In the most recent release of MDG Office Integrations (v1.4.40), an exciting enhancement known as the "BPMN Visualizer" has been introduced, offering an excellent utility for BPMN users. This feature facilitates the seamless transfer of BPMN Components between Microsoft Excel documents and Sparx Enterprise Architect Models.

The key feature of 'BPMN Visualizer' in MDG Office Integration

• Simplified Approach that eliminates the necessity for Profile Creation during import and export for mapping items. This drastically minimizes user time and the possibility of manual errors.
• Through a single click of "Excel to EA" menu, users can quickly synchronize BPMN Components, seamlessly updating and aligning data between Excel and the Enterprise Architect model.
• The visual representation of diagrams from the Enterprise Architect model, as well as the related preconfigured mapping table, can be displayed within Excel.
• The capability to incorporate multiple diagrams is supported when a package is selected. This involves displaying all diagrams in the selected packages along with their corresponding predefined mapping tables on separate sheets.

BPMN Components on Microsoft Excel

MDG Integration for Microsoft Office provides seamless integration within Microsoft Excel (Version 2007 and above). A newly introduced feature named ‘BPMN Visualizer’ now resides in the ‘Feature’ dropdown of the Enterprise Architect ribbon in Excel. This feature facilitates the seamless transfer of ‘BPMN Components' between an Excel document and Enterprise Architect, allowing for bi-directional data exchange.

To import BPMN Components into Enterprise Architect from Excel

	The Feature dropdown offers the following selection options: ‘Export to EA’: Export the elements to Enterprise Architect using Profiles ‘SysML Requirement Manager’: Import SysML requirements from Enterprise Architect and Export SysML requirements and their connectors to Enterprise Architect. ‘BPMN Visualizer’:  Import BPMN Components from Enterprise Architect and export BPMN Components to Enterprise Architect.
	Allows one to select a *.eap or *.eapx or *.feap or *.qea or *.qeax or *.eadb through local project, server connection, or cloud connection. Local Project: To connect the Local Enterprise Architect model. Server Connection: To connect to an Enterprise Architect repository through a database Cloud Connection: To connect to an Enterprise Architect repository through the Pro Cloud Server
	Allows users to select a Package or BPMN Diagram to Load from the Enterprise Architect Model to Excel with the respective diagram image.

Select a package

• This window will be displayed when the Package Icon is clicked.
• It displays all the models and packages from the selected Enterprise Architect model, with BPMN Components being imported specifically.

Select a BPMN Diagram

• This window will be displayed when the Diagram button is clicked.
• It provides a hierarchical overview of all diagrams within the packages of the model. Users have the ability to choose a specific BPMN diagram from this view.

Note: The ‘Ok’ button will only enable when the selection type is BPMN Diagram

Utilizing Excel for BPMN Components

• The selected diagram is imported to an Excel sheet along with its predefined mapping table.
• The Excel sheets are named in the format of Diagram Name with Diagram ID.

Excel column definition

Creation of element from Excel to Enterprise Architect model

• To create a new element, enter a name in the ‘Action Name’ column (mandatory).
• By default, the ‘Action Type’ is ‘Activity’. Users can change the type using the drop-down list.
• Mapping the parent element for the newly created element is also achievable using the ‘Parent’ column.

Note: Supported Element types are Activity, Gateway, StartEvent, IntermediateEvent, EndEvent, DataStore, DataObject, BusinessProcess, BPELProcess, GlobalTask, Pool, and Lane.

Establishing connectors for the newly created element in Excel

‘Next Action ID’ creates a connector between two BPMN elements. Choose the appropriate ‘Action ID’ in the checklist box of ‘Next Action ID’ to connect. By default, the connector type is ‘Sequence Flow’

Note: Supported connector types are SequenceFlow, MessageFlow, Conversation Link, DataAssociation, and Association.

To update the changes from the mapping table in Excel to the Enterprise Architect model utilize the ‘Excel to EA’ Icon available in the Excel Ribbon; The preview form is presented to the user to ensure that the intended changes are ready for export. Once you click the ‘Export’ button, synchronization is initiated between the Enterprise Architect Model and Excel, causing the changes to be updated in Excel as well.

As depicted in the image below, you can observe that the recently generated ‘Process goods’ element has been incorporated into the Excel diagram. This element establishes a connection with the ‘Gateway5’ element, as indicated in the mapping table. Likewise, this synchronization is also reflected in the Enterprise Architect model.

The ‘EA to Excel’ icon enables users to revert the produced items back to their original state as Enterprise Architect Models, providing an opportunity to undo changes made in Excel. Additionally, it facilitates the synchronization of changes made from Enterprise Architect to Excel.

BPMN Components from Enterprise Architect to Microsoft Excel

Through the ‘BPMN to Excel’ menu, users can export data pertaining to BPMN Components, which have been accumulated within Enterprise Architect, into the Predefined mapping tables along with diagrams in separate sheets within Excel.

After selecting the package or BPMN Diagram, the Enterprise Architect will begin exporting data to an Excel sheet and proceed with Refer "Utilizing Excel for BPMN Components"

Check out the BPMN on Excel and Enterprise Architect video here

To know more or to request a demo, please reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

"SysML Requirements on Excel" is a new MDG Office Integration feature that allows users to author SysML requirements using Excel. Users can seamlessly integrate SysML requirements between MS Excel and Enterprise Architect.

Key features

• Import and export SysML requirements data from Excel into Enterprise Architect.
• Ability to create SysML Compliant requirements with inter-dependencies

SysML Requirements in Enterprise Architect

Using the “SysML Requirements on Excel” menu, users can connect an Enterprise Architect Model with an Excel spreadsheet.

This will create an Excel Document with required templates to let users create SysML requirements. This will also copy any existing Enterprise Architect requirements and the derived relationships to the Excel spreadsheet, to let users update or modify these contents.

Working with Excel to author Requirements

The Excel template for SysML requirements authoring will have two spreadsheets,

1. Requirements – The requirements sheet is used to create and update SysML compliant requirements, including Id and text, the sheet also displays any derived requirements (interconnected requirement)

The Requirement Sheet has two parts: "SysML Requirements" and "Derived SysML Requirements".

SysML Requirements – It contains Name, Notes, Status, Version and Id, Text (Mandatory tags for SysML)

Derived SysML Requirements – It also contains Name, Notes, Status, Version of Derived Requirement for each SysML requirement. This part is completely non-editable.

2. Requirement Matrix – This worksheet will present all requirements in a matrix format to let users easily create derivation inter-dependencies between them.

• This sheet will be automatically updated when new requirements are added in the ‘Requirements’ worksheet
• New relationships created in this spreadsheet will also be automatically updated in the ‘Requirements’ worksheet

Insert Elements and Connectors

Insert the element in the Name Column of the Requirement Sheet (with Notes, Status, Version, ID, and text, but the Name column is mandatory). And create a connector between the newly created element and the existing element in the ‘Requirement Matrix’ sheet.

Newly created connector details are updated in the ‘Requirement’ sheet.

To sync or update the modifications to the Enterprise Architect Model, use the Excel to EA icon. The changes reflected in the Enterprise Architect Model will be shown in the preview form. To update into an Enterprise Architect Model, select Export.

New elements are created under the chosen package.

The EA to Excel icon is used to restore the produced items to their original state as in the Enterprise Architect Model.

Prior to ‘EA to Excel’

Post ‘EA to Excel’

SysML Requirements on Excel (from Excel)

MDG Integration for Microsoft Office offers integration within Microsoft Excel (Office 2007 and above), and a new feature called SysML Requirement Manager is added to the feature dropdown of the Enterprise Architect ribbon. Using this, users can easily push the contents of SysML requirements from an Excel document to an Enterprise Architect or vice versa.

To import SysML requirement data into Enterprise Architect from Excel

	Dropdown list to choose the Export to Enterprise Architect Model or the SysML Requirement Manager for the document. ‘Export to EA’: Export the elements to Enterprise Architect using Profiles ‘SysML Requirement Manager’: Import SysML Requirements from Enterprise Architect and Export SysML Requirements and their connections to Enterprise Architect.
	Allows one to select a *.eap or *.eapx or *.feap or *.qea or *.qeax or *.eadb through Local project, server Connection, or cloud connection. Local Project - To Connect Local Enterprise Architect model. Server Connection - To Connect to an Enterprise Architect repository through a database Cloud Connection - To Connect to an Enterprise Architect repository through Pro Cloud Server

Select a package

• This screen will be displayed when the Package button is clicked.
• It displays all the models and packages from the selected Enterprise Architect model, with SysML Requirement items being imported specifically.

After selecting the package and clicking ‘OK, ‘Enterprise Architect will begin exporting information to an Excel sheet and proceed with Refer "Working with Excel to author Requirements"

Check out the SysML Requirements in the Enterprise Architect video here

To know more or to request a demo, please reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

eaDocX's eaXL module makes it possible to import and export information between Excel and Sparx Enterprise Architect, e.g. requirements, classes (including attributes or methods), use cases, etc.

This article provides a feedback on a real-life experience where eaXL has been used for a request for proposal (RFP): more than a hundred requirements have been imported into Enterprise Architect in order to carry the analysis and build the response with the aid and support of the model-driven approach. Steps involved to import the customer's requirements are covered in this article.

Note: eaXL module for Excel support requires eaDocX Corporate edition.

Context

I recently worked on an RFP that included more than a hundred requirements organised by categories. Details of each requirement (description, reference, category) were provided in an Excel file that had to be completed and returned with our response and proposals. Being given the task to analyse each requirement and assess the feasibility and complexity, I chose to build the response and capture all the elements within an Enterprise Architect modelling project.

A response to an RFP usually requires to work on a wide array of topics and queries. Model-driven can ease up this task by gathering and structuring all the elements created for this purpose. Collaborative access to the modelling project also enables several peers to share the tasks.

Once a new Enterprise Architect project had been set up, the client's requirements were imported via the following the process:

Summary of the main steps from the above BPMN2 diagram:

• Step A: prior to run an import from Excel with eaDocX's eaXL, an Excel file needs to be generated. To do so, eaXL export must be run with at least a single blank requirement from Enterprise Architect. This first step involves creating a couple of blank requirements in the model.
  
• Step B: run an eaXL export of the blank requirements from Enterprise Architect into a generated Excel file.
• Step C: populate the Excel file with the requirements provided by the client.
• Step D: import the client's requirements from Excel to Enterprise Architect using eaXL.

Step A: create blank requirements in the Enterprise Architect model

A1. Once the Enterprise Architect project has been initialised, blank requirements are created in the requirements model (eaXL needs to have at least one requirement to export in order to generate an Excel file).

A2. Tagged values are added to the blank requirements so that additional information provided by the client can be entered in the Excel spreadsheet, e.g. Feasible (true/false), Priority, and Category

Step B: export the blank requirements from the Enteprise Architect project to Excel with eaXL

B1. In order to generate an Excel file that's compatible with eaXL, an export is run from the Enterprise Architect requirements model to Excel via a right click on the source package > Extensions > eaDocX > Open in Excel.

• Result: blank requirements have been exported into a new Excel file.

B2. Additional properties are enabled via the eaXL columns tab: Name, Alias, Description, and the pre defined tagged values (Feasible, Priority, and Category).

B3. The Excel content is updated by clicking on the button "Export data from EA to current worksheet".

• Result: the Excel file has been updated with the additional properties.

Step C: populate the Excel eaXL template file with the client's requirements

C1. All the client's requirements must be copied from the original file to the eaXL generated Excel file, under a separate worksheet.

C2. In the current scenario, the available information is organised under the following Excel columns:

• Excel column B - Ref (reference)
• Excel column C - Category
• Excel column D - Description (full requirement's text)
• Excel column E - Title: some of the requirements contain a very long body description, hence their title has been set using an Excel function (STTX) to truncate the description to the first 200 characters
  

C3. Using references between cells, the first worksheet has been populated with details according to the eaXL columns (worksheet no 1 is used by eaXL import/export).

• Excel column D - Name : formula = "=Feuil2!E2" (Title column from worksheet 2)
• Excel column E - Alias : formula = "=Feuil2!B2" (Ref column from worksheet 2)
• Excel column F - Description : formula = "=Feuil2!D2" (Description column from worksheet 2)
• Excel column G - TV Category : formula = "=Feuil2!C2" (Category column from worksheet 2)
• Excel column H - TV Priority : value = "M" (default value = Must)
• Excel column I - TV Feasible : value = "1" (default value = true)
• Excel column C - ElementType : value = "Requirement" (provides eaXL with the element type to import)

Step D: import the client's requirements from Excel to the Enterprise Architect project with eaXL

D1. In Enterprise Architect eaDocX/eaXL is used to run a comparison with the model:

D2. eaXL import from Excel to Enterprise Architect is run via the action "Import contents of worksheet into EA".

• Result: requirements have been imported in the model with the title, description and tagged values for the feasibility, priority, and category.

Tagged values from an imported requirement are illustrated below:

D3. At this stage, blank requirements created in step A are deleted.

D4. Using a custom VB script in Enterprise Architect, each requirement is moved into a sub package, named after the Category Tagged Value. This is intended to simplify the organisation of requirements within the model.

• Result: requirements are grouped by category in the project tree.

Next steps: building the response and proposal, generate the Excel deliverable

Having all the RFP requirements in the modelling project, the analysis and elaboration of the answer can be carried out:

• Creating "response" stereotyped requirements and Feature elements. Associate these elements to the client's requirements.
• Creating UML/BPMN diagrams to suggest an architecture, illustrate the solution or an option to one or several requirements.
• Assessing and updating the Feasibility tagged value for each requirement.
• Exporting results to Excel with eaXL.
• Generate the response and answser to the RFP in the Word forma using eaDocX.

Conclusion

Enterprise Architect made it possible to efficiently carry out the analysis of a long list of requirements by building up the models with the solution's elements, links between requirements of similar purpose, and realisation links between the RFP requirements and solution elements. Once the analysis had been completed, generating the Excel deliverable for the client only required a few minutes.

This Excel file was ready to be sent alongside a Word document generated with eaDocX, including a relationships matrix between requirements and system features to implement.

In case the RFP process has been successful, a model-driven approach provides the advantage of starting the project with an existing Enterprise Architect project.

The Excel import/export feature for Enterprise Architect available with eaDocX (eaXL module) can be used for many other purposes: importing requirements and use cases in the project, synchronise requirements with other tools via the Excel format, import business classes from Excel, etc.

We're pleased to announce the release of eaDocX v3.3, making it even easier to integrate your EA analyses directly into Word and Excel with no need for scripting.

New features include: 
- Support for Word and Excel 2013 
- Model Expert: a graphical tool to help you understand the structure of your EA model 
- Even better Quick documents to create a Word document of any package in your model in just 2 clicks 
- Phone home - to keep you up to date with latest releases 
- More configurable options for your documents 
- Define your own Word Table styles 
- and a whole load of other customer requests 

For more information and a free 30 day trial visit www.eadocx.com

Version 4 on the Excel to EA Importer now introduces a feature to export Tagged Values to Excel, edit them in Excel and import the changes back into Enterprise Architect.

The Excel to EA importer is a rather simple tool to import stuff into EA. It has been available on the Sparx Community Site since 2009 and it has always been one of the most popular resources.

Version 2 was a small improvement allowing for different types of Elements.

Version 3 added the feature to import the glossary into EA.

Now in version 4 we have yet another tab Tagged Values that will be used to export and import tagged values.

 

Free download

Simple VBA Excel to EA importer

€0.00

 

Elements and Attributes

Columns A till F are used in the sheet ElementsAndAttributes . Fill in the the columns with your own data.

• Type
  Fill in the type of the Element you wish to import. This column should contain either Attribute or one of the EA Element types as defined in the documentation of EA.Element.Type. An attribute will be added to the last specified Element.
• Name
  The name of the element or attribute.
• Stereotype
  The stereotype of the element or attribute. Use null to specify an empty stereotype.
• Description
  The description of the element or attribute.
• Attribute Type
  The type of the attribute. This column should not be used for Elements. Use null to specify an empty type.
• Attribute Length
  This value will be added as a tagged value with the name length on the attribute.  Again this is only for attributes.

Glossary

In the 2nd sheet Glossary you can fill in columns A until C with:

• Term
  The term name is mandatory.
• Type
  The type of the term is mandatory as well
• Meaning
  The meaning of the term is optional.

Tagged Values

The Tagged Values sheet can only be used to edit existing tagged values, not for importing new tagged values into EA. It contains the following columns

• GUID
  The unique identifier of the tagged value. Used to find the tagged value in the model. – Do not change.
• Type
  Used to indicate if the tagged value is on an element, attribute, operation or connector. – Do not change
• Property
  The name of the tagged value. This field can be used to rename tagged values
• Value
  The value of the tagged value. This field can be edited.
• Notes
  The notes of the tagged value. This field can be edited.
• Owner
  The name of the element that owns the tagged value. Used as a context indicator. Changing this field will have no effect.

Export/Import

Once all you data has been filled in you are ready to import the data into EA.

• Open the sheet you wish to import
• If you are on the ElementsAndAttributes sheet press the button Import, or run the macro (Alt-F8) importFromExcel
• If you are on the Glossary sheet press the button Import Glossary, or  run the macro (Alt-F8) importGlossaryFromExcel
• On the Tagged Values  sheet you can press the button Export Tagged Values, or run the macro (Alt-F8) exportTaggedValuesFromEA in order to get all tagged values into the sheet.
• After modifying the content of the tagged values press the button Import Tagged Values, or run the macro (Alt-F8) importTaggedValuesFromExcel and press start to start import.
  

 

Customizing

The code of this little tool is embedded as VBA in the document, and as such can be edited by anyone with basic programming skills.

To open the code editor press Alt-F11.

There are three major parts for the code

• ExcelImporter
  The module that contains the importFromExcel macro. This is where you want to make changes.
• EAConnector
  A facade for EA’s API containing all kinds of useful functions. You probably don’t need to change anything here.
• ExcelConnector
  A facade for Excel with the code to get the values of the sheet. Again probably no need to change anything here.

Both the Excel file as the VBA code embedded in it is free for use. Just be kind and leave the reference to my name in the code if you use it.

Article originally published on Bellekens.com