Include Referenced Files in Reports

[fwoolz]

All,

It would be great if the "Files" tab on the Element Properties form had an option to include/exclude file contents (for each referenced file individually) in generated documentation.  This is particularly important in use cases, where it makes much more sense (IMHO) to write all but trivial descriptions in a bona-fide word processor rather than within the Use Case dialog in EA.  Perhaps the "Basic Description" could be kept in EA (for easy reference within the model) while the detailed use case could be in the external file (which, BTW, could be linked to the diagram via hyperlink).  Anyway, the external file would, I assume, need to be in either RTF or HTML format to allow "seamless" inclusion.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Cheers,
Fred Woolsey

[potterm]

Fred,

Very much agree - this would be a great feature.  The format we decided to use for our Use Cases don't work within EA because they are tabular, so we've defined them in external Word docs, one per use case, and attached those as files to each EA Use Case.

When it comes to generating documentation (in HTML), we have a rather contrived scheme to get it all to link up...

(1) Save all the Use Case Word docs as HTML (using a VBA script in Word)
(2) Generate the HTML documentation from within EA
(3) Run another program to post-process the EA generated HTML so that each file link references the HTML version of the Use Case as a local link.

The third step is rather more complicated because the link needs to be local (rather than absolute), otherwise they break when you move the HTML to another location (e.g. such as when you burn it to CD to give to a client).  

Our script therefore copies the HTML Use Case file into the same directory as the (EA generated) HTML file that references it, and updates the link appropriately.  This way, you can move the documentation anywhere without the links breaking.

Anyway, rather contrived as I said, but it works for us for the time being.  But it would be great if EA could do some of this automatically when generating the report.

I noticed another related post on the main board which suggests implementing the same mechanism as for code generation (I.e. local paths).  Perhaps this could be the answer.

Cheers,
Martin.

[fwoolz]

Hello Martin,

Thanks for the input.  Your work-around is a great idea... I think I'll give it a try (that is, until Sparx & Co. implement it in EA... which should be in the next release or so, given their stellar record regarding feature upgrades!)

Thanks,
Fred Woolsey