Modelling Software Services - HOWTO?

[AndyJ]

Hi team,

I'm floundering in the documentation a little, and struggling to model some required "services"...

To use a simple service as an example, I'm trying to show:

1. The Mainframe that the service is running on (Component? Node?)
2. The Port that the service listens to.
3. The acceptable input (in this case OrgUnitCode)
4. The possible returns: (valid|invalid) and if invalid an error message.

I'm looking at "Interfaces" in this tutorial: http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/tutorial/component_model.html

But am struggling to achieve what is shown there... Can anyone point me to a step-by-step explanation, or provide the steps that are used to achieve that diagram example?


Andy

[Geert Bellekens]

Andy,

• The Mainframe -> Component
• The port -> Port (on the component)
• The service: an operation on a provided interface that is exposed by the component through the port
• Input/Return: parameters on the operation (special case of parameter is return)
• Possible exceptions: this is usually done using tagged values on the operation that reference the exception classes.

Geert

[beginner]

Look at http://www.cbdiforum.com/. They have a free and commercial MDG for modelling services. I used that some 2 years ago and liked it very much. A lot of refactoring is necessary however, as it's a complex area.

b.

[AndyJ]

Thanks people,

I've reverse-engineered the code that is involved, and can see why this looks to be complex to model!!!

It remains to be seen if I can model it in a meaningful (and useful) way with a suitable level of abstraction...