Class Specification--Operations Tab

Operations denote services provided by the class. Operations are methods for accessing and modifying Class fields or methods that implement characteristic behaviors of a class.

The Operations tab lists the operations that are members of this class. Rational Rose stores operation information in an Operation Specification. You can access Operation Specifications from the Class Specification or from the Browser.

Figure 20 Class Specification--Operations Tab

Refer to the descriptions in the Introduction to Specifications chapter for information on the specification elements not covered in the following section.

To enter an operation in the Class Specification, use Insert from the shortcut menu. Rational Rose adds the operation name to the operations list.

The descriptions for each field on the Operations tab are discussed below:

• Access Control Adornment (Unlabeled):

  Public--members of a class are accessible to all clients.

  Protected--members of a class are accessible only to subclasses, friends, or to the class itself.

  Private--members of a class are accessible only to the class itself or to its friends.

  Implemented--the class is accessible only by the implementation of the package containing the class.

• Stereotype--displays the name of the stereotype.
• Operation--displays the name of the operation.
• Return Type--identifies the type of value returned from the operation.
• Parent--identifies the class that defines the operation.

The Operation tab is active for all class types. In the class diagram, you can display operation names in the class compartment.

Show Inherited

Select the Show Inherited check box to see operations inherited from other classes. If there is no check mark in this field, you can view only operations associated with the selected class.