Showing Alias in addition to Name

[Paolo F Cantoni]

EA allows you to specify both a name and an alias for a element.

In diagrams, it allows you (via the Diagram|Properties|Diagram|[X] Use Alias if Available checkbox) to display it.  However, increasingly in the business related modelling we are doing, we find the need to display both the name and it's alias (typically an acronym) in the diagram.

For example:  Target Marketing Plan (TMP)
where: TMP is the acronym (alias).  This allows the end-user to see the item under both it's common identifiers.

Unfortunately, there's no mechanism (that I know of) to achieve this (I don't want to include the alias in the name since the alias isn't part of the identifier).

I think it would be a very useful feature to add:

Alias Management:
(x) Don't display
(  ) Display if available
(  ) Display in addition.  Encloser: [ ][ ]
(  ) Display alwaysThe encloser fields (which could be empty) would specify the enclosing strings for the alias.

Thus for the example above , the enclosers would be: [(][)]
If the enclosers were: [- ][] you'd get: Target Marketing Plan - TMP

It would be REALLY neat if this treatment was also available on a per item level in the diagram.  That is, in the Feature Visibility [Ctrl+Shift+Y] dialog.  Finally, if this could also be an element level property, that would be the "icing on the cake"!

Thoughts? Votes?  (Before I submit the feature request)
Paolo

[Aaron B]

Try opening Tools | Options | Diagram | Behavior and set the Alias Usage option to Alias and Name.

Does that get close enough to what you hoped to see?

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Try opening Tools | Options | Diagram | Behavior and set the Alias Usage option to Alias and Name.

Does that get close enough to what you hoped to see?

Gets a LOT closer...  Thanks, Aaron!  

But as Maxwell Smart would say:  "Missed it by THAT much!"  

For the sake of expediency and timeliness, I'll use this functionality for the present.  But it isn't granular enough in the longer term.

Should I put in a feature request since a lot of the functionality is already there?

Based on what I see the current functionality does, it would seem appropriate to add the ability to position the alias (above, below, left, right) relative to the name.

Paolo

[Aaron B]

Should I put in a feature request since a lot of the functionality is already there?

Absolutely.  As usual, just submit the details of any enhancements you'd like to see through our Feature Request page so that it might be considered for future addition into EA.
http://www.sparxsystems.com/support/feature_request.html

[fwoolz]

Aaron,

While yer at it, perhaps you could fix the alias + name implementation so that it stops showing [CR][LF] characters as "unprintables" (square blocks in most fonts) between the alias and element name when both are displayed on the same line? This has been addressed in some cases, but every relevant use case and its corresponding code needs to be checked for (wait for it, Paolo...) CONSISTENCY!

Cheers,
Fred W

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Cosolidated feature request submitted...

I also added (  ) Instead of to the placement - which handles the case where you want the Alias to override the name.

Paolo

[«Midnight»]

Nice refinement.

[skiwi]

I'd support this feature request.

[son-of-sargasso]

Definitely a "me too"!

But  ,  there are some aliases kindly supplied by the software that I dont want to see, usually ever.  Frinstance, the duplicated name in the url object.

bruce