Sparx Reusable Asset Service (RAS) and model libraries

[Giu Platania]

hello Community!

I am facing a challenge with Sparx Reusable Asset Service (RAS) regarding the preservation of relationships when connecting local elements to the library. The issue arises when I update libraries packages from the RAS to a new version, as the process overwrites any changes made locally, including relationships established between Library elements and local ones. the target model extends the industry standard with additional elements and relationships specific to an organization, and it is crucial to maintain these customizations.

The use case involves maintaining a "tailored" industry model up-to-date, which entails the following steps:

• Import industry model version x using RAS.
  Connect (trace, or realize) local elements to the industry model.
  Import industry model version x+1 using RAS.
  Keep the relationships created in step 2 in the new model.

While I appreciate the power of RAS for accessing an industry-standard model, the inability to preserve local relationships during updates  poses a significant risk to the integrity of an organization's model.

Do you have any idea how to prevent this, or can you suggest an alternative approach to update the industry model?

[shimon]

Hi,
May I ask to which industry standard are you referring to?
Shimon

P.S. How many relationships are involved?
You may want to invest in a script that creates a new element that represents the relationship (based on an existing relationship) and after you import the newer Standard you would run another script that create the relationships based on the the intermediary element. We considered doing something like this to enable a many to one trace type from EA to JIRA.
 

[Giu Platania]

TM Forum (TMForum.org) is an organization for the standardization of Telecommunications and I'm in charge of moving all they produce into a single Autoritative Source of Truth (ASoT), based on EA.
I presented some of the results in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHrP-8DELso&t=5s

The TMF  model contains 14,000 elements and 24,000 relationships and is probably one of the most complex one out of there.
Now this need to be used by an organization (e.g. a Telecom) that has his own architecture. They can do that by creating relationships (e.g. Realization or trace) between the industry model and the local model, but you cannot automate that with a script because it requires human decision.
BTW, I don't understand the logic behind RAS overwriting 'side relationships', this should not happens IMHO

[Eve]

BTW, I don't understand the logic behind RAS overwriting 'side relationships', this should not happens IMHO

I have to guess because I haven't seen your model or the relationships that are being deleted. (If it's in your video, I apologize I can't spend the time to watch it)

In general, EA treats all connectors as owned by the source. If a connector has been created that has a source in the RAS model then when that model is updated it will delete that connector because it views it as having been deleted in the source model. My guess is that is the situation you're in.

On the other hand, any connectors that only have their target in the RAS model are viewed as owned by the other end, EA should preserve them when updating the RAS model.

So, the advice is to always make sure any connectors are from your model into the RAS model instead of the other way around.

[Giu Platania]

thank you Eve!
this is extremely helpful and explains the behaviour that I  observed.
After testing this I will report back for other users

[thomasfrank]

To prevent this, you can consider using merge functionality to selectively integrate new library elements while keeping local connections intact. Derived diagrams to reference library elements but maintained separate local instances with preserved relationships.

[JoNijsen]

You could make a baseline of your model part which contains the target of the connector. Update from the RAS and restore the baseline. This will restore the connector