Author Topic: Own defined attribute types (Read 10782 times)

lex_cz · « **on:** June 07, 2005, 06:56:27 am »

Hi,
i am new to EA and i have the following question. In the class diagram i am trying to model some class. Now I want to add some attributes to the class i created. How can I model my own "attribute types" beforehand that I can use in this class diagram ? (I am in the modelling phase, concrete architecture Java, C# or whatever will be decided later).

Because my models are spread accross several packages, I think my attribute types should be declared in some base package that should be included. How to do this ?

Thanks Martin

Pascal · « **Reply #1 on:** June 07, 2005, 07:34:28 am »

Hey Martin,

I'm not sure I understand your question... attributes are part of a class, so I'd suggest you add them to the attribute list of the class (press F9 when you've selected the class). Or do you mean something else?

Pascal.

lex_cz · « **Reply #2 on:** June 07, 2005, 08:41:48 am »

Hi Pascal,
thanks for the fast response. Now I see I made a mistake when formulating my question. I want to create my own "attribute types" not attributes.

I hope the rest of my question becomes clear now.

Regards Martin
PS: I will change my first post accordingly.

Pascal · « **Reply #3 on:** June 08, 2005, 12:48:27 am »

Hey Martin,

Now I understand what you mean!

I stereotype my basic attribute types with <<datatype>>. I declare my datatypes in a package that is contained in the package that represents the scope in which I want the datatype to be visible. E.g. in all my logical models I'd like to use the datatypes Date, MonetaryValue and such; I have defined them in a package named "Shared Datatypes" in my "Logical view" package. On a more detailed level I have specified my components, which have their own set of specific attributes. E.g. say you have a "Customer Manager" component; I'll have this in "Customer Manager" package, which contains a "Datatypes" package for all datatypes used by classes within the "Customer Manager" component, like Gender, Zipcode, etc.

Hope this helps!

Pascal.

lex_cz · « **Reply #4 on:** June 08, 2005, 01:12:19 am »

Hi Pascal,
thats exactly what i need, thanks !

I looked into EA and I see that stereotype <<datatype>> is not defined by default. How did you define this stereotype (what is its base class, are you using metafile) ?

Martin

Pascal · « **Reply #5 on:** June 08, 2005, 01:58:30 am »

Hey Martin,

I defined my attribute stereotypes by creating my own UML modeling profile (see the "Create a UML profile" topic in the help file).

Basically this comes down to this:

Create a package (e.g. in the "Custom" package) with stereotype "profile"
Insert a custom diagram
From the "Profile" toolbox, drag a Metaclass onto the diagram and select the "Class" element
From the "Profile" toolbox, drag a Stereotype class onto the diagram and name it "datatype"
Create an <<extends>> relation from the stereotype to the Class metaclass
Save the diagram
Export the package to a UML profile file (XML), by right clicking on the "profile" package and selecting "Save package as UML profile"
Switch to the "Resource view", right click on "UML profiles", select "Import profile" and select the XML file you just exported
Once imported, you'll have the stereotype avaliable for typing your attributes.

One more thing: next to the <<datatype>> stereotype, I use the <<enumeration>> stereotype for my attribute types to denote this special kind of datatype holding a predefined number of values.

Of course you can also do this the easy way, by using the Configuration/UML/Stereotypes dialog. But I like the UML profile way, since it allows me to manage my own stereotypes in a seperate file.

Hope this helps!

Good luck!

Pascal.

lex_cz · « **Reply #6 on:** July 03, 2005, 02:20:44 pm »

Hi Pascal,
it has been some while, thank you for your help. I did as you wrote, an example can be seen here:
http://gforge.eusoft.cz/scm/?group_id=18
(use the "Browse CVS Repository" link on the right)

If you have time to spare, please check it if its correct ?

Thank you
Martin

Paolo F Cantoni · « **Reply #7 on:** July 03, 2005, 07:50:51 pm »

Quote

Hey Martin,

I defined my attribute stereotypes by creating my own UML modelling profile (see the "Create a UML profile" topic in the help file).

[SNIP]

Pascal.

Hi Pascal,

I haven't got into Profiles as yet - for the present they don't seem to give me very much I can use at the current stage I'm at with my models. [Not a criticism of EA, just an observation of where I am in relation to the questions I'm about to ask]

Do I understand correctly, that a profile gives you the ability to predefine a stereotyped element with preexisting tagged values (derived from attributes tab in the original extending stereotype) and constraints (derived from the constraints tab of the extending stereotype)?

You can merge a new definition of the stereotype with existing definitions.

Since I'm not yet using tagged values, this doesn't seem to give me much over simply stereotyping the original element. Or have I missed something?

Also, does this work with multiple stereotypes? Have you confirmed it does? (Particularly if the profiled stereotype is not the primary one?)

If I correctly stereotype my elements and later create profiles, can I use the merge mechanism to add the profilable features to my existing elements using the profile merging mechanism?

Do you have any idea what the <Redefinitions/> clause is used for in the actual profile XML?

Cheerz,
Paolo

Paolo F Cantoni · « **Reply #8 on:** July 03, 2005, 08:57:52 pm »

I've just had a look at the UML 2 Superstructure specification and it seems to me that the current EA rendering of an «Extension» association is incorrect. The open arrow should be a closed, blocked in, arrow.

Cheerz,
Paolo

thomaskilian · « **Reply #9 on:** July 04, 2005, 02:00:58 am »

Paolo,
use the url in this way: highlight[/ url] (omit the blank between / and url)

thomaskilian · « **Reply #10 on:** July 04, 2005, 02:05:33 am »

Quote

Do I understand correctly, that a profile gives you the ability to predefine a stereotyped element with preexisting tagged values (derived from attributes tab in the original extending stereotype) and constraints (derived from the constraints tab of the extending stereotype).

Yes. That's correct. I use that for Issue and Bug elements. When I drag them from my profile I receive elements with a predefined set of Tags (e.g. Responsible, History, DateDue, etc.). I have some macros that use these Tags to produce reports. I just started using profiles, but they are very handy.

Pascal · « **Reply #11 on:** July 04, 2005, 04:03:16 am »

Hi Martin,

I checked your profile: that's indeed the way I do it. (I wasn't able to open your EAP file, BTW).

Paolo, I've only used the profiles for managing my custom stereotypes so far. I haven't used it for setting default properties, for example.

Thomas, I'd be interested to know how you define default tagged values in your profiles in such a way that, when you drag the item from your profile, the tagged values are also included in the new instance. I've tried this with a stereotype I created for a use case, but the only I only managed to set a number of default constraints in the profile (and no tagged values, for example).

Pascal.

thomaskilian · « **Reply #12 on:** July 04, 2005, 04:53:02 am »

Pascal,
send me your e-mail via private message and I send you my model containing the profile.

Regarding "opening the model": maybe you have to use the Jet4-option?

lex_cz · « **Reply #13 on:** July 04, 2005, 10:44:05 am »

Hi Pascal,
thanks for the check. Can you please describe the error when opening .EAP file so i can contact SPARX ?

Question on others reading this topic: Anyone else having problems opening the .EAP ?

BTW, it was created with EA Professional Edition 5.00.765

Martin

Sparx Systems Forum

News: