UML exists primarily to facilitate between people. We can look at the symbols and understand the meaning of a much more complex system. The ease with which others can interpret drawings is an essential goal. The UML also provides a powerful mechanism for describing these systems in technical terms, so that a complete semantic and syntactic picture is presented.
Naturally, an environment where people work closely together, regardless of physical location, is an ideal setting for UML to come into play. One question has always lingered - how do we work on the same project with knowledge of what others are doing and without stepping on toes?
Poseidon for UML Enterprise Edition introduces the idea of a collaboration, where teammates have a real-time view of the project and the means to control editing through locks.
The heart of this is found in the Collaboration Manager, where you can create and join collaborations, as well as save projects to the server so that others may have access to them.
In the Collaboration Management Window, you'll see the list of active collaborations and a list of projects that have been saved to the server. To create a new collaboration with a new project, click the "Create Collaboration" button, give the collaboration a name, and wait until the window closes. To re-open a saved project, select it in the bottom list, and click the "Load project"-button.
You can create diagrams and model elements just as if you were working in the standalone version of Poseidon.
Click the 'Create Collaboration' button from the toobar
In the dialog, give the collaboration a name
Wait for the window to close
You are now the first member of a project that is hosted on the server. In your toolbar several enterprise-icons will appear, while several standalone-icons (like "create new project") will have been removed.
If another user has already started a collaboration, you may join that collaboration to work together on the same project. Connecting to the server, and you'll see that users collaboration in the upper part of the collaboration management window. Simply select it, and then click the "Join collaboration"-button. You will now get a copy of that project onto your computer.
Open the 'Collaboration Management' window.
Select the collaboration to join
Click the 'Join Collaboration' button
A copy of the project will now be available for you to edit
If you decide to end your work, or to create a new project, or to load another project, you have to log off from the current collaboration. Open the Collaboration Management Frame (you can use the "E"-Button in the toolbar), and then select "Leave current collaboration". After that, all work you do is local again, and the buttons for saving and creating new projects locally are back in place. If no other user had joined your collaboration, it will be automatically saved to a file by the server, and removed from the list. To re-enter that project, load it from the list of stored projects.