Association name direction

[jps]

How can I show an arrow (small black solid triangle) that shows the direction in which to read an association name?

Thanks!

James

[whyteg]

James,

To create a Collaboration  
· Open a class diagram  
· Add the required objects  
· Add an Association relationship between objects that will communicate  
· Right click on an Association to get the context menu: Select the option to add a message from one object to another  
· When the Message dialog appears, fill in a name and any other required details  
· Press OK  
 
The Message is added - linked to the association and object instances  as a small black triangle.

Hope this helps.

George
 

[jps]

Thanks for replying George!  Actually what I’m looking for though is not to add messages between objects, i.e. a collaboration diagram, but rather to show the direction in which one should read the association (link) name between two classes.  

When you double-click an association between two classes, you can enter a "Link Name."  You can specify in the UML which direction this is to be read by showing an arrow beside the text label.  Scott Ambler’s The Elements of UML Style provides an example of what I’m trying to accomplish in EA.  Please see the section named "Indicate Directionality To Clarify An Association Name" at this site: http://www.modelingstyle.info/classDiagram.html#_Toc862318 .

Thanks!

[Sean Kearon]

Double-click the association and set 'direction'.  EA will draw the arrows as appropriate.

Regards

Sean

[jps]

Thanks Sean, but that's not exactly what I want either.  This sets the navigability which may or may not correspond the direction in which to read the association name.  In fact, on a Domain Model I really don't want to specify navigability.

It looks like EA does not support this at this time.  

[benc]

Hi James,

Thanks for the feedback.

This optional marker beside the association name is not currently supported.   It's now our TODO list.

Regards,
Ben

[jkorman]

You can use the "<" and ">" characters in the mean time.

Boss               supervises >                Employee
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Jim

[jps]

Excellent, thanks Ben!

Jim, I guess that will do in the meantime, thanks.  =)

[benc]

Hi Guys,

I believe this feature was implemented in one of the 3.60 releases ...

1. Create a connector
2. Set the Link name field
3. On the diagram, select the connector name/label
4. Right-click the name
5. Choose the Direction option from the context menu

The same applies for EA 4.0

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Ben