Sequence diagrams can sometimes become long and unwieldy, and hard to comprehend. This plug-in can help construct reduced diagrams, by performing compaction in the vertical and horizontal dimensions.
The plug-in can be download from: Compaction Plugin. Uncompress the downloaded file to get a directory named 'Sequence Diagram Compaction Update'. Install it using Help-->Install New Software: Click the 'Add' button and enter 'Compact Sequence Diagram' in the 'Name' field. Click on 'Local...' and choose the directory just created. Follow the prompts of the installation wiazard to install the plug-in.
After installing, select Window --> Show View --> Other. You should see Compact Sequence Diagram in the menu. This indicates that the plug-in has been correctly installed.
Run a sample program through JIVE. Save the execution trace from the Execution Trace tab. It will save as a .csv file. Open this .csv file in the Compact Sequence Diagram tab and it will show the compacted diagram. A sample compacted diagram is shown below.
JIVE uses regular-expression-like labels for abbreviating a repetitive pattern of calls. For example, in the loop box in the above diagram, the label
(swap:1)^19
means that there was a sequence of 19 calls on the 'swap' method.
These 19 calls have been compacted and presented as a single call.
The entire sequence of 19 calls could be seen in the Sequence Diagram
tab.