Parameter sets in activity diagrams

[jobson]

I tried to find some reference about how to create parameter sets to specify or conditions in data flows, but I could not find anything about it.  Does EA 7.5 implement this feature?  It is not a new feature and it is quite strange that EA does not have it yet.

[«Midnight»]

The wording in the documentation is a bit vague, but you can add parameters to "an operation, Activity [sic] or interaction. This does not seem to affect flows (there is no data flow for activity diagrams, but there is an object flow). NB: If you are talking about data flow diagrams, that is a different matter, and an extension to UML.

The EA documentation states, among other things, that (for example) the "kind" of parameter only apples to operations. However, I cannot find any way of adding parameters to an activity element without opening the Operations dialog for the activity; this dialog is similar to that for Class elements, and allows the kind to be set. [All in all I think this is a good thing, but highlights my point about the documentation being a bit vague.]

So, if this is what you need (try it and see), you can reach the dialog by highlighting the activity and opening the Operations dialog. Choose Element | Operations, right-click the element and select Operations from the context menu, or use the F10 shortcut.

Is this what you needed?

HTH, David

[jobson]

Thanks for your reply

Let me be a bit more specific about my doubt regarding object flows:  UML specification states that an action is triggered only if all its input pins has a token,  that is, an action A with input pins I1 and I2 is triggered only if there are tokens in I1 and I2 pins.  

If you want to model that action A that only needs input I1 or I2 to perform its task, you have to put I1 inside a parameter set and I2 inside another parameter set, beause parameter sets are read as mutually exclusive set of parameters.

That is the feature I am trying to find: how can I group a set of pins to model a parameter set?

Jobson

[«Midnight»]

Perhaps you could either use a couple of joins, one for each parameter set, or use action pins. You can route multiple control and object flows to the same pin, and have several 'sets' by using multiple pins.

You can also add activity parameters. Perhaps these could be keyed to activity partitions, although I don't know if EA (or UML for that matter) will accept this as a way to partition parameter sets.