Developing a traceability add-in

[Hermes]

Dear All,

I'm developing an addin to support traceability management for a special purpose process.

Actually what i'm doing is to develop a custom UML profile and tring to manage attributes (via taggedValues) via base EA functionalities, letting to my addin to implement only functionalities not available by EA (AFAIK).

Out goal is to obtain a seamless add-in that is fully integrated with EA functionalities, in order to obtain a support that is flexible and effective.

Now, I need to support "Linkage" phase, by offering to user this kinds of supports:

...............................
- ability of easily modify elements retrieved by the add-in:
...............................
is it possible to call the EA "Properties panel" (that is usually accessiblefrom users by selecting "Properties..." from the context menu) from my add-in, i.e. by giving in input the elemetid of the desidered element to be modified?

...............................
- custom listing of requirements:
...............................
I need a sort of view that lists requirements showing some selected set of taggedvalues...
can I create it as an user view (without coding & reinventing the weel)?
eventually could it be possible to call that by the add-in?

...............................
- custom relationship matrix:
...............................
we need to build a this matrix should:
1. support filtering (for example byhiding lower level requirements) and
2. should offer a sort of discrimination beetween different types of links.
for example we use a taggedvalue "link_status" to characterize link status, and we need to get user easily able to understands in wich status the link is (is. by displayng red arrows for links that have conflicts, and green arrows for links that are ok).

Can I profile standard EA matrix to obtain this?
About this point I'm not sure, but if someone could give me some help
i would really enjoy that  


Any suggestion is welcome  

Thank you all,

/Daniele

[Geert Bellekens]

...............................
- ability of easily modify elements retrieved by the add-in:
...............................
is it possible to call the EA "Properties panel" (that is usually accessiblefrom users by selecting "Properties..." from the context menu) from my add-in, i.e. by giving in input the elemetid of the desidered element to be modified?

No unfortunately you can't. There are very limited possibilities to interact with the EA GUI. The only ones I know are:

• Select in projectbrowser
• Open diagram
• Run search
• Open custom view

...............................
- custom listing of requirements:
...............................
I need a sort of view that lists requirements showing some selected set of taggedvalues...
can I create it as an user view (without coding & reinventing the weel)?
eventually could it be possible to call that by the add-in?

You might be able to use the built-in search facility from your addin to get the specific list of items.

...............................
- custom relationship matrix:
...............................
we need to build a this matrix should:
1. support filtering (for example byhiding lower level requirements) and
2. should offer a sort of discrimination beetween different types of links.
for example we use a taggedvalue "link_status" to characterize link status, and we need to get user easily able to understands in wich status the link is (is. by displayng red arrows for links that have conflicts, and green arrows for links that are ok).

I haven't used the matrix functionality all that much, but I'm guessing that won't be possible.

Geert

[Hermes]

Thank you Geert.

About the 1st question,
I've read that by using ActivateTab() I can switch the tab currently active.
If I wrap my add-in control into a EA tab (for example, by placing it in the bottom of EA interface), can I use some indirect way to let users access to properties tab (usually located in the bottom right space of EA interface? ).

(For example by opening a diagram, selecting an element and switching tab to properties).

Moreover, I was reading about MDG technologies, but I have a couple of doubts about using them:
  - What MDG tech. can do that a combination of UML profiling & coustom addins cant;
  - Do I need to develop an MDG tech?


Thanks to all,
/D

[Geert Bellekens]

Thank you Geert.

About the 1st question,
I've read that by using ActivateTab() I can switch the tab currently active.
If I wrap my add-in control into a EA tab (for example, by placing it in the bottom of EA interface), can I use some indirect way to let users access to properties tab (usually located in the bottom right space of EA interface? ).

(For example by opening a diagram, selecting an element and switching tab to properties).

I doubt it's going to work that way, but if it does please let us know.

Moreover, I was reading about MDG technologies, but I have a couple of doubts about using them:
  - What MDG tech. can do that a combination of UML profiling & coustom addins cant;
  - Do I need to develop an MDG tech?


Thanks to all,
/D

I'm not sure about that, I haven't really looked into the MDG stuff yet.

Geert

[Hermes]

Thank Geert ,

Any other suggestion?

/D

[Geert Bellekens]

Well, if I were you I wouldn't waste too much time trying to get EA to do what you want (like opening windows and stuff like that).
I think you'll find it faster to just write your own windows, that you can make to behave exactly like you want.
Even if at first you think you can get by by using the EA windows, chances are that you will not get them to do 100% what you want, and then you'll have to start all over again to build your own GUI anyway. (or later requirements can have this effect).

Geert

[Hermes]

Thankyou Geert, again!

I think I will follow you suggestion.

[fginfrance]

Hermes wrote on Nov 6th, 2009, 9:10pm

- custom listing of requirements:
...............................
I need a sort of view that lists requirements showing some selected set of taggedvalues...
can I create it as an user view (without coding & reinventing the weel)?
eventually could it be possible to call that by the add-in?

Not sure it is an option for you, but did you have a look at the RaQuest plug-in http://www.raquest.com?
I am also working on some impact-analysis tools and came to the conclusion that - far from being perfect - RaQuest adds some interesting bits of features around the Requirements management, which are "worth the money" - and no, I am not a share holder  
So I use it on top of EA and just focus on the 'non-interactive' analysis scripts via the API.

From what I understood in your post, it could match to your needs for specific Tags (via User Def Attributes), filtered list views and dependency matrix.
It has the usual "30 days free" option, so you might consider to have a look...

fginfrance

[Hermes]

Dear fginfrance,
actually I'm working on this tool for my master thesis.

The goal is to provide a support for compliance assessment of a fixed set of requirements...
this tool should make use of "intelligent" features that should help users on assessment task, and provide a set of metrics that could drive assessment management.

So i've to build my add-in  

BUT RaQuest IS a good starting point... it can give me some hints about how to implemet some common functions I need.

So, thankyou really for this link .

/D