Communication diagram numbering of interactions

[nexdev]

Hi,

The help page entitled Communication Diagrams appears to contradict itself. I'm interested in knowing which is the correct approach to numbering.

The help page says that the numbering is important to indicate the order and nesting of processing and gives examples of numbering as 1, 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.2 etc.

However, in the example diagram shown the numbering is 1, 1.1, 1.2 even though these interactions span 3 objects. I would expect the numbering to be 1, 1.1, 1.1.1. I know that some people prefer not to use the 1, 1.1, 1.1.1 number convention and instead use 1,2,3 etc but the example in the help appears to fall in between the two styles.

Thanks

[RoyC]

The Help does not actually contradict itself, but it is entirely too reticent on the subject of applying numbering at more than two levels. I will remedy that shortly and you will be able to see the updates in the Help for the next general release of EA.

In the meantime, look for Re-Order Messages in the Help index. The second section in that topic is Sequence Messages, and it shows the Communication Messages dialog. EA automatically creates messages in the sequence 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 ... and you can use the up/down hand icons to change the order of the messages, making 1.2 into 1.3, for example. HOWEVER, to create and adjust further levels of messages, use the left/right hand icons; these change a message 1.2 to 1.1.1. Having made that change, you might have to go over existing messages to ensure that they continue the correct number thread (up/down hand icons) or start a new message group (the Message Properties dialog, in the first section of the topic).