Recent Posts

41

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Shape Scripts: Text in Subshapes

« Last post by Guillaume on January 31, 2026, 01:57:50 am »

Hi Geert,

Currently I have 3 or 4 characters in my list of predefined values which makes it tricky to have a consistent result i.e. it's currently fine for values with 3 chars, not 4.
I'll have a look at your examples as it sounds like a fine idea to fix the rendering issues, thanks 

Guillaume

42

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Shape Scripts: Text in Subshapes

« Last post by Geert Bellekens on January 30, 2026, 06:12:55 pm »

The dowside of using actual text, is that you can't control it's size.
So what I did for a customer was draw characters in shapescripts.

See here https://github.com/GeertBellekens/Enterprise-Architect-Shapescript-Library/tree/master/RM%20Requirements for a number of examples.

I think by now I have a shape for allmost all characters, bot uppercase and lowercase.

Geert

43

Latest News / Enterprise Architect 17.1 - Build 1716

« Last post by sparks on January 30, 2026, 10:19:21 am »

Sparx Systems announces the official release of Enterprise Architect 17.1 build 1716, on 29th of January

For more information on Enterprise Architect 17.1, please see:
   https://sparxsystems.com/products/ea/17.1/

The release notes can be found in the following locations:
   https://sparxsystems.com/products/ea/17.1/history.html


Registered Users can find download links to the EA installers on the following page:
  https://sparxsystems.com/registered/reg_ea_down.html


To report any issues please use the registered bug report form:
   https://sparxsystems.com/registered/forms/reg_bug_report.html

44

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Workflow scripts vs addin + attribute events

« Last post by philchudley on January 30, 2026, 12:01:13 am »

Hi

Now there's a throw back to past EA times!

As far as I remember the Workflow script were (are) very limited to the element properties that can be checked, and often these were not the ones that get changed!

I have used Model-based add-ins to validate element property (in my case the Name) changes using

EA_ContextItemChanged https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/17.1/add-ins___scripting/ea_oncontextitemchanged.html
Here I make a note of the current property values

EA_OnNotifyContextItemModified https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/17.1/add-ins___scripting/ea_onnotifycontextitemmodified.html
Here I validate if the changes are allowed, if not, then the properties are restored to the saved values.

You may have to experiment in the code on how to extract the data within the broadcast event parameter(s), they appear to be available via

Code: [Select]

Info.Get(0) where 0 is the first parameter etc. Alternatively something like:

Code: [Select]

var item = Repository.GetContextObject();

if (item == null)
{
Session.Output("No element found!");
return;
}

// Do we have an element
if (item.ElementGUID != null)


May work.

I am sure there are other methods to achieve what you are seeking.

Hope this helps

All the best

Phil

45

General Board / Re: Inferring an XSD from and XML - aka reverse engineering a XML file

« Last post by Paolo F Cantoni on January 29, 2026, 10:42:25 am »

I don’t disagree with any of that, but it depends on the context, like almost everything.

[SNIP]

You’re right, of course, Modesto, but it also depends on the intent (as Geert and I have said).

Allow me a small digression...   Some forty years ago, I was sent from Melbourne (Victoria) to Hobart (Tasmania) to assist a customer of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) - some of us will remember them...
While there, I noticed that the LA36 console typewriter would “bing” (Ctrl+G - Bell character) several times a minute.  I asked the operators, and they said it would do this when issuing an error message due to anomalous sensor data.  The cause (I was later told) was a mixture of bad data and a bug.  I had occasion to return about a month later for another reason.  The room was silent!

“I see you’ve fixed the issue!” I said.  “No, we turned off the speaker,” came the reply.

It depends on your intent: to fix the issue or the symptom.   

Cheers,
Paolo

46

General Board / Re: Inferring an XSD from and XML - aka reverse engineering a XML file

« Last post by Modesto Vega on January 29, 2026, 04:51:30 am »

I don’t disagree with any of that but it depends on the context, like almost everything.

If XML is used for systems to interoperate directly via an API or messaging, I would expect XSDs and wouldn’t expect to have to reverse engineer an API payload or message. Although, I have now seen plenty of contractless APIs without XSDs or with minimal ones.

But XML is used for many other things, including full data extracts, large enough to cover most posible combinations. In this case, not having the functionality to infer/reverse engineer an XSD does make our jobs easier. And yes, I know others tools can be bought, but that also complicates our jobs.

47

General Board / Re: Inferring an XSD from and XML - aka reverse engineering a XML file

« Last post by Geert Bellekens on January 29, 2026, 03:19:20 am »

The point I'm trying to make, is that the "proper" way of doing things is to first make the XSD, and then use that to make (and validate) the XML's.
In most cases where I worked with XML files, there was an XSD available (and I didn't have to "infer" an XSD based on a single sample XML)

The reason it might be less then useful, is because you are only using a single example xml.
How do you know it's representable for all possible variations?
How do you know all allowed values for your enums?
How do you know whether or not a field is optional
How do you know the maximum or minimum values of a field
How do you know the pattern of a text field
etc....

There are many, many unknowns when "infering" an XSD from a sample XML, so all you get is an XSD that corresponds to that one sample.

Geert

48

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Workflow scripts vs addin + attribute events

« Last post by Guillaume on January 28, 2026, 09:10:55 pm »

Hi,

I'm looking at the Workflows scripts to implement control rules e.g. to prevent groups of users from creating or updating specific model content.
First of all, I noticed on the user guide that VBScript workflow scripts are deprecated i.e. add-ins are recommended. Am I right to understand Sparx suggests using Model-based addins ?

According to the "Functions - Validate and Control User Input" page, a script can be triggered with events such as before creating an element or a connector, or before updating a tagged value. For other updates on existing elements, it doesn't seem to be possible to trigger a control before updating an element's notes or name, or creating/deleting/updating an attribute. Is there a workaround with Workflow vbscripts or by switching to a model-based addin ?

I noticed that add-in events include EA_AllowPropertyUpdate which is not supported in the script but I'm not sure if it's related with an attribute update.

49

Bugs and Issues / Re: Moving up/down class attributes does not work?

« Last post by ea0425 on January 28, 2026, 08:14:46 pm »

Hi,

Thank you - I finally found the Feature window, for some reason it was docked below the diagram and could not really be seen so I never noticed the window opening and was wondering why there was none in this version...

50

General Board / Re: Inferring an XSD from and XML - aka reverse engineering a XML file

« Last post by Modesto Vega on January 28, 2026, 07:04:27 pm »

What baffles me most about this thread is not having potentially lost some functionality that is achievable with other tools.

What baffles me most is reading that people nowadays have an issue with a key cornerstone of modern science: inference.

Inference also used to be a key cornerstone of all the technical work I used to do, very often starting with requirements.
If the inferences were wrong, they got revised and tested again.

In the age of AI, I’ll rather reverse engineer/infer an XSD based on a large and representative XML file than second guess a development team.

Let the data tell me a story, instead of forcing the data to tell me the story I want.