Messages

1

General Board / Re: Source code import C++ problem

« on: October 14, 2018, 06:31:18 am »

Schrödinger's cat is already 50% dead. So your curiosity can't really kill it xD

q.

Ha Ha nice one Qwerty but its not in a state of 50% dead and 50% alive its 100% both dead and alive until an observer looks then its either dead or alive. Its got a 50/50 chance of being dead with the curiosity of the observer in the end so death is not guaranteed. 

2

General Board / Re: Source code import C++ problem

« on: October 13, 2018, 08:18:32 am »

I know curiosity killed the cat but what add-in are using?

3

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

« on: October 13, 2018, 08:14:29 am »

...Makes be a bit worried about installing any future EA versions......

Agree is a cause for concern. Recommend following good practices such as ensuring new versions are trialled out for a few days or weeks first on test machines first.  System restore is a wonderful safety net.

That being said to provide some level of comfort, I've not experienced many problems with installing/uninstalling Sparx EA over the last 12 years. We have to go through a rigid production testing phase before using any new versions of tools. One of the tests checks that the tools install/uninstall cleanly. Our support engineers who test this say Sparx EA is one of the better tools they tested so historically its all been good. Sounds like your experience may have been an exception. I've not heard others with this problem.

4

General Board / Re: Why is editing of names in the project browser gone in V14?

« on: October 13, 2018, 08:03:33 am »

André,

I'm not saying you are wrong, but quickly renaming a set of requirements is much easier when you do "View as List"

Geert

Absolutely or the specification view as yet another alternative.
... But its always nice to have the feature to edit in the view the user is using so the they have the option. I always like to enable users to work with tools on how it suits them rather than constraining them. But hey that might be old fashioned thinking.
The new approach seems to be make em do it our way. Let's see how that plays out.

5

General Board / Re: Configuring Element Label in Project Browser

« on: October 13, 2018, 07:51:39 am »

Version Control in a model has always been problematic across as many tools as I can remember.  I'm not convinced anyone has perfected a solution yet. I can remember having long discussions with consultants back in the 1990s regarding how to implement version control in a model with the complexities of elements, relationships and diagrams. We never came up with a solution that would address  all the scenarios just some of them. We ended up with similar things to Baselining and the Time Aware Modelling. Neither a perfect solution but workable.

In Sparx EA you can version control a package with all the elements and diagrams in it using version control system or baselining built into Sparx EA. The problem with that approach is you only see a snapshot of the elements.
Time Aware modelling has a different approach where it makes a clone of the elements but the problem as you say it gets messy real quick. You need to be really disciplined in how to structure the model to use that feature.

Thoughts on how to achieve your goal? Well here are some; As the project browser only shows name and stereotype for the elements as far as I can tell the only kludges I can come up with are to either
a) hijack the stereotype field and put version in it. But that won't work if you are using anything other than standard UML without stereotypes as the other notations use stereotype to define the element types.
b) Annotate the name with the version either as a prefix or postfix.

You could use time aware modelling to clone the new versions followed by some script to update and append the versions or maybe a custom transformation script to automatically add version the stereotype or name.

Both sound painful and labour intensive but if thats what you want to do there you go.

6

General Board / Re: Why is editing of names in the project browser gone in V14?

« on: October 13, 2018, 07:28:37 am »

...
Of cause this is not a show stopper, but it was there, and I love it, and it is MS-Windows standard somehow.

UI Standards seem to have gone out of the window now with every UI designer seeming to think they can do whatever they want. Kind of makes life a little more difficult for the user with an inconsistent experience loosing the whole spirit of what a Graphical User Interface was design for in the first place.
Think we've slipped into an alternative universe where chaos is the way to go.

7

General Board / Re: Auto creation of a composition with ArchiMate

« on: October 13, 2018, 07:20:21 am »

Good points Geert - I agree.

Honestly never heard of anyone being silly enough to have one root process - that is just plain stupid. What would they call it anyway? "Just Do It"?

Just to provide some clarity, I group the enterprise processes using packages, ArchiMate and BPMN elements following the APQC structure. Generally Something like this ;
Package <Category>
   Package <Group>
       Process <ArchiMate Process>
          Activity <BPMN Activity>

There will be diagrams under each level. Highlevel views using ArchiMate and low level ones using BPMN. Occasionally I'll group processes within processes using ArchiMate to deal with some really complex processes but generally I avoid this by using those other grouping mechanisms.
It seems to work okay for my organisation without the need to use composition. But appreciate others model differently and will have a need for composition.

8

General Board / Re: Auto creation of a composition with ArchiMate

« on: October 12, 2018, 06:49:48 pm »

... just keep in mind that this only applies to elements in the same package and has no equivalent for elements in different packages.

Elements in a different package aye? Shouldn't that be an aggregation relationship you want not composition?

9

General Board / Re: Auto creation of a composition with ArchiMate

« on: October 12, 2018, 11:08:08 am »

Does EA has a feature that automatically creates a composition if you drag an ArchiMate element into another ArchiMate element?
E.g. a business process into a business proces.
...

Geert is correct if you want to create a composition relationship you need to create a script.

There is a feature that puts the element under the parent in the project explorer creating a parent child relationship when you drag it onto the parent in the diagram. Its not the same thing but it least it structures the elements in the model.
Not sure if this enable by default but its under the options for diagrams somewhere. If memory serves its called "Support for Composite Objects".
You could then write a script to go through the nested elements to add the composition relationship to reflect the parent child relationships. By putting the script in the project explorer folder it will be available via the UI.

This is the thing though, do you want to duplicate the structure parent-child relationship as a composition as you clearly aren't using it in the diagram by the fact you wanting to creating by dropping the business process within another business process. When are you going to use that composite relationship?

Myself, I just use the parent-child relationship in structure of the model for my ArchiMate models without duplicating a composite relationship. Diagrammatically I show this as process within a process so there is no need for the composite relationship in that case.

10

General Board / Re: Source code import C++ problem

« on: October 12, 2018, 10:45:29 am »

Not ideal but don't expect Sparx systems to fix issues in V12 when a later version is available.

Here is a potential work around. Have multiple installs of Sparx EA on your desktop. You can do this by following these steps
1) Install V12 and its components then rename the directory "C:\Program Files (x86)\Sparx Systems\EA" to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Sparx Systems\EA12".
2) Create a shortcut to EA.exe in the folder and pin it on the taskbar/startmenu/desktop
3) Install V14.1 which will install in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Sparx Systems\EA" by default
You can now access both V12 and V14.1 to do specific tasks like reverse engineering.

11

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Add a warning when an element with same name and stereotype is added

« on: October 12, 2018, 10:35:01 am »

As said, it's a faint memory. Could be a fata morgana as well.

q.

Yeah I have those faint memories too.
One theory is the Mandella Effect. The Mandela Effect is evidence that you may have experienced events from a different reality. Finding others with similar memories can affirm that.

12

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Add a warning when an element with same name and stereotype is added

« on: October 11, 2018, 08:21:43 am »

I remember faintly there's something to do that already. But I can't recall where to set it.

q.

Interesting never come across that feature before. Did a search of the use guide but couldn't see anything.

13

Bugs and Issues / Re: EA repository performance on Oracle db

« on: October 11, 2018, 04:31:07 am »

Maybe time to realize that Sparx EA developers are still in the 1990 and developes old fashion Client-Server apps with bad SQL-queries. Most of other old apps architectures have evolved to modern apps, but not Sparx, still in retro Client-Server architecture.

Bit of a harsh negative statement there buddy 

Yes Sparx EA is a client-server app but not necessarily with bad SQL queries as they work fine on SQL and MySQL. You know modern databases not like Oracle which is from the 1980's and can't cope well with the style of query.

To be fair to Sparx Systems they have introduced Cloud Pro Server and Web EA over the last couple of years so they are changing the architecture to a that of a web oriented one. If you've done any development over the decades you'll realise it does take time to migrate a product from one style of architecture to another.

The important thing to remember is that Sparx EA works heaps better than anything else on the market. If you've found something better with a modern architecture then please share. I doubt you have

14

General Board / Re: Alternate images

« on: October 10, 2018, 10:07:32 am »

Anyone knows how to import a batch of  nice symbols for alternate_picture??
I have just dragged a bunch from windows file explorer to an empty diagram, but I dont get the right name for each picture ;(

Have you tried importing the images provided by Sparx Systems
http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/image_library.html

15

General Board / Re: Alternate images

« on: October 10, 2018, 10:05:23 am »

Qwerty is correct you could write a script. Just so happens I did one a while back
The script will probably need some modifications if you want set different images depending on element type.

Code: [Select]

!INC Local Scripts.EAConstants-JScript

/*
  * Script Name: Set Element Alternative Image
 * Description: Sets elements image on a diagram. Need to have images loaded into model.
 * For example images such as these http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/image_library.html
 */

/*
 * Diagram Script main function
 */
function OnDiagramScript()
{
// Get a reference to the current diagram
var currentDiagram as EA.Diagram;
currentDiagram = Repository.GetCurrentDiagram();

if ( currentDiagram != null )
{
        Session.Output("Diagram Name:" + currentDiagram.Name);
ObjectsInDiagram( "    ", currentDiagram );
Session.Prompt( "The setting to non rectangular is now completed", promptOK)
}
else
{
Session.Prompt( "This script requires a diagram to be open.", promptOK)
}
}


//
// Converts the elements of the provided package to the Script output window
//
// Parameters:
// - indent A string representing the current level of indentation
// - thePackage The package object to be processed
//
function ObjectsInDiagram( indent, theDiagram )
{
    // Cast thePackage to EA.Package so we get intellisense
    var theCurrentDiagram as EA.Diagram;
    theCurrentDiagram = theDiagram;
   
    // Iterate through all elements and add them to the list
    var elementEnumerator = new Enumerator( theCurrentDiagram.DiagramObjects);
    while ( !elementEnumerator.atEnd() )
    {
  var diagramObject as EA.DiagramObject;
        diagramObject = elementEnumerator.item();
        SetObject(indent+"    ",diagramObject );
        elementEnumerator.moveNext();
    }
}

function SetObject(indent, theObject)
{

    var diagramObject as EA.DiagramObject;
    diagramObject = theObject;
// List of ImageID values can be found in table t_image
diagramObject.SetStyleEx("ImageID", "1796848196");
diagramObject.Update();
}

OnDiagramScript();