Containment of package

[N_i_c_o_l_e]

Hi folks,

Is there a way to automatically show a containment relationship (with the O and + inside) between a parent package and a nested package if both appear in the same diagram?

Or do such relationships have to be created explicty first between the respective packages? (I would think containment is implied by the fact of nesting)

Thanks.

[Geert Bellekens]

Nicole,

You indeed have to manually add those relations.
Unfortunately EA doesn't automatically adds those.

Geert

[N_i_c_o_l_e]

Geert,

Then I guess also dependencies between packages (where elements in one package "use" elements in another package) cannot be visualized automatically on EA diagrams. In my opinion, this would be of great help in architectural analysis for checking the dependencies between packages (coupling) and detecting cyclic dependencies (and then merge them for example...). Any ideas that can help here?

[Geert Bellekens]

Adding ownership relations between package must be pretty easy to script.
For the dependency relations, that is another question. The problem is that there are a whole lot of ways one package depent on another, and you'd have to check all of these possibilities to be able to create the dependencies accurately.

I'm not sure, but I think someone posted something about an addin that does this a while ago. A search on the forum (top left button) might help to find it.

Geert

[N_i_c_o_l_e]

Aha... thanks for the hint to scripts. I'll have a look at that.

You're right about the dependencies. If the information is already in my analysis classes as generalization, (navigable) associations, etc. maybe scripting could also offer a solution here.