Themable UML

The unified modeling language, UML, is a modeling notation used for visualizing the design of software systems. Since it is used to visualize the system in question, the UML can be considered to be largely graphical by nature. But the UML specification only provides a base for the notation of each modeling element in addition to the underlying semantics of the language. What the specification doesn't say is anything about the overall look and feel of a finished diagram such as a class or a sequence diagram.

Most UML tools allow users to alter the color of certain aspects of certain model elements, like the fill color or the border color. This color value, for instance, can be set as the default for all new class elements that are placed in the diagram. Tools such as this become useful for emphasizing certain modeling elements in a particular diagram. Or to group certain elements. One may argue that the UML provides grouping elements already such as package elements. The package element is only a single dimension in the organization of a model.

A very useful feature of a UML modeling tool would be a theme selector. This would, of course, offer themable UML. But in the context of the UML, what exactly constitutes a theme? Would it just simply be the feature mentioned above that gives the modeler the ability to change the color of certain elements for emphasizing purposes? I would think not. A themable UML diagram would probably be more along the lines of a color scheme of the various UML modeling elements. In addition to the color scheme, subtle element shape variations could be offered by the theme. The idea behind the theme is that there is no need for the modeler to choose appropriate colors that work. The theme just makes the diagram look good.

This would be a good use case for implementing a UML profile. Since the profile can add visual distinctions to the elements in which stereotypes of the profile are applied, this fits the requirements.

With this feature enabled, some more advanced UML diagram output would be required. For instance, HTML output could be used while the various theme distinctions are defined in CSS. This way, a CSS theme framework, similar to that found in jQueryUI could be used.