Creating Signals in Sequence Diagrams as methods

[larmue]

Hi,

I want to do the following : having a sequence diagram and creating messages I want them to appear in the class I use as an actor. There is a operations button in the Message Properties dialog but as long as there is no method available yet pushing it doesn't have any effect. If there is a method in the class you can create methods and use them as messages. This avoids you the double effort in creating methods for the classes you design. So I guess this can be regarded as a bug and I would appreciate if you resolve this in the next version.

Thanks and regards, Lars Müller

[Jan ´Bary´ Glas]

I want them to appear in the class I use as an actor.

Does it mean you want methods to be implemented to actors? If so, you would be probably disappointed; actor stands out of the system, you cannot implement him a method.
In fact, if you add a method an actor starts on an object, you may find it, when you see that object's methods (class's operations).
Does it help a bit?

[mbc]

There is a operations button in the Message Properties dialog but as long as there is no method available yet pushing it doesn't have any effect

I don't know what you mean that the Operations button has no effect. For me it has the effect of opening the Operations dialog of the class, where I can then add a new operation to be used for the message. When I press Ok in the Operations dialog, I am back in the Message dialog where the newly created operation now appears as the message.

This is the way I always work. Try it.

Best regards,
Mikkel

[Jan ´Bary´ Glas]

You can pick an operation from the class your arrow is pointing to.

[csousa]

If there is a method in the class you can create methods and use them as messages. This avoids you the double effort in creating methods for the classes you design. So I guess this can be regarded as a bug and I would appreciate if you resolve this in the next version.

Hi Lars,

I had the same observation/question. EA does not automatically create methods for messages you assign.  You must create the method first, then select it from the drop down.

Some other UML modeling tools would append methods as you go through your design.

I think this may be intentional in EA (not a bug) in order to support logical/analysis level sequence diagramming where an analyst wants to illustrate a message without necessarily creating a method.

[sargasso]

Indeed!

A message at the sequence diagram level is just that - a message.  Its not a feature of a classifier until I (the modeller) say it is.  EA provides support for "converting" messages to class methods, IMO in the proper manner.


cheers
bruce