nomnoml

Hello, this is nomnoml, a tool for drawing UML diagrams based on a simple syntax. It tries to keep its syntax visually as close as possible to the generated UML diagram without resorting to ASCII drawings.

Created by Daniel Kallin and a cadre of contributors.

Nomnoml was made possible by these cool projects

• jison
• dagre
• typicons
• codemirror
• solarized

Library

The nomnoml standalone javascript library can be used to render diagrams on your own web page. The only dependency is graphre. Install it using either npm or good old script inclusion.

SVG output in NodeJS

npm install nomnoml

var nomnoml = require('nomnoml');
var src = '[nomnoml] is -> [awesome]';
console.log(nomnoml.renderSvg(src));

HTML Canvas rendering target

<script src="//unpkg.com/graphre/dist/graphre.js"></script>
<script src="//unpkg.com/nomnoml/dist/nomnoml.js"></script>

<canvas id="target-canvas"></canvas>
<script>
    var canvas = document.getElementById('target-canvas');
    var source = '[nomnoml] is -> [awesome]';
    nomnoml.draw(canvas, source);
</script>

Command Line Interface

npx nomnoml exposes the SVG renderer with a command line interface. This mode also supports the #import: <filename> directive which allow you to separate complex diagrams into multiple files.

npx nomnoml input-file.noml

Web application

The nomnoml web application is a simple editor with a live preview. It is purely client side and changes are saved to the browser's localStorage, so your diagram should be here the next time, (but no guarantees).

Interaction

The canvas can be panned and zoomed by dragging and scrolling in the right hand third of the canvas. Downloaded image files will be given the filename in the #title directive.

Example

This is how the Decorator pattern looks like in nomnoml syntax:

[<frame>Decorator pattern|
  [<abstract>Component||+ operation()]
  [Client] depends --> [Component]
  [Decorator|- next: Component]
  [Decorator] decorates -- [ConcreteComponent]
  [Component] <:- [Decorator]
  [Component] <:- [ConcreteComponent]
]

Association types

-    association
->   association
<->  association
-->  dependency
<--> dependency
-:>  generalization
<:-  generalization
--:> implementation
<:-- implementation
+-   composition
+->  composition
o-   aggregation
o->  aggregation
--   note
-/-  hidden
_>   weightless edge
__   weightless dashed edge

Classifier types

[name]
[<abstract> name]
[<instance> name]
[<reference> name]
[<note> name]
[<package> name]
[<frame> name]
[<database> name]
[<start> name]
[<end> name]
[<state> name]
[<choice> name]
[<input> name]
[<sender> name]
[<receiver> name]
[<transceiver> name]
[<actor> name]
[<usecase> name]
[<label> name]
[<hidden> name]
[<table> name| a | 5 || b | 7]

Directives

#import: my-common-styles.nomnoml
#arrowSize: 1
#bendSize: 0.3
#direction: down | right
#gutter: 5
#edgeMargin: 0
#gravity: 1
#edges: hard | rounded
#background: transparent
#fill: #eee8d5; #fdf6e3
#fillArrows: false
#font: Calibri
#fontSize: 12
#leading: 1.25
#lineWidth: 3
#padding: 8
#spacing: 40
#stroke: #33322E
#title: filename
#zoom: 1
#acyclicer: greedy
#ranker: network-simplex | tight-tree | longest-path

Custom classifier styles

A directive that starts with "." define a classifier style. The style is written as a space separated list of modifiers and key/value pairs.

#.box: fill=#8f8 dashed
#.blob: visual=ellipse title=bold
[<box> GreenBox]
[<blob> HideousBlob]

Modifiers

dashed
empty

Key/value pairs

fill=(any css color)

stroke=(any css color)

align=center
align=left

direction=right
direction=down

visual=actor
visual=class
visual=database
visual=ellipse
visual=end
visual=frame
visual=hidden
visual=input
visual=none
visual=note
visual=package
visual=receiver
visual=rhomb
visual=roundrect
visual=sender
visual=start
visual=table
visual=transceiver

Style title and text body

title=left,italic,bold
body=center,italic,bold

Text modifiers

bold
center
italic
left
underline

Contributing

If you want to contribute to the project more info is available in CONTRIBUTING.md.