Junk text in diagrams: {1}

[albinofrenchy]

Through the COM objects, I'm creating a diagram with classes and associations. On those diagrams, for some inexplicable reason, all the associations labels for cardinality and such end with a {1}; as if I had a constraint of 1 on them. However, I don't at any point, and weirder yet, if I go into that associations properties and click okay, every one of them disappears.

Has anyone ever run into this before?

[«Midnight»]

No, I definitely have not seen this.

Are you using 7.1 by any chance?

Regardless of the version or build, remember that the API does not respect diagram default properties set in the various options and properties dialogs in EA. You must set these up yourself.

But what you are getting sounds quite strange.

Are you setting any of the cardinality properties (of anything)?

David

[albinofrenchy]

I am using version 7.0.818

I am setting the cardinality of the associations, and if I dont set them the junk doesn't show up, but I have a funny feeling that is because nothing shows up on the label, not because the cardinality is screwing them up.

I can attach a simple model, if need be, but I dont know if this will help.

[«Midnight»]

It might be worth making a support request - see the registered users page - or a bug report. In the latter case use the registered users version, which you can link to from the registered users page or the bug report page you find by clicking Report a Bug under Support near the bottom of any forum page. [The link to the registered page is near the top, above the form.

Fill the form out in sufficient detail that Sparx will know what you are seeing. Then include your model, compressed of course, and a sample of the code that causes the problem to occur.

David

[albinofrenchy]

I found the problem. The operation I was doing was essentially a clone of an existing connector. So I set every property of the target attribute to the value of the source attribute. Apparently IsChangeable's property is seriously broken. The source.IsChangeable was 'none' which jives with the EA UI for that field ({'none', 'frozen', 'addOnly'}) but when you set it to anything, its value becomes '1', which is set to show up in the diagram window. Hopefully I'll never need to set IsChangeable I guess.

[«Midnight»]

Actually, you've found it more precisely than you'd thought.

The EA documentation is quite vague on this, mentioning the attribute obliquely, and not defining it at all. Further, no list of values is given, nor is a source cited.

Like most values that EA provides in a list, the values here come from a set of 'allowable' values that EA keeps somewhere, perhaps hard-coded. In this case there are only three values. As you can guess, you've found them. And as you also can guess, the value "anything" is not among them.

[Now, if you find that attempting to set any value other than "none" (versus setting the value to a string of "anything") is causing the problem, you need to do some additional surgery. The actual value is stored as a string in either of the SourceChangeable or DestChangeable fields of t_connector. Each of these is VARCHAR(12) NULL. They may not be blank (versus null).

I thought this might go back to UML, but on checking the UML 2.1.1 standard (superstructure and infrastructure) I cannot find anything relevant.

[NOTE: That does not mean it is not there, just that I did not find it under a similar name. PUNDITS: Weigh in here as appropriate.]

So, let us know if you can set any of the strings from the Properties dialog - remember that they are likely case sensitive - or whether 'anything' other than the default screws up. We can certainly set the other values through the UI, and they definitely go into the database. [I know, I just checked this on build 826.]

HTH, David

[Eve]

Beta 2 of 7.1 (build 826) should have corrected setting the IsChangeable property, including documenting the accepted values in the help file.

[«Midnight»]

Thanks for the update Simon,

As you can see from the above thread there was a 'build gap' from 818 to present. I had not tested the situation with 826 due to lack of time.

However, please review the EA Help file. As I mention failed to mention above this is not corrected in the build 826 help dated 2008-02-22. I suspect Roy already has handled this and the help update did not get into the file in time, but it would be best to check before releasing 827.

David

EDIT: Note the update. Mea culpa, mea cupla. I did not mention the version of help I referenced.    

Later EDIT: See below. Thanks Roy.

[RoyC]

It is done.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

I thought this might go back to UML, but on checking the UML 2.1.1 standard (superstructure and infrastructure) I cannot find anything relevant.

[NOTE: That does not mean it is not there, just that I did not find it under a similar name. PUNDITS: Weigh in here as appropriate.]

Search for "Changeable" under my name and you'll find some discussion thereon.  

This property, in my experience, is normally related to data model relationships specifying whether or not the destination of the Association can be changed after creation.

Paolo