Topics

1

General Board / Does Visibility Levels work in WebEA as well?

« on: January 10, 2025, 10:12:58 pm »

All elements in a model is stored in the same t_object database table. So, if you need to restrict some user's access to certain branches of your model, you will have to use the Visibility Level feature which works on row-level in the database: https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/17.0/the_model_repository/visibility_levels.html

The mechanism is dependent on each user's database account and its security permissions. Will that user account and its restrictions be reflected in WebEA, in case you add user login to WebEA, or does WebEA use a common web server account to access the content of the database (like a number of older web tools do)?

2

General Board / Tips: How to save several changed tabs by using a shortcut key

« on: November 28, 2024, 11:57:43 pm »

One feature I envy fellow developers, who use the Eclipse IDE, is the ability to save all changed tabs with one click. In Sparx you may do this by right-clicking arbitrary diagram tab and select Save all from the context menu, but there is no key combination readily available.

There is a feature in Sparx however, which lets you set up a key combination to represent a menu selection. For the case above you would do like this:

• Select the menu option Start-> Appearance-> Preferences-> Toolbars. Sparx opens the dialogue window Customize.
• Click the tab Keyboard and Sparx will display a form.
• Set the Category drop-down menu to Window.
• The list Commands will display all commands available within that category.
• In that list, select the option Save All Modified.
• The field Current Keys displays the shortcut keys currently bound to that command, if any.
• Put the cursor in the field Press New Shortcut Key and press the combination of keys you want to use.
• Press the button Assign to make it stick and then close the dialogue.

3

General Board / Is there a way to refine model watches?

« on: November 27, 2024, 08:22:20 pm »

Sparx let you set up Model Watches (https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/16.1/project_build___deploy/model_watches.html) to keep track of the kind of changes you're interested in. It may be Recently changed diagrams, Recently changed elements, etc.

The categories are rather crude. As a requirements engineer, for example, you may be less interested in changes made to data models than in use cases, but this seems to be as good as it gets. I've not been able to find a way to limit the query to kinds of elements.

A more cumbersome limitation is that there seems to be no way to limit the scope to a certain package or part of the model. Has anyone found solutions to this?

4

General Board / Visualization of imported XSDSchema

« on: November 26, 2024, 09:30:30 pm »

I've imported an XML schema (an XSD) to Sparx EA, in order to visualize the data model. The import went fine but I'm puzzled about why Sparx splits the resulting model into fragments.
When I use the IDE Oracle JDeveloper for the same purpose, it produces a coherent model. Is there some setting I'm missing?

5

PCS General Board / Notified when a diagram changes?

« on: September 27, 2024, 12:45:04 am »

In Jira and Confluence it's possible to subscribe to changes and get notified whenever a ticket or page is updated. Is it possible to accomplish something similar in ProCloud and make the server notify the subscribers when a diagram or element changes?

Mikael

6

PCS General Board / Possible to limit scope of model search?

« on: September 26, 2024, 09:29:25 pm »

The Find dialogue lets you limit a search to the selected package and it's content. Apart from that, Sparx EA always search the entire model.

Is it in some way possible to configure what counts as "the entire model"? In our case the model resides in four root packages. Alongside them there is one package for archived/defunct elements and one for personal sandboxes. We want the last two to be excluded from the model search.

7

PCS General Board / Documentation of ProCloud's data model?

« on: September 05, 2024, 01:15:53 am »

I know there is a documentation of ProCloud's data model, somewhere on the web site; I found it once but have lost the bookmark. Can someone direct me to it?

I'm trying to create a query to search for relations. I imagine I need to do that with an SQL statement but need the documentation in order to do that.

8

PCS General Board / WebEA does not update diagrams

« on: September 05, 2024, 01:09:54 am »

WebEA regenerates a diagram in case it detects that:

• an element has moved
• a new relation has appeared or
• another kind of visual change to the diagram has been made.

But it does not detect if, for example, an element has changed name. Sure, that will be quite noticeable in the diagram, but it is not a change made in the diagram directly but in an element appearing in the diagram.

According to the documentation you can turn on the server application EA Worker, to search and update changes of this kind on a regular basis. We have configured it to do so every 30th second. Still the diagram hasn't been updated after 10 minutes.

Another odd behavior is that the label Image pending generation appears beside some diagrams even though we have not requested any kind of manual update (which appearently can be done by the reader in some way). The label also stays on eternally, without the diagram ever beeing update.

Has anyone else had similar problems with the EA Worker? How have you solved them?

9

Bugs and Issues / How do I hide sub-set of diagram elements?

« on: May 08, 2024, 01:21:41 am »

We have recently upgraded from Sparx 15.2 to 16.1.

• In Sparx 15.2: When you created general diagram elements like Note, Diagram Legend and Hyperlink, those elements wouldn't be noticeable in the Project Browser.
• In Sparx 16.1: The diagram elements are placed in a sub-set, in the same package as the diagram. The sub-set is collapsed by default but may be expanded, to reveal the containing diagram elements. We would like to hide the sub-set entirely and make the Project Browser look like it did in Sparx 15.2. How may that be done?

10

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Can you make an SQL query refer to the ModelView in which it is used?

« on: March 13, 2024, 11:14:47 pm »

I'm creating a ModelView to list all the packages on the next level of a package, like in the example below. My main reason for doing so, instead of creating a diagram manually, is that:
1. the list will be updated dynamically
2. I will be able to sort the list alphabetically.

I have no problems with creating an SQL query to populate the list. But I don't want to use a static where-clause like t_package.ea_guid = '{92A223AE-7CAE-4bd5-8CEF-BE0745E0FB35}'

Instead I want the ModelView element to dynamically reference to the package where it resides. Something like: t_package.ea_guid = self.ea_guid

Is that possible?

EXAMPLE
Package
  - ModelView
  Sub-package 1
  Sub-package 2
  Sub-package 3

11

Bugs and Issues / Sparx claims inactive diagrams have been changed by other user

« on: March 08, 2024, 02:33:04 am »

I'm experiencing an issue with Sparx 16.1 which I never came across with our previous version (15.2). This is the situation:

• I have created a package with a couple of use cases and diagrams. The package is entirely and no one else works with it.
• I have opened several of the diagrams; one tab for each.
• One of the tabs/diagrams is active and I'm making changes to it.
• I switch to one of the inactive diagrams and am immediately told that changes have been made by someone and that I have to reload the diagram in order to get it in sync with the model.
• If I choose to disregard this prompt, by pressing Cancel instead of Reload, the elements are sometimes locked in position and can't be moved. When that happens, I have to reopen the diagram.

Not all of my colleagues have made the switch to 16.1 yet. But they who have recognize the problem, so I want to check if it's the same with users outside my organisation.

12

General Board / How model a transformation of information?

« on: February 15, 2024, 01:24:29 am »

• You are about to import information from another organisation and have created a model of that information.
• You have your own information model and want to describe which foreign attributes you want to import, and in which attributes in your own model you want to put them.

How do you model that transformation?

13

General Board / Script for automated baseline creation?

« on: January 08, 2024, 09:56:00 pm »

We are using ProCloud and a server-based model. Whenever a requirement analyst decides to raise the version on a package by using the command Update Status, we would like the server to automatically create a baseline for the same package. Preferably on the server and in the background, to not confuse and interfere with the requirement analyst.

It this something that may be scripted?

14

General Board / Security: How to limit the scope of Update Status?

« on: January 03, 2024, 09:54:09 pm »

We have sorted our use cases into a hierarchy of packages, like the example below.

Package Level 1
   Package Level 2
      Package Level 3, Package A
         Use case A
      Package Level 3, Package B
         Use case B

The first level represents the organisation's value streams, the second represents different areas within each stream, while the third one is to version control each use case individually; setting Version, Status and creating a baseline.
We want the requirement analyst to be able to version control on the third level, by using the Update Status command. We also want them to be able to create new packages/use cases on the third level. But we don't want them to be able to do either of that on the first or second level.

Currently all levels are locked to the user group "RequirementAnalyst". The problem is that a user may accidentally change the Version and Status of a package on Level 1 och Level 2. The change will then propagate to all the child packages, since this is the default behavior of Update Status.

If I try to restrict Level 1 and Level 2, by locking them to the group "RequirementManager", all newly created packages on Level 3 will inherit the lock, making it impossible for the requirement analysts to version control them.

Is there some other way to restrict the scope of Update Status and block it from propagating through the package levels? I know you are able to uncheck Recursively update all child packages in the Update Status dialogue. Unfortunately that box is checked by default, but I suspect a system administrator will be able to tinker with the setting and possibly also make it impossible for users to change it.

15

General Board / Move elements in other ways than drag-and-drop?

« on: May 13, 2023, 12:09:30 am »

If you want to move, say, a use case from one package to another you can simply drag it to the other one.
But you may desire a more restricted way of moving things around --- particularly when it will affect a number of use cases -- in order to to limit the risk of dropping them in the wrong place.

I've come across other modeling tools which offer a wizard-like dialogue: Select the elements. Right-click and select the Move functionality. A dialog window opens, to let you select the destination by browsing a package tree.

Is there anything similar available in Sparx EA?