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In an UML 2.5 State Machine, how can I model sending a Signal as an effect on a transition in a convenient way?

In one of the older UML versions you simply prefixed the name of the signal with a send keyword in the effect part of the transition specification, like:

response [buffer.size>N] / send request

But in UML 2.5 the effect must be a Behavior, either an Activity, Function, Interaction, ProtocolStatemachine, StateMachine or Opaque (just uninterpreted text). Which makes authoring a communication protocol state machine very cumbersome. Let alone using it to design in it.

I think I have collected virtually all available books about this subject and if there is a convenient way to do it, it uses a descendent of Telelogic's Tau (Either IBM Rational Rose UML/SDL family or Rhapsody, I'm not sure) which is essentially derived from the ITU SDL 2000 specification method. But I'ld like to stay close to UML 2.5 as possible.

Further more I know that the ITU has mandated the development of a UML profile to facilitate the transition from SDL to UML, but this aspect wasn't clearly addressed.

Aside: In the terminology of UML 2.5 there is an important, albeit, implicit distinction between a "protocol" and a "communication protocol". UML explicitly states that a "protocol" is the way the operations of a class are (supposed) to be used. Which leaves a "communications protocol" implicitly to be the prescription on how to communication between entities. (end of aside)

Anyone?

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  • I just skimmed the UML 2.5 spec for communication protocol but could not find any trace. Can you elaborate on what you're refering with your Aside?
    – user188153
    Dec 6, 2019 at 20:52
  • @qwerty_so To clarify, with regard to the notion of communication protocol in the sense I described above, you are completely right; there is no definition of it in UML and UML 2.5. specifically. I only hoped that people wouldn't confuse the UML notion of "protocol" with my definition of "communication protocol". Because I encountered that confusion already in the literature and online.
    – nanitous
    Dec 7, 2019 at 11:50
  • @qwerty_so Wikipedia as a useful definition of both: UML 2.5 obviously refers to the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_(object-oriented_programming) and the other is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_protocol respectively.
    – nanitous
    Dec 7, 2019 at 11:51
  • @qwerty_so w.r.t to the distinction between an Signal and Event, I understand the confusion Take a look at the standard (omg.org/spec/UML/2.5.1/PDF) §13.3.2 Figure 13.2 Events, shows that a Signal derives from Event via 2 subclasses. So, a Signal is an Event. The important property of a signal is that it represents an asynchronous and non-blocking data carrying Event from one object to another (§10.3.1.1. Signals). The other way around, an Event is an abstraction of a Signal.
    – nanitous
    Dec 7, 2019 at 12:04
  • @qwerty_so A Trigger is in essence nothing more than the specification of a placeholder in an object (fancy term used in the standard is Classifier) linking an Event to some effect entailed by the occurrence of that Event (i.e. triggering that effect to happen). (§13.4.11.1)
    – nanitous
    Dec 7, 2019 at 12:09

2 Answers 2

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There is no other way than to model a behavior as the effect of a transition. However this behavior can be an opaque behavior, where you can use any textual syntax. So, you could write "send request" and this string can be displayed as you describe. Of course "request" is then just text and not a reference to a signal. If your tool supports Alf (action language for foundational UML), you could use this language and the text would actually be referencing the signal.

The specification allows another compact way to show the sending of a signal. You can use the symbol for the send signal action in a state machine diagram. This notation maps to an effect activity that just contains this send signal action. I'm not aware of any tools that support this, though.

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If I see it right, a Signal is sent by a Trigger which is part of an AD. The Trigger has that Signal as one of its properties. And they are just created there. So I guess that you can not create a Signal from within a state transition. It's only the other way around that you react on Signals in a SM.

I'm not that expert in SMs but you're probably after having another concurrent SM make a transition when that specific one happens. I guess that's somehow possible (I could imagine using a guard here), but I can't really answer that part. Maybe it 'triggers' someone else :-)

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  • Not quite correct: A 'Trigger' is part of a transition specification, specifying at which occurrence of a specified Signal or Event the transition will happen. And a Signal has no Trigger as a property. But you could say that a Trigger can have a specific association (reference) to a Signal; i.e. the Signal on which the transition will trigger!
    – nanitous
    Dec 11, 2019 at 11:33
  • to keep this post on the subject, my question wasn't about modeling triggering transitions with Signal; that's easy. But how do I model sending a Signal as the effect of a transition, without going through al kinds of complicated modelling. Since previous versions of UML allowed to do that. (See OP)
    – nanitous
    Dec 11, 2019 at 11:36
  • Yes, I know that you want to send a signal and I explainted that this is not possible.
    – user188153
    Dec 11, 2019 at 18:27
  • Cross check UML/implementation in Enterprise Architect. You are right and it's wrongly swapped above. Will fix.
    – user188153
    Dec 11, 2019 at 18:34
  • EA is nice example of an UML tools in which using signals in a state machine or message sequence diagram is quite cumbersome. It is fine for structural modelling and low-level behavioural modelling. But I dropped it in favour of MagicDraw, which support UML 2.5 (EA 15 still only supports 2.1) and has better support for signals. Although it isn't ideal either; I reported a load of issues regard divergences with respect to the standard and incongruous design choices.
    – nanitous
    Dec 13, 2019 at 17:51

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