Profile setup

[largi]

I am setting up a EA for a new project

Background:
•      I am currently setting up the *.eap file for a new project.
•      We are using EA v11
 
What I want to do:
 
•      For some elements (in particular requirements) I would like to define some project specific fields, preferably as tagged values. Later it should be possible to edit these values by means of the Specification manager.
 
What I did so far:
•      In order to do that, I figured out that I probably have to create a new profile for requirements (if there is an easier way to achieve the goal, I would be happy too). Now it looks like this:

https://drive.google.com/a/largiader.ch/file/d/0B8vDadHqHqiDLVNjUkdpNjZsYWhxZkN1SDRqdlZQQTNXM0Yw/view

The problem:
•      On the screen shot, you can see that the type is "TPA Req", which was not my intention.  The values there should remain as is (like in normal requirements).
o      As soon I change the Type, the added field is not available any more. It seems that the extension is strongly connected to that Type field. My intention is  to connect it to the element “Requirement”.
•      The added field "RFIrelevant" appears under "stereotypeProfile". I would expect it among "Tagged values".

Some further questions:
•      Is it really necessary to create a new kind of requirements just in order to have some additional fields? My need is that every requirement I drag on the model has some predefined additional fields.
•      Once it works: how could I then edit this value in the "Specification manager"?
•      Do I have to create an MDG Technology in order to use that profile later?
•      Can I add some additional fields to the element type “requirement” in a later phase of the project?
 
Thank you in advance for your support.

[qwerty]

The Type of a Requirement is its Stereotype (EAUI that is).

- Yes, you need to do what you did.
- What is a Specification Manager?
- Yes and no. You can create a profile and use it via the Resources but that's not recommended for a couple of reasons.
- No that easy to add fields later. The new EA releases (10 upward) have a different handling of TVs (tagged values). From there on TVs appear as found in a MDG so eventually you will see new TVs along with a change directly once you restart EA. You should give it a test run. Before V10 you needed an explicit synch.

q.

[largi]

"The Type of a Requirement is its Stereotype (EAUI that is)."

--> What does that mean to me, if I would like to keep the requriement as is (with regrads to its types) and add a few additional tagged values?

- the specification manager can be found under "View --> Specification manager".

[qwerty]

Well, it just means that if you define a new stereotype for a Requirement it will appear as Type. Heaven knows why Sparx has implemented it differently here but consistency is not really a strength of EA.

I never used that Specification Manager. Maybe someone else.

q.

[largi]

This leads to the fact that when ever I (or someone else) change the type of a requirement, then the information stored in the corresponding tagged values are lost (according to my test) ... with other words extending the requirement with a stereotype is useless (actually dangerous, because data is lost without even notifing the user).

I do not see a use case where this behavior would be useful. Hence, I consider this as a major bug. Do you agree?

[qwerty]

Well, it depends. In a former EA version a TV was only created when creating the element or calling explicit sync. Now TVs show/disappear withe en-/disabling a MDG. There are definitely use cases for both behaviors and Sparx decided to favor the one over the other from (IIRC) V10 on. Rationale? Geoff alone knows.

q.

[largi]

FYI: below the answer I got via [email protected]:
---------

Hi Largi,
 
Thanks for your email.
 
>>  I figured out that I probably have to create a new profile for requirements (if there is an easier way to achieve the goal, I would be happy too).
 
A simpler way of applying tagged values to Requirements by default is using a Template Package. Please see the "Set Element Templates Package" topic in EA's help for details. However, in this case if you later decide you want to add an additional tag to existing requirements then a Template Package cannot assist with this. You would need to manually add the tags to existing elements (or possibly use a script).
 
>>  On the screen shot, you can see that the type is "TPA Req", which was not my intention.  The values there should remain as is (compared to ordinary requirements).
>>    As soon I change the Type, the added field is not available any more. It seems that the extension is strongly connected to that Type field. My intention is  to connect it to the element “Requirement”.
 
This occurs because the Requirement type, and stereotype are stored in the same field. You could consider adding an additional tagged value for you stereotype in which you would enter the Requirement type. Or, you could consider defining multiple stereotypes which reflect the different Requirement types. E.g. TPA Functional, TPA Performance, etc. This is the approach we have used for our SysML MDG Technology.
 
>> The added field "RFIrelevant" appears under "stereotypeProfile". I would expect it among "Tagged values".
 
This is the intended behavior when using a profile. It is not possible to avoid this.
 
>> Is it really necessary to create a new kind of requirements just in order to have some additional fields? My need is that every requirement I drag on the model has some predefined additional fields.
 
You could consider using a template package, as mentioned above.
 
>> Once it works: how could I then edit this value in the "Specification manager"?
 
It is not possible to display tagged values in the specification manager. I will submit a feature request on your behalf so that this is considered for implementation in a future release. Currently we recommend displaying the Tagged values window along side the specification manager "View | Tagged Values" so that you can see an element's tags when it is selected.
 
>> Do I have to create an MDG Technology in order to use that profile later?
 
No. You could just import the stereotype profile into the resources window, as you are currently doing.
 
>> Can I add some additional fields to the element type “requirement” in a later phase of the project?
 
If you use a stereotype profile you could later update the profile with additional tags. You can then use the "Synchronize Stereotype" option to apply the new tag/s to the elements which already exist in the model. See the "Synchronize Tagged Values and Constraints" help topic for details.
 
I hope that helps. If you have further questions or issues please let us know.
 
Best Regards,

Sparx Systems Pty Ltd

[qwerty]

What you could do is to mimic your own Requirement by extending a simple Class instead. The Type could go into a TV and the stereotype would be <<Requirement>>. Using shape script you could give it a Requirement-like shape (though that only works a bit limited as I tried out; there is no arithmetic in shape script to make a fixed size box at the left side as in a regular requirement).

q.