.rtf documentation

[Thelonius]

I'm starting to think that putting documentation in .rtf documents in the repository is a good idea.

However, I have not yet figured out how best to use .rtf documents in Sparx. I searched for - but did not find - specific recommendations or help files.

Specific questions:

Once you've created a .rtf document - how do you find it again? How can you create a hyperlink to it that you can put into multiple diagrams?

If I create a .rtf document for an element - say an Archimate application component - can the icon for that element be made to graphically indicate the existence of an .rtf document? So that I can see that there's something there?

Where in the project browser are .rtf documents to be found?

Thanks :-)

[Geert Bellekens]

Do you mean linked documents, or document artifacts?
Those are two different things.

Geert

PS. Since v12 you can also store office documents (Word, Excel,...) inside an EA model.

[RoyC]

RTF documents can be held in a folder in the Resources window. As Geert says, you can create Linked Documents attached to specific elements, and there are Document Artifacts that effectively exist only to hold a Linked Document (so you could have a 'Documentation' Package that contains only Document Artifacts) and there are Report Specification Artifacts that re-generate an RTF (or other format) document when you open them.

Are any of those what you want?

[StefanPears]

If you add a linked document to an element it gets a red 'A' in the lower right corner as indicator. This works fine with 'older' elements, e.g. from UML. It does not work properly with 'newer' elements like BPMN activities. So it might not work with Archimate elements either.

[Thelonius]

Thanks guys for responses - very helpful!

Yes - I would like to know how to store either a .rtf or a .docx in the Sparx model - which means I should be able to link to that document in a variety of ways. I presume I can edit that document outside of EA? Have found "Linked Documents" content. Presumably I have a bit of choice about where in the project browser tree I am able to store .docx docs? Wondering where and how I'd add them to a model. Drag and drop?

I'm still considering alternative approaches - one of which would be to show a hyperlink in a diagram - possibly connected to an element - and the document is retained in the corporate SharePoint environment. I presume the hyperlink option only opens the document - it does not allow # URL "anchors" to designated a specific point within the document?

The "Artifact" icon looks potentially useful - but it doesn't seem to allow me to draw a connector between it and an element in a diagram. Presumably the connector is known only in the specific scope of a single diagram - ie if I placed that element in a new emptly diagram and selected "insert related elements" - the Artefact would not appear? 

What I originally wanted / how I wanted to do it doesn't seem possible. But - in the short term - it looks like I will be able to put some kind of link or link object in a diagram, connect it to one or more elements somehow - and the link will open the linked document.

I have given up trying to get the .rtf generator to generate .rtf output from a model that I can use. Creating a template that only generates a minimal amount of the types of content I want is too hard. Too many nested tickboxes. I don't seem to be able to eliminate certain text from the output. Documentation is a bit sparse.

It would be nice if the Archimate icons behaved like the UML element icons do wrt indicating a linked document with the small red "A" icon.

Archimate is getting kind of popular out here in user land (finally). I'm currently contracting in a very large AU gov agency that is using Sparx. Everyone's using Archimate. I think a lot of business analysts and non-software-engineer / architects are starting to realise that UML is probably most relevant for application software technical design and MDA generation of code for application scaffolding and DDL. Sparx appears to be continuing to focus most development effort on UML. The Archimate implementation could be improved IMHO :-)

Are Sparx working closely to assist Biner to further develop their BEASI plug-in? Or is that an arms-length relationship?

Thanks again for your assistance!

Jon

[Geert Bellekens]

Jon,

Since you are talking about .docx documents as well, have you tried the new feature from v12 where you drop a Word document onto a diagram and store it internally?
The thing it creates is an element like any other, so you should be able to create links to it and maintain traceability.

Geert

[Eve]

Linked documents for integration with EA. All viewing and editing done in EA.
Internal documents (as mentioned by Geert) for viewing and editing in other tools.

Both types of elements appear in the Project Browser, can be linked to and will be included by 'Insert Related'.

I am aware of a large company that moved from a sharepoint document repository accompanying their process model to use of internal documents (with HTML reports for external consumption.)

We continue to develop our ArchiMate implementation in response to user feedback.