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Ripple Effect

State machine files

File

Section titled “File”
Property Value
Name *.fsm.mmd
Content A mermaid stateDiagram-v2
Version line None. Mermaid owns the format, so the stateDiagram-v2 header is the version mermaid gave it.
Created from New state machine in the file tree’s right-click menu
Rendered by Any mermaid renderer

The full mermaid syntax is mermaid’s own state diagram reference. The tables below give the subset Ripple Effect reads.

Example

Section titled “Example”

Every transition is From --> To : event.

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> Locked
    Locked --> Unlocked : key
    Unlocked --> Open : push
    Open --> Unlocked : pull
    Unlocked --> Locked : lock

Lines the reader understands

Section titled “Lines the reader understands”

Before parsing, the reader strips %% comments, trims each line and skips blank lines.

Line Meaning
stateDiagram or stateDiagram-v2 The header. It must come first. A missing header is one error, and parsing continues.
%% … Comment.
direction … Ignored.
[*] --> S The start: the state the machine begins in.
S --> T : event A transition from S to T that fires on event.
S --> [*] : event A transition to the end.
state "Long name" as S A state with a label.
state S A state with no label.
S : description A state with a label taken from the description.
note left of S : …, note right of S … … end note Ignored, as one line or as a block.

A state id matches [A-Za-z_][\w.\-]*: letters, digits, underscores, dots and dashes, not starting with a digit.

Lines the reader refuses

Section titled “Lines the reader refuses”

A refused line is reported with its line number.

Line Result
state X <<choice>> and other stereotypes Refused
state X { (composite state) and a stray } Refused
-- (concurrency) Refused
A second [*] --> Error: a machine starts in one state.
[*] --> [*] Error
No start, or an empty diagram Error at line 0
Any other line Refused

A diagram with any error yields no machine. A compiler carries an empty machine for it and says so.

Warnings

Section titled “Warnings”
Case Result
An arrow with no event Drawn and kept in the transitions, but it can never fire, and an export does not write it to the transition table. The editor says so.
An event on the start arrow Ignored.

Model

Section titled “Model”
Part Content
Initial state The target of the start arrow.
States In order of first mention, never [*]. A label from state "…" as or id : … overrides a bare mention.
Transitions In file order, each with from, to, event and line.

Editor

Section titled “Editor”
Behaviour Detail
Layout The text on one side, the picture on the other.
Redraw As you type.
Picture Fitted to the pane and never scaled up. Zoom and pan; the Fit to the pane button fits it again.
Problems Listed with their lines.
While the text does not parse The last machine that parsed stays drawn, greyed.
Counts A card shows how many states and transitions a machine has.

In a saved game

Section titled “In a saved game”

A save carries what every machine remembers. A save made before a project had machines reads as remembering nothing.

In an export

Section titled “In an export”

A compiled campaign carries each machine as a transition table, so a runtime needs no mermaid parser. The compiler writes the table with the same reader the editor draws from, so a file that draws is a file that plays.

Section titled “Related”