MDA tagged value types (and debugging in general)

[Adam@Schneider]

Hi,

So I have an MDG, I have been using some custom tagged value types, where I create them in the UML types, use them in the UML profile, and export everything to an MDG.

Now this has been working, but sometimes it doesn't, it seems to not make the association between the tagged value and the custom type, it seems like this is an all or nothing thing - either all of the types work or none do.

After more investigation t_propertytypes is empty, is there a log? how can I figure out what is going on? Obviously when I remove the old version of the MDG from the model and import the new one something is going wrong.

[qwerty]

I'm not sure about this, but when EA uses a MDG it does not change any table content. So t_propertytypes will also not be touched. MDGs are interpreted from memory during runtime.

q.

[Adam@Schneider]

Ok, so I know not to expect anything in that table, but even going back in time through my releases, re-importing things that previously worked doesn't make any difference. I know after an MDG remove and import I need to restart EA so it picks up all the changes (bug submitted and confirmed a while ago). I even re-apply the stereotype and nothing...

A log file would be nice, something telling me EA has imported element X successfully, or failed to import something. This would be nice in general actually.

[qwerty]

Yes, logs ... sigh. Which version are you on?

I once wrote up a few things related to MDG: http://community.sparxsystems.com/community-resources/518-90improved-mdg-creation

q.

[Adam@Schneider]

I'm on 1110, I use the MTS creation because that allows me to export all my images from the image manager and my tagged value types (which arent working...).

So to follow up on this, rolling back to the oldest MDG version I have which I knew was working, no luck. Creating an empty model with the old MDG, no luck, so it seems like its not something specific to the MDG. It would be great to see where the process is breaking down.

[qwerty]

If the MDG isn't confidential you might send me a copy and I could have a look.

q.

[Adam@Schneider]

I'll spend a bit more time pulling it apart, but I haven't done anything different to before, I might submit a bug report and get sparx to look at it, if there is something wrong with it, at the very least I should be getting an error on import.

[qwerty]

It's like blowing a fog horn. The best you can expect is the sound of another ship. The iceberg however will not make a sound

q.

[Adam@Schneider]

So it magically started working without any input from me...

[qwerty]

Oh I know that

q.

[Adam@Schneider]

For anyone else who finds this thread, I'm submitting a bug report.

When you open EA it doesn't seem to load the custom tagged value types from the MDG within the model (not sure if this affects local XML files or not). I'm not sure if its just after an MDG import, or needs to be done on every EA restart.

To make custom MDG tagged value types work, open the tagged value types dialog (in UML types) then click OK. This seems to cause EA to reload its tagged value types and everything works.