</p>