Chapter 9 Working with Object-Oriented Models

Linking Objects to Other Objects

It is possible to link one object of a diagram type to another object of a different diagram type. You do that to show that one object evolves, through implementation or instantiation into another object. In this case, the evolution of the object is visible in two, or more diagrams of the model. It is also possible to attach objects between different Object-Oriented models.

You can attach an object to another object for the following reasons:

Follow the projection of the object among different types of diagrams
Show its implementation into one or more objects
Show its instantiation into another object
For documentation purposes also, you may want to follow up the behavior of an object to better identify its relationships with other objects, this may be helpful if you need to resume analysis of your system later.

You can attach objects in the following manner:

Object	Attached to	See section
Class and interface	Use case and actor	Linking a class or interface to a use case and Linking a class or interface to an actor
Use case, class and component	State	Linking a classifier to a state
Class and interface	Object	Linking a class or interface to an object
Component	Component instance	Linking a component to a component instance
Class	Object node	Linking a class to an object node
Message	Operation (class)	Linking a message to an operation
Association	Instance link	Linking an association to an instance link