Messages

1

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 14, 2007, 08:33:12 am »

Can you please clarify your answer? I am not sure what your suggested solution is form your answer.

Thanks,

2

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 14, 2007, 05:39:01 am »

Is there no other feature currently in EA (other than the filtering capability in Document Options) that allows some filtering/selection ability?

Currently we need a solution that includes/excludes requirements so that we can generate a report with specific requirements based on the customr. To clarify, if we have a model with requirements a, b, & c we may want to generate a report with requirements b & c for customer 1 and requirements a & c for Customer 2. Of course there will be many more requirements, I am just simplifying to illustrate my point.

3

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 14, 2007, 05:14:55 am »

I have one more question. We are creating a template solution for documentation using virtual documents and document artifacts. We also want the flexibility to include or exclude specific content from the generated RTF report. For example, when we generate a document for a client we would require the ability to include/exclude certain elements like a requirement that is specific to one customer only. One suggestion is to use tagged values but I am not sure how to do that, even after reading the help text/user guide, or even if it is the best solution for this purpose. I would appreciate some guidance and feedback as to the best approach/solution that would fit our purpose. I would also appreciate step by step guidance to the solution you suggest.

Here is some extra information before you suggest a solution:

Document Options where you can filter information and select which package phase, element status and what to exclude details from is not suitable to our needs
We need the entire template solution to be created and reside in EA, we do not want to use MS Word documents as part of our template solution

Can you please suggest the best method to achieve this goal?

4

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 08, 2007, 10:52:06 am »

I used the method you suggested, Tools/Options/XML Specifications and defined the following XML default location:

C:\Enterprise Architecture\EA Tests - both Enterprise Architecture and EA Tests are folders that I created. I also defined this location in the Filename field of the Export package to XMI dialog box, but the Export failed and gave me an "Error writing XML file message."

What am I doing wrong? Please help, I just want the artifact element to copy properly.

5

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 08, 2007, 07:05:16 am »

Yes I did. I wonder if for Step 2 I should export the files to the same folder where the Sparx program files reside. Currently I am exporting the files to another folder on my hard drive. The location to Export to wasn't specified in Jan's response - could that be the issue? Otherwise I can't figure out what's wrong.

Can you please provide guidance on this becasue my deadline is the end of this week?

6

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 08, 2007, 06:28:03 am »

Thank you for your reply. Your answer is clear and I followed the steps you outlined but am unable to successfully copy the elements. I am not sure if this makes a difference but these are document artifact elements, where the element type is artifact and the stereotype is document.

I created the 2 document artifact elements in a package called Version - the package folder is copied over but the elements do not copy with them.

Can you tell me what I can do to copy the elements over with the package folder?

7

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 07, 2007, 05:49:31 am »

I am not overly familiar with the EA application yet so I am unclear on how to do what you suggested in your answer.

Can you please describe/clarify your answer by using a step by step approach to answer the question? For eaxmple, to copy a document artifact, click on Project, select Import/Export, and so on......

In other words, I require further clarification to understand the procedure you described in your answer.

8

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 02, 2007, 10:25:40 am »

I be;lieve we are talking about different things so I will try to clarify and also ask one question at a time.

The document artifacts I created reside as part of one model/package in the Project Browser. To copy this document artifact, I clicked on one of the document artifacts I created to select it, then I selected Copy fporm the Edit menu, then Edit and Paste Elements as Link becasue that was the only option that wasn't greyed out.

I would like to be able to duplicate the document artifacts in the Project Browser with the Copy and Paste functionality but cannot figure out a way to do that. Can you help with this?

9

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 02, 2007, 09:20:08 am »

Thank you again for your sugeestions.

Here's my strategy to achieve our goal of customizable templates - virtual documents with document artifacts.

I looked up both add-ins and value tags and am not sure how they can be useful for my purpose. So I am not sure how I should proceed here. Can you please elaborate?

I also ran into another issue. It would be useful to be able to use a base document artifact as a starting point and be able to copy it (I tried a simple copy & paste and it didn't work), which is the equivalent of a Save As in MS Word. You start off with one document (Document 1), you add information to it and save it with another name (Document 2) and now you have your original document plus the one you created. Is there a quick and easy way to do that with document artifacts in EA?

10

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 02, 2007, 05:03:06 am »

Thank you for your reply and here are the answers to your questions.

We definitely want to store the "conditional values" in the EA model. Requirements are a good example, different cutomers may have different requirements associated with the same project/model.

This model may be distributed to multiple customers, published in HTML format, customers will not have access to the model through an EA application.

Since the models are published in HTML for customers we want customers to only see the model details that are pertinent/part of their project. Therefore, our goal is to create one model/project with details/requirements that apply to multiple customers and the ability to pick which details each customer sees when the model is published. To clarify, Model 1 has requirements A, B, C, & D associated with it. The model is publcihed in HTML for Customer 1 with requirements A, B, & C and for Customer 2 with requirements A & D.

I hope this clarifies our goal.

11

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 01, 2007, 11:04:28 am »

Thank you for your input David but I am looking for a solution that resembles "conditional text". This information would reside in the same model/project and would disply or be invisible depending on the customer that the report is generated for.

What we are specifically looking for is text that has a "Yes/No flag/option" functionality - the flag/option can be turned on (the information displays) or turned off (the information is now invisible)depending on the customer the report is generated for.

12

Suggestions and Requests / Variable Content In Documents

« on: August 01, 2007, 06:36:03 am »

We are creating templates in EA also want the flexibility to include or exclude specific information content from the RTF report. For example, when we generate a document for a client we need the ability to include/exclude certain information like a requirement that is specific to one customer only. One suggestion is to use tagged values but I am not sure how to do that, even after reading the help text/user guide, or even if it is the best solution for this purpose. I would appreciate some guidance and feedback as to the best approach/solution that would fit our purpose.

We need the entire template solution to be created and reside in EA, we do not want to use MS Word documents as part of our template solution. Can someone please suggest the best method to achieve this goal?

13

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Case Sensitivity Feature diabled

« on: August 07, 2007, 04:59:46 am »

Hi Kevin:

This is really impacting us negatively since most of our users are running into this issue.

Can you do anything to alleviate this issue please?

14

Suggestions and Requests / Case Sensitivity Feature diabled

« on: August 01, 2007, 06:49:26 am »

We need the case sensitivity/check feature for UserID login diasbled on the EA application because it si negatively impacting our daily business.

There is a lot of resulting user confusion and inability to get into the EA application due to case sensitivity. For example, users are logging in with the correct UserID but mistakenly use the wrong case when typing their UserID and the EA application is perventing them from logging in. This results in a lot of calls for EA user support, which again negatively impacts our business.

15

General Board / Project Estimation

« on: December 13, 2008, 02:59:20 am »

I want to use the project estimation tool to estimate 2 different factors in the same EA project.  I want to estimate:

1.) Effort in the presales cycle, and
2.) Effort for the software product build

How can I include 2 different types of technical and environmental complexity factors as well as 2 different default hourly rates within the same EA project?