Feature and Compartment Visibility

[ducatiross]

I've got some diagrams with ArchiMate elements on them. I have some attributes and tags against these elements. I want to show them on the diagram. I do ctrl-shift-Y to get the Feature and Compartment Visibility dialog. I set the Attribute Visibility tick boxes as required. I click OK expecting the attributes and tags to appear in the elements ... AND NOTHING HAPPENS !  (My elements are shown as rectangle notation)

Am I doing something wrong ? Are attributes and tags only visible on some element types (e.g. NOT ArchiMate elements) ? Do I need to set some general option first ? I got so excited to think this would work only to be deflated within 30 seconds !  

I've read the help files and it looks like it should work ...

[qwerty]

Like for many MDGs there are elements that use shape script. In that case you often find that certain features don't work as they are either not implemented in the shape script or (more often) shape script even does not have a way to effectively test the feature flags.

q.

[ducatiross]

qwerty - is there a list of non-MDG elements where this does work ? And can it be made to work for these MDG elements ?

[qwerty]

There is no list. Just if you see such things it's likely the named cause. And in most cases you can't do much about it. (I guess) in your case drawing compartments conditionally with shape script is at least a nightmare if not impossible (unless you use DrawNativeShape).

Some shapes offer the Rectangular notation which falls back to the native shape and behaves like a normal element.

q.

[skiwi]

I set the Attribute Visibility tick boxes as required. I click OK expecting the attributes and tags to appear in the elements ... AND NOTHING HAPPENS !

EAUI

[KP]

There's nothing about attributes in the ArchiMate spec. What you could try is create a UML class diagram, put a UML class on it, select it, Ctrl+I to create a generalization to the ArchiMate element, then Ctrl+Shift+Y to show inherited attributes.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

There's nothing about attributes in the ArchiMate spec. What you could try is create a UML class diagram, put a UML class on it, select it, Ctrl+I to create a generalization to the ArchiMate element, then Ctrl+Shift+Y to show inherited attributes.

And you  may/will find that even that doesn't work.  You may even have noticed that EVEN For those ArchiMate types that allow you to specify Rectangle notation, when you select it they STILL won't show the features.

This is because (as qwerty said) the shapes are controlled by specific shape scripts that pretty much inhibit the display of anything but the simple shape (of one form or another).

We have rejected this approach and have reverse engineered our ArchiMate shape scripts and (as time, resources and priorities allow) made they all consistent so that in Icon mode they show the simple shape and in Rectangle Notation they show what a Class would show (drawnativeshape()).  As others (and we) have discovered, trying to extent the Sparx versions of the metatypes doesn't yield the the anticipated results.

To some extent, I have some sympathy with Sparx - since ArchiMate specifies more than one form for some metatypes (in simple mode).  As a supplier, they needed to be able to render both, but in my view Sparx chose the wrong implementation of that.  

We opted for the most useful form in Ico notation where there are more than one available.

My AU$0.05

Paolo

[KP]

There's nothing about attributes in the ArchiMate spec. What you could try is create a UML class diagram, put a UML class on it, select it, Ctrl+I to create a generalization to the ArchiMate element, then Ctrl+Shift+Y to show inherited attributes.

And you  may/will find that even that doesn't work.

I think you've misunderstood my reply. Attributes are a UML notation, so show them on a UML diagram with UML elements, no stereotypes, no shape scripts, just classes and attributes. There's nothing to not work.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

There's nothing about attributes in the ArchiMate spec. What you could try is create a UML class diagram, put a UML class on it, select it, Ctrl+I to create a generalization to the ArchiMate element, then Ctrl+Shift+Y to show inherited attributes.

And you  may/will find that even that doesn't work.

I think you've misunderstood my reply. Attributes are a UML notation, so show them on a UML diagram with UML elements, no stereotypes, no shape scripts, just classes and attributes. There's nothing to not work.

I didn't make myself clear enough, Neil. (that's what comes of writing on the bus..

I was referring to the OP's requirements, not your response.  Your response is correct by the current standards.  But that's not what the OP's after.  I believe he's after adding attributes to ArchiMate_BusinessObjects and ArchiMate_DataObjects etc.

I suspect duactirooss has come to the same conclusion that many of us have come to that ArchiMate is deficient in this area.  He wasnt's to fix it.

We have...  We have made Business (Data) Objects have attributes that are (effectively) ISO 11179 Data Element Concepts and datatypes that are (again, effectively) ISO 11179 Characteristics.  FWIW, we view Business Objects as ISO 11179 Object Classes.

Similarly, (Application) Data Objects have attributes that are ISO 11179 Data Elements.

Paolo (on the bus  )

[ducatiross]

We have rejected this approach and have reverse engineered our ArchiMate shape scripts and (as time, resources and priorities allow) made they all consistent so that in Icon mode they show the simple shape and in Rectangle Notation they show what a Class would show (drawnativeshape()).  

Hi Paolo - I don't suppose there is any chance you would share your version of ArchiMate with me perhaps ??  

Hi KP - as a relatively dumb user, if a product allows me to define an Attribute against an object of whatever type (native UML or a supplier-provided MDG ArchiMate) and then gives an option against that object to show Features of that object such as Attributes, then is it unreasonable to expect it to work ? Or should I know that because the ArchiMate object is not a native UML object then of course, these won't show up ?

If a feature doesn't work for certain objects for whatever reason, it should be obvious and disabled, so the user can immediately see that what they are trying to do is not possible.

But because these attributes can be defined - they should be able to be visible.

Will your generalisation solution using the UML object enable this ?

thanks for all responses (whereever they were typed !)

[ducatiross]

There's nothing about attributes in the ArchiMate spec. What you could try is create a UML class diagram, put a UML class on it, select it, Ctrl+I to create a generalization to the ArchiMate element, then Ctrl+Shift+Y to show inherited attributes.

KP - after a bit of trial and error, I did get this to work in that :-
- the UML Class object generalised the Archimate Role instance
- on the diagram, the Class object could be set to show both its own attributes and attributes inherited from the ArchiMate role. It also can show only the Class' attributes on their own, but you can't seem to show the Inherited attributes on their own - the Class ones always have to be there as well (except when there are no attributes for the class, then the inherited ones do show on their own).
- the Class object can also display its own tags, but any tags on the ArchiMate role object are not inherited and displayed on the Class
- If you change the Class to be a stereotype of the Achimate Role, then it loses the ability to show the attributes and tags.

Now, this is of limited use to me though because I don't want to have to duplicate all ArchiMate objects using UML Classes just to be able to show their attributes. I would also have to do this for other objects that have attributes, like those in BPMN diagrams.

Even though I may not be able to show the attributes of an ArchiMate object, I may still use them to set values that I can then access using queries against the database.

Therefore, what is the best way to easily and (hopefully) automatically add the same core attributes to a set of objects?  For instance, my ArchiMate roles all have 4 attributes and 1 tag value, whereas ArchiMate Application Components may have 3 attributes and 4 tags.

How could I ensure that the attributes are automatically added each time I create a new Role or Application Component ? As well as easily being able to add them to all the objects I have already created ?