Information Items Conveyed

[thomaskilian]

Hi there,
does anyone have a clue on how to access the Information Items Conveyed with an Information Flow? There is obviously nothing to find the connectors from the conveyed item when using the GUI. So I needed to find them via automation. The question is: how? The Connector package does not seem to have any pointer

[«Midnight»]

...how to access the Information Items Conveyed with an Information Flow?...The Connector package does not seem to have any pointer

Thomas,

I'm not quite sure what you're saying here. There is an InformationFlow entry in the t_connectortypes table. Can you find the connectors at all? If so, is the problem that you cannot find where or how the Information Items associated with a given flow are stored in the schema?

David

[On further inspection of the build 818 docs, perhaps I'm getting your point. While the Type attribute of the Connector class says the valid types are in t_connectortypes, the (brief) introductory note says "you must assign" a type from a much smaller list that does not include information flows. Perhaps they are a subtype; there's no explanation of where these values might come from, but they are likely validated somehow.

Meanwhile, the t_connector table does have our favorite PDATAx fields. However, there is no corresponding array of MiscData properties defined in the Connector class. My guess is that these fields might be where your desired items are to be found.

This sounds like a pair of bugs: the missing properties to access the PDATAx fields should be exposed, and the valid types and subtypes should be explicitly listed in the documentation as they are for the Element class.

I'll leave you to do the report Thomas since you actually know what you're talking about, while I'm guessing.

David]

[thomaskilian]

Hi David,
when you open the context for an Information Flow connector you see an Advanced/Information Items Conveyed. Here you can add/remove classes that are used in the information flow. Nice though there does not seem to be any automation interfaces for these items (nor any further support in the GUI). I'll wait shortly for Sparx to respond here. Maybe it's one of the favourite MISC/PDATA elements...

[KP]

It appears to be stored in t_xref with t_xref.Description being the GUID of the element conveyed and t_xref.Client being the GUID of the information flow. No other tables are updated.

I think that means an e-mail to support...

[thomaskilian]

Thanks Neil, I'll do that.

[ring39]

Here is a SQL script that can be used in "find in Model" to show all the classifiers that have an end point with an information flow Item that is conveyed.

SELECT *
FROM         t_object a
WHERE (Object_ID IN
              (SELECT start_object_id FROM  t_connector c  WHERE  c.ea_guid IN
                           (SELECT  client   FROM   t_xref s  WHERE  ( Left(s.description,38)) IN    
                                        (SELECT  ea_guid  FROM  t_object  WHERE  t_object.name = '<Search Term>'))))
OR
 (Object_ID IN
              (SELECT end_object_id FROM  t_connector c  WHERE  c.ea_guid IN
                           (SELECT  client   FROM   t_xref s  WHERE  ( Left(s.description,38)) IN    
                                        (SELECT  ea_guid  FROM  t_object  WHERE  t_object.name = '<Search Term>'))))

John Ring

[«Midnight»]

Thanks John,

Nifty query, and very well presented.

David

[VacantSpace]

There could be multiple objects conveyed on an information flow.  So won't the SQL have to substring the description field?  E.g.:

SELECT s.object_type, s.name, d.object_type, d.name, o.object_type, o.name, c.connector_type, c.name
FROM t_object o,
           t_xref x,
           t_connector c,
           t_object s,
           t_object d
where o.name= '<Search Term>'
and    (o.ea_guid = left(x.description,38)
      or o.ea_guid = mid(x.description,40,38)  
      or o.ea_guid = mid(x.description,79,38)
      or o.ea_guid = mid(x.description,118,38)
      or o.ea_guid = mid(x.description,157,38)  
      or o.ea_guid = mid(x.description,196,38)
)

and    c.ea_guid = x.client
and    c.start_object_id = s.object_id
and    c.end_object_id = d.object_id

[rayt]

I know this is an old thread, just adding this here for completeness in case someone bumps into here.

[size=9]SELECT src.ea_guid AS CLASSGUID, Connector_Type AS CLASSTYPE, c.Name as Name, c.Connector_Type, src.Name as Source, dst.Name as Destination, Direction, c.Connector_ID
FROM t_connector c, t_object src, t_object dst
WHERE c.Start_Object_ID=src.Object_ID
      AND c.End_Object_ID=dst.Object_ID
      AND c.ea_guid IN
      (SELECT DISTINCT client FROM t_xref x, t_object item WHERE x.description LIKE '*'+item.ea_guid+'*' AND item.name LIKE '<Search Term>')[/size]

This searches connectors. Works with wilcards (*) too. The first result column references the source objects so that "find in diagrams" works.