Pre 8.0 triggers specifications broken in 8.0

[Geert Bellekens]

In 7.5 you could specify a specification in the trigger field of a transition, without specifying the actual trigger.
In 8.0 that is not possible anymore.
This becomes an issue with the existing pre-8.0 trigger specifications of transitions.
These specifications cannot be edited anymore in 8.0
You can simulate the same situation in 8.0 by deleting a trigger that is used in a transition.

Reported as bug.

Geert

[Geert Bellekens]

Received following response from Sparx:

Hello Geert,

Thanks for the note.

As far as I know, In v7.5 you wouldn't be able to save a specification
for a transition without any triggers in the first place,
but if an associated trigger is deleted, the name of the trigger is
retained in...
1) the transition label
2) specification field of transition
There was no actual trigger and it only served as a label (with no
significant event definition)

In v8.0, the triggers support has been significantly improved to support
signals, operations from the model to be associated to the triggers,
ability to specify trigger's event information in the Trigger elements'
properties dialog (trigger tab), ability to choose triggers from
anywhere in the model, etc.

But still to support backward compatibility:
the dummy specification (discussed above), is still retained in the
transition's label (in diagram)
the dummy specification is also retained during export/ import, etc
but, the "specification" field has been intentionally made readonly,
because, if you tend to modify the specification, you are expected to do
it the right way by creating a new trigger or choosing an existing
trigger from the model

Sorry for any inconvenience caused, but this one additional step
(creating or choosing trigger, as opposed to editing the labels, will
greatly improve the models integrity).

I replied:

Thanks for the elaborate explanation.
It could very well be that the offending trigger specifications were created in a previous version (6.5?).
I understand the reason for the change, and I don't mind that in itself.
The problem I have is that I don't see a convenient way to migrate the existing specification into the specification of a new trigger.
I would even be happy if there is a way to copy/paste the existing specification so I can at least manually migrate to the usage of proper triggers.
Could you please
- provide a patch that automatically creates the missing triggers, with the old specification
- or at least give me some procedure on how to manually copy/past the old specification into a new trigger specification

[Geert Bellekens]

Received a reassuring response from Sparx support:

We have made the specification box readonly (as opposed to disabling the
window) to enable copying any existing specification text. This will
hopefully take effect in the next build.

With this solution we can at least copy the specifications iso having to re-type them.

Thanks Sparx!

Geert

[Geert Bellekens]

Too bad, no solution in the 8.0.856.
I guess I'll have to wait another release to be able to roll out EA 8.0  

Geert