Sparx Systems Forum

Enterprise Architect => Uml Process => Topic started by: qwerty on April 29, 2013, 09:15:30 pm

Title: Show includes/extends in an activity diagram
Post by: qwerty on April 29, 2013, 09:15:30 pm

I got stuck with this one so maybe someone has a nice solution: In a use case "UC A" a single step in a scenario might read "The actor X performs the use case 'UC B'.". In a UC diagram you see either a <<includes>> or <<extends>> relation between both UCs. But how would one show that in the activity diagram for "UC A"? Assuming you have only a single activity in use case "UC B" and named this "Activity for UC B" (which from the "UC B" perspective looks like an over-definition) you could use that as a link element appearing in "UC A"s activity diagram. But probably there's another way to show that?

q.

Title: Re: Show includes/extends in an activity diagram
Post by: Geert Bellekens on April 29, 2013, 10:59:00 pm

Have you tried it using the automated scenario diagrams?

IIRC there is an option that creates an activity for each use case, and call that activity from a CallBehaviorAction on the activity diagram.

You should never have Activities on Activity Diagrams (http://geertbellekens.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/uml-best-practice-there-are-no-activities-on-an-activity-diagram/), only actions

Geert

Title: Re: Show includes/extends in an activity diagram
Post by: qwerty on April 29, 2013, 11:58:41 pm

I don't use the structured scenarios. Even though I would not know how to add a step that actually represents the inclusion of a use case.

In general I agree that ADs should only have actions. But sometimes it's convenient to group a part-scenario in a single activity and use that. YMMV

In the meantime I have just placed the UC on the AD and created a trace from the according action.

Regarding the CallBehaviorAcion: I faintly remember having seen that. But how do you access that?

q.

Title: Re: Show includes/extends in an activity diagram
Post by: philchudley on April 30, 2013, 01:37:01 am

• Represent the included or extending use case with an [highlight]Activity [/highlight]element
  
• Add an [highlight]Action [/highlight]element from the [highlight]Activity Diagram [/highlight]toolbox
  
• EA will present a [highlight]menu of Action types[/highlight]
  
• Select [highlight]Call Behavior[/highlight]
  
• EA will then show a dialog from which you can either [highlight]browse [/highlight]for the necessary Activity, [highlight]create a new Activity [/highlight]or [highlight]search [/highlight]for an Activity
  

Cheers

Phil

Title: Re: Show includes/extends in an activity diagram
Post by: qwerty on April 30, 2013, 02:52:09 am

Quote

• EA will present a [highlight]menu of Action types[/highlight]
  

Cheers

Phil

I think I've seen that too, but I get only a normal properties window. (Maybe it's a bad day?)

q.

Title: Re: Show includes/extends in an activity diagram
Post by: qwerty on April 30, 2013, 02:58:16 am

However, I found it under Properties/Advanced/kind. You can classify an action with an activity. Hmm. Probably too heavy weight - and I'll stay with the trace relation? Need to think over that.

- later -

Looks like this is more meant for a real function call, not for a use case inclusion. The reason is that a use case does not have a parameter (unlike function calls). I guess the better way is to use trace. Unless someone else comes up with a better idea.

q.