Chapter 5 Building Dynamic Diagrams
You can modify an object's properties from its property sheet. To open a message property sheet, double-click its diagram symbol or its Browser entry in the Messages folder. The following sections detail the property sheet tabs that contain the properties most commonly entered for use cases.
A message has the following general properties:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Specifies the name of the item, which should be clear and meaningful, and should convey the item's purpose to non-technical users. |
| Code | Specifies the technical name of the object, which is used for generating code or scripts. |
| Comment | Descriptive comment for the message |
| Sequence number | Allows you to manually add a sequence number to the message. It is mainly used in communication diagrams to describe the order of messages, but can also be used in sequence diagrams |
| Stereotype | Extends the semantics of the object beyond the core UML definition. |
| Sender | Object the message starts from. You can use the tools to the right of the list to create an object, browse the complete tree of available objects or view the properties of the currently selected object. |
| Receiver | Object the message ends on. You can use the tools to the right of the list to create an object, browse the complete tree of available objects or view the properties of the currently selected object. Click the Reverse direction tool beside this box to invert the sender and receiver. You cannot invert the direction of a message when the message is a Create or Destroy message. |
Inverting the direction of a message
You can right-click a message in the diagram and select Reverse from the contextual menu to invert its direction.
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