systemcomposer.interaction.Interaction

Interaction

Since R2024a

Description

An Interaction object represents the root level of a sequence diagram. An interaction describes objects, such as lifelines, and communication events between these lifelines, called messages. Lifelines correspond to components in an architecture model.

Creation

Access Interaction objects via the getInteractions or getInteraction function of the corresponding systemcomposer.arch.Model object.

Properties

Name — Name of interaction

string

Name of interaction, specified as a string.

Example: "mySequenceDiagram"

Data Types: string

Lifelines — Lifelines

array of lifeline objects

Lifelines, specified as an array of systemcomposer.interaction.Lifeline objects.

RootFragment — Root-level container of elements in interaction

fragment object

Root-level container of elements in interaction, specified as a systemcomposer.interaction.Fragment object.

Annotations — Annotations in interaction

array of annotation objects

Annotations in interaction, specified as an array of systemcomposer.interaction.Annotation objects.

Model — Architecture model

model object

Architecture model that contains interaction, specified as a systemcomposer.arch.Model object.

ExternalUID — Unique external identifier

character vector

Unique external identifier, specified as a character vector. The external ID is preserved over the lifespan of the element and through all operations that preserve the UUID.

Data Types: char

UUID — Universal unique identifier

character vector

Universal unique identifier, specified as a character vector.

Example: '91d5de2c-b14c-4c76-a5d6-5dd0037c52df'

Data Types: char

Object Functions

open	Open interaction
addLifeline	Create new lifeline in interaction
addAnnotation	Create new annotation in interaction
findLifeline	Find lifeline in interaction
findElement	Find element in interaction
destroy	Remove model element

Examples

Inspect Sequence Diagrams with Programmatic Interfaces

You can use read-only API workflows to navigate sequence diagrams in System Composer™ and display information about each element.

Open Traffic Light Example

Open the traffic light example architecture model so that you can inspect the sequence diagrams visually and confirm the programmatic outputs.

model = systemcomposer.openModel("TLExample");

To view the sequence diagrams associated with the model, on the System Composer toolstrip, navigate to Modeling > Sequence Diagram.

Programmatically Navigate Sequence Diagram

Collect the sequence diagrams represented by interactions that contain specific interactions of elements in the model.

interactions = model.getInteractions;

For the first interaction, extract the name of the sequence diagram.

disp("The first sequence diagram is called " + interactions(1).Name + ".")

The first sequence diagram is called Inhibit.

For this sequence diagram, display each lifeline and the component the lifeline represents.

for i = 1:length(interactions(1).Lifelines)
    disp("The " + interactions(1).Lifelines(i).Name + ...
    " lifeline represents the " + ...
    interactions(1).Lifelines(i).RelatedElements.Name + ...
    " component.")
end

The source lifeline represents the source component.
The poller lifeline represents the poller component.
The switch lifeline represents the switch component.
The controller lifeline represents the controller component.
The lampController lifeline represents the lampController component.

Display the contents of one message in the root fragment.

disp("The sequence diagram message starting at the " + ...
    interactions(1).RootFragment.Operands.Fragments(1).Name + ...
    " message end is of type " + ...
    string(interactions(1).RootFragment.Operands.Fragments(1).Message.Type) + ...
    " and the message label is " + ...
    interactions(1).RootFragment.Operands.Fragments(1).Message.Condition + ".")

The sequence diagram message starting at the switchout message end is of type Signal and the message label is rising(sw-1){sw==1}.

Use Iterator Utility to Step Through Sequence Diagram

Step through the Inhibit sequence diagram using the Iterator utility.

interaction = model.getInteraction('Inhibit');
interaction.open

Display the annotation from the interaction.

disp(interaction.Annotations.Content)

When inhibit is true, it means pedestrian crossing is not controlled by a walk signal on this intersection.

Use an iterator to navigate through all elements of a sequence diagram before extracting their properties.

iterator = systemcomposer.interaction.Iterator(interaction.RootFragment);
next = iterator.next;
while ~isempty(next)
    disp(class(next))
    next = iterator.next;
end

systemcomposer.interaction.RootFragment
systemcomposer.interaction.Operand
systemcomposer.interaction.MessageEvent
systemcomposer.interaction.MessageEvent
systemcomposer.interaction.MessageEvent
systemcomposer.interaction.MessageEvent
systemcomposer.interaction.AltFragment
systemcomposer.interaction.Operand
systemcomposer.interaction.MessageEvent
systemcomposer.interaction.MessageEvent
systemcomposer.interaction.MessageEvent
systemcomposer.interaction.MessageEvent
systemcomposer.interaction.Operand
systemcomposer.interaction.MessageEvent
systemcomposer.interaction.MessageEvent

More About

Definitions

Term	Definition	Application	More Information
sequence diagram	A sequence diagram represents the expected interaction between structural elements of an architecture as a sequence of message exchanges.	Use sequence diagrams to describe how the parts of a system interact.	Describe System Behavior Using Sequence Diagrams
lifeline	A lifeline is represented by a head and a timeline that proceeds down a vertical dotted line.	The head of a lifeline represents a component in an architecture model.	Add Lifelines and Messages
message	A message sends information from one lifeline to another. Messages are specified with a message label.	A message label has a trigger, an optional guard, and an optional constraint where a trigger represents the identifying event for this message, a guard represents an additional condition to determine whether the message occurs, and a constraint is an expression that is expected to be true when this message occurs.	Create Messages in Sequence Diagram
gate	A gate represents the root architecture of the corresponding architecture model.	Connect messages to gates to represent architecture ports.	Create Sequence Diagram Gates
annotation	An annotation describes the elements of a sequence diagram.	Use annotations to provide detailed explanations of elements or workflows captured by sequence diagrams.	Use Annotations to Describe Elements of Sequence Diagram
fragment	A fragment indicates how a group of messages execute or interact.	A fragment is used to model complex sequences, such as alternatives, in a sequence diagram.	Author Sequence Diagram Fragments
operand	An operand is a region in a fragment. Fragments have one or more operands depending on the kind of fragment. Operands can contain messages and additional fragments.	Each operand can include a constraint to specify whether the messages inside the operand execute. You can express the precondition of an operand as a MATLAB® Boolean expression using the input signal of a lifeline.	Add Fragments and Operands

Version History

Introduced in R2024a