Structured Activities

[nevermind]

Hello,

I have some questions on Structured Activities.

1) I want to add a Structured Activity node (composite border and composite diagram icon) to an activity diagram which shows the composite diagram icon and forwards to an embedded subdiagram. The EA Online help implies that this should be possible. Does anybody know how to accomplish that?

2) Same problem as above but this time with a Sequential Node.

3) Is it possible to change the names of the partitions in an Conditional Node for instance from [Test] and [Body] to [if] and [then]? This used to be possible in earlier EA versions.

4) Is it possible to define one [Body] partitions for several [Test] partitions (if-if-if-then).

Many thanks in advance!

Regards,
Peter

[Helmut Ortmann]

Hello,

1. Make composite for structured Activities
If you drag the Structured Activity and choose Other, Simple Composite you have what you want. You can also achieve this by dragging an activity and later changing it to a composite activity.

If you choose Structered (Structured, Loop, Serquential,..) you can't change them to composite. In my opinium such a composite makes no sence. First decide to chosse partitions like setup, test,.. and than to make a composite diagram and ignoring these partitions don't look good for me.

You can of course insert a Composite Activity in a partition.

2. Change / add partition names
I don't know any easy way to change this.

Kind regards,

Helmut

[nevermind]

Thanks for your answer Helmut. I want to ask my question (1) more precisely.  What I am aiming at is to learn how to use the Structured Activity Node in a meaningful and correct way.

The UML superstructure specification 2.4.1 defines the following behaviour: "A structured activity node is an executable activity node that may have an expansion into subordinate nodes as an ActivityGroup." (12.3.48, p. 423)

The EA documentation indicates that is possible to create an activity structure node represented by an ellipse with broken borders and the <<structured>> stereotype which contains the composite icon to link to an subordinated activity diagram.

I am aware that a similiar functionality can be achieved with a regular composite activity. But I want to learn about Structured Activity Nodes.

My question is how can a Structured Activity node be used within the EA to point to another diagram? If it is not possible to reproduce the behavior that is described in the ea documentation, then what is exactly the point of using a structured activity node? Does a strutured activity node has a meaning beside encapsulating other activities? If not why is the EA offering it?


Regards,
Peter

[Helmut Ortmann]

Hello Peter,

I'm not the UML pundit. My understanding is:

The EA documentation about subordinate Activity Diagram is simply a bug.

A Structered Activity combines features of an Activity and an Action:
1. It allows nested model elements (Activities, Actions, Control Flows,..)
2. It may have Pins like Actions
3. It's executable like Actions
4. You can add expansion regions (execute multiple times corresponding to elements of an input collection)
5. They have no parameters

Therefore you can integrate Structured Activities like Action in an Object Flow. This doesn't work for normal activities.

Kind regards,

Helmut

[nevermind]

Hello Helmut,

well, that makes sense - I was misled by the EA documentation. Now I am beginning to see the light. Thank you very much!

Regards,
Peter