Added Preference for specialized concepts in palette

[JoskeV]

Hi,

After upgrading from Archi 4.9.3 to Archi 5.0.2 I noticed a big delay (>1 minute) when importing Another Model Into Selected Model... It used to be seconds.

It could be due to the import of specializations (I have a lot of them) into the palette.
The Archi Version History mentions 'Added Preference for specialized concepts in palette' for 4.10 but I don't find this option anywhere.
I actually would prefer the specializations to not be visible in the palette.

On the other hand it would be cool if the specialization icons would show up in the Model Tree. For that I tried to install the deprecated Specializations plugin but apparently it does not work anymore and screws up my existing views.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Frank

[Phil Beauvoir]

Hi,

If you are seeing a big delay when importing another model, please provide a reproducible test case so we can investigate further. Or at least try on a different machine/environment.

You can turn off Specializations in the palette in Preferences in the "Diagram" settings. There are no plans to show them in the Model Tree at the moment.

Phil

[Phil Beauvoir]

If you think that model import is slower because of showing Specializations in the palette please try importing the same model with the option to show them turned off in Preferences or with no Views open.

[JoskeV]

Hi Phil,

Wow, that was indeed a fast reply!
I must be stupid to have overlooked this option.

The good news is that it indeed solves my problem and I have no more delays.

Thanks for your help, and congrats to you and Jean-Baptiste for an awesome product!

Frank

[Phil Beauvoir]

I can see how that might be a problem. Each time a Specialization is added to a model any palettes in open Views are updated. If there are many Specializations when importing then this could be time consuming. Not sure if I can work around that other than to say to ensure not to have too many Views open if you are importing lots of Specializations.

[JoskeV]

Even if I have no Views open I still have the delay. The imported model has a lot of views though, and they were created in v4.9.3, if that would make a difference.

Probably I have an edge case with >200 specializations, but I don't need them in the palette because I am essentially importing all the elements from an external source.

[Phil Beauvoir]

> Even if I have no Views open I still have the delay.

Strange. If there are no palettes open they won't receive notifications to update. But you have no delay with the preference turned off?

[JoskeV]

I still had one View open (the Default View). If I also close that, indeed the delay disappears completely.
And if I have the preference turned off I have no delay, no matter how many Views I have open.

[JoskeV]

The delay starts only after clicking Close on the Status Log.

[Phil Beauvoir]

Not easy to fix this one. All open palettes need to be updated when a Specialization is added/removed/updated. Unfortunately each palette will be updated 100 times if there are 100 new Specializations when importing, and perhaps even slower if these contain images. Normal use cases are creating one or two Specializations so this will be OK.

[JoskeV]

Yes, they all have images.
I am on Mac by the way.
No need to fix this for me, two workarounds are fine:
- close all views before importing
- not using specializations in palette.

Thanks again!

[Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie]

Hi,

Probably I have an edge case with >200 specializations,

I don't see any real use-case for so many specializations. Specialization are custom types (not instances), so this means that you have defined your own metamodel with more than 200 concepts, which seems a misuse of this feature.

Could you elaborate on what you are using specialization for, and provide some example of your specializations?

Regards,

JB

[JoskeV]

I know I am stretching the philosophy of ArchiMate but I am studying the export of the metamodel element instances of a low-code platform (OutSystems). This is a model-driven platform including Business Processes, UI, Logic and Data. It is very modular, but reuses/references a lot of elements across modules. There would be a huge advantage to ameliorate reporting and documentation of this amazing platform by using ArchiMate / Archi.
I am still in the proof-of-concept stage, but so far it seems promising.
Although most of the specialisations are in the Application Layer (some in the Business Layer) I didn't go the UML way because 'Agile' effectively killed it and ArchiMate has a much broader scope and a brighter future i.m.o.
Archi also revealed to me the power of specializations, and without these it wouldn't make sense to even try this.

Regards,
Frank