No more submachine states

[Frank Horn]

Just filed a bug report:

EA Version / Build: 859

Details:

1. Embedded elements (enty/exit points) are not supported for state machines anymore.
2. Instances of states cannot be created anymore.

This is inacceptable. State machines created with prior versions of EA cannot be changed if they use these features. Now you can either provide a state with embedded elements, but you cannot use it because EA won't let you create an instance of the state. Or you can create an instance of a state machine, but it can have no embedded elements, and thus cannot be used as source or target for transitions.

If this is not fixed very quickly, we will have to downgrade to EA 7.5 or use another modelling tool.

Steps to Reproduction:

Just try to set up a state machine diagram like in "Unified Modeling Language: Superstructure" version 2.1.1 (Figure 15.39). It used to be possible in EA 7.5, but EA 8 won't let you.

[Eve]

I'm not too familiar with modelling of state machines, but if I right click on a state and select Embedded Elements | Add Exit Point, then I can create that notation.

It's also the only way I can find to do the same thing in 7.5.

[Frank Horn]

I'm not too familiar with modelling of state machines, but if I right click on a state and select Embedded Elements | Add Exit Point, then I can create that notation.

It's also the only way I can find to do the same thing in 7.5.

Yes, you can define embedded elements on a state. But they are useless, because you cannot instantiate a state.

In EA 7.5. you could define embedded elements on a state machine element, which is not possible anymore in EA 8. And a state machine element you can instantiate, and you can use the instances as submachine states in a containing state machine.

[Frank Horn]

After some days of correspondencce with Sparx support I now know how to create submachine states with connection point references in EA 8. They told me the feature introduced in EA 7.5 (embedded elements context menu on state machines) and abolished in EA 8.0 will be reestablished with the next release.

For the time being, embedded entry and exit points can be created via quick linker.  The  way to do this seems a little perverted to me (especially with entry points), but it works:

Put a state machine into a diagram and model it's inner structure. For embedded exit points, drag via quick linker from an inner state to the machine. For embedded entry points, do the same, but then delete the transition (the menu for reversing the direction is disabled for reasons known to Sparx alone) and draw a new transition from the new entry point to the inner state.

This will create a state machine with embedded connection points, and instances of it will have an "Embedded" context menu to create connection point references and can be used in other state machines.

This also relates to a General Board thread of a month ago:

http://www.sparxsystems.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1277728125

[Frank Horn]

Hasn't been fixed in Build 861.

[Frank Horn]

This has been fixed with build 864. State machine handling in EA is still far from consinstent, anyway. Other issues concerning submachine states remain, e.g.

http://www.sparxsystems.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1280489456/0#1