Common Mechanisms of UML

Use Case Specification: Search

• Description 
• Flow of Events 
• Special Requirement
• Pre-Conditions
• Post-Conditions
• Nodes

Description 

• A registered user can search the contents of the library as a precursor to other actions.

Flow of events 

Basic flow 

• Initiated when a registered user chooses to perform a search of titles 
• In response to the choice made by the user, the system responds by providing the registered user a means to enter search criteria 
• The registered user enters search criteria and initiates the query 
• The system first determines the results and then displays the matching titles along with their corresponding topical descriptions 
• The registered user selects a title from all the results displayed so as to know the further information 
• The system displays title detail along with the items and the available action on each item 

Alternative flows 

• No matches - The system displays message indicating no titles in the system match this criteria. 

Special requirements 

• The search only searches based on the name of the item, not description or any other field 
• The system shall use the percent sign as a wildcard (in keeping with standard SQL idioms) 
• The results will be sorted alphabetically by the name 

Preconditions

• The user has been authenticated

Post-conditions

• Primary success post-condition: The registered user is viewing a title along with the related items.

Nodes 

• It might be required to combine this with the Search use case. The combined use case could be called select title and one of the original use cases could be the basic flow and the other would be the alternative.