Sparx Systems Forum
Enterprise Architect => General Board => Topic started by: rupertkiwi on March 01, 2017, 12:21:42 pm
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Is it possible to store the repository connection details somewhere so that when EA is deployed to a new user the connection details are available to them rather than having to set them up manually? Can this be stored in the registry somewhere?
Thanks,
Rupert
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Is it possible to store the repository connection details somewhere so that when EA is deployed to a new user the connection details are available to them rather than having to set them up manually? Can this be stored in the registry somewhere?
What sort of repository? EAP files are in the registry in the recent file list.
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All types of repositories (eap, DB and cloud) are stored here.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sparx Systems\EA400\EA\Recent File List
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Also Active Directory group policy preferences allow you to create data sources on a machine. Potentially you could use this with EA.
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For a larger-than-tiny client, ie one that has some basic IT infrastructure like a file server, here's what I usually set up:
1) Create a shared EA directory.
2) In that directory, create a Shortcuts subdirectory.
3) Whenever you set up a new EA project, whether it's an .EAP on a fileshare or a proper database, go to the File menu and select Save Shortcut.
This saves an .EAP file which is actually just a text file with the connection details.
(When you've done this a few times you can actually create the file manually. The format is undocumented, but it's pretty straightforward.)
4) Instruct the users that when connecting to a new project for the first time, start EA with no project, then browse to the shortcut directory and open the shortcut from there. This will store the shortcut in EA's recent file list, from which it is accessible in EA as well as the Windows taskbar if you've pinned EA there.
An advantage with this approach is that you can enforce project names. In EA, projects don't actually have names -- what's displayed in the window title is the name of file or the database depending on connection type -- but if everyone uses the same shortcut file, you can control what gets displayed. Which can be useful when fielding support requests.
The shared EA directory can also contain an MDG Technology deployment directory, which the EA clients can be configured to use. If you're in an environment where you're repackaging EA for internal distribution, you can set this up in your own installation package.
Using your own installer you can pre-fill the recent file list as well, of course, but only with repositories that are known at the time you create the installer. My solution puts a little more work on the users (though not a lot) but is more robust.
If you prefer, you can put the shortcuts on a web page instead. But that has the disadvantage that they won't go in the recent file list, since EA doesn't store a file in the recent list if it gets launched by the OS (as the file handler of .EAP files) -- the user has to explicitly open the connection from inside EA for the recent list to get updated.
HTH,
/Uffe
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We simply send each new user the shortcut that encodes the connection details (as an attachment to the welcome email they get with some instructions).