State machine dialog box

State machines

A state machine is a graph of states and transitions, which describes the dynamic behavior of objects, that is to say, the sequence of states that an object or an interaction goes through in response to events during its life, together with its responsive actions.

In Objecteering, a state machine belongs to a package, an operation, a use case or a class. Its natural position is to belong to a class.

The "State machine" dialog box contains four tabs - "Properties", "Notes", "Tagged values" and "Stereotypes". For information on these standard dialog box tabs, please see "Standard dialog box tabs".

The "Properties" tab of the "State machine" dialog box

The "Properties" tab of the "State machine" dialog box is used to define the values for a state machine.

The "Properties" tab of the "State machine" dialog box

Key:

· "Name": This is the name of the state machine.

· "Is reentrant": This indicates if the state machine can be invoked while it is still being executed from a previous invocation.

· "Kind of state machine": This indicates whether the state machine is dynamic or protocol.