Autonumbering and security

[Marianne]

Dear all,

we have a common Sparx EA repository with standard locking security. It seems impossible to apply auto-numbering to existing objects. We tried a locked and a released page. In both cases we get an error.
I can send you the printscreen of the errors but don't find how to add attachments here.

Thanks!

Kind regards,

Marianne

[Geert Bellekens]

Marianne,

If you want to show images on this forum you have to post your image on a public image hosting site such as imgur.com and then link to that url using the img tag.

With regards to the actual problem, the relevant help page is here: http://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/12.1/building_models/apply_autonaming_to_elements.html
(which you probably found as well)

Geert

[Marianne]

Hi Geert,

we already remarked the sentence in the page of your url: 'The contents of Packages that are locked under version control will not be auto-named'. But removing the lock doesn't resolve the issue. For a released package we get following error: http://imgur.com/7esUY0G

Kind regards,

Marianne

[Geert Bellekens]

Marianne,

Are you sure you have applied user lock to the package and all subpackages?
If you use version control there are two mechanism that play, the internal user locking status, and the ckeckin/checkout status.

You can checkout a package but leave it unlocked, or the other way around.
You have to make sure you both have the packages checked-out as user locked.

Geert

[Marianne]

Hi Geert,

we don't work with check-in and check-out, only with user locking. There is no linked version control system, only the locking mechanism of Sparx EA itself.
Is there a way that I can see if that is the problem? And if yes, how to solve it?

Kind regards,

Marianne

[qwerty]

This "current action" which EA croaks about: which is it exactly?

q.

[Marianne]

The current action is: Apply Auto Naming to Elements...

[Geert Bellekens]

Marianne,

Have you tested this on a small sample? A package with a single element, making sure to lock the package and the element.
If that works then it is probably an element somewhere that didn't get locked. If that doesn't work I would suggest to contact sparx support.

In the meantime you could always
- make a copy of the model to a .eap file (model transfer)
- disable security
- apply auto naming,
- export the package to xmi
- import the xmi file into the main model

Geert

[Marianne]

Locked doesn't work at all because locked elements don't get renamed with auto numbering. 
I will propose the workaround but it will be a heavy procedure for us because we will have to renumber a lot ...

[Geert Bellekens]

You could also temporarily turn off security, renumber your elements, and then turn it back on.

Geert

[Marianne]

Thanks but also that is a no-goer in this organisation. There are too many people working on the same repository to safely remove the security. Even if it's just for a short period 
I know... difficult situation 

[Geert Bellekens]

If I were you I would quickly script a solution.
Renaming elements is really simple and can safely be done using a little script.

And you can really implement your own naming/numbering conventions without the limitations of EA.

Geert

[Marianne]

That seems more feasible :-D although I never wrote scripts before. Is there a starters guide?

[Geert Bellekens]

There's a webinar that should get you started:
http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/webinar/partners/scripting/scripting-introduction-bellekens.html

And I have a fairly large vbscript library on github that can serve as inspiration:
https://github.com/GeertBellekens/Enterprise-Architect-VBScript-Library

Geert

[Marianne]

Thanks!