assembly has no provided/required interface

[gtynen]

If I expose a provided or required interface from a component, I get a dialog that lets me choose the interface I'm exposing.

But an assembly connector doesn't do that, there is no way to establish a relationship between the ends of an assembly connector and an interface.

Also it would be cool if you could easily switch between an assembly connector and a provided and required interface connected by a dependency. My understanding is that these are equivalent statements in UML. Something like split and join.

[«Midnight»]

Look up Expose Interface in the EA help. Once you get the hang of how EA sees these you'll still find uses for the Assembly connector.

[IMHO] A dependency in UML serves various purposes. The equivalency would be shaky at best, and would not likely be the best way to design a general-purpose UML tool.

HTH, David

[gtynen]

UML Superstructure Specification, v2.1.2, page 153:
The wiring of components can be represented on structure diagrams by means of classifiers and dependencies between them (Note: the ball-and-socket notation from Figure 8.15 may be used as a notation option for dependency based wiring). (where the ball-and-socket notation shown looks just like Assembly, but I could be wrong)

In the EA Help you refer to it says
to depict the fact that the provided interface is used, or the required interface provided by another element, use the Assembly connector.

...which makes me think the Assembly connector ought to have some way of indicating which interface is being provided and required.

[«Midnight»]

Yes, that's what the specification says.

It does not say that these "are equivalent statements" as near as I can tell.

And yes, that's what the EA Assembly connector does. Although you might be able to add a label to make the interface clear, I don't think that's the real purpose of the Assembly connector. Many UML diagrams - or specific instances of diagram types - would be cluttered if all interfaces were named. For these diagrams it can be enough to show that the link between elements (often components, but not always) is via an interface. Thus the connector.

In order to specify (more completely) an interface EA provides an Expose Interface feature. This allows you to define and document either 'end' (the ball or the socket) of an interface, and to join these together.

Look them up; you'll see. EA has a way that it 'wants' you to do this, and you have to play by EA's rules on this. It can be a bit of a pain at first, but the results are pretty good once you get over the initial speed bump. Play around a bit and things will be just fine.

[And once you've got your head around the EA conventions, you'll be in a good position to send feature requests to Sparx if you feel they need to improve this area.]

David