meyfa / nsdlib

Nassi–Shneiderman diagrams (structograms) with Java

nsdlib

This is a Java library for working with Nassi-Shneiderman diagrams (structograms).

It offers the following functionality:

• Construct elements through code
  • All standard block types supported
• Read structograms from files
  • Currently only support for the Structorizer format, but easy to add your own
• Render structograms as images
  • Basic layouting, dynamic size calculation
  • High amount of abstraction through RenderAdapter (AWT adapter included; support for custom adapters for other targets, e.g. Android)

Reading a Structogram

The following code reads a structogram stored in Structorizer's XML format.

NSDReader reader = new StructorizerReader();

NSDRoot root;

File file = new File("/path/to/file.nsd");
try (FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream(file)) {
    root = reader.read(in);
} catch (NSDReaderException | IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

// do something with `root`

Feel free to submit a PR or open an issue if you require support for other formats. The custom reader should implement the NSDReader interface.

Rendering a Structogram

To render a structogram (or part of one), the following steps need to be done:

1. Convert the element into a RenderPart (do this for the root element).
2. Layout the render part.
3. Render the actual image.

The following example uses the AwtRenderer for rendering to a BufferedImage, but you can easily substitute a custom renderer instead.

AwtRenderer renderer = new AwtRenderer();

// 1. convert (`diagram` is an instance of `NSDRoot`)
RenderPart part = diagram.toRenderPart();

// 2. layout
part.layout(renderer.createContext());
// optional: get the resulting size
// Size s = part.getSize();

// 3. render
BufferedImage img = renderer.render(part);

Manual Structogram Construction

Constructing a structogram with code is as simple as invoking a few constructors.

NSDRoot diagram = new NSDRoot("When start clicked");

NSDDecision dec = new NSDDecision("(pick random 1 to 10) = 1");
{
    dec.getThen().addChild(new NSDInstruction("say \"You're lucky!\""));
    dec.getElse().addChild(new NSDInstruction("say \"Not so lucky.\""));
}
diagram.addChild(dec);

NSDForever forever = new NSDForever(Arrays.asList(
    new NSDInstruction("wait 1 secs")
));
diagram.addChild(forever);

// etc

Element Types

The base class for every element is nsdlib.elements.NSDElement. Elements that contain other elements extend its subclass nsdlib.elements.NSDContainer.

Type	Package	Class
Root element	nsdlib.elements	NSDRoot
Instruction	nsdlib.elements	NSDInstruction
If/Then/Else	nsdlib.elements.alternatives	NSDDecision
Switch-Case	nsdlib.elements.alternatives	NSDCase
Test-first loop	nsdlib.elements.loops	NSDTestFirstLoop
Test-last loop	nsdlib.elements.loops	NSDTestLastLoop
Unconditional loop	nsdlib.elements.loops	NSDForever
Concurrent execution	nsdlib.elements.parallel	NSDParallel