Messages

1

General Board / Re: Finding messages that are not methods

« on: October 23, 2023, 12:39:59 am »

Hmm if you are using UML sequence or collaboration diagrams for your application architecture you should be able to use messages (that require methods in the receiving class) and signals (that don't require methods).  This would make replacing, tracking and reporting really easy.

2

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Can I use EA as frontend to run SQL queries on SQL server database?

« on: October 20, 2023, 11:29:09 pm »

When I did the trials I did not notice any major benefits in Corporate - for example the database builder thing is something I can do better myself I thought.  What benefits do you see in Corporate version?  Genuinely interested to know.

3

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Can I use EA as frontend to run SQL queries on SQL server database?

« on: October 20, 2023, 03:31:06 pm »

*sad noises* thanks Geert but professional does not have DB builder I think...

4

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Can I use EA as frontend to run SQL queries on SQL server database?

« on: October 20, 2023, 02:49:14 pm »

Hello, EA 16 professional, *.qea project on my PC.  I'm reverse engineering a SQL Server database; the ODBC connection worked fine.  However I need to query the database system views to extract the DDL of views and procedures and view/procedure attributes (it was not retrieved with the reverse engineering).  I've done this before using DBeaver, but I don't have JDBC connection to this database.  Does EA have a SQL terminal window that I can open and run my queries on a non-project database?  Can the results be exported as csv.  I really don't want to install SSM or Azure studio.  Thanks!

5

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: v16.1 - How to define NON-Foreign Key Constraint Associations between DB Tables

« on: October 11, 2023, 12:32:48 am »

It seems to me that you are describing a dependency between database objects.  Something that would be implemented via a trigger (eg if field x in table 1 is equal to a, then field y in table 2 must be equal to b).
Dependencies are used to model this kind of constraint (and also to model the source objects queried by views).

Hi Richard, are you referring to what Geert is discussing or my original thesis?

In our case, they are conceptually associations and work fine between all other types of items.  It's just when we try to create the same semantics between DB Tables, EA gets in the way...

Paolo

Was referring to OP

6

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: v16.1 - How to define NON-Foreign Key Constraint Associations between DD Tables

« on: October 10, 2023, 03:51:12 pm »

It seems to me that you are describing a dependency between database objects.  Something that would be implemented via a trigger (eg if field x in table 1 is equal to a, then field y in table 2 must be equal to b).
Dependencies are use to model this kind of constraint (and also to model the source objects queried by views).

7

General Board / Re: Linked Conceptual and Physical model

« on: September 06, 2023, 01:04:02 pm »

You can only do this one way, ie logical model -> physical model with forward engineering.  The procedure is described in the manual.
You can change the logical model and create a new physical model based on it.
You cannot do it the other way ie create a logical model based on physical.  The reason is that one physical model can be represented by many different logical models.
The workaround is to implement your physical model changes in a database then reverse engineer the database to a physical model, hide the datatypes in the ERD diagrams and call it a logical model.  Not perfect but it may help in some cases.

8

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: How to get Foreign Key Columns using Script?

« on: August 10, 2023, 02:17:20 pm »

You may find it easier to forward engineer your EA data model to some DBMS, then reverse engineer from that DBMS to the other tool

9

General Board / Re: Help I forgot how to set up Oracle DB reverse engineering in my Windows 10

« on: August 03, 2023, 04:43:03 pm »

More info as PSA
- The EA 'native' driver worked the same as the oracle ODBC driver
- I could not import sequences with either driver; I had to to exclude them from import
- I did not try to import triggers and packages because had no time to play around too much with import settings
- With both drivers import was super slow, 20 minutes for ~100 tables and their columns.  Columns are what slows down the import, eg import of views was very fast
- p.s. connecting with DBeaver and creating ERDs with DBeaver was effortless.  I use both DBeaver and Sparx for different tasks.

10

General Board / Help I forgot how to set up Oracle DB reverse engineering in my Windows 10

« on: August 02, 2023, 11:30:49 pm »

I've been reverse engineering PowerBI and PostgreSQL databases a lot in past few years, but it's been a long time since I worked on an Oracle one (this one is 19C 64 bit).  I remember it worked well when I did it.
The oracle help pages and various forums tell you how to install a client to query but not how to connect with EA.  Could anyone help me remember?  Are these steps correct:
1. Download instant client basic lite and instant client ODBC for windows 10 64 bit
2. Unzip instant client and ODBC to C:\ORACLE_HOME directory; the unzip adds C:\ORACLE_HOME\network and C:\ORACLE_HOME\network\admin. 
3. Unzip the odbc driver so that the odbc_install.exe file is in C:\ORACLE_HOME\ directory
4. Get the tsnames.ora file and paste it in C:\ORACLE_HOME\network\admin
5. Right click on odbc_install.exe and run as administrator
6. Open Windows 10 ODBC Data Sources (64-bit) and in System DSN tab, fill in the driver configuration.   However I'm not  getting the tsnames.ora data filled in in the ODBC driver configuration tab like I should
7. Open Windows environment variables and add a user variable Path with value C:\ORACLE_HOME.  Save.
8. Open EA 16, Settings / ODBC Data Sources, make sure the new data source is listed
9.  In EA, Develop / Import and reverse engineer.

**PHEW**

I'm curious if the whole oracle client and tsnames.ora are needed or can I just download the driver file and run odbc_install.exe?  Then add the TSA file parameters directly in the Windows ODBC manager window.

I don't yet have a login to try so would appreciate if anyone can share experience thanks!


[EDIT: found the problem!  I needed to include system variable TNS_ADMIN with value C:\ORACLE_HOME\network\admin in my environment variables.  Works now.]

11

Bugs and Issues / Re: Can't open file

« on: July 21, 2023, 12:34:08 am »

You use Access files?  I too like to live dangereously

12

General Board / Re: [Ask]Use data from Power BI with Sparx

« on: July 19, 2023, 03:56:02 pm »

Hello ea0522
I understand from your post that you are able to import EA model metadata from *.qea file into Power BI
Would like to know if you are able to reverse engineer a Power BI data model into EA?  Thanks...

13

General Board / Re: Component State

« on: July 12, 2023, 02:41:57 am »

mmmmmyes afaik in UML 2.5 a component is just a class.  Whatever a class can do, a component can.
But I dont' know about Sparx implementation, never tried it (but I have used component objects as participants in sequence diagrams)

14

General Board / Re: [Ask] Import/Export attributes of each class

« on: July 07, 2023, 05:45:33 pm »

Maybe Geert is on holiday, need his input.
You need the Excel importer from the github respository for the 64 bit version of EA 16: the one in bellekens.com does not work in 64 bit.
Geert will fill in info when he's back.

15

General Board / Re: [Ask] Import/Export attributes of each class

« on: July 06, 2023, 02:25:28 pm »

it means you are not filling in the excel sheet with the correct values.  For example you need the eaguid to import attributes, so you would need to run the importer for classes only, then export the classes with their eaguid, add the attributes and then import the attributes.  The importer is very reliable and never had any issues (importing 400K total of objects and attributes)