Deployment of components

[ihodgetts]

Why (in EA v7) do the default connectors from a component to a node not include "deploy"? I'm pretty sure that when I used a trial version of EA (v6.5?) you could do this?  :-/

I'm attempting to show on a deployment diagram (the diagram is set to be "deployment view") which components are installed on which servers. I place a component on the diagram and then try and link it to a node I previously placed, but even manually selecting the "DT" connector from the toolbox, does not let you connect a component to a node (unless you select "dependancy" and manually change the stereotype to "deploy"). You only get the choice of Dependancy, Trace or Information Flow.

Am I missing something? I'm a relative newbie to EA and UML BTW. I recently attended a training course on EA7 and the instructor also seemed surprised to find that this didn't work!

[thomaskilian]

You should also report this as bug via Sparx Bug Report page. (I also think that it was there in the past.)

Also, Sparx: could we please have a way to configure the quick link to our needs?

[ihodgetts]

I've also now reported this as a bug. Thanks for the swift response (glad it wasn't just me!)

[pauljak]

I could be mistaken, but its my understanding that the latest UML specification doesn't support the deployment of components directly.  Components are manifested as artifacts and the artifacts are then deployed to nodes.

I believe that was the response I got when I reported this a while back.

[Eve]

Regarding customization of quicklinking.

Please see http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/EAUserGuide/quick_linker_definitions.htm

[ihodgetts]

Ah! OK, so it's actually incorrect UML to have a component deployed directly to a node (without it being an artifact). Thanks for pointing that out.

Just to clarify; I'm trying to show things like Tomcat/Apache and our own applications being deployed on a series of servers. From what's been said, the software needs to be an artifact and the server needs to be a node. The reason I thought I'd use components is that it would be useful to show the interfaces between them (on a linked component diagram). I suppose I could create a hyperlink from each artifact to a related component diagram instead?

That'll teach me to wait for a 2nd (and 3rd) opinion!  

Out of interest, when did that change in the UML spec? It's been a while since I last looked into this.

[thomaskilian]

Regarding customization of quicklinking.

Please see http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/EAUserGuide/quick_linker_definitions.htm

Boah! That totally passed my attention

However,
thanks for taking me to that. Much appreciated

[pauljak]

I think it was changed in 2.0, but it might have been 2.1.

EA didn't enforce it initially, but eventually one of the 6.5 builds declared it a "non-compliant" association.