v15.2.1559 Use of Rectangle Notation on an MDG

[Modesto Vega]

We have created an MDG that
1) contains an element that extends an Actor, let's call it ActorExt for the purpose of this post,
2) uses rectangle notation and a variation of the following shape script, courtesy of Geert script, to render it, https://github.com/GeertBellekens/Enterprise-Architect-Shapescript-Library/blob/master/Archimate3/ArchiMate_BusinessActor.shapeScript.

In other words, the MDG has the "Rectangle Notation" property set to 1.

All connectors between ActorExt elements render oddly, they do not connect properly to the shape. After some investigation we found a curious bug.

If we right click in any ActorExt element and select Advanced we can see 2 "Use Rectangle Notation" menu items, one ticked and the other unticked.

If we tick the unticked "Use Rectangle Notation" menu item, 2 things happen:
a) the now untick "User Rectangle Notation" menu item becomes "Use Actor Notation", and
b) most importantly all lines connecting to ActorExt element also draw correctly.

There are clearly 1 or 2 bugs here. Is there a workaround for it?

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Thanks, Modesto!

In our MDG, we took a different route.  Almost none of our metatypes are extensions of existing (Sparx) MDG metatypes.  We "rolled our own".  Nevertheless, we still occasionally get those duplicate "Use Rectangle Notation" menu entries.  It seemed random to us, so we didn't investigate further.  The next time we see one, I'll take a closer look.

Paolo

[Modesto Vega]

Thank you Paolo, this is clearly a bug and will report it as such.

When you say

Almost none of our metatypes are extensions of existing (Sparx) MDG metatypes.  We "rolled our own".

What are the metaclasses that you extended?

[qwerty]

I seem to remember having that seen in the past too. But (IIRC) we overcame that by using our own diagram properties to control the rendering.

q.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Thank you Paolo, this is clearly a bug and will report it as such.

When you say

Almost none of our metatypes are extensions of existing (Sparx) MDG metatypes.  We "rolled our own".

What are the metaclasses that you extended?

Hi Modesto,
We didn't extend any existing metatypes, but our MDG has metatypes that are extensions of almost all the metaclasses.  We did include some existing metatypes in addition to our own (for example our DBTbl also includes table (as a secondary stereotype).  We created patterns for this mechanism so that the user can drag one item from the toolbox but create a compound stereotype.


Does that answer your question?
Paolo

[Modesto Vega]

We didn't extend any existing metatypes, but our MDG has metatypes that are extensions of almost all the metaclasses.  We did include some existing metatypes in addition to our own (for example our DBTbl also includes table (as a secondary stereotype).  We created patterns for this mechanism so that the user can drag one item from the toolbox but create a compound stereotype.


Does that answer your question?
Paolo

I don't think I follow you. AFIK in Sparx you always extend "metaclasses" and there are 4 types of "metaclasses" that can be extended:

• Core Elements
• Core Connectors
• Abstract  Metatypes[/li/]
  
  • Stereotypes (this refers to the installed MDGs)
  My question is twofold:
  1) Which one of the 4 metaclass types have you extended?
  2) Which specific metaclass have you extended - e.g., Class, Element, and so on?

[Paolo F Cantoni]

I don't think I follow you. AFIK in Sparx you always extend "metaclasses" and there are 4 types of "metaclasses" that can be extended:

• Core Elements
• Core Connectors
• Abstract  Metatypes[/li/]
  
  • Stereotypes (this refers to the installed MDGs)
  My question is twofold:
  1) Which one of the 4 metaclass types have you extended?
  2) Which specific metaclass have you extended - e.g., Class, Element, and so on?[/l][/l][/l][/l]

I'd have to run some queries to find out.  We've extended some of the core elements, most of the core connectors. 
This is the set of Metcalsses with extensions...

Name
Abstraction
Activity
Artifact
Association
AssociationClass
Boundary
Class
Component
Constraint
ControlFlow
Decision
Delegate
Dependency
Diagram_Custom
Entity
Event
Generalization
InformationFlow
Interface
N-Ary Association
Nesting
Note
Notelink
Object
Package
ProvidedInterface
Realization
RequiredInterface
State
Substitution
Text
ToolboxPage


Not all of them are currently in use, I think.
Paolo
[/list]

[Modesto Vega]

Thanks Paolo, we are doing something very similar.