C4 Model.adoc

Some sample examples of C4 Model diagrams in Asciidoc

PlantUML sample Diagram

C4 Model Diagram

"The C4 model was designed to help describe, document, and diagram custom-built, bespoke software systems. From this perspective, the C4 model can be used to describe a variety of software architectures (monolithic or distributed), built in a variety of programming languages, deployed on a variety of platforms (on-premises or cloud)" - C4Model.com.

sample diagram

@startuml
!include https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML/master/C4_Container.puml

Person(admin, "Administrator")
System_Boundary(c1, "Sample System") {
    Container(web_app, "Web Application", "C#, ASP.NET Core 2.1 MVC", "Allows users to compare multiple Twitter timelines")
}
System(twitter, "Twitter")

Rel(admin, web_app, "Uses", "HTTPS")
Rel(web_app, twitter, "Gets tweets from", "HTTPS")
@enduml

C4 Model Diagram (decorated)

decoreted diagram

@startuml
!include https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML/master/C4_Container.puml

!define DEVICONS https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tupadr3/plantuml-icon-font-sprites/master/devicons
!define FONTAWESOME https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tupadr3/plantuml-icon-font-sprites/master/font-awesome-5
!include DEVICONS/angular.puml
!include DEVICONS/java.puml
!include DEVICONS/msql_server.puml
!include FONTAWESOME/users.puml

LAYOUT_WITH_LEGEND()

Person(user, "Customer", "People that need products", $sprite="users")
Container(spa, "SPA", "angular", "The main interface that the customer interacts with", $sprite="angular")
Container(api, "API", "java", "Handles all business logic", $sprite="java")
ContainerDb(db, "Database", "Microsoft SQL", "Holds product, order and invoice information", $sprite="msql_server")

Rel(user, spa, "Uses", "https")
Rel(spa, api, "Uses", "https")
Rel_R(api, db, "Reads/Writes")
@enduml

Sample with tag dependent sprites and custom legend text, for example:

decoreted diagram with tags

@startuml
!include https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML/master/C4_Container.puml

!define osaPuml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Crashedmind/PlantUML-opensecurityarchitecture2-icons/master
!include osaPuml/Common.puml
!include osaPuml/User/all.puml

!include <office/Servers/database_server>
!include <office/Servers/file_server>
!include <office/Servers/application_server>
!include <office/Concepts/service_application>
!include <office/Concepts/firewall>

AddExternalPersonTag("anonymous_ext", $sprite="osa_user_black_hat", $legendText="anonymous user")
AddPersonTag("customer", $sprite="osa_user_large_group", $legendText="aggregated user")
AddPersonTag("admin", $sprite="osa_user_audit,color=red", $legendSprite="osa_user_audit,scale=0.25,color=red", $legendText="administration user")

AddContainerTag("webApp", $sprite="application_server", $legendText="web app container")
AddContainerTag("db", $sprite="database_server", $legendText="database container")
AddContainerTag("files", $sprite="file_server", $legendText="file server container")
AddContainerTag("conApp", $sprite="service_application", $legendText="console app container")

AddRelTag("firewall", $textColor="$ARROW_COLOR", $lineColor="$ARROW_COLOR", $sprite="firewall,scale=0.3,color=red", $legendText="firewall")

Person_Ext(anonymous_user, "Bob", $tags="anonymous_ext")
Person(aggregated_user, "Sam, Ivone", $tags="customer")
Person(administration_user, "Bernd", $tags="admin")

System_Boundary(c1, "techtribes.js"){
    Container(web_app, "Web Application", "Java, Spring MVC, Tomcat 7.x", $tags="webApp")
    ContainerDb(rel_db, "Relational Database", "MySQL 5.5.x", $tags="db")
    Container(filesystem, "File System", "FAT32", $tags="files")
    ContainerDb(nosql, "NoSQL Data Store", "MongoDB 2.2.x", $tags="db")
    Container(updater, "Updater", "Java 7 Console App", $tags="conApp")
}

Rel(anonymous_user, web_app, "Uses", "HTTPS", $tags="firewall")
Rel(aggregated_user, web_app, "Uses", "HTTPS", $tags="firewall")
Rel(administration_user, web_app, "Uses", "HTTPS", $tags="firewall")

Rel(web_app, rel_db, "Reads from and writes to", "SQL/JDBC, port 3306")
Rel(web_app, filesystem, "Reads from")
Rel(web_app, nosql, "Reads from", "MongoDB wire protocol, port 27017")

Rel_U(updater, rel_db, "Reads from and writes data to", "SQL/JDBC, port 3306")
Rel_U(updater, filesystem, "Writes to")
Rel_U(updater, nosql, "Reads from and writes to", "MongoDB wire protocol, port 27017")

Lay_R(rel_db, filesystem)

SHOW_LEGEND()
@enduml