Messages

1

General Board / Re: MDG - Override Attribute Initializers - set value for inherited attribute

« on: October 01, 2025, 04:56:47 pm »

Can't you simply redefine the same attribute on SomeServer, but with another initial value?

Geert

Not very elegant, right ?  That's what Inheritance is for, to avoid doing things like this manually.  The extended class shows Inherited properties, it is just setting default value so a property that has Enum as type.

2

General Board / MDG - Override Attribute Initializers - set value for inherited attribute

« on: September 25, 2025, 10:46:37 pm »

Hi,

I have a stereotype, say Server, that extends a Node.  That Server has attributes like IsPhysical that can have value s Yes/No.  Now, I have another stereotype, called Some Server that extends server.  It has its own properties, but inherits IsPhysical.  I would like to be able to specify use of specific value for this IsPhysical.
I have tried using Override Attribute Initializers, and it shows nicely in the profile diagram, but does not actually set value for the property when creating a new instance of the Some Server.

Thank you for any ideas.
Marcin

3

General Board / Re: Change of object visual appearance based on attribute

« on: September 23, 2025, 09:00:06 pm »

Geert,

thank yo for responding.  I mean an actual attribute that appears in Properties window (for stereotyped objects), which would otherwise be a tagged value (if object is not stereotyped).
Regarding use of rectangular notation - as I explained - some of our users do not understand (and frankly do not need to understand) some of the notations elements.  But if we represent the same high level concept (i.e. application service exchanging data with another application services, specifying which data and how the exchange is realized by certain application component) with some user friendly images - it would help a lot.
Now, it has been done and I have seen it also presented as a part of Sparx Global Summit 2024 (UK Ministry of Defense, if I remember properly).

Cheers,
Marcin

4

General Board / Change of object visual appearance based on attribute

« on: September 23, 2025, 08:45:17 pm »

Hi,

we are stereotyping some of default objects to have a better visual representation for end users.  We would like to include an attribute that would act as a flag that defines either user-friendly appearance (for non-architects) or standard, default appearance.  It should be changeable by the user straight from the attribute, without navigating menus around.
Does anyone have any reference to possible script that could be triggered by attribute change to set the appearance of an object ?

Thanks for any tips,
Marcin

5

General Board / Full web interface for non-architects ?

« on: September 22, 2025, 07:26:55 pm »

Would you know if there is any plan/roadmap to implement a full UI (maybe leveraging ProLaborate) that will allow users to model things directly via the browser, even if this is limited in notation or diagram types ?  Or if there is any web based tool, that can be self hosted that is standard based and hence can produce data that can be imported into Sparx repository ?
You can call it avoidance of Power Point happy drawings ...

Cheers,
Marcin

6

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Business Process Simulation - passing parameters

« on: June 17, 2025, 12:01:09 am »

Hi,

I need to run some process simulations where an activity or tasks needs to re-use data produced by one of the previous tasks.  In the model, it would be shown as Data Object (it is non-persistent, instance scoped value).  How can we do that ?  Specifically - the previous tasks provides a date, as an output, and then it should be used as an input to some calculations that need to be simulated.

Any ideas ?

Best regards
Marcin

7

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / VB Scripting - Pattern object ?

« on: May 08, 2025, 09:28:24 pm »

Hi,

Is anyone aware if Design Patterns are scriptable ?  In other words - I can programmatically created packages, add diagrams, and add elements to those diagrams.  But can I add defined pattern(s) to diagrams ?

Best regards
Marcin

8

General Board / Re: Clone existing element (structure) retaining existing connections

« on: May 06, 2025, 10:06:26 pm »

Just to get the meaning of terminology here before I comment any further. In terms of how a repository is organised, what determines if an element is in the pattern? Perhaps, belonging to

Patterns as "Design Patterns".
As a short explanation - using option "Merge" does the job as it should when using patterns.  Except ... if there is a Port element embedded in the Node, whereas "Merge" is no longer available.  If it was ... it would be a solution to my case.  As would be if the pattern could remember default element to Merge with.

9

General Board / Re: Clone existing element (structure) retaining existing connections

« on: May 02, 2025, 11:48:24 pm »

Thank you Marcin, is the following a fair summary of your use case?

"You are doing some discovery/documenting work and you want to use what you discover as a template, please note the emphasis, to more efficiently create additional content as you discover more about the topology of the network."

In generic terms - it could be acceptable, but in reality this is about modelling, not discovery/documentation.

Conceptually, we have a similar use case and I have had it possibly for as long as I have used Sparx EA. Essentially, I don't think Sparx EA has an elegant way of easily use existing content as a template to create additional content with a similar or identical structure, and combine it with other features such as Time Aware Modelling (TMA).

If only creating Patterns could optionally include retaining relationships to elements not being part of the pattern ... but it cannot have such option, as consistency when re-using patterns in other repositories would be affected.
Hence, my only hope was cloning full structure for duplication.

But knowledge is not gained/documented linearly, we don't get and document all knowledge about an existing architecture - e.g., a network topology - and, then, design a new network. I would argue that both activities happen in parallel and don't see a way of cleanly work in parallel with Sparx EA combining both approaches.

I understand and agree with you about architecture development (lifecycle).  We have a special case here :-).

10

General Board / Re: Clone existing element (structure) retaining existing connections

« on: April 30, 2025, 11:16:22 pm »

What is your use case?

I am asking the question because we are using time aware modelling (TAM) to clone elements for 2 use cases that do not fit nicely with how I think TAM should be used.

I provide an example in the original post.  Imagine that you design a network where multiple elements exchange information.  Topology will be somewhat a snowflake - so ... you will have a hub and spokes, and then one of the spokes will lead to another hub with its own spokes.  Now, there is no a priori knowledge of how many spokes (or children, if we use this reference) will a hub (parent) have.  There is also a possibility that relationship is between hub and a nested element of a spoke.  Easiest to model would be a pattern of one hub, one spoke (with nested elements), and then clone multiple spokes (children) as many times as needed because they will have the same communication characteristics with hub.
That's the simplest, but of course it might be that we have special spokes that are somehow related to hub and to nested elements of their own.

For now ... I simply use a pattern, then manually recreate relationships - which is a bit faster than cloning full structure for duplication, finding one of the nested elements, and creating relationship between it and the hub.

Best regards
Marcin

11

General Board / Re: Clone existing element (structure) retaining existing connections

« on: April 30, 2025, 06:39:43 pm »

When you use the term "cloning", do you mean time aware modelling - i.e., Clone Structure as New Version?

No, Time Aware Modelling is a different beast and serves different purpose.  I am familiar with how it works, but that is not my use case.

I agree with your comment about having a "Clone Full Structure for Duplication" option.

Thanks.

12

General Board / Re: Clone existing element (structure) retaining existing connections

« on: April 30, 2025, 03:47:33 pm »

Perhaps Sparx could listen and consider that there is existing functionality "Copy Full Structure for Duplication" which retains relationships between copied elements.  Now, it would be nice to add an option to retain relationships which the copied element has with existing elements (not being copied).

Best regards
Marcin

13

General Board / Clone existing element (structure) retaining existing connections

« on: April 29, 2025, 09:12:09 pm »

Hello,

has anyone yet resolved / scripted a case where cloning existing element structure would retain relationships to elements not being cloned ?
Example :  a Node element (lets call it a Platform), containing nested Nodes, one of them having a relationship with another Node (lets call it Control) outside of this Platform node.  Now, I need to clone Platform node (including substructure) in such way that its internal Node each retains relationship to existing Control node.

Best regards
Marcin

14

General Board / Re: EA17 - mutiple stereotypes in data model

« on: April 03, 2025, 08:54:54 pm »

Thank you Geert :-)

15

General Board / EA17 - mutiple stereotypes in data model

« on: April 03, 2025, 07:56:58 pm »

Hi,

would you happen to know where in the underlying data model I can find multiple stereotypes for an element (if assigned) ?  More specifically, it applies to ArchiMate elements that have additional stereotypes defined.

Best regards
Marcin