Notes for attributes

[Stringer]

They are not visible in the class element and I cannot find a way to make them visible. Only methods can have visible notes thru the Behaviour. Actually the method Behaviour stinks too because now one has to rewrite same stuff for the Notes (XML commens in source) and for the Behaviour to have visible diagram notes.

[«Midnight»]

Stringer,

This should be straightforward. I just ran the following in EA build 816 to make sure nothing was broken.

• Create a class.
  
• Drop it on a diagram - this will make things easier.
  
• Select the class and open the Attributes dialog (F9).
  
• Add an attribute.
  
• There is a Notes box - it is below the Initial box and before the attribute list.
  
• Enter your notes.
  
• Exit the dialog.
  
• If you want, follow the directions in EA Help to create a linked note on your diagram, just to be sure things work.

David

[Stringer]

Yes, there is Notes-field. But problem is, I cannot figure out how to make it visible in the diagram drawing. It only shows at the sources (and separately generated document I think). I would like it to present itself in the diagram just like the visible Behaviour text for methods.

What do you mean by linked note? Didn't find such thing from the help.

[«Midnight»]

In the help index, find Link | Note to Element or Note | Link to element.

Also look at the diagram properties dialog (F5) and click the Elements tab and inspect the Show Compartments section. You can display a Notes compartment - it will only be displayed if the element notes are non-empty.

This does not handle attributes, just the element itself.

Finally, look at the Set Feature Visibility dialog (control-shift-Y or use the context menu) for selected elements (one or more). This allows you to display several other compartments. Once again this is restricted to elements, not attributes.

David

[Stringer]

Cool, that one is useful for sure. Only one little small problem, it shows the feature name with exactly same font as the note text itself. It makes those notes little bit hard to read.

Anyway, would be nice (and thus feature request) to be able to show the notes inside the class element because that is very compact way to present them. The linked notes will fill whole diagram soon if I start to descripe my attributes with that.

[«Midnight»]

Generally, a diagram is a poor choice for displaying (many) feature notes. Consider alternatives consolidating these notes into the element notes, or writing a report with the attribute details.

Otherwise anything other than the most rudimentary diagram will become cluttered, which reduces its information content by at least as much as the notes might add.

[Stringer]

Consider alternatives consolidating these notes into the element notes

But there is no alternatives now, or is there? Separate report is granted of course, and with HTML report surfing between the diagram and the report is rather easy. But those who have to read a paper and/or pdf might appreciate the short descriptions on the diagram itself. At least I find it very easy to read the behaviour descriptions between methods due good coloring.