Messages

1

Bugs and Issues / Re: Baseline compare utility - elements without diagrams

« on: February 25, 2016, 08:26:05 pm »

We are developing an enterprise-wide repository.  Many maintainers, potentially thousands of readers.  We are developing rules, guidelines and conventions

See, and we are just a handful of people in different projects, starting to switch over to EA at the same time, and asking exactly these questions: HOW to begin with those guidelines and conventions, where exactly are the pitfalls - and chances - that come with the new tool? O yes, we have a QA system which requires "detailed design", but people used to do that quite differently with other - not so powerful - tools. We desperately see that letting every user tampering with the database would do no good, so that "editorial" part is now really important.

You guys helped me heaps, thank you again!

2

Bugs and Issues / Re: Baseline compare utility - elements without diagrams

« on: February 24, 2016, 08:01:00 pm »

Oh, I understand your point, just not the idiom.  But I learnt a long time ago that German idiomatic phrases and Dutch swear words make no sense when translated into English.

That is universal. Translating "raining cats and dogs" or "cute as a button" don't make sense in other languages either (in Germany, it's raining pack-threads instead).

On the other hand, the more interesting fact is that even when a word-by-word translation does not work, there is very often a sematic equivalent in the other language. For instance, the English  sit on "cloud number nine", the Germans on "Wolke sieben" (cloud seven) for the same purpose. Even more interesting: which one was first? Once upon a time some guy must have travelled a long way and brought the word, but has obviously confused the numbers.

Or: "Jemanden ins kalte Wasser schmeißen" (throw somebody into the cold water) - in English: "throw somebody in at the deep end".


Back to the topic:

I think there is a tendency to think that tools will solve what is basically an editorial problem.  Same thing happens with CMDBs.

Not exactly, I do not try to abuse a tool for purposes it is not designed for.
It was just the starting point from things I already know: following the V model, design follows requirements (i.e. new features), and implementation follows design. So my first naïve guess was to see the design model on the same level as the code.

And since I am quite new with EA, I now try to figure out what EA can actually do well and what would not work. And because they state that they can do versioning, baselining, ex- and import, even kind of a comparison and merging, I was wondering what was the closest possible (and practicable) workflow to the code's versioning strategy.
Obviously, they differ, that means that one has to think freshly - not a bad thing at all.

Since the requirements are managed in a database tool which does not know branches but only baselining, orientating the EA database more to the requirements and get inspired by that workflow would probably be the more reasonable way to go.

3

Bugs and Issues / Re: Baseline compare utility - elements without diagrams

« on: February 24, 2016, 01:31:47 am »

Thanks Geert & q.

this is some good insight into reality from you professionals. It confirms my concerns that branch&merge cannot as easily be done as I have expected - on the one hand,
but also guides a good way how to handle changing / growing projects without trying to make it more complicated than necessary - on the other.

min

4

Bugs and Issues / Re: Baseline compare utility - elements without diagrams

« on: February 23, 2016, 07:45:48 pm »

OK, I understand that it doesn't make sense to add or remove single objects to diagrams and then wish to 'merge' them together.

However, in my concrete setup, I had a package with one diagram inside.
I the copy of that project, I added another fresh diagram with some new objects - and exported that whole package.

When trying to import to the former project, in the compare view, I could see the old objects, and the new ones with red triangles.
So I selected all of them with "Add from Baseline", but they are imported without their diagram.
I had expected that at least the second diagram would be imported as a whole with all included objects.


On a bigger picture, I am trying to find out how teams can model "features" in a similar topology as projects evolve.

One example:

The project status quo at a certain release level is "Version 1". Then two independent features are developed, one of them may extend existing components, the other might be a new component. So modelling and then implementing is done in separate 'branches' per feature.

Imagine that the features may be 'experimental', so the decision may not yet be done when they will actually be integrated for release and in which order (maybe one requires long term research and is planned to be integrated some releases later. Nevertheless, the modelling shall be done in an early phase - and the results shall eventually find their way back to the 'main model'). During this time, the 'main trunk model' should stay untouched.

Actually, should it? Somehow I am uncomfortable with the idea that all the 'feature branches' would be working on the same 'one' model. (in contrast, with code, everyone would just get its own copy in an SVN branch and that's it.) Maybe I am thinking wrongly and it is actually not such a big deal in reality.

But I understand that these actions require a more thorough planning concerning organising the changes and the structure of the model than with code.

5

Bugs and Issues / Baseline compare utility - elements without diagrams

« on: February 23, 2016, 04:09:15 am »

Hi there,
I am exploring possibilities how to branch and merge projects with baselining and importing / exporting with XMI files.

I changed elements in a diagram, drew a baseline and exported the stuff as an XMI file.

In another project, when I import the whole XMI file, everything is fine.

When I use the compare utility, selecting the baseline in the other file (as well as "Compare Package with XMI file..."), however, I can see all the different elements, but when I select some of them, they are imported without their "parent" diagram. The diagram as such cannot even be selected in the differences list. Only when I select the whole package, the diagram is also imported and the elments are shown correctly.

Do I miss something?

6

General Board / Re: how do you model an if-else assignment in activity diagrams?

« on: January 27, 2016, 02:23:51 am »

Assumed that I do not draw all the object flows which might arise from x and inValue beeing ActivityParameters, that could do as the result calculation:

The important thing is that the reader grasps what is going on.
It might be different if you intended to automatically generate some code...

7

Bugs and Issues / Timing diagram issues

« on: January 25, 2016, 10:27:55 pm »

Hi all,
I have the feeling that the timing diagram in EA might need some attention..
(I have EA 12.0)

1.
When I export the diagram as a picture, in the frame's header there is "sd <xxx>" which is usually for sequence diagrams. I expected "td" or so.


2.
Changing the colour of message arrows between two events is sometimes weird:
I draw a new message arrow:


Selecting it:


When changing its line colour, the arrow does not change but several other lines are selected, even from a notes box:


3.
The 'stickyness' of message arrows is quite annoying: suppose there is an event


I place the cursor in front of the event to create a new event


Instead of a new event, the existing event is extended to the new position and - worse -
the arrowhead of the message switches to the falling edge of the event


When I try to reverse that action with CTRL-z, the event' pulse is restored but the arrowhead sticks to the wrong position


The only way to fix this is to delete the message and create it newly - including change its colour.

4.
It should be possible to select several message arrows (holding CTRL pressed) to bulk-edit properties (like the colour). Now, the messages have to be changed one after one.

5.
this is rather a question than a bug report:
I'd like to symbolise with an arrow that one event (the lower lifeline) causes another to stop creating new events. Therefore, I'd like to have arrows which start at an event's edge and end somewhere in the middle of a lifeline where no event is to show that they have stopped. Something like the blue arrow I have drawn. Yet, message arrows do not allow this since they always stick to event edges.

8

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Import requirements (csv) with _other_ unique key than GUID?

« on: January 13, 2016, 11:17:33 pm »

@Uffe:  haven't seen OSLC yet - I will check.
Concerning you answer from yesterday: I will give it a try but I doubt that it works - because it is said that CSV_KEY is not used inside EA except the import/export process, thus, the objects do not have a field for this (like GUID, Alias etc.) to preserve that information for the next import. However, that would be necessary to identify already existing objects.

I assume that a script would be a feasible short-term solution. But in the long term, I think that a professional solution which directly accesses the Polarion-DB and not only imports requirements but also exports diagrams would be the best (avoiding moving csv-files around at all). There might be plugins for that.

9

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Import requirements (csv) with _other_ unique key than GUID?

« on: January 12, 2016, 01:57:27 am »

Hi all,

I import requirements via csv from the ALM tool Polarion (the leading data base) which has its own IDs for each work item, for instance: "ABC-123". This ID will be mapped to the Alias field in EA to be visualised along with the requirement title in the diagrams.

After importing new requirements the first time, I manually enter/copy the EA-GUID back to Polarion to a special field (here: "External Reference"). This will be mapped to GUID on next import, so EA can identify the item and would update the requirement text instead of creating a new one.

so far, so good.

The only awkward thing is that I have to maintain two IDs which are basically redundant.

Is there a way that I can use another field (the Polarion-ID) as the unique key for imports to EA? So EA would use this key to find an existing requirement object instead of the GUID?

I am sure that with a script, everything can be done. But can I also tweak the official import functionality?

10

General Board / Re: Activity diagram - conditional node

« on: August 15, 2015, 01:06:17 am »

I agree that a simple decision node is much clearer to read than a conditional node box, because to have 'test' and 'body' in two stacked compartments, visibly interrupting the control flow (connectors!), lets one stumble.

However I can imagine that for expressing a larger (maybe >4 cases) switch-case construct, which UML lacked so far, a kind of multi-conditional node (as I have seen somewhere) might be cleaner than a long chain of decision nodes (is 1? no, else - is 2? no, else - is 3?...).

And for a long time, I have been looking for a better loop construct which expresses the intention better than a loop made of decision nodes (see some early and still erroneous attempts here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15792687/loop-in-uml-activity-diagram-using-a-region).
Now I have just modelled an iterating-over-all-elements loop with an expansion region/nodes, which is pretty clean and beautiful.

Conclusion: imho, in some cases, these structured nodes can help, sometimes simple things are better.

Sorry, that was somewhat off-topic now... :-?

11

General Board / Suppress Printing of a single Element?

« on: August 15, 2015, 12:22:08 am »

Hi there,

I have a few backlinks in my diagrams to navigate easily up and down the call chain (e.g. nested activity diagrams).

But when I export the diagrams as images, I do not really want the link symbols.

Is it possible to set a single Element to kind of "no print", but have it visible and double-click aware (thus, working as hyperlink) in EA?


Or can I give the link (only this link, not the connected activity/diagram) a certain attribute or stereotype, so that the script which I use for printing can make this Element invisible before printing and set it back afterwards?

12

Bugs and Issues / Re: Appearance details gone with Theme change (bac

« on: August 20, 2015, 07:56:33 pm »

Oh yes, how could I miss the "Save" button? It's so obvious... Thanks a lot.

Now I've got my own theme. But where can I edit the Theme's colours for each Element type? I pretty much like the EA 12 theme which gives different types different colours, yet for my taste they are a bit too "heavy". I'd like to change them to some subtle (pale) ones...

13

Bugs and Issues / Appearance details gone with Theme change (back!)

« on: August 20, 2015, 01:00:12 am »

I have some personal appearance settings (e.g. disabled Element shadows and round edges, Element font etc.).

When I change the theme, e.g. black&white for printing, and then change back to the original theme I've used for work, these detailed settings are gone and the Elements have their default shadows, round edges etc.

Can't I save my settings as default, or as a kind of a "custom theme"?

14

Bugs and Issues / Re: ActionPin types wrong in link to Activity

« on: August 20, 2015, 06:53:01 pm »

I've added some screenshots.

15

Bugs and Issues / ActionPin types wrong in link to Activity

« on: August 19, 2015, 11:58:25 pm »

I've got an activity with two Parameter nodes: one is a named Integer ("number"), the other an anonymous one of Type MyError, an Exception class I've made up. The "exception" attribute is checked, so the diagram shows the triangle symbol as expected.

(How can I upload images here? I would like to show a screenshot...)_{Edit: thx querty}

When I pull this activity to another diagram with "Invocation" behaviour, and select "all" structural elements (also when leave that to "none" and select them manually in the following dialog), only the Integer node is shown with text. The Exception node has neither text nor the triangle symbol:


The properties of both pins show an empty Type field, the "Exception" check box is unchecked. The field "Behavior" shows: "Activity1([out] : MyError, number: Integer) although "number" is an input pin!





This is what I'd actually expect (after doing the corrections manually):