Hardwork to keep instances updated

[rbellia]

I use to buid instatiation diagrams poiting out some important methods inside the instances. I do such notation by dragging the operation from the class three and dropping inside the object.

When the operation changes signature I have a lot of work
to update the signature inside the objects.  

Is there a way to EA update automatically such sigantures ?

[gsparks]

Hi,

This is not possible at the moment - but it could be something that can be added in the near future. The other option would be to allow you to tick a list of operations to show as methods in the instance ... with a direct link back to the base class ... that way they would always be loaded from the base and remain in synch.

Let me know what you think,

Geoff Sparks

[rbellia]

Hello,

Indeed the alternative you mentioned would keep instances methods updated.
However, my scenario is: a class produce many instances in different diagrams - each istance needs to indicate a particular method. I woud have to keep each instance liked to the class - and seems to me that ticking many operations in the class (to be shown as instance methods) would bring all ticked methods to all instances.

I would like to suggest:

The possibility to tick in particular instances the visible methods from the class operations list - without have to keep instances linked to the class.

and

The possibility to set operation/method colors for each ocurrence of classes and instances in diagrams.


Regards,
Renato Bellia

[PhilR]

We have a similar problem.

We have created a series of detailed class diagram that provide a logical model of our application domain.  We then create a number of objects to represent data structures that are input and output by the users.  For example, the "Student Details" data structure (object) may include some (but not all) of the attributes from the Person, Address and School classes.

We include these by dragging them from the class onto the object.  This works well in the first instance but is not so hot when changes start to happen.

Our ideal would be the ability to specify whether dragging should perform a deep or shallow copy in much the same way as copying and pasting objects from the clipboard currently does.

A deep copy would create a new attribute while a shallow copy would create a link to the classes' original attribute.  In the second case changes to the classes' attribute would be reflected in all of the linked attributes.

Phil.

[PhilR]

We have a similar problem.

We have created a series of detailed class diagram that provide a logical model of our application domain.  We then create a number of objects to represent data structures that are input and output by the users.  For example, the "Student Details" data structure (object) may include some (but not all) of the attributes from the Person, Address and School classes.

We include these by dragging them from the class onto the object.  This works well in the first instance but is not so hot when changes start to happen.

Our ideal would be the ability to specify whether dragging should perform a deep or shallow copy in much the same way as copying and pasting objects from the clipboard currently does.

A deep copy would create a new attribute while a shallow copy would create a link to the classes' original attribute.  In the second case changes to the classes' attribute would be reflected in all of the linked attributes.

Phil.