The Controller Activity (classifierBehavior of the Controller class)

Gallery
Tutorial
HOWTO simulate UML-2.5.1 'Figure 14.7 Composite State with two States' in Cameo Simulation Toolkit - Operation-driven Transition case study
Section
UML keywords
Activity
BehavioredClassifier::classifierBehavior
AcceptEventAction
Signal
CallBehaviorAction
ForkNode
MergeNode
FinalNode
ActivityEdge::guard
Action::isLocallyReentrant
OpaqueAction
[else]
ControlEdge
Keywords
Slide kind
UML Activity Diagram
This is the top-level Activity - the classifier Behavior of the Controller class of the same name - that coordinates our demo.
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It deals ultimately with 2 different kinds of signal events, some for the dialed numbers via a CallBehaviorAction :CatchDialN, and it also watches for attempts to Connect, subject to the dialed number being valid.

Note that there is nothing to explicitly stop the "loop" through :CatchDialN; we are relying on receiving a Connect signal once the number is valid (later we'll see how this is sent from a separate StateMachine).

One can however attempt to Connect at any time, subject to this validation guard, which employs here the Action Language for Foundational UML (Alf) (which requires an additional commercial Alf Plugin): 


[this.dialer.number.isValid()]
To learn how to access an operation on a guard without Action Language for Foundational UML (Alf) using the Action Language Helper (ALH) please visit this separate tutorial slide.

If the guard passes, a CallBehaviorAction invokes a usage of the Connect Activity. If, however, the validation guard fails, the ControlEdge with the special [else] guard is taken, and an OpaqueExpression prints a simple warning, before reactivating the CallEventAction for the Connect signal via a shared MergeNode.

Getting this to work properly is tricky due to an "idiosyncrasy" of Magic Model Analyst® (Cameo Simulation Toolkit®) : To get synchronisation of multiple AcceptEventAction "loops" to work in Cameo Simulation Toolkit one sometimes needs an additional ForkNode

We're nearly ready to see the promised StateMachine, but let's look quickly first at the Connect Activity

Up next
The Connect Activity
Notes
[ISSUE] To get synchronisation of multiple AcceptEventAction "loops" to work in Cameo Simulation Toolkit one sometimes needs an additional ForkNode
Snippets (quotes/extracts)
  [fUML-1.4] 7.10.2.2 ActivityEdge [1] fuml_activity_edge_allowed_guards A guard is only allowed if the source of the edge is a DecisionNode.
Related slides (includes other tutorials)
Related slides (backlinks, includes other tutorials)
uml101 - Activity Diagram - notation - REFERENCE CARD
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Visit also (backlinks)