Linking a class or interface to an object

Chapter 9 Working with Object-Oriented Models

Linking a class or interface to an object

The object diagram represents instances of class or interface, the sequence diagram represents the dynamic behavior of a class or interface, and the collaboration diagram represents those instances in a collaboration mode. For all these reasons, you can link a class or an interface to an object in an OOM.

From the object property sheet, you can:

Link the object to an existing class or interface
Create a class

To link a class or interface to an object:

Select a class or interface from the Classifier dropdown listbox in the object property sheet.

or

Click the Create Class tool beside the Classifier dropdown listbox to create a class and display its property sheet.

Define the properties of the new class and click OK.

The class or interface name appears in the Classifier dropdown listbox.

Click OK.

The object name is displayed in the sequence diagram, followed by a colon, and the name of the class or interface selected.

You can similarly view the object name in the class or interface property sheet: click the Dependencies tab and select the Objects tabbed page. The object name is automatically added in this tabbed page.

Turning a class or interface into an object
You can drag a class or interface node from the Browser and drop it into the sequence, collaboration or object diagrams. You can also copy a class or interface and paste it, or paste it as shortcut, into these diagrams. This automatically creates an object, instance of the class or of the interface.