Timers on sequence diagrams

[ocroquette]

Hi

I want to show timers on my sequence diagrams, controlled by a certain lifeline.

If found the notation described on http://www.sequencediagrameditor.com/uml/sequence-diagram.htm very attractive.

How can I achieve this with EA?

Thanks for your help!

Olivier

[«Midnight»]

Olivier,

EA allows a Receive Event to be displayed as an hourglass shape. See Time Event in the help index. I don't know if you can use this on a sequence diagram, or whether this would disrupt the resulting semantics.

Otherwise, you could define a stereotype with a simple shape script.

IMHO, If nobody comes up with a solution out of the box this is worth making a feature request to Sparx. Use the Support link at the top of the forum page, then click Feature Request from the left side menu.

David

[ocroquette]

Thanks the information.

I will probably open a feature request.

In parallel, I am investigating the shape scripts.

I tried to set custom shapes for "message", "messageend" and "gate", which I thought could be the right base classes to do my timer's stuff, but I didn't have any luck.

I had already to use a workaround, because you can't select these types as base class anyway in the stereotypes editor.
I had to create an instance first, then open the properties,  and create the stereotype from there. Then it appears in the stereotype main editor, but setting a shape does not do anything on the sequence diagram  

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Then it appears in the stereotype main editor, but setting a shape does not do anything on the sequence diagram  

Did this get reported as a bug/feature request.

It seems all sorts of stuff on sequence diagrams are immune from shape scripting; which is interesting as you CAN modify the appearance via some (but not all) of the appearance commands.

Paolo

[ocroquette]

Did this get reported as a bug/feature request.

I don't think so.

[Jan ´Bary´ Glas]

I tried to set custom shapes for "message", "messageend" and "gate", which I thought could be the right base classes to do my timer's stuff, but I didn't have any luck.

It works with colors for metaclass MessageEndPoint (Diagram Gate, and partly for End Point - border only).
No experience with other.

HTH, Bary

[Eve]

I've been able to do something very close to the timer notation.

First, you'll need to disable Strict UML Syntax at Tools | Options | Diagram.

Then drag an action from the activity toolbox onto your diagram.
In the context menu select Advanced | Custom Properties.
Set the kind to AcceptEventTimer.
Drag a message from the action to the lifeline from the interaction toolbox. (This is what you'll need to disable strict UML for.)