Relationship matrix between actors and usecases

[Jan Pacovsky]

Hello,

I need to see a relationship matrix between Actors and Usecases. I set Link type as Association, but I cannot see any relationships although they are present in the model.

I thought the problem could be in Type of Association (I have unspecified type in the model, but I'm not able to set this type in relationship matrix). But I tried to create bi-directional association between actor and usecase but it didn't help.

Does anybody know anything about this issue? I'm using Build 802.

Thanks a lot,
Jan

[sargasso]

Hmm, works fine for me at 799?

Source=Usecase Model Type=Actor  Link Type=Association
Target=Usecase Model Type=UseCase Direction=Source->Target Profile=blank

Create a new package and diagram with one actor and one use case, try a relmatrix on that.  

Other than that, more details or a bug report I reckon.

hth
bruce

[«Midnight»]

Jan,

I just checked in 804, with the same results.

What we seem to need here, at a minimum, is an <all> setting for link type. [I am avoiding "connection" since that is one of the options in the current drop-down, and it does not work in the case you've identified.]

We might also want an "unspecified" option for link direction, to match what EA offers when building models. This would allow a "don't care" option, while providing different results where the user actually wants to highlight bidirectional navigation in the model.

Beyond that, one wonders what the "UseCase" option does (or is supposed to do) in the link type drop-down, if it is not what you are looking for.

I think this bears reporting to Sparx, although whether as a bug or a feature request I cannot say. Perhaps you should decide Jan. Once you've done so, click on Support at the top of the forum page, and then click the appropriate entry in the left side menu.

[BTW Bruce, I notice there are two "Association" entries in my drop-down list, with no indication of what's different. IMHO this too needs to be dealt with.]

David

[Jan Pacovsky]

Tried it... One package with Actor and UseCase connected with association. Didn't work. I found out, that you also "cannot" create association in matrix (right mouse click), the 'X' mark doesn't appear, but the relation exists in the model in the end. So I decided to make a bug report, because it behaves a bit strange. We'll see...

Anyway, thanks for your fast reaction!

[Geert Bellekens]

Hi,

I stumbled upon this topic while searching for "usecase relation". Any response from Sparx?
What I'm actually looking for is the UML meaning of the relation with type "usecase" between an actor and a usecase.
In UML I do not find any indication that this type of relation exists. We decided for now to use the regular association to model a relation between an actor and a usecase.

[«Midnight»]

I think that's just what EA does under the covers. The association doesn't seem to get stereotyped. The term you see (probably) is just a name for the Association link in the menu, in language a use case modeler should understand.

I suspect (without proof) this was 'inherited' from UML 1.x where you might see a «uses» stereotype for the relationship. As often as not this stereotype was hidden. The end result was that the 'default' link looked the same as a simple association, which was also acceptable usage. UML 2.x seems to have taken the approach that since the notations came out the same, and the meanings were both the same, then the superfluous stereotype could be depreciated.

So just keep doing what you are.

HTH, David