Partitions or Swimlanes ???

[CJ]

G'day folks,

After having searched the forum, still don't know what the advantages of one over the other.

I've read that partitions are semantically better.  Can anyone elaborate?

My immediate observations on partitions:

• pain to align and size
  
• clutter up the project browser
  

[potterm]

CJ,

I'm not sure about the semantics, but partitions in EA do at least "grab" anything within their boundary (much like a boundary does)....therefore making it easier to re-organise your diagram if moving things around (unlike swimlanes, which are not connected to diagram elements at all).

Martin.

[CJ]

These help a bit:

http://www.omg.org/docs/ptc/03-08-02.pdf

http://pesoa.org/pages/Publications/Fachberichte022004/PESOA_TR_1-2004.pdf

[KP]

Double-click on a partition and you'll see the main difference between partitions and swimlanes: partitions get the full Properties dialog with the Require, Constraints, Link, Scenario etc pages. Swimlanes are a drawing convenience, no more.

[CJ]

G'day,

Can anyone give a very short and clear example of why/when one would set any properties for a partition?

[thomaskilian]

OMG UML Specification  
 
  
 The OMG UML specification (UML 2.0 Superstructure, p. 307) states:  
 
  
 "Partitions divide the nodes and edges to constrain and show a view of the contained nodes. Partitions can share contents. They often correspond to organizational units in a business model. They may be used to allocate characteristics or resources among the nodes of an activity."  
 

For that reason you at least like to enter some comment, maybe constraints, etc.

[CJ]

Thanks Thomas.

So I can treat a partition the same way as I would treat any "object".  I can classify it, set properties for it, link it to other elements, etc.

Would it be worth requesting a feature to show or not show a partition (or an object) using rectangle versus partition notation?  The reason I ask is that I would hate duplicating objects as partitions (duplicate elements) in my documentation (properties, links, etc. etc.).

[thomaskilian]

CJ,
I do not work too much with activities/partitions so I'm not shure whether your request would be UML compliant. I noticed that dragging an activity into a partition also moves it in the browser, whilst dragging it outside does not have a similar effect. Also dragging a partition onto another diagram does not place the embedded activities on the diagram. The "Insert Related Elements"  from the context menu actually does not show the partitions activities although it might be inteded to do so