Formulas (LaTex/ MathML) in diagrams / requirements

[msf]

Hello,

I am working with a customer on a project which focuses on implementing a set of mathematical functions for risk calculation. We model all the processing flows in EA and are now at the point that we would like to add the calculation formulas to the model as well.

As far as I have understood EA it is only possible to enter RTF documentation in EA. The documentation of formulas needs more sophisticated features like MathML or LaTeX. Therefore it is not possible to enter the formulas directly as a property, the only way is to add them as an OLE object in an attached document to the artifact. This has disadvantage, that the formula is not visible in the diagram.

I have found an interesting tool for the combination Powerpoint / LaTex that is an addon that allows to enter Latex source and shows them as image in a powerpoint presentation: http://www.jonathanleroux.org/software/iguanatex/. On the other hand, the handling of images in EA seems to be limited to the image manager therefore it seems difficult to show any image on a diagram.

In theory it could be possible to draw the latex formulas in shapescript, but this would mean to compile the latex source with a shapescript target (which is a nice task) but the shapescript box is limited in size.

Any ideas how to proceed ? Thanks

[qwerty]

First thought: don't torture yourself.

If you really want to show a formula, render it as png somewhere outside and use the rendering. Of course this is absolutely static.

q.

[msf]

Yes that was one of my ideas as well - but as far as I have seen I cannot easily drop an image on a diagram without using the image manager ?!

[qwerty]

Yes, the image manager can only be avoided if you manage the table t_images yourself. That however is possible. Images used on diagrams are always referenced by the id in this table. And if you take control (or saddle just on top of EA's handling), you can replace images at will. The trouble with those reference data is that they stand besides the XMI export of a model (which is used by version control). So you'd need to take care of that as well.

q.

[Eve]

The the EA 13 Image Assets.

Same basic idea as the image manager, but they can be organized within your package structure how you like and have additional metadata associated with them. As a bonus, you can create them by dropping an image file onto a diagram (if you're on Windows.)