Apollon

A UML modeling editor written in React and TypeScript.

Main Features

Easy to use editor

The user interface of Apollon is simple to use. It works just like any other office and drawing tool that most users are familiar with.

• Select the diagram type you want to draw from the Diagram Type menu. This selection determines the availability of elements that the user can use while drawing their diagram, making it easier for users who are newly introduced to modeling.
• Adding the element is as easy as dragging it from the elements menu and dropping it to the canvas. So is drawing the connection between them, simply drag and connect two or multiple elements.
• Edit the text of any element by double-clicking on it. An easy-to-use menu will allow you to do so.
• Supports dark/light themes for the editor.
• Supports two languages: German and English.
• Supports exporting the entire diagram or just selected elements of it.

Flexible layout features while drawing

Apollon allows user to draw their diagram more flexibly. You can use keyboard shortcuts to copy, paste, delete and move the elements throughout the canvas. The layout of the connection is drawn automatically by the editor. However, if you want to manually layout the relationship path, use the existing waypoints feature to do so. All you have to do is to hover over the relationship, and simply drag the displayed waypoint as required. Elements of diagram can also be resized from all of its four corner.

Infinite Canvas

Apollon provides an infinite canvas. With the availability of this canvas, you will never feel you're out of space while drawing your diagram. It also provides positioning rulers (grid) which can be used as a guideline to place your elements. All the elements are snapped perfectly to the grid.

Wide range of UML diagrams

Apollon allows you to create a wide range of UML diagrams. Currently, it supports creating 11 different UML diagrams. The list of UML diagrams includes:

• Class Diagram
• Object Diagram
• Activity Diagram
• Use Case Diagram
• Communication Diagram
• Component Diagram
• Deployment Diagram
• Petri Net Diagram
• Reachability Graph
• Syntax Tree
• Flowchart

Integrate Apollon with other software

Apollon can be integrated to any other Javascript application. It serves as the modeling editor for the widely used interactive learning platform called Artemis.
It also provides the standalone version of the editor. You can try the standalone version of Apollon completey free and without the necessity of creating any account. It is a web application that allows users to use Apollon editor directly from their browser with additional features, including but not limited to, sharing and exporting the diagram. It can be accessed via https://apollon.ase.in.tum.de.

The GitHub repository of its Standalone version is https://github.com/ls1intum/Apollon_standalone

Usage

Install the @ls1intum/apollon npm package using either yarn or npm:

yarn add @ls1intum/apollon

npm install @ls1intum/apollon

Import the ApollonEditor class, which is the default export of the npm package:

import ApollonEditor from '@ls1intum/apollon';

Get hold of a DOM node and mount a new instance of the Apollon editor into it:

const container = document.getElementById("...");
const editor = new ApollonEditor(container);

To unmount the editor instance, call its destroy() method:

editor.destroy();

For a complete overview of the API, please refer to the [lib/es6/index.d.ts] file.

ESModules and CommonJs

Apollon provides both an ESModules, as well as CommonJS version to be included. They lay in lib/es6 and lib/es5 and the correct version should be resolved automatically.

Development Setup

Clone the repository and change into the Apollon directory:

git clone https://github.com/ls1intum/Apollon.git
cd Apollon

Install all node dependencies:

npm install

Launch the webpack-dev-server:

npm run start

The webpack-dev-server is now listening on http://localhost:8888. If you change a TypeScript file, webpack will automatically compile the code, bundle the application, and refresh the page in your browser.

Update dependencies

npm install -g npm-check-updates
npm run update

Building the Docs

To build the docs, you need pip installed. You neeed to build Apollon's type definitions before you can build the docs:

npm run prepare

Then install necessary dependencies for the docs:

npm run docs:prepare

You can now build the docs:

npm run docs:build

The docs will be built and put into docs/build/html.

You can also serve the docs locally:

npm run docs:watch

The docs will be served on localhost:8088. This script will also watch for changes in the docs and rebuild them automatically.