Report Writer 11.1 not as good as 11

[ChrisMW]

I have found something like a bug with the report writer introduced in 11.1. I had a template that used a table, the elements write rows, the package wraps the table. I had used the trick of removing the newlines, so that the tables got merged together if the template was run over multiple packages. So, I created a master document, model document that references the right template and included the packages I want. It worked well. Since 11.1 it will not iterate over the packages. A single package still works fine. It took me some time to figure out that by putting a newline after the table would resolve the issue, and I settled for removing the newlines manually.

Any other change proved making no difference, from .docx to .rtf, altering the table layout, nothing. But that newline after the table made a world of difference. I'm not sure what it should be doing, but I'm very tempted to go back to 11.0, because I use that table without newline trick quite a lot and it's been working for some time, deduced from the fact that I've been using it for years.

[Graham_Moir]

have you formally reported this to Sparx?

[ChrisMW]

No, as the sample project contains info I cannot share. As it took me some time to solve, haven't had time to create a completely new project with fudged data.

[qwerty]

Sparx has an obfuscation tool. Ask Sparx support, mangle the model and send it.

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[ChrisMW]

Good idea, I've submitted a bug report, and if I need to send a working problem, I'll ask for that......

[ChrisMW]

The bug has been submitted and validated, (issue 14119353). However the obfuscator was not provided, so I've asked for this functionality in the product as it occurred to me that I often find myself having to duplicate work because I need to show how I constructed the repository, but can't show the content I used, so it would be a time saver for me.

[qwerty]

That's strange. Sure, it's years ago I got a copy of that tool from Sparx but I could not think of any reason this tool would no longer be provided. Except, they simply lost it in time - how could that have happened?

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[qwerty]

I still have it here It's from 2008.

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[qwerty]

And even more strange: http://sparxsystems.com/securedownloads/EAObfuscation.exe still works, though it asks for user/password where you need to supply your registered user/password.
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[Max Widen]

Q, nice tool, thank you! We've just been looking for solution of securely sending a bug.

But I have to mention, this tool doesn't change the contents of "linked documents", so it's possible to occasionally leak some data to Sparx.

[qwerty]

If I interprete what the OP wrote then Sparx seems to have forgotten about this tool Maybe one of the engaged Sparxians reading here will file an internal bug. In most cases you could remove the contents of t_document with a little script. But replacing it with some lorem ipsum would likely be better.

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[ChrisMW]

I actually received the link, but it wouldn't have helped that much, as it is limited. I needed to anonymize the notes, their obfuscater could only clear notes, not change them.

So, I am looking into building my own, as I have a need beyond sending bugs in EAP's to Sparx, I don't run into many bugs, so this is secondary requirement. It's been a while since I did this for a living, so progress probably won't be fast, but might as well take the opportunity to explore the world of EA add-ins  

[qwerty]

I'd say that obfuscating the notes is rather easy (you can run a search to find all elements/attrs/... with notes via Repository.SQLQuery). Changing the attached document is a bit more tricky since you need to store a zipped RTF. But if you prepare a template you could just use that everywhere. Of course the length of the document would then always be the same.

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[ChrisMW]

Yes, it is not that hard. The attached documents is interesting option, hadn't given that much thought as I hardly use it. But i am looking for a certain flexibility, as to what is touched and how it is touched. Right now I'm thinking of something along the lines of the report template editors left pane, with some filtering options so you can obfuscate different elements differently and also something that would allow new strategies for replacing information, as i could imagine that my simple strategies might not be good for everyone. It's just a matter of finding some time between job time and family time to get stuck in. I tried my first hello world version today, that was more than easy.

[qwerty]

If you got any specific question just open a new thread in the automation.

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