Zicomi Systems Logo Zicomi Site Banner
uml examples  |  home  |  contact us  |  your privacy
Company
Services
Products
Support
Resources
  OMG Standards
OMG Logo
  Have You Heard?
UML Diagrams
Zicomi Systems publishes some UML example diagrams online from the world famous UML dictionary.
more...
Version 2.5 Released
Zicomi Systems is delighted to announce that version 2.5 of Zicomi Mentor is released. With support for UML 2.0 and all thirteen UML diagrams
more...
Zicomi Systems' Director
speaks about the UML at Objects by Design - an informative interview
more...
Partner Programme
Zicom Systems is delighted to announce a new world wide partner programme, become a partner today.
more...
OMG Member
Zicom Systems is made a member of the OMG!
Package Import (Access)
Package Import (Access)  
A package import with the keyword access is a directed relationship between a package (arrowhead end) and an importing namespace (tail end). The members of the referenced package can be used in the importing namespace without any qualification of the element name. It is different from a package import with keyword import because it does not import the members of the other package into the namespace, but rather just allows them to be referenced. The visibility of the elements in the importing namespace is by default public.

This is alternative content.

Explanation

The addition of the keyword access to the package import relationship means that the contents of the imported package do not become part of the namespace, but rather are referenced without being included in the namespace. A package import relationship is the same as if there were an element import relationship to each of the elements contained in the imported package. A modeler will often need to refer to all or most of the elements in another package. While this can be achieved by using a qualified name for the elements, or by using an element import relationship to each element, a convenient way to refer to these elements is to use a package import relationship. This effectively allows the modeler to refer to (reference) all the elements in the other package as though they existed in the importing package. If a new member were added to the package a package import relationship would implicitly make this available in the importing package (namespace). This may be useful in some circumstances but may be an unwanted side effect in other situations.

Related Entries

Package Import
Package Import  Similar Usage,  Confused with
A package import with keyword import is related to a package import with a keyword access but is stronger. Whereas a package import adds all the elements in the imported package to the importing package by using the keyword access the elements are not added to the namespace but can be accessed by unqualified names from within the importing package. These elements cannot in turn be imported by another package.

back to the index...
Unified Modeling Language and UML are either registered

trademarks or trademarks of Object Management Group, Inc. in the

United States and/or other countries.