Just for my personal wiki, I want to draw a diagram that shows how a message is processed via a couple of Message Queues.
(Like, xml message comes from source1 to the Queue1, then it is passed to a system where the message is converted into another format and...)
What kind of UML diagram should I need here? And additionally, how do I show a Queue in UML?
Order and time are best seen in an Sequence diagram. Also the communication between the different parts (source, queues) and parameters will be visible.
A queue is just an object (the squares at the top of the diagram).
Sequence Diagrams are a good choice but they have limitations when used for interactions with a large number of steps. They excel at describing the steps to a single operation, such that the actors are related to the behavior required. I try not to left any single sequence diagram take up more than one page. If I need more, I break it up into two serarate diagrams because I'm usually wasting whitespace due to the calling depth and the interacting quickly becomes harder to understand instead of easier.
You might use two types of diagrams. On a system-level diagram, show the interaction between the queues (or their hosts), and on a Sequence Diagram show the steps taken within a single host.
