Sparx Systems Forum

Enterprise Architect => Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools => Topic started by: Ian Mitchell on March 15, 2014, 01:17:51 am

Title: Example for creating new Learning Center material
Post by: Ian Mitchell on March 15, 2014, 01:17:51 am: I've only just discovered that we're allowed to create content for the Learning Center, which would mean I can write training material which the user can view at the same time they are using EA: should be great!
But the instructions are quite brief, and I've spent a while not making much progress.
Does anyone have an example - even a simple 'hello world' one - which shows how I can create a bunch of pages, have them link to each other, and have some diagrams etc. this would help me see what I'm aiming at. Or perhaps Sparx might make a little bit of the actual Learning Center content available, as a ready-made example?
Title: Re: Example for creating new Learning Center mater
Post by: KP on March 17, 2014, 08:44:33 am: Search the help for "Create Learning Center Profiles". It's all done in technologies.
Title: Re: Example for creating new Learning Center mater
Post by: Eve on March 17, 2014, 10:06:42 am: With Version 11 we now recommend creating a package of document artifacts. There is also a script that saves all the artifacts to file including an index file (for hyperlinking to a document) and ordering (based off tree order).

Your add-in can then call the function Repository.AddDocumentationPath to point to the root location of all your documents.
Title: Re: Example for creating new Learning Center mater
Post by: RoyC on March 17, 2014, 12:23:03 pm: If you are reviewing the version 11 beta release, the new process for dealing with Learning Center pages is not currently documented, but it will be soon.
Title: Re: Example for creating new Learning Center mater
Post by: Ian Mitchell on March 18, 2014, 03:03:00 am: Ah Ha! - I am using v11 Beta, so I'll wait for the full documentation.
It would still be really good if you could include a little example.
Thanks
Title: Re: Example for creating new Learning Center mater
Post by: EXploringEA on March 19, 2014, 03:57:12 am: Hi Ian,

I've always wanted to test this out, so as a diversion I've spent a couple of hours experimenting; found a few of funnies/bugs which would appear as showstoppers, but identified workarounds and then all seems to work well. Have done a write-up on my blog with examples -
http://exploringea.com/2014/03/18/adding-a-learning-centre-to-your-mdg/

Hopefully useful for you and others :)
Title: Re: Example for creating new Learning Center mater
Post by: Eve on March 19, 2014, 09:23:13 am: Quote
found a few of funnies/bugs which would appear as showstoppers
The biggest one is that everything you've done will be useless in v11.

Everything else was of very limited use, now the window only shows documents. And if you have an add-in you can call the AddDocumentationPath to make EA look in any location for the documents.

At a minimum in v11 all you need to do is call that function with a path that contains rtf.
If you want to control the order additional text files in each directory can specify it.
If you want to have an example model that includes hyperlinks to your documentation then you'll also want an index file.
There is a script in v11 that will generate all that from a package of document artifacts.
Title: Re: Example for creating new Learning Center mater
Post by: EXploringEA on March 19, 2014, 07:42:24 pm: Hi Simon,

Thanks for the feedback - looks like I will need to repeat my experiment when I get around to using V11, that's the fun of experimenting with software, unless you guys include a worked example in which case I can point V11 users to that.

I do think that there will still be many users will be on V10 for a while.

Are you also saying that in V11 MDG learning centers developed in previous versions will be incompatible and so if somebody already has an MDG they will need to recode it?

Thanks

A quick update:

I installed V11 on a test machine and loaded a simple MDG OK but as I suspected, based on your response, without the learning center pages.

So checked the help file and this still references the "old ways" - I know it's still early days for V11 but can you advise where the documentation is for doing it the new way please.

Thanks
Title: Re: Example for creating new Learning Center mater
Post by: RoyC on March 20, 2014, 08:51:01 am: >> So checked the help file and this still references the "old ways" - I know it's still early days for V11 but can you advise where the documentation is for doing it the new way please.

As I mentioned earlier, it is still in production. It will be available in a later release of EA 11.
Title: Re: Example for creating new Learning Center mater
Post by: EXploringEA on March 20, 2014, 04:50:12 pm: Thanks Roy

No problem with waiting - will keep a look out as V11 progresses
BR
Title: Re: Example for creating new Learning Center mater
Post by: Ian Mitchell on March 21, 2014, 12:13:08 am: Basing the v11 mechanism on RTF documents seems much more sensible, as these kinds of help files need rich content.
Where is the script which you mention, which will do the conversion, or is that one of the 'in progress' bits?
I'm really keen on the idea of delivering training material about EA using EA itself, so I'm happy to have a go with anything that's available.
Title: Re: Example for creating new Learning Center mater
Post by: Eve on March 21, 2014, 08:41:43 am: It's already there in the scripting view.

Under Local Scripts you'll find 'VBScript - Create Learning Center Books'.

You can open it up and see what it does, but there's not much too it. It will take the filename from the top level package as the root to generate documentation to.