RTF in database

[Tjerk]

First of all, I'm a satisfied (short-time) user of Enterprise Architect, it fits most of my needs. But now I want to customise the RTF output.

I couldn't find this specific topic, so here is my question:

The MS database includes RTF tags (in the RTF table), but they do not seem to relate to the generated output (documentation/Rich Text documentation...). Are there any plans to give the user access (at least via MS Access) to change the RTF template?

I want to be able to:
- Bookmark pictures,
- Change outline levels (1->0, 2->1, etc),
- Change blank line insertion (e.g. between requirement header and text),
- Change fonts / styles,
- Remove type tags (e.g. "Functional: " before a requirement text).

I need this to fit in the generated and dynamically linked (in a Word document) documentation within my (strict) documentation standard, without using any additional macros or styling.

Also, a feature request:
I would like to be able to directly use the relationship matrix in the generated documentation (as a picture or a (RTF) table).

Greetings,
Tjerk

[sparks]

Hello,

Your observations are correct the values in the t_rtf table do not relate to the RTF generated by EA.  This table was originally going to be used for the reason you have outlined, however early on in EA's lifecycle it became aware to us that it was going to be very hard to keep them up-to-date while they were contained in the table.   Since then we have made other uses of the 't_rtf' table, it now stores a variety of data.

We do plan to implement a more customizable document generator in the future, however at this stage we have not decided on the format, whether RTF or XML/XSLT or etc.

At the moment if you require a document of strict format then your only option is to write something that will convert the XMI generated from EA into a word document.  This can be achieved using Word and VBA, the help file has more details on this (see 'The Automation Interface'  topic).

Hope this answers your questions.


Paul Mathers

[Tjerk]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your answer, it covers most topics of my question. I still hope that you insert some more flexibility in the RTF documentation, but we all want to do everything with one tool  .

I know that there are numerous methods to get the Enterprise Architect data in the right format in Word (macro's, VBA, direct database queries via Word, etc, XML/XSLT), but they involve to many steps for now. This makes my current  process of document generation harder to reproduce.

But nevertheless, I am already highly satisfied with the possibilities of EA. And the exact format of the output is not a critical issue, but a nice to have.

Thanks and continue the good work,
Tjerk