Sequence diagram text misalignment for self-reference/left side/within group

[c-george]

For:

• PlantUML v2.17.0 (within VSCode extension, if that matters)
• sequence diagram

When:

• participant message to self
• within a group bounding box
• with left-facing arrow

Erroneous Result:

• group bounding box is rendered as if text were being rendered with right-facing arrow
• bounding box appears to be correct size, just in the wrong horizontal location

Sample Code:

@startuml

group
    a -> a : This works fine
end

group
    a <- a : This does not work
end

@enduml`

[The-Lum]

Hello @c-george and all,

From:

@startuml
group
    a -> a : This works fine
end
group
    a <- a : This does not work
end
@enduml

Here is the corresponding image:

Here is a possible workaround, with adding an hidden arrow:

@startuml
group
    a -> a : This works fine
end
group
    a <- a : This does work, but too big
    [<[hidden]- a
end
@enduml

If that can help,
Regards.

[c-george]

Thanks @The-Lum. I truly appreciate your suggestion (and how quickly it came). It will help make my diagram a little bit prettier. Fortunately this issue is minor for me and isn't causing me any grief.

I should also take the time to thank all the developers of this incredible piece of software (PlantUML)! I've been using it quite a bit for about 4 years with no significant problems. I find this level of usability to be very rare for any piece of software, and it is a true testament to the talents and dedication of all those involved!

[The-Lum]

Thanks a lot.
I am just a fan user...

All the congratulations can go to the PlantUML team and @arnaudroques, (and all the contributors):

I should also take the time to thank all the developers of this incredible piece of software (PlantUML)! I've been using it quite a bit for about 4 years with no significant problems. I find this level of usability to be very rare for any piece of software, and it is a true testament to the talents and dedication of all those involved!

[arnaudroques]

Well, thanks all!
This is really a collective and collaborative work:

• some code and patch the core library
• some improve the CI/CD
• some write plugins
• some make suggestions for improvement
• some report bugs
• some improve the documentation
• some translate the documentation
• some help other on the forum

Each step is important and it's nice to know that this is useful to somebody :-)

[jimnelson372]

Hello. I just wrote on a more recent issue, #1680, that I am nearly done with a fix. I'm curious about this case with two groups, one on a self message to the right and one to the left. Here is how the original script would run with my fix. Is this how you would expect two different groups to be? I just want to be sure, since it looks fine to me, but I don't see examples that tell me if groups are expected to align with each other, or if just encapsulating their content, as it would do, is sufficient.

[jimnelson372]

Hi @The-Lum ,

I was just looking through open issues to see which may still be related to sequence diagram layouts and I noticed this issue was still open. This grouping of left side self messages was fixed in pull request #1777 and is included in release 1.2024.5, so it can be closed now.

Thanks!

Jim N.

[The-Lum]

Hi all,

[This is an Issue Review] 👀

This is now fixed on V1.2024.5.

• Thanks @c-george for the report.
• Thanks PlantUML team and @jimnelson372 for your work.

Regards.