Sparx Systems Forum
Enterprise Architect => General Board => Topic started by: dknox on February 17, 2003, 10:12:17 am
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Hi,
Great strides in 3.51!! I started using the UML Patterns feature and was inspired to ask for this change. Could the pattern be dropped onto a diagram as a package template?
Here is my line of thought: Diagrams can get cluttered quickly. I have adopted a style suggested by the Agile Modeling folks that puts a soft limit on the number of classifier entities in a diagram. When the number climbs to around 10 or more, I begin to refactor the diagram into many diagrams each with a particular component of the whole. Patterns are a natural fit for defining reusable components. I'd like to drag a pattern onto a diagram as a package that realizes one or more interfaces.
Presently, a pattern reveals its internals when it is placed onto a diagram. This clutters the diagram and if approached from the component perspective the detail is not useful because the internals are defined in the pattern's own diagram. The diagram that uses the package can trace to the diagram that defines the internals. The idea will probably remind some folks of an import, and there are some similarites. But, detailing a pattern as an import is not accurate.
Currently the EA pattern mechanism asks for the interface names that need to be 'renamed' for the instance of the pattern. This mechanisim can be extended in my paradigm as asking for the interfaces that will be revealed to the pattern user. This implies that the interfaces are realized by the package that encapsulates the pattern and are available for extension by the user.
As a last comment, UML 2.0 is moving toward this idea and details patterns as Package Extensions. There is also some interesting OMG work on profiles for component collaboration called EDOC. The pattern profile that EDOC defines is very much like what I have tried to describe above.
thanks,
-- dave