Hey people,
One of the strongest features in EA is its extensibility. However, it leaves a little something to be desired in the management of these extensions. (Code datatypes, code generation templates, transformation templates, profiles, patterns and whatever else I've missed.)
The way I understand it, these all get stored in the actual project (.EAP) file, as opposed to MDG technologies and Add-Ins which are referenced from external files.
The problem is that in a medium-to-large organisation where you do a lot of toolsmithing, you need to be able to keep better track of what's in whose project file than EA currently supports.
I suggest adding the following information to any extension stored in the project file:
- Source (File, Manually entered, EA Preset)
- Time of last import from file (where applicable)
- Time of last manual change (so next time someone tells me "hey, your stupid code generation doesn't work," I can look at that and go "no actually, your stupid code generation doesn't work").
Ideally, I'd like to see this information in one single place for all extension types, but just getting it into where the respective types are managed would be good too.
Down the track, it would be great if extensions could be CM:ed like the model itself (they're XML files in the end, after all). There should then be a separate repository setup for extensions, since they tend to be used in several projects.
As I said, this is more of a medium-to-large business requirement, but hey - it is Enterprise Architect, right?
/Uffe
