Author Topic: Importing from IBM Rational software architect 6.1 (Read 6867 times)

Giu Platania · « **on:** June 13, 2006, 02:58:38 am »

Hi,
we have a big project created with IBM Rational software architect 6.1 in UML2.
we are now evaluating the possibility to switch to EA.
But I see no chance to import the information.
Do you have any workaround?

thanks

«Midnight» · « **Reply #1 on:** June 13, 2006, 03:43:08 am »

You should be able to export your Rose models to XMI. EA should then do a pretty good job of importing these.

There seems to be a Unisys utility - perhaps at extra cost (like all good things in the Rational world - to perform these exports. I've not used any recent versions of Rose so I cannot tell you for sure.

thomaskilian · « **Reply #2 on:** June 13, 2006, 04:16:32 am »

The tool is free (at least it was when I used it some years ago). But it is hidden very well in the dwellings of internet. Good hunting!

Giu Platania · « **Reply #3 on:** June 13, 2006, 08:47:39 am »

I found a upgrade for Rational Rose under:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/content/03July/2500/2834/Rose/rational_rose.html

unfortunately the IBM Rational software architect is NOT Rose.
it is based on eclipse and support UML and XMI 20 (or 2.1 not so sure).

:-/

thomaskilian · « **Reply #4 on:** June 13, 2006, 10:06:09 am »

I allways amend ROSE when I read Rational. But you are right and unfortunately I can't help

ErnestoC · « **Reply #5 on:** June 27, 2006, 07:19:54 am »

Hi

I've also tried to exchange XMI information between EA and RSA but the problem is that RSA does not support XMI import/export. IBM's explanation is that RSA's EMX repository file IS in XMI 2.0 format already (which is not supported by the majority of UML tools in the market). The only way I could interchange information was via Rational XDE which supports XMI 1.x and then import the XDE model into RSA using their standard plug-in. But first, the XMI file generated by EA needs to be edited in Notepad and the !DOCTYPE and XMI.header lines deleted. The UML used for the interchange must be as close as possible as 1.4 otherwise XDE won't recognise some stuff. Yeah, it's a big hassle and it's not 100% reliable. I also tried the Rose route and gave me similar problems. The question is: when is XMI going to be a truly standard and hassle free way of moving UML information across all different vendors? My honest answer is perhaps never.

Regards

Ernesto

«Midnight» · « **Reply #6 on:** June 27, 2006, 11:54:55 am »

Ernesto,

A dark take on things indeed, but perhaps close to the real future. That said, XMI 2.x will apparently be part of EA 6.5, which will come out sometime in the (hopefully) not too distant future. What that means is anyone's guess, but we've been doing most of the "pins and needles" stuff for you up till now...

IMHO, as for the editing, XSLT would be a good way to go. If you are only doing transfers between two (or a small number in any case) incompatible tools, and particularly if you are only going one way, a translation or two could work wonders.

The above said (read "pontificated") when I last had to address this for more than a trivial model, I went the other way and wrote a program to do the job. [This was with .Net, but Java would have been an effective alternative; I'm just trying to give you an idea of the scope and level involved.] It took several thousand lines, and some dedicated time to debug, but the results were excellent. Of course, since then EA 6.0 came out and handles that transfer without a hitch...

Bottom line, probably: gamble and wait for EA 6.5 if you can, otherwise write some kind of bridge.

David

ErnestoC · « **Reply #7 on:** June 29, 2006, 07:58:42 am »

Thanks, David. I can't wait for version 6.5; it sounds very promising considering that (perhaps) BPMN will be supported.

Regards

Ernesto

«Midnight» · « **Reply #8 on:** June 29, 2006, 10:11:35 am »

Ernesto,

We have some support for BPMN in version 6.1. You need to download the BPMN Technology from the Sparx site, and then install it.

If you have trouble doing this, check my posts over the last two months or so. You'll find both the URL on the Sparx site and instructions for how to set it up - including a response that contained the step I left out...

This feature is fairly new, but the way in which it has been done is worth going through on its own. It will tell you a fair amount about how EA can be extended, and hints at where Sparx may be going for future features. Sparx has tweaked this a bit since it came out, and I feel it will continue to improve. Search the forum for some hints on how to do various things using this feature, since the documentation has not caught up (by a long shot).

That said, some of us are also interested in BPEL. There was a mention of this quite a while ago in a single (I believe) post, and I think it came from Sparx. If I remember correctly, BPEL will be handled - to what extent I have no idea whatsoever - in a future version of EA. I cannot remember if that was going to be 6.5, but that could well be the case. [If not, I would certainly expect it for version 7.0, which a recent Sparx post suggested would be sometime before year end.]

David

ErnestoC · « **Reply #9 on:** July 03, 2006, 02:05:59 am »

Hi David

I've installed the BPMN add-in and works extremely well! Thanks for the tip.

Ernesto

Sparx Systems Forum

News: