Activity diagram model element UML notation differences

You can use the mapping table for Activity diagram model elements to understand the differences between UML 1.4 and UML 2.0.

UML 1.4 UML 2.0
Action UML action owned by a UML Activity.

The activity appears with a keyword of Entry, Do, Exit or Event for onEvent actions.

Action on a Transition String property of a stereotype on the UML control flow
Activity Activity
Instance of an activity on a diagram An instance of an activity on a diagram imports as a CallBehaviorAction.

For every instance, a new CallBehaviorAction is created.

Decision Decision Node if the Decision has one incoming transition, and multiple outgoing transitions.

Merge Node if the decision has multiple incoming Transitions, and one outgoing Transition.

Event A State owned Event maps to an Action with a keyword of Entry owned by the activity.

A transition owned event will not map to anything but become a part of the Control Flow name. The details of the Event are stored in stereotype attributes on the control flow.

Final State Activity Final Node
Initial State Initial Node
Object Instance Central Buffer Node

A persistent object converts to a UML2 DataStoreNode. Static and transient objects import as CentralBufferNodes.

A multi-instance object gets an upper bound of "*". Other objects get an upper bound of 1.

State Activity
State Machine Activity
Note: A nested state machine is not converted to a nested structured activity node. The state machine’s contents are directly owned by the parent node in UML 2.0.
Swimlane (sometimes referred to as a Partition) Activity Partition
Synchronization Bar Fork Node if the synchronization has one incoming transition and multiple outgoing.

Join Node if the synchronization has multiple incoming transitions and one outgoing transition.

Note: Fork and Join nodes cannot span two or more activity partitions. While this is not a limitation of UML 2.0, Fork and Join nodes can only reside in one activity partition at a time.
Transition Control Flow

Control flows must specify a guard condition and weight. If a Rose transition does not define a guard condition, it is set as a Literal Boolean value True. The weight is set to a Literal Integer value of 1.

Transition Event Control Flow Name

Transition events are not imported; however, the transition event becomes part of control flow label to form the name of the Control Flow. The details of the event are displayed in the control flow stereotype properties.

Transition Guard Control Flow Guard

Guard text goes into the body of the Control Flow Guard (opaque expression).

Transition Send Event Text string in the Send Event property of the Rose stereotype.
Transition Send Arguments Text string in the Send Event property of the Rose stereotype.
Transition Send Target Text string in the Send Event property of the Rose stereotype.
Related reference
Class diagram model element UML notation differences
Collaboration diagram model element notation differences
Component diagram model element notation differences
Deployment diagram model element notation differences
Sequence diagram model element notation differences
Statechart diagram model element notation mappings
Use Case diagram model element notation differences
Notational differences in expressing multiplicity
Specific UML 2.0 semantic mapping
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