Since ArgoUML is written in 100% pure Java, it should run on any machine with Java installed. Java, version 1.4 or later is needed. You may have this in place, but if not it can be downloaded free from www.java.com. Note that you only need the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), there is no need to download the whole Java Development Kit (JDK).

ArgoUML needs a reasonable amount of computing resource. A PC with 200MHz processor, 64Mb RAM and 10Mb of space available on a harddisk should be adequate. Download the code from Download section of the project website argouml.tigris.org. Choose the version that suits your needs as described in the section below.

You have three options for obtaining ArgoUML.

All three options are freely available through the project web site, argouml.tigris.org.

There are two steps to this.

Java Web Start will download ArgoUML, cache it and start it the first time, then on subsequent starts, check if ArgoUML is updated and only download any updated parts and then start it. The ArgoUML home page also provides details on starting ArgoUML from the Java Web Start console.

If you choose to download the binary executable, you will have a choice of downloading the latest stable version of the code (which will be more reliable, but not have all the latest features), or the current version (which will be less reliable, but have more features). Choose according to your own situation.

ArgoUML comes in .zip or tar.gz flavors. Choose the former if you are a Microsoft Windows user, and the latter if you are running some flavor of Unix. Unpacking is as follows.

You should have a directory containing the following files: antlrall.jar, gef.jar, nsuml.jar, README.txt, argouml.jar, log4j.jar, ocl-argo.jar and xerces.jar.

If you get completely stuck and you have no local assistance, try the web site, particularly the FAQ. If this still doesn't solve the problem, try the ArgoUML users' mailing list.

You can subscribe through the mailing lists section of the project web site argouml.tigris.org, or send an empty message to users@argouml.org with the subject line subscribe.

You can then send your problem to users@argouml.org and see how other users are able to help.

The users' mailing list is an excellent introduction to the live activity of the project. If you want to get further involved there are additional mailing lists that cover the development of the product and issues in the current and future releases.

To run ArgoUML depends on whether you use Microsoft Windows or some flavor of Unix.

It's unusual to encounter problems if you have made a successful download. Most common issue is not having a new enough Java Runtime Environment (it must be 1.4 or later).

If you can't solve the problem. Try the users' mailing list (see Section 2.5.1.5, “Problems Downloading”).

Figure 2.5, “Overview of the Explorer” shows the Explorer.

Figure 2.5. Overview of the Explorer

This is the explorer, where we can navigate through our model. This pane list all the classes, interfaces and data types of our model as a tree view.

Figure 2.6, “Overview of the Editing Pane” shows the Editing Pane.

Figure 2.6. Overview of the Editing Pane

This is the Editing Pane, where we can edit our diagram in a graphical way.

Figure 2.7, “Overview of the Details Pane” shows the Details Pane.

Figure 2.7. Overview of the Details Pane

This is the Details Pane, that allows us to edit various details of our model.

Figure 2.8, “Overview of the To-Do Pane” shows the To-Do Pane.

Figure 2.8. Overview of the To-Do Pane

The To-Do Pane displays the items on the models to-do list in a tree which sorts the list in a number of different ways. A drop down selection box at the top of the pane determines the layout of the tree.

The menu bar and toolbars gives access to all the main features of ArgoUML. As is conventional, menu options and toolbar options that are not available are grayed out and menu items that invoke a dialog box are followed by an ellipsis (...).

The mouse and mouse buttons (or their equivalent with alternative tracking devices) are used in a wide variety of ways. In this section we look at the common modes of use.

ArgoUML assumes a two button mouse. We will refer to the buttons as “button 1” and “button 2”. Button 1 is the leftmost button on a right-handed mouse, and sometimes referred to as the “select” button. Button 2 is sometimes referred to as the “adjust” button.

There are other more specific behaviors that will be encountered under the specific cases where they are used.

In general diagrams are drawn by using the edit pane toolbar to select the artifact desired and clicking in the diagram at the position required as described in Section 2.5.2.6, “The Mouse”. That section also explains the use of the mouse for re-sizing artifacts.

Artifacts that are already in the model, but not on a diagram, may be added to a diagram by selecting the artifact in the explorer, using Add to Diagram from the drop down menu (button 2) over that artifact, and then clicking button 1 at the desired location on the diagram.

As well as UML artifacts, the Edit pane toolbar provides for general drawing artifacts (rectangles, circles, lines, polygons, curves, text) to provide supplementary information on diagrams.

There is now a tool available which supports various dialects of XMI and their interconversion. This should make portability of different models in to ArgoUML considerably easier. Any work on using this with ArgoUML would be much appreciated.

There is also a tool that converts XMI to HTML. For more information, see http://www.objectsbydesign.com/projects/xmi_to_html_2.html.

Where do we stand now? A new project has been created, and is connected to the file FirstProject.argo. Figure 2.12, “ArgoUML window having saved FirstProject.argo” shows how your ArgoUML window should look at this stage.

Figure 2.12. ArgoUML window having saved FirstProject.argo

The project contains a top-level package, called untitledModel, which contains a class diagram and a use case diagram.

If we look carefully at the screen, we can see that the "Medium" folder in the To Do pane (the lower left pane) must contain some items, since its activation icon is displayed.

Clicking on this icon will open the "Medium" folder. An open folder is indicated by the icon.

But what is this “To-Do” Pane anyway. You haven't recorded anything yet that has to be done, so where do these to do items originate.

The answer is simple, and is at the same time one of the strong points of ArgoUML. While you are working on your UML model, your work is monitored continuously and invisibly by a piece of code called a design critic. This is like a personal mentor that watches over your shoulder and notifies you each time he sees something questionable in your design.

Critics are quite unobtrusive. They give you a friendly warning, but they do not force you into design principles that you don't want or like to follow. Let us take a look at what the critics are telling us. Click on the icon next to the Medium folder, and click on the Revise Package Name UntitledModel item.

Figure 2.13, “ArgoUML window showing the critic item Revise Package Name UntitledModel” shows how your screen should now look.

Figure 2.13. ArgoUML window showing the critic item Revise Package Name UntitledModel

Notice that your selection is highlighted in red in the To-Do Pane, and that a full explanation appears now in the Details Pane (the lower right pane). You may have to re-size your Details Pane or to scroll down in order to see the full message as displayed in our example.

What ArgoUML is trying to tell you is that usually, package names are written in lower cases. The default top level package created by ArgoUML is called untitledModel and therefore violates a sound design principle. (Actually, this could be considered as a bug within ArgoUML, but it comes in handy to demonstrate the working of critics).

At this point, you can choose to change the package name manually, to impose silence on the design critic for some time or permanently, or to request a more comprehensive explanation by Email from an expert.

We will do nothing of this (we'll come back to it when we talk about the design critics in more detail) but we'll use another handy feature of ArgoUML—an auto-correct feature.

In order to do that, just click on the Next button on the Details Pane. This will cause a renaming wizard to be displayed inside the properties panel, proposing to use the name untitledmodel (all in lower case).

Replace the name untitledmodel with purchasingmodel, and click on the Finish button. Figure 2.14, “ArgoUML window showing the critic wizard to rename the package” shows how the ArgoUML window will now look.

Figure 2.14. ArgoUML window showing the critic wizard to rename the package

Watch now how the design critic note in the To Do panel disappears, leaving only the Add Elements to Package purchasingmodel note in the To-Do list.

If this doesn't happen at once, wait for a few seconds. ArgoUML makes heavy use of several threads of execution that execute in parallel. This can cause delays of a few seconds before the information gets updated on the screen.

The package name change should also be reflected in the explorer, in the top left corner of your ArgoUML window.

We are now ready to create our first UML diagram, a Use Case diagram, but first let's save what we've done so far.

Click on the File menu item, and select Save Project. You can now safely exit ArgoUML without losing your work so far, or go on creating your first diagram.