Topics

1

General Board / Adding a link in the generated HTML using the API

« on: August 26, 2016, 11:45:50 pm »

Hi Team EA

I generate quite a lot of component diagrams using the Sparx API by importing all the data from existing Excel spreadsheets into a project. I then save the project as a HTML report. This works fine and I can see all the diagrams in my browser. Next I want each generated HTML diagram to have a clickable link which pops up a new email with some pre-filled parts. This is so people viewing each diagram can send our team feedback on each diagram. This is quite easy to do in HTML but I don't want to edit the HTML in each diagram. How can I add the link using the Visual Basic API when creating the diagrams?

Many thanks in advance.

2

General Board / Auto layout Diagram from Visual Basic

« on: August 23, 2016, 09:02:52 pm »

Hi team EA

I have created about 70 component diagrams using VB scripting. After I have created the diagrams, I need the diagrams to show the components in a circle. This I can do by manually clicking on the "layout Diagram" and selecting the circle option for each diagram (Actually its not that simple as  this sometimes leaves elements hidden behind each other so I have to EDIT->Select All followed by a right click on the diagram and select Space Evenly -> Across. Then I select the Circle option and I get all the elements in a circle without any hidden ones).

My question is how do I do the circle diagram layout automatically as I don't want to go through each of the 70 diagrams manually.

Many thanks in advance.

3

General Board / Place HTML Report Diagram on Sharepoint

« on: August 11, 2016, 06:28:14 am »

Hi Gang

I've created a Data Landscape Diagram (eventually) in Sparx EA 12.1 and have generated an HTML report/diagram using the Sparx functionality. The HTML Diagram can be viewed using Internet Explorer and allows me to click on components which give additional information such as Notes, Tags and Connector details. That is great but the final goal is to move the diagram to a SharePoint (2010) site. This is so other people in the organisation (who don't have Sparx) can view and click the diagram to explore our application/data landscape.

My question is, does anyone know how to do this. I appreciate its not a Sparx question as such but more of a Share Point one. I am hoping someone may have successfully done this and can save me some time. The other thing I've noticed is Sparx seems to create hundreds and hundreds of files which are a right pain to upload into Share Point 2010.

Any help will really be appreciated as always. Thanks.

4

General Board / Using Office MDF extension

« on: July 01, 2016, 01:02:33 am »

Hi team

I am trying to load a data model from an excel spreadsheet using the MS MDF Office extension. I've had a reasonable amount of success loading a bunch of application components and their tagged values from a spreadsheet. I've even got the Diagram to generate automatically showing the components including the hierarchy of nested components.

What I'm struggling with is how to create information flow links automatically between the components using a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet format can be quite flexible as I am writing the application to generate it. Has anyone done this before or know what to do? When I try to create the information flow in the profile, there seems to be no way of connecting the source and destination systems.

The reason I want to do this is because we have information about our applications in spreadsheets and we have over a hundred systems. Any automation to capture the application components and the information flow between them to create the application landscape diagram will save me a lot of time.

5

General Board / Information Architecture repository

« on: June 01, 2016, 07:25:47 am »

Hi All

I am creating an Information Architecture Repository for our enterprise relating to the applications we have. I want to store information about each application including types of information that flow in an out and where they go. As I have no idea on the Sparx EA's ability, please forgive any daft questions. Currently the data analysts have started collecting this information in spreadsheets. I want to use Sparx EA to do the whole thing from entering the data to storing and reporting. Is this a reasonable demand on the tool? I do not want to use extra tools if I can avoid them. I will be needing to do the following:

1. Document each application by having a template of what needs to be filled in by the Data Analysts.
2. Document each data type (and sub-types) in the enterprise - also based on a template.
3. Attach each data type relevant to each application flow.
4. Produce a report that shows data flow between two applications.

How would one go about doing this? Can I custom the Sparx pop-up boxes where I could enter the data I need to store? Or is this approach wrong and I should be defining class attributes which would need filling.

Sorry for the waffly blog but I am just sharing my ideas and looking for some guidance.

Many thanks.

6

General Board / Autogenerating personalized component names in a diagram

« on: May 31, 2016, 09:59:51 am »

Hi All

I want to be able to automatically generate a personalised ID for each component I am creating on a component diagram. The first one I create should be tagged with id AC001 where AC represents Application Component. The next one I create should automatically be tagged AC002 and so on. I also want to be able to generate sub-ids. Say for example AC001.01 becomes the first sub-component within component AC001 and AC001.02 is the second sub-component. I have a big diagram and many people will be working on it. I don't want people to have to keep track of what ID we are up to. I will have an Oracle database in the background so maybe I can use sequence ID number from there (Just a thought).

As I am completely new to Sparx, I dont know if this is asking for too much. I assume there must be a way of coding this to work in Sparx. Can someone please advise?

Thanks in Advance

7

General Board / Data Landscape Diagram

« on: May 29, 2016, 09:43:26 am »

Hi All

I am new to Sparx EA and am looking at using the tool to implement a Data Landscape Diagram. The diagram will document each application in the enterprise and also document the type of information flowing between the applications. I am using the Ultimate version 12.1.1228.

Firstly a question:
Can I embed diagrams within each object/class. For example, I click on an application box in my Data Landscape Diagram and it pops up another diagram which shows the application in a more detailed diagram showing the activities being performed on the data. If so how is this done?

Secondly need some advice:
Is the best way of doing a Data Landscape diagram by having an application class which has all the attributes I want to capture for any application. The Data Landscape Diagram would then have an object application representing each application and have the attributes filled by me when instantiated. I could then also have a Data Class for each type of data I have. The information flow between any two applications could have all the applicable Data classes attached to show what type of information is flowing between any two applications.

Any guidance form the community will be greatly appreciated.

8

General Board / Importing diagrams into Sparx from Rational System Architect

« on: May 13, 2016, 09:02:10 am »

Hi All

I am trying to import a System Architecture diagram from Rational System Architect (version 11.4.2.3 ) as an XML into Sparx Enterprise Architect ( version 12.1.1228  ).
It fails on the import with error "Unknown XMI Exporter or Version".

Has anyone successfully managed to import diagrams as above. I have a bunch of complex diagrams and it will save me a great deal of time if anyone can share a solution with me.

Thanks in advance.