C# – UML diagrams from ASP.net Application design specs

asp.netcmvpuml

I work in a mid size company as a intermediate developer and work on developing web projects. I got a situtation where i need to develop UML out of the design specs and this will be the main technical specification (High level though and will get futher changed in process of acutal development).

Can someone provide guidlines on how to start on this (or) there any good samples online ?

Planning to use Visio for UML, how good is this ?

Thanks

Best Answer

I use Enterprise Architect a lot for creating specifications. Sparx systems is the company that sells it for relatively cheap. Go over the demos and see if you like it. It is a neat tool for $135.

ObjectAid UML Explorer

Is what I used. It is easily installed from the repository:

Name:     ObjectAid UML Explorer
Location: http://www.objectaid.com/update/current

And produces quite nice UML diagrams:

Screenshot

Description from the website:

The ObjectAid UML Explorer is different from other UML tools. It uses the UML notation to show a graphical representation of existing code that is as accurate and up-to-date as your text editor, while being very easy to use. Several unique features make this possible:

Your source code and libraries are the model that is displayed, they are not reverse engineered into a different format.

If you update your code in Eclipse, your diagram is updated as well; there is no need to reverse engineer source code.

Refactoring updates your diagram as well as your source code. When you rename a field or move a class, your diagram simply reflects the changes without going out of sync.

All diagrams in your Eclipse workspace are updated with refactoring changes as appropriate. If necessary, they are checked out of your version control system.

Diagrams are fully integrated into the Eclipse IDE. You can drag Java classes from any other view onto the diagram, and diagram-related information is shown in other views wherever applicable.

C# – How to create a dropdownlist from an enum in ASP.NET MVC

For MVC v5.1 use Html.EnumDropDownListFor

@Html.EnumDropDownListFor(
    x => x.YourEnumField,
    "Select My Type", 
    new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC v5 use EnumHelper

@Html.DropDownList("MyType", 
   EnumHelper.GetSelectList(typeof(MyType)) , 
   "Select My Type", 
   new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC 5 and lower

I rolled Rune's answer into an extension method:

namespace MyApp.Common
{
    public static class MyExtensions{
        public static SelectList ToSelectList<TEnum>(this TEnum enumObj)
            where TEnum : struct, IComparable, IFormattable, IConvertible
        {
            var values = from TEnum e in Enum.GetValues(typeof(TEnum))
                select new { Id = e, Name = e.ToString() };
            return new SelectList(values, "Id", "Name", enumObj);
        }
    }
}

This allows you to write:

ViewData["taskStatus"] = task.Status.ToSelectList();

by using MyApp.Common