Same Submachine multiple times in a state machine

[pH]

Hi All,

UML Spec says, "The same state machine may be a submachine more
than once in the context of a single containing state machine."

If I try to do this in EA, I get a message saying that it
"The diagram already contains an instance of the element you are trying to paste. Currently, only one instance is supported,So you cannot paste the element here"

IS it is a limitation or is there another way to do it ?

Thanks,
pH

[Geert Bellekens]

Ph,

I think you have indeed met a limitation in EA.
I would report it as a bug.
What you could do as a workaround is to create two states and make both composite, linking to the same state machine diagram.

(drag the diagram under the state, and then go advanced/make composite, then drag the diagram under the next state, and repeat)

Geert

[Frank Horn]

I don't think it's a bug. The way I understand the specification, you can add multiple instances of a state machine as submachines to a containing state machine, an this is no problem with EA.

For in- and outgoing transitions you will need Entry- and Exit Points in the submachine definition and make them visible in the instances, but EA allows this too.

[Geert Bellekens]

Frank have you tried adding instances of statemachines to a diagram?

Geert

[Frank Horn]

Frank have you tried adding instances of statemachines to a diagram?

Geert, I thought I had, but maybe it was just a dream...

Tried it again right now and found the "Embedded elements" context menu missing on state machines (it's there on states, though). I seem to recall that it was there in EA 7.5.

Anyway, you can still do it with multiple instances of a  complex state: Define a state somewhere (e.g. "Connection"), mark it as "composite", define substates (e.g. "Connected", "Connecting", ...), and use the "Embedded elements" context menu to define entry and exit points (e.g. "StartConnect", "ConnectSucceeded", ...). Don't use the entry and exit points from the tool box, they won't work!

Then drag instances of the state into your state machine and name them accordingly (e.g. "DBConnection", "SerialConnection", ...) and use the "Embedded elements" context menu to select the entry and exit points you want to use with each instance.

[pH]

Thanks for your replies and workarounds. I will report this as a bug.

Yes.. The entry exit points work from emebedded elements but from tool box are not tied to the state. Looks like it might be another bug.

pH

[Frank Horn]

In the meantime I needed exactly this featue and couldn't get it to work. My bug report has been handled, however:

http://www.sparxsystems.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1279878885/0#3