Is it possible third-party app integration?

[Bello]

Hi all,

I'm not familiar with Sparxs Enterprise Architect, but I have to somehow integrate EA with another application (Rational Team Concert).

Basically I have to query EA artifacts, like use cases,  and link them with a task in RTC.

Is it possible programmatically?

[Helmut Ortmann]

Hello Bello,

integration with other tools isn't that simple. In theory there is a standardized exchange format. It's called XMI. Additionally some tool suppliers have a special import features for other tools.

To your question:
EA has three powerful mechanism to do things that are not part of the tool.
- SQL
- Addin (your language like C#, VB, Pearl,..)
- Scripts (more for fast solutions)

With Addins and the possibility to access the underlying database you can do almost everything.

Good sources to get started are:
- Online help (with examples)
- Example scripts in the EA scripting view
- eBook ScriptingEA from Thomas Kilian
- Geert Bellekens Tutorial (my First Addin in 10 Minutes, in EA Community))

What is the best answer to you problem? You have to give more information.

Helmut

[qwerty]

Maybe you can elaborate on what you need to integrate.

q.

[Bello]

Thank for your answers guys.

RTC is a tool for version control and change management.

As for versioning  the EA artifacts, I guess I could use a SCC-compatible client that RTC provides and configure it in EA, right?

The change management is done creating "Work Items" in RTC and assigning those workitems to a team member. What I need is to link the workitems with EA artifacts somehow.

For instance, lets say that I create an workitem called "Elaborate use cases for Payment requirements" and assign it to "Bob"

Bob, is notified that he has a job to do. He marks the item as started and  run EA to generate the use case.

Now, Bob has to associate the use cases he made in EA with the workitem in RTC. Here is where I need the integration.

I can integrate RTC with many other tools like bugzilla, JIRA, HP Quality Center and so on. It is a very customizable tool. I just need to find a way to search for EA artifacts programmatically from an external tool.

Any ideas?

ps: If I didn't have expressed myself clearly (english isn't my first language), I can try to explain it better.

thank you again for your help.

[qwerty]

You could probably use the GUID of EA artifacts to create a link to RTC. You can find it via API or from the context menu (Copy Reference/GUID).

q.

[Helmut Ortmann]

Hello Bello,

if you want to access EA via API from RTC you can do this. EA has a COM interface which you can access by a lot of programming languages like:

• C#
• Pearl
• Visual Basic for .net
• Excel, Word,.. (VB for application)
• etc.

This interface is well documented and there are a lot of examples available.

Helmut

[Geert Bellekens]

Hi Bello,

Yes this is entirely possible with EA.
You can indeed use the SCC client for version control, and you'll probably have to build something to integrate the RTC work items into EA.

With regards to importing the work items, there are three possible solutions I would consider. You can either import the work items as:

- Change or Issue elements (the ones you can put on a diagram)
- Defects/Changes/Issues/Tasks from the Element maintenance view
- Personal Tasks from the Personal Tasks view.

Or even a combination of these.

Geert