As part of an EA add'in implementation, I had to import all Enterprise Architect table and column names in enumeration classes.
Having access to a database that stores a Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect project (e.g. MySQL, SQL Server, or even an EAP file via ODBC), there was a number of ways to populate enumeration classes with literal values using a small application in C# or another programming language. As Enterprise Architect 12 includes the Database Builder, an integrated tool to work on DB schemas, I took the opportunity to use it. Compared with the result of a C# application, this feature would let me capture the enumeration classes in my EA modelling project in addition to generating C# enumeration classes in my add'in solution.
This article only covers a small portion of Sparx EA Database Builder features: it illustrates how I managed to import Enterprise Architect table names as literal values in the EADBTableType enumeration class, and their column names as literal values in separate enumeration classes e.g. t_diagramColumnType, t_objectColumnType...
Import all tables in Enterprise Architect
- Open the menu Tools > Database Builder
- Right click and select New Data Model:
- Select the DBMS used, e.g. MySQL and confirm Ok
- Right click on MySQL > Load
- Right click on Connections > Add new DB connection
- Open the new DB connection and select ODBC based datatype
- Select an existing ODBC DSN (or create one) to the DB that stores the Enterprise Architect project where the schema needs to be imported
- Right click on MySQL > Import DB Schema from ODBC
- Click on Import and select all tables:
- All tables, columns, primary keys, foreign keys, indexes, etc. have been imported.
- Go back to the Database builder and open the Tables tabs: all tables are displayed. Selecting one of the tables provides access to all columns' details.
Generate the enumeration classes
The Database Builder let me achieved what I needed. Having all tables and columns stored in a single package, I wrote a simple script to perform the following:
- create an enumeration class named EADBTableType
- for each table:
- create a literal value with the table name in EADBTableType e.g. t_object
- create an enumeration class named after the table based on the following format: <table name>ColumnType e.g. t_attributeColumnType
- for each column in the table:
- create a literal value with the column name in the current table's enumeration class (e.g. Classifier in t_attributeColumnType)
Having executed this script, the following enumeration classes have been generated:
Transform enumeration classes to dotNet C# classes
The MDA model transformation can be used to generate C# enumeration classes for the above enums:
- Right click on the package that contains all enums > Advanced > Transform Package
- Select C# as the target, select the package, and click on Do Transform
- Having all C# enumeration classes created, and making sure the namespace is correct (e.g. create packages myaddin.common.enums), the code can be generated: right click on package > Code Engineering > Generate Source Code.
- The generated code can be used in Visual Studio IDE:
