Messages

1

Bugs and Issues / Re: Composition with direction arrow after migration from v14 to v16

« on: Today at 12:29:43 am »

But as you ask, Geert, why change?  Well, the reason would appear to be that they are now able to include an extrinsic value "Navigable=Unspecified".  This is not possible where SourceIsNavigable and DestIsNavigable are boolean values.

One would think that, but if I look into my database, I find values.

* 1 => Navigable
* 0 => Unspecified
* -1 => Not Navigable

I really don't see why they would want to move from a clearly defined normalised scheme to a scheme that relies on descriptions somewhere in a text field.

Geert

My Bad, I was looking at the original .eapx repositories where they are Yes/No (boolean) values.  I see the SQL Server columns are int columns.  Nothing like consistency! 
Since we have NO Not Navigable ends in our repository at the moment (we're only interested in the Navigable ends.  For us, unspecified => non-navigable), I didn't see them.

Your last point above is EVEN more apposite!

Paolo

2

Bugs and Issues / Re: Composition with direction arrow after migration from v14 to v16

« on: October 06, 2022, 10:33:55 pm »

Hm. Are you sure about this?

For any given combination, I see the Direction value changes for these rows, but Navigable values remain 0.

Mario.

Hmm, I did a quick test, and it seems that indeed in v16, the columns SourceIsNavigable and DestIsNavigable are no longer used; they stay at 0 (but "old" values are not updated)
Instead, they are updating the SourceStyle and DestStyle columns and adding another key-value pair like: "Navigable=Non-Navigable;"

Pff, so they had a normalized separate column for this information, but they decided not to use that anymore and instead hack this info into the "style" columns?
If we are going that way, we might as well get rid of all those pesky columns. Instead, each table could have a single column with key-value pairs!!

Not sure when this has changed exactly, but it might be a serious problem for those of us thinking about upgrading to v16.

I would definitely report it as a bug.

Geert

Sheesh!
"Navigable=Non-Navigable" is very confusing.  If they were going to do that, then it should at least be "Navigability=Non-Navigable".
But as you ask, Geert, why change?  Well, the reason would appear to be that they are now able to include an extrinsic value "Navigable=Unspecified".  This is not possible where SourceIsNavigable and DestIsNavigable are boolean values.
I have found a number of connectors with Source unspecified, Destination Navigable, in line with my previous post.

If it had been my design decision (with no loss of generality - as the Mathematicians say), I would have STILL set SourceIsNavigable and DestIsNavigable to true if Navigable=Navigable for the respective end.  That would have been better than false, regardless.  But then, what would I know? I'm just a data architect who passed "Thinking 101".

Paolo

3

Bugs and Issues / Re: Composition with direction arrow after migration from v14 to v16

« on: October 06, 2022, 09:20:06 pm »

The problem, in part, comes about because Sparx has conflated Directionality with Navigability.  One property (Directionality) relates to how the line should be drawn. The other (Navigabilioty) with whether the arrows should be drawn.

We have standardised on ALL relationships having directionality = Source -> Destination and ensured the semantics are therefore correct.  In over 200,000 relationships we maintain, all are so designated.  Navigability is set as required.

While this conflation remains, different relationships created at different times by different versions of EA will behave differently.

HTH,
Paolo

4

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: BPMN & Shallow Copy of diagram

« on: October 06, 2022, 09:03:02 pm »

They never read the documentation in advance, but when there is a problem, they always say, 'Where does it say that?', at least in Japan

That was my point, Takeshi-san!

Paolo

5

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: BPMN & Shallow Copy of diagram

« on: October 05, 2022, 04:03:19 pm »

Does the documentation cover this and suggest the correct way to do it?

I don't think there's anywhere that covers language-specific guidance on how to duplicate a structure or diagram. I doubt most modellers would see it even if it was in the documentation.

Modellers never read the documentation, so why provide it?

Paolo

6

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: BPMN & Shallow Copy of diagram

« on: October 05, 2022, 09:18:51 am »

So should I report it as a defect?

I would expect that the answer will be that although EA does prompt to encourage users to create the appropriate structure, it doesn't enforce that. There are enough users that are just creating diagrams that EA can't enforce those constraints.

Which of the remaining two types of diagram copy would be applicable?

For the parent process in the browser, select Copy > Full Structure for Duplication from the context menu.

Thanks, Eve,

Following all the input, I'd come to the same conclusion.  Does the documentation cover this and suggest the correct way to do it?

Paolo

7

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: BPMN & Shallow Copy of diagram

« on: October 04, 2022, 09:25:11 pm »

Yes, and Yes.

Almost everything in BPMN is owned by the process and should not be reused in other processes.

Exceptions are things like messages, PartnerRoles, Global Actions, etc...

But usually, none of these things is used as a link on a BPMN diagram.

Geert

Thanks, Geert,
So should I report it as a defect?

Which of the remaining two types of diagram copy would be applicable?
I ask because we might have a template process that we might customise for various types of scenarios.  It would make sense to copy and paste and then change the item names to suit (given that they should be new copies of the original items).

Paolo

8

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / BPMN & Shallow Copy of diagram

« on: October 04, 2022, 12:20:09 pm »

I haven't perused the BPMN 2.0 standard in a while, so I'm hoping more recent practitioners may be able to help.

I understood that BPMN diagram objects always belonged to the process diagram.  Thus, you needed to use a call activity to invoke a common sub-process.  You couldn't just copy the process onto another diagram and link to it.  Is that the correct understanding?

If so, wouldn't using shallow copies of diagrams be invalid under BPMN?  (Just asking for a friend )

TIA,
Paolo

9

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Diagram object update performance

« on: October 04, 2022, 09:30:01 am »

Hi Steve,

We normally create Heatmaps with a dynamic Legend based on the Tag value.  Is there a reason why you didn't take that approach?  That seems to be quicker, we've had maps of over hundreds of items that don't seem overly slow.

HTH,
Paolo

10

General Board / Re: Does Database Builder work with MS Access 365

« on: October 03, 2022, 02:00:24 pm »

Hi Thomas,

Last week, I reverse-engineered a complex MSA Application (in fact, the application we use to manage our EA repositories directly).  I found that the tables were reverse engineered; however, NO distinction appears to be made as to whether the table was a local or a linked table.
All forms of queries were reversed, but action queries DID NOT get the dependency links that normal view (SELECT ? FROM) queries get.
Macros were not reverse engineered as were not Modules.

Do you have any thoughts as to whether we should put in a feature request to get this rectified?

Paolo

11

General Board / Re: Does Database Builder work with MS Access 365

« on: September 18, 2022, 12:30:35 pm »

I can only use the 64-bit Setup. I have just tried it with ODBC, but I still receive the same result. Must I specify something special in the Connection string? In the ODBC setting, there is the parameter UID set to admin. In the database, I have not specified any special role like admin.

I think we downloaded a special driver for use with the v16 64-bit to give access to access (pun intended).  I just checked, and I can reverse engineer the above database with the 64 -bit version 16.

The best I can do is offer our ODBC DSN

Code: [Select]

[ODBC]
DRIVER=Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb)
UID=admin
UserCommitSync=Yes
Threads=3
SafeTransactions=0
PageTimeout=5
MaxScanRows=8
MaxBufferSize=2048
FIL=MS Access
DriverId=25
DefaultDir=<Specify>
DBQ=<Specify>

I hope this helps.
Paolo

12

General Board / Re: EA16 what's the setting for double click = open properties?

« on: September 17, 2022, 05:05:07 pm »

In EA 13, when I double-clicked on an object in a diagram or in the browser, the properties window would open.  In EA 16 the only way to open the properties window is to right-click and use the context menu.  Is there a setting somewhere in EA16 to set double-click as open properties?  I looked and could not find it.

Hi Richard,
What happens when you double-click?  I must admit, I haven't noticed any change in v16, but then almost all our vertices have attached diagrams, so double-click will open the diagram.  Don;t forget you can select the vertex and use [Alt+Enter] to open the properties window.


Paolo

13

General Board / Re: Does Database Builder work with MS Access 365

« on: September 17, 2022, 04:59:57 pm »

Hi, Thomas,

We've been using both v15.2 and the 32-bit v16 to reverse engineer *.accdb databases via an ODBC connection with Database Builder.

Can you try any of those alternatives?

HTH,
Paolo

14

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Visual indication for elements that is shared in multiple diagrams

« on: September 12, 2022, 11:00:51 pm »

I think the usual thing is that you have elements in more than one diagram simply to shed light on them from different perspectives. In contrast, there should be a better way to see orphans in the browser (you can search for them, but nobody uses this function in practice).

q.

Since Diagrams don't really exist in UML, it's a bit hard to call items, not on any diagrams, "orphans".
It's all part of EA's misnaming of things.

Paolo

15

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Visual indication for elements that is shared in multiple diagrams

« on: September 12, 2022, 08:55:53 pm »

Hi Bob,
Interesting Idea!
However, for us, each item gets its own Neighborhood diagrams, so it is always in multiple diagrams.
Perhaps, if we limited the "multiples" to those diagrams that aren't composite diagrams of items.

Have you submitted a Feature Request using one of the links below?
Paolo