One element in multiple packages/views

[Tim Twe]

Hi,

I would like to put an element in two different packages.

I have two different views of a server room, one based upon physical location and another based upon logical location.  The problem is that I want to be able to put the component in a specific "package" that represents a specific server cabinet and I also want to put it into a logical package that represents a failover cluster.

This requires the element it to be placed into two packages at the same time.

Is there another way or more preferable way?

On a similar note, you may get two different logical business organisations of certain concepts... this would also necessitate two package structures.  i.e. Industry standard organisation   AND an internal organisation of components.

If you think that my initial idea was a bad one, how then could you recommend I organise my existing system according to one or more industry standards (telecoms,... so there are many) without having an element in multiple packages OR having a massive diagram.

-Timothy

[Paul Lotz]

An element can exist only in one package, but it can appear on multiple diagrams.  (OK, one can make a copy of an element and put the copy in another package, but the copy and the original are not then the same element.  Each has a unique GUID.)

You can just copy and paste or drag an existing item onto a new diagram.  Each diagram is a different view into the model.

Is the element you want to put on these two diagrams really the same thing, or is one a physical item and the other a logical item?  If they are truly the same, drag a new instance of the item onto the second diagram.  If they are not really the same, create two elements and link them.

[Tim Twe]

It is really the same thing.  Its logical organization according to package is just structured according to the industry standard model.

The organization is what is important.

Having a diagram with 1000 items on it is going to be useless, it needs to be broken down into 30 packages of 30 items according to the industry model.

[Geert Bellekens]

Tim,

Looks like you are making both a logical and a physical model, where the logical model is an abstraction of the physical model. (or the physical model is the implementation of the logical model)

According to the spirit of MDA you should maintain two different models. So you should have a logical element which goes into the logical package, and you should have another physical element (that is the implementation of the logical element) that goes into the physical package.
And of course you should maintain some kind of traceability between the elements of the two models.

A possible shortcut could be to use an instance of the logical element in the physical model. You can create as many instances as you like, and put them into the packages you need.

Yet another view is to use Components and ComponentRealizations to depict the relation between you physical component and the (logical) classifiers that realize it. (although I'm not all that sure this is a valid approach :-/)

Geert