Messages

1

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Primary Keys and Foreign Keys

« on: September 17, 2011, 11:02:42 am »

Found Lowerbound and Upperbound.

2

Suggestions and Requests / Primary Keys and Foreign Keys

« on: September 17, 2011, 10:59:29 am »

EA help documentation states:
Primary Keys and Foreign Keys are represented by stereotyped UML attributes and operations

I have plenty of class attributes and operations in my model, no way can a find a predefined stereotype that suggests it is a PK or a FK.

I ended up creating my own, which works, but it'd be nice if I could re-use the defaults.

While on the subject, according to the documentation, the attribute class includes a number of attributes, such as;
Length, Lowerbound, Precision, Precision, Scale, etc.

I can't find how to enter these through the attribute properties window  

3

Suggestions and Requests / Re: State Transitions

« on: September 17, 2011, 02:30:29 am »

Behavior/Operation - I may have mixed up the terms a bit.

As an example, a state transition may cause many triggers to be fired in addition to performing 1 (or more) operations within the current object.

The easy workaround is to create an operation that performs the complete behavior of the transition, but this seems a little awkward, and doesn't help clarify the requirements.

4

Suggestions and Requests / State Transitions

« on: September 16, 2011, 08:53:15 am »

In the Transition Properties dialogue window, one may specify the effect as behavior and select that behavior from a list of class operations.

In the dialogue window there is room for selection of several behaviors, yet each time I select another behavior it replaces the existing behavior instead of adding to it.

It is normal for a state transition to trigger several operations. It should be possible to select several behaviors describing those operations.

5

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Class Instances On Object Diagrams

« on: September 16, 2011, 04:26:16 am »

I must be trying to reply with something bad, cos as I was about to post, my page redisplayed the comment field and my message got lost (silly me for not making a copy before trying to post).

Here goes again - related to another recent thread on inheritance as well as this:
- when one creates an object from an instance of a class, the object does not get the classes inherited information (incl. attributes). This is a problem because the object is now crippled.  [smiley=thumbdown.gif]
- when showing the properties of an object there is no access to its attributes or operations (the details tab is missing).
- object attributes and operations do not show in the project browser either.

+ When an objects attribute is changed, the change is inherited through the class to all object instances, which is great - BUT I wonder if making changes to a set of class instances should be restricted to the class instead of allowing an instance to change a classes properties.

_{(Ugh - did it again. Instead of copying the message I hit paste by mistake .. grrr. Don't type large mssages directly into the comment window .. there is no recovery method when you make a mistake.)}

- As discussed, in order to find inherited properties of a class, one must drag the class onto a diagram and use the diagram to display inherited properties. You bring up the pop-up menu on the class and select the option to show its inherited attributes. Now that you can see that the class has inherited properties, you must locate the class that it is inheriting from. To do this show the class relationships and look for generalizations entering the class. Follow the relationship back to the supertype class and open its properties to get access to the subtype class inherited properties (I'll draw a UML model to explain .. without objects or inheritance).

- BTW, inheritance includes class relationships too. So when I select a class I should see its inherited relationships in the relationship viewer. I don't.

Anyway, all this leads me to conclude that maybe (just possibly), EA does not really support inheritance of classes at all, and that all the tool is doing is allowing one to see where one would like to use inheritance (ok, I take that back, before anyone sues).

I wanted to post a diagram of a class on a diagram (showing inherited attributes) and its properties showing no inherited attributes (honest it looks really confusing), but can't find an easy way to do, so you'll have to take my word that it does look really confusing.

6

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Class Instances On Object Diagrams

« on: September 16, 2011, 02:11:07 am »

Can we have it both ways .. an object diagram that is identical to the class diagram and an object diagram that manipulates instances of classes - perhaps it could be named the 'Leslie Object Diagram' type?

 

Thanks for the info.

7

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Class Instances On Object Diagrams

« on: September 10, 2011, 07:59:41 am »

Ah, I must have that option turned off, because i\I am not promted on drag and drop. To be honest, I am not going to turn it on, because that would mean way too many prompts.

I think that the original suggestion in the question is a good idea. Otherwise the object diagram is just a class diagram with a different default palette.

Leslie.

8

Suggestions and Requests / Class Instances On Object Diagrams

« on: September 03, 2011, 05:37:17 am »

What is the difference between a Class diagram and an Object diagram?

If I drop a class on a class diagram I see a representation of that class.

If I drop a class on an object diagram I see a representation of an instance of that class - surely? Nope, I see the same as the class diagram.   [smiley=bath.gif]

9

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Inherited Attributes In Browser

« on: September 16, 2011, 03:15:54 am »

In fact, I just discovered what I believe is an error in EA that is directly related to this request.

Create and object instance from a subtype class, (in an object diagram) and its inherited attributes do not get created with the instance.

 

The inherited attributes are part of the class. If I make an instance without those attributes, my object is crippled.

 [smiley=cry.gif]

10

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Inherited Attributes In Browser

« on: September 16, 2011, 02:53:06 am »

Can we perhaps have it both ways .. with a project browser option that allows me to see inherited attributes, or not to display them if you don't like it?

In fact showing inherited attributes as part of the class properties is the more accurate. Inherited attributes ARE duplicate attributes. Inheritance is just a way of reducing work. [Re-reading this, I realize that if you are a designer you may take a different opinion - Note that I am using EA as a BA.]

It'd be really nice to know that if I am changing an attribute property, that the change is going to propogate across all copies of that attribute. Showing the copies in the browser with a mark to indicate that it is re-used would be sufficient.

As I stated, EA already has the ability to show inherited attributes, it's just a real pain for us users that need to use that feature. The request was to simplify a feature that EA already provides.

11

Suggestions and Requests / Inherited Attributes In Browser

« on: September 10, 2011, 09:01:02 am »

I am currently cleaning up a logical model using the project browser.

If a class inherits attributes or operations from another class it is not shown in the browser. The only way I can determine the attrbutes of inherited classes is to drag them onto a diagram and show all inherited attributes.

It would be really nice not to be have to create a diagram solely for the purpose of viewing the attributes of a class .. It'd be so nice to be able to see them in the project browser.

12

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Linked documents - for diagrams?

« on: September 10, 2011, 09:05:24 am »

Talking about linked documents; is there any way to get an indication from the project browser whether the artifact has a linked document?

 [smiley=thumbup.gif]

13

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Only 1 Instance Of an Element Allowed On A Dia

« on: October 29, 2010, 09:11:08 am »

sbaldrick,
you should make a formal change request to Sparx and mention that you are training people to create multiple classes with the same name in models just for this purpose. That might get their attention. I shudder to think of trying to manage a model with a bunch of same-named classes in it.

Will do when I figure out how to.

In the meantime, my workaround is to create inheritance trees of classes and show the inherited information where needed.

As mentioned, EA allows children in an inheritance relationship to take the name of their parent, so they all look alike and all I need do is change the parent and all the children inherit that change.

This is especially important on workflow (activity and BPMN)  diagrams, which show the data being manipulated by the activities. Although the tool does not allow data flows to classes, I found that I can change the type to 'Object', draw the object flow, then change the type back to 'Class' to display the inherited attributes, and the data flow stays put.

Les.

[Bit like getting the girlfriend into the 'Men-only' club, by dressing her up as a man, getting past the door security and then dressing her back as a woman once inside and no-one notices, because everyone assumes that only men are able to get in.

Makes one wonder - did anyone write requirements before building the tool  ]

14

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Multiple Instances On A Diagram

« on: October 27, 2010, 05:40:00 am »

@DanG83616: If you drop a class onto a diagram twice, it still has the same name so it is obviously the same class.

Apparently not, because I am currently looking at 2 Actor classes in the same package with identical names  :-?

When teaching diagramming of use cases, I encourage using multiple actors because this makes the diagrams much easier to edit, to manage and to read.

For use cases I consider this feature to be essential, and can imagine no reason for any UML modeling tool to absolutely prevent this, (unless someone let the developers write the requirements  ).

No other UML tool imposes this restriction, (TTBOMK). Why would they? If worried about spider figures, as a minimum the tool should allow the option to turn off automatically showing relationships.

Although there are no UML restrictions for multiple instances on a diagram, I do believe that element names should be unique, Yet I am able to place 2 instances of separate elements with the same name on the same diagram ..  

If this is the workaround for my needs .. I am not impressed.

Please fix it so that those of use that wish to encourage 'good' diagramming practices are able to use EA to do this.

 

15

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Traceability

« on: November 19, 2010, 11:18:58 am »

I agree all of this would be nice - have you raised a feature/enhancement request ?

Done.