Messages

1

General Board / Re: Model Search: define package scope

« on: May 09, 2012, 09:58:20 pm »

Hmh, this is very weird. Which JET Engine are you using, explicitly 4.0 or the default?

My EAP File has the following structure
Model A
+- Package A
    +- Package B
Model B
Model C
Model D

If I select 'Model A', 'Package A', or 'Package B' in the Project Browser (is this wrong?) and the run the query from the query builder I get the aforementioned error.
I may also note that I did not provide any search criteria.

My EA is:
- 9.2.921 Corporate Edition
- Database Version 4.01

Other Macros like the wildcard character seem to work fine but neither Branch nor Package work.

2

General Board / Re: Model Search: define package scope

« on: May 09, 2012, 05:56:10 pm »

Damn, so it appears that the standalone MS-Access database in the background is the problem...

3

General Board / Re: Model Search: define package scope

« on: May 09, 2012, 05:28:31 pm »

Hi everyone,

thanks for your answers:

@Geert: that query could be the way out, just assuming that I don't have too many levels to consider, but I should be able to narrow that down sufficiently...

@qwerty: that was what I tried, but my EA 9.2 wont accept the query:

Code: [Select]

SELECT Object_Type, Package_ID, Name, Status, Stereotype, Note, ea_guid FROM t_object WHERE object_type IN ('Issue', 'Change')  AND Status <> 'Closed'  AND Package_ID IN (#Branch#) ORDER BY Package_ID, Name, object_type returns DAO.Database [3075] Syntax error in date in query expression 'object type IN ('Issue', 'Change') And Status <> 'Closed' And Package_ID IN (#Branch#)'.
=> So apparently the macro "#Branch#" is not being evaluated so the Jet-engine is confronted with the "#" which leads it to believe I am talking about dates.
The following query works fine:

Code: [Select]

SELECT Object_Type, Package_ID, Name, Status, Stereotype, Note, ea_guid FROM t_object WHERE object_type IN ('Issue', 'Change')  AND Status <> 'Closed'  ORDER BY Package_ID, Name, object_type
Any ideas?

Cheers,
Rouven

4

General Board / Model Search: define package scope

« on: May 09, 2012, 01:41:13 am »

Hello everyone,

let me divide the posting into two sections, one describing the problem, the other showing my initial approach.

Problem:
I have an EAP file with different root models inside. For one of these models I want to return all the contained Issue/Change elements so I can look at them and transfer them to e.g. Excel for further processing.

Solution Approach:
I know that the Documentation features can start their recursive search in a selected package. Now I was looking into the possibilities of the Model Search.
Seems that the query builder can't help me at all so I turned to the SQL-based queries. Since I wasn't online I made the mistake of looking into the HTML help file delivered with EA. There I find several query "macro" expression, such as "%WC%" for the current database wildcard, but also "%Branch%" for all packages in the currently selected branch or "%Package%" for the currently selected package. Trying them out lead to a dead end, syntax error.
Looking into the online documentation http://www.sparxsystems.com/uml_tool_guide/modeling_tool_features/creating_filters.htm I can no longer find these elements...

Question: What is the best way to achieve this recursive search? The changes/issues do not have a separate stereotype or any other means of identification other than the package they are located in...

Thanks in advance,
Cheers,
Rouven

5

General Board / Re: Display linked files in diagrams

« on: December 18, 2013, 04:38:41 am »

Hi Helmut,

thank you very much for your input, it looks like a feasible way to launch the files, which is already helpful.
My other concern was whether I could somehow display the filename on the diagram, similar to enabling the constraint feature and making constraints visible. If anybody has some input on that, that would be great!

Best regards,
Rouven

6

General Board / Display linked files in diagrams

« on: December 17, 2013, 08:52:14 pm »

Hello everyone,

my project is currently experimenting with linking files to certain model elements, e.g. CSV files that show an actual data load for a table modeled in EA. What I have found so far is (1) the navigation to the files using the property dialogs, and (2) the possibility to include this file link as a separate tab on the object details in HTML documentation.

My question now is towards a more visual approach. What myself and also the model consumers welcomed so far is if they can use the diagrams to navigate the entire model. So my question at this point is: is there an automated or scriptable way to visualize and maybe even open the linked files on/from the (e.g. class) diagrams? I could not find something like a files compartment, nor did I find a chance to link to the file with a hyperlink unless repeating the entire file link.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance & happy holidays,
best regards
Rouven

7

General Board / Reporting: relevant packages only

« on: June 16, 2012, 12:02:02 am »

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to understand the RTF reporting that comes with Enterprise Architect and how I could build a report template that meets my current requirements. Unfortunately I'm not getting anywhere, so here's my question: how do I accomplish the following with a template:

Model structure:

Package A
+- Package A.1
     +- Package A.1.1
+- Package A.2
     +- Package A.2.1
+- Package A.3
     +- Package A.3.1

There are model elements in all of the above packages. For my report, the only relevant model elements are in A.1, A.3 and A.3.1 - I obtain them by specifying required filter criteria.

My report is to look as follows:
Headline: A.1
    <element fields as specified for all relevant elements in A.1> in table form
Headline: A.3
    <element fields as specified for all relevant elements in A.3 AND A.3.1> in table form

So essentially I have:

• a filter for which elements are relevant
• a criteria when a package name should appear as a headline: either it or its direct sub package contains a relevant element

All I can get is a template that will contain all package names as headlines (which means all the irrelevant ones as well) and I seem to find no way of skipping A.3.1 either.

Can this be done with EA reporting?

Thanks,
Rouven

8

General Board / Re: HTML Report compatibility

« on: August 01, 2012, 09:24:28 pm »

Hi,

I am not aware of such a listing, but I'd be interested in knowing about your problem. What issues are you having with Firefox, because I can't recall any...

Cheers,
Rouven

9

General Board / Re: HTML Template Fragment...

« on: July 31, 2012, 08:52:27 pm »

Hi,

if you know your way around some JavaScript you might try to dynamically adjust the width. The template has several points you could try:
- onload-event of "Page - Index"
- onload-event of "Page - ToC"
Just look at the rendered HTML output, the generated iFrame seems to go by the id='tocIFrame'

Actually you should be able to reference that ID from the CSS as well, at least if EA really uses either of the customizable CSS for the entire page (and not just the content portions).

Let me know what you find...

10

General Board / Reusing (external) constraints

« on: July 17, 2012, 06:34:36 pm »

Hi everyone,

I'm just starting to add constraints to my UML class model. One of the issues I'm encountering is that I have certain - more or less complex - constraints that apply to various classes throughout the model.

As an example: I have several classes that have attributes start and end. For all of these classes I wish to specify a constraint start <= end.

What I've seen so far is that the attribute/class constraints are directly bound to the model element, so that will not work. But the external constraints are actual model elements, they even appear in the t_object table, leading me to suspect I could add them to multiple diagrams and link them to multiple objects then. However, since they are not displayed in the project browser there is no way to refer to them.

Is this simply a user interface problem in EA, or does it have a deeper meaning?

Do you have other recommendations?

Thanks & regards,
Rouven

11

General Board / Re: 3 classes, 2 associations: either one or the o

« on: May 07, 2012, 09:38:44 pm »

Hi,

sorry if the example wasn't clear - lets simplify it and assume I want to build a system that governs language requirements on certain travel routes:

• Europe-to-South America: 1 English
• Europe-to-Brazil: 1 English + 1 Portugese
• Frankfurt-to-Rio de Janeiro: 1 English + 1 Portugese + 1 German

So I define a class like "LanguageRequirement" which then has the aforementioned 3 alternative associations with continent, country, airport in a role "departing from" and 3 alternative associations with continent, country, airport in a role "arriving at".

Maybe this makes things a little clearer. But I think I got your answer and can go forward with that approach.

Thanks!

12

General Board / Re: 3 classes, 2 associations: either one or the o

« on: May 07, 2012, 07:48:17 pm »

Hi Gert,

first of all thanks for the reply. I think I'll need another pointer into the UML standard or a direct explanation to fully get what you're saying about the compositions.
Assume I have the following classes:

• airport
• country
• continent

Now I want to model some sort of specification that allows me to specify a value on different granularity with precedence:

• continent - continent is very generic
• continent - airport is "medium" generic
• airport - airport is highly specific

What all of the above have in common is that for my specification element I have two associations, each of which is either a continent or a country or an airport.
How would you suggest I model that using UMLs built-in support for XOR? Whenever I look to OMG for the composition it always seems to have something to do with existence or lifecycle, which is simply not true here. An airport etc. exists without such a relationship to the specification element. A specification element's existence on the other hand can not really be considered as dependent on the e.g. airport.
In my understanding, the only "XOR" about the composition would then be my lifecycle can only be bound to either this or that object, but that interpretation doesn't help me here.

Am I going in the completely wrong direction?

Thanks,
Rouven

13

General Board / Re: 3 classes, 2 associations: either one or the o

« on: May 04, 2012, 10:32:44 pm »

Hi Günther,

thanks for the input - the external constraint with links to the association seems to work - looks like a note on the diagram, but sufficiently visible an I could go and modify the appearance...

So yes, I think this helps.
Rouven

14

General Board / 3 classes, 2 associations: either one or the other

« on: May 04, 2012, 09:22:03 pm »

Hi everyone,

I have just stumbled across a problem building a logical model where I am not sure about how to accomplish this in UML class diagrams. Scenario:

• There are three classes A, B, C.
• A has to-1-associations with B and C.
• A must only have either an association with B or with C

How to I represent this third aspect in UML? Do I have to use a constraint (which is poorly visualized on class diagrams from what I can tell)? Is it possible find a graphic representation? By googling I found a class diagram that held a dashed line between the two associations marked as "OR", but I don't think it is supported or even part of UML?!

Can anybody help me out? Thanks in advance,
Regards,
Rouven

15

General Board / Re: activity diagrams for operations?

« on: April 03, 2012, 06:19:06 pm »

Oh, forgot one thing, if you are looking for clickable navigation, you could extend the model as follows:

• right-click on the interface IF1 and select "Add\Diagram" to add a (select something) diagram; this diagram should be the only one within this interface and thus should open up automatically when you doubleclick the interface on a diagram.
• drag the interface IF1 and the "operation-action" myOp onto the diagram
• now create a dependency from the interface to the activity
• right-click on the dependency close to the interface and select 'Link to element feature' - there select the operation myOp
  

What you get with this one is (1) a clickable diagram and (2) a visualization that the operation is implemented by the operation.

Artificial solution, maybe somebody has a better idea...