Document a diagram with all included objects

[Lorents Nord-Varhaug]

Hi.

Is there any way to document a diagram with all its components/objects, if these objects are not in the same package/folder?

I have a lot of diagrams where I include objects that belong to other packages/folders than the diagram itself, and I have only been able to generate RTF documents on all content in a package/folder, or on a specific object.

If using F8, I get a report including all objects in a package, if I use Ctrl+Shft+F8, I get all diagrams in a package and children package, but objects/connections are not included in this documentation.
What I need is to be able to open a specific diagram, and then generate a rtf report for this diagram, including all objects/connection in this diagram.

Kind regards,
Lorents

[«Midnight»]

Hi Lorents,

Yes, but there are two places where you may have to st this up.

Check the EA help for the Generate RTF Documentation Dialog. You can reach it by starting the generation process, then clicking Help when the dialog comes up.

See the help entry for the Include all Diagram Elements in Report option. It is near the middle of the grid. This gives an overview of how to set the option. Note that the default setting of 'off' will result in the behavior you are experiencing.

Note as well that the setting on this dialog affects all diagrams you report. The help entry I refer to provides advice on how to set this up for each individual diagram, while retaining the default setting for others.

You may have to tweak the report template itself. There is a hint about this in the same help entry. Remember to copy a template and make the changes to the copy. [Forgetting to make the copy is a common mistake - I've forgotten this step more than once - and EA simply refuses to let you edit the original template. This can be really frustrating until you realize what's wrong.]

NOTE: The help entry for the per-diagram setting seems to contradict the overall default setting referenced above. You'll have to experiment a bit.

[Oliver F.]

Two additional notes to what David said:

The documentation options of those elements in the template is limited.

• Besides name and notes, there is not much of this element which can be documented. Eg. no connectors, diagrams, child elements, etc.
• If EA encounters later on in the tree an element which it had already documented in the diagram it will skip this. This works also the other way round. So beware which elements you put in your diagrams if you switch this on.

Oliver

[«Midnight»]

Thanks Oliver,

Your cautionary notes are well taken.

I might once have been dimly aware of your first point, but it had slipped my mind.

As to the second point, could you please elaborate?

David

[Dermot]

Just a reply to Olivers point;
With the Elements from other packages it is necesary to set the Pacakge:: Diagram::Element section on.
As he points out this does not include sub-element sections. However, if you leave this section blank - it will mimick the full Package::Element section.
So if you have  set the Package::Element section on and added sub-element details - these will be parsed for the external Elements in the Diagram.

[Lorents Nord-Varhaug]

Thanks a lot for your answers!

I am not sure if this solves my problem. As Oliver points out, I will only get few pieces of information about each object not included in the package generating report from.

What I was hoping to find, was a way to have the report generator iterating through all elements in a specific diagram, documenting them one by one, instead of like now, where it iterates through all elements in a package.

In my situation, where I use EA for documenting applications, servers etc., elements included in a diagram might origin from quite a few different packages.

As an example, I have created a package/folder called Poland, where I document applications in our branch office in Poland. All local applications are contained in this package/folder, but in diagram I have created in this package/folder, I have also included global applications which belong to other packages.

The only options I have found for generating a RTF report, is either the F8 (or the [ch8216]Documentation[ch8217] button), which documents all objects in the current package (including sublevels), or by selecting a specific element (which cannot be a diagram), opening the [ch8216]Element[ch8217] menu and selecting the [ch8216]Rich Text Format (RTF) Report...[ch8217], to document a single element.

If I haven't missed any options, I might rise this as an enhancement request, asking to get an option to be able to have a specific diagram as starting point, and have the documentation engine to iterate through each element in the report, giving the option to include information like custom properties, tagged values, connections etc, for each element.

Best regards,
Lorents

[Lorents Nord-Varhaug]

Sorry, I did not see Dermont's answer before my previous reply.
Can anyone guide me how to set up this 'So if you have  set the Package::Element section on and added sub-element details'.

When referring to the Package::Element section, is this in the properties for package or elements, or are we talking about the dialog box for 'Generating RTF Documentation'?

Thanks,
Lorents

[Dermot]

In terms of keeping the report to a single diagram the simplest work around for this is to create a one-off package for this diagram - and copy or drag the diagram to this package.
Then you can report on the package.
That way all elements will be generated via the blank Pacakge:: Diagram::Element  section which is using the Package::Element section.

In reply to the follow up - I was refering to Sections in the RTF report template - see the whitepaper on RTF for more details.

Please note this forum is not used for lodging requests, these do need to be formaly submitted via the Support links at the bottom of this page.

[Lorents Nord-Varhaug]

Thanks.

I have come a bit further, and have made a template which shows the diagram, and shows details of each element below.  

I have a problem with the connector details, as this is separated from the element section, which means that i first get all elements listed with details (but without connection details), then i get a section with all connection information in a long list, but not grouped by elements, which makes this section useless.

But when moving the diagram to its own package, I now have some information about each element in the diagram, even though it would be nice to have further details  

I am aware of that I will need to raise a request for a new feature in another forum/page.

Thanks,
Lorents

[Oliver F.]

As to the second point, could you please elaborate?

Say we have a root element R and elements A and B in a tree like this:

Code: [Select]

R
|_Diagram
|_A
|_B

The diagram shows a relation of A and B. If diagram element reporting is enabled EA will run over the diagram, find A and B, document those as diagram elements, then continue through the tree, find A and B as elements again and skip those.

So the detailed reporting of A and B will be ignored in favor of reporting them as diagram elements with limited content.

Oliver

[Dermot]

Yes that is correct, but only IF the Diagram::Elements - section is populated with fields - if it is  set ON, but left blank it will provide the full detail laid out in the Package::Element section including the connectors.