eadocX Support

[eadocX Support]

The border bit is a setting in EA, which determines whether the graphic which is produced at the clipboard interface does or doesn’t have a border round it. I don’t know how to change those settings from inside eaDocX i.e. through the EA API.
I am currently in discussions with Sparx about getting a much better diagram API, which will give me access to their internal diagram functions e.g. splitting, rotating, but don’t count on it any time soon.

As for the conversion of hyperlinks to page/figure references, this used to be in the original eaDocX, many years ago, but was taken out as people seemed to like hyperlinks better. I’d thought we might get it back as an option one day, but how would it be controlled? I assume that sometime you’d sometimes like a hyperlink, sometimes a page reference (maybe both together), but where would that be specified ? As a new Attribute ? i.e. add it to the list of available attributes: “Name”, “Name – hyperlinked”…”Name – page ref.” ?

[eadocX Support]

You’re right – eaDocX assumes that the file is simply stored on a disk, so won’t open it from a URL.
This is what I mean about needing the change eaDocX to support Sharepoint!
I have a man who knows SharePoint – I’ll talk to him to see what support we can provide (in a future version, after 3.3)

As for document classification, this is a good idea.
What should it look like?
Is it enough to have a new attribute of ‘Classification’ – probably implemented as TaggedValue of the <>Artifact. (BTW – you could already do this manually..)
Would a document behave differently, depending on the security classification? Save in a different EA Package in the EA Repository ? Anything else ?

[eadocX Support]

Yet another bit of EA I’ve never used..:-)
I’ll take a look. It looks like a feature which is used elsewhere (attaching an Element to a connector) so maybe it might make it into 3.3.

[eadocX Support]

If you REALLY need to do this, then there is a simpler alternative.
Element reports.
These have their own formatting for their contents, so if you only need a few of them, create an element report, and define new formatting for it. There’s no limit to how many reports you can create, so no limit as to how many different ways of representing the same element/stereotype.

[eadocX Support]

Still not sure about this, but your approach looks good, with a good selection of options. I will consider this for a future release (after 3.3)

[eadocX Support]

This will certainly not be in the next version (3.3) which will go into Beta testing towards the end of Feb 2013.
We will think about it for a future version.
I worry about the complexity this will create in the user interface, so that’s where I need to think some more. If I can find a way to make it understandable, then it’s possible.
Remember, the goal of eaDocX is to make life simpler, and leave you more time to more interesting things!

[eadocX Support]

(1) will be fixed in v3.3
(2) seems like such an un-natural act on Sparx’ part – to give a Tagged value, which is normally just an additional attribute-with-a-value like any other fixed attribute, some sub-structure i.e. some additional notes, just seems wrong. It blurs the distinction between an attribute (Small ‘a’) and the ‘thing’ which can be attached to e.g. a Class, which is an Attribute (Large ‘A’) which is a thing in its own right. Large A Attributes can have other data (datatype, notes etc) but small ‘a’ attributes can’t.
So what does it mean to have a TaggedValue with a value AND some notes ? Is it and attribute or an Attribute .
Not sure I like Sparx’ design here, and supporting it would make a mess of large parts of eaDocX, so, sorry, no prospect of this being included.
Unless there’s more demand.
Anyone else using TaggedValue notes ?

[eadocX Support]

Not sure – my SharePoint knowledge just isn’t up to it….
When eaDocX saves a file, its just regular Word or Excel file on a drive. Can SharePoint be made to look like a drive ? Like GoogleDrive can ?
Support for SharePoint users is something we’re thinking about for a future release, so, if you had a magic wand, what would an eaDocX/SharePoint integration look like?

[eadocX Support]

Answer to last question about updating Profiles . (i’m getting confused as to which question I’m answering..

If you save the profile from one document, then it can be loaded into other documents, and they will then use the same formatting as the original. This applies to the way each element and element+stereotype is printed: columns, widths, tables or inline etc, but not the content which each document contains. That stays with each document.
So, if you want to change the look of a family of document, just re-load the new Profile in to each one, and re-generate.

[eadocX Support]

Your approach sounds fine: you’re essentially wrapping the the file in an EA Element. Putting the document summary into EA seems very sensible: this is how I’d do it. And as you say, you can then create connectors between the EA ‘document’ and things which want to reference the external document.
This way, you only have the external File reference in one place. Neat.

I can see how you were struggling to get eaDocX to print the file as a hyperlink: somewhere along the road, this seems to have got lost!
..so I’ve put it back into v3.3..

[eadocX Support]

(Reply sent via email, as we are exchanging model fragments & documents)

[eadocX Support]

We don’t do very much testing with Office 2003 any more.

We plan to stop supporting Office 2003 quite soon – not in 3.3 (next release) but perhaps in v4: there are just too many big differences between 2003 and 2007+, and we’re finding a bunch more now that we’re testing eaDocX 3.3 with Office 2013.
Sorry for the bad news, but there’s only so many different release we can sensibly support, and our recent survey of eaDocX users suggested only a small minority are still stuck on 2003.
Despite this, I’ll pass-on the request for the eaXL team to have a look at this, and see if there’s a quick fix.
BTW: are you using all English-language versions of the OS and Excel ?

[eadocX Support]

First part – what EA creates is a LinkedDocument attached to the <>Artifact, which eaDocX will happily print. Beware of putting too much fancy formatting into LDs, as they tend to mess-up Word documents, as Word can’t tell the difference between EA-generated text and LD text.

Second part: We deliberately don’t have such a ’empty document’ mechanism. This is because in my ‘proper’ job as a BA, we always store this kind of boilerplate text (if that’s what you mean) in their own EA Packages, with any diagrams saved as EA diagrams.
That way, the text is available to any model reader, and any eaDocX document. This is great for things like ‘Introduction to the Project’, which is a fairly common thing to include in a document. We also keep our model standards in EA, also as EA words & diagrams, and that also is printable. Doing things this way also avoids formatting problems.
‘hope the answers your question…

[eadocX Support]

OK – Found it!
‘never seem that bit of EA before!
Anyway, it’s now added into the next version of eaDocX (3.3) along with more general support for TaggedValues on Connectors (also requested by a user).
..and whilst I had the hood up on that bit, I also fixed the compound numbering of Sequence Diagram messages, so they should now appear optionally as 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 etc, which was another outstanding user request.

Thanks for the tip – I rely on you guys for all the design/code bits of EA, as I only use if for BA stuff.

[eadocX Support]

Ah ha!
I’ll have a look at this, and see if I can build it into the next version.

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