[Feature] Support more than 2 paths out of a conditional

[tpotter7]

In the legacy syntax, you could have more than 2 paths out of a conditional. For example: () --> Activity if (color?) then () --> [red] "Activity 1" else () --> [blue] "Activity 2" else () --> [green] "Activity 3" endif

In the new syntax, I cannot find a way to do this. It appears that every conditional is assumed to be a binary question. Would it be possible to support trinary or quaternary conditionals in the new syntax?

[arnaudroques]

You can have http://www.plantuml.com/plantuml/uml/SoWkIImgAStDuG8pk3BJ53IIy_DICaioy_CK73KLIZ9IynGqAbEBDRaK5An2KYjA50ojkL9pYbDHbJfXLMfa3MGMb-GNOD7XZ5M7CJR3NR0gDO4eLT38oo_9oCnBHyY0X86IGErfN63R7O1ie2S1

Is this what you are looking for ?

[tpotter7]

Not really. Let's say that the conditional question is "Color?" and you want the possible paths to be "Red", "Blue", "Green". When I create a sequence digram in Visio, I just create a conditional with "Color?" in the shape and then have 3 lines coming out of it, one for each color. In the legacy puml syntax, I was able to do something similar. In the new method, it appears that all conditionals are necessarily binary so I have to make it harder to read by having a "Red?" conditional, where no leads to a "Blue?" conditional, where no leads to a "Green?" conditional. It just makes for more conditionals when what I am really asking is "what color is it?". So, that will work, but it is not what I was looking for.

[arnaudroques]

I think I've got the point. This is not implemented yet, but we will propose something like:

@startuml
start
switch (color)
case (red)
  :Text 1;
case (blue)
  :Text 2;
case (green)
  :Text 3;
endswitch
stop
@enduml

Please be patient : we'll post a message here when this will be working. Thanks!

[tpotter7]

That would be awesome. Thanks lots for looking into this and helping to get the issue clear.

On Mar 30, 2019, at 8:02 AM, arnaudroques notifications@github.com wrote:

I think I've got the point. This is not implemented yet, but we will propose something like:

@startuml start switch (color) case (red) :Text 1; case (blue) :Text 2; case (green) :Text 3; endswitch stop @enduml Please be patient : we'll post a message here when this will be working. Thanks!

— You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/plantuml/backlog/issues/37, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AsRcrK9NagblPSpkuj-nUNvfUacNYGpaks5vb3x4gaJpZM4cCATF.

[arnaudroques]

This is really an early version, but with last beta http://beta.plantuml.net/plantuml.jar you can have

@startuml
start
switch (color)
case (red)
  :Text 1;
case (blue)
  :Text 2;
case (green)
  :Text 3;
endswitch
stop
@enduml

• The drawing is not complete
• There is no syntax check in case of error

But at least it gives you an idea of what we'll get at the end.

[arnaudroques]

Last beta http://beta.plantuml.net/plantuml.jar now prints links

[mlopezgva]

Wow. This needs to be mentioned in the docs... Mark it as beta in red with flashing, but it is worth mentioning anyway... :-)

[mlopezgva]

Hi! Got a bug here... See:

@startuml

title Payment Router Flow

skinparam DefaultTextAlignment center
skinparam DefaultMonospacedFontName Lucida Sans Typewriter

start
:Load settings;
partition Alternative {
    switch (Alternative ""GatewayID"" defined for...)
        case (**SomeOne**'s Country Code nd **Selected** Payment Method?)
        case (**ANY** Country Code and **Selected** Payment Method?)
        case (else)
            :Get Main ""GatewayID""/
        endswitch
    :Get **Alternative**\n""GatewayID""/
}

stop

@enduml

...and got this:

You may think it is because it got somehow constrained by the partition box... Nope:

[arnaudroques]

@mlopezgva Thanks for the feedback. This should be better in last beta http://beta.plantuml.net/plantuml.jar

[mlopezgva]

Yes. Better, but not quite. :-)

Odd line paths are now OK, but there are no arrow notes (and they're quite large). If I force them to appear (adding block elements, of course), tey will appear, but their space does not grow with them.

@startuml

title Switch Test

start

legend top
Using:
    PlantUML version 1.2019.07beta12
    Java Runtime: OpenJDK Runtime Environment
    JVM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM
    Java Version: 1.8.0_181-8u181-b13-2~deb9u1-b13
    Operating System: Linux OS Version: 4.9.0-8-amd64
    Default Encoding: UTF-8
    PLANTUML_LIMIT_SIZE: 4096
    Dot executable is /usr/bin/dot
    Dot version: dot - graphviz version 2.38.0 (20140413.2041)
end legend

:Step One;
partition "Paths OK?" {
    note
        Arrow comments
        are quite tight.
    end note
    switch (Test a variable)
        case (case 1)
            :Select One;
        case (case 2)
            :Select Two;
        case (case 3)
            :Select Three;
        case (case 4)
            :Select Four;
    endswitch
}

partition "Not always" {
    note
        But it still breaks
        under some conditions:

        (Also, I don't get why
        is there so much space
        because of this note...)
    end note
    switch (Test a variable)
        case (case 1)
            :What if this is wider than expected?;
        case (case 2)
        case (case 3)
    endswitch
    :It's //a bit// broken on the left;
    switch (Test a variable)
        case (case 1)
        case (case 2)
        case (case\n it \nbreaks)
            :What if this is wider?/
    endswitch
    :Also on the right!;
    note
     If you use "What if this is a bit wider?"
     string above, it works better, although
     it still breaks in the beginning of
     the arrow.
    end note
}

partition "Comments\nhidden" {
    note
        I suppose this is something
        that happen by design, but
        it could at least throw an
        error... This is in fact a
        simple ""if"" sentence.
    end note
    switch (Test a variable)
        case (case 1)
        case (case 2)
        case (case 3)
            :Select 3/
    endswitch
}

partition "Miscalculated upper\nmargin or padding" {
    switch (Test a variable)
        case (This is a multiple\nline and long text\narrow comment)
            :Option One/
        case (This is another multiple\nline and long text\narrow comment)
            :Multiple\nline option Two/
        case (else\nwith \three \nlines)
            :In else case.../
    endswitch
}

:Let's go}

stop

@enduml