Brief introduction

EA provides a variety of charting capabilities while supporting visual modeling, including:

•  Custom tables: can be used to display a variety of non-modeled data.

•  Custom Graphic Styles: You can customize the styles of various graphics, such as color, transparency, border style, etc.

•  Chart Selectable Views: Provides a range of views for the same information from different perspectives:

        •  list

        •  Gantt charts

        •  Relationship matrix

        •  Specification view

        •  Construct views

        •  Kanban boards

The user can also make changes to the elements on the diagram:

•  Element Grouping: You can group elements based on color, font, and more.

•  Tag bookmarks: Bookmarks can be set to elements of a diagram with numbers or text to identify elements on a diagram, especially for sorting elements with markers, bookmarks are useful.

In EA, you can also use scriptlet elements to customize the appearance of elements in a view through scripting. Scriptlet is a powerful JavaScript-based tool. In this article, we provide the following features using Scriptlets:

•  Chart grid style: Can be used to build a spreadsheet, a dashboard, or a home page for your model.

•  Script Snippets: You can use script snippets to dynamically customize other properties such as appearance, text, tagged values, and more by leveraging EA's underlying Rich Diagram and Element APIs.

Various charts supported in EA

The following is a detailed description of the various charts supported by the EA.

1 、Customize the table

Custom tables can be used to display a variety of non-modeled data.

Here's an example:

Example 1: Development phase

The following is an example of an application of a custom table: describing the phases of development.

How it works:

•  To manually edit table data, you must put the table in Edit mode. To do this, select the table and press "F2" or right-click and select "Edit Custom Table". To exit editing mode, press "Esc" or right-click and select "Exit Editing".

•  Custom tables can also define an action called "Script". The script can be executed by right-clicking and selecting "Execute Behavior Script". The script can update the cell data in the table by using an API function.

•  To view and edit the Script code, select Design > Element > Behavior or Develop > Source Code > behavior on the ribbon. A code editor window will open where you can enter the required script code.

Example 2: Samples vs. Scripts

Here's an example of a custom table: Use a script to generate the contents of a custom table.

How it works:

•  Right-click on this tab and select the menu item "Execute be havior script"

•  The contents of the cell (0,0) will be updated by the script

•  The executed script is saved as an action named "script".

It demonstrates four basic things to do for updating table values:

•  Get table elements

•  Get the grid elements of the table

•  Set the values of cells within the grid

•  Save updated data (grid data is saved in XML to tagged value data)

Note: When the script runs, the data for the position (1,1) in the cell will be updated to show the date and time of its data update.

2 、Customize the style graphics

Custom style graphics, you can customize the style of various graphics, such as color, transparency, border style, etc.

Example 1: Custom-style graphics

Here's an example:

How it works:

Applying the Custom Style option to the diagram (located in the Appearance section of the diagram's properties window) or to an element (found in the context of the element menu / Appearance / Enable Custom Drawing Style) will display a series of formatting buttons that appear above the context menu when you right-click on an element on the diagram.

These buttons can set these properties on the selected element:

•  color

•  transparency

•  Text alignment

•  Text rotation

•  Icon position (when applied)

•  Icon size (when applied)

•  stack

•  Stack orientation

•  Border style

Example 2: Full framework

Here's an enterprise architecture framework diagram built using custom-style graphics:

•  Longitudinal: motivational, active structure, behavioral, passive structure

•  Horizontal: Strategy, Business, Application, Technology, Physical, Implementation & Migration

3、 Chart optional view

An optional view of a chart is a series of graphs that provide the same information from different perspectives.

Chart alternate views supported by the EA are:

•  Graphical view

•  List view

•  Gantt charts

•  Specification view

•  Relationship matrix view

•  Construct views

•  Kanban diagrams

For Relationship View and Construct View, you need to switch to the corresponding view after the diagram is opened.

Kanban charts are a special type of diagram that can only be displayed as Kanban.

Here's an example:

Example 1: Graphical view

The following is a graphical view, which is often referred to as modeling, which is the form:

Example 2: List view

Here's a list view, which presents elements as a list:

This is a much-needed form of requirements management.

Example 3: Gantt view

Below is the Gantt view, which can help you create a schedule and track your progress.

Example 4: Spec view

Here's a view of the specs that looks like a document:

The spec view is great for requirements management.

Example 5: Relationship matrix view

On the model view, right-click on the diagram tab and select "Switch to Relationship Matrix View",

The current model diagram is displayed as a relationship matrix, and the following is the view of the relationship matrix after switching

The matrix view helps users manage the tracking relationships between various elements.

Example 6: Constructing a view

On the model view, right-click the diagram tab and select Switch to Construction View.

The current model diagram is displayed as a construction view, as shown below the switched construction view

elements are presented in the form of a list and have various attributes required for management, such as:

•  Status: Status

•  Priority: Priority

•  ReportedBy : Reporter

•  ResolvedBy: Executor

Example 7: Kanban diagram

Here's an example of a Kanban view:

Users can drag elements in the board to implement status changes and progress tracking.

4、Element grouping

When there are many elements in the model, you need to group the elements. In the EA, elements can be grouped according to color, font, etc.

Example: Element grouping

•  The elements on this diagram are divided into three different groups, which are set with different colors.

•  Selecting any one element in a group will select all elements in the group, and you can then perform actions on the elements as a collection, such as moving, setting colors, fonts, and so on.

•  Select and drag a rectangle on a group of elements, and you can still select single or multiple elements on the chart, regardless of grouping.

How it works:

•  To group elements, select the elements you want to group together, right-click on any of the selected elements, and select "Group Elements" from the menu.

•  To ungroup elements, select a group, then right-click on the selected element and select Ungroup Elements from the menu.

5 、Bookmark charts

Bookmarks can be set to chart elements with numbers or text to identify elements on the chart, especially when order is important. Here's an example:

Example: Chart bookmark values

How it works:

•  Right-click on an element and select Set Bookmark Value from the pop-up menu.

•  To show or hide all bookmarks on the diagram, right-click on the diagram background and select "bookmarks > show (or hide) all Bookmark Values" from the pop-up menu.。

6 、Network style charts

• Grid-style charts can build a spreadsheet, a dashboard, or even a home page for your model.

•  For example, some spreadsheets, such as overlays, can automatically limit elements to a specified set of rows and columns.

•  Automatically split the chart into cells, i.e.:

        •  Each grid cell can hold one element

        •  Row, column, and cell size can all be configured with optional row and column headers to help through grid position

        •  Reference cells (e.g. A:1)

        •  Provides a new scripting API that can reference elements by their grid position

        •  Integration with new Scriptlet elements to automatically update and process elements in the grid

        •  It is a new powerful tool for organizing and managing large sets of information

Example 1: Spreadsheet

Here's an example of a spreadsheet where the contents of each cell are generated using a scriptlet. Scriptlets allow you to update the value of each element (cell) on the grid. Users can double-click a cell to edit the corresponding Scriptlet script, or they can use the context menu to run a Scriptlet script to update the cell.

Example 2: Model Diagram Home Page Directory

The catalog view of the model diagram can generate navigation cells by linking multiple model diagrams, and then list them in a directory view, and when the user clicks on a navigation cell, the corresponding diagram will be opened. Here are the navigation cells provided by the EA 16 sample home page: Comments, Element Comments, Scriptlet Examples, Requirements Hierarchy, Requirements Grid

Here's an example of an element comment:

Users can open the comment interface to record and view the comments.

How it works:

By selecting Start > collaboration > (Journal | discussion |.) Review) to access the discussion and comment window from the ribbon.

It provides three separate pages: Logs, Discussions, and Comments.

•  The Log page is a daily log that records thoughts, activities, or developments related to that element.

•  The Discussions page is used to record formal discussions about elements between team members.

•  The Review page shows a formal review of the element. It only shows review topics that are linked to specific elements.

The following diagram shows that separated visibility is enabled for viewing and discussion

7、Script fragments

Users can use script snippets to take advantage of EA's underlying Rich Diagram and Element APIs to dynamically customize appearance, text, tagged values, and other properties.

The EA provides a number of model examples, and here are three example diagrams that show several ways to enhance your model using the power of scriptlets.

Here's an example of this:

Example: Assessment Integrity - Threat Community Pattern

This risk classification map from the Model Wizard adds a Javascript Scriptlet element to assess the author's completeness of each thread element. If the required details are incomplete or missing, the elements are colored accordingly.

How it works:

To see the JavaScript code executed by a scriptlet, select the Scriptlet artifact in the diagram, and from the Develop ribbon, select the Source code > Behavior > Edit Internal code option.

postscript

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