Let’s try this again… CanvasUML

Download CanvasUML 0.1

Just over a year ago, I was tinkering around with the idea of creating a UML modeling app using WebKit, JavaScript, the <canvas> tag, and WebKit’s support for contentEditable.

I created a basic web-based example using the canvas element, and then attempted to ship a simple Cocoa app that wrapped the same WebKit+canvas code.

The Cocoa app was called CanvasUML, and I released a very simple 0.1 version. This version was meant to allow very basic creation and editing of UML class diagrams. You could make basic diagrams with instances and classes (including their attributes and operations) and draw associations between them.

This wasn’t exactly a revolutionary application, but what was interesting was that all of the diagramming features were implemented using JavaScript, canvas and contentEditable. The only problem was that the 0.1 version I shipped curiously didn’t work on anyone’s machine, but mine.

Nice, huh?

At the time I was really busy and didn’t have time to figure out why the app was broken, so I just pulled the release. The source code for CanvasUML has been sitting, waiting for a fix ever since.

Well, last night I peeked at the code for the first time in about 14 months, and was able to quickly discover the problem. The fix took a couple of minutes, and I believe the app is working.

So… I guess this is my announcement of CanvasUML version 0.1.

CanvasUML is missing tons of features you would want in solid UML diagraming app… but… she is free! I think the app is more interesting as an example of what can be done with WebKit than it is useful as a diagramming application.