How to create custom node types?

Question

Hey,

I scaned your online docs and yEd help files for a way to define custom node types.

I am trying to model a directory structure using yEd. While I can use the text fields of UML nodes to list the objectClass, attributes and their values of each entry, this becomes pretty cumbersome with multiple instances and multiple attributes per instance. Also, I cannot differntiate between mandatory, optional, multi-valued, ... attribute types.

So, I would like to create custom node types for object classes and "instantiate" them in a graph structure. Somehow, this smells like a feature request... ;-)

Regards, Linus

Answer 1

You can create your own user-defined palette sections and add pre-defined nodes to said sections for later re-use. Moreover, it is possible to import JPG and/or PNG images or SVG documents as node templates in such user-defined palette sections. Please see How can I use my own node symbols in yEd? for additional information.

Comments

Hey Thomas,
thank you for your answer. I know that I can build my own palette with those pre-defined node types. I am looking for a way to define my own node types to have visible properties/attributes that are tailored to my use case.

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With pre-defined nodes I meant customizing a node in the editor to suit your needs, then adding that customized node to your user-defined palette section.

You know you can add multiple "text fields" to all nodes, not only UML nodes, right? To do that, right-click on a node to open its context menu and select "Add Label". Moreover, it is possible to convert nodes into fancy labels of other nodes. To do that, move the node you want to turn into a label over another node. Then choose "Convert to Label" from the node's context menu.

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Ah, thank you! I did not know that I can add multiple labels. I think, I could work with those when I create some basic template nodes in pure XML.
Is there a comprehensive reference for those elements from the "y" and "yed" namespaces? In particular for the semantics of their XML attributes?

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No, there is not. Why do you not create your node templates in yEd? Although GraphML is XML, it is quite complex and not meant to be edited directly.