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Author Topic: How to create several connected HTML-reports from a large Repository  (Read 6070 times)

steen.jensen

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So far we have NOT started to use ProCloudServer, so we still need to use standard HTML-publishing to a coporate web-server.
But I whould like to split the HTML-publishing to several parts for simpler & easier updating process. The whole Repository takes  > 3 hours to publish

Earlier I used a static Homepage with links to separeted web-folders, whera I could create a autonomus HTML-report.
But I cant have any cross-links from one folderbranch to another folder structure without going to the Homepage, as each folder-branch is separate HTML-publishing jobb.

Anyone having some tips&trix for easier HTML-publishing for large repositry with Sparx standard tools??

steen.jensen

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Re: How to create several connected HTML-reports from a large Repository
« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2020, 08:22:28 am »
No one with any ideas??

timoc

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Re: How to create several connected HTML-reports from a large Repository
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2020, 02:18:03 am »
No one with any ideas??
Yes. I have been thinking about this. The default HTML template needs to call the 1990's and ask for its web design back.

The basic problem for an architecture repository is that it is like LDAP. For every change/write you have 1000 reads. So you have to optimize for reading.

There is a "pure HTML5" client side wiki tool called tiddlywiki. It is a *single* html file. If you want to upadate it you neeed to resave the html file.

With the HTML export you can create a tiddlywiki file that looks something like this:

Quote
[tiddlywiki code]
<-- EA generated tiddly pages -->
[tiddly encoded pages generated by EA]
<-- end of tiddly pages -->
[end of tiddlywiki code]

This results in a single HTML artifact that has searching. embedded&linked documents, etc. Play with tiddlywiki and you will see what i mean. It is a powerfull way of making a portable linked & searchable EA model.

If you go this route, get in touch as i would like to help. If not, and no one else tries/triggers, i will probably publish something about this in 6 months or so.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2020, 02:19:41 am by timoc »

Uffe

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Re: How to create several connected HTML-reports from a large Repository
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2020, 06:55:20 pm »
Hej Steen! :)


The problem is that what EA generates isn't really HTML but a completely proprietary, and completely undocumented, mass of JavaScript. This means that as soon as you try to go outside the intended use, ie what the designers envisaged back when the function was first implemented, you hit a brick wall. And what the designers envisaged is a single generation from a single root node of a single project.

But there might be a way forward: query URLs.

The generated HTML will serve query URLs, including ?goto=1:1 and ?guid={xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx} (the latter allows you to link to either an element's or a diagram's GUID). So in one diagram you can add a hyperlink diagram object targetting the HTML version of another diagram, provided you know the directory on the server where the relevant index.html is located.

Since the query link targets the GUID it will survive re-generations (provided the target diagram isn't deleted, obviously). However, any type of diagram reference created by dragging one diagram onto another (diagram frame, diagram reference, diagram hyperlink or navigation cell) won't work since the generated URLs for those all target the HTML file under the assumption that everything is part of the same generated HTML.

But if the number of cross-generation links is reasonably low, and you don't mind the hyperlink diagram objects in your diagrams, you can link between different HTML generations using GUID-query hyperlinks.

If you need larger numbers of cross-generation links, or if you need a more dynamic solution, it might be possible to achieve that with query URLs in conjunction with a customized HTML generation template and/or some stereotypes and/or some scripts.

HTH,


/Uffe
My theories are always correct, just apply them to the right reality.

Uffe

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Re: How to create several connected HTML-reports from a large Repository
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2020, 07:13:01 pm »
By way of a PS:

A few years ago I met some people from Lantmäteriet, who told me they'd implemented their own EA HTML generator because the provided one sucks. (My word, not theirs.)
I don't have any contact details and I didn't see it in action, but it could possibly be worth chasing down.

/U
My theories are always correct, just apply them to the right reality.

Geert Bellekens

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Re: How to create several connected HTML-reports from a large Repository
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2020, 07:22:48 pm »
I think Bert Dingemans wrote one a few years ago as well: https://community.sparxsystems.com/community-resources/885-http-wpp-interactory-nl

Geert