Links/drag&drop import between different proje

[Hermann_Pallasch]

From a little discussion thread in the general forum I'd now like to make the following suggestion:

It might be useful to have links between items in different projects (which  would allow to split projects into levels in order not to let them grow too big).

IMHO the thing should/could work in the same way as it now works between the packages of the same project:

Use Case Basic Flow:

USER drags element from 'foreign' project onto diagram

SYSTEM shows dialog with 'Paste element options' (possibly the same as with a drag from

another 'internal' package: Simple Link; Instance of Element; New Child)

USER makes choice

SYSTEM places element on diagram, with subtitle "(from Package x in Project y)"


I don't think graphical representations of the link would be necessary. The whole feature now

to me seems more like an drag and drop-based import feature on the level of selected elements,

although tracebility back to the original element in its original project should be maintained

(assuming the element still exists there, otherwise we'd have an error message)
 
With this feature, we could start projects from elements available in other projects, e.g.  to

separate big business modelling projects from a group of smaller software projects based on

them (on their business actors and/or business use cases) without mangling everything into one

immense project.

[thomaskilian]

What do you mean by "different projects"? Different repositories? If yes, how should the link be established? Relative path to another EAP / View inside a database?

[Hermann_Pallasch]

I think I have already "answered" your question in my posting (and in the mentionned discussion thread in the general forum):

Yes, different projects (as far as I know) are in differnt repositories.

EA needn't show the link (through a graphical representation), but just show the source of the imported element (see my UC flow description)

Hermann

[thomaskilian]

At a first glance this seems to be nice, but how would you synchronize between different projects? How would the project with the reference know about the changes made in the referenced project?

[Hermann_Pallasch]

You wouldn't sychronize and the source project wouldn't know either: Just a drag-and-drop import with the addition of the source beeing indicated in the imported item (similar to a link to an item from another package in the same project).

Hermann

[thomaskilian]

I would agree to that without having the link - just for saving the typing. The source link would lead to confusion. Maybe the notes could be used (additional text: <copied from ....>). Drag'n'drop one element to say Word could export an XML container.