Messages

1

General Board / Security Vulnerability with Sparx EA CVE-2026-42098

« on: May 21, 2026, 10:41:55 am »

Reference: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-42098
Sparx Enterprise Architect software has a security feature that limits user's actions to those specified in the role. An authenticated attacker can modify the Enterprise Architect client behavior (e.g. using a debugger) and log in as any other user or administrator - then it is possible to do every possible change to the repository. The vendor was notified early about this vulnerability, but didn't respond with the details of vulnerability or vulnerable version range. Only version 17.1 and below were tested and confirmed as vulnerable, other versions were not tested and might also be vulnerable.
Further scanning of the internet revealed some other vulnerabilities https://cert.pl/en/posts/2026/05/CVE-2026-42096/

Does anyone at Sparx Systems have any further information on whether this issues have been acknowledged and are they going to be fixed.
We were in middle of procurement process to purchase Trerado - Sparx EA and Prolaborate in the cloud. Which I'm putting on hold until we find out more.

2

Bugs and Issues / Re: CSV export of smart quotation becomes ’

« on: March 26, 2026, 06:32:45 pm »

I reported this as a bug some time ago but never got a response. Support has gone down hill over the years as I used to get an acknowledgement as to whether it was a bug and a work around within a day.
The easiest thing I can suggest as a work around is to do a search and replace in the CSV file with excel.
Noting that is only one of many characters that get corrupted during export to UTF-8 from Windows 1252 the default character set for Windows.

Another option in the Notes editor, avoid using:
- Smart quotes
- Bulleted lists
- Special symbols (•, –, …)
You can do this by not copying and pasting from word but paste into notepad then copy from notepad.

3

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Eliminating an inherited connection metamodel when specializing an MDG

« on: February 14, 2026, 08:26:05 am »

Whilst not the Sparx EA version of archimate MDG I did create an externded version of the archimate MDG to add tagged values. You can find it here as EAMDGProfile.zip - Full EA Model and files, icons etc to create a ArchiMate MDG from
https://github.com/EASunshine/Sparx-EA
Instructions built into model how to build.
Might help get you started.

4

General Board / Re: Export format

« on: January 12, 2026, 12:13:17 pm »

With the standard csv export you can export the elements but the not the relationships.
Office MDG can import/export elements and relationships however that's an extra cost.
IIRC I think Geert Created something to import and export relationships with excel.

5

General Board / Re: Document Generation - how to get elements on a diagram to nest

« on: December 20, 2025, 10:37:50 am »

Unfortunately if you are generating text within the diagram it will come out flat.
If I want to create a diagram followed by headers and text that is hierarchical I'll create two templates. One for the diagram and another for the text that describes each element. I'll usually have three items in my virtual document. An artifact that contains introduction, model document for diagram template and model document for descriptions.
I did discover that you can create and artifact and within that you can drag and drop diagrams and packages using templates. You can then just go in and do an update later to re-generate. It does reduce the number of model documents but not the templates.

6

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: EA and ChatGPT 5 - the death of the forum?

« on: November 06, 2025, 11:09:27 am »

I've similarly asked, AI to help with javascripts and never once has one it generated code that worked without modification, often AI hallucinated non-existent API calls. That being said it has reduced time to write code from hours to abot 20 to 30 mins

7

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Retrieve the EA version and build number during report generation

« on: October 30, 2025, 06:04:28 am »

Yes you are quite right I'd copied some code but forgot to properly update the comments. I've correct that now.
Anyways I hope the example code helps you get done what you needed.

8

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Retrieve the EA version and build number during report generation

« on: October 26, 2025, 09:18:07 am »

Yes, you can retrieve the version and build number of Sparx Enterprise Architect using JavaScript via the `Repository` object.

To do this, use the `Repository.GetEAEdition()` and `Repository.LibraryVersion` properties. Here's how it works:

Accessing EA Version and Build in JavaScript
Sparx EA’s scripting environment exposes a `Repository` object that provides metadata about the running instance. You can use the following script:

Sample javascript

Code: [Select]

!INC Local Scripts.EAConstants-JavaScript

function GetEAVersionInfo() {
    var edition = Repository.GetEAEdition();       // e.g., "Corporate Edition"
    var version = Repository.LibraryVersion;       // e.g., "1713"

    Session.Output("EA Edition: " + edition);
    Session.Output("EA Version and Build: " + version);
}

GetEAVersionInfo();```

Explanation
- `Repository.GetEAEdition()`- returns the edition name (e.g., Corporate, Ultimate).
- `Repository.LibraryVersion`- returns the full version string including the build number (e.g., `1713` means version 17.1, build 1713).
- `Session.Output()`- prints to the script console, useful for debugging or logging.

Use Case in Reporting
If you're generating a report and want to include the EA version/build for traceability or compliance, you can:
- Embed this script in a report template.
- Store the version string as a tagged value or note on a model element.
- Include it in a custom document section via scripting.

9

General Board / Re: New Book (TOGAF + Sparx Systems EA)

« on: October 23, 2025, 08:25:19 am »

Well done spending the time and effort in doing that. I'm sure it will be useful to those who are needing to learn how to use Sparx EA.
Whilst you mention its based around TOGAF you don't mention any notations used. Is it it based around the TOGAF MDG or is it using the Open Groups ArchiMate standard?

10

General Board / Re: Show attributes within Data Object

« on: October 23, 2025, 08:20:04 am »

Whilst the ArchiMate standard doesn't support attributes you actually can add attributes to a data object and show them in a diagram within Sparx EA. There is an option to show the elements that have stereotypes in their native form by unticking the show stereotype shape in diagram properties. The native form of data object in ArchiMate is a Class in UML. That option means you don't have to duplicate elements however you would be deviating from aligning to the ArchiMate standard.
The other option is to transform ArchiMate Data Objects to UML classes using transformation built into sparx. You'll have to customise a transformation to do that of course as it doesn't come out of the box. This is a more pure approach to modelling that provides you the ability to synch the changes in the data object model (conceptual) to UML class (logical). I was thinking of adopting that last approach on a major transformation program I'm about to join next month.
Hope that helps.

11

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: EA and ChatGPT 5 - the death of the forum?

« on: October 23, 2025, 08:02:40 am »

AI needs constant feed of information to be input. Just suppose we all stop using this forum when the next version of Sparx EA comes out then the usefulness of AI will degrade as there will be no new information on the next version of Sparx EA that the users have discovered other than what is in the manuals.

12

Bugs and Issues / Re: fysical data modelling not backward compatible

« on: October 15, 2025, 07:37:00 am »

They all should have EAUML::table

Geert

Which indicates the fix would be to run a script and set all the stereotypes to EAUML::table.
Posted a script a while ago to convert stereotypes.
https://sparxsystems.com/forums/smf/index.php/topic,45674.msg267977.html#msg267977

Just need to change the line
Conversions[0] = new TypeConversion("Class", "Standard", "Class", "Motivation::Standard");
To
Conversions[0] = new TypeConversion("Class", "table", "Class", "EAUML::table");
That should convert any stereotype with Table to the correct EAUML. Just select the parent package where all the tables are and run the script.
Suggest trying it out on a copy to test it first rather than the production DB.

13

General Board / Re: Best Practices for Modeling a Multi-System Integration?

« on: October 11, 2025, 05:06:58 am »

The open group has a list of view points and stakeholders https://www.opengroup.org/architecture/0210can/togaf8/doc-review/togaf8cr/c/p4/views/vus_intro.htm
If you use archimate then the standard also has a list of viewpoints and suggested stakeholders https://pubs.opengroup.org/architecture/archimate32-doc/ch-Example-Viewpoints.html however, a more comprehensive list of viewpoints can be found in the archimate cookbook https://www.hosiaisluoma.fi/blog/archimate/
As archimate and UML have similar notations its not too hard to imagine doing some of those archimate viewpoints in UML.
Sparx has some wizards for view points to https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/17.1/modeling_languages/archimate-basic-viewpoints.html and https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/17.1/modeling_languages/umldiagrams.html

14

Bugs and Issues / Re: Custom Document import Word doc: image display issue

« on: September 26, 2025, 11:30:14 am »

That old chesnut of a problem aye? You could try changing clipboard format from metafile to bitmap. IIRC that fixed it for me with transparent backgrounds but its been a while since I had that problem. Other things you could experiment with are are rendering [Basic|Enhanced-1| Enhanced-2].
As last resort save the image and edit the background to be white instead of transparent then import it back into Sparx EA.
I've stopped using the image library and now use image assets. Not sure if that mechanism helped with this particular problem as it was so long ago.

15

General Board / Re: Dumping a production database into a staging environment - recommendations

« on: September 26, 2025, 11:16:33 am »

In Sparx Enterprise Architect, when user security is enabled, access rights and permissions are managed through a combination of users, groups, and permissions, which are stored in specific tables within the EA repository database.
Here are the key tables involved in managing security access rights:
________________________________________
🔐 Security-Related Tables in EA's Database Schema
Table Name   Description
t_secuser   Stores user accounts, including login names, passwords (encrypted), and user status.
t_secgroup   Stores security groups that users can belong to.
t_secgrouppermissions   Maps groups to specific permissions.
t_secusergroup   Maps users to groups.
t_secpermission   Defines the available permissions (e.g., edit diagrams, delete elements).
t_seclocks   Stores information about locked elements, including who locked them and when.
________________________________________
🧩 How It Works
•   Users (t_secuser) are assigned to groups (t_secgroup) via t_secusergroup.
•   Groups are granted permissions (t_secgrouppermissions) which are defined in t_secpermission.
•   Locks (t_seclocks) are used to prevent editing of specific elements or packages unless the user has the appropriate rights.
________________________________________
🛠️ Notes
•   These tables are only populated and used when security is enabled in the EA project.
•   You can query these tables directly if you're using a shared repository (e.g., SQL Server, MySQL).
•   EA also supports Active Directory integration and Single Sign-On (SSO), which can affect how users are authenticated but still relies on these tables for authorization.

So if you want to preserve Sparx EA security on target db you need to preserve the data in those tables.