UML with IntelliJ IDEA and PlantUML Plugin

Takahiro Iwasa

Feb 8, 2017

1 min read

IntelliJ IDEA PlantUML

IntelliJ IDEA with PlantUML plugin can generate UML diagrams by DSL. Because PlantUML diagrams are made of text data, it becomes simple to manage differences with version control systems like Git.

After creating a *.puml file, you can begin coding on it and immediately view the rendered diagram.

Here is a short example. For PlantUML DSL, please visit the official website.

@startuml

interface Person
abstract Employee

interface Person {
    + string getName();
}

class Employee {
    - string name;
    --
    + string getName();
    + string getEmployeeId();
}

Person <|-- Employee

@enduml

PlantUML is easy to use and simple to manage because it is composed of text data. For small- and-mid-sized applications, it will be the suitable choice.

I hope you will find this post useful.