plantuml-watcher

Why

PlantUML is neat but comes with some pre-reqs on the environment with the install of GraphViz (and Java). Also the ideal workflow when desiging locally with PlantUML is a bit unclear. This image is meant to be started in a local dev environment and it uses a file watcher to render/re-render diagrams when they are modified. It could also be used in a CI chain.

Usage

Initialize a file watcher from any directory.

$ docker run --rm -ti -v ${PWD}:/ws -w /ws oscarberg/plantuml-watcher
******************************************************************
plantuml-watcher watching for changes in .puml and .plantuml files
plantuml args: []
******************************************************************
watching: /ws/example.puml

It will wait for changes in plantuml files (.puml or .plantuml). Any change will trigger (re)draw of diagram to desired format.

change: /ws/example.puml
 > draw: /ws/example.puml

Advanced usage

Supports passing along additional flags to the plantuml jar.

Useful ones like for example:
-tsvg : Generate images using SVG format instead of the default PNG.
-progress : Print the duration of complete diagrams processing.
-verbose : Have log information.
-duration : Print the duration of complete diagrams processing.
-h[help] : Will give you the full list. Note that some of them wont work because off headless.

And you can add:
--draw-on-add to draw all watched on launch
--recursive include subfolders

Advanced usage example

$ docker run --rm -ti -v ${PWD}:/ws -w /ws oscarberg/plantuml-watcher -duration -tsvg --draw-on-add --recursive

Important note! In some environments (at least Windows) docker volume mounts and file watching is not a perfect match. So if the file watching does not appear to be working it is possible to enable the file watcher (chokidar) to use polling.

# Windows CMD
$ docker run --rm -ti -v %cd%:/ws -e CHOKIDAR_USEPOLLING=true -w /ws oscarberg/plantuml-watcher

# Windows Powershell
$ docker run --rm -ti -v ${PWD}:/ws -e CHOKIDAR_USEPOLLING=true -w /ws oscarberg/plantuml-watcher

Why not go all the way and make an alias in your shell rc file?

#.zshrc
alias plantuml-watcher='docker run --rm -ti -v ${PWD}:/ws -w /ws oscarberg/plantuml-watcher'

Note the single quote. If you use double quote the PWD substition will happen at the time of the alias declaration.

And now finally..

$ plantuml-watcher
******************************************************************
plantuml-watcher watching for changes in .puml and .plantuml files
plantuml args: []
******************************************************************
watching: /ws/example.puml

Ahh.. serenity

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