In composite structure diagrams, a collaboration use is
model element that represents one use of a collaboration to explain the relationships
between the parts of a structured classifier. You use a collaboration use
to apply a pattern, which is described by a collaboration, to a specific situation
that involves classes or instances that play the roles of the specified collaboration.
You can have multiple collaboration uses that each involve a different
set of roles and connectors for a given collaboration.
In a collaboration use, every collaboration role is bound to a connectable
element with a classifier. After you type a collaboration use with
a collaboration, you can open the collaboration use in a composite
structure diagram and view the roles of the parts in the occurrence. You can
add a role binding connector, which is a simple dependency relationship, to
bind or map the roles and the connectors that co-operate in a classifier according
to the specific collaboration. You can add a role binding between the following
items:
- Two existing roles
- An existing collaboration use and an existing role
- An existing role and a new collaboration use
- An existing collaboration use and a new role
As the following figure illustrates, you can reuse the objects and roles
in a specific collaboration and apply these elements as a pattern for specifying
a situation that contains one collaboration use.

In the above example, the collaboration named Car has two connected classifiers,
Door and Frame, that represent the specific roles in the collaboration. The
collaboration use Sedan is displayed as a dashed ellipse that contains
the name of the occurrence, a colon, and the name of the collaboration that
it is typed with, Car. The example has two role bindings: one between the
SedanDoor role and the Door collaboration role, and the other between the
SedanFrame role and the Frame collaboration role. The label beside the dashed
line, which is prefaced by a plus sign, indicates the name of the connectable
element.