Messages

1

Suggestions and Requests / OWL support

« on: January 18, 2010, 09:35:42 am »

Could I request a profile for OWL support.

Several others want this also, and we have been discussing it at
http://www.sparxsystems.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1263346918/7#7

There are specifications in the ODM from OMG, already worked out.
It just needs someone to put them into EA profile .xml format.
"relatively" trivial.

Don

2

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: OWL, VOM and UML Profile

« on: February 24, 2010, 11:14:37 am »

There is some work going on at SourceForge on the relationships between differenf formats etc:- here
http://xml2owl.sourceforge.net/index.php

3

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: OWL, VOM and UML Profile

« on: February 24, 2010, 09:42:10 am »

Perhaps we should explore Salayande's comments  further.

My first concern has been getting the modelling capability, by being able to import a UML Profile into EA.

But waht do we want to do once we have that done and have created a model.

Presumably we will want to export the standard OWL xml format.
And also to be able to import that format.

Exporting XSD is a capability of the product, but it relies on a different UML profile with different stereotypes. We would need a translation between the two.

I am guessing that the reverse would also be desirable - to import XSD into a model, and have it modified into an owl model.

For myself, I would normally do this via XSLT transformation of the XMI file. I have a bit of experience with this, and could probably provide some translations to the community.
To aid in this sort of work, I have been considering a new XML format (call it XUCD - Xml UML Class Diagram) aimed solely at modelling UML class diagrams in a more friendly manner than the highly abstract XMI format.
It might be a worthwhileexercise to do scripts to convert between XMI and XUCD. Then we can do stereotype conversions etc. in XUCD
If we had all this working in a klutzy way, then perhaps Sparx would be willing to integrate the scripts intot he product.

Here I am jumping to solutiosn again - <sigh>
What would people want to do with their OWL models once they can generate them?

Don

4

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: OWL, VOM and UML Profile

« on: February 23, 2010, 02:24:07 pm »

I have submitted a feature request - called OWL Profile.

I don't knwo how you would support this, apart from submitting your own requests with the same name.

Don

5

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: OWL, VOM and UML Profile

« on: January 18, 2010, 09:40:59 am »

If added a request to the "suggestions and enhancements" forum - at
http://www.sparxsystems.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1263767742/0#0

It links back to this discussion also.

6

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: OWL, VOM and UML Profile

« on: January 14, 2010, 03:09:05 pm »

A bit of background-

I have migrated my career from solutions architect to enterprise architect, but am constantly dissappointed by teh lack of precision in the ea world. Work is currently squabbling over which tool to use to develop a model repository.

After training in TOGAF and FEAF, and experience with the MAgic Quadrant #1 tool, and arguments about reference models vs. architectures etc., I have come to one simple conclusion:-
use Information Archtiecture standard terminology. EA terminology is immature. The obvious candidates are Taxonomies and Ontologies,
with RDF and OWL being way out in front. I am confident that with them I can model just about anything with precision.
The trouble is my eyes and brain fail trying to read XML endlessly.
I want visual version. The obvious solution - UML Profiles for RDF and OWL.
It looks like I am right on the bleeding edge with this. If anyone can point me at an OWL/UML working solution, please let me know.
(And I still have to convince the rest of work to go this way. Bah.)
Don
PS. The Gartner MAgic Quadrant #1 tool sucks bigtime.

7

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: OWL, VOM and UML Profile

« on: January 14, 2010, 02:54:43 pm »

Is there a specificationof the Enterprise Architect UML Profile XML format?
I might be able to find some time to do a little work on this.
I tried reverse engineering the four EA UML Provile .xml files available on the web. Reasonable success, but strange results in EA (see next posting). But I'd rather work to a spec if I am going to put anyeffort into it. Would hate to have to throw it out later.

Don

8

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / OWL, VOM and UML Profile

« on: January 13, 2010, 12:41:57 pm »

Hi,

I noticed on some web sites that EA was planned to have support for OWL using VOM (Visual Owl Model, or some such) and a UML profile from OMG by the end of 2009.

Is is available yet? If so, where-so?
On the way?
Abandonned?

Don

9

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / import of XSD documents into UML

« on: January 14, 2010, 03:00:06 pm »

LAst night I tried to import an XSD file into EA, to study the structure described there-in. (The actual file was the XSDprofile.xml which defines XSD schema to EA - a bit recursive, but not relevant.)

The surprising result was that the various classes in the profile nested under each other. I didn't even know that was possible. Is it even valid UML?

I was expecing the nesting relationships of XSD to be represented by composition relationships, in a nice clear diagram.
I note that the palette for the XSD profile doesn't even include aggregation or composition. Despite this, in the past, I have used these relationships to successfully generate XSD files from UML models.

Any comments from sprx about the philosophy behind this?
I would prefer a fully UML diagrammatic way of showing nesting relationships, rather than "classes within classes" in the browser.

Don