Messages

1

General Board / Re: Options to read an eap file on a mobile device

« on: June 22, 2016, 01:17:07 pm »

Hello.

Your post mentions 'read', and for that I support the html option.

But if you are also looking to maintain a model... for a previous client we had to analyse certain features and contents of remote sites associated with their operations. We deployed EA to a 10" laptop and used it to record various types & enumerations.

That worked fine because the interaction was with the project browser and 'properties' windows. I wouldn't want to do anything more complex on such a small screen - the workspace simply isn't big enough.

2

Uml Process / Re: Generate XML schema - XSD Simple type - ISO TC211

« on: June 16, 2016, 12:19:57 pm »

Hello.

It's been a few years since I last 'profiled', but you asked for hypotheses so... my read is the first method (generalize from CharacterString) gets you closest to the desired result:
1. new class (achieved)
2. restrict inherited attributes (not achieved).

Instead of adding 'minLength' as a new attribute, suggest add a constraint or deal with it by assertion. That tips us into the world of OCL or Schematron.

I seem to recall both INSPIRE and the old CSIRO SEEGRID/WaterML/GeoSciML people had guidance/blogs/discussion papers with examples and things to consider when extending the geospatial profiles.

3

General Board / Re: Nesting classes (and generalization)

« on: May 05, 2016, 10:26:52 am »

Hello Geert and Simon.

Thanks for that. We consistently use callActivities in both Collaboration and Business Process diagrams for the same reason.

But it sounds like we need to re-think how we have set out packages in the project browser - 'grouping' processes by collaboration seem to be the poor practise and everything compounds from there.

Reckon we can solve that with an hour of 'drag and drop'. Everything callable is wrapped in a process or collaboration, so the identity/namespaces will all resolve.

4

General Board / Re: Nesting classes (and generalization)

« on: May 04, 2016, 12:32:23 pm »

Sometimes the automatic nesting is a good thing.
For example when using BPMN diagrams, or modelling user interfaces.

The option Tools|Options|Objects|Support for Composite Objects controls the automagical nesting behavior.

Geert

Hello Geert.

Can I trouble you for a thought (or an edict)? We have an ongoing task to rationalise/harmonise multiple discrete BPMN models that have been imported to a single repository. We had across-the-board 'nesting' rules:

• collapsed subprocesses are nested within the process package
• private processes are nested within the collaboration package.

That all went really well until we started unpacking one particular model, and discovered some of the existing 'private processes' involve complex collaborations. The result is (for example) a process within a collaboration within a process within a collaboration. EA allows this, but we're unsure if we should.

Is it legal? Recommended?

5

Uml Process / Re: BPMN2.0 Diagram Validation in EA12

« on: March 22, 2016, 09:00:41 am »

Thanks Simon. Is anyone aware of any others?

6

Uml Process / BPMN2.0 Diagram Validation in EA12

« on: March 21, 2016, 03:00:27 pm »

Hello EA Hive Mind.

This is kind of a follow-on to ye olde thread http://sparxsystems.com/forums/smf/index.php/topic,26399.msg206307.html#msg206307. We are refreshing a substantial BPMN model developed in previous projects across a number of years (and several EA versions).

Does anyone know of any bad outcomes from ignoring 'Project Browser position' warnings? For example, does it restrict BPsim? We know how to resolve the warnings, just want to judge if it's worth the time.

    Running BPMN2.0 Diagram Element's position in Project Browser Validator...   
        Warning: Either Element 'ACME (Pool)' is incorrectly positioned on diagram (E.g. does the lane fit inside the Pool? Is the Zorder correct?).   
        Warning:   Or Element 'ACME (Pool)' is at the wrong place in Project Browser. Valid places are: the sibling of the diagram, inside the Main-Pool (or its referenced Process).   
        Warning: Either Element 'Customer (Pool)' is incorrectly positioned on diagram (E.g. does the lane fit inside the Pool? Is the Zorder correct?).   
        Warning:   Or Element 'Customer (Pool)' is at the wrong place in Project Browser. Valid places are: the sibling of the diagram, inside the Main-Pool (or its referenced Process).   
        Warning: Either Element 'VAR (Pool)' is incorrectly positioned on diagram (E.g. does the lane fit inside the Pool? Is the Zorder correct?).   
        Warning:   Or Element 'VAR (Pool)' is at the wrong place in Project Browser. Valid places are: the sibling of the diagram, inside the Main-Pool (or its referenced Process).   
    Running Diagram Validators...   
    Validate Results: (0) error(s), (6) warning(s)   
 

7

General Board / Re: Poor diagram image quality in Web (HTML) Reports.

« on: February 02, 2016, 11:58:40 am »

Suggest also look at which app is rendering the html.

A client I work at recently rolled out IE11 as part of their 'standard operating environment'. Result was some SharePoint wikis now look really messy - all the sanserif fonts spaced/kerned poorly, and some images scaled in very imaginative ways.

I just saved your PNG - in the client environment, it appears to be very sharp in 'Windows Photo Viewer' and slightly blurred in 'IE11'.

8

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Support for ISO20022

« on: October 07, 2015, 12:32:13 pm »

Hello Alex,

Interested in this one because ISO20022 is part of the ebXML ecosystem.

ISO appears to publish an Eclipse library/model on a regular basis (http://www.iso20022.org/e_dictionary.page? refers).

What support are you after? Along the lines of that for NIEM?

9

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Suggestion: Orthogonal boundary

« on: September 21, 2015, 09:17:40 am »

I think what needs clarifying isn't so much what you mean, but how would you use this to improve the communication of your diagrams?

I assume there would be some element that isn't in the boundary in the cut-out space. So why is a cut-out better than moving that element? The contents of a rectangle is extremely easily interpreted. Much more so than the contents of irregular shapes.

We often have similarly laid-out diagrams used to illustrate (for example) class model representation of particular states, or ad-hoc business processes relevant to a particular user goal, or 'similar-but-different' business processes, or 'before-and-after' component/deployment models.

This is a case where a 'cutout' would be useful - effectively a irregular group boundary.

10

General Board / Re: Linking Statemachines

« on: October 09, 2015, 11:17:56 am »

Hello.

The phrase 'setting up variables' suggest you're looking at an implementation. Variable declaration will depend on your chosen technology.

So looking just at the model part of the question... states are important, but so are transitions.

Transitions can have guards (a condition that must be met in order to traverse the transition). In the 'engine' example, you could consider using '[key present]' to guard the transition of the engine turned from state 'Engine off' to 'Engine on'.

11

General Board / Re: to align sequence flows

« on: August 27, 2015, 02:22:51 pm »

Hi there, I presume this is about BPMN diagrams.

Each connector represents the flow of a token from a source object to a target object. There is no 'multibranch'. But often humans like it presented so it looks that way. In the past I have laid connectors on top of each other to do just that.

Set 'snap to grid' and use the same 'line style' for each connector and you should get the visual effect you may be seeking.

12

General Board / Re: Relate sub-process to proper process

« on: August 24, 2015, 01:50:30 pm »

Hi there,

I assume this relates to BPMN. There's a clue to the answer in your question - 'call'.

In the 'Properties' dialog for each 'sub-Process Activity' in P1 and P2:
1. set 'Type' to 'callProcessActivity'
2. that will enable a 'calledActivity' value, set it to P3.

13

Bugs and Issues / Re: Alias auto name counter for 'Event'

« on: August 12, 2015, 12:00:14 pm »

Great/thanks/sorted.

Have added a new rule for 'ObjectNode', applied auto-naming to elements, and all is good with the world.

14

Bugs and Issues / Alias auto name counter for 'Event'

« on: August 12, 2015, 09:50:36 am »

Hello.

We are refactoring a set of BPMN models in EA12. First step was to use the 'Auto Name Counter' feature to add an 'Alias' to every diagram element, but we have hit a problem with the 'Event' type.

The alias has been automatically set for every Start, End and Intermediate event EXCEPT edge-mounted events, which have been left blank. And when creating new events, the alias is set correctly for all event types except edge-mounted events, which again are left blank.

We're not sure if this is a bug, or if it's reflecting some Deeper Truth in the BPMN spec we're not aware of.

Does anyone know if there is a reason for edge-mounted events behaving differently?

15

Uml Process / Re: Converting BPMN 'Process' to 'Collaboration'

« on: November 20, 2015, 11:06:26 am »

Thanks Geert and MMA. We're going to manually convert those that are collaborations, both the 'Business Process' element and the diagram. On closer inspection it looks like we only need to change half - the remainder are true private processes.

Regarding the human comment - lolz, phrasing! I meant 'if it were just for human eyes'. We must be stricter in conformance when importing to a machine.