Show explicit endpoint on implicit relationship

[vedeja]

I often find myself including external objects in component diagrams, to give context. It is very convenient that implicit relationships hide some of the complexity, but at the same time it would be great if the the actual caller/callee could be read out. I suggest an option that would make implicit relationships include the name of the explicit endpoint.

workspace {
    model {
        softwareSystem = softwareSystem "Software System" "My software system." {
            ui = container "UI" {
                webapp = component "My Web App" {
                }
                
                webapp2 = component "My Other Web App" {
                }
                
                webapp3 = component "Yet a Web App" {
                }
            }
            
            backend = container "Backend" {
                apifront = component "API Front" {                    
                }
                
                srv = component "Some service" {                    
                }
            }

            webapp -> apifront "Calls"
            webapp2 -> srv "Uses"
            webapp3 -> srv "Uses"
        }
    }

    views {
        component backend "Diagram1" {
            include *
            autolayout
        }
        
        component backend "Diagram2" {
            include apifront srv webapp webapp2 webapp3
            autolayout
        }
    }
    
}

Diagram 2 includes webapps which makes the UI container appear as a border. This is fine, but as UI fills upp with more components that calls components in backend, it starts to become crowded and moves focus away from the UI container diagram part:

Diagram 1 is what I'd like to use (to hide the underlying complexity of UI) but with the option to add the name of the now hidden components:

[simonbrowndotje]

I don't understand what you're asking I'm afraid, and the DSL fragment you've posted doesn't work ... do you have a complete DSL example that I can paste into structurizr.com/dsl?

[vedeja]

Thanks for your swift reply and my apologies for being vague. I have updated the post with a working DSL example and screenshots to hopefully explain myself better. The component names (My Web App etc) added on the arrow in the second screenshot, being the suggestion in a nutshell.

[vedeja]

One perhaps alternative solution to the problem could be to change the tooltip on the relationship so that it shows the explicit source/destination instead of the implicit.

[simonbrowndotje]

What you're looking for isn't supported out of the box I'm afraid, and it's not something that I want to add. Some options are:

• Fork the UI and add the feature yourself.
• Modify the relationship tooltip (e.g. by adding a property on the relationship).

On a more general note, if you're looking for some tips on creating diagrams for larger models though, I have some tips in my C4 models as code talk.