Author Topic: Rich Text for UC descriptions (Read 12270 times)

fluxtah · « **on:** June 07, 2004, 11:01:50 am »

I would like to suggest adding some formatting options to UC descriptions in order to bold/italicise etc the UC text then it would definitely make working with www.usecasemodeling.com book easier, I have embeded html tags into some UC text as a text and the documentation generation shows this fine but it would make it quite difficult to maintain the UC text from within EA if the text is littered with tags... maybe turn the input box into a rich text box?

with a checkbox to toggle between HTML or Plain Text UC descriptions.

regards

Ian

thomaskilian · « **Reply #1 on:** June 08, 2004, 01:17:59 am »

Hi Ian,
I had a similar request (for the same reason as you): http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=suggestions;action=display;num=1084188346
I'd like to add my vote here.

fluxtah · « **Reply #2 on:** June 08, 2004, 05:38:54 am »

Ah cool! I like the way that book uses private extension points and emphasising glossary terms, would be nice to follow this format within EA, I see some work arounds but none I am too happy with.

Ian

sargasso · « **Reply #3 on:** June 08, 2004, 05:58:52 pm »

I suppose I'll have to add my vote here too... sigh.

But to be unequivocal - every "Notes" field would have to be changed to an rtf control and the code generators would have to convert the rtf to plaintext i.e. by deleting all the tags - to make this worthwhile.

(IMO)
Bruce

angel-o-sphere · « **Reply #4 on:** June 09, 2004, 02:50:21 am »

I wonder whre you want to write the UC description? In the "Notes:" area? I would prefere to have a additional tab, like "Doc:" which should be an RTF area.

Regards,

angel'o'sphere

thomaskilian · « **Reply #5 on:** June 09, 2004, 06:21:19 am »

Shurely that's the place where to document the use case. ICONIX furthermore places the scenarios here (I don't like that and put them in the Scenario-tab). If you add a new "Doc"-tab then you have only this one for rtf-text, I suppose? I would like to have the ability to enter formatted text whereever free text can be entered. If you still like plain text, you could leave it that way.

angel-o-sphere · « **Reply #6 on:** June 15, 2004, 08:48:49 am »

Hm,

IMHO the text entry fields EA offers are not suited for Use Case descriptions.

Use Cases are usually formatted according to a template.

Name:
Description:
Goal:
Precondition:
Postcondition:
Flow of Events:

And so on ...

The Note field is to smal and the font is to smal to work with that. The field is not wide enough, you have far to many "line breaks". Furthermore you like to have the UC descriptions in an external format to be able to work on a set of UCs without a CASE system (e.g. for reviews like WalkThroughs and Inspections).

What I miss is a sophisticated UC export/import facility. So that the edit options EA offers (like constrains) can be mapped to a "tag/value" in a text file ... or that it is at least possible to define a "export" format and generate the files out of EA.

Currently we have the descriptions in word and attach the files via the files tab.

However, I agree that a simple tag format for marking text would be cool.

Probably just like tis forum is doing it with square brakets and b or i as indicators?

angel'o'sphere

thomaskilian · « **Reply #7 on:** June 15, 2004, 12:03:43 pm »

Angelo,
this is the way I do it now - just adding tags and run a postprocessor. This works but it's not "smart" - it looks like a trailer coupling for a Porsche :-/

Regarding the notes field. If you place everything in the notes field (like the ICONIX guys) I agree with you. This is not the right place. But EA has all the paraphernalia that you need: pre/post condition, scenarios a.s.o. So if you miss a way to configure the output in a smart way you have to stick to the automation interface. If for some reason I will find a bag full of time I'll use that to dig into the documentation sample that's distributed by Sparx and make a nice interface that fits my requirements.

fluxtah · « **Reply #8 on:** June 18, 2004, 07:00:35 am »

I have just been checking out a peice of software called casecomplete that provides a lot of functionality that falls inline with the style of http://www.usecasemodeling.com book.

The software does'nt look like it has major advanced features but just enough, however the price tag isnt to good

I am really thinking about developing my own use case modeling tool that can be used alongside EA possibly with XMI import/export.

It would be nice if EA use case functionality was improved so it works much like this tool casecomplete which really does offer a good use case authoring solution.

Ian

thomaskilian · « **Reply #9 on:** June 18, 2004, 01:58:45 pm »

Ian,
i would be interested in that software too. Could you please give me a reference? Thanks.

fluxtah · « **Reply #10 on:** June 19, 2004, 12:29:07 pm »

Thomas, link to the software: http://www.serliosoft.com/casecomplete/

I only checked out the 8 minute demo, I was quite impressed however, I could knock something up similar with visual studio, also the price tag on casecomplete is a joke compared to what EA offers only at a fraction of that price.

But the features really do support a more structured UC approach.

Ian

thomaskilian · « **Reply #11 on:** June 21, 2004, 01:47:31 pm »

Ian,
thanks for the reference. The demo is quite impessing - well structured and straight forward. Of course the price can't be compared to EA (know of any product with that price/performance ratio?). On the other hand this tool does seem to save a lot of time. So at least I will test the 30 day trial in my next project. Hope I don't forget to post the results here.

Oscar · « **Reply #12 on:** June 21, 2004, 11:20:10 pm »

Ian,

Thanks for the reference. It's nice to learn from other forum members.

Thomas,

I'm looking forward to your test results

Cheers,
Oscar

fluxtah · « **Reply #13 on:** June 22, 2004, 04:30:46 am »

Cool, no probs, I started working on a structured UC tool this week, I might have an alpha demo soon enough, however it's early days though I think I am determined now to develop something that follows the structured UC in usecasemodeling.com book closely.

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