TaggedValues for Parameters not available

[thomas.kilian]

for the automation interface in beta01 and 02.

Bug submitted.

[Frank Horn]

I think they have never been accessible through automation so far. Not sure if Sparx will regard this as a bug or just as a missing feature. But it's a nuisance for sure.

[«Midnight»]

I beg to differ Frank,

IMO it is not a nuisance, it is a bug. I was hoping they would resolve this for the next release, which would be 7.1. Apparently not so far.

It is a real PITA going into the database to 'supplement' the API. Somewhere down the line playing around like that will lead to grief.

Hopefully this will be taken care of during the beta.

David

PS: Thanks for adding your weight to this abcde...

[Frank Horn]

David,

if this is a bug, then you could browse the automation interface and probably submit some more bug reports (one for each inaccessible property and one for each missing menu operation).  And what about all the things not accessible in code generation, shape scripting, reporting?

So far I have refrained from going to the database. But I confess that I have been tempted to export to XMI, read it into a DOM and get my supplement from there. That's crap, of course, but I'm actually trying to avoid EA's inbuilt scipting languages and the automation interface whereever I can get things done by operating on the XMI. They can't hide anything there...

Frank

PS: Maybe next time my user ID becomes invalid, I'll return as fghij...

[«Midnight»]

...you could browse the automation interface and probably submit some more bug reports (one for each inaccessible property and one for each missing menu operation).  And what about all the things not accessible in code generation, shape scripting, reporting?

So far I have refrained from going to the database. But I confess that I have been tempted to export to XMI, read it into a DOM and get my supplement from there. That's crap, of course, but I'm actually trying to avoid EA's inbuilt scipting languages and the automation interface whereever I can get things done by operating on the XMI. They can't hide anything there...

I hear you Frank!

I have mentioned a few of these, but have refrained from sending a blizzard of API reports. I sometimes think not doing so was a mistake.

As to the XMI solution, one of my big issues is the need to drop a file for package exports (XMI, generation, whatever). The project interface XML interface is incredibly inconsistent, and intolerably undocumented, so it is really not a solid solution. [Anyone who wants an example should compare the GUID strings returned by the various XML calls. There are three formats used by EA; can you spot the third?] But not being able to extract anything else to a string is ridiculous.

I just ran into an old 'gotcha' that causes the Interop assembly to behave differently than the COM interface. The end result was that I had to tweak the database after new elements had been saved; definitely a recipe for disaster. I've worked around it, but I really don't like the resulting code.

Perhaps I will start the blizzard after all. Correcting the API should not affect the EA feature set, but it is long overdue.

David

[Paolo F Cantoni]

I have mentioned a few of these, but have refrained from sending a blizzard of API reports. I sometimes think not doing so was a mistake.

David,

In my view it was.  Given the state of EA, it is obvious Sparx can't be everywhere - they need to know where all the problems are so that they can make better decisions about what to "hit".

Speaking for myself, I prefer to know where all the problems are.

What intrigues me, is (whiteout proof) that they don't seem to be using their own API to do the job internally - if they did, the problems would be fixed "toot sweet"

Paolo

[thomas.kilian]

Letter from Sparx:

Thank you for your report.  We are aware of the missing TaggedValues
collection on the Parameter object and we do hope to implement this for
a future release.  No official word as yet however as to which build
this might come in.

[«Midnight»]

Well, that's a relief!

Until then - perhaps EA 9.0 or even 8.x sometime - just avoid using parameters. Or use parameters, but avoid using automation. Or use them both, but avoid success.

No problem.

[Geert Bellekens]

You have my support as well.
I think every possible action/property that can be accessed via the GUI should be acessible from the API.
Once the API reached a sufficient level of completeness it would be nice if they would add some "functional" functions to the API.
Now, when writing an Addin, half of the development time is spent on "helper" functions rather than the actual functionality.
I'm thinking about stuff like "get all elements of type x from a diagram or package", easy navigating between related element/packages; so without the need to calll "repository.getElementByID" etc..