Topics

1

General Board / EA just won't start...in v14, v13, v12...

« on: October 13, 2018, 01:10:04 am »

Recently installed 14.1, and after a while got a strange 'locking' error from EA, so thought the best plan was to de-install EA, and re-install, then see if it came back.
Did that, but when re-installed, when starting EA, the EA splash screen now shows for a fraction of a second, then nothing.
Nothing in the Windows error logs, or my anti-virus. No EA error message
Suspiciously, the re-install didn't ask the the activation code.
The went back and re-installed v13.5, V13, V12....exactly the same symptom.
As you might imagine, this is a bit of a disaster.
Anyone out there seen this one before?
(and yes, we did do machine restarts, shutdowns, registry cleans between the different stages).
Any ideas REALLY appreciated.

2

General Board / Aris vs EA for Process Modelling

« on: April 24, 2018, 08:35:09 pm »

I have a client who is looking for some help evaluating Aris & EA for process modelling.
All of us, I'm sure, have a natural preference, but does anyone have any recent experience of these two? If it helps, my client is willing to pay money for someone with this experience.

3

General Board / 'Link' Connector type - did I imagine it ?

« on: April 16, 2018, 11:10:58 pm »

I'm (fairly) sure that there used to be a Connector Type of 'link', which UML says (or at least, used to say) we're supposed to use to connect Instances with each other.
The element/element relationship connector type defines what the instance/instance connection means, but I thought that the instance/instance connector itself was just a 'link'.
Did I imagine this?
It seems that in V14 (and I think 13 as well) I seem to have to lost the ability to create a simple link.
@Sparx - was this deliberate? Maybe a new corner of UML which I missed? Or maybe it got lost?
And, if I just add 'link' to t_conectorTypes, is that allowed? Feels like a big step, inventing new Connector Types, which might have bad consequences.

4

General Board / V14 Beta - Import/Export XMI

« on: April 10, 2018, 10:56:48 pm »

In Build 1405, I can't find the Import/Export XMI options, except in model roots. Views and Packages don't seem to have it.
Has this option gone somewhere else ? Or been removed ?

5

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / EAPX Files can be opened in Access

« on: April 04, 2018, 05:21:01 pm »

This may not be news to some, but it was to me...
I could never open older (pre-v14) versions of EAP files with modern versions of Access, but the good news is that EAPX files can now be opened in Access 2016. Much easier to see where Sparx have put new information, or to do searches outside of EA.
'just thought you might like to know...

6

General Board / Icons on Artifacts

« on: October 11, 2017, 07:01:03 pm »

I just dropped an 'Artifact' element on a diagram, and gave it a stereotype of 'decision', and was a bit surprised when EA helpfully gave it a little green diamond next to the 'artifact' icon.
Nice.
This makes me wonder, are there other icons which EA might put there if I choose other stereotypes for my Artifact? Does anyone know? Sadly, I don't have an infinite number of monkeys to try out all possible stereotypes, so I wonder if @Sparx know ?
Not a world-changing feature, but still enjoyable..

7

General Board / 13.5 reviews - set reviewers

« on: July 20, 2017, 07:31:34 pm »

I'm looking into the new 13.5 Review mechanism.
I can see how to set the 'what' to review, the 'when', but not the 'who'? Is there some way to say who I want to do the review? Or is there some existing way to do this ? Confession - I've not used EA Element or Team reviews before....

8

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Repository.ImportRASAsset

« on: January 24, 2017, 04:34:19 am »

The release notes of 1308 announce a new API: Repository.ImportRASAsset.
Has anyone tried this?
The Help seems to be silent on the subject, and I just don't have time to do the reverse-engineering to find out what the API does.

Or even if it really exists .

9

Bugs and Issues / Latest SQl Server setup script produces a DB which doesn't work

« on: September 12, 2016, 09:48:44 pm »

See item http://sparxsystems.com/forums/smf/index.php/topic,36058.0.html
The use of nvarchar(max) as a data type seems to have some bad effects, at least in my setup.
Tried with SQL Server 214 and SQl Server 2016 - they both show the same issue with the nvarchar(max) data type

10

General Board / SQl Server 2016 anyone?

« on: September 12, 2016, 07:45:36 pm »

I'm just setting up a new server, and I'm seeing a REALLY strange error: the 'Notes' field won't update.
This is an all-new machine, with Microsoft server 2012, and SQL Server 2016 - first time I have used this.
Setup is otherwise the same on an existing machine - which works - and the new one - which has the above error.
- both have EA 12.1 Ultimate
- both use SQL server
- both using the same repository content.

So I can create new elements/diagrams/packages on the new server, and I can update the simple fields : name, phase, difficulty etc, but not the Notes. If the Notes pane is open (the one which is separate from the Properties page) then I can see my update to the Notes. but as soon as I switch to another element, then back again, the update is lost.
I even tried updating the database directly, and those updates don't show up back in EA. It's as if EA just can't process Notes fields. Same thing happens with Notes on Attributes & Operations: updates just don't work, so it's not specific to t_object: t_atribute and t_method show the same effect.

This may not be relevant, but I notice that, between SQL Server 2014 and 2016, the datatype of all the Note fields has changed from nText (SQL 2014) to nvarchar(Max) (SQL 2016), but Mr. Google says that they are backwards compatible. And the EA setup script specifies [Note] nvarchar(max), so it seems that SQl Server 2014 makes this into nText datatype.

Has anyone else seen anything like this? I really need this server for a customer demo, and it's driving me crazy...

11

General Board / Cloning children

« on: August 03, 2016, 12:58:46 am »

Using EA v13 build 1303, and no, this is not the start of a moral debate on child cloning....
The 'clone element' function in v13 works with no surprises when the item being cloned is a child of a package.
(Package) Original Package
--diagram 1
--element 1

Cloned to become:
(package) Cloned Original Package
--diagram1 (clone, empty)

I then drop element1 onto the cloned diagram1, and get EA to create a clone of element1, as a child of (package) Cloned Original Package:
(package) Cloned Original Package
--diagram1 (clone)
--element1 (clone)

So far, so good. No surprises.

So what about if I create a child of element1, and repeat the process:
(Package) Original Package
--diagram 1
--element 1
----element1.1 (child of element1)

Question is, what do we expect to happen when we clone element1 now? Do we clone its children as well? ALL of them? And their children?
If element1 is a BPMN process, then it will have children which are lanes/pools, which in turn will have lots of child activities, events etc: a BIG structure.

But what's the alternative? If we don't clone all the children, then EA seems to get confused, and won't clone the children AT ALL (bug reported).

So if I want to create a new version of a process, how should it be done? I think a 'deep clone' (all children) makes sense, but I'm really not sure what I expect.

Ideas please!

12

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / How to detect an Embedded Element

« on: June 29, 2016, 11:38:37 pm »

Does anyone know if it's possible to detect when an element is an EA 'embedded element', that is, and element of a type which cannot be dropped onto a diagram ? I've looked through all the obvious attributes of the element, and nothing says 'I'm an  embedded element'.

13

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / V13 - Copy/Paste to/from clipboard

« on: June 15, 2016, 01:33:30 am »

Has anyone got the "Copy to clipboard" (for a package) and 'paste from clipboard' to work in V13 Beta?
'Copy to Clipboard' is there, but when I copy a package, the 'paste elements(s) from clipboard' option is grayed-out.

14

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / V13 menu handling with Addins

« on: June 14, 2016, 11:17:36 pm »

Has something changed in the V13 menu handling?
In V12, when the user chooses an extension menu from the main EA menu, then EA_GetMenuItems passes menuLocation = "MainMenu"
In V13, it's passing menuLocation = "Diagram", but this seems to be a transient effect. Sometimes, I get another random menu, other times, just a top-level menu with no sub-menu items. EA may be passing the type of thing I have selected in the Project Browser, but even then not reliably, and EA12 didn't do that.
This is repeatable - when I go back to V12, all is well.
Please can someone have a look at this.
Thanks

15

General Board / EA13 Sweeper and 'HV Lock'

« on: June 13, 2016, 10:15:47 pm »

A few new menu options have appeared in V13, which don't seem to have any help - odd, as they are in the 'Helpers' bit of the 'Layout' ribbon.

• What does 'sweeper' do (and please don't say 'sweep'
• And 'HV Lock'