Last updated: Wednesday 9.05.2001 20:36:58 EEST
Venice is a visualization tool. It is used to visualize software architectures using a semi UML notation. With Venice it is possible to focus on subsystems, relations between components or take a less detailed overview of the system. Venice has an underlying schema which is the basis of visualization.
Venice is both a Java application and an applet, so it can be used in a variety of situations. The application version can provide more options for loading and saving files because it does not have the security restrictions of an applet.
Venice reads and writes its own format (.venice which is actually a ZIP archive containing multiple files that Venice uses to represent one visualization). In addition to that, it can import XML-based GXL models. They can be used to transfer architectural information between a set of various tools. The DTD (Document Type Definition) specifies the valid physical structure for a GXL file, but more important is the logical structure, which is defined by the Venice schema.
Venice can read GXL models and its own format either from a file system file or directly from the Web using HTTP. The tool supports saving visualizations and exporting the model as a GXL file. Also, Venice is capable of printing the current visualization.
Venice is made with Java and is supplied as one jar archive named venice.jar. Venice needs at least Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.3 to run.
Venice in application mode can be started with the command
java -jar venice.jar
. Venice acceps one command line command from the list below.
Venice applet needs a HTML file from which the web browser (or any other applet viewer) can start it.
Venice applet tries to read a parameter named "initialmodelurl" from the environment when loading. If that parameter exists, Venice tries to load the model specified in the URL. It should be noted, that different browsers require the parameter to be specified in a different place. See the Venice prototype page and it's index-1.3.html. It has the same parameter in two places. The commented-out APPLET tag will work with browsers that have up-to-date Java plugins. That has once again the parameter, but normally users won't have to worry about it.
Most operations are available through the context menu. Context menu can be invoked by holding down the second mouse button on an object.
General operations include opening and saving a visualization, importing and exporting a GXL model and printing the current visualization, which is a nice feature if you want to share your view with others.
Other operations are zooming to selection (selection fills most of the window area) or zooming to show the whole model. With the zoom tool (rightmost of the toolbar buttons) user can zoom in or out (left and right mouse button) in the view. The zoom tool can be temporarily activated by pressing down the control key. It is also possible to pan the view (with the pan tool). Nodes can be selected with the select tool (leftmost of the toolbar buttons). Selected nodes can be moved by dragging them.
Interface operations includes hiding and showing offered and required interfaces. When required interfaces are shown copy of the real interface and its contents is generated.
Operations include closing a package (hiding its contents and bringing all relationships leaving the package to the level of the package), opening a package (undoing close), and making a package transparent. A transparent package is a package which has all its contents visible, but relationships don't enter the package, but are left at the packge level. This is exactly the same as with closing a package, but contents are shown, not hidden.