Re: Adding a new diagram type (ORM plug-in)?

[Eric Schabell <eric schabell com>]

On Thu, Aug 12, 2004 at 10:31:22AM +0200, larsrc raeder dk wrote:
> > Howdy all,
> >
> > I am working for a research group that has been testing Dia extensively as
> > a
> > permenant tool for drawing modeling diagrams. This seems to have resulted
> > in
> > positive responses from all the users, except that there are no ORM
> > diagram
> > elements available as in the provided ER, Flow charts, etc.
> >
> > No problem as it is open source and they have asked me to look into
> > creating a
> > plug-in (is this the right idea?) for ORM diagrams.
> >
> > I have looked at the lists a bit (this is not my first Open Source
> > project),
> > checked your site and even took a brief look at the sources. I noted that
> > your project would like to be contacted (on the developers page) about
> > "Other
> > diagram types" so here I am!
> >
> > Where could I best start looking to implement such an ORM diagram into
> > Dia? Do
> > you have examples, others working on such a thing, ideas, comments for me?
>
> Haven't heard of ORM before, and I've certainly not heard of anyone
> working on it.  The best sources are the sources (*grin*) and the Dia
> TWiki (http://faemalia.org/wiki/view/Technical/DiaEditor).  You should be
> aware of the difference between shapes and objects, shapes are very easy
> to create, but very limited in functionality.  You can mix the two in a
> sheet.
>
> Making new objects involves a fair amount of boilerplate (ought to make
> something that can generate it:), but there's very little that takes
> actual though, mostly the drawing part where you have to calculate margins
> and other stuff as needed.
>
> Looking at some samples (http://www.orm.net/pdf/ORMwhitePaper.pdf), I
> don't see any major problems in implementing this.  You'll want to look at
> the movable text label (see the FS lines).  The fact boxes will need a bit
> of work -- if you want arbitrarily many fact connections, it'll be a
> little tricky (need PROP_LIST), but if you just want two or three facts,
> it can be hardcoded with the little arrows, connection points etc.
>
> One warning:  Do not look to the UML Class object for inspiration, it is
> horrible.
Hello, 

Thanks for the tips, I have already started playing around and thought a
good place to start would be to copy sybase as an orm sheet with three
figures (just renamed existing sybase figure files).

I have added orm code in :

objects/orm
objects/Makefile.am

po/POTFILES.*

shapes/orm
shapes/Makefile.am

sheets/orm.sheet.in
sheets/Makefile.am

I run ./autogen.sh, ./configure and make.

I seem to see the actual plugins being built in objects (no sybase or
orm), all builds ok, no errors and only see sybase as a tab with the
icons. I was hoping to see orm tab... I must be missing something, but
not sure what. Ideas?

Thanks,
erics