The editor's palette (see Fig.1)
contains a set of tools, connections and nodes which are used to draw ADORA
diagrams. Each of these elements can be selected by clicking on
it. Connections elements and tools are activated until another element
is selected. Nodes are just selected as long as you draw a node. After
drawing a node the select tool gets selected again. In the
following, we describe how these elements on the palette are used.

Fig. 1: The palette of the
ADORA editor.
Nodes
Object Set
An object set (
) is used to draw a component which
contains a cardinality of abstract objects unequal to (1,1). An object
set is drawn as stack of rectangles. An object set can be drawn into
another object set, an abstract
object or an aspect container.
An object set can be connected by associations
or transitions. For more detail on
the syntax and semantics of an object set see here.
Abstract Object
An abstract object (
) is a component with cardinality
(1,1). An abstract object is drawn as a rectangle. it can be drawn into
another abstract object, an object set
or an aspect container. An
abstract object can be connected by associations or transitions. For more
detail on the syntax and the semantics of an object set see here.
State
A state element (
) describes a certain state in which
a component (abstract object or object set) resides. A state element
can also describe a state within a crosscutting behavior chunk, modeled
in an aspect container. States
are connected by transitions.
Actor
Actors (
) describe elements in the context ,
i.e. elements that are not part of the system. Actors are always
placed directly on the root element (the canvas) of the model. They can be connected
by associations with scenarios. For a detailed syntax and
semantics, see here.
Scenario
A scenario (
) describes a use case which can be
decomposed into sub scenarios. The scenario tree decomposition is
orthogonal to the decomposition of components (abstract
objects and object sets). Scenario nodes are connected by scenario
connections to build a tree.
The root of a scenario tree can also be connected to an actor by an association. For a detailed syntax and
semantics, see here.
Aspect Container
An aspect container (
) describes modularly the elements of
a crosscutting concern. It can contain crosscutting behavior chunks,
crosscutting scenario chunks and components (abstract
objects and object sets). An aspect container can be
connected by an association with an abstract
(server) object. For a
detailed syntax and semantics, see here.
Exit Point
Exit Points (
) are used for describing the end
point of a crosscutting behavior chunk. An exit point can have only one
ingoing transition but no outgoing transition. For a detailed syntax and
semantics, see here.
Connections
Association
An association (
) describes a relationship
between two elements. The association can be used as a
communication channel for exchanging messages. Associations can exist
between scenarios and actors, between components (abstract
objects and object sets) and between aspect
containers and abstract
(server) objects. For a
detailed syntax and semantics, see here.
Transition
A transition (
) describes a change from one state
to another. Transitions can be used to connect components (abstract
object, object sets) and states. For a detailed syntax and
semantics, see here.
Scenario Connection
A scenario connection (
) connects two scenario nodes. The connection is
directed (bulleted end denotes the parent). A scenario node can have at maximum one
in-going connection (or none, if it is the root). A scenario node can
have 0..n
childs, which enforces a
tree structure of connected sceanrio nodes. For a detailed syntax and
semantics, see here.
Join Relationship
A join relationship connects
either the entry state of a behavior
chunk or a root node of a scenario
chunk with a transition in the behavioral description of a destination
element (abstract object, object set, aspect
container). For a detailed
syntax and semantics, see here.
Palette Tools
Select
The select tool (
) helps you selecting elements for
operations as deletion, insertion, moving, etc. By clicking and holding
the mouse button down, it is possible to drag elements and to drop them
over other elements, ie. with this mechanism it is possible to move
elements structurally from one element into another. By dragging the
handles of the elements, it's possible to resize them.
Marquee
With the marquee tool (
) you can select one or more elements
by drawing a rectangular bounding box around the elements to be marked.
If you use the select tool, it is automatically switched to the marquee
tool if you begin to draw a bounding box in the root element (the
canvas) of a model.
Zoom Tool
The fisheye zoom (
) helps you navigating in your model.
By the help of the fisheye zoom tool you can set different logical foci
on elements (abstract objects, object sets, states and aspects), ie.
when setting a focus, the content of the focused element is shown in
detail, whereas the sourrounding elements can be abstracted by zooming
out, therefore it's possible to reduce the model to an arbitrary number
of foci of interest.
There are further navigation mechanism for the ADORA tool: