Different Levels of Detail (Aggregation)

[Viking]

Hello,

We want to describe models with different levels of detail.

Example:
- Concept Model (more for clarifiing the (business) world)
- Object Oriented Model
- ERM

We are looking for viewpoints showing the relations between the different models (e.g. OO: partner and contract with n:m-relationship -> ERM: partner, helper-entity for n:m-realtionship, Contract. Sounds easy. Not for us. Any suggestions?

Thank you very much for your feedback

V

[Sunshine]

Think I understand you have a model with N:M cardinality and you want to transform to an ERM and insert a join table.
i.e.

Partner(n)->(m)Contract where n & m are cardinality

Transform to ERM inserting helper entity

Partner->(n)HelperEntity(m)->Contract

Been a while since I looked at it but I think DDL transform built into Sparx does something similar when transforming PIM to PSM (DDL) so have a look at that and perhaps modify it to suit your needs.

[Viking]

Dear Sunshine,

We do not want to implement. We just want to show relations between the elements on the different levels of abstraction resp. concerns.

V

[Viking]

Dear Sunshine,

I followed you advice and found the picture in http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/mda/. This is a good starting point for what we are looking for. Unfortunately I we do not have 1:1 mappings between models. We need it more detailed and more flexibel.

V

[qwerty]

We need it more detailed and more flexibel.

V

In that case YOU must be more detailed (and more flexible).

q.

[Viking]

Ok, to be more precise: Could somebody tell or show me how to visually model object-relational-mapping?

[qwerty]

That is not much clearer (to me). If you want to show object-relations you need to draw a class diagram showing the relations.

q.

[Sunshine]

Dear Sunshine,

I followed you advice and found the picture in http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/mda/. This is a good starting point for what we are looking for. Unfortunately I we do not have 1:1 mappings between models. We need it more detailed and more flexibel.

V

Been busy working for a living so haven't responded earlier.
I guess what you are asking is how do you map the PIM elements to those transformed in the PSM?
You simply put the elements on a diagram draw the relationship. If you need it down to attribute level right click on the link and use the link element to feature to choose the attribute.
If you used the built in transforms then somewhere in the database the GUIDs are stored to keep the relationship between the source and target. If you have some programming experience you could probably parse those GUIDs with javascript and create the relationships between the elements from the PIM to the PSM.
Hope that helps in some way  

[Sunshine]

Dear Sunshine,

I followed you advice and found the picture in http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/mda/. This is a good starting point for what we are looking for. Unfortunately I we do not have 1:1 mappings between models. We need it more detailed and more flexibel.

V

Been busy working for a living so haven't responded earlier.
I guess what you are asking is how do you map the PIM elements to those transformed in the PSM?
You simply put the elements on a diagram draw the relationship. If you need it down to attribute level right click on the link and use the link element to feature to choose the attribute.
If you used the built in transforms then somewhere in the database the GUIDs are stored to keep the relationship between the source and target. If you have some programming experience you could probably parse those GUIDs with javascript and create the relationships between the elements from the PIM to the PSM automagically.
Hope that helps in some way  

[Viking]

That is not much clearer (to me). If you want to show object-relations you need to draw a class diagram showing the relations.
q.

I am talking about ORM. I am talking about two different models: OO (class diagram) and ERM.

[Viking]

Been busy working for a living so haven't responded earlier.
I guess what you are asking is how do you map the PIM elements to those transformed in the PSM?
You simply put the elements on a diagram draw the relationship. If you need it down to attribute level right click on the link and use the link element to feature to choose the attribute.
If you used the built in transforms then somewhere in the database the GUIDs are stored to keep the relationship between the source and target. If you have some programming experience you could probably parse those GUIDs with javascript and create the relationships between the elements from the PIM to the PSM.
Hope that helps in some way  

Just to make sure, we do not need this feature for mda.

Your advice was very helpful. Thank you.

(1) Do you have an idea to model transformations (e.g. street is one model with house number, in the other model both are separated).

(1) Do you have an idea how to model the relation between an n:m-realtionsship in an OO-model and the corresponding attributes in the n:1-1:m-relationsship in the ER-model? I cannot draw 2 relations from 1 attribute (e.g. to the PK in the entity and the FK in the entity containing the relations in the ERM).

[qwerty]

I am talking about ORM. I am talking about two different models: OO (class diagram) and ERM.

As Sunshine already stated you can do s with a PIM/PSM transformation. Especially for creating a ERM there is a DDL transformation script. Though in theory that will work in practice those transformations have a couple of drawbacks. Finally it turned out that it was easier to keep both models in sync with <<trace>> relations and manual rework.

q.

[Viking]

I am talking about ORM. I am talking about two different models: OO (class diagram) and ERM.

As Sunshine already stated you can do s with a PIM/PSM transformation. Especially for creating a ERM there is a DDL transformation script. Though in theory that will work in practice those transformations have a couple of drawbacks. Finally it turned out that it was easier to keep both models in sync with <<trace>> relations and manual rework.

q.

We are NOT looking for a script. We want to show VISUALLY the mapping (transformation) between relations and types.

[Viking]

In the “EA User Guide” at p. 923 there is a picture showing realtions between attributes. Looks like a solution to our problem. As I understood Sunshines proposed "Model transformation" resp. MDA-approach the built-in capability of EA supports 1:1 mappings only. Then there would be no need for use to show the mappings. We have to support complex mappings and are looking for a notation to show the required mappings.

[qwerty]

IIRC someone published an article related to attribute mapping in the community site.

q.