Class Properties
The properties displayed depend on the class stereotype.
To open the Properties dialog box of a class:
Right-click the class and select
Properties.
It contains several tabs where you can define the class properties.
The comment at the bottom of the dialog box describes the field selected.
Class characteristics tab
The Characteristics tab is used to enter or modify the different class characteristics:
• Its Name, which you can modify.
• The Package to which the class belongs.
• The Visibility of the class as related to its package:
• “Public”: the class is visible to any element outside the package. This is the default visibility.
• “Protected”: the class is visible to elements that inherit it or have import dependencies with it, and to friends.
• “Private”: the class is only visible to elements that have import dependencies with it and to friends.
• "Not specified".
Friends of a class are the classes that are authorized to access its internals. It is possible to specify the friends of a class in the complements tab of the properties dialog box of the class.
The other characteristics you can specify are the abstraction, persistence, and activity:
• If the class Is Abstract, it has no instances. It is only used to group operations or attributes common to its subclasses.
• Persistence specifies whether the objects in the class need to exist after the process or thread that created them, or whether they only last as long as the processing.
• Instances of a class which Is Active are able to trigger control flows without user intervention.
Example: An instance of the printer class can send an "Out of paper" message to the network administrator screen.
• An IsRoot class is a class that has no superclasses in the tree of class generalizations.
• An IsLeaf class is a class that has no subclasses in the tree of class generalizations.
You can also specify the Parameters of a parameterized class (for C++).
General tab
Certain general properties appear in all diagram elements.
• The name of the element creator.
• The name of the person who last modified the element.
• The modification status of the element, which indicates whether you have the right to modify the properties of this element when authorizations have been set up.
Texts tab
The Comment text allows you to comment a class.
Comments can be used to add key information to diagrams when certain details cannot be displayed in the drawing. These comments are included in the document describing the class diagram.
Other tabs
Other tabs allow you to define or view: