Book Image

The Official Guide to Mermaid.js

By : Knut Sveidqvist, Ashish Jain
Book Image

The Official Guide to Mermaid.js

By: Knut Sveidqvist, Ashish Jain

Overview of this book

Mermaid is a JavaScript-based charting and diagramming tool that lets you represent diagrams using text and code, which simplifies the maintenance of complex diagrams. This is a great option for developers as they’re more familiar with code, rather than using special tools for generating diagrams. Besides, diagrams in code simplify maintenance and ensure that the code is supported by version control systems. In some cases, Mermaid makes refactoring support for name changes possible while also enabling team collaboration for review distribution and updates. Developers working with any system will be able to put their knowledge to work with this practical guide to using Mermaid for documentation. The book is also a great reference for looking up the syntax for specific diagrams when authoring diagrams. You’ll start by learning the importance of accurate and visual documentation. Next, the book introduces Mermaid and establishes how to use it to create effective documentation. By using different tools, editors, or a custom documentation platform, you’ll also understand how to use Mermaid syntax for various diagrams. Later chapters cover advanced configuration settings and theme options to manipulate your diagram as per your needs. By the end of this book, you’ll be well-versed with Mermaid diagrams and how they can be used in your workflows.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Getting Started with Mermaid
7
Section 2: The Most Popular Diagrams
12
Section 3: Powerful Diagrams for the Advanced User

Labels and Cardinalities for Relationships

So far, you have learned how to define your classes, add their members, and even establish relations among the different classes in your class diagram. Now, you may be wondering: Wouldn't it add more clarity to relationships if you could add a label or specific text on top of the connecting lines between the two classes? Well, that is what you will learn in this section, and along with that, you will learn about multiplicity in relationships and how to use them in Mermaid.

Adding Labels

Labels are helper texts that adds more clarity and specifies the nature of relationships. Mermaid does allow you to add a specific piece of text in the center of the connecting line between two classes. You just need to specify the label text in the proper syntax to Mermaid, and it will automatically calculate the correct position in the diagram for that label and render it. Let's look at the syntax for adding labels to relationships in a class...