[uf-new] OpenShapes - a tentative proposal for a Microformat for diagrams

[Alan Slater]

According to the Wikipedia definition:

 “A diagram is a simplified and structured visual representation of concepts, ideas, constructions, relations, statistical data, anatomy
 etc used in all aspects of human activities to visualize and clarify the topic.”

Some examples of the kinds of domains that we might wish to produce diagrams for are:

 * Organization charts
 * Flowcharts
 * Network diagrams
 * UML Component models
 * UML Deployment models
 * Office seating layouts
 * Website navigation maps
 * High level architectural diagrams
 * Mind-maps

Of course, if you think that this sounds a bit like the domain of Microsoft Visio or perhaps even specialized UML modeling tools then you would not be completely wide of the mark!

An example of a diagram in a potential XHTML-based microformat could look like:

<div class="os-diagram">
 <div id="shape-0" class="shape rectangle">
    <span class="label">XSL-FO File</span>
 </div>
 <div id="shape-1" class="shape circle">
    <span class="label">Processor</span>
 </div>
 <div id="shape-2" class="shape rectangle">
    <span class="label">PostScript File</span>
 </div>
 <div id="connector-1" class="connector single-arrow">
    <a href="#shape-0" rel="from"/>
    <a href="#shape-1" rel="to"/>
 </div>
 <div id="connector-2" class="connector single-arrow">
    <a href="#shape-1" rel="from"/>
    <a href="#shape-2" rel="to"/>
 </div>
</div>

Note that this microformat can only partially define the appearance of diagrams - additional presentational information has to be provided seperately in definitions that describe how each shape is to be drawn.

A more detailed outline of this proposal can be found at:

http://www.high-beyond.com/downloads/OpenShapesProposal.pdf  <http://www.high-beyond.com/downloads/OpenShapesProposal.pdf>

This document actually has some diagrams in it as well as discussing small points like potential implementation strategies and integration with other systems such as wikis.

All comments appreciated!

Cheers

Alan Slater
alan at high-beyond.com