Messages

1

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Belleken's EA Toolpack not visible in EA 16? (works on 32 bit version!)

« on: August 02, 2022, 11:12:22 pm »

Hi Geert,
I've installed EA 16 32 bit version, and installed your 32 bit version tool pack.
the 32 bit version works 3 times faster AND EA-MATIC works perfectly right from the start without any interventions or issues!

I'm guessing the issue is as explained in the previous post. Hope it helps you with resovling the 64-bit issue.
I'll be continuing using 32 bit version for the time being.
damir

2

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Belleken's EA Toolpack not visible in EA 16?

« on: July 27, 2022, 10:27:29 pm »

Hi Geert
thank you, I apologize for late reply, I'm very busy so it's hard for me to carve out the time for this although it is my daily frustration....

yes, resolved the magic word, MsgBox usage and made sure there is only one script that is called for the same event. It seems that (at least in 64bit version) function EA_OnPostNewConnector(Info) has an issue with

following lines of code

dim connectorID
   connectorID = Info.Get("ConnectorID")
   dim connector
   set connector = Repository.GetConnectorByID(connectorID)
   'get the current diagram
   dim diagram
   set diagram = Repository.GetCurrentDiagram()

here is the latest video 1 minute 20 seconds
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19xX7DmK7Z1L--son4ilDgxrgkzE9h4UV/view?usp=sharing

p.s. I haven't tried the 32bit version. I was hoping 64 bit version would be faster. It is so slow that I need to wait for ages to get notes from an element clicked on a diagram (like 3 to 5 seconds, local eapx file!). I just reopened the same project in 15.2 version of EA, and it works as fast as it should be working. I've deactivated antivirus, firewall etc... just to make sure it's not it...

what do you suggest next?
best regards
Damir

3

Suggestions and Requests / Final state to be selectable in the "Set instance state" dialog box

« on: July 13, 2022, 10:05:41 pm »

I couldn't find reference as to how to do it, or why it is not supported to set an instance state in activity diagram to a final state for that element as specified by it's state machine. I don't see from the UML validity standpoint why this wouldn't be available. It is natural that some actions in the activity diagram may set an instance's state to a final state. It is a final state - not a termination - of the specific instance.

IMHO this should be added as possibility. Any thoughts or workarounds on this?

4

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Belleken's EA Toolpack not visible in EA 16?

« on: July 12, 2022, 07:10:43 pm »

Thank you Geert for explanation,
I made simple hello world VB script that runs OK when manually run without EA-matic.
in current EA-matic UI I cannot see this script. the only script visible in UI is the one that existed before for default line styles. I've added simple system.output commands on each of the functions in that script but it is not fired. I wasn't able to figure out how to make EA-matic see other scripts at all. ea-matic add in is enabled in the Manage Addin window.
I wasn't able to dig up any help/doc/instructions on how to use new UI for EA-matic, maybe I'm doing something wrong on a basic level....?

I've made 3 min screen recording for you : https://drive.google.com/file/d/19upUODbgt0-ByJ-gOe__W3jtCGwftsk3/view?usp=sharing

many thanks!
damir

5

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Belleken's EA Toolpack not visible in EA 16?

« on: July 11, 2022, 08:31:08 pm »

sorry, do you mean debug script for default lines or debug the script of the ea-matic?

anyhow, I did set breakpoints in the default line styles script and tested it before, but it didn't stop there.

when I selected to run the script with debugger, I got this series of messages in debugger window

[568064308]      Stack recording threshold set to 3 frames
[568064432]      Default Directory is C:\Program Files\Sparx Systems\EA
[568064434]      Agent dll found: C:\PROGRA~1\SPARXS~1\EA\SScript.dll
[568064437]      Default Directory is C:\Program Files\Sparx Systems\EA
[568064441]      Agent: Started
[568064623]      Microsoft Process Debug Manager creation Failed: 0x80040154
[568064624]      This is included as part of various Microsoft products.
[568064624]      Download the Microsoft Script Debugger to install it.
[568064625]      Failed to initialize VBScript engine
[568064626]      Warning, all breakpoints failed to bind, check binaries built with debug information and source files synchronized with Model
[568064628]      Debug Session Ended

ahh... I soooo don't have time for this now.... I'm still guessing this is not the source of the issues as this means I can't start the debugger (I need to install it from somewhere??), but the script can be run...

6

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Belleken's EA Toolpack not visible in EA 16?

« on: July 10, 2022, 07:54:57 pm »

Thank you Geert
I didn't know about the github source. The 64bit toolpack installed successfully.
However, the ea-matic add-in seems not to be working yet completely:
- when I go to settings window of the EA-Matic, it shows the DefaultLineStyles script under Model Scripts, with attached functions for getmenuitems, menuclick and onpostnewconnector.
- sometimes (!?) it shows and sometimes it does not show the microicons to the left of the items in the treeview of Scripts.
- it does not work - the script is not fired - diagram menu item to set default line styles is not shown in the menu, nor the line styles are changed when new connector is added on the diagram.
The script hasn't been touched from the EA15.2 version in which I worked with it till 2 days ago.

I'm not running it in the Developer mode
Should I also be using some newer version of the script?

best regards
Damir

7

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Belleken's EA Toolpack not visible in EA 16?

« on: July 10, 2022, 12:02:47 am »

Hi
I've installed Build 1605 64 bit EA (Corporate) version. I've been using 15.2 version until yesterday. Win 10.

It seems EA 16 does not "replace" previous versions but installs concurrently. Belleken's EA toolpack add-ins didn't show up in EA16, so I've tried by downloading latest version and running installation. The installation finished successfully (EA shut down before installation). Unfortunately, still no sign of EA-Matic for instance in EA 16 Specialize Ribbon. Manage Add-ins also shows no add-ins.

did anyone run into similar issue. I'm a heavy user of default line styles script automated through EA-matic....

many thanks!
Damir

8

Uml Process / Re: Proper way of modeling artifact manifestation and deployment of its instances

« on: June 09, 2020, 08:38:56 pm »

So I guess, my final question is then how to create an artifact instance without classifier (artifact) in EA. Is it possible?

9

Uml Process / Re: Proper way of modeling artifact manifestation and deployment of its instances

« on: June 09, 2020, 02:46:44 am »

Q thank you, unfortunately that won't work in my case, I'm modelling quite large enterprise architecture "up to the business level" and avoiding official Archimate as it is too complex for the final user profiles. The distinction between component instance (object) and the artifact being deployed actually might come in handy...

10

Uml Process / Re: Proper way of modeling artifact manifestation and deployment of its instances

« on: June 09, 2020, 02:42:30 am »

Richard thank you,

well, in that article, at the end under section "Instance Level Deployment Diagram" they are actually modeling with instance artifacts which do not have classifier. That was my original idea, but I wasn't able to create an artifact instance without classifier (artifact) in EA. Is it possible? How? I tried some tricks, but could not trick EA into allowing it to me.

thanks!

11

Uml Process / Re: Proper way of modeling artifact manifestation and deployment of its instances

« on: June 09, 2020, 01:41:56 am »

BTW, if you convert an artifact into instance AFTER you add manifestation connector to a component, then EA duplicates that connector between component and the artifact instance - so again you have superfluous information in the model (but at least it is seen on the diagram with just instances, and some mess in the project browser and relationships....hm...
and of course, if you have to update wrong relationship, you are going to forget to do it on the artifact since it is not shown on any diagrams etc..., so the model shall become incorrect...

12

Uml Process / Proper way of modeling artifact manifestation and deployment of its instances

« on: June 09, 2020, 01:31:55 am »

Hi all,

I'm not finding good guidance on best practice how to properly model this:

Let's say I have a component named "Windows Service X". It is deployed on Node1 as the production environment, and on Node2 as the test environment.
It seems to me that proper way to model this deployment would be

• to have an artifact "Windows Service X" which manifests component with that same name
• to have first instance of that artifact with the name of that instance, and with deployment relation to Node1
• to have second instance of that artifact with the name of that instance, and with deployment relation to Node2

now all this looks pretty straightforward until you try to show it on a deployment diagram. For the sake of the end users and usage of Traceability window, and future validations that should rely on connectors, I would like to be able to show some connectors based on which you can follow from the component to the node where it is deployed via artifact instance. But, you can't do that "out of the box" AFAIK?. So if I have component and nodes on the deployment diagram and

• if I add the artifact and the instances of the artifact: I have a mess because of the amount of artifacts and their instances, the artifact is connected to the component, the instances to the nodes, but artifact and its instances are not related
• if I remove artifact or instance from a diagram, I further loose visually what is deployed where
• if I add relationship between instance of the artifact and the artifact - it is a dummy relationship and it is not clean. I don't want to do that
• if I forget about instances (delete them) and deploy artifact to nodes (with using source role name in the relationship as the name of the executable deployed on the node), it may be complete, but it is not proper
• if I just remove artifact from a diagram, and add manifestation relationships from artifact nodes to the component, I get cleanest looking diagrams, AFAIK it is proper to have artifact instance manifest a component (not it's instance), but the manifestation relationships are duplicated since they are already inherited, and it is a duplicate work. Not clean, don't like it...*, and you can't delete the artifact since it's instances then silently become... ARTIFACTS! automatically by EA without telling it to you (and you need to refresh diagram/reload package to see it)
• it feels too stupid to have single artifact for everything, and make only instances of it and have them only directly manifest components and be deployed

* AFAIK EA can't show inherited relationships on diagrams in this case, which would be solution to my suffering.

any suggestions?
many thanks
Damir

13

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Geert's import-export tool for Excel 5.0 - Object library feature not supported

« on: March 21, 2020, 03:11:04 am »

@Geert, any chance you may check this in near future?

14

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Geert's import-export tool for Excel 5.0 - Object library feature not supported

« on: March 05, 2020, 07:19:32 am »

I'd love to use the latest version as it has support for attribute multiplicity "out of the box" which I need...
thanks

15

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Geert's import-export tool for Excel 5.0 - Object library feature not supported

« on: March 02, 2020, 08:20:09 pm »

Hello,
did anyone had issue with 5.0 version of Geert's Excel import/export tool https://bellekens.com/ea-excel-import-export/. I'm getting Object library feature not supported compile error in Excel when trying to import the example data provided in the tool.  (when running import without trying to change selected package in EA, issue is in function getAttributeByName in row Set getAttributeByName = attributeCache(name)

I have EA 14.1.1429 build 1429
I have Excel 2019
Running on windows 10

this does not happen in 4.2. version (I’m not having both versions open at the same time)

Thanks!