Consistency - Profile/Toolbox/Quicklink - Example

[wikitect]

There is a consistency problem in EA in the metaclasses that are available when a) building a UML profile b) creating toolbox palettes c) creating Quicklink definitions for relationships.

The problem is that the sets of metaclasses exposed for extension are different. This causes problems.

For example, I have a relationship 'traces to' between a (reference) Document and any other stereotype in my architecture framework.

In the UML profile for TRAK I have tracesTo which extends the UML metaclass 'Trace'. This is fine.

If I want to create this relationship from the toolbox palette I can  only extend TraceLink (not Trace). The net result is that I get a relationship which is stereotyped as both 'trace' and 'tracesTo'.

I then want to allow someone using Quicklink to do the same. Unfortunately the set of classes which can be extended using Quicklink has nothing like a Trace class leaving me to have a bare Association or Dependency.

EA therefore causes 3 different types of relationship to be created because there isn't access to single harmonised set of classes when extending the base UML in the different parts of the UI.

Not good.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Agreed!

I'm now working in this area and it's frustrating...

Consistency, Consistency, Consistency! ^TM

Paolo