Merging Elements

[OpenIT Solutions]

Hi,

Coud i request a feature - the ability to merge two or more elements into a single element. I provide governance around models and often find on global projects that individuals wil create duplicate elements in different parts of a model - say the same Component under different packages - EA lacks a feature to merge these into a single component. It would be nice if regular expersions could be used to find/match elements for merging and if one of the elements could be picked as the target.

Thanks,

Jon.

[qwerty]

Though I think this would be a good feature I doubt we can get it. What can be done is the following:

• Have a diagram somewhere in a temp area of the model. Name it Merge so it's clear what its purpose is.
• Drag all of the duplicates onto the diagram and call Add/Related Elements for each.
• Auto-layout and start copy/paste notes and drag relations as desired.
• Issue a Ctrl-U for each element to see their context and clean them individually (that is: replace the duplicate).
• Remove the duplicate when all its relations are cleared.
• Clean the merge diagram.

If you look onto that process you will easily find out that an automated support is merely impossible.

q.

[OpenIT Solutions]

Um. I'd still like to request it as a new feature. It seems to me that something like the following sql should work...(in this example to merge object_id 164 into 156)

begin
delete from t_object where object_id = 164;
update t_diagramobjects set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_attribute set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_attributeconstraints set object_id = 156 where object_id =164;
update t_method set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objectconstraint set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objecteffort set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objectfiles set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objectmetrics set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objectproblems set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objectproperties set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objectrequires set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objectresource set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objectrisks set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objectscenarios set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objecttests set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_objecttrx set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;
update t_operation set object_id = 156 where object_id = 164;

update t_connector set start_object_id = 156 where start_object_id = 164;
update t_connector set end_object_id = 156 where end_object_id = 164;
commit;

[Eve]

Missing... Classifiers for objects (also by guid), attributes, operations, parameters.
Parent ids for both diagrams and objects.
Tagged value references (by guid), xref references (by guid)

That's really just a start, there are also special cases such as association classes etc.

[skiwi]

I'd vote for this,
it would be a 'killer' feature for model maintenance

[OpenIT Solutions]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the input. yep your right of course. i derived the sql by scanning the ddl used to create the ea model for occurances of object_id - appreciate that without your inpt i'd probably end up doing more harm than good...hence the request for this to be added as a feature - for those of us managing large models/teams it would be gold dust!

Thanks again,

Jon.

[qwerty]

I'd vote for this,
it would be a 'killer' feature for model maintenance

If you mean it would kill your model I' be with you. Just think about what Simon said.

q.