Virt doc and separate templates

[Martinigue]

I wonder if I can generate my documentation file spanning several packages using the virtual document element and assing a different template for each package at the same time...? Any ideas?

[mark.myers]

I'd love to be able to do that too but at present I don't think you can. The virtual doc has one template that is used for each package. This would be a great feature.

Also, for what its worth, I dont think you can run a report for a virtual doc via the API which is why I'm starting to vear away from virtual docs.

[TomO]

Hey Guys,

Currently there is a way of doing this using a master template document (in something like MS Word) - It basically works by creating different model documents (from the RTF documentation generator) then referencing them in your master word template document as bookmarks. This allows you to create custom reports that span the whole model in the one document, only getting the specific information you need. The advantage of using this method is that if your model changes, you can simply auto generate the separate reports and update the master document.

In the near future we are looking to have the master document template within EA.

We have a very brief example of the bookmark use in our Product Demonstrations section in the MDG Technology for Zachman framework demo. You can also read some more from our help file.

Product Demonstrations:
http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/demos/index.html

RTF Document bookmark reference:
http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/EAUserGuide/index.html?rtfdocuments.htm

Hope this helps!

TomO

[mark.myers]

Thanks, TomO.
That is what I currently do but it is different from what I was talking about here. I have a master Word document that includes links to lots of files that are individually created by the RTF generator run on a SINGLE package. There are times, though, when I'd like to have a virtual document in EA (to bring together packages from all over the model) and have them processed to create one RTF file but using a different template for each package.

[TomO]

Hey Mark,

Thanks for the clarification, we are planning to have this sort of functionality available around the release of EA 7.1.

Watch this space ^_^

TomO

[mark.myers]

Beaut, thanks.