Creating a link using Quicklink isn’t the same as creating one using a toolbox palette object because Enterprise Architect provides access to different stereotypes (classes) in the creation of the relationship. They might appear to be the same type (stereotype/class) but they aren’t when looked at in detail.
Take the TRAK MDG Technology for EA.
TRAK defines a relationship connector - a Resource Interaction - between 2 Resources (Capability Configuration, Physical, Software, Organisation, Job, Role).
Using the Custom Toolbox Palette to Create a Relationship
In the toolbox palette for the SV-01 - Solution Resource Interaction Description - the Resource Interaction connector is defined as:-
TRAK::ResourceInteraction(UML::InformationFlow)
this causes it to reference the ResourceInteraction stereotype in the TRAK profile. In other words it creates a TRAK Resource Interaction class that has the attributes defined for the class and treats it like a UML InformationFlow in terms of presentation and behaviour in EA. Looking at the attributes (tagged values) you can see that it has attributes like InteractionType which can be selected from a drop down list (Unknown, Energy, Data, Materiel).
This is what was intended.
Using Quicklink to Make a Relationship
EA provides the Quicklink mechanism to make links by dragging from the arrow on the selected stereotype and onto the target stereotype. The relationships offered are defined within the MDG technology and can depend on diagram type, source and target stereotypes.
In the the TRAK MDG Technology for EA the corresponding definition is:-
Class, CapabilityConfiguration, Class, Job, TRAK::SV02;, InformationFlow,ResourceInteraction, to, RI from --> to, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, 0
Class, Job, Class, CapabilityConfiguration, TRAK::SV02;, InformationFlow, ResourceInteraction, to, RI from --> to, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, 0
this covers the creation of a relationship between a single pair of stereotypes (Capability Configuration and Job) on a SV02 diagram depending on which stereotype is selected as the source.
In the Quicklink definition only a limited set of object types can be used as the types to be created. It can't create an object type using a definition within the UML profile within the MDG Technology (unlike the toolbox object definition). In this case Quicklink creates a relationship of type InformationFlow and then stereotypes this as ‘ResourceInteraction’. This isn’t, however, the same type of object as a TRAK ResourceInteraction which is presented as an InformationFlow. The relationship created using Quicklink has only the baseline set of attributes with no tagged values.
This is caused by the EA toolbox palette definition and quicklinker definitions having access to different sets of source object types. This is something that needs to be corrected as it is misleading in terms of presentation / semantics. It also means that the where a custom relationship is defined with attributes (tagged values) quicklink cannot be used to create the relationship negating one of the nice parts of the UI.
This is serious error when trying to apply an architecture framework since it means that the resulting model will potentially not conform if Quicklink is used.
