Lecture 8

Domain Model
Class Diagram

INSTRUCTOR: MS. Sundas Shujah

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER
SCIENCE

FALL 2019
 What is a Domain Model?
 A domain model is a visual representation of conceptual
classes or real-world objects in a domain of interest.
 In UML, a domain model is illustrated with a set of class
diagrams in which no operations/methods are defined.
 Also known as Visual Dictionary
 It shows:
conceptual classes (concepts / domain objects)
associations between conceptual classes
attributes of conceptual classes
 DOMAIN MODELS DO NOT SHOW
SOFTWARE COMPONENTS

– A domain model is a visualization of things in the real-world domain of

interest, not of software classes.
– The following elements are not suitable in a domain model:
– software artifacts
– Windows, databases, etc.
– Unless domain is software POSApplet
– responsibilities or methods
– They are part of design and software

Sale
date
print()
 A Domain Model is Conceptual class,
not a Software Artifact

Conceptual Class:
Software Artifacts:

Sale SalesDatabase

amt
vs. Sale
item
Double amt;
Item item;
What’s the void print()
difference?
 CRITERIA FOR USEFUL
ASSOCIATIONS

– The name of an association should be a verb or a verb

phrase.
– readable and meaningful in the model context.
– We need to be selective when adding associations to a
domain model.
– There can be n*(n-1) possible associations in a domain model
with n different conceptual classes.
– Too many associations in a domain model can make it difficult
to understand which defeats its purpose as a communication
tool.
 MULTIPLICITY

– Multiplicity defines how many instances of a class A

can be associated with one instance of a class B.

Stocks
Store Item
1 *

association multiplicity
MULTIPLICITY
ATTRIBUTE

 Classes also include attributes relevant to the domain

 Attributed should have simple types (numbers, text,
booleans, etc.)
 An attribute is a logical data value of an object.
 Attributes can be “derived”, meaning that they can
be inferred, by means of a formula, from other
attributes or association.
For example, a receipt normally includes the date and time of
sale.
 NOTATION FOR ATTRIBUTES

attributes

– The type of an attribute is optional.

 ATTRIBUTES AS FOREIGN KEYS

– Do not use attributes as foreign keys to relate conceptual

classes (as typically done in relational database designs).

– Use associations to relate those classes.

Drawing the Domain model
 Identify conceptual classes
from noun phrases
– Noun phrases may also be attributes or parameters rather than classes:
– If it stores state information or it has multiple behaviors, then it’s a class
– If it’s just a number or a string, then it’s probably
an attribute
Class Diagram Perspectives
– Conceptual Perspective
– Domain Model
– Software/Design Perspective
– Class Diagram
 Class Diagrams
• A Class diagram shows the static structure of the system.

– It shows how a system is structured rather than how it behaves.

• It defines model elements such as classes, interfaces, and user-defined data types,
their internal structure, and their relationships to each other.

• Relationships, or associations, are shown as lines connecting elements, and are

annotated to describe the relationships and their cardinality (1..1, 1..*, 0..*, etc.).

• Inheritance (generalize/specialize), aggregation (comprises), and composition (has)

relationships are also captured in this diagram.

• Class attributes and their data types are identified here, as are the operations and
their return types.
 Class Diagrams
• Class diagrams show the relationships among and details about each
class.

• Class diagrams are also the foundation for component and deployment
diagrams.

• Visibility allows to constrain the usage of a named element, is

indicated by +, #, -.
 Public visibility is represented by '+' literal.

 Private visibility is represented by '-' literal.

 Protected visibility is represented by '#' literal.

 Attributes and operations
– Most important are the operations of a class, which define the ways in
which objects may interact.
– The attributes of a class describe the data contained in an object of the
class
 UML Class properties

 Note Symbols
 Association
 Multiplicity
 Generalization
 Aggregation and composition
 Navigability
 Constraints
 Interfaces
 Note Symbols

May represent several one of the following:

– UML note or comment, which by definition have no semantic impact
– UML constraint, in which case it must be encased in braces '{…}’
– A method body the implementation of a UML operation
 Associations
 In the same sense that classes correspond to nouns,
associations correspond to verbs.
 They express the relationship between classes.
 There are instances of associations, just as there
are instances of classes
 Instances of a classes are called objects;
 Instances of associations are called links in UML
 Class A and B are associated if
– an object of class A sends a message to an object of class B

– an object of class A creates an object of class B

– an object of class A has an attribute whose values are objects of

class B or collections of objects of class B

– an object of class A receives a message with an object of class

B as argument

in short, if some object of class A has to know about some

object of class B
 Example

1..* 1

 Every copy is associated by is a copy of with just one book.

We showed a 1 at the Book end of the association.

 On the other hand, there may be any number of copies of a

given book in our system. So the multiplicity on the Copy
end is 1..* .
 Multiplicity

We can specify:

 an exact number simply by writing it

 a range of numbers using two dots between a pair of

numbers

 an arbitrary, unspecified number using *

 Loosely, you can think of UML’s * as an infinity sign, so the

multiplicity 1 .. * expresses that number of copies can be
anything between 1 and infinity.
 Multiplicity
 Association with two objects could be for more than one class
the measure of this is called multiplicity. It describe in range as
below:

 Lower Bound….Bound

 0..1 Single Value

 0.. * single value lower bound and upper bound unlimited

denoted by *.

 1..3 Lowest 1 Highest 3

 7..10.13 Lowest 7 Highest Min 10 Max 13

 Generalization
– Important relationship which may exist between classes is
generalization. A generalization is used to indicate
inheritance.
 Example

– The following diagram

shows a parent class
generalizing a child class.
Implicitly, an instantiated
object of the Circle class
will have attributes
x_position, y_position and
radius and a method
display(). Note that the class
"Shape" is abstract, shown
by the name being italicized.
Aggregation and composition

 Aggregation and composition are kinds of association:

 Instead of just showing that two classes are associated we may
choose to show more about what kind of association this is

 Aggregation and composition are both ways of recording

that an object of one class

is part of

an object of another class.

 Aggregation

– The notation with open

diamond, denotes
aggregation, which is
more general way of
denoting a part-whole
relationship in UML
 28

Composition
– Composition is a stronger form of aggregation - a composite
aggregation - is shown by a black diamond-shaped arrowhead
– In composition association, the whole strongly owns its parts
– If the whole object is copied or deleted, its parts are copied or deleted
with it
– The multiplicity at the whole end of a composition association must be
1 or 0..1
– A part cannot be part of more than one whole by composition
29
Composition
 Example
– The following diagram illustrates the difference between weak and
strong aggregations.
– An address book is made up of a multiplicity of contacts and contact
groups. A contact group is a virtual grouping of contacts; a contact may
be included in more than one contact group. If you delete an address
book, all the contacts and contact groups will be deleted too; if you
delete a contact group, no contacts will be deleted.
 Association with no navigability

– The diagram records that:

– For each object of class Student there are six objects of class Module which are
associated with the Student;
– For each object of class Module there are some Student objects (the number of
students is unspecified) associated with the Module.
 Navigability

 We can put an arrow on one or both ends of the association

line to represent that it is possible for messages to be sent
in the direction of the arrow

 We say that Module knows about Student, but not vice

versa.
 Constraints
– A constraint is a condition that has to be satisfied by any
correct implementation of a design
– A restriction or condition on an element.
– It is visualized in text between braces; for example: { size >= 0 }.
 Interfaces in Class Diagram
 UML provides several ways to show interface implementation
 A set of signatures of public operations.
 In the UML, interface implementation is formally called interface realization
Example
 Example: library management system
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For any query Feel Free to ask!