Instances

When you use EA, we mostly work with elements.

But EA also lets you create instances of those elements. (to learn more, see Modeling with instances)

eaXL now lets you create and populate instances, quickly and simply.

1. Create a first instance.

To create lots f instances of a classifier, first you need to create a simple instance, for eaXL to use as a pattern.

So create a new package, with a single instance of the classifier (or instances of several different classifiers) in it.

So using the example from modeling with instances, where we have two classifiers:

We're going to create some instances of Production Web server' and populate all the attributes for each one,

1.Create a new Package for the instances. Not 100% necessary, but usually a good idea

2. Create a diagram, and add a single instance to it:

3. Now just open the 'Server Instances' package in eaXL. Right-click and choose 'Specialize (extensions pre EA 14) / eaXl / Open ALL in Excel / Element Instances'

This has one row, for the first instance we just created, so we can now use Excel to create lots more.

So you can now:

- add new rows, to create new instances

- populate columns to change instance attribute variables.

So you might modify the worksheet to look like:

Notes:

1.The ClassifierIDs are all the same, so these are all instances of 'Production Web server'
You may use different ClassifierID values, and so create instances of multiple Classifiers, all form the same worksheet.

2.The name, Supplier RackID and Power Consumption variables have all been set.

If you Import this from eaXL, then EA will look like: