Messages

1

Suggestions and Requests / Re: IDEA: Additonal Alias Usage

« on: September 17, 2007, 06:40:53 am »

Amen!
I model mostly for business requirements.  The longer the names in the model the more difficult it is to immediately grasp the contents.  OTOH, long names are important for clarity.  

We have 3 kind of names - Business name (long, complete, includes spaces), Report Name (an abbreviation of the business name; what non-technical people are used to seeing as column headings) and of course physical names.

For now, I want the first two.  Displaying both alias & business name is worse than just business name - too much to look at ...

I actually want 3 names - one for each of the above.  But I'll submit that separately...

2

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Settings for default connector labels' display

« on: February 22, 2007, 12:39:56 pm »

Absolutely!!!

3

General Board / Re: Export glossary as CSV file

« on: February 05, 2008, 10:48:35 am »

This will work for export, & a way to show people w/o EA what the terms are.

What I need now is how to import a glossary.  Currently, we have a corporate vocabulary in Excel, from which I can get a CSV file.

I'm exploring how I can define an element type that is, or holds/contains, glossary entries.  If I can put these in a package, then I can import/export them.  

Continuing feedback much appreciated!

4

General Board / Re: Export glossary as CSV file

« on: February 04, 2008, 03:43:29 pm »

I realize that you have to export/import the glossary as reference data - but there's no way, in the csv import/export process, to "point" to the reference data / glossary.   To use export/import, you need to select a package - and there's no (that I can see) way to select a package that contains a glossary.

Thanks for your reply though  

5

General Board / Export glossary as CSV file

« on: February 04, 2008, 03:21:20 pm »

I'd like a procedure for exporting / importing the glossary as a CSV file.  I can find how to export/import to csv, but it wants a package as the input - i.e., import/export domain model.  According to the documentation for the Project menu, I should be able to do this...

Does anyone know how to do this?  Or can you point me to written instructions?

6

General Board / Re: Migrating Erwin file to EA file

« on: January 16, 2008, 10:55:14 am »

You can't.  BUT if you get the next big release of ERwin (7.x), you'll find that they have incorporated (leased) the metadata migration tool from Metaintegration.  With that tool, you can export the LOGICAL model from an ERwin model, and import into EA AS A DOMAIN MODEL - i.e., you CANNOT get it into EA as a data model.  

The only way to get a data model into EA is to reverse engineer a physical database.  

We are wrestling with this now - we have imported an ERwin logical model - which works well EXCEPT that since primary and foreign keys are NOT a 'uml" concept, any foreign key field does not come into the domain model.  You DO gat all the relationships and definitions.  We then reverse engineer the database (which doesn't have referential integrity, OR definitions) to get the physical table layouts.  You DO get all the keys & indexes.  

The unfortunate thing is that you have no link in EA between the logical entity and it's physical table.  Also, note that if your reverse engineer again - everything is overlayed, you cannot merge - so even if you establish that logical-physical tracability within EA, it will go away once you reverse engineer again.  

7

General Board / Table in RTF report -

« on: November 28, 2007, 03:20:47 pm »

Hi everybody...

I searched the user guide & the forum & have been playing with RTF templages - but still have a problem.

I would like to create a simple table in an rtf report with 4 columns -
Column 1 - element name
Column 2 - element Attribute name
Column 3 - element Attribute alias
Column 4 - element Attribute note

The problem seems to be that a table can contain fields for only one kind of section - i.e., either element fields or attribute fields, but not both.

Has anyone done this?  Or can you point me to appropriate help/documentation?

Thanks!

8

General Board / Re: csv import dosn't create packages

« on: August 01, 2007, 10:39:50 am »

Does this work only with the EA repository on a database?

How do you do this with an EA .eap file?

Where do you execute the sql?

9

General Board / Re: attributes with a new line

« on: August 01, 2007, 10:19:57 am »

If you just want to display the attribute wrapped, then right click on the element (class, I presume), select "set feature visibility".  On the left hand side of the pane, you can select to wrap features (class attributes) to the size you make the element.

10

General Board / Re: Import from ERwin

« on: May 25, 2007, 11:32:01 am »

Erwin release 7 (be sure to get sp2) incorporates the Metaintegration software that transports models between a ton of different CASE tools.  It has an explicit way to select for Sparx enterprise architect.

Caveat:  When we first started looking for this capability, we were actually going to acquire the Metaintegration software - it's good stuff.  We were experimenting, and after working with the folks at MI, we got a full physical database design from ERwin to EA that included all definitions.  

What we really were after at the time was getting the logical model transferred to EA as a domain class diagram - i.e., a business model, not a technical model.  Much to our suprise, when 7.1 came out - it did exactly that; in the process, of course it strips all the foreign keys (OO does not support foreign keys - it's a relational concept).  

Unfortunately, it no longer transfers the PHYSICAL database model to EA.  You cannot go from an ERwin database design to an EA database design.  

So far, we have not had much luck in getting EA to generate DDL without errors - and many of them - for any DBMS.  We also find EA difficult to work with productively for physical database design IF you want to do anything different than what EA generats for you - e.g., changing primary keys to include more than a single surrogate key column is a real pain - especially if those keys cascade to more than one table.  

Another issue for us is lack of an ability to do a complete compare at a granular level where you can select what to import & what not to import - EA just overlays everything.

But if you want to move  your logical modeling effort to a UML environment, the ERwin 7.1 transport mechanism works well.

11

General Board / Re: Need UML Data Modeling Model in UML

« on: May 14, 2007, 02:44:17 pm »

The data modeling tool ERwin (from Computer Associates) release 7 incorporates the MetaIntegration tool, which transports metadata between CASE tools (see www.metaintegration.com).  

You could reverse engineer any database into an ERwin data model, then export that model to xmi (ERwin lets you choose Sparx EA specifically).  ERwin exports the database diagram as a domain model - i.e., without keys & the other physical db stuff.  i.e., just a class diagram, which is what I think you want.

HTH

Sue.

12

General Board / Diagram report - include attributes?

« on: April 17, 2007, 08:54:28 am »

How can I get class attributes listed on a diagram report?  I looked at the templates, but I can't find a way to even select a different template for that report...

13

General Board / difference between class model & domain model

« on: March 05, 2007, 10:05:49 am »

Somewhere on your site there's a paper or article by Gary Sparx that has very clear definitions between class models & domain models.  Can anybody tell me where that is?  

Thanks!

14

General Board / Copy elements from one diagram to another..

« on: February 19, 2007, 02:33:29 pm »

I'd like to create a diagram with selected elements from another diagram, without duplicating them in the underlying repository.  E.g., domain model has 50 classes.  I want to work with 10 of them.  Need to create a diagram with just those 10, & make sure that if I change an element in one diagram, it will change in the other.

Do I have to create a new diagram & drag each 10 onto the new diagram?  Or can I select the 10, copy, then paste them into a new diagram without creating new classes?

And - Suppose the diagram is a database model.  If I create a new diagram & drag (or paste) tables from an existing diagram into the new diagram, what happens when I transform the related domain model again - does it synch up with the original AND copied/dragged tables?  

Thanks!

Sue

15

General Board / business keys

« on: January 29, 2007, 11:44:26 am »

How would I model a class attribute (or a collection of class attributes) that consitute a business unique key for the instances of the class, in such a way that EA interprets it as a primary key when transformed to DDL?