Exporting CDM from EA to Magic Draw

[Wingzy]

Need to export a conceptual data model prepared in EA and import it into Magic Draw.  Reading respective User Guides to find out: how to export models from EA to another modeling product such as MagicDraw including what I have to do beforehand to maximize the probability that importing the result into MagicDraw will work AND what MagicDraw expects and is able to do on the import side.  Am concerned when I read the MagicDraw documentation (updated as of 2014) that the latest EA version discussed is 8.0. I'm going to post a message on this topic to the MagicDraw forum too but any thoughts/insights/etc. folks have to offer on this process -- including pre- or post-processing I should do before importing the resulting export file into MagicDraw would be most welcome.

OH .. btw .. data point -- am using Version 11.1 (build 1112)

[qwerty]

No idea, but I'd follow the EA V8 steps as far as possible (mind the changed menus at various places) but more or less it should work with the current version the same way.

q.

[Wingzy]

which leads me to a follow-up question -- has the XMI export functionality in EA remained unchanged since Ver 8?  I would have thought that with the improvements being made to XMI .. and the efforts of the OMG to ensure interoperability between modeling tools using XMI .. that some improvements in this area have been made in the nearly 5 yrs since EA 8 was released (May 2010).  No changes to this functionality?? And btw.. thanks for your reply!

[Eve]

The XMI export in EA 11 is much improved (in terms of interoperability) over version 8. Make sure you go to the Publish dialog and select the latest version of XMI that Magic Draw supports.

The cynical part of me wonders if they stopped updating their documentation because it was at a point that made EA sound hard to use...

[Wingzy]

I do so love the competition amongst the UML vendors... it's what makes life fun, wouldn't you agree?? I'm assuming that all the tool vendors are making liberal use of OMG's model interchange test suite (http://www.omgwiki.org/model-interchange/doku.php) to ensure subsequent tool releases continue to interoperate. So am glad to read that EA11's export functionality is better than EA8.  Was wondering also if I needed to use the the "publish" dialog.  Thanks for saving me from further wondering!

Let me add a little more after an email exchange with a colleague who's been involved in the MIWG effort btw.  According to her .. there was a time when there was a direct export EA/import MD capability that would allow all model info -- data and diagrams -- to make it into MD.  When you say I should use the Publish rather than the Export XMI2.1 dialog,  will the end result be that MD will be able to import everything -- data and diagrams?

Thanks again!

[Eve]

Yes, we are still involved with the MIWG.

The XMI 2.1 export (UML 2.1 (XMI 2.1) on the publish dialog) is effectively static. We maintain it so that old versions of EA can read it. The versions that we test for interoperability are UML 2.1.1 and later.

At this stage I don't expect any diagram interchange between tools. The diagram interchange specification isn't scheduled to be part of UML until UML 2.5. Until then each tool vendor has no choice but to write the diagram in their own proprietary format. In that way, BPMN interchange is ahead of UML, although looking at the test results most tools haven't done a good job with it.

From memory, we made it easier to migrate to EA by writing an importer for Magic Draw diagrams. I have no idea if they've written the same for ours.

The other point is that not every field that you see in EA comes from UML. I doubt that they import our extended data at all.

[Wingzy]

Boy ... You're not helping me achieve any kind of warm and fuzzy about the job I'm facing to export this conceptual data model from EA to MD.  Sigh..  Such is life.

[qwerty]

I guess most vendors are not eager to see their models being interchangeable between tools of other vendors  :-/

q.

[Sunshine]

Got to ask the question why? What does Magic Draw do for you?

[Robert Sheridan]

I have a similar task to do, but going the other way: getting LDM data from ER Studio into EA.  The solution I am going with is using a spreadsheet that is populated using the Sax Basic in ER Studio and then a VBA macro in the spreadsheet to update EA. I am able to export entity GUIDS and relationships between entities so although I can not export the diagrams it gives me all the info to quickly recreate them. If Magic Draw has similar functionality you might be able to use the same approach if XMI does not work.

PS there is a XMI import/export module available, just not to me.

[Wingzy]

Querty -  actually in my experience -- most UML vendors are VERY motivated to make sure their tools inter-operate and why they are active in a group dedicated to it (http://www.omgwiki.org/model-interchange/doku.php).  
Sunshine - it's not a matter of what MD does for me, it's what the project I'm supporting is using.  They were using EA but a decision was made to move over to MD (customer acquisition decision -- above my humble pay grade).  I had no hand in it.  Thus -- the need to move stuff done in EA over to MD.
To all who care: MD's EA import plug in works quite well.. just make sure you use the publish option - and select UML 2.1 (XMI 2.1).  Everything .. less any embedded pictures that you can copy and paste afterwards .. comes in.  A little tweaking of the connectors and their labels.. and the result is quite satisfactory. Then save the resulting model in the current MD version (I'm using 18). Not the horror show I feared.