Messages

1

General Board / Re: Enabling sequence numbering on existing diagra

« on: December 14, 2007, 05:15:33 am »

Just an update.

I have solved my problem by writing an Add-In which increases the width of the labels associated to all connectors in a diagram.

The add-in can be downloaded from my website (direct link). Source code will also be available there in a few days.

2

General Board / Re: Enabling sequence numbering on existing diagra

« on: December 10, 2007, 11:37:57 am »

I see what you mean. We could implement the numbering ourselves using the underscore. However, we also have connections that are not described by a method name, but by a few words. All spaces would need to be converted to underscores. I don't think it'd look so nicely anymore. Thanks for thinking along though, much appreciated.

With an add-in I'm going to try another approach. When the 'multiline' problem in a label occurs, you can manually fix it by selecting the label belonging to the method arrow (connection) and dragging the box larger. I'll try to make my add-in find all connections in a diagram and automatically make them 100px (or similar) wider.

3

General Board / Re: Enabling sequence numbering on existing diagra

« on: December 10, 2007, 10:46:19 am »

We had turned off sequence numbering previously, as we didn't expect to use it. However, now we are documenting many sequence diagrams for additional clarification. This requires the numbering.

We want to use the auto-numbering instead of numbering manually (I suspect that's what you are suggesting), so that if any calls are added to a diagram, we won't have to renumber everything. Besides, manual numbering would still require to modify all labels by hand. This is simply too much work.

I'm currently checking if I can make an add-in myself to do this on a per-diagram base (add a button to fix all labels). If I got anything, I'll post it. I'll have to figure out how to get to the proper data and it's my first time using interop

I also found another topic with bugs and feature requests. Point 4 of the first post is a feature request for non-breaking labels. He mentions he sent the feature request via official ways. This was posted July 2007. It'd be nice if Sparx would grant the request.

I was hoping for some option or trick I had missed and you guru's could point out to me.

4

General Board / Enabling sequence numbering on existing diagrams

« on: December 10, 2007, 05:33:28 am »

Hi there,

We are currently facing a problem when enabling sequence numbering in EA in an existing diagram. I think it is best explained by an example. See the images below.

We currently have sequence numbering disabled.


For documentation purposes we want to enable sequence numbering. However, all method labels are affected as visibel in the following image.


For a few diagrams it's not such a problem to manually enlarge the label boxes. However, we have hundreds of diagrams that need sequence numbering.

Is there a workaround to prevent the labels from having line breaks or to automate the 'enlarging of label boxes'?

We are currently using EA 7.0.816 (build 816).

Thanks in advance.
- Martijn

5

General Board / Re: Multi-user and DBMS in EA

« on: November 01, 2007, 03:45:53 pm »

Thanks for your reply. That sounds like a reasonable situation to work with. I'll give it a shot soon when I've got some more spare time.

Hadn't really played around with the Security settings yet as I was given the idea it'd be a hassle to get it working and you still wouldn't be forced to lock before editing (effectively being able to work without locking).

6

General Board / Re: Multi-user and DBMS in EA

« on: October 30, 2007, 01:50:10 pm »

Thanks for your response. We were hoping any locking or other advanced features might be available if the 'registered' scripts were used.

We have used package locking, but that didn't quite work in our situation as we're working together on a pretty fine level; we'd have to make a (versioning) package of each use-case just to provide locking.

I've seen it's possible to lock elements, manually, by using the Security features of a project. However, this isn't really ideal as well and in my opinion it takes more effort to do than just communicating what diagram a user is working on.

Also I have tried searching the forum a bit but didn't find any solutions besides locking by using versioned packages or using the Security feature.

If anyone still knows other ways to use locking in models on diagram level (preferably), please let me know.

7

General Board / Multi-user and DBMS in EA

« on: October 29, 2007, 02:27:38 am »

Hi,

We're attempting to perform some tests with the Enterprise Architect model in a DBMS. We have currently deployed a MySQL server, ran the appropriate script to create the tables and transferred an EA model.

We own a Corporate edition of EA.

I have three questions regarding this situation.

1) The manual specifies the following:

* Registered users can obtain the scripts from the Registered Corporate Edition resources page of the Sparx Systems website at http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/registered/reg_ea_corp_ed.html
* Trial users can obtain the scripts from the Corporate Edition Resources page of the Sparx Systems website at http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/resources/corporate/

Is there a difference between the trial and registered scripts?

2) How is locking provided in diagrams?

Imagine this situation: two designers are working in the same diagram, both edit the diagram, user 1 saves the diagram, user 2 saves the diagram afer that. In my experience the save user 2 performs **silently** overwrites the changes of user 1 (I have tested this). There is not even a warning that the diagram was changed in the meanwhile (like you have when you share a .EAP project).

Ideally, the moment one user makes a change in a diagram, the diagram becomes locked for other users. Is this possible?

3) We want to work with around 5 persons on one model. The model is large, but due to multiple persons working closely together on the same area, package locking (i.e. subversion) is not handy.

Are there any suggestions for working with multiple persons in a single diagram? Documents on the Sparx website I may have missed concerning working with multiple users?

Thanks in advance for your help.

8

Uml Process / Re: Active lifeline stops after first return in al

« on: October 10, 2007, 01:15:55 pm »

For everyone interested, I've received an official reply on my question. Looking at the answer, they don't see it is a bug.

Hello Martijn

Thank you for your email.

If you right click on the second return and from the activations menu,
select extend source activation up.

Best Regards,
Nicholas Zounis
Sparx Systems Pty Ltd

9

Uml Process / Re: Active lifeline stops after first return in al

« on: October 05, 2007, 03:28:26 am »

Thanks for the quick response.

The Activations menu gave me a workable workaround: rightclick on the lower message that needs to be connected. Choose Activations -> Extend Source Activation Up.

However, as I believe the alt fragment should automatically detect this situation I've reported the issue as a bug as well. I've added a link to this topic in the report. If I hear anything I'll post it here.

10

Uml Process / Active lifeline stops after first return in alt

« on: October 05, 2007, 02:34:07 am »

I'm having an issue with sequence diagrams in EA. I have made a small diagram to display this issue.



I've created a dummy situation in which a browser logs into a website and depending on success, two outcomes are possible. On success, the browser is redirected to a 'yay' page and on failure the browser is sent to a 'nay' page. The alternative situation is placed inside an 'alt' fragment.

However, I cannot get the activation lifeline to continue up until the second return call.

Is this possible in EA? Am I doing something wrong? Suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

11

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Opening existing EA dialogs for elements

« on: November 01, 2008, 03:21:09 am »

Thanks for your responses.

In the EA help contents, look at the MDG Add-in API reference. It is just before the EA Object Model. The various events are what you need to trap.

To do this you will have to write your automation application as an add-in. Depending on how you've worked until now this may cause some redesign. Stick with it though; it can definitely be done.

David

It is my understanding that MDG only adds intercepting some actions performed by Enterprise Architect, for example for code generation. Not that it allows more access to initiating dialogs or stuff like that.

You mean your add-in lists requirements in an own window (a modal form or a COM control registered with EA) and from there you want to open EA's in-built properties dialog for a requirement?
If there were such a function it should be in the EA.Repository object, but I think it is sadly missing.

Probably worth a feature request.

This is indeed exactly what I mean. Sorry if I caused any confusion. I have my own dialog and I want to initiate the Properties dialog of an element myself (not to intercept it).

I was already afraid this would not be possible. If anyone has any way of doing this (perhaps even with workaround or dirty hack), please let me know. The alternative is to collect all data and make a dialog of my own.

12

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Opening existing EA dialogs for elements

« on: October 31, 2008, 10:24:57 pm »

Hi,

I've made an add-in that lists a number of requirements in a matrix (table). I want to open the EA 'properties' window when I doubleclick on a requirement. Using the COM interface I'm unable to find a method to open EA dialogs for a specific element. Is this possible? And if so, how?

Btw, by 'properties' window I mean the window you get when you doubleclick an element or component in the project browser.

Thanks in advance.

13

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Modify connector PDATA retrieved via get_MiscD

« on: December 14, 2007, 05:09:31 am »

Thanks David and Thomas for your input.

I have finished the plugin and solved my problem by communicating with the DB directly. I didn't have time to wait for Sparx to implement additional API calls. Furthermore we have a pretty strict policy about upgrading to newer software versions in the middle of a project.

Communication with the database was already handled by the Repository. It has the "Execute()" and "SQLQuery()" methods to query and to update the database, without having to make your own connection with the DB. The SQLQuery method simply returns XML with the resultset in it.

If anyone is interested, the add-in can be downloaded from my website (direct link). The source code will also be available there in a few days.

14

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Modify connector PDATA retrieved via get_MiscData

« on: December 11, 2007, 03:28:16 am »

Hi there,

I'm currently writing an add-in to automatically update the label geometry of connectors in sequence diagrams. I'm referring to the box around the label in the image below. The reason I'm trying to do this is described in another thread.


After lots of trial&error and checking database queries I found that the coordinates of the label box are relative to the coordinates of the connector. They coordinates I need to update are stored in PDATA5, which can be retrieved with get_MiscData(4).

Now I have a problem. I want to automatically update PDATA5, but there is no set_MiscData(..).

Is there any other way to update PDATA5? Or can I easily execute queries on the db manually in my add-in?

Thanks in advance.