Messages

1

General Board / Re: Implement Central DB Repository With Version Control Using Azure DevOps?

« on: October 25, 2024, 07:16:24 pm »

If the main requirement is to go cloud, you could try to ask for a quote to use EA SaaS.
Than you get Sparx to handle all the installation hassle and you only need to connect to Azure for the SSO and handle the rest as Admin within EA like you would in the EA fat client solution.

2

PCS General Board / Re: Use EA Legend auto color in Prolaborate?

« on: September 08, 2024, 04:52:10 pm »

Thanks Nabil for this reply.
I'm aware that Prolaborate shows whatever EA has come up with, so this is not what I was after.

To rephrase my question:
Is there any support in Prolaborate for changing a diagram without the need to use an EA client?
This would be very useful in the case where there are a number of legends on the diagram, each showing a different feature of the elements on the diagram.
Now I would like the colleagues using Prolaborate to do some analysis on the diagram by switching on or off certain legends themselves.

3

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Issues with Archimate Grouping

« on: August 16, 2024, 08:21:06 pm »

I think that even though we can draw a relationship between an Archimate Group and other Archimate elements, we cannot say that the elements are belong to the Group because the current EA Boundary (the base of the Archimate Group) is just a graphical object. Even if we move an object into the boundary in a diagram, we have no way to confirm that the boundary has (contains) the object as model (without diagram presentation). We cannot see the relationships between the Group and elements in the Group in the current EA features.

The fact that you cannot see whether there is a relationship defined between the ArchiMate Grouping and its contained elements is part of the ArchiMate specification and very similar to the nesting of elements when using Composition or Aggregation relationships. If you enlarge an element and drop some other elements within its boundaries, the Composition relations are not shown on the diagram which is according to the specification.

If an Archimate Group were extended from another type e.g., Class, we could confirm a parent-child relationship in the Browser and in the Traceability window when we move an object into an Archimate Group. But to apply this implementation, there must be a constraint that an object can be belong to at most 1 Group. I could not find such a constraint like this.

Why should there be a constraint that an object can only belong to at most 1 Grouping? There is no such constraint on other relationships like Composition or Aggregation. And I think it is possible to have a single element to belong to more groups. Even when using the drawing option, it is possible to draw a (very) large group containing more groups each containing other elements. The inner elements then should belong to both groups.

So, concluding, I believe both options should be available:

• ArchiMate Grouping as a separate Element type which can be re-used and moved around like other ArchiMate elements.
• Visual grouping as implemented now with only visual impact and stored in the ... folder.

Possible solution to add the ArchiMate Grouping as element to the ArchiMate MDG implementation?

4

PCS General Board / Use EA Legend auto color in Prolaborate?

« on: August 05, 2024, 11:50:08 pm »

In EA, I can add a legend on a diagram which can set the colors of the elements depending on the settings in the legend.
The legend element also has a checkbox "Apply auto color" which automatically recolors the elements when checked.
Can I also use this feature on the Prolaborate page showing the same diagram?
Or is the checkbox option only available within EA?

5

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: TV's vs Stereotype extension in multi-repository environment

« on: August 05, 2024, 10:53:09 pm »

Personally I would go for the Tagged Values.
You could define a "UML Type" predefined Tagged Value with type=enum and then specify the values to choose from. You can then even define a default value.
Furthermore, you could create a script to add the Tagged Value to the elements you choose. Or export the elements and add the Tagged Values when importing again.

6

General Board / Re: Filtering elements on diagram?

« on: August 02, 2024, 04:28:49 pm »

If you want a "button on the diagram", you'll have to script something.

This sounds very interesting.
Can't find anything in the documentation on how to get a "button on the diagram".
Any hints as to where to look?

7

General Board / Re: Bulk creation of relationships

« on: July 17, 2024, 10:24:54 pm »

With EA SaaS I mean that the EA client also runs on a computer in the cloud.
We connect to the EA client via the browser.
Any files accessed by the EA client also reside on the cloud host.
This also means that an application running on my own pc has no access to the EA application running in the cloud.
So the im/exporter from Geert doesn't work either.

I assume my scripts are PCS compatible as they are running within the EA client, as other scripts.
And yes, there are scripts to im/export Elements as well as Connectors.
The Element export also exports the ElementID which can be used to import Connectors as they are relationships between ClientID and SupplierID.
I also tackled the handling of ArchiMate stereotypes for both Elements and Connectors.

Also the scripts are available for starting from a package or diagram defining the scope of the export.

8

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Changing an element type and stereotype using JavaScript

« on: July 17, 2024, 03:18:54 am »

Strange, can't recall changing any settings regarding JavaScripting.
In my configuration, after setting the '.' (dot), the editor shows a pop-up with both methods and properties.
All in one single list, sorted alphabetically.
There is a difference in the color though.

9

General Board / Re: Bulk creation of relationships

« on: July 17, 2024, 02:23:16 am »

As the Excel option is a bit cumbersome to use with the EA SaaS solution, I created some JavaScripts to do the import/export via an Excel.
See https://github.com/DeBAAT/EABaatScripts.
Any suggestions for improvement are welcome.

10

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Changing an element type and stereotype using JavaScript

« on: July 17, 2024, 02:20:41 am »

I do not know how to turn that feature on.
I do know that the internal JavaScript editor within EA is capable of autocompleting both methods and properties.
So I usually try to either copy/paste code or add the property by the autofill of the editor.

11

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Changing an element type and stereotype using JavaScript

« on: July 13, 2024, 07:28:05 pm »

As Geert said, check your spelling.

In line [3], you are using a non-defined property "Steretoype".
In line [6], you are assigning this non-defined property a value, thus making it defined.
In line [9], this does not generate an error because you defined the property in line [6].

Sometimes it is nice to have weak type-checking, sometimes it is not...

12

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Changing an element type and stereotype using JavaScript

« on: July 12, 2024, 05:21:16 pm »

Sorry, but I think you are mixing Stereotype and StereotypeEx (apart from the typo):

Code: [Select]

currentElement.Type = "Class";
currentElement.Stereotype = "";
currentElement.Update();
currentElement.SteretoypEx = "ArchiMate3::ArchiMate_Requirement";

I think it should be:

Code: [Select]

currentElement.Type = "Class";
currentElement.Stereotype = "";
currentElement.Update();
currentElement.Stereotype = "ArchiMate3::ArchiMate_Requirement";
currentElement.Update();

According to the documentation StereotypeEx is a list of Stereotypes (see https://www.sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/16.1/add-ins___scripting/element2.html).

13

Bugs and Issues / Re: EA stability

« on: July 11, 2024, 05:00:15 pm »

Sorry if this is a silly question, but... how do you get that error log?
Need to define some settings? Available in a specific log file somewhere on disk?

14

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: How to create a new Excel file for export using JavaScript?

« on: June 21, 2024, 06:21:39 pm »

Sorry Geert to have misinterpreted your code.
The hint I got from it turns out to work now.
I dreate a new worksheet (using .Add), Save it using the default filename and path and use the file system to move it to the filename desired.

Summary of the code:

Code: [Select]

objExcelWorkBook = objExcelApplication.Workbooks.Add();
objExcelWorkBook.Save( true );
strExcelWorkBookFullName = objExcelWorkBook.FullName;
objExcelWorkBook.Close();
objExcelFile = fileSystemObject.GetFile( strExcelWorkBookFullName );
objExcelFile.Move( strExcelFileName );

Please beware of the order of the statements.
And I use Save(true) to prevent the system to ask for confirmation to save.

15

General Board / Re: Deleting a package

« on: June 21, 2024, 03:31:09 pm »

It looks like this may be too late or might not be appropriate at all, yet I would like to make the remark. Sorry for that.

In situations like this, I try to add these kind of large chunks to a copy of the repository to do some testing first.
It is especially easy when working with file based repositories.
That way the original file is still available for normal operations.