Meaning of some database fields

[nrocha]

Hi,

I'm currently doing a mapping between the data that can appear in a RTF document and their location in the EA database (I have my EA projects located in a remote SQL Server).

I have managed to understand the location (in terms of corresponding table, column and necessary join data) of most of the fields, but I couldn't find some of them:

1 - Several objects can have Stereotype and StereotypeEx fields in the RTF. What's the difference between this 2? No table has a field named "StereotypeEx"...

2 - Where are located the Element.BaseClasses, Element.IsLocked, Element.IsNew, Element.FullName, Element.Realizes and Element.Tag properties in the database?

3 - One of the possibilities in the RTF for the Element tag is the CustomProperties tag. Where is this information in the database?

4 - Each Element can have its Issues. I understand that this can be stored in table t_objectproblems with ProblemType = 'Issue'. But, in this case, where is the History field? There is no such field in that table.

5 - Each Element can have its Tasks. I know that 'system level' tasks are stored in t_tasks table. How can I relate each one of these with an element or where are the tasks of each element?

6 - Each Element can have Connectors. These can have information about their Source and Target elements. How can I access the following fields of Source (or Target) connectors: ConnSource.Cardinality, ConnSource.End, ConnSource.Ordering, ConnSource.Scope and ConnSource.TargetScope?

7 - Each Element can have Attributes. How can I access these attributes' following fields: Att.Alias, Att.Collection, Att.FK, Att.IsDerived, Att.Multiplicity, Att.NotNull, Att.PK and Att.Unique?

8 - Each Element can have EmbeddedElements. These are elements of certain types (Ports, Pins, ObjectNodes, etc). I think I can access them by looking for their type and their parent object. Am I right? If yes, how can I know the complete list of Embedded Elements' types?

9 - Each Element can have Methods. These are stored in table t_operations. How can I access the field Meth.Alias? t_operations doesn't have this column...

10 - Each method can have Parameters, and each Parameter can have Tagged Values. There is a table named t_operationtag, but this has the Tagged Values of a Method and not of a Method's Parameter. How can I access these Tagged Values?


I'm sorry for such a long post, but I don't know any kind of explained specification of the database schema used by EA projects...
I've managed to find all other data that is possible to insert from RTF templates (defined in the RTF template editor) by looking at the help in the automation section (to get a more clear view of what each field meant) and by manually inspecting the database schema and the stored data to understand how the mapping between RTF and source data is done (does anyone knows if this kind of information is available??)

Any input will be very appreciated.

Regards.

[sargasso]

 
Any input will be very appreciated.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh




meaning simlpy on friday night after 5 days of puttign up with genereal iidiots  ....


LISTEN VERY CAREFULLY



ASK A SIMPLE QUESTION




THEN YOU MAY, MAY GET A ....



SIMPLE ANSWER


I really hopes this helps


ecurb (getting closer to the dark side)

[«Midnight»]

ecurb,

At least it's that time already in the Land of AUS. Here in the Frozen North it's still time to go to work. And I can hear the cold ones pining for me already.

Have one for me lad. I'll be along when I can.

[RoyC]

But may I respectfully point out that whilst you are still singing bawdy songs and savouring what is not yet your last cold one, we in the dusty South are staggering into work with just fond memories... sigh.

Not that this helps nrocha (unless he she takes comfort in either starting their convivialities on Aus time, or finishing them on Canadian time.) When you eat an elephant,you have to start with a little bit. So which elephant mapping toenail do you want to start with?

[KP]

So which elephant mapping toenail do you want to start with?

Could do it backwards like one of Letterman's Top 10 lists. The top 10 reasons why it's good to have the source code:

10. Parameter tagged values go in the t_taggedvalue table with t_taggedvalue.BaseClass='OPERATION_PARAMETER'.

[KP]

9. A method's alias is stored in t_operation.Style

[KP]

8. If an element has an object ID of X, its complete list of embedded elements can be found by:

SELECT * FROM t_object WHERE t_object.ParentID=X

[«Midnight»]

But may I respectfully point out that whilst you are still singing bawdy songs and savouring what is not yet your last cold one, we in the dusty South are staggering into work with just fond memories... sigh.

Not that this helps nrocha (unless he she takes comfort in either starting their convivialities on Aus time, or finishing them on Canadian time.) When you eat an elephant,you have to start with a little bit. So which elephant mapping toenail do you want to start with?

I'm sneaking this one in, since it's still not "now" yet up here in this part of the world, and I'm still wading through the 'weak' end.

That said, Neil's point once again brings up something that needs to be addressed (sometime, somehow). Source code aside, we need to create a mapping of the various 'magic' fields, their topography, and what they mean to EA. There's been a lot shoehorned into them since the last schema change, and the overall picture has become quite arcane.

I'd earlier hoped that the SDK would address this, whether as a separate product or integrated with the core documentation. But such has not yet occurred.

[That's not a complaint! Given the realities of what needed to be done to the documentation, I think that attention is getting to the priority areas, and the progress in this area has been outstanding.]

Still, somehow this has got to be mapped out.

I realize that these fields are subject to change and extension; this could happen between builds, let alone minor versions. Still, once the mapping got done, it could be maintained incrementally.

Rant ends. I'll put it away until the work week starts.

Thanks all,
David

[nrocha]

Once again I apologize for such a long post, but I think it's better to ask all of this in only one place than to spread through several posts.
Of course, my intention was never to see this completely answered at the first reply, but more of a "I put this here and, hopefully, people will come by and give their contribute".

Anyway, I really thank to KP for the valuable input. 3 down, 7 to go

I think that this mapping should be somewhere in the documentation, but I also understand that there are areas more important than this, so that's why I've asked it here.
I already have a lot of this done (I'm only missing the information that I've asked) so, I wouldn't mind to pass it to be included somehow and somewhere in the documentation. That way I would also receive feedback on whether it's correct or not

Once again, thanks for your input, and I hope my other questions could be answered as well as the 3 that have been addressed


PS: I'm in Portugal, so here is GMT. That's the reason for posting my first message when someone in Australia was entering a "fabulous" weekend

[nrocha]

Hi,

so, can anyone answer questions 1 to 7?  


Regards

[RoyC]

Number 1

StereotypeEx is all the applied stereotypes of an object in a comma-separated list.

Stereotype is the primary stereotype of the object, which is the first of the list of stereotypes you can access using StereotypeEx.

Both attributes are found in t_object, t_operationparams, t_attribute, t_operation and t_connector.

[thomaskilian]

Reading the Automation docu helps understanding the meaning.