create sequence diagram generator ruby gem

Question

So I want to create a gem similar to VCR that starts recording method calls along with the classes those methods are in, maybe even line number, and stop recording and generate say a yml file or something which is effectively a UML sequence diagram metadata description of the run.

Extending that even further, I want to use the mermaid gem to actually spit out a picture UML diagram.

I'm thinking of taking the approach outlined in this reddit post, basically storing a array of hashes to parse into some kind of Plant text downstream. https://www.reddit.com/r/ruby/comments/11ns2l/does_a_uml_sequence_diagram_generation_gem_exist/

http://phrogz.net/ProgrammingRuby/ospace.html#tracingyourprogramsexecution

Anyways, finally, my question is... Is there a better way to approach this? Or should I just kind of follow the idea proposed in the reddit?

Answer 1

A simplest solution would be to generate a plant uml file. A Plant file is far simpler than an XMI file and Plant is integrated in a lot's of tool.

It could be an alternative.

plantUML

For example:

@startuml
Alice -> Bob: Authentication Request
Bob --> Alice: Authentication Response
Alice -> Bob: Another authentication Request
Alice <-- Bob: another authentication Response
@enduml

produces:

Answer 2

ZemUML support C-like code.

For example,ZenUML.isAwesome()will generate the following diagram:

If your meta DSL follows the same syntax, it can be directly integrated with ZenUML. The JS library is published as npm module.