EA Navigator 2.1 released

With the current release 2.1 the EA Navigator has now matured into a real product that will make the life of any Enterprise Architect user a lot easier.
I can know, as it’s primary user I use it constantly during my daily modelling tasks, and I can assure you that it has already saved me heaps of time.

And because any real product should have a logo, so I proudly present to you: The EA navigator logo.

After the complete re-factoring  of version 2.0 version 2.1 has been more about polishing and refining. I’v been using my own user feedback to enhance the existing features, and add the features I was missing.

One of the things I’ve been focusing on  is the bi-directionality of all navigate features. So if I can navigate from an operation to the sequence diagrams that use it, then I also want to be able to navigate from that sequence diagram back to the operations it shows.

What’s new in EA Navigator 2.1

New and improved icons

Most of the icons used in the navigator window have gotten an update. The folder icons now already show what kind of elements can be found here.

Tagged values

In Enterprise Architect you can define “RefGUID” style tagged values is you want to link an element to another element (see EA Manual for more information).
This is a flexible way to add your own customized relations to the model.

All tagged values of a class are being examined. If their value is a reference to another element they will show up in the navigator:

Referencing Tagged Values

The referencing tagged values allow for navigation in the other direction. It will show all RefGUID style tagged values that reference the selected element.
This feature is available for all types of elements.

Owner

The owner feature simply allows to navigate further to the owner of the element. This feature is available for all types of elements.

The owner feature is a bit special as it doesn’t have a folder that you have to open, but it shows directly under the selected element.

Sequence diagram operations

Starting from a sequence diagram you can now quickly navigate to all operations called on the diagram. This sequence diagram

shows up like this in the EA Navigator window

Other changes

  • Attribute Type
    The attribute type’s behavior has been changed to show without a containing folder, just like the owner feature.
  • Relationship select
    Relationships can now also be selected. Selecting a Relationship will select it’s source, except for sequence diagram messages, they open their sequence diagram when double-clicked.
  • Number of items in window
    The number of items retained in the navigator window has been increased to 50.
  • Implementation to operation
    From a Behavior (Interaction, Statemachine or Activity) or from a diagram contained by such an element can be navigated to the operation it is implementing.
  • Add/Remove programs Icon 
    The EA Navigator now has its own icon that shows up in the add/remove programs, to easily identify the add-in among all other installed programs.

Downloads

More Information

More information about the EA Navigator add-in for Enterprise Architect can be found here:

0 replies
  1. Luc de Graef
    Luc de Graef says:

    Hello,
    We have an extractor tool (Java code using eeapi.jar) to extract some class definitions. These XMI files are used to generate (through eclipse & acceleo) eg. the DDL and entity classes. (We do not use the EA-generation facility).
    The user guide does not reveal all details how to retrieve specific information. eg. I do not find the complete details for foreign key constraints.
    Do you have any interesting links/URL’s that you use as explanation of the component model?
    Regards,
    Luc

    Reply
    • geertbellekens
      geertbellekens says:

      Hi Luc,

      I don’t know any other source then the manual.
      What I usually do in such a case is search the EA Forum or post a question there.
      If that doesn’t help, then its up to trial and error. Usually create a new empty model, and create only that which I need. Then I check each table of the eap file to figure out where EA stored the information.
      It’s tedious work, but after a while you sort of get a feeling for where EA stores things.

      Geert

      Reply
    • geertbellekens
      geertbellekens says:

      Hi Ryrman,

      Thanks for the bug report. It looks like the navigator is trying to open a package with an ID that does not exist.
      The first thing I would try is the Tools|Data Management|Project Integrity Check (Shift-F9).
      If fixing all errors doesn’t solve the issue could you please send me an eap file with detailed instructions on how to reproduce the error?
      You can send it to geert@bellekens.com

      Thanks

      Geert

      Reply
  2. ryrman
    ryrman says:

    Hi
    I’ll try Integrity check later (work with model in progress), but I want to add:
    1. We use Oracle DB for EA;
    2. EA (with add-in) works fine after receiving error.

    Reply

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