Topics

1

Bugs and Issues / Document Edit ribbon does not reflect attributes of selected text

« on: February 11, 2017, 03:27:37 am »

Thought I would post here before entering a bug report to make certain I am not missing something.
I have been going through my existing rtf document templates to see if anything has changed with v13.  In the rtf document editor, when I click within some text, the document edit ribbon updates the style name, font name, font size and the attributes under the font dropdown, however it is not updating the attribute icons.  For example if the text is bold, the font dropdown will reflect that it is bold, but the bold icon is not highlighted to reflect it is bold. More troubling is that the font color icon is does not reflect the current color not does its dropdown wizard to change the color.

This makes updating current templates difficult.

2

General Board / Where to set Path Name variable in 13

« on: December 02, 2016, 04:31:38 am »

I keep a file called "Linked_Docs" on my local PC when I store all of the local docs that I reference in EA.  When relating (linking) a local file to an element, I would use the browse function to find the file within "Linked_Docs", which captures the full path name.  However I replace all of the full path name, up to and including "Linked_Docs" with a path variable that I had set up.  For example, instead of saving:
C:\Users\UserName\Documents\EA\Linked Docs\Folder\SubFolder\document_name.pdf
I would change it to:
%LINKED_DOC%\Folder\SubFolder\document_name.pdf
This allows me to move the EA project file to another PC that may have a different fill path for the "Linked_Docs" without changing all of the saved related file links.

This continues to work in Release 13, but since they moved menu items around, I cannot find where to update the path variable.

Any clues?

 

3

Suggestions and Requests / Beyond JET 4.0

« on: September 01, 2016, 01:42:25 am »

Since Access 2013+ no longer supports reading mdb databases, (and I assume MS no longer supports JET 3.5 and 4.0 databases), I was wondering if there are plans for eap files to start using newer versions of the jet engine databases.
I have used Access 2010 to link to eap files so that I can look at the database structure. I cannot do that with Access 2013 and greater. 

4

General Board / copy/paste sounds

« on: March 05, 2016, 05:13:11 am »

Is it possible to turn off the confirmation sounds when copy/paste packages?

If not, it would be nice to have an options where one can determine the sounds associated with EA.

5

Suggestions and Requests / Reset Project Home Default

« on: January 11, 2012, 08:19:24 am »

Maybe I am not seeting it, but I would like to reset the project so that it does NOT have a default/Home diagram. Once set, I only see how to change it to another diagram.

6

Suggestions and Requests / Glossary enhancements:acronyms and term references

« on: January 12, 2012, 03:24:15 am »

Would like to see 2 enhancements to Project Glossary:
1) acronym support.
- ability to denote one or more associated acronyms for a term.
- same acronym value could be associated with multiple terms.
- acronyms would be included in the glossary listing where term would be the acronym and definition would be the fill description of the acronym
- entry is identified as an acronym allowing one to create an RTF glossary document with options to include/not include acronyms in glossary or to create just an acronym glossary.
- full name description of the acronym could be futher defined, if needed, by referencing another glossary record. (see #2 below)
2) term cross reference.
- like an element's note field, the displayed glossary description field would have links to glossary terms.
- would not create links to itself.
This would allow one who is reading a definition to lookup terms used in the description. Also would help support #1 above where the full name of an acronym entry could reference another glossary entry that further defines the full name.  

Currently I have partially implemented #1 by creating an entry where:
- set Type field = "ACR"
- set Term = value of the acronym
- set Definition = full name associated with acronym.
The above solution has the limitations stated in an earlier posting in that I cannot create multiple entries for the same acronym due to the primary key enforcement of the Glossasy table. The earlier poster recommended using the type field as part of the PK, but in this case that solution would not help unless another field is created that identifies the entry as an acronym. I get around this by entering multiple full name values in the description for the acronym. Likewise in the description field of the full name's glossary entry, I include any associated acronyms.

7

Suggestions and Requests / Compare/update data model with another data model

« on: January 11, 2012, 08:41:02 am »

Need a way to compare and possibly update a data model in one project a data model in another project, thus keeping them in sync, including baseline information in both projects and not loosing links.

On our MS SQL EA repository there is an EA project that defines our production environment, including appr 13 data models that were initially created via re-engineering (MS SQL and Oracle). For security reasons, the PCs that access the EA repository does not have access to our producion databases. So I have a eap project on a PC that does have access which I use to ODBC import to update the models,  comparisons to last baseline and then create new baselines. I would like to be able to replace/update the data models on the EA repository with the models from production.

Using package or element export/import via XML or via clipboard does not work because it create new models/elements. If I first delete the model on the EA repository project and then import the new model from the EAP (production) project, then I loose the baselines as well as I break any links to the original data model/diagrams (such as in other package diagrams or model document definitions.

8

General Board / Object status colors displayed in diagrams

« on: May 23, 2015, 02:59:54 am »

Besides the value of the Status field in the object and the color associated with the status value in settings, how is EA determining the status color on the object in the diagram?  

I have a Package with many sub packages, diagrams and requirement object. When created they all defaulted to the status of "Proposed" which displays as a yellow border/shadow.

I tried to be quick and updated the t_object.status field to "Mandatory" for all elements in the package and subpackages. Expected to see the border displayed a orange, but it is still yellow. When I look at the properties of the object, status = Mandatory.

Apparently there is somewhere else in the database that is used to set the element's displayed color.  I looked at t_diagramobjects.ObjectStyle, but I do not think that is it.  

Any ideas?

9

General Board / V12: Where is connection qualifier text?

« on: February 26, 2015, 04:14:50 am »

In network deployment diagrams created before v12, I had servers and switches defined and displayed as nodes. Where appropriate I used a CommunicationPath between two nodes with the text of the qualifier for the source and target to denote the speed, such as "10 Mbps".
In v12, while the qualifier text does display on the diagram, I cannot find the text in the CommunicationPath properties dialog. Would have expected to see it under Role(s)/Detail/Qualifier for SOURCE or TARGET.

Appears in v12 one can now add multiple qualifiers to connection's source/target, thus, I assume t_connector.SourceQualifier and t_connector.DestQualifier may not be used in v12 except as legacy and that the qualifiers are now stored somewhere else. I guess I can accept this going forward and I see that if I add a new qualifier with the same or different text as the previous one, the display updates appropriately, HOWEVER, for some reason, EA will sometimes change the value of Role(s)/Advanced/Owner to True, causing a dot end point to be drawn on the connection. Not sure why it does it.

10

General Board / Element shadows for class status

« on: July 01, 2014, 04:19:21 am »

I swear the shadow around elements in versions before v11 was lager and thus more visible to determine the color per status. (maybe it my eyes).
Whatever the reason, can the shadow outline be larger?
Would be nice if there was an option to set the width and location of the shadow, e.g., I would prefer to have it larger and be on the top and right side.  
I think it is a great feature, but as it appears now, IMHO, it useless.

11

General Board / Associating GUI controls with data model columns

« on: April 04, 2013, 06:41:02 am »

Would like to relate an application screen field with its underlying database column(s) and then create a create a report that, given a database column, displays all application's screen/fields that are associated.  I am thinking this cannot be done, but wanted to see if anyone has any solutions. This is what I tried...

- I have the screen defined using interface models/GUI Elements.
- I have the database defined by creating a data model via "Import DB schema via ODBC..." function.
- It is the association of the GUI control with the table/column that I am having trouble.

I tried using the "Link to Element Feature"...
On my user interface diagram, I dragged a link to the database table and then created an association (realization) between the GUI Control and the database table. I then used the "Link to Element Feature" to associate the link to the actual table column (attribute). This is great for a visual representation on the diagram, but as the EA documentation clearly states, the actual association is still between the GUI control and the table (not the column). Thus the data model RTF template now includes all of the GUI associations under the "Relationships" grid for the table. This would be OK, in fact, desired, if the report could display the "linked" column (attribute) in addition to the table, but I do not see a way to do this. Assuming I cannot use the data model template to display the GUI to Table column association, I  would like to filter out the GUI control association so that the Relationships grid only shows schema table associations. I cannot see how to do that either.  So I am stuck.

For me the perfect scenario would be that the data model RTF template could still be used but instead of one Relationship grid, there would be two (so that one can define a different format depending upon the type of link). One would basically be the one that currently exist, that is, it displays the relationships between the tables (this would require some type of filter that would only include class associations whose stereotype = table). The other grid would show relationships between the table's columns and any associated GUI Controls (this would require some type of filter that would only include associations where one side is a GUI Control, plus the capability to display the actual associated table columns).

As it is now, not sure if it is worth providing just a visual association using the "Link to Element Feature" between the GUI element and the table column, if I cannot report on it or create queries to trace the use of a table/column within the user interface.  

Any ideas?

Karl

12

General Board / Control over the "More Tools..." layout

« on: February 16, 2013, 09:01:03 am »

Does one have any control over how the toolboxes are displayed in the "More Tools..." selection list?  (Just to clarify, I am not talking about the groupings within individual toolboxes).

Appears when one clicks "More Tools" the available toolboxes are grouped by UML, UML Extended and then by MDG.  Sometimes EA collapses the two UML groups with the associated toolboxes visible as submenu selections, but usually all of the UML toolboxes are displayed within its group.  Appears that toolboxes for the MDG group, are typically displayed as subgroup menus under the MDG name, but even then I have seen in one case where an MDG's tooboxes were listed indivudlaly in the main list.  In addition there is no order to the MDG group.

At a minimum, it would be nice if the MDGs were in alphabetically order.  Would be even nicer if we could set the order wihtin the MDG group as well as specify if the 2 UML groups could be collapsed.

Karl

13

General Board / Updating package with orher project package

« on: September 21, 2012, 03:59:35 am »

Given:
- Export Package from Proj A to XML
- Import XML Package into Proj B
- Make updates to package in Prog B
- Export package from Proj B to XML

I now want to import the package back into Proj A, effectively updating the package with the changes made while in Proj B.
EA will not allow me to import it back, since it already exists. Appears only choice is to either:
1) Delete package in Proj A and the import the XML
or
2) Import the XML, stripping the GUID

In either case I loose all links/associations to elements in other packages of the project.
Is there a way to copy a package from a project to another, make updates, move package with updates back into initial pacage while keeping all links and associations?


In case you wonder what I am really trying to do...
I had created data models for all of our production databases via EA re-engineing in an EAP project. I then exported/imported the data models to a SQL server project that is not connected to our production network.  The SQL Server project is a large repository project that not only contains data models, but also has packages that document the production applications, physical devices, enterprise/network topologies, etc.
The data models on the repository are linked to other packages as well as in virtual document definitions. In addition the tables and fields have many notes entered thus enabling a more detailed data dictionary.
It has been several months since the models were re-engineered. I now want to go back to the production EAP project and do another re-engineer so that I can capture any changes. So I exported the data model packages from the SQL Server Repository project and imported them into an eap project located on prpoduciton. I then re-engineered all of the data models. Now I need to take these updated data models and effectivly update the models on SQL Server repository project.

The only way I can think to do it is to transfer the entire SQL server project to an EAP file (DBMS to EAP). Copy the eap file onto the production enviroment. Perform the re-engineering. Copy the eap file back to the supporting enviroments and transer the EAP file back to the SQL Server Repossitory (EAP to DBMS).  I think this would preserve the GUID and this the links/associations.  I was hoping to somehow only work with the Data Model package.
    

14

Bugs and Issues / MS Access 2013 and EAP files

« on: June 11, 2015, 01:24:39 am »

I have read several posts about trying to use MS Access 2013 to directly read an eap file, but I could not find a definitive answer.

Is this a correct statement?:
-------------
Access 2013 cannot read an eap file unless you first convert the file via Access 2007 or 2010 to an accdb file, which then renders it unreadable by EA. Therefore MS Access 2013 and EA are not compatible. i.e., they cannot both read/update the same file.
-------------

I have no problem when using MS Access 2010. I must assume that because MS Access 2013 dropped support for JET 3.5 it cannot read eap files, even if I had the jet 4.0 enabled within EA.  

I also tried to use MS Access 2010 to convert the EAP file to accdb format, but then EA cannot read it. Thus I have come to the conclusion as stated above.

15

Bugs and Issues / Diagram "Fit to Screen" not working well.

« on: May 08, 2015, 02:59:55 am »

What influences how EA displays a diagram when one clicks "Fit to Screen"?
I have an issue that the "Fit ti Screen"is either not displaying all of the diagram or in the other case, displaying it much smaller that it actually is.

I have two very similar diagrams (both are network deployment diagrams). Both diagram properties are the same, i.e., 11x17 Landscape, Scaled=None. I also have them set so that I see the page boarders.

One has all objects within a 5 row x8 column page grid while the other is slightly smaller (4 row x 6 column pages).

When I display the 5x8 and click "Fit to Screen" on a 1080x1680 monitor, it displays 10 rows x 11.5 column pages (as if there were some invisible oblject that it wants to include that sits way outside the visible objects within the 5x8 pages. Its even worst when I display it on the laptop's 1200x1920 screen, in that it displays 13 columns. I thus have a lot of empty pages and the actual 5x8 pages are about 1/3 the size they should be.

The other diagram is just the opposite. Instead of displaying the 4x6 pages on the 1080x1680 monitor, it displays 4.5 rows x 6.25 column pages, thus cutting off objects in the 6th column. However when I display it on the laptop's 1200x1920 screen, it displays just about right.

Is there anything I can do that may make EA reset what it thinks the diagram's "Fit to Screen" displayed width and height are? Or is this an issue (a.k.a. bug) within EA in determining the active monitor's display properties.  

I have had this issue across multiple EA releases, but I am currently using 12.0.1212.