Messages

1

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Tabbed MDI Windows for Diagrams

« on: August 21, 2003, 09:59:05 am »

Not only multiple diagrams, but multiple element detail windows too. Why always have to close one before looking into another?

2

Suggestions and Requests / Reviewing HELP File

« on: August 21, 2003, 09:55:35 am »

In a separate message, it was stated that "We are reviewing the help file for the release of version 3.60".

I assume that goes for the Manual also. One thing I've noticed is that often when showing a selection menu or other popup window, there may not be an indication of how it gets called up. Given the number of different right-click popups that are used, it is easy to get lost in the manual about which object has to be selected to call it up. Some sort of uniform heading or lead-in to the illustrations indicating the required context would be helpful.

3

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Stereotype update strangeness

« on: August 12, 2003, 10:16:30 am »

...I'd be really happy of stereotype updates could cascade from class to instances though!

I agree... that is important. Actually, I'm finding that support for profiles and stereotypes is rather thin in EA.

Yes, elements can be created and stereotypes assigned, and stereotype labels or pictures shown in diagrams or the project browser. However, stereotypes don't show up at all in selection lists, link lists, Matrix displays, and reports, etc. One stereotype is confusingly implemented - the objectflow, as some "check-box-indicated" adjustment to stateflow, but not as a unique base type or stereotype (for business modeling).

Some base types are confusing too. The base type "entity" supports aggregation but not generalization, while the similarly-used "actor" type supports both. Little seems consistent about stereotype and base type implementation. These things seem built into the EA code and are not customizable through table entries. Seems like a serious limitation for business modelers.

4

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Stereotype update strangeness

« on: August 12, 2003, 06:50:07 am »

...I think I understand why this is (so that the objects can have different stereotypes to their parent classes).

I don't think an instance object should ever have a different stereotype than its parent class. I've always interpreted a stereotype as being a subtype of the base class, which wouldn't change for the instance.

5

Suggestions and Requests / Workflow Report

« on: August 10, 2003, 09:50:02 am »

For Business Modeling, there is useful data in the model that is hard to visualize with either the Documentation  (item details) or Element Relationship Matrix (single link) reports.

It would be valuable to have reports that display a workflow chain, for example, showing interactions related to producing a final object in terms of the involved processes and intermediate objects. Some systems like EA have tools for Activity-based Costing analysis which do something like this. In effect, it would involve displaying the element workflow network. A similar feature for software would be display of execution path scenarios, which would be useful in test design.

6

Suggestions and Requests / Cross References from Project Browser

« on: August 10, 2003, 09:25:05 am »

The "see other References" capability should be available from the element context menu in the Project Browser.

Currently, it is only available from the diagram element context menu, which necessitates opening a diagram (possibly from the "show usage" item in the Project Browser element context menu), which involves several extra steps. Also, it requires placing items in diagrams.

7

General Board / Tangible Architect

« on: February 25, 2005, 10:26:59 am »

Is anyone using Tangible Arthitect with EA? Is it effective for creating the database schema and tiered system? What are your experiences? The Tangible site has been quiet for a while, no updates or traffic. Just wondering if it is viable.

8

General Board / Re: XML Schema Generation

« on: December 19, 2003, 03:10:48 am »

on 10/13/03 at 16:51:43, benc wrote:
 
The status of this feature is: It's on our TODO list.
I expect it will be available within the next month or so.

Is there an update on the plans and schedule for completing the XML Schema generation capability?

9

General Board / Re: XML Schema Generation

« on: October 14, 2003, 08:33:11 am »

The status of this feature is: It's on our TODO list.
I expect it will be available within the next month or so.

That's great. I think it's important that all representations are derived reliably to avoid unnecessary loss of content, whether XMI, XML Schema, etc. Thanks for the update.

10

General Board / XML Schema Generation

« on: October 12, 2003, 01:43:16 pm »

Current documentation still indicates that for XML Schema Generation...

"Generalization and Association are the only currently supported connection types. Aggregation (and Composition) will be added."

Build 643 indicated that improvements were made, but if aggregation and composision are still not supported, that would mean that important parts of a model are lost when creating an XML schema.

Does anyone know the status of this?

11

General Board / Re: Relationship matrix - multiple levels?

« on: November 18, 2003, 08:21:58 am »

Hi Peter,
I would love the feature you're requesting, but it is probably asking too much.

Given all the work that goes into making element associations in a model, it would seem reasonable that reporting "chains of association" would be a built in feature. It's common in qualitative analysis tools, where queries to semantic networks result in chains of associated items.

It really wastes much of a model's content value to not have this capability.

12

General Board / Re: Generate Database Model from Class Model

« on: November 18, 2003, 08:11:22 am »

Hi!!!!

  
   How we can create the database model without loosing the domain classes???

  
    

Look at Rational Rose for an example of support for this. A domain (conceptual) model is mapped to (or from - with roundtrip feature) a separate database (logical) model, and then generates the physical (schema) model. This has advantages over using other data design approaches (such as ORM in MS Visio Enterprise Architect edition) because it follows an object-oriented approach compatible with UML models.

With the increased emphasis on business process and domain modeling, having these features in EA would be a strong benefit.

13

General Board / Re: <br> in HTML Documentation

« on: August 16, 2003, 06:37:04 am »

... It APPEARS that it's trying to put them in, but they just show up as "<br>" in the HTML docs, as opposed to carriage returns.

I don't think you will find the "carriage return" (CR) is part of HTML. Often a document CR is mapped to <p> </p>, or when simply a line break within a paragraph would be mapped to <br> in HTML.

14

General Board / Relationship Matrix and Stereotypes

« on: August 10, 2003, 09:38:17 am »

The Element Relationship Matrix capability doesn't seem to include stereotypes in the element and link choice lists. This makes the matrix less precise than needed.

For example, the "activity" item doesn't allow distinguishing between "Activity" and "Process" stereotype for activity, which is needed in Business Modeling. Likewise, none of the many stereotypes of the "dependency" link can be selected.

Is it possible to alter those Matrix choice lists? The entries are proper in the "t_stereotypes" EA reference table, but those don't seem to control the Matrix selections.

15

General Board / Re: Printing Issues

« on: August 04, 2003, 11:03:47 am »

I posted a bug to Sparx Systems when using the Page Setup feature.  They said it would be fixed in approximately two weeks, when the new release is ready.

What was your bug about? Anything to do with Page Setup not agreeing with the margins and other settings of RTF Reports?