Linked Elements in Activity Partition

[chintsys]

Dumb question perhaps, but is there a simple way to automatically create a relationship between an Activity Partition and the elements that are inside the activity partition (when drawn in an Activity Diagram)?  It seems a bit laborious to create these links manually when all I am looking for is the cross-linkages between these elements.

[Fred Bevan]

I also find that this is a problem.

You can establish an "owned by" relationship by moving the element within the partition until the partion border appears dashed. However, that relationship is not visible everywhere. It is visible in the Project Browser and Traceability windows but not in the Relationships window or the Related Elements (LInks) tab of the element properties window.

One final caution about using this method is that elements can only have one owner (makes sense). If you re-use an element on multiple diagrams, it will only have an "owned by" relationship to the last partion that it was linked to.

[chintsys]

Thanks Fred, for sharing your observations and the word of caution on the "Owned By" relationship.  

I don't see any of the containment relationships (in EA 9.0.908) between an Activity Partition and its contained elements appearing in either the Project Browser or Traceability windows.  Is there an option somewhere to turn this on?

For reference, I have been using the <<trace>> relationship to link elements with their activity partition.  EA doesn't seem to mind a <<trace>> from an element to two different activity partitions.

[Fred Bevan]

I don't see any of the containment relationships (in EA 9.0.908) between an Activity Partition and its contained elements appearing in either the Project Browser or Traceability windows.  Is there an option somewhere to turn this on?

I don't think it is an option. If you move the contained elements around within the partition, do you see the partition border change from a solid line to dashed? When this happens, it indicates that the "owned by" relationship has been established. I haven't tried all element types but this seems to work for the typical ones such as Activity.

[chintsys]

Ok, I get it now.  The "Owned By" relationship is formed between an Activity and the Activity Partition it is placed into; provided that the Activity and the Activity Partition are both in the same package.  The relationship doesn't form if the Activity Partition is in another package.  The relationship to a Use Case is not formed at all even though the dashed line indication is shown when the Use Case is placed inside.

I'm trying to use the Activity Partition as a type of classifier because its one of the few elements that support horizontal and vertical text - allowing elements to be shown with their relationships in a tabular form on a diagram.  Maybe using Tagged Elements or another type of attribute might be another way to do this, although I am looking for a way to show these relationships in a visual way on the diagram itself (and not inside the model element).