Sparx Systems Forum

Enterprise Architect => Suggestions and Requests => Topic started by: Polymorph on February 24, 2016, 10:28:41 pm

Title: Notes, Rationale and Comments as selectable items
Post by: Polymorph on February 24, 2016, 10:28:41 pm: Notes, rationales, comments etc are not represented in the project browser; despite (apparently) being stored in the same package as the diagram on which they are first created.

The inability to re-use rationale elements on multiple diagrams makes traceability and design justification more cumbersome that it otherwise might be

Suggestion: EA already provides the "issues" element which is (not a SysML or base UML element) which can be re-used in multiple elements. Why can't we have a similar capability for notes/comments/rationales, which are SysML elements? Competitor products do this (e.g. Rhapsody) ;)
Title: Re: Notes, Rationale and Comments as selectable items
Post by: qwerty on February 24, 2016, 11:25:26 pm: +1 though I don't have much hope. It has been discussed formerly. Maybe another (!) flag in the option forest could allow to customize the browser to show those hidden elements.

q.
Title: Re: Notes, Rationale and Comments as selectable items
Post by: Polymorph on February 29, 2016, 07:41:38 pm: Quote
option forest

Haha - I shall adopt that phrase from now on ;)
Title: Re: Notes, Rationale and Comments as selectable items
Post by: Uffe on February 29, 2016, 10:49:35 pm: I hesitate to mention this, because I consider it Extremely Bad Practice (TM), but --

The non-browser elements are still elements. You can copy them between diagrams just like any other element (Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V to re-reference the existing element, or Ctrl-C / Shift-Ctrl-V to create a duplicate). I don't recommend this at all, but there are situations when it's the best option.

But the long and short of it is that EA has two categories of elements: real ones and these semi-ghostly ones which are really only intended to be shown in a single diagram. If you want to reuse things, use proper elements. Or go against EA's design philosophy and do something like I outlined above. Just don't come crying to me when your model breaks. ;)

/Uffe
Title: Re: Notes, Rationale and Comments as selectable items
Post by: qwerty on March 01, 2016, 02:31:03 am: Not un-true. But especially with notes I often had the case where I wanted to re-use the exactly same note in several diagrams.

If the above states true, then please explain why you can see lifelines which are intended to appear in only one SD. Somehow this is all a bit schizophrenic.

q.
Title: Re: Notes, Rationale and Comments as selectable items
Post by: Uffe on March 01, 2016, 03:28:06 am: Yes, one situation where I've used note trickery before is where I have a diagram inside a package, and I want to display the package's notes in the diagram contained within it. I then drag the package into the diagram, create a Note, link it to the package's Notes field, and remove the package from the diagram.

As for lifelines, well... Sequence diagrams are a law unto themselves. But, credit where it's due, the reason they're a bit of a strange beast in EA is that, well, they're a bit of a strange beast in UML.

So let's say that EA has two and a half categories of element, shall we? :)

/Uffe
Title: Re: Notes, Rationale and Comments as selectable items
Post by: qwerty on March 01, 2016, 03:46:00 am: Two and a half categories. Sounds reasonable. Who's the main actor? Charlie Sheen?

q.
Title: Re: Notes, Rationale and Comments as selectable items
Post by: Paolo F Cantoni on March 01, 2016, 10:31:45 am: Quote from: qwerty on March 01, 2016, 03:46:00 am
Two and a half categories. Sounds reasonable. Who's the main actor? Charlie Sheen?

q.
He's (q) on fire this week! ;D

Paolo
Title: Re: Notes, Rationale and Comments as selectable items
Post by: qwerty on March 01, 2016, 11:05:46 am: I burn all time. But it wasn't me starting with 2 1/2. I was just spilling oil into the flame.

q.