BPMN 2.0 has Data Associations (DataAssociation) - which the standard says may be optionally represented by using the Association connector style. It also has subtypes; Data Input Association (DataInputAssociation) and Data Output Association (DataOutputAssociation).
In EA, you can create a Data Association from the Toolbox and DataInputAssociation and DataOutputAssociation from the Quicklinker.
Interestingly, EA creates Dependencies with Stereotypes: DataAssociation, DataInputAssociation and DataOutputAssociation respectively.
The two mechanisms are inconsistent: If you create the DataAssociation from the toolbox, you get the style Orthogonal Rounded; if using the Quicklinker, you get style Direct.
If you create a DataAssociation, you get "navigability"
1 Unspecified - yet there is an arrow at the destination end. Setting the navigability to Source -> Destination or Destination -> Source produces an arrow a the appropriate end. However, setting navigability to Bi-Directional will not change the rendering (except being EAUI - if you FIRST set the navigability to either Source -> Destination or Destination -> Source THEN change the navigability to either Unspecified or Bi-Directional you will get what you expect).
If you create either a DataInputAssociation or DataOutputAssociation, you can set the navigability and the rendering will change accordingly.
It's doing my head in! Please fix the inconsistencies! However, I would request that Sparx leave the ability to set the navigability to both Unspecified and Bi-Directional - which (it could be argued) are not BPMN conformant.
Reported,
Paolo
1 I say navigability because EA conflates Navigability and Directedness - see:
Directedness and Navigability of Edges
