Display of Connector types and Stereotypes

[Ian Mitchell]

I'm hoping there's a simple explanation for this, but....
I've been noticin several oddities in the EA diagrammer, when displaying the Types and Stereotypes of connectors.

• Link two elements with a <<trace>>Dependency, and the connector displays the <<trace>> stereotype text on the link. OK
  
• Link two elements with a <<important>>Realization, and the <<important>> doesn't appear. Yes, I have got the diagram set to display connector stereotypes.
• Double-click a <<trace>>Dependency (or <<trace>>Abstraction connector in EA10 - the one seems to have replaced the other as the default behaviour) and the properties window is called 'Trace Properties' - the name of the Stereotype, not the connector type
  
• Double click <<important>>Realization, and the properties window is called 'Realization Properties': the Type not the Stereotype
  
• Information Flow connectors get a stereotype of <<flow>> in the diagram, even though in the Properties page, they don't have one
• ..but the properties is called 'Information Flow Properties'
• Pick a stereotype for the Information flow (e.g ItemFlow), and the properties window uses the name of the stereotype...(Item Flow Properties)
• ..except if I choose a 'RequirementRelated' stereotype (?), which means I just get the regular 'Information Flow Properties' title.

Now I'm not turning into an EA Diagram Geek, but people do ask me about this stuff occasionally, especially EA newbies, and I just can't create a simple explanation for what I see.

Bug? Feature? User Error?

[qwerty]

I call that EAUI. I had a similar post regarding sequence diagrams (you can put it in the same drawer). But nobody seemed to care. I guess it's the same with your observation.
I just tested the first bug (which we now know to be a real one), and then gave up...

q.

[KP]

Link two elements with a <<important>>Realization, and the <<important>> doesn't appear. Yes, I have got the diagram set to display connector stereotypes.

That was a bug, already fixed for a future build.

Double-click a <<trace>>Dependency (or <<trace>>Abstraction connector in EA10 - the one seems to have replaced the other as the default behaviour) and the properties window is called 'Trace Properties' - the name of the Stereotype, not the connector type

Yes, that is intentional. You can define how stereotyped elements are described - if the stereotype is defined in a profile - by giving the stereotype a _metatype attribute. Trace is defined in an internal profile and has _metatype set.

Double click <<important>>Realization, and the properties window is called 'Realization Properties': the Type not the Stereotype

You can get it to say 'Important Properties', if that's what you want to see, by defining the _metatype attribute in your profile with initial value "Important" - see help file for details.

Information Flow connectors get a stereotype of <<flow>> in the diagram, even though in the Properties page, they don't have one

That is a keyword, not a stereotype. I agree that it is confusing that keywords and stereotypes have the same notation, but you can blame UML for that.

Pick a stereotype for the Information flow (e.g ItemFlow), and the properties window uses the name of the stereotype...(Item Flow Properties)

You may have already guessed that the SysML ItemFlow stereotype has the _metatype attribute set.

[Ian Mitchell]

Thanks KP: helpful answers as always :-)

On the question about the change of Connector type from <<trace>.Dependency in v9 to <<trace>>Abstraction in V10 - did I get that right ? Has it changed? And if so, why ?

[Eve]

Trace in UML has always (although ) been an extension of abstraction, but prior to version 10 just treated abstraction as a stereotype of dependency. This gave the right appearance, and wasn't something that you would notice unless you spend time in the UML specification. However, we saw the need to handle abstraction in version 10.

[Ian Mitchell]

Hmmmm.
So Sparx get 10/10 for sticking to the absolute letter of UML, but 0/10 for arbitrarily changing how EA works in an important place, and without telling anyone.
Why can't you keep the old <<trace>>Dependency connector in the 'Common' toolbox (which is probably my most-frequently-used connector for showing model traceability: one of EA's biggest selling points), and put an additional UML-Geek <<trace>>Abstraction connector AS WELL.

Most EA users' biggest investment is in the EA models they have created.
 Anything which affects that is very annoying. I now have to remember, every time I create a <<trace>> link to think about 'is this a pre-V10 model' in which case use <<trace>>Dependency to stay consistent or a V10+, in which case <<trace>>Abstraction.

[qwerty]

but 0/10 for arbitrarily changing how EA works in an important place, and without telling anyone.

No. It's 10/10 for this. Or at least 9/10.

Or you change it to 0/10 for being consistent and informing the user.

q.

[Geert Bellekens]

Oh, good thing you noticed.
I knew about the Enumeration changed (from stereotyped class to actual Enumeration type), but I didn't know about the Trace relationship.

I was planning on writing a small "upgrade" tool to change all classes with <<enumeration>> into Enumerations, so I better include this as well.

Geert

[Eve]

Hmmmm.
So Sparx get 10/10 for sticking to the absolute letter of UML, but 0/10 for arbitrarily changing how EA works in an important place, and without telling anyone.

Except for two points. It is in the release notes and you have previously been told directly.

 Interface now uses a keyword instead of a stereotype.
  Abstraction, Substitution and Usage now implemented as unstereotyped.
  Trace now implemented as a stereotyped Abstraction.
  Manifestation and Deployment have «manifest» and «deploy» keywords instead of stereotypes.
  Template Binding labels on Realization connectors updated to prevent duplication of text.

[qwerty]

Simon, that's best 1 point more for putting it in the release notes. But I can't remember where we were informed directly.

I guess you quote the release notes?

q.

[Eve]

Yes, that's a quote from the release notes. (Which was the first result when I searched for Trace)

The "you" I referred to was Ian.

[gfranz]

Link two elements with a <<important>>Realization, and the <<important>> doesn't appear. Yes, I have got the diagram set to display connector stereotypes.

That was a bug, already fixed for a future build.

I installed EA 10.009 and Realization relationships still don't show the stereotype. Is it planned for a later release?

[Eve]

I installed EA 10.009 and Realization relationships still don't show the stereotype. Is it planned for a later release?

Yes. Any changes that will change the drawing of existing diagrams are quite rare on minor builds. (I hope you can appreciate why.) You can expect this in the next major version.

[gfranz]

I installed EA 10.009 and Realization relationships still don't show the stereotype. Is it planned for a later release?

Yes. Any changes that will change the drawing of existing diagrams are quite rare on minor builds. (I hope you can appreciate why.) You can expect this in the next major version.

But you don't change the drawing of existing diagrams, you fix a bug!

We use stereotypes extensively and currently nearly all of our diagrams are displayed wrong. Our MDG has more then 10 Realization relationships with different stereotypes and noone can differentiate them looking at diagrams. And because of a long lasting approvement cycle we don't switch to a new major version instantly. So the diagrams are displayed incorrectly for maybe 2 years. This are actually quite bad news for us.

[Eve]

It's not that simple.

The majority of our users have been happily creating diagrams with the current behavior of realizations for years. For those users who run a report after a minor upgrade, they may discover that the connector label is now overlapping elements on a diagram they had carefully laid out.

We are planning to add stereotype display to realization connectors, but even the most obvious bug fixes are interpreted as breaking something by some users. As a result we tend to be very reluctant to make changes to display of existing diagrams, and when we do they are restricted to major versions.

If you're not willing to wait for our next major version. Define the following shape script on your connector stereotype(s).

Code: [Select]

shape MiddleTopLabel
{
      print("«#Stereotype#»");
}