This course introduces the Modelling Assistants plugin for Enterprise Architect from LieberLieber.
The Modeling
Assistant for Enterprise Architect is a plugin-based Enterprise Architect
extension, where the particular plugins are developed to assist you while
working with EA and to decrease modeling effort by improving existing EA
features and make it even more comfortable as it already is and provide the
possibility to follow different modeling approaches as it is possible with EA
out of the box.
Refactoring
- Connector Style Assistant (CS
Assistant): The
plugin allows you changing the style of multiple connectors at once. The
current version supports setting the line routing style, the line color and the
line thickness. Various filters allow you selecting different ranges of
connectors to which the style settings will be applied.
- Move Diagram Elements into Package: This plugin provides the facility
to select elements from the diagram and move them directly into a selected
package in the project browser, without searching the element in the project
browser and move the elements within the project browser.
- Find and Replace: This plugin provides the
possibility to search for one or all properties of a set of available
properties like: ElementName, DiagramName, RoleName, ConnectorName,
BehaviourText, CodeText, etc. within the whole model or just a subset and
replace the found text. Wildcards can be used for the replace text to get more
flexibility.
- Template Package Synchronization: This Assistant allows you the
Synchronize Element’s Tagged Values when the Element is contained within a
Template Package. In addition to the EA feature which creates a copy of the
Element from the Template Package, this Assistant allows you to Add/Remove
Tagged Values from Elements within the Template Package and synchronize all corresponding
Elements within a selected Package branch.
Inspection
- Package Dependency Generator: This plugin allows you to discover
your models and better understand them by automatically generate dependencies
between your model packages. A diagram is generated showing you which package
is dependent on which package. A dependency is at hand when referring from one
element to another element – both contained in a different package.
- Element Suggestion Window: This plugin suggests an existing element with a similar name from your
repository, when you create a new element. This helps to prevent creating the
same or a similar element multiple times. This is especially helpful in bigger
models maintained by multiple persons. However, it also helps you if you are
working alone on an existing model to reuse an existing element without
searching it within the project browser.
- Element Delete Control: This plugin calculates the impact
caused by an element deletion, before the element is definitely deleted. You
are informed e.g. that the element is used as a type of an attribute and is
linked to 5 other elements and occurs in 7 diagrams.
- Show Dependencies: This is similar to the Element
Delete Control Assistant, but without the need to delete an element first to
see the impact/dependencies.
- Metamodel Generator: This plugin generated a domain
specific metamodel for the current model in the repository. This helps to
understand the structure of your current repository and can be used to create a
reference metamodel to define modeling rules.
Automation
- Composite Diagram Forward: This plugin automatically opens the
diagram of a composite element, when you double click on an element, which type
(classifier) is a composite element. Hence, when you click on an element, you
see the diagram which is linked by its type. This is powerful when you have a
lot of type relations in your model, like Ports and ActionPins, etc.
- Automatic Connector-Style
Application: This assistant
provides the possibility to configure connector style information for a
combination of connector-type, diagram-type, source and target element and all
stereotypes, respectively. If this plugin is active and the user creates a link
which is in the style configuration list, the configured style is automatically
applied to the new connector.
- Auto Nesting: This assistant helps to
automatically nest new Model-Elements in preconfigured Packages. The rules for
the auto nesting can be modeled in the EA-Repository.
- Part & Port Synchronization: This assistant provides a bunch of
automations which creates and synchronize corresponding Model-Elements and
connectors. With this assistant a specific modelling approach is provided to
create Property Model-Element or CallBehaviourActions when a CompositionLink is
created or the other way round. Also Ports and connectors between derived
Properties are synchronized.
- Check Nesting Change: In order to prevent accidently
changing the nesting of Model-Elements within the Project Browser, this
Assistant ask whenever the context of a Model-Element is changed.
- Multi-Element Editing: This assistant provides the
possibility to apply property changes of one element to all currently selected
elements in the diagram or the Project Browser.
- Auditing: This assistant provides the possibility to
store the last modifying user in addition to the last modified date.
Layout
- Port Layout: This assistant helps to easily align
visible Ports and their label in the Diagram.
