I have a maven project imported into Eclipse. I'm trying to understand the code pattern (architecture). What is the best way to do this?
Please share your opinion.
I guess you will find some pointers in this SE-Radio podcast: Episode 148: Software Archaeology with Dave Thomas.
Of course, UML can help, but on the other side, it might not as well. For reverse engineering, there is the MoDisco project in Eclipse, which might be useful.
When I am working with a open source project/codebase I get a high-level view and focus on the core code/logic by checking the package names and structure. I then typically determine how the API works by looking at any example code / documentation contained in the project. If I still need some more help I will draw up some inheritance diagrams, print out interesting classes that I may need to make significant changes to, and try to find more examples of the code being used elsewhere.
I am biased and have been using our recently launched Architexa Eclipse plugin to accomplish the above. I am sure there are others available that do something similar.