Generate sequence diagram from robustness diagram

[KevinH]

Has anyone figured out how to automate the generation in EA of a sequence diagram from a robustness diagram?  On page 92 of his book Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML, Doug Rosenberg includes a script that does this in Rational Rose.  I am looking for something similar that I can use in EA.

[thomaskilian]

How would one do that? A robustness diagram shows how Actors and Business Object  are related to each other. The sequence diagram adds a "logical sequence" which is not contained in the RD. You could write a script to populate the SD with all relevant objects, but you would have to add the messages manually.

[KevinH]

Sorry for my lack of clarity.  I am looking to take the latter approach outlined in your message -- that is, populate a sequence diagram with the objects from a robustness diagram (boundary and entity) and then add the messages manually to the diagram.

[TomO]

Hello Kevin,
I know the Add-In you are talking about. At what point are you up to? Once the Add-In is installed simply open and select your robustness diagram (make sure your Robustness diagram is of type Activity). Right click and select Add-In Iconix Agile Process -> Create Both Test and Sequence from Robustness. This will create two diagrams for you; one will be the sequence stubs, the other a Test Case diagram. Please also be aware that only the Boundary and Entity elements will be placed into the sequence diagram.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
I hope this helps

Best Regards
TomO

[thomaskilian]

Hello Kevin,
I know the Add-In you are talking about. At what point are you up to? Once the Add-In is installed simply open and select your robustness diagram (make sure your Robustness diagram is of type Activity). Right click and select Add-In Iconix Agile Process -> Create Both Test and Sequence from Robustness. This will create two diagrams for you; one will be the sequence stubs, the other a Test Case diagram. Please also be aware that only the Boundary and Entity elements will be placed into the sequence diagram.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
I hope this helps

Best Regards
TomO

Kevin was talking of a Rose-Add-In. Now you're talking about one for EA. Can you give a pointer where to download that, or is it for ICONIX customers only?

[KevinH]

At this stage I do not have the Agile ICONIX add-in for EA.  Would you point me to where I can get it?  BTW, I normally create my robustness diagrams as analysis (not activity) diagrams.  Will this present a problem using the Add-In?

[TomO]

Hey Kevin,
We wrote the Add-In for Doug Rosenberg. It’s available on the EA for Power Users CD:
http://www.sparxsystems.com/partners/iconix/iconixcdeafpu.html

Or alternatively you can contact Iconix directly:
http://www.iconixsw.com/EA/PowerUsers.html

To answer your second question, yes and no. The Add-in wont run unless its an Activity diagram, but EA has the ability to change the diagram type for you under Diagram | Change Diagram Type. For a generic robustness diagram, this should cause no major problems.

TomO