Messages

1

Suggestions and Requests / Better previous/next behaviour please

« on: August 31, 2006, 01:57:13 am »

Hi, I am really keen on the use of hyperlinks to help model readers to find their way around large complex models. This looks like a really good use for hyperlinks.
Ideally when doing this kind of navigation the 'previous' and 'next' buttons should in my opinion operate like browser 'Back' and 'Forward' and they essentially do this. However they only appear to be able to bring the user back/forward through diagrams in the order they were originally visited or opened. If I navigate a bunch of diagrams, causing them to be opened, and then navigate through the diagrams via a different path (via hyperlinks or any other way, eg. select an open diagram tab) the 'previous'/'next' buttons just bring me through in the original open order and not the most recent navigation path.
This appears to greatly reduce the usefulness of the 'previous'/'next' buttons to me since the only effect the buttons have is to scroll back and forward through the opened diagrams in the open order. It is easier to select the diagram tabs if that is what I wanted.

So can the 'previous'/'next' buttons be made to operate in what I believe is the intuitive way ? ie. not simply follow the order in which diagrams have been opened, but follow the order in which diagrams are 'visited'

Thanks
   James

2

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Easy to use copy/paste for packages and elemen

« on: August 25, 2006, 01:34:04 am »

Hi Thomas,

I tried the template and while it sort of worked it doesn't really do what I want. For example I cannot figure out how to copy and paste an individual element (class, component, interface, etc).
Before I started with EA I was using StarUML and it was a breeze to do this - just select class in Project View (Model Explorer), copy, paste, and StarUML created an exact copy and changed the name to be equal to original with trailing _
Actually this worked for elements, diagrams, packages and was very useful.

While I greatly appreciate your suggestion (transformation template) I would really like the EA folks to consider adding this feature and making this type of C&P simple and intuitive (as it is in StarUML).
Thanks
  James

3

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Easy to use copy/paste for packages and elemen

« on: August 24, 2006, 12:33:38 am »

Would you mind showing me the template ?

4

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Easy to use copy/paste for packages and elemen

« on: August 23, 2006, 06:52:44 am »

Huh ? A transformation template seems like a lot of hassle compared to just copying and pasting a class in the Project View.
Other UML tools can do this basic sort of C&P.

5

Suggestions and Requests / Easy to use copy/paste for packages and elements

« on: August 23, 2006, 02:19:46 am »

Hi, There appears to be no convenient way to copy and paste packages and elements. The only way I can see to do it is to export and re-import but this is clunky and error-prone.
I would suggest that it should be possible to copy and paste packages and elements in the Project View. When the new package or element is pasted it should be automatically be given a new name (eg. old name with something prepended or appended, eg. _).
Thanks
 James

6

General Board / Re: Safer Ctrl-Delete

« on: July 16, 2008, 12:11:04 am »

Cool Luis, maybe this is the way forward.

7

General Board / Re: Safer Ctrl-Delete

« on: July 15, 2008, 11:32:09 pm »

"Who ruins the design in this way, will buy cakes for the rest of the staff."
But in many cases we have no idea who 'ruins the design' since. It may have been done by a novice weeks ago. We could have 30 or 40 engineers who can do damage.

What about the trigger idea ? ie. like a database trigger onto which we can hook user-defined logic. Does anyone know if the add-in facility for example allow us to 'catch' deletions and display our own extra warning dialogs ?
    James

8

General Board / Re: Safer Ctrl-Delete

« on: July 15, 2008, 09:07:55 pm »

Hi,

Unfortunately I don't think that dialog is enough. I know that I and others have become non-chalant about using Ctrl-Delete/Enter. Ideally users would check the likely impact of deleting an element (find in diagrams, look at links, etc) before doing it but I know I can't enforce this.

As far as I can see the current dialog comes up even if the element is used nowehere or has no links. Alternatively if a bigger dialog would appear which would show something like the combination of the 'find in diagrams' and the 'links tab'. This should get peoples attention when they see how the element is used throughout the model.

Another idea would be to have a 'delete trigger' mechanism something like database have which would allow us to do more add-in code to display an additional warning dialog.

Or perhaps I am the only person who finds the current generic warning dialog to be sufficient.

Cheers
    James

9

General Board / Safer Ctrl-Delete

« on: July 15, 2008, 05:49:09 pm »

Hi,
I am planning to submit a feature request but wanted to get some opinions first. I think it would be very helpful to have more protection against deletion from the model using Ctrl-Delete. This is needed because Ctrl-Delete has now become second nature to me and other modellers and the chances of inadvertent deletion is still high.

I recently navigated to a sequence diagram which hadn't been looked at for some time and saw that one of the elements (component instance) had no name or parent classifier. The classifier had been deleted some time in the past. I could figure out from the context what it was but this wouldn't always be the case.

So in order to highlight the danger of deleting an element which is being used in the model (in diagrams, links, instances, etc) I would suggest that a more verbose (or additional) delete dialog appear which warns that the element is used in the model. If the element is not used  (in no diagrams, no links to other elements, no instances in diagrams, etc) then the delete can proceed as normal.

Any opinions or additional thoughts/ideas ?

Thanks
   James

10

General Board / Re: Include relationship matrix in HTML report

« on: June 26, 2008, 05:59:35 pm »

Thanks David,

I'll submit the feature request and keep the forum updated.

James

11

General Board / Re: Include relationship matrix in HTML report

« on: June 26, 2008, 02:00:37 am »

Hi again,
I would also love to be able to do equivalent to Diagram > Copy Image for relationship matrices.
Any ideas,
Thanks
    James

12

General Board / Include relationship matrix in HTML report

« on: June 25, 2008, 09:38:43 pm »

Hi,
I can't figure out how to include relationship matrix in HTML report. Is this possible ? Hopefully so because we are planning to use HTML reports extensively to publicise our models and we use relationship matrices a lot. If they are not visible in HTML reports it looks like we can't use HTML reports.
Thanks
    James

13

General Board / Re: How to do Feature Model

« on: May 19, 2008, 06:04:44 pm »

Hi Simon - you're right ... the invisible port is unworkable. It only worked on that diagram because I simply changed the stereotype, but whe I drag one from the toolbox and drop it on an element it ... disappears :-) not surprisingly...
I've changed it to make it visible so now it works.

Thanks again for your help.
    James

14

General Board / Re: How to do Feature Model

« on: May 16, 2008, 03:39:43 pm »

It worked Simon - many thanks for your help.
Now it looks good I think...



This is what I was trying to achieve - got pretty close I think (though I am deliberately using rounded rectange for feature)...

15

General Board / Re: How to do Feature Model

« on: May 15, 2008, 03:42:09 pm »

Thanks Simon for the suggestion. I came to same conclusion and tried shapescripted ports but I couldn't get it to work properly. The shapescript was rendered but the size of the shape was completely wrong and no matter what I tried it wouldn't come out right. If you had an example of shapescript which would work for ports I would be grateful.