Shape scripts for non-stereotyped items

[Paolo F Cantoni]

It has been often mentioned/requested to be able to apply shape scripts to non-stereotyped elements (both edges and vertexes).  One simple solution would be to enable the <none> (extrinsic) stereotype.  If an element has no stereotype applied and the <none> entry exists in the stereotype definitions for that type of element, then EA could apply the rendering (meta-file or shape script) as specified in the <none> definition.

I'm sure I'm not the only person to whom this thought has occurred, but I haven't seen it voiced before.

What do others think?  If there's agreement I'll submit a suggestion.

Paolo

[«Midnight»]

[IMHO] Submit the suggestion.

This becomes a very powerful possibility, when you consider the possibility of querying a tagged value. If the tag exists, or if it is set to a specific value (EA allows you to use either treatment) then the shape script can be triggered. Otherwise you could just branch to DrawNativeShape. This would effectively allow shape scripts to be triggered by tagged values instead of stereotypes.

Nifty!

[Thomas Mercer-Hursh]

Go for it!  If added to the other shape script things we have asked for this could add a lot of power.

[«Midnight»]

If we got (some of) the other things we have asked for there would already be lots of added power.

Still, we should keep the ideas coming.

[Dave_Bullet]

absolute power completes absolutely!  

Would you have one default shapescript across the model (for any element without a stereotype) or by object type? (ie. by class, node, package, component etc...)

If by object type - then we should also request / ask for shapescript "modules" - so common code can be shared across scripts.

Another issue is the diagram.type property in shapescript only checks the base type (ie. logical, deployment etc...) - not the custom diagram type you might create (ie. SolutionArchitectDeployment, InfrastructureArchitectDeployment etc...).  This would be much more useful for having per role rendering via shapescript.

David.

[«Midnight»]

All good points and questions Dave,

These serve to open up the subject. They also point out, however indirectly, what might be done by enhancing shape scripts.