 |
|
 |
NAIUA: OpenROAD SIG |
|
OpenROAD is an Object Oriented application development tool. As well as having pre-defined System Classes the development environment also allows the developer to create their own classes.
However, the definition of userclasses in OpenROAD is performed in a largely non-visual manner. This restricts the number of people that can gain useful information out of the userclass definitions, creates a gap between the analysis and design performed for the application and the actual development carried out, and also makes the object model defined within the code largely inaccessible to non-OpenROAD users.
The OpenROAD Object Modeler tackles these problems by allowing OpenROAD userclasses to be visually created in the form of an Object Model that uses standard ‘OO’ notation. The model shows the classes within the application to be developed and also illustrates the relationships between the classes.
Object models can be annotated with textual notes so that they can form part of the documentation for a project and are also valuable in presenting information to non-OpenROAD users. OpenROAD userclasses can also be generated directly from the Object Model at any stage, allowing applications to be directly constructed from the analysis documents.
The demonstration version of the modeler which can be downloaded from this site presents many of the functions that will be available in the complete product to be released in the near future. Some of these are:
Graphical construction of Object Models.
Zoom features allow more or less detail to be seen on the object model map.
Ability to create object models from existing applications.
Can annotate models using textual notes in a variety of fonts and typefaces.
Can construct and update OR4 userclasses directly from the object model map.
On-line HTML based help text.
This version of the Object Modeler is limited to the creation of 20 userclasses on one model map and the function to save a constructed object map has been removed. The full version of the modeler supports an unlimited number of classes on the map and supports loading and saving of object models to an Ingres II database.
The orobjmdl-readme.doc document can also be downloaded which details the procedure that should be followed to install the Object Modeler. This file is also present in text format. If you have any problems installing the modeler please contact me at .
The Object Modeler is an on-going development and as such any suggestions for new features or improvements on existing features will be gratefully received. Features to be incorporated in future versions include:
System Requirements
In order to run the Object Modeler software the following requirements will need to be met:
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or require further details about the full version of the Object Modeler please contact me at:
|
|
Please send comments or corrections About these pages to