Question

I have a complex hierarchy of objects that we can represent, for illustration purpose,
like that:

class Base {
 public handle() {
  //base handling code
  onHandlingDone()
 }

 public onHandlingDone() {
  //base onHandlingDone code 
 }
}
//--------------------------------------
class Regular extends Base {
 public handle() {
   super.handle();
   //regular handling code
 }

 public onHandlingDone() {
  //regular onHandlingDone code 
  super.onHandlingDone()
 }
//--------------------------------------
}
class Special extends Regular {
 public handle() {
   super.handle();
   //special handling code
 }
 public onHandlingDone() {
  //special onHandlingDone code 
  super.onHandlingDone()
 }
}

Note: this is not my Design, I’m doing maintenance on a huge project. There are a lots of ‘Special’ implementation. Refactoring is not an option.

There is a lot of interleaved code: method are calling super class methods that are also super class method, and some call are to other methods are done at each level.

Now I want to draw some sequence diagram to help me understand what is going on.

How should I represent these calls across the hierarchy ?
– Unrolling the hierarchy would add lots of noise in the diagram, but will be accurate.
– Masking the hierarchy will result in a simpler diagram, but it is confusing (where is that damn method again, where in the hierarchy am I when I send this message ?)

Is there any usual way to deal with this kind of complex class hierarchy in sequence digram ?

Answer 1

You could do this if you unroll the hierarchy and have swim lanes for the Super->Regular->Base. However one way to minimise the noise would be to make a super stereotype instead of using self calls.