Sparx Systems Forum
Enterprise Architect => Uml Process => Topic started by: lipmanc on August 27, 2009, 03:01:24 am
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I have a BPMN diagram with three swimlanes. There is a group of activities in one swimlane that I also want to show in another swimlane, so I made a sub-process (or composite) that includes those activities.
Everything is fine when I include the first instance of the composite activity (e.g., when I double click it, it takes me to the sub-process detail).
When I try to include the same composite in another swimlane of the same diagram EA does not allow it (since an instance already exists on the diagram). So how do I show that the same composite in two different places on the same diagram?
This concept of reuse seems rather basic, so how do I make it work in EA?
Craig
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Unfortunately this is one of the major drawbacks of EA in my opinion.
There is no possibility to display a certain element twice on a diagram.
There have been a number of feature requests for this, but so far no response from Sparx.
In the meantime you could use instances of your activity as a workaround. You can create multiple instances of an element and put those on the diagram. (in this context they are called "Invocation of Activity (Action))
Use Ctrl-drag when putting the activity on the diagram.
Geert
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When I have an activity that is being performed by more than one actor (partition) I stretch the shape across the partitions... Of course this is not always possible (e.g., A & C particpate, but B does not... how to you indicate the stretched activity is not including B...)
As to the activity occurring again on the same diagram... I have always considered an activity (in the context of a use case) as being unique to that UC... for an <<extend>> UC, I model that UC's flow, then drop that activity onto the base diagram...
I could provide a sample if that might help?
David