Messages

1

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Add ActivityPartition to quick linker types

« on: December 21, 2009, 10:00:55 am »

Thanks KP,
I should clarify what I mean by not working. The Lane to TextAnnotation link works fine from an existing Lane to an existing TextAnnotation and to create a new TextAnnotation. It doesn't work from an existing TextAnnotation to an existing Lane. Incidentally, the same applies to Pools.

From[/u]	To existing[/u]	Create new[/u]	Result[/u]
Lane	TextAnnotation		OK
Lane		TextAnnotation	OK
TextAnnotation	Lane		Not OK
TextAnnotation		Lane	OK

I hope that helps.
Cheers,
Andrew.

2

Suggestions and Requests / Add ActivityPartition to quick linker types

« on: December 18, 2009, 05:19:34 pm »

Hi all,
Is there any possibility of adding ActivityPartition to the list of allowed types in the quick linker files?

I would like to be able to create links to BPMN1.1::Lane items but the quick linker ignores my pleas. Well, it will work in creating a new Element with a link but won't create a link to an existing Lane.

Incidentally, there is an entry in the BPMN1.1 quick linker definitions that come with EA where they attempt to link TextAnnotation to Lane but it doesn't work either, as far as I can make out.

Try creating a BPMN1.1 diagram with a Lane and a TextAnnotation on it and use the quick linker to create an Association (that is (BPMN1.1::Association(UML::Dependency) I believe)

Cheers,
Andrew.

3

General Board / Re: Documenting the Big Picture

« on: December 10, 2009, 08:55:19 am »

Hi all,
I don't think there is a single big picture. As you say, the system is so complex there are many different characteristics that might be of interest to someone at some time.

Since a model is a pale imitation of reality it is clearly to be used for some purpose.

If you want a strategic overview, the business motivation model http://www.omg.org/technology/documents/br_pm_spec_catalog.htm, which is part of the OMG's Business Strategy, Business Rules and Business Process Management Specifications, might help.

For a process view Alec Sharp's approach to process analysis and design is fabulous. See http://www.clariteq.com/. He has also written a wonderful book, Workflow Modeling, which is well worth the price.

If you want an overall system veiw you could look at the viable system model. It's a model of any viable system that provides a structure that must be present in order for the system to be viable. It's a good platform to try to understand what mechanisms are or are not in place and what structures are making the system more or less viable. It doesn't remove the necessity to understand all the inter-related disciplines but it does allow you to focus where it's really important. You can find some stuff here http://www.managementkybernetik.com/en/fs_methmod3.html but just search for "viable system model" and you'll get plenty.

The other thing is that there is probably a limit to how much we can model in a deterministic way and still get use out of it. Once we get into complexity where cause and effect are not so obviously related we need other ways to deal with it. The cognitive edge group has an approach they call cynefin. There's a quick intro here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mqNcs8mp74.

I hope that helps.
Cheers,
Andrew.

4

General Board / Re: Generating EJB(3.0)-annotations from the PIM

« on: February 15, 2010, 12:56:01 pm »

Hi Dieter,
have you had any feedback on this? I'm interested because the ability to add Attributes and Operations as tagged values using a RefGUID type is promising but I can't seem to get access to the enclosing context.

I would like to add a tagged value pointing to an attribute then report on that attribute in an RTF report, displaying the attribute and its context. Without the context it is useless to show the name of the attribute.

I hope this is close to your original post.

Cheers,
Andrew.

5

General Board / Re: Saving diagrams in SVG format

« on: January 25, 2010, 05:39:11 pm »

Hi David,
you can save diagrams as enhanced metafiles, a kind of vector graphics format.

You can import emf files using, e.g. inkscape and save them as svg.

Sounds good but I tried it and the image got screwed up but it might be something you could try.

Cheers,
Andrew.

6

General Board / Creating my own stereotype icon

« on: January 19, 2010, 04:06:45 pm »

Hi all,
I'm trying to set up an icon that displays a specific stereotype icon for the stereotypes in my MDG Technology profiles. So far, I can create an icon for display in the project browser but I can't seem to get it to display as a stereotype icon on the diagrams.

This picture on twitpic http://twitpic.com/yrafx shows a few things but the focus is the item at the bottom with the «operative business rule» stereotype.

You'll notice that it is an Artifact and the stereotype icon for Artifacts is shown. I want to add a stereotype icon for «operative business rule».

I'm sorry if this is in the doco but I haven't been able to find it.

Cheers,
Andrew.

7

Bugs and Issues / Re: templates from MDG tech not shown for RTFTempl

« on: May 03, 2010, 09:07:50 am »

Thanks Michael,
I hope you're feeling better now. Thanks for the response I'll give it a go.

Regards,
Andrew.

8

Bugs and Issues / Re: templates from MDG tech not shown for RTFTempl

« on: April 22, 2010, 09:32:50 am »

Thanks Michael,
but how do you define the rtf template if you don't assign the appropriate tagged value?

Cheers,
Andrew.

9

Bugs and Issues / templates from MDG tech not shown for RTFTemplate

« on: April 21, 2010, 05:52:50 pm »

Sorry if I've raised this somewhere before. I've overcome it but can't remember how.

I have a model document and I want to assign an RTF template from my MDG technology. The problem is that the templates in the MDG technology are not shown in the list of values available for the tagged value.

They're definitely there and can be selected from the normal document generation dialogue but I have no idea how to set them on the model document tagged value.

thanks,
Andrew.

10

Bugs and Issues / Re: MDG tech. template not visible in model doc. l

« on: February 18, 2010, 09:02:53 am »

Beewdiful!
Thanks Simon.

11

Bugs and Issues / MDG tech. template not visible in model doc. list

« on: February 18, 2010, 08:05:04 am »

Hi all,
I might be missing something here but I've created some rtf templates in a profile development model and have exported them as part of an MDG technology file.

When I use that file I can see the templates in the Generate RTF Documentation Dialog and in the Resources/Templates/Document Templates view but they don't show up in the available list in my model document's tagged value selector for, EAUML::model document::RTFTemplate.

Cheers,
Andrew.

12

Bugs and Issues / Re: No StereoTypeEx can be reported for external r

« on: February 12, 2010, 05:19:38 pm »

Hear, hear!
I've been busting my head trying to figure out why my stereotyped items aren't returning from a simple search. It's because they're not the primary stereotype...except when they are?!? And, that's entirely dependent upon what order you apply the stereotypes.

I have yet to grasp the need for some stereotypes being more equal than others but please can we have a simple way to determine if an element has a stereotype? When I ask the question "is this element of the stereotype «blah»?" a simple yes or no will suffice.

It's also not clear to me whether or not I have to remove the stereotype attribute AND the stereotypeex attribute from element or not when I'm operating through the API.

It's too late on a Friday arvo for this. Time to go home.

Cheers,
Andrew.

13

Bugs and Issues / Re: Crash on data transfer

« on: February 11, 2010, 11:27:01 am »

Thanks Henk,
that did it.

BTW, is there are document describing the necessary permissions for the various stages of deployment to a dbms repository and subsequent use of the model?

I have to make a submission of sorts to our database admins. We're going to deploy our repositories into a tightly controlled production environment.

It would be good to be able to lock down the permissions as far as possible and to allocate such permissions as are required using windows resource groups.

Cheers,
Andrew.

14

Bugs and Issues / Crash on data transfer

« on: February 09, 2010, 04:10:39 pm »

Hi all,
I'm trying to transfer a model into a sql server database. I've done it before on a local sql server db but now I'm having a go into a more secure environment.

EA 7.5.850
SQL Server 2008
MDAC 2.8
client: Win XP SP3
server: dunno

The error I get is

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server [-2147217900]
Cannot find the object "t_package" because it does not exist or you do not have permissions.

Now, some other tables have rows transferred successfully. It pops the error message up twice then crashes. That is, EA shuts down abruptly.

The DB admin has run the database setup script from Sparx and the tables all appear to be there. I can add data manually via a connection in visual studio.

Anyone seen this before?
Andrew.

15

Bugs and Issues / Re: Associate a state machine with its classifier

« on: February 09, 2010, 08:57:54 am »

Thanks Geert,
that sums it up nicely.

Cheers,
Andrew.