Messages

1

Bugs and Issues / Re: Archimate Derived Relationships

« on: January 16, 2019, 05:11:21 pm »

I seem to remember discussions in other threads about derived relationships and the many pragmatic challenges. Whilst other tools do attempt to support automatic derived relationships I can understand that the ambiguities of the spec and vagaries of different peoples' intentions would make such a feature extremely difficult to implement successfully.

What I think would be useful however would be for Sparx to be aware of 'manually' created derived relationships. As a modeler I could explicitly create the 'derived' relationships that I care about so that I can create simplified diagrams by excluding some intermediate elements. If those intermediate elements are shown however, the connector for the direct 'derived' relationships would be hidden (automatically, or perhaps by use of a filter).

This would require Sparx to:
- Understand when a connector is 'derived' (@Paolo - is that what you had in mind wrt the 'universal "derivation" indicator' ?)
- Be able to determine when there is an alternative (non-'derived') path between elements connected by such a 'derived' connector so that the derived path can be hidden
- Allow 'derived' connectors to be created within the strict connector syntax/model validation rules

Yes, we need an easily referencable property to indicate a derived relationship (We hijacked the isLeaf field for a connector to do that - and also created some tagged values {for defining the type of derivation and other information))
We also use the new arc-to-arc relationships to indicate explicitly which relationships are derived by what means.
We assume that "all bets are off" with derived connectors - that is we don't implement strict syntax for them.   As I said, the derivation rules are quite complex and a derived relationship that is valid at creation time may become invalid if one of the traversals is changed.
BTW, we sometimes show BOTH the derived and derivation paths on the same diagram.  It's not a given that the derived arc should be hidden if the alternate path is available.

Paolo

Are Archimate derived relationships a property of the instances or a property of the class? I have element instances with derived relationships with no intervening instance. This is useful because sometimes I don't care about the application functions/processes for COTS applications but I do care about the application components (which will be deployed) and the application services (which will be used by business processes).

In terms of the tool I'd like to be able to manually add derived relationships that I care about with checking turned on. Bonus points for being able to create an automatic style for their display such as colouring them red.

I believe that there is a version of a fixed matrix floating around done by someone outside the committee but I couldn't find it just now. I'll have to have a look tomorrow and see if I can edit this post with a link to it.

2

Bugs and Issues / Re: Archimate Derived Relationships

« on: January 16, 2019, 02:07:50 pm »

Of course, the palette! My brain was doing a mental block.

Sparx then disallows this particular relationship until you go to Start->Preferences->Links and turn off strict connector syntax.

My memory might be failing me but I believe that Sparx implemented all of the explicit relationships from the tables in the specification.  That table doesn't include derived and implicitly allowed relationships.

The spec would tend to suggest otherwise:

"This appendix details the normative requirements for relationships between elements of the ArchiMate modeling language. It is constructed from the metamodel figures in Chapters 3 through 13 and the derivation rules for relationships outlined in Section 5.6."

Looking in the table Application Component to Application Service is listed as irvtfo where r is realization. This means that Sparx disallows a valid relationship in the relationship table when in strict relationship mode.

As I said in my original post the relationship table is a mess, it doesn't match the text of the spec, but at least this one is present.

3

Bugs and Issues / Re: Archimate Data Object Realises Business Object

« on: January 16, 2019, 09:31:06 am »

Aaargh the palette! Never mind, all good now.

4

Bugs and Issues / Re: Archimate Derived Relationships

« on: January 16, 2019, 09:27:31 am »

Of course, the palette! My brain was doing a mental block.

Sparx then disallows this particular relationship until you go to Start->Preferences->Links and turn off strict connector syntax.

5

Bugs and Issues / Archimate Derived Relationships

« on: January 15, 2019, 05:03:26 pm »

Hi,

I know that the Archimate permitted relationship matrix in the spec is a big mess however should I be able to create derived relationships if I need them?

For example Application Services can be realized by Application Functions, Application Processes or Application Interactions. These in turn can have Application Components assigned to them. If I want to show a relationship between Application Services and Application Components I should be able to use  a Realization relationship being the weaker of the two but all I'm offered is association.

The Archi tool allows this however my customer is using Sparx.

6

Bugs and Issues / Archimate Data Object Realises Business Object

« on: January 15, 2019, 04:55:22 pm »

Hi,

In Archimate I should be able to create a realization relationship between a Business Object and a Data Object however the only quick link I get is association.

EA version 14.1.1427

7

General Board / Re: Auto Colouring Based on a Set Membership

« on: November 29, 2018, 03:59:09 pm »

You can use several diagram-filters there each filter rule is color the element with right Tagged value.

You can use OR & AND to filter groups to combine different filter sets

I use one set of filter for different element color based on a specific tv and another set of filter for coloring the elements border with a different tv.
That way I can use several filter sets for multi coloring that is based on my own tagged values

Looking at the diagram filters I only see options to fade, hide or greyscale elements that do not match the filter or to select those that do. I don't see options to color elements that match the filter. Are you able to explain a little more?

8

General Board / Re: Auto Colouring Based on a Set Membership

« on: November 29, 2018, 03:20:27 pm »

Yes. You need to hook to EA_OnContextItemChanged.

q.

So an add in rather than a script?

9

General Board / Re: Auto Colouring Based on a Set Membership

« on: November 29, 2018, 09:35:39 am »

Is there such a thing as a computed tagged value?

If you write a script to compute it

I'm pretty new to scripting. Is there a way to trigger a script on element save to compute the value?

10

General Board / Auto Colouring Based on a Set Membership

« on: November 28, 2018, 04:57:25 pm »

I want to automatically colour elements on a diagram based on whether the element is a member of a set or an intersection of sets. For example all the elements that belong to business units A and B should be green whilst all elements that only belong to B should be yellow.

I'm trying to find a way to do this using tagged values and legends.

The CheckList tagged value type will store the data I want however I am at a loss as to how to reference this in a Legend object.

Multiple boolean tagged values, one for each category, will also encode the data (badly) however I am not sure how to represent each category combination in the legend.

Is there such a thing as a computed tagged value?

In any case can anyone see a solution to this issue?

11

Bugs and Issues / Re: Auto coloring with diagram legends

« on: November 28, 2018, 11:52:30 am »

Hi everybody,
I am trying to use the "Auto coloring with diagram legends" feature for an activity diagram.
I have added a tagged value (type checklist) to an action and I want the Action in the diagram changing Color in case being the checklist complete.
It seems not to work by using "Complete"/"Incomplete" as values in the legend Settings.
It was possible only to change colors by using numeric values for the checklist items.
Something like

• green -> 1,1
• red -> 0,0
• red -> 0,1
• red -> 1,0

for a tag value of type checklist with two values.
For a "Complete" checklist I get the action green, red otherwise. The problem is that the legend with the numric values above is not making sense ...

Where's my error? Any alternative way?

Regards.

I am interested in more detail on this, how did you do it exactly? Was numerical evaluation turned on?

In answer to your question create a second dummy legend with the values you want and place it over the top of the first one thus hiding the confusing information.

12

General Board / UPDM OV-5 OperationalActivity Relationships

« on: June 15, 2012, 02:30:18 pm »

How do I create aggregation relationships to represent a hierarchy of operational activities on a UPDM OV-5 diagram?

13

General Board / Re: Creation of Time Based Views in UPDM

« on: August 16, 2012, 11:42:44 am »

Email sent.

14

General Board / Creation of Time Based Views in UPDM

« on: August 15, 2012, 04:40:21 pm »

How do I create the time based views described in DoDAF/MODAF/UPDM using Sparx? The views I am talking about are the CV-3 (Capability Phasing) and PV-2 (Project Timelines)

15

General Board / Accessing Properties of Element from a Port in RTF

« on: July 09, 2013, 09:08:50 am »

What box do I tick to get access to the name of an element that a port is a composite part of using the RTF report generator? I'm doing interface lists off diagrams and I can access the port properties but not the properties off the element they are a part of.