I recently imported a number of requirements in my Enterprise Architect project with the following details: title, reference (stored in the requirement's alias), and description. By default Sparx Enterprise Architect sorts requirements within a given package by the element's name in the alphabetical order. When a package contains various types of elements (e.g. classes, interfaces, use cases, etc.), each group of elements from the same type is sorted separately. The following illustrates a mix of requirements, classes, and interfaces created within a package, in their default sorting order:

Going back to my requirements, I needed to sort them by the alias value e.g. REQ-TEST-001, REQ-TEST-002, REQ-TEST-003, etc. On the following screenshot, I illustrated on the left hand side the default sorting order in Enterprise Architect project browser, and on the right hand side the list of requirements in the desired alias order. 

This article explains how to create and use an Enterprise Architect Project Browser script aimed at sorting elements from a selected package by the alias name. An additional script is provided at the end of the article to sort elements by a dedicated Tagged Value called "SortingOrder".

Enterprise Architect Project Browser scripts

Enterprise Architect lets you create project browser scripts. Once created in your project, these are available via a right click on a selected package from the browser, as illustrated below:

Sort by alias project browser script

To add the SortByAlias Project Browser script to your modelling project:

Step 1: open the scripting view using the Enterprise Architect menu Tools > Scripting.

Step 2: click on "New Project Browser Group" to store all user-defined scripts, e.g. Project Browser scripts.

Step 3: click on "New script > New VBScript" to define the "Sort By Alias" script, e.g. SortByAlias.

Step 4: open the script and copy/paste the following content (or download the VBScript text file here). 

1. option explicit
2. !INC Local Scripts.EAConstants-VBScript
3. !INC EAScriptLib.VBScript-Logging
4. ' Script Name: SortbyAlias 
5. ' Author: Guillaume FINANCE, guillaume[at]umlchannel.com
6. ' Purpose: Sort elements contained in the selected package from the Project Browser by the Alias name
7. ' Date: 03/04/2014
8. sub SortDictionary (objDict)
9.    ' constants
10.    Const dictKey  = 1
11.    Const dictItem = 2
12.    ' variables
13.    Dim strDict()
14.    Dim objKey
15.    Dim strKey,strItem
16.    Dim X,Y,Z
17.    ' get the dictionary count
18.    Z = objDict.Count 
19.    ' sorting needs more than one item
20.    If Z > 1 Then
21.      ' create an array to store dictionary information
22.      ReDim strDict(Z,2)
23.      X = 0
24.      ' populate the string array
25.      For Each objKey In objDict
26.          strDict(X,dictKey)  = CStr(objKey)
27.          strDict(X,dictItem) = CStr(objDict(objKey))
28.          X = X + 1
29.      Next 
30.      ' perform a a shell sort of the string array
31.      For X = 0 To (Z - 2)
32.        For Y = X To (Z - 1)
33.          If StrComp(strDict(X,1),strDict(Y,1),vbTextCompare) > 0 Then
34.              strKey  = strDict(X,dictKey)
35.              strItem = strDict(X,dictItem)
36.              strDict(X,dictKey)  = strDict(Y,dictKey)
37.              strDict(X,dictItem) = strDict(Y,dictItem)
38.              strDict(Y,dictKey)  = strKey
39.              strDict(Y,dictItem) = strItem
40.          End If
41.        Next
42.      Next
43.      ' erase the contents of the dictionary object
44.      objDict.RemoveAll
45.      ' repopulate the dictionary with the sorted information
46.      For X = 0 To (Z - 1)
47.        objDict.Add strDict(X,dictKey), strDict(X,dictItem)
48.      Next
49. ' sort the package elements based on the new sorting order
50. dim newOrder
51. newOrder = 0
52. dim theItem
53. dim eaelement
54.  for each objKey in objDict
55. theItem = objDict.Item(objKey)
56. Set eaelement = Repository.GetElementByGuid(theItem)
57. 'change the position of the element in the package to the new sorting order value
58. eaelement.TreePos = CLng(newOrder)
59. eaelement.Update()
60. newOrder = newOrder + 1
61. next
62.    end if
63. end sub
64.  
65. sub sortElementsbyAlias (selectedPackage)
66. LOGInfo("Processing selected package " & selectedPackage.Name)
67. dim elements as EA.Collection
68. dim i
69. dim processedElements
70. set processedElements = CreateObject( "Scripting.Dictionary" )
71. set elements = selectedPackage.Elements
72. for i = 0 to elements.Count - 1
73. dim currentElement as EA.Element
74. set currentElement = elements.GetAt( i )
75. LOGInfo("Processing " & currentElement.Type & " no " & i & " with alias " & currentElement.Alias & "(" &  currentElement.ElementGUID & ")")
76. processedElements.Add currentElement.Alias, currentElement.ElementGUID
77. next
78. LOGInfo("Sorting package elements")
79. SortDictionary processedElements
80. end sub
81. '
82. ' Project Browser Script main function
83. '
84. sub OnProjectBrowserScript()
85. Repository.ClearOutput "Script"
86. LOGInfo( "Starting SortbyAlias script" )
87. LOGInfo( "==============================" )
88. ' Get the type of element selected in the Project Browser
89. dim treeSelectedType
90. treeSelectedType = Repository.GetTreeSelectedItemType()
91. select case treeSelectedType
92. case otPackage
93. ' Code for when a package is selected
94. dim thePackage as EA.Package
95. set thePackage = Repository.GetTreeSelectedObject()
96. sortElementsbyAlias thePackage
97. Repository.RefreshModelView (thePackage.PackageID)
98. case else
99. ' Error message
100. Session.Prompt "This script does not support items of this type.", promptOK
101. end select
102. end sub
103. OnProjectBrowserScript

Step 5: save the script (Ctrl-S).

Step 6: right click on the target package from the Project Browser where elements need to be sorted by the alias, and select Scripts > SortbyAlias

Result: the requirements have been sorted by the alias value as illustrated below.

This sorting order is consistent with the requirements' alias values:

Sort by tagged value 'Sorting Order' project browser script

In some cases, the alias value may not be appropriate to sort your elements within the selected package. Based on the above SortByAlias script, I created the SortbyTaggedValue_SortingOrder script aimed at sorting elements using a tagged valued created for this purpose, SortingOrder.

To illustrate its use, I added the SortingOrder tagged value to each requirement:

To add the SortByTaggedValue Project Browser script to your project:

Step 1: open the scripting view using the Enterprise Architect menu Tools > Scripting.

Step 2: open the Project Browser scripts group.

Step 3: click on "New script > New VBScript" to define the "Sort By Tagged Value" script, e.g. SortbyTaggedValue_SortingOrder.

Step 4: open the script and copy/paste the following content from the script that can be downloaded here. 

Step 5: save the script (Ctrl-S).

Step 6: right click on the target package from the Project Browser where elements need to be sorted by the alias, and select Scripts > SortbyTaggedValue_SortingOrder.

Result: the requirements have been sorted by the SortingOrder tagged value as illustrated below.

This article illustrated how Sparx Enterprise Architect can be tailored to introduce new features via user defined scripts, e.g. to apply a new sorting rule on the elements from a selected package. It could be further improved e.g. to sort elements within the sub packages and so on.