Profile diagram hacky hack hack

[Uffe]

Hi all!


Does anyone know why the profile diagram isn't properly defined as its own diagram type?

There is a Profile toolbox, cool, no worries. But there is no corresponding diagram. What EA does, rather sneakily, is open the correct toolbox when a diagram is opened and the enclosing package has the «profile» stereotype -- regardless of the diagram type. So inside a «profile» package, you can create diagrams from UML, EA's core extensions, BPMN, whatever you like but they all open the Profile toolbox.

I call hack.

Now if you're working on some profiles in a project, you would like the option of creating a container package, with a single diagram which affords you the ability to create «profile» packages, wherein you construct your stereotypes, diagrams, toolbox pages, etc. But the only way to do that is to give the container package the «profile» stereotype, when it is in fact not a profile at all.

It's not the end of the world but it's wrong and it's bugging me.
Is there a reason for it?

Cheers,


/Uffe

[qwerty]

Does anyone know why the profile diagram isn't properly defined as its own diagram type?

Because it's EAUI. Fits perfectly into other strange behavior we all learned to live with.

q.

[Eve]

I suspect when the profile feature was introduced EA only supported the standard UML diagram types, and there isn't a Profile diagram type defined in UML. The only thing that EA could detect in order to show a profile  toolbox was the kind of package.

If we changed the functionality then we would be breaking existing diagrams/profiles.

If we made it work with a profile toolbox in addition to the current method we would still have the same question but also "Why is there two methods for doing this?" "Why can't I have diagram type x under a profile package?" etc.

[Uffe]

Yeah, it's the Ravenous Backward Compatibility Beast of Traal rearing its ugly head. Makes sense, and as I say it's no biggie.

Cheers,


/Uffe