Sparx Systems Forum

Enterprise Architect => Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools => Topic started by: skelesp on August 27, 2013, 11:56:53 pm

Title: MDG technology: reverse engineer from XML
Post by: skelesp on August 27, 2013, 11:56:53 pm
Hi

Is it possible in EA to reverse engineer the MDG technology model starting from the technology XML?

I would like to see how some features are implemented in a certain technology, so I could do the same in my newly created technology...

Greets

S.
Title: Re: MDG technology: reverse engineer from XML
Post by: qwerty on August 28, 2013, 04:08:29 am
No. You can't do that. An MDG is a compilation like the binary you get from code. You can RE it (more like Java than C code) but there's no cross-compiler (XSLT) available.

q.
Title: Re: MDG technology: reverse engineer from XML
Post by: csousa on August 29, 2013, 04:58:56 am
Quote
Is it possible in EA to reverse engineer the MDG technology model starting from the technology XML?

I would also like this feature. I have found some oversights in the provided MDG plugin.  Editing the XML is possible but tricky.  I was hoping Sparx would provide the source models for the open source MDGs but they are (so far) unwilling.
Title: Re: MDG technology: reverse engineer from XML
Post by: kevinlyons on July 29, 2016, 11:08:23 am
Hello (if anybody is still interested)

Yes, it is possible to RE from the MDG XML into EA.

I've sometimes misplaced the ea model that I used to design my MDG and then generate into the XML.
I had the XML because that is what EA imports at startup. I like to put these on a web server directory because deployment of a new version is easier.
And I had lost all the images that where used in shape scripts and alternate images, so I needed to write a tool to recover all of this.

At a rough guess I'm about 80% done. I'm thinking of making it a Add-in. Would this be useful to anyone else?

Regards,
K
Title: Re: MDG technology: reverse engineer from XML
Post by: qwerty on July 29, 2016, 04:03:37 pm
I guess that yes. But which market you are targeting - no idea.

q.
Title: Re: MDG technology: reverse engineer from XML
Post by: Paolo F Cantoni on July 29, 2016, 05:01:34 pm
I'd be interested.

We've been maintaining a VERY large MDG manually for over a year.  Reverse engineering it into a model would be MOST useful.

Can you discuss what your process does?  We can then comment on it.

Paolo
Title: Re: MDG technology: reverse engineer from XML
Post by: RodneyRichardson on June 13, 2025, 09:13:29 pm
Hello (if anybody is still interested)

Yes, it is possible to RE from the MDG XML into EA.

I've sometimes misplaced the ea model that I used to design my MDG and then generate into the XML.
I had the XML because that is what EA imports at startup. I like to put these on a web server directory because deployment of a new version is easier.
And I had lost all the images that where used in shape scripts and alternate images, so I needed to write a tool to recover all of this.

At a rough guess I'm about 80% done. I'm thinking of making it a Add-in. Would this be useful to anyone else?

Regards,
K

Hi Kevin, I know this is a pretty old topic, but did you ever finish or publish your Add-in for this? I think people would find it helpful.
Title: Re: MDG technology: reverse engineer from XML
Post by: Geert Bellekens on June 13, 2025, 09:29:01 pm
Me too :)

I found myself recently trying to recreate a UML profile model from a profile xml thinking: this would be some much easier if I simply automated this.
Doesn't even look that complex.

Geert