Messages

1

General Board / Re: Deployment diagram / Relationship matrix

« on: October 28, 2002, 04:34:45 am »

Hi All,

Just a note to say the version 3.50 release of EA now correctly draws instances of Nodes and Components using the correct classifier style - not the object style. Regrettably this only applies to new instances and does not update existing model elements. It may be possible to provide a patch to do this if there is enough interest.

Geoff Sparks

2

General Board / Re: reverse Engg problem

« on: March 01, 2002, 03:29:56 am »

Hi,

Have you moved the source code to another directory or changed file names? If you move it you will need to adjust your directory paths.

How do you synchronize ... which menu option or toolbar button?

Do you have an example of a file that is causing problems you could send me?

Waiting to hear from you,

Geoff Sparks

3

General Board / Re: deciphering EA-GUID in Access

« on: June 05, 2002, 04:30:05 pm »

Hi there,

The problem is with the column name "Value" - this was a bad choice for a column name as it is a key word in JET SQL. Whenever referencing this column in sql you have to wrap it in square brackets to tell the SQL processor its an ID, not key word. So the sql should look like:

Insert into t_objectproperties ([value]) values('something')

Hope this straightens things out,

Geoff Sparks

4

General Board / Re: deciphering EA-GUID in Access

« on: June 04, 2002, 07:20:11 pm »

Hi Deborah,

Yes - I read your note earlier and was confused over what Field1 referred to.

The ideal I think would be to add an entry in the Tagged Values table for t_object  - which is t_objectproperties. You would fill it in like this:

PropertyID - counter field, updated automatically
Object_ID  - object ID from t_object table
Property    - name of property - eg. "user_ref" or "x_ref"
Value        - some meaningful value for you
Notes        - optional comment
ea_guid     - unused currently - may require population later

This has several advantages:

- It is easy to do and does not break any exisiting code
- It is extendable - you can add as many properties as you like
- The value will be saved and restored in XMI import/export
- It is user visible ... this may not be significant in the current instance, but in some cases it may be useful
- It is reported in RTF and HTML documents - so the link is visible in reports

For reporting a cross reference purposes you would need to modify your query to join the t_object and t_objectproperties table on Object_ID - and add whatever other filter criteria you like.

This is not as easy as working with a field in the t_object table I admit, but in the long term I think it is simpler and much more 'open ended'.

I would not suggest using the PDATA fields as even though they are unused for Requirement at the present - that may not always be the case. I would hate to inadvertently overwrite all your links!

Let me know if this is OK or not, or if you need any help in working with the tagged values table.

Cheers,
Geoff Sparks

5

General Board / Re: deciphering EA-GUID in Access

« on: May 23, 2002, 06:50:08 pm »

Hi Deborah,

The ea_guid field is a system generated random identifier. It is created in C++ with a call like:

         GUID guid = GUID_NULL;
     CoCreateGuid(&guid);

then formatted into the string you see in EA.

The formatting and content is significant .. so you cannot substitute 1,2,3,4 .. some functions will fail if you do.


Ideally, you should generate GUIDs using the same call. The knowledge base article at :
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q176790
shows you how to do this in Visual Basic - make sure the final format is identical to that used in EA (including { and })


If this is not possible, the only alternative would be to take an existing GUID and increment some part of its internal structure. Due to the randomness of GUIDs, you are very unlikely to strike a duplicate unless you generate a very large number of these things.

For example you could increment the final "729190" in the GUID  {C8200F4C-8318-4a52-9895-7789AA729190}

and create a series of new numbers based on the original.

Hope this explains,

Geoff Sparks

6

General Board / Re: Cross-package references and package control

« on: July 22, 2003, 11:59:39 pm »

Hi there,

The problem arises because the controlled package feature assumes currently that all information about a controlled package will be stored and managed within the controlled package. Now this works fine where the package is part of a repository and is being exported and imported for version control or other reasons ... and it is consistently returned to its 'home' location.

The scenario you are discussing here is a different one. It pre-supposes that the package will be used in a number of different models - possibly in totally different ways. And as the controlled package knows nothing about its target destinations or useage, then this problem arises.

I have spent some time looking at this and revised the import process to retain the necessary information during the delete/rebuild phase such that the controlled package can now be used in the manner you describe. EA will keep the cross package connections that the controlled package knows nothing about and relink where the target element still exists in the imported package.

The new behavior would specifically be of value where you have a framework or model fragment that is re-used in multiple models - but kept up to date in one master location only.

This change will be in the EA 3.60 release which is a few weeks away.  I hope it will meet your requirements.

All the best,

Geoff Sparks

7

General Board / Re: Question - .NET framework classes

« on: December 14, 2002, 01:40:00 pm »

Hi,

It sounds from the description you give that you have selected the wrong import function. The correct menu option to use is found by right clicking on a package, then going to the Import/Export submenu and choosing "Import .NET XML file". The error message sounds like the standard XMI importer.

The .NET XML files are not in XMI format - so a special function was supplied to import it.

Also NOTE! I have just downloaded the latest version of this file from the MS Website, and find it has been modified to include a hard coded DTD path ... although the DTD is supplied, the import will fail due to the hard coding of the DTD's location. You need to modify or comment out the DOCTYPE declaration at the start of the XML to get a clean import.

Hope this explains,

Geoff Sparks

8

General Board / Re: Question - .NET framework classes

« on: December 03, 2002, 03:08:40 am »

Hi,

The latest build (584) of EA has an additional option to import an XML 'library' file of .NET framework classes as mention by Jason in an earlier post on this thread:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/ecma/
(scroll to the bottom of the page, there is a link for an XML file describing the BCL)

The option is on the right click on a package in the project tree ... under import/export.

We plan to put together some reflection based examples in C# to create suitable XML files for import using this option. In the meantime you can use this to import the BCL at least.

Hope this helps,

Geoff Sparks

9

General Board / Re: Trying Again - Sparx Doesn't Answer Anymore...

« on: July 24, 2003, 12:31:04 am »

Hi,

It is definitely our intention to address the problems you allude to as soon as possible.

Our primary focus for the next release of EA (3.60) has been to include a comprehensive code generation engine using customizable templates. Combined with the UML Patterns and UML Profiles support in EA, this will give a framework for generating a diverse set of solutions from a UML model. It will also allow for generating code according to whatever standards and company policies you work under.

Directly after the release of  EA 360, we will be concentrating on improving support for things like:

• package generation
  
• multiple classes per file
  
• nested namespaces
  
• synchronisation of nested classes
  

These are definitely all planned, and we would hope to have them cleared up over the next couple of months.

Best Regards,

Geoff Sparks

10

General Board / Re: A gripe about 3.51

« on: February 17, 2003, 08:43:13 pm »

Hi all,

A couple of clarifications (I hope) ...

1. When you update an existing installation of EA, you will not need to re-enter the registration key -*unless* you install to a different directory than previously, or manually delete the previous installation directory. If you believe that neither of these situations apply, but you were still asked to re-register, please drop me a note with the circumstances.

2. Upgrade keys (when moving between EA editions) cannot be used by themselves to re-register EA - you have to first use the original key, then use the upgrade key. To avoid this process, in the Help/About box you can view and copy the 'derived' key that is created when you apply your upgrade key to an existing installation. Copy this 'derived' key and use if you ever need to re-register EA - instead of the two step process above.

3. As regards the installer issues - the installation software is the latest Wise installer which is layered on top of the Windows MSI. My assumption would be that MSI queries running applications for dll's and other files in use - and if a potential conflict is found with what EA wants to update, advises you that it would be best to close the other application. The aim is a clean install - and Im not sure why that particular conflict would occur.

4. A problem was found in the Desktop of edition of EA that could cause the Register Add-In menu item to be missing. This has been corrected in the latest build of EA (602)

I hope this is useful,

Geoff Sparks

11

General Board / Re: Sequence Diagrams and underlined object names

« on: February 17, 2003, 08:14:19 pm »

Hi,

I have had a look at this and modified the drawing code for Sequence elements such that both the instance name and class name will be underlined - as in the examples in the UML Specification.

This change will be in build 603.

Hope this will prove useful,

Geoff Sparks

12

General Board / Re: Association labels resizing themselves? Huh?!

« on: February 17, 2003, 07:50:31 pm »

Hi all,

I couldnt duplicate the problem as described - but I assume there must be a case where it does occur. I have modified the next build to include a forced resize of the selection rectangle so that the size should always snap back to the best fit, regardless of other conditions.

This change will be in build 603.

Cheers,
Geoff Sparks

13

General Board / Re: C++ Code Generation Bugs

« on: December 13, 2002, 05:07:08 am »

Hi Fred,

Thanks for the note.

I believe the duplicated comment issue to be fixed in the forthcoming build 587.

At the moment no methods or attributes deleted from the model are deleted from the source code. The reason being that there are no code markers so it is difficult to unambiguously recognise a function - and whether it is a previous function renamed or a something that requires deletion. This is compounded by the fact a programmer may add and delete functions from the source outside the model. For this reason these methods and attributes are left alone.

Ill check out the array declaration and see what the problem is.

Thanks again for the feedback, build 587 should be out early next week,

Cheers,
Geoff Sparks

14

General Board / Re: Bugs in build 586

« on: December 13, 2002, 04:58:32 am »

Hi Tjerk,

I had a look at these and:

1. The boundary acting as a group container should still work OK. It is on by default - but you should check : View/Options/Diagram/Behaviour to make sure the 'Auto Group Elements' check box is ticked - just in case it has changed.

2. The shallow copy problem will be fixed in the next build - out in a day or two (build 587)

3. I couldnt duplicate the RTF embedded images problem either. I checked an old project, upgraded it and re-checked, but it remained the same. So Im not sure what the actual circumstances were that could cause this.

4. I havent seen the 'snow' effect you mention. The diagram should show very briefly and move on - maybe it is not completing the draw before it moves on to the next item?

Hope this helps, build 587 will be out early next week,

Cheers,
Geoff Sparks

15

General Board / Re: Overide operations

« on: December 13, 2002, 05:23:18 am »

Hi Anders,

I have changed the function such that <<pure>> and {abstract} methods are copied into the child or realizing class as concreate methods (ie. the pure and abstract qualifiers are removed)

I assume this would be the preferred option. This will be in the build 587 update - out early next week,

Cheers,
Geoff Sparks