MDG Integrate Option

[zoetbb1]

Hi,

I'm trying to find out how to use the MDG Visual Studio 2005 plugin. So far, things work fine.

Does anyone know how the automatic synchronize option works? I checked all the options in the "MDG Integrate Options" window (Checked "Automaticlly Sync model with EA" and selected "Automatically" for "Synchronize Model with Code").
I expect that the model is automatically updated when I change and save a source file. E.g. After adding an attribute to a class, the corresponding class in EA would now also contain the same attribute.
Also, when I want to build the solution and the model is newer then the source files, I would expect to receive a warning and an option to generate the code from the model. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Kind regards,

Bas.
Using EA 7.0 build 817

[«Midnight»]

Hi Bas,

I toyed with this quite a while ago, so my information might be out of date.

If I remember correctly, changes to the EA model (even if done from within VS) don't necessarily show up in VS until you rebuild. I think something similar holds for changes done from the VS side.

My guess is that you need to toy with the timing of your rebuild action. Perhaps try rebuilding only one project within your solution.

Also, take a walk through the Tools | Options | Source Code Engineering settings. There are additional settings you might want to check, but you'll need to do them from the EA dialog that comes up when you start to generate or reverse engineer a package. These latter settings are specific to each project (or package), but AFAIK EA does remember them as defaults until you change them.

David

[zoetbb1]

Hi David,

If I remember correctly, changes to the EA model (even if done from within VS) don't necessarily show up in VS until you rebuild.

When you remember correctly, this assumes that in you situation something showed up when performing a rebuild (project->rebuild). I.e. changes made in VS'EA plugin, showed up in VS when performing a rebuild?
I only get a model <--> code update when I force it manually. It never happens automatically, unfortunately.

Changing the source code enginering settings only resulted in "prompting before action" instead of automatic update.

If I understand the manual right, it should work: “MDG integration for Visual Studio 2005 allows generation of code directly from model packages and elements, automated synchronization of model and code , and many more features.”

I'll will go on for a while, trying to find a solution.

kind regards,

Bas.

[«Midnight»]

Bas,

I checked the timing. My experience was during an evaluation of the VS 2005 Integration product, back in EA 6.5 days. While I was happy with what I got, the requirement for integration disappeared during the same time frame, and I did not continue with the add-in.

My interpretation - I did not confirm this with Sparx - was that the term "automatic" refers to the fact that when code is generated synchronization takes care of itself; it did not happen in real time as you tweaked the model from either end. I do not remember if this happened in both directions, at least not without help.

Perhaps the behavior changed during the update to EA 7.0. I do know that there was a version update to the integration add-in at about the same time. Are you sure you have the most recent version?

David

[zoetbb1]

David,

Because it didn't work, I upgraded my EA version from 6.5 to version 7 today... :-)

Bas.

[«Midnight»]

Bas,

Once again, please check that you've got the current version of the add-in. The add-in changed at about the same time as version EA 7.0 came out.

[NB: I do not know if this would address your problem. Still, I'm sure there were reasons for the change. Unlike some of the add-ins, this update had a beta period, so it may have been a major change. You should be able to find information on the Sparx site. Also, there are probably release notes for the add-in in the Latest News section of the forum.]

David

[zoetbb1]

David,

To be sure, I uninstalled the plugin, downloaded the latest version and installed it.

EA version: 7.0.817
MDG version: 3.0.1

Maybe what is meant with the "automated synchronization of model and code", is that synchronization of the complete project can be performed with on mouse-click: all files are upated without user interaction. And this seems to work OK.

I will ask Sparx about this issue.

Bas.

[«Midnight»]

Maybe what is meant with the "automated synchronization of model and code", is that synchronization of the complete project can be performed with on mouse-click: all files are upated without user interaction. And this seems to work OK.

I will ask Sparx about this issue.

Yes Bas,

That's about how I figured it when I was doing the evaluation. I remember thinking at the time that this was not quite what I'd expected when I read the description but that it seemed to make sense, and that it worked - to that extent.

And yes, I do think this is worth bringing up with Sparx. Hopefully they can give you their thinking on this, and perhaps a hint of their future plans in this area.

Please let us know if you hear back from them.

David

[zoetbb1]

Hi,

This is what Sparx Customer Support replies:

In the "MDG Options" dialog, the "Automatically Sync model with EA" option is simply regarding synchronization of the EA Project Explorer when you switch to the full EA user interface and back (using the "Open in Enterprise Architect" command).  The "Synchronize Model with Code" option however should make MDG automatically reverse synchronize your source into your model when you save changes to your source files.

To automatically synch changes made in your model to your code, open EA using the "Open in Enterprise Architect" command, right-click on the MDG linked package, select "Build and Run | Package Build Scripts" and enable the "Use Live Code Generation" option.  With this enabled, any changes you make in your model should be immediately  synchronized in your source code.

Good explanation! This is something they should mention in the manual.

So, every should work. The only thing I had to set was the "Use Live Code Generation" option in EA. Unfortunately, code<->model synchonization still doesn't work at all. I tried saving, (re)building, restarting VS but this had no effect.

Maybe it's the fact that I'm using a trial verion of the MDG plugin. I'm still going to put some effort in it to find out why it's not working and let you know if I found something.

Regards,

Bas

[«Midnight»]

...
This is something they should mention in the manual.
...
Maybe it's the fact that I'm using a trial verion [sic] of the MDG plugin...

Good points Bas,

I agree that this is something that needs to be better documented. Perhaps you'd make a feature request, citing the specific area of the manual to update. (I cannot do this, since my evaluation was a long time ago, and my reference would be out of date.) Sparx is working to (successfully) improve their documentation, but we can definitely assist this by pointing out the defects.

[As usual, please paste in a link to this thread so the person handling the documentation update can get the user experience and technical contexts.]

As to whether this would be a trial edition issue, my feeling is that it would not. In my experience Sparx makes the trial editions robust, in that they reflect the actual code of the production editions.

That said, why not submit a bug report concerning what you cannot accomplish. Note that you are using the trial edition. I don't know if you can do this with the drop-downs on the form, but you can point it out in a comment paragraph at the top of the bug description, so that they will clearly see that you are using the trial.

As usual, please cite this thread and let us know what Sparx has to say, whether it affects the trial or all editions.

You could also send an email to Sparx Sales - the address is on the Sparx Web site somewhere - requesting an extension of your trial period, so that you will have time to finish. Regardless of how this gets answered, you need time to do an evaluation with the reply in mind.

David