Topics

1

Bugs and Issues / Insert related elements- NOT!

« on: November 16, 2018, 12:46:15 pm »

The "Insert Related Elements" functionality needs to be renamed to "Insert Connected Elements" since it does not include some pretty fundamental relationships which are not implemented as connectors, to wit: Nesting and Classification.  The functionality only references elements related to the root element by an entry in t_connector.

Paolo

2

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Missing documentation entries in xs:annotation?

« on: November 12, 2018, 05:08:38 pm »

Hi,

We reverse engineered an XSD containing the following:

Code: [Select]

<xs:simpleType name="ISO_3166-1_Alpha-2-Code">
<xs:annotation>
<xs:documentation xml:lang="en">AF AFG Afghanistan</xs:documentation>
<xs:documentation xml:lang="en">AX ALA Aland Islands</xs:documentation>
<xs:documentation xml:lang="en">AL ALB Albania</xs:documentation>
<xs:documentation xml:lang="en">DZ DZA Algeria</xs:documentation>
<xs:documentation xml:lang="en">AS ASM American Samoa</xs:documentation>
<xs:documentation xml:lang="en">AD AND Andorra</xs:documentation>
<xs:documentation xml:lang="en">AO AGO Angola</xs:documentation>
<xs:documentation xml:lang="en">AI AIA Anguilla</xs:documentation>
<xs:documentation xml:lang="en">AQ ATA Antarctica</xs:documentation>
</xs:annotation>
</xs:simpleType>
We found only the first <xs:documentation> entry was imported (into the Notes field).  I'm not an XSD guru. Should the other entries have been imported (as additional lines in the field)?

TIA,
Paolo

[Edit:  I checked locally and I've been informed that the notation is invalid.  However, I'd like some corroboration that this is indeed invalid.]

3

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Problem building Add-In

« on: October 30, 2018, 03:01:09 pm »

Our (C#) Diagrammer Add-in uses EA.tlb and Interop.EA.dll.  We don't always update these files with the latest releases, so as not to be on the "Bleeding Edge".

We have been running successfully with the build 1308 version since Nov 2016.  But we decided to update to the v14 build 1427 versions.  Imagine our surprise when the following message popped out of VS:
Error   CS0246   The type or namespace name 'EA' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Since all we've done is to replace the 1308 files with the 1427 files, we didn't expect this.  Is anybody else experiencing a similar problem?

Has anything changed in the files to cause this?    Did we miss something n the way through?

Reported,
Paolo

4

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Transformation Templates - Can we do this?

« on: October 22, 2018, 02:36:14 pm »

We've been experimenting with the Schema Composer to allow us to generate multiple payload forms from one model.

We've established that the source (base) model (from which the payloads are to be generated) HAS to be a SIMPLE Class Model.  We were hoping to be able to use some of our MDG specific items as the source.  However, it seems that as soon as you stereotype the class, the generated output is changed in a significant way!
(If that should NOT be the case can someone let me know?)
So we appear to have that limitation.  So we then said, OK, let's run a transform to allow us to automatically generate the simple class model from our MDG specific items (initially, just strip the stereotype and see what happens).

It's over a decade since I last used model transform templates and as I recall even then they were a bit problematic.

So, before I waste a LOT of time trying to do the impossible. I thought I'd check here.

• Can I create a transform to change one class-based model into a similar class-based model?
• If I just wanted to strip the stereotype from the class to generate the transformed class, what templates should I change?
• We already have payloads defined as XSDs -which we can reverse engineer.  Can we also use this type of transform to transform from the XSD to a Simple Class (or even our MDG based items)?

Paolo

5

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Diagram Pixels by Size t_diagram.cx & cy

« on: October 19, 2018, 10:45:09 am »

We autogenerate our Neighborhood diagrams.  We settled on a default of A3 Landscape and determined that the cx and cy values were 1600x1100.  It's been thus for almost a decade.

However, in investigating the Persistent Zoom functionality, I found that creating an A3 landscape diagram manually created a 1622x1138 diagram.  That got us wondering, is the value entered into those fields driver related?

Is there any impact of printing a 1600x1100 onto a printer that expects 1622x1138?

Is there a standard value for A3 Landscape that may have changed over the years?

TIA,
Paolo

6

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Where is Persistent Zoom stored?

« on: October 18, 2018, 05:17:09 pm »

Anyone know (and is prepared to share) where the Persistent Zoom is stored?  We're experimenting with this and for some diagrams, it looks like we'd need something smaller than 50%.

Can this be altered?

Paolo

7

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Can we get to a specific repository item from outside EA (particularly EA-Lite)?

« on: October 17, 2018, 04:28:19 pm »

If we generate an HTML report, we are able to get to specific diagrams from outside the browser by the documented means.

However, we can't do this with EA (whether Full or Lite).  Can anyone confirm that?

We'd like to provide users with the richer EA-Lite experience rather than simple HTML.  But we'd like to be able to provide an external reference (similar to the HTML mechanism).

I guess we could distribute shortcut files, but that seems a bit clumsy and will "pepper" the storage with transient files.

Thoughts?

TIA,
Paolo

8

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Back reference to creating/merging Pattern

« on: October 15, 2018, 04:01:33 pm »

It would appear there is no mechanism for recording which pattern (if any) an item was created or merged from.  We need to record (almost like the «trace» in Time Aware Modelling) so we can correctly manage the evolution of patterns.

I guess we'd have to "roll our own".  However, even this presents a problem.  There is no GUID available to uniquely identify the pattern - even though the name might change.

Any suggestions as to what "best practice" might be?

TIA,
Paolo

9

Bugs and Issues / How to "Publish Diagram as Pattern"?

« on: October 15, 2018, 03:50:20 pm »

Publish > Technology > Publish > Publish Diagram as Pattern

Isn't an available path under b1427.  In order to publish the "Publish Diagram as Pattern", I have to enter the term Publish in the "Find Command..." widget to be able to access the functionality.

Is this functionality available via the Ribbon in v14.1?  If so where?

Paolo

10

Bugs and Issues / Diagram Notes added to Pattern

« on: October 15, 2018, 03:44:49 pm »

When you create a pattern using Publish Diagram as Pattern, if you have a Diagram Notes Text element, even though it is unselected, it is included in the pattern.
There is NO mechanism to selectively exclude these kinds of "administrative" elements from the pattern.

Reported,
Paolo

11

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Auto Names in Patterns - what does it do?

« on: October 15, 2018, 03:06:22 pm »

We're starting to experiment (yet again) with EA Patterns (I know, we're masochists...).  I was hoping that the Patterns functionality would allow us to automatically replace dependent names as the pattern was created.  For example, for a simple intersector pattern, if we have the two endpoints Left & Right, we'd like the intersector to default to Left-Right.  We can change Left and Right, but we have to manually change Left-Right.

Can anyone confirm that this can't be done?  (without additional automation)

If so, then what does the [  ] Use Auto Names checkbox do?  Using Help with Use Auto Names as the search parameter, reveals only one hit to say that the option will be disabled.  There's nothing that says what it actually does.  Can a kind soul please enlighten me?

TIA,
Paolo

12

General Board / How to enable the "Find Command..." widget

« on: October 15, 2018, 02:40:41 pm »

On one of our machines, we've lost the "Find Command..." widget at the top right of the Ribbon.  How can we get it back, please?

Paolo

13

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / How to get Metatype into Type field on Model Search output?

« on: October 09, 2018, 03:08:57 pm »

When we create searches, the output sometimes shows the Metatype in the Type field and other times the base type.  We have examined the items that differ and we can find NO difference in them.  Both the t_object and t_xref entries have the same information.

What is the secret sauce to get the metatype to show consistently in the Type field?

Reported,
Paolo

14

General Board / Diagram filters across Groups

« on: October 09, 2018, 02:05:24 pm »

We have some Diagram Filter Groups defined.  We have one group for the specific value of a tag, in this case, the Lifecycle status of the item.  The Group is defined as an OR group.  So the user can select both "Released" and "Deprecated"  to select those items "In Production".
We have a separate group for aggregate status where one selection "In Production" will select the same two values.

We were hoping to be able to select from both the aggregate and specific groups, for example, to show those items "In Production" (aggregate) and "Retired" (specific), but this doesn't seem possible.

Is there any "secret sauce" that we're not applying to be able to do this?

TIA,
Paolo

15

Bugs and Issues / Ribbon Sets - NO Help

« on: October 08, 2018, 04:08:37 pm »

I'm interested in managing the sets of Ribbons available for my users.  There's a menu item called "My Ribbon Sets" under the "Perspectives" drop-down (top right).

([Thinks]) Oh, that might be what I'm after...  So I search Help for "Ribbon Set" - no matches!   
(as does "Manage Ribbon")

What SHOULD I have searched for?

Searching for "Ribbon" yields:
Search Complete! 1314 matches in 1029 files, total files searched 3102 in 0m 17s

I might as well attempt to read the entire Help file.  The output is in the order of the files, so every entry needs to be examined in case it might be pertinent.

Paolo