best way to model complex interfaces

[pittagentskip007]

Hi,

I have two components im trying to represent on a UML component diagram. They interact via a shared database. I so far have drawn a uses dependency between each component in the database with ODBC as the name of the connector to indicate the protocol. I would like to include more details including what specific tables in the DB they share and perhaps even the interface's logic.

Some options that came to mind / I played with are:

1) putting the names of the tables / logic in the connector notes.
Pros: Easy
Cons: no traceability to the tables i.e. if I have the tables in EA I can't navigate to or from them. Maintenance problem if the table names change

2) using the information flow connector
Pros: Names of the objects visible on the connector. Can rename and EA will update information since its based on links
Cons: still can't navigate and and from conveyed information (have asked for enhancement in this regards) as they dont show up as explicit links in element properties or via traceability window. Find the EA UI isnt very user friendly when dealing with information flows.

3) using ports on the two components and typing the ports as the table involved
Pros: now it shows up as explicit links in the traceability/relationships window
Cons: can only list one table per port as the explicit type

4) using ports on the two components and using a dependency relationship between the ports and the table object in EA.
Pros: still shows up in the traceability/relationships window and now can link multiple tables to each port
Cons: not all that user friendly either as need to hide connectors since it looks silly to have the dependency arrows all over the place. Need to update the notes/connector labels with the object names leading to dual maintenance.

I need to do this for a lot of interfaces between windows scheduled tasks and unix cron jobs including exchanges of FTP files (to which I could follow a similar patterns). Anybody have any better ideas before I start going down any of these paths?

[qwerty]

I remember an article talking about such kind of information representation which is located in the Community. Sorry for not remembering the exact link.

q.