RefGUIDList tag: field too small

[Uffe]

Hi all,


I'm working with a profile where I've got a tagged value connector from one stereotype to another, with the target role multiplicity set to 0..*.
This is the equivalent of creating a RefGUIDList tagged value type.

The problem is that, after I've generated the MDG Technology, if I select more than six elements I get an error dialog saying

DAO.Field [3163]
The field is too small to accept the amount of data you attempted to add. Try inserting or pasting less data.

This is obviously because a GUID is 38 characters, which means a list of six GUIDs requires 233 characters, and with a maximum of 255 characters in the field another list entry won't fit.

The 255-character tagged value limit can be normally worked around with a <memo> value. So here's the question: is there a way of combining <memo> and RefGUIDList?

I tried creating a tagged value with the same name as an attribute in my stereotype, but that didn't work. I also tried manually editing the profile XML data to force the contents of a <memo> tagged value type into the RefGUIDList tag definition, but no luck.

Anyone else?


/Uffe

[Geert Bellekens]

In those cases I usually try to work with RefGUID alone.
If needed I allow multiple tagged values with the same name (I know that is against the rules)
The main reason is that RefGUIDList tagged values are very awkward to maintain (selecting multiple values with Ctrl key?)

Geert

[Eve]

My personal interpretation is that multiple tagged values represent the value for a single property. This allows you to use multiple strings, multiple structured values or 7 or more RefGUIDs.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

My personal interpretation is that multiple tagged values represent the value for a single property. This allows you to use multiple strings, multiple structured values or 7 or more RefGUIDs.

I think it depends on the concpetual multiplicity of the TV wrt the item.  That having been said, if the multiplicity is > 1 then go for it.

Paolo

[Eve]

I think it depends on the concpetual multiplicity of the TV wrt the item.  That having been said, if the multiplicity is > 1 then go for it.

I'm not asking for permission. 

But conceptually, the property on the stereotype defines the multiplicity. The UI just says that these multiple values go into this field. If the property doesn't support multiple values that means the model is incorrect, not the technique.

[Uffe]

Yyyyeeeeaabut.

If I use the tagged value connector, the resulting technology does not include a tagged value type definition. So when my stereotype's tagged value runs out of space, I can't just create another identical tagged value -- there's no such tagged value type to choose in the dropdown.

I realize that every implementation has limitations, but conceptually I think if I specify a multiplicity as 0..* and EA implements that as 0..6 then that falls somewhat short of what I would consider reasonable expectations. 6 is, after all, << 32767 (the max length of EA's Collections, which determines the maximum number of elements in a package, connectors to/from an element, etc). Or to put it another way, when programming I don't expect to be able to create an array of infinite length, but if the compiler caps all specified array lengths at six, I would consider that compiler broken.

So if there's no way to achieve a single RefGUIDList tagged value with more than six entries, I would suggest that RefGUIDList should be redesigned based on <memo> tagged values. At the very very least, the user guide should be updated to reflect the max-six-entries limitation.

/Uffe