Displaying items by tag: configuration

This provides a single file location on the Mac (or Linux?) to hold the Sparx EA configuration, user searches, database error output when used with Codeweavers Crossover. The same principle would work for the 'bare' Wine.

When Sparx EA is installed into a Bottle each Bottle is deliberately isolated. This is fine normally but if you've created custom search definitions and later create a new Bottle with Sparx EA this new bottle won't have your custom search definitions. You could copy the file containing the search definitions /Search Data/EA_Search.xml but changes to searches in one bottle won't be reflected in the other so you then have to remember to copy from one Bottle to the other, etc.

This method using a symbolic link creates a central single (master) location for these Sparx EA user settings and then places a symbolic link to this common location in each bottle containing Sparx EA.

Note: Since Sparx EA saves the Workspace layout into a folder named after the specific build of Sparx EA, e.g. 'EA1608Workspace-Layouts' there isn't a common file location that can be used to hold these layouts (unless creating a symbolic link to a single .eaworkspacelout file is used).

Another advantage is that if you delete the Crossover Bottle containing Sparx EA these settings won't be deleted with the Bottle. This becomes increasingly important given the cumulative time spent creating custom searches etc.

Create a New Common Location for Sparx EA Settings

1. Under your user ~/Library/Application Support folder create a new 'Enterprise Architect' folder i.e.
   
   • /Users/<<username>>/Library/Application Support/Enterprise Architect
2. Choose the Bottle holding the Sparx EA data to be used for this common folder, the 'Sparx Systems' folder will be located at
   • up to and including Windows 8 bottle: /Users/<<username>>/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles/<<bottle name>>/drive_c/users/crossover/Application Data/Sparx Systems
   • Windows 10 bottle: /Users/<<username>>/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles/<<bottle name>>/drive_c/users/crossover/AppData/Roaming/Sparx Systems
3. Copy this folder
4. Paste this folder into the one created at 1 so that you now have
   • /Users/<<username>>/Library/Application Support/Enterprise Architect/Sparx Systems
5. Rename the existing (old) folder at 2 e.g. 'Sparx Systems - old' to preserve the settings should something go wrong

 

Creating a Symbolic Link to the Enterprise Architect Folder

1. Open the Terminal app
2. Type 'ln -s '
3. Drag and drop the 'Enterprise Architect' folder from the Finder window onto the Terminal window to set the source for the symbolic link
4. Add a space after this in the Terminal window
5. Type in the destination where the symbolic link will be saved, for example your desktop '~/Desktop'
6. If you look at your Desktop there will be a folder with a symbolic link / alias icon

Copy the Symbolic Link to Each Crossover Bottle with Sparx EA

1. Copy the newly created 'Sparx Systems' symbolic link, in this example saved on the Desktop
2. Paste the 'Sparx Systems' symbolic link into each bottle that is to use the common settings
   • /Users/<<username>>/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles/<<bottle name>>/drive_c/users/crossover/Application Data/Sparx Systems
3. Validate correct operation by launching Crossover, then the particular Enterprise Architect and displaying the search dialog (Control + F) and verify that your custom search definitions are listed.
4. When you're satisfied that everything works you can delete the old folder (/Users/<<username>>/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles/<<bottle name>>/drive_c/users/crossover/Application Data/Sparx Systems - old)

Software and Systems Engineering, as any other interdisciplinary activity, requires the ability and means to build systems which are so large and complex that they have to be built by teams or even by teams of teams of engineers. In combination with a model-based approach, these teams need the possibility for modeling in a concurrent way. With other words, multiple users must be able to work on the same model in parallel or even on multiple versions of the same system. In code-centric software engineering, developers profit for years from the features provided by Version Control Systems (VCS), whereby one of the most important features is the possibility of comparing and merging changes of the same file. The key technique hereby is the so called three-way difference analysis which is also considering the common ancestor version of the artefact under comparison. Traditional approaches uses text- and line-based comparison tools, which are not suitable for graphical-based models.

In general, two different versioning strategies exist to cope with the concurrent evolution of one artifact. These are described in the following:

When pessimistic versioning is applied like it is implemented in EA, an artifact is locked while it is changed by one developer. Since other developers cannot perform any changes while the artifact is locked, conflicts are completely avoided with this strategy. However, the drawbacks are possible idle times for developers waiting for the release of a locked artifact.

To avoid such idle times, optimistic versioning allows the developers to change the same artifact in parallel and independently of each other. This process is depicted in the following figure:

The following videos give you insights into the latest developments in model versioning and act as tutorials in how you can set Enterprise Architect models under optimistic version control:

Tutorial 1 – LemonTree Introduction to Model Versioning

Tutorial 2 – LemonTree Model Comparison Tutorial

Tutorial 3 – LemonTree Concurrent Modeling Tutorial

For more information please visit: lemontree.lieberlieber.com

Exploring Enterprise Architect through video...part 2

In this second instalment of exploring EA through video Phil is looking at the visual style and workspace configuration options in Enterprise Architect.

https://youtu.be/Bfg_1h4rews

If you can't wait to view all of our videos from this series please visit our YouTube channel ... and don't forget to subscribe!