Messages

1

General Board / Re: Addings an element to multiple Diagram Layers?

« on: March 21, 2023, 08:25:56 pm »

Aren't filters global?
I didn't really want to pollute my model with them just for one diagram.

Search the forum, I recently posted a topic on this theme.

Paolo

2

General Board / Re: Simulating ObjectFlow on Activity Diagram

« on: March 13, 2023, 10:39:06 pm »

Hi again. is anybody able to advise on this? Please let me know if the question is unclear.

Hi,  I haven't been active recently.
I'm not a UML Simulation guru, but I believe you can't transfer control via an object flow - hence why your simulation is terminating there.

The UML gurus can correct me, but I believe a COntrol flow will allow objects to flow over it, but the reverse is not true.  That's why you have two types.

If you ask ChatGPT, "[UML, can objects flow along a control flow" , you'll get more or less that answer.

HTH,
Paolo

3

General Board / Re: EA - matching one element with more Layers

« on: March 08, 2023, 07:50:01 pm »

Hi, heydukr,

There was some discussion on this topic recently.  See https://sparxsystems.com/forums/smf/index.php/topic,47573.msg277302.html#msg277302

HTH,
Paolo

4

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Neo4j and Sparx EA

« on: March 08, 2023, 09:24:42 am »

I think that sounds like you are breaking new ground. Not heard of any of my contacts using Sparx EA doing that.

Hi Sunshine,
It also sounds like it in the Neo4j world (from what I can gather).

Fortunately, one of my colleagues has a little experience with Neo4j, so he got me "kick-started".

After some testing, we've developed an architecture to allow my concept of "same semantics, different syntax" to be instantiated in both products.  We're currently moving metadata between the two products via CSV files, but my colleague will provide some sample code to start using the Neo4j API - giving us a more direct connection.

Having gotten used to Cypher's (the Neo4j Query Language) syntax, we're now able to query a model (in this case of a reverse-engineered database) and enrich the model with the inferences we've found.

If there's continuing interest, I'll keep everyone posted.

Paolo

Fun Fact: the first DBMS I created (over 4 decades ago in my Grad. Dip. EDP project) was an in-memory, dynamic-schema graph database (written n Algol-68R). So using Neo4j is like a "blast from the past"!

5

General Board / Re: How to select tag values for operation parameters

« on: March 07, 2023, 07:26:12 pm »

My, bad. I attached it to an operation :-( But now, how can a parameter be tagged?

q.

EA lets you do it.  Select a parameter for an operation (I used the Primary Key operations on a Table), then add the tag.  As Geert said, they end up in t_taggedvalue.

Paolo

6

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Repositories and CDC (Change Data Capture)

« on: February 28, 2023, 03:34:29 pm »

We are looking at some ambititious integrations between our EA Repositories and other tools.  In particular, we'd like to investigate if we can apply CDC (Change Data Capture) to our SQL Server Repositories.

• Has anybody attempted this?
• Are there any issues
• Is it supported by Sparx Systems (i.e. if we apply it, will this invalidate our support)

TIA,
Paolo

7

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Neo4j and Sparx EA

« on: February 22, 2023, 09:52:45 pm »

We're looking at having Sparx EA and Neo4j interact.  Our "Proof of Concept" involves exporting the EA reverse-engineered structures for a very complex SQL Server database and examining paths between the various tables using Foreign Key Constraints.

Is anybody engaged in making EA and Neo4j interact?  If so, would you be prpeared to shareany knowledge or wisdom you have acquired in the process?

TIA,
Paolo

8

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / v16.1 Project integrity check SQLite (and MS Access) vs SQL Server

« on: February 22, 2023, 04:13:58 pm »

We've been investigating using SQLlite for our snapshot clone repositories (since MS access is failing due to repository size exceeding 2GB).

We (project) transferred our SQL Server repository to an SQLite .qea repository, and we then checked the .qea repo for consistency.  It found an inconsistently named package (it had a trailing space)!  Oh-oh, we thought Sparx had done it again; over a decade ago, we proved to Sparx that the project export/import was failing (since they could seem to grasp the testing process required to prove it worked).  But then we investigated the underlying data in the database and found that, indeed,  t_package.name had a trailing space and t_object.name did not!

So the defect was NOT with the Project Transfer, but with the Project Integrity Check!  (It's difficult to say which is more critical!).  This package has been in the SQL Server repository for years!   The Project Integrity Check for SQL Server did not pick it up through all the previous versions of EA (we're currently running v16.1 b1624)!  Since we assumed that the Project Integrity Check was sound, we didn't check the MS Acces Clones (since we went into them only very rarely as required).  We now note that the  Project Integrity Check for the MS Access clone also detects the Inconsistently named package.

This needs to be rectified ASAP (as does the coding process that generated the error in the first place!)

Reported,
Paolo

9

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / v16.1 Project Transfer timing MS Acess vs SQLite

« on: February 22, 2023, 12:13:26 pm »

We're now investigating using SQLite for our project snapshot clones.  Previously we were transferring our SQL Server repository to a .eapx (MS Access) clone.  This took about 15 mins and produced a file just shy of 2GB (before compaction).  We are now exceeding the 2GB limit, and the transfer fails.  Hence we are looking at SQLite .qea files.

We can transfer the SQL Server repository to a .qea clone, but instead of 15mins it takes 2 hours!!!  (This is with v16.1 32-bit)  One test we ran with 64-bit took 20 hours for the same repository!

Is this to be expected?  Is something wrong with our setup?

TIA,
Paolo and      <--  J o y c e won't play!

10

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / v16.1 QEA vs QEAX repositories for project transfer

« on: February 22, 2023, 11:44:37 am »

We're now seriuously looking at SQLite repositories for our snapshot clones.  However, we are experiencing several issues.  In a post (which, thanks to our board's splendid search function^[1]), I can no longer find!  Sparxian Eve says (probably paraphrased - since I can't find it any more) that the only difference between the two file types is renaming qea to qeax.  Indeed, there is only an EABase.qea file in the Program Files folder (unlike the EABAse.eap and EABase.eapx repositories), so that seems to bear out her comment.

So, we compared a project transfer from the same SQL Server origin to both a .qea and a .qeax destination.  The ONLY change being renaming the target file type.
The the origin transfers successfully to the .qea repository but fails to the .qeax repository  (it complains about the structure of one of the tables - notwithstanding that the empty destination file was identical when the transfer started!).

Has anybody seen this?  Anybody hazard a guess as to what is happening?

TIA,
Paolo

^[1] "It's a joke, Fred!"  <-- Fred is supposed to be J o y c e, but no matter how often I replace Fred with her name , the board will suppress it!  WHAT A WAY TO WRITE SOFTWARE!

11

Bugs and Issues / Re: Insert related elements refresh

« on: February 22, 2023, 09:15:50 am »

[Edit: I just retried, and it seems to work correctly.  Also on .eapx local file]

So its inconsistently correct? 

Did you change anything in comparison to when you gave the demonstration?

We're making changes all the time, trying to get to the bottom of other issues that are currently impacting us.
However, it did occur on at least two machines at more or less the same time.

Paolo

12

Bugs and Issues / Re: Insert related elements refresh

« on: February 21, 2023, 08:21:39 pm »

Hi,

I had a mail from Sparx indicating they are having problems reproducing the bug where you click an element and insert related elements it shows all related elements but when you click refresh some elements vanishes (eg. flows to relations on a BPMN activity, application function realizes an application component, etc...)

I use procloud 5.123 but can easily reproduce this on a local project

As Sparx indicates they are having issues to reproduce this, is there a setting somewhere that causes this behavior?

Hi Bob,

We ran into this SAME problem yesterday on our repository - whilst trying to demonstrate what a neat feature it is!  No Pro cloud just EAUI.  SQL Server, b1624.

It's not just you...

Paolo


[Edit: just retried and it seems to work correctly.  Also on .eapx local file]

13

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: v16.1 QEA(X) repositories and ODBC access?

« on: February 20, 2023, 07:27:56 pm »

Hai.
I'm using the same SQLite3 driver with no problems whatsoever.
It took me some time to figure out why I couldn't connect in the first place and eventually came across that driver.
Works fine now.
Also works for access by Power BI for creating nice reports.

Hi DeBAAT,

Any gotcha' with the driver installation or usage?

Paolo

14

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / v16.1 QEA(X) repositories and ODBC access?

« on: February 19, 2023, 01:58:51 pm »

It looks like we have to "bite the bullet" and move our snapshot reporisitories to SQLite (qea & qeax format).  Our snapshots appear to be exceeding the 2GB limit for eapx files and are producing "random" errors on project transfers.

As with user heba (in January this year) we need ODBC access to allow our additional background processing to be automated.

Investgation shows that Christian Werner's SQLite3 ODBC driver is the preferred solution.  Is anybody successfully accessing SQLite repositories via ODBC?  What Driver are you using?  How successful is it.  Do you ave any daatype mapping issues?

TIA,
Paolo

15

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: How to tell if an EAPX has been upgraded to "schema" 1558?

« on: February 16, 2023, 12:48:46 pm »

Open them.
Start > Help > About EA > Repository Details

Thanks, Eve,
works fine.

Paolo