eTutorial: InterProcs Sequence Diagrams

1. Ronald M. Lee Erasmus University Research Institute for Decision and Information Systems (EURIDIS) Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands InterProcs is available at: http://abduction.euridis.fbk.eur.nl/ projects/InterProcs.html Please send comments to: euridis@fac.fbk.eur.nl eTutorial: InterProcs Sequence Diagrams

2. Hi -- welcome to InterProcs. The topic today is designing Sequence diagrams. I will assume that you are executing InterProcs in (standalone) Designer mode, and that you have arrived at this opening screen.

3. We begin with by going to the Graph menu, and select Sequence Graphs, and the sub-menu for New Sequence Graph.., as shown here.

4. For this example, we will develop an example called payment_negotiation, as shown here.

5. You should now see a new window like this. The opening banner window of InterProcs is in the background.

6. As we design this Sequence graph example, we will add four roles. First select Add Role... from the SequenceTools menu. Next click in the drawing area where the first role will appear, e.g. buyer.

7. You are prompted to provide the name of this first role, e.g. buyer. Then click the OK button.

8. The "lollipop" shape for sequence graph roles will appear as shown. Repeat this, to adding additional roles for issue_bank, advising_bank, and seller.

9. After adding these additional roles, it will appear as shown here.

10. Use the Select,Move Tool to arrange the position of the roles.

11. Next we will add a document link from the buyer to the issue_bank. To do this, select the Add Link... tool. Then press the mouse button down on the *tail* of the seller role, and drag it over to the *tail* of the issue_bank role, and release it.

12. Adding documents to the graph is a two-step process. First, we enter the document name, and press the button Add Doc: This will add the document to the choice list in the middle.

13. In this example, we need to add another document to the choice list.

14. We now select both of these documents to add to this arc, and press OK.

15. The newly added link appears as shown. Again, using the Select, Move Tool, the appearance can be cleaned up. Using this tool, either end of the link can be dragged up or down along the tail. Also, the dot in the middle of the arc can be moved to one side or the other. The label will automatically position to the upper right of this dot.

16. Further links can be added in a similar fashion.

17. Note: on the Mac, to select multiple documents that are separated on the choice list, you need to press the COMMAND key while making the selections. (On the PC, no extra keys are needed.) Note also: you may occasionally need to press the Refresh button after adding links in order to force a repaint of the graphic window, to see the change.

18. To save your work, use the Save Scenario... option of the file menu. You should save frequently, making various copies, as a back-up.

19. Here is the completed sequence graph. Of course, fonts and colors can be changed using the buttons provided.

20. that's it ... please experiment further, and let us know if you have any questions or comments. Ronald M. Lee Erasmus University Research Institute for Decision and Information Systems (EURIDIS) Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands InterProcs is available at: http://abduction.euridis.fbk.eur.nl/ projects/InterProcs.html Please send comments to: euridis@fac.fbk.eur.nl