Defining Application Reports

[Brian Stanek]

I am just starting to use EA and I have defined our UI screens in EA.

Now, I would like to diagram the reports.  Is there a place in EA to diagram reports?

[Oliver F.]

You can use one of the report templates already delivered in EA as a starting point and try with those.
If one of them suits your needs you can start extending it by generating your own.
The templates are traversing your project tree as it is defined in the model and treat each package and element in it as documentable objects so should be fine with a standard template at first.

However I suggest to create your own template in the long run so it only includes the information you need.

Oliver

Edit: I reread your question and it seems as if did might not have gotten the point.
If so please be more precise so we can concentrate on your issue.

[Brian Stanek]

I need to define my application's report.  For example, I have a customer screen that I have defined in EA.  Now I need to define the customer report.  Not a report on EA information, but a report defined by my application.

Is this possible in EA?

[Oliver F.]

I need to define my application's report.  For example, I have a customer screen that I have defined in EA.  Now I need to define the customer report.  Not a report on EA information, but a report defined by my application.

Is this possible in EA?

Now I got it.
The answer is yes and no.
No because from my knowledge there is no such thing as a report model technology or profile nor a pattern (at least it does not belong to the GoF patterms )

Yes because a standard way to deal with reports is to have a report pattern consisting of a report factory (factory is a GoF patterm) which is able to instantiate several report generators (eg. a singleton, another GoF pattern) for each screen (which of course can be associated to each generator).

To summarize: A customer report is a class which is associated with a customer screen object. The report itself can be instatiated by a report factory.
This is a scenario which can be perfectly modeled in EA using class diagrams, sequences/activities and patterns.

This is just my spontaneous idea how to model this, it might vary with your specific requirements, of course.

Regards,

Oliver

[«Midnight»]

What about Time Architect? Would the report generator there handle this kind of thing gracefully?

David

[Oliver F.]

What about Time Architect? Would the report generator there handle this kind of thing gracefully?

I believe the basic issue is not with documenting the model (elements) but about the implemented solution being able to create reports from what the user entered in the screens.
So reports seem to be a requirement from the problem domain, not the model itself.

Brian, am I correct ?

Oliver

[Brian Stanek]

Yes,

In my real-world scenario, I am creating a re-insurance pool system.  I have a number of data entry screens, classes, domain models, use cases, etc.

Now, I need to model the outputs that aresent to the customers.  One of the outputs is a pool report.  An application report has the visual aspect of it, which is what is printed on the printer and the associated data paths diagramed in the domain models, classes, etc.  I can do everything except find out where to place the visual aspect of the report in EA.  

I can diagram the visual aspect of the data entry screens, but this tool does not seem to handle the printed output of my application. I am trying to have a single source of truth for my designs.

I guess I could use the screen diagramming to diagram a report that that is a pain.

[Oliver F.]

A (very) rough idea of mine: I believe there are plenty of report generator design tools around which are able to export the reports as xml files.

So you could graphically design the report in the other tool, let it generate the xml file and model/document the xml structure in EA as EA has some XML capabilities.

This is far from being well-thought, in fact I am just trying to be helpful, but maybe it adds some value to your issue.

Oliver

[Brian Stanek]

That is an option, and I can even use Visio for this as I have done in the past.  It is just another package I need to have developers support.

[jfzouain]

Hi Brian

What about defining your reports in a Tree Requirement Diagram,
lets say you are going to define all reports as a 1 package, different reports will be packages out of that root. Example of a Customer report:

Report Package
              Customer Report
                        Req 1 Customer
                                    Req Detail
                                    Req  Summary
                                            Req by Customer
                                                   by Industry
                                                   by Region
                                                   by Class
                                                             Req All
                                                             Req Range
                                                             Req Individual

Hope this help. In each Requirement you can describe all columns needed, even the filter per report. If you use Raquest which is an add-on for EA you have more options.

This is how I am plannning to do it a system I am designing.

Best regards

Jose
                                            

[Brian Stanek]

That is a good idea but I still need a visual representation for my users to view.  They will need to see the report so they can tell me how it does not meet their needs.  I guess I will use a different method for visually showing my report.

[thomas.kilian]

This had been discussed in another thread (too long ago, don't remember where). One suggestion was to use the linked documents to create a visual layout of the report. Not the most intelligent way, but...