sequence diagram lifecycles

[Ritter]

Newbie question:

I want to indicate that a sequence is created temporarily then destroyed (such as a response window).  When I add a sequence it always stays at the very top of the sequence diagram instead of allowing me to move it down to an appropriate spot lower on the page.

I tried setting the message control flow type: Lifecycle to New and Delete but the sequence still remains pinned to the top of the diagram.

I know you can do it based on the sample diagrams that come with EA, but I can't find the magic combination.  Is there some way to grab the top of the sequence and move it down?

[fwoolz]

If you have two objects- say, Object1 and Object2- where Object1 "gives birth" to Object2 by means of a constructor call, giving the constructor message (from Object1 to Object2) a lifecycle of "new" moves the sequence object down to the level of the constructor message.  Check it out.

Cheers,
Fred Woolsey

[Ritter]

Thanks for your response Fred,

That was exactly what I was trying to do, but the diagram was not behaving as expected.  With your response I started from scratch on another diagram and found out what appears to be causing the problem.

I am doing a bit of reverse engineering and have created diagrams that depict the user interface (ie a list of windows and thier window hierachy).  I then tried to grab the screen objects I had created in the user interface diagram and place them in my sequence diagram to show message interaction.

When I do this it creates objects of type "screen" in the sequence diagram that do not behave properly.  I have to change the object type to "sequence" and things suddenly start working correctly in the sequence diagram, but the user interface diagram is bonked.

The moral is, as far as I can tell, is that I need to create separate diagramming objects for each and not try to share them between diagrams.  Actors and classes appear to be sharable, but not screen objects.

[fwoolz]

Thanks for the return tip!  Perhaps improved interchangeability of objects btw diagrams is something for Sparx to work on for a future release.

Cheers,
Fred Woolsey