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How and where diagrams can be written

Each diagram description begins with the keyword @startuml then ends with the keyword @enduml or (@startXYZ and @endXYZ, depending of the kind of diagram).

You can refer to the PlantUML Language Reference Guide.

Those descriptions may be included into:

• PlantUML file (.pu or .puml)
• Text files (.txt),
• HTML files (.html or .htm),
• Java sources files (.java),
• C/C++ source files (.c, .h, .cpp, .hpp or .hh)
• LaTeX sources files (.tex),
• APT files (.apt)
• Word files (.doc)
• URL

Of course, if you use HTML, LaTeX, APT or Java/C/C++ files, you should put diagram descriptions into comments.

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File naming

By default, .png file have the same name as the source file used to generated them (only the extension changes).

An automatic sequence is added if a source file contains several instances of @startXXX.

It is possible to use a different file name for the generated file. For example:

@startuml image.png
Alice->Bob: Authentication Request
Bob-->Alice: Authentication Response
@enduml

In this example, the .png file will be named image.png.

(Please note that you should not use this feature with Word integration.)

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Include with identifier [include]

You can declare some part of a file with an identifier (id=<identifier>), as:

Example with a file named file.pu:

@startuml(id=TAG1)
Alice->Bob : TAG1
@enduml

@startuml(id=TAG2)
Alice->Bob : TAG2
@enduml

Then you can include, on one another file, one id part with !include <filemane>!<id> command:

@startuml
!include file.pu!TAG2
Alice->Bob : hello
@enduml

The corresponding generated output will be:

🎉 Copied!

@startuml Alice->Bob : TAG2 Alice->Bob : hello @enduml

[Ref. QA-4467]

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Include with definition identifier (on the same file) [includedef]

You can declare definition (def) some part on a file with an identifier between the tags @startdef(id=<identifier>) and @enddef.

Then you can include, on the same file, only one definition part with !includedef <identifier> command.

Example on a file named file.pu:

🎉 Copied!

@startdef(id=macro_def_id) Alice -> Bob : hello1 @enddef @startuml !includedef macro_def_id Alice -> Bob : hello2 @enduml

Then the corresponding generated output will be file_001.png, as:

🎉 Copied!

@startuml Alice -> Bob : hello1 Alice -> Bob : hello2 @enduml

[Ref. QA-5769]

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Adding options for other tools

You can add options, for other tools, enclosed by { and }.

Only the first (<filename>) is relevant for PlantUML, the others are just skipped, and can be use by other tools.

@startuml{filename.png, This is my other caption text, width=16cm, option_for_other_tools=value}

@enduml

[Ref. QA-1466]

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Adding output format when using pipe mode

⚠ Restriction: Only available when using pipe mode.

To specify the output format (PNG or SVG), on pipe mode, you can add this command on the input:

@@@format png

or

@@@format svg

[Ref. QA-10808]