Export diagrams to PlantUML

[mse]

Is it at all possible to somehow convert EA diagrams to PlantUML?

I have been working with EA for some time on a project and it's our single source of truth. We use it as a modelling tool and not just a diagram tool.

However, I have a request that due to maintenance reasons I could not downplay, some want an "open sourced" way of maintaining diagrams in the future. This is because not everyone will have EA.

I think that is not a good idea because as one mentioned in the https://www.sparxsystems.com/forums/smf/index.php?topic=39020.0, PlantUML is a drawing tool, not a modelling tool.

Nevertheless, I need some way of getting PlantUML versions of our diagrams while still keeping our modelling advantages for our team in EA.

[Colin Coates]

Not a happy situation. Are you intending a one way export to PlantUML and abandoning Sparx EA, or are you hoping to use both tools going forward?

[mse]

I do not want to abandon EA because I use it as a single-source-of-truth and like having the capability to generate custom reports and document all our knowledge in the model. Diagrams are secondary to me. However, other teams in this large project seem to only advocate the use of PlantUML. Despite explaining to them that PlantUML does not have support for composite structure diagrams, that modifiability issue they mentioned is what I cannot explain away. So both tools in the best of cases because it would be a shame to abandon EA in favor of a drawing tool.

The only thing I can think of is somehow translating via XSLT.

[Richard Freggi]

Eclipse Papyrus UML modeler has a few bugs and the usability and user interface are not great.  But it's the best truly UML, truly open source tool.

[Geert Bellekens]

I wouldn't start with XSLT.
PlantUML seems to use a pretty straightforward markup language.

It shouldn't be too hard to write a script or addin that inspects the model and produces the PlantUML markup language. I've done similar stuff in the past with other markup languages.

Geert

[Colin Coates]

I agree with Geert.

I think the best option would be to use your favorite Microsoft COM compatible programming language (C#, PHP, whatever) to visit each element and relationship in your model and write out a text file containing the appropriate PlantUML commands.

[TonyN]

did anybody find a solution?

[Geert Bellekens]

did anybody find a solution?

I think we arrived at the conclusion that you would need to write a script/addin of your own to generate the plantUML code.

Geert

[timoc]

did anybody find a solution?

I seem to remember the Arc42 pproject on github had some scripitng to do with EA and plantuml.
https://github.com/arc42

Might find something there.