v15.1 - Profiles and MDG Technology files

[Paolo F Cantoni]

This question is indirectly related to Hiding the remaining Generic Links in QuickLinker.
We use a number of interrelated MDG technology files to create and maintain our Modelling Technology and environment.  We have attempted (after a fashion) to "separate concerns" into separate files.

The profile provided by Eve was added to our main profile file (call it "M").  The toolbox to allow us to test the profile with was placed in one of our role-based files (call it "R").  Details of these items can be found in the reference thread.

This worked fine.  I decided that (I assumed with no loss of generality) that I'd rather consolidate the testing into the R.xml file, by moving the Profile from the M.xml file to the R.xml file.

To my surprise, the toolbox stopped working entirely.  The Toolbox claimed it could not find the profile with the ID: "OneConnector"  [NOTE: that is the Name - and in this case also the Alias - of the profile, NOT the ID, but this is EA after all...).

Putting the profile back to the M.xml file, restored the functionality.

Can anyone explain why this might be?

Paolo

[ferran]

Hi Paolo,

I have got a similar problem.

I create and MDG technology with a custom Toolbox profile created following the sparx support link: https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/15.1/modeling/add_toolboxes.html

The toolbox profile implements 3 other profile that extend a Block class type with special icons.
Then I created the MDG technology with the bitmap files for the icons, the profile xmls and the toolbox xml.

I checked the process and it follows all recommendations from Sparx on how to create and MDG technology.

Afterwards I import the MDG technology into my company official project and it does not recognize the elements in the toolbox, I close the project and open it again and change a couple of times the focus of selection of the toolbox and then it recognizes the elements but with random icons: sometimes the block icon is displayed, other times the stereotype icon is displayed and also I found once like a pie chart icon.

I checked the .xml file of my MDG technology and compared to other MDG technologies that comes with the Ultimate edition and nothing seems to be wrong.

Could someone help me with this one?

I post it here because I think this is quite related to what Paolo is explaining.

Kind regards,

Ferran.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Hi Ferran,

When you see the "Stereotype" icon, it means that EA has lost the link to the definition of the icon - usually, because there is an error in the MDG definition (or more likely, in this case, a bug in EA's referencing of the profile).

When I was testing this, when I move the profile from the "M file to the "R" file the icons change to the default stereotype icon and the profile no longer works.  Move it back and all is fine.

HTH,
Paolo