rtf generation of matrix content

[grasmueller]

Hi all,

in my model certain information is kept only in matrices, e.g. classes as input/output of screens, usecases that need screens etc. I'd like to include this information in rtf reports in a sorted way, e.g.
Input classes:
<class1>
<class2>
...
Output classes:
<class2>
...
Used by UseCases:
<usecase1>
...

All I can get out of the rtf generator is an unsorted information that show all incoming and outgoing relations of all kinds of relations and source/target type in no special order. The rtf template looks like

connector >
source >
element >
Source Element: {Element.Name}
< element
< source
target >
element >
Target Element: {Element.Name}
< element
< target
< connector

Thanks in advance,
 Andreas
Is there a possibility to get filtered/sorted rtf output from information stored in matrices?

[Dermot]

Since build 834 there has been an option in RTF reporting (F8 | Options) for seting filtering for the connector type and direction. However in general sub element details do not have pre-set sorting.

An alternative you can look at is using the Relationship Matrix CVS export - imported to a spreadheet.

[grasmueller]

Thank you for clarifying the restrictions & possibilities!
 Andreas

[Ben M.]

I have the same problem.  I use linking extensively to denote relationships between elements.  And I want to ignore the fact that links are unidirectional.

When I am generation information in RTF for a given element, I want to refer to the element at the other end of the link without knowing that the current element is the source element or the target element in the link relationship.  An example -- Suppose I have the following link relationships:

   Use case 1   ---->   Use case 3   ---->   Use case 4
    Use case 2   ---->                ---->   Use case 5


When I generate the RTF documentation, I want the documentation on Use case 3 to be like the following:

   1.1 Use Case 3
    This is a description of the use case.
    
    1.1.1 Related Use Cases
    * Use Case 1
    * Use Case 2
    * Use Case 4
    * Use Case 5


But unfortunately if I include just [highlight]source[/highlight] elements the list of related use cases will be use cases 1, 2, 3, and 3.  If I choose just [highlight]target[/highlight] elements the list of related use cases will be use cases 3, 3, 4, and 5.  And if I choose both [highlight]source[/highlight] and [highlight]target[/highlight] elements the list of related use cases will be 1, 3, 2, 3, 3, 4, 3, and 5.  None of these scenarios is desirable, and there does not appear to be a way to get the RTF Generator to do what I want.  I would be happy to be proved wrong.  Let me know if you know how to do it.

Thanks......

[grasmueller]

Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do.
As a workaround, the generated document now contains a line like

1.1.1 Related Use Cases
INOUT(<UseCase3.GUID>, UseCase, *)

where the rtf generator inserts the real GUID of the element and the UseCase and * are filters for the target Type and Stereotype.

After the dokument is generated, a word vba makro parses the dokument, connects to the EA database, finds the UseCase3 element by its GUID and retrieves the related elements, formats their content and replaces the INOUT(...) line by the formatted content.

As you can see, this is rather cumbersome, but it's the only way I could invent to get readable output from matrix content. Do you have a more straightforward idea?

[Ben M.]

Grasmüller ... I believe that you are correct.  There is no easy way to achieve what we want to do.  Your solution is beyond what most people can do, or want to do in terms of push button document generation.