How to document a PureMVC application design

[InfamousNic]

During our learning process of PureMVC, we have implemented only small projects or prototypes. The design documentation has been done using Visio, Word, some UML tools and etc. but no standard has been established.

We are now comfortable with PureMVC and are embarking on a multi-year complex project. Before we start, I would like to establish some standard of documentation for the design but I cannot find much about what other people are doing.

I am wondering what type of documents, diagrams and or tools others use to document the design of a PureMVC application.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Nic.

PS: Cliff, thank you very much for this framework and its great documentation/forums and examples.

[puremvc]

UML Diagrams work wonderfully for this sort of thing.

-=Cliff>

[InfamousNic]

Thank you for your answer Cliff. I should have been more specific however. Provided that whichever the tool used, UML is the chosen notation, here a some of the more specific questions I have:

- Do you use sequence diagrams or use cases to document commands?
- How do you list commands? Class diagrams are a bit of an overkill when all the classes have the same properties and methods.
- What do you end up documenting in diagrams and documents or simply in ASDoc?

Thanks,

Nic.

[Tekool]

It's a good topic. I often think that an application built with PureMVC or any MVC framework could benefits a specific documentation design that explains how it work in a more comprehensive way.

I also first adopted PureMVC because of its clear and sufficient documentation. It's a big advantage in project management when project have to go from the hand of a developer (team) to another often in the life of the product. I think it's a good thing to continue the work Cliff has done while well documenting our own applications.

Do you use sequence diagrams or use cases to document commands?

In my project management, I document first with UML, I separate use cases and create the sequence diagram for each. It's more than often that a command exists for a specific use case. I think that it's a good practice to think it this way.

I'm an Agile adept, so I think in term of "the less documentation we have, the more Agile we can be when the project needs to be refactored or modified". It's why I think I will never use UML class diagrams to describe a project. But if you think you need it, the code can be easily reverse engineered using the appropriate tool (Entreprise Architect can reverse AS2,AS3). I prefer export an ASDoc with a rich inline documentation (javadoc comments) or to use the "View source" generated by Flex as here on PureMVC.org.

But to be honest, as you I want to find a way to better document the core design of my application with some drawing that tend to separate View, Model, Controller, WebService, LocalStorage etc... To represent in only one design a whole PureMVC core.