Block link / relationship between 2 objects

[qwerty]

Thanks. That made be a bit wiser today   Still so many places in EA where I have almost never been.

q.

[Monsieur]

t_connectorcontstraint = Constraints page of connector properties.

Can I use this to only create links that verifies certain condition?

Using something like this?:
sourceElement = "Need"
destElement = "Need"





NB
I had a thought of our 2 favorites EA admins : Simon and Roy <=> Tweedledum et Tweedledee    

[qwerty]

Well, this constraint is implicit. All connectors have source and target. You can add things like "only exists if" or "multiplicity depends on" etc. But as my above comment suggests I never in my life have ever used a connector constraint. I'm quite sure its use is more or less academic.

q.

[Monsieur]

Well, this constraint is implicit. All connectors have source and target. You can add things like "only exists if" or "multiplicity depends on" etc. But as my above comment suggests I never in my life have ever used a connector constraint. I'm quite sure its use is more or less academic.

q.

Tried this :


Does not seem to do anything...

NB :  Need is my own stereotype defined by extending requirement with MDG.
Tried with "Requirement", does not seem to do much more...  

[qwerty]

Any constraint is always meant to be read by a human. An OCL constraint can be read by a machine, but EA does only check the syntax of the OCL statement and does not execute it.

What you can do is to write an add-in that checks constraints on a programmatically basis.

q.

[Monsieur]

Any constraint is always meant to be read by a human. An OCL constraint can be read by a machine, but EA does only check the syntax of the OCL statement and does not execute it.

What you can do is to write an add-in that checks constraints on a programmatically basis.

q.

So your advice is to take your book (and it's interesting even i whished it to go a little deeper) and create a script that for every link check if source / typeoflink / destination match. And if not, delete the link.
Not really dynamic.
Can we log what we delete? (create a .txt somewhere, and buffer>txt)

[qwerty]

Rather you should take a look at Geerts blog about writing an add-in in 10 minutes

You could turn on the audit log. That logs such changes.

I have done something similar in the past. It's not that difficult.

q.

[Gary]

Back to the beginning question about connectors.
I wrote an add-in to do exactly what you want to do. Mine stops modellers from using Realize between requirements.

Use Geerts tutorial (thanks Geert very useful) to create an add-in. The method you want to put your code in is "EA_OnPreNewConnector". The following is the code i wrote:

/*
            EA.EventProperties Info Contains the following EventProperty objects for the connector
            to be created:
            (0)Type: Astring value corresponding to Connector.Type
            (1)Subtype: Astring value corresponding to Connector.Subtype
            (2)Stereotype: Astring value corresponding to Connector.Stereotype
            (3)ClientID: Along value corresponding to Connector.ClientID
            (4)SupplierID: Along value corresponding to Connector.SupplierID
            (5)DiagramID: Along value corresponding to Connector.DiagramID
             */
            bool result = true;
            //create objects to hold the diagram,client and supplier
            EA.IDualDiagram diag = Repository.GetDiagramByID(Info.Get("DiagramID").Value);
            EA.Element client = Repository.GetElementByID(Info.Get("ClientID").Value);
            EA.Element supplier = Repository.GetElementByID(Info.Get("SupplierID").Value);
            
            
                         /*this rule checks relisation is only used between a class and an interface
                         *or between interfaces on a block or class diagram*/
                        if (Info.Get(0).Value == "Realisation" || Info.Get(0).Value == "Realization")
                        {

                            
                            // Check that connection is only between a block/class and an interface or interface to interface
                            if ("Logical" == diag.Type && ("Class" == client.Type || "Interface" == client.Type) && "Interface" == supplier.Type)
                            {
                                                              
                                result = true;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                MessageBox.Show("Connecor only valid between a block/class and an interface \n or interface to interface", "Invalid Connector Usage",
                                                MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation);
                                result = false;
                            }
                        }

Hope this helps

Gary

[Geert Bellekens]

If you are a bit weary to write your own add-in, or you have too many hurdles to overcome to get that approved, you can achieve the same thing with EA-Matic and the built-in scripting feature.

EA-Matic forwards the EA_OnPreNewConnector event to the scripting environment, where you can write your own validation.

Geert

PS. Yes I'm selling a commercial add-in now