Messages

1

General Board / Re: Backward and forward compatibility between versions of Sparx EA and PCS

« on: August 20, 2025, 06:11:01 pm »

In short, it is compatible but not supported.

The question here is, what does that mean?
How is "supported" different from "not supported"?

Geert

Exactly, and with 4 releases of Sparx EA since May 2025 and 2 of PCS, upgrades have become too frequent and bigger job.

2

Bugs and Issues / Re: SparxEA SQLServer Repository MFA Authentication - ActiveDirectoryInteractive

« on: August 20, 2025, 06:08:26 pm »

I don't know. Our users are already logged in into windows with the correct credentials, so PCS doesn't need to log them in (or use MFA)
WebEA is a different case althogether.

Geert

It is the same for our users with some very awkward authentication exceptions that have been reported to Sparx Systems.

WebEA is the main reason for the question.

Having said that, since Microsoft implemented MFA for using desktop apps, even when logged in using the right credentials, I have noticed a dilution of the boundaries between 1) using a Windows AD account to log into a laptop attached to a domain, 2) Sparx EA (plus PCS) using that account, 3) SSO, and 4) MFA; the boundary is at times so diluted that MFA is almost always required or, to use other words, those 4 things are conflated.

3

General Board / Re: Backward and forward compatibility between versions of Sparx EA and PCS

« on: August 19, 2025, 06:03:59 pm »

Official Sparx Systems response is below.

Please note that the latest version of Enterprise Architect (EA) is compatible with Pro Cloud Server (PCS) version 5.x.

However, we cannot guarantee that all functions will work correctly in this combination.

Therefore, we highly recommend upgrading to the latest versions to take advantage of enhanced features and bug fixes.

[..]

Kindly note that Enterprise Architect v17.x and Pro Cloud Server v6.x are the officially supported versions. Previous versions are no longer officially supported.

In short, it is compatible but not supported.

4

General Board / Re: Backward and forward compatibility between versions of Sparx EA and PCS

« on: August 14, 2025, 02:29:35 am »

Thank you Geert, just to be more specific we are currently running PCS v5.1.128 with a variety of Saprx EA v16.x builds. One of the reasons for the question is to gather some information/experience on adding Sparx EA v17.x to the mix without upgrading PCS.

5

General Board / Backward and forward compatibility between versions of Sparx EA and PCS

« on: August 13, 2025, 04:55:27 pm »

Is anybody aware of any official content covering backward and forward compatibility between versions of Sparx EA and PCS, both major and minor.

For example, is Sparx EA version 17 compatible with PCS 5? Is version 16 compatible with version 6? Can the latest build of version 17 run on PCS 6.0?

The same question has gone to the Sparx support team.

6

Bugs and Issues / Re: SparxEA SQLServer Repository MFA Authentication - ActiveDirectoryInteractive

« on: August 12, 2025, 04:50:58 pm »

No, couldn't make it work, so I switched to using a database user, and encrypting the shortcut file (or use PCS)

Geert

Is PCS supposed to work with MFA? I posted the same question in the PCS forum with little success.

I mean that PCS uses a database user to connect to the database. Users connect to PCS using windows authentication.

Geert

This exactly what I thought you meant. But can the connection to PCS be configured to support MFA when user connects to PCS using Windows authentication? What about WebEA?

7

Bugs and Issues / Re: SparxEA SQLServer Repository MFA Authentication - ActiveDirectoryInteractive

« on: August 12, 2025, 02:55:26 am »

Has anyone been able to create a connection string using: 

Authentication=ActiveDirectoryInteractive;

Our company has turned Multi-factor Authentication using Microsoft Authenticator on for everything.  Now we can get SparxEA to connect to the repository.

We were previously, successfully, using:

Authentication=ActiveDirectoryIntegrated

Are you saying that your company has setup MFA even when connecting to databases to create, read, delete or update data?

No, couldn't make it work, so I switched to using a database user, and encrypting the shortcut file (or use PCS)

Geert

Is PCS supposed to work with MFA? I posted the same question in the PCS forum with little success.

8

General Board / Cloning Components and Ports and changing their types and stereotypes

« on: August 07, 2025, 12:20:31 am »

I am working with a repository where we used components, UML components, to represent applications, and ports to represent (well defined) interactions between applications. ArchiMate 3.2 provides a much richer conceptual taxonomy, and, as result, we are toying with the possibility of cloning existing content and create a new version.

In an ideal world, we would like to clone components as new version an change their types and stereotypes to ArchiMate Application Components, and ports to ArchiMate Application Interactions.

Can the later be done?

I would also appreciate any thoughts on how wise or unwise this may be.

9

General Board / Re: What does the Package_ID in t_object represent?

« on: July 28, 2025, 10:53:37 pm »

Thank you Eve. Just one quick clarification regarding

If you have A selected (or specify its id/guid):

• t_object.Package_ID = #Package# will give you A100 only
• t_object.Package_ID in (#Branch#) will give you A100 and A120

Does that behaviour apply irrespective of the object type? Does the same behaviour apply to a child object of a type package or a type class - i.e., does the same behaviour apply irrespective of whether A120 is a package or a class?

10

General Board / Re: Can no longer post SQL Statements to this forum

« on: July 28, 2025, 10:42:03 pm »

this is very specific and a very Sparxian solution was implemented.

What exactly are you saying? What is a Sparxian solution and why is Cloudflare implementing one?

I am saying that I would like
1) a fully functional forum - i.e., a forum where I could post any SQL statement to read data from a repository hosted in any of the RDBMs supported by Sparx EA and PCS and a forum where I can post images without having to use a third party.
2) Sparx EA to support any SQL statement to read data from a repository hosted in any supported RDBMs.

I am no Cloudflare expert but I am would expect it can be configured to not treat a SQL statement that just reads data from a database, irrespective of whether it starts with a SELECT clause of not, as a SQL injection.

11

General Board / Re: Can no longer post SQL Statements to this forum

« on: July 17, 2025, 09:47:50 pm »

The forum allows me to post the statement below and fail to see how anybody can start a SQL injection with such a statement.

with t as(
select * from t_object
where name like 'A%'
)
select * from t

But if I try a more sophisticated statement - e.g., using the CAST function in a string concatenation - I cannot.

In other words, the forum allows posting some really simple SQL statements not starting with a SELECT but the minute you try something a bit more sophisticated which is needed to solve, for example, the work breakdown problem you have to use words. Very frustrating.

12

General Board / Re: What does the Package_ID in t_object represent?

« on: July 17, 2025, 06:37:45 pm »

Thank you Eve, did I understand this correctly?

Package_ID = #Package#

Uses the ID of the current package.

There are three permutations of this macro:
    in #Branch# - gets the ID of each child Package of the parent Package selected by the user
    in #Branch=<GUID># or #Branch=<ID># - gets the ID of each child Package of the parent Package specified by the GUID or ID
    in #Branch=<ID>,<ID>,<ID># - gets the ID of each child Package under each parent Package specified by its ID

Using the example in the previous post, I would greatly appreciate if could you please define "child Package of the parent Package"?

13

General Board / What does the Package_ID in t_object represent?

« on: July 17, 2025, 01:41:49 am »

I am not sure if this is dumb question, but let's assume I have the following package structure:

A [Package]
-->A100 [Package]
---->A120 [Object]
B [Package]
-->B100 [Package]
---->B110 [Object]

Sparx EA stores the data for the above structure twice on in t_object and again in t_package; nothing new here.

I am interested in 2 columns from t_object, object_id and package_id, and one from t_package, package_id, and their relationships.

Looking, at the results from various queries
> If the object is a package, t_object.package_id is the identifier of the parent package - e.g. for A100 it is the package identifier of package A, but
> If the object is not a package, it is the identifier of the package where the object is located - e.g., for B110 it is identifier of package B100.

Have I misunderstood something? I guess in both cases it is the identifier of the container package.

The reason for the question is that I am trying to understand what the #Package# and #Branch# macros pass as their parameters. The package_id from t_package, the object_id from t_object, or the package_id from t_object.

14

General Board / Re: Can no longer post SQL Statements to this forum

« on: July 16, 2025, 06:53:02 pm »

Interesting, this is very specific and a very Sparxian solution was implemented. A simple select statement can be posted, please below.

Code: [Select]

SELECT * FROM t_object
But any statement starting with anything other than a SELECT statement cannot be posted.

SQL statements for most RDBMS do not have to start with a SELECT statement. A plea to Sparx Systems, please address that at least in the forum and, if possible, in the software.

15

General Board / Re: Incomplete or Buggy Snowflake DB Engineering

« on: July 11, 2025, 10:13:25 pm »

I would expect that of a 1st release. Snowflake is not a Microsoft product, it is an Azure Marketplace offering in some degree of partnering with Microsoft.

#2: Datatype Mapping / Conversion Missing for Snowflake, Cannot Save Common Types
- If a table is set to SQL Server 2012, for example, changing it to Snowflake should allow for datatype conversion/mapping. Instead Sparx wipes out all the data type information when this is done.

That is very easy to say and not so easy to implement. AFIK, Sparx EA does not support that for any language.