Archi Forum

Archi 3.0 Early Access Preview is now available here:

http://www.archimatetool.com/dev/beta

Archi 3.0 is built on Eclipse 4.4. This may bring some problems that need to be addressed, because Eclipse 4.4 tries to bridge the old compatibility code from Eclipse 3.x to Eclipse 4.

Please report any issues here.

Regards,

Phil

Great work on the 3.0!

I missed the previous betas, but got my hands on this version.

The Eclipse port looks very good.

The CSV functionality, and the directionality of the connectors, are great new features.
Some feedback/feature requests:

Directionality:
The magic connector from object A to object B allows me to pick connections of any directionality.
The magic connector from object A onto the canvas allows me to create connections of only one directionality. (Is this intentional?)

Could we allow users to stretch any relation from object A onto the canvas, allowing the user to create/select an object that supports the relation (and the directionality)?
(If you create a DataObject called Person, then stretch a Specialization relationship onto the canvas, you might be able to create a specialized object called Employee, but also a generalized LegalEntity (reverse specialization))

CSV: export to CSV was successful. Import was successful - once I ensured that the export used commas and not semicolons. Should there be a selectable option in the import?

It was slightly non-intuitive that when I pick an elements.csv, it also imports the properties and relations, maybe the GUI should make this clearer? The full model was loaded with no issues.

I tested the export/import (and also file save/open) with some unicode content in names, documentation, property names and property content - no issues, good for us exotics.

The export/import feature is extremely useful. Gorgeous tool overall!

Best regards, Arne D Halvorsen

Hi Arne, thanks for the feedback and welcome to the new forums!

Quote
The magic connector from object A onto the canvas allows me to create connections of only one directionality. Is this intentional?

At this stage, yes. It proved harder to do that, but I shall take another look at it.  ;)

Quote
Could we allow users to stretch any relation from object A onto the canvas, allowing the user to create/select an object that supports the relation (and the directionality)?
(If you create a DataObject called Person, then stretch a Specialization relationship onto the canvas, you might be able to create a specialized object called Employee, but also a generalized LegalEntity (reverse specialization))

Perhaps we could open a new GitHub Request? https://github.com/Phillipus/archi/issues (https://github.com/Phillipus/archi/issues)

Quote
CSV: export to CSV was successful. Import was successful - once I ensured that the export used commas and not semicolons. Should there be a selectable option in the import?

Good point, I'll take a look at this.

Quote
It was slightly non-intuitive that when I pick an elements.csv, it also imports the properties and relations, maybe the GUI should make this clearer? The full model was loaded with no issues.

The manual explains that if they exist, they will be imported also, it makes the job easier just to select one file. Selecting more than one file gets complicated.

Quote
The export/import feature is extremely useful. Gorgeous tool overall!

Thanks! Archi will get even better over time...  8)

Another thing: I get an error message that says that the Archi32/64 executable launcher was unable to locate its companion shared library.

This happened once initially at home, and then sorted itself out.

When I tried to unzip and run at work, I get the same message at every attempt.

Both machines have java 1.7.

I suppose the final release of 3.0 should be able to unzip and run without errors.

Best regards
Arne D Halvorsen

Something strange must be happening in the unzip process. How is it being unzipped?

Tried it again, Extract all to a new folder, resident on C: this time, not on my Desktop (which may actually part of a networked drive, the way our corporate setup works).

This time it worked fine, so I have 3.0 on my corporate computer.

Best regards, Arne D H

Archi 3.0 Early Access 4 is available:

http://www.archimatetool.com/dev/beta (http://www.archimatetool.com/dev/beta)

Changes since EA3:

• Relationship rules are in accordance with ArchiMate spec tables
• Assignment connection looks better
• Documentation fixes

We have been extensively testing the CSV Export/Import function as a way to manage distributed model updates. It is very convenient to be able to export the model to CSV, update descriptions and properties, then re-import. However, we have discovered a problem with the "Excel leading zero/space" option. It seems that ID's are getting currupted during export and subsequently create duplicate elements or cause an XML error when re-importing. I have attached before and after copies of a CSV file that illustrates the problem. The tests were done with Archi 3 (build 201408141604).

Thanks for the report. Can you tell me the steps to reproduce this problem? Did you import the first file, then export with the option on and the second file is the result?

Phil

Yes, that was the process. We imported the original information from elements.csv and then exported it with the option on.

Thanks,
Peter

Hi,

I suppose that you tested doing this:

• import element.csv
• export newly created model to something.csv with "use excel leading zero/spaces workaround" checked
• import something.csv

The issue you faced is certainly due to the fact you didn't edit something.csv with Excel and thus didn't save it. You should do something like this:

• import element.csv
• export newly created model to something.csv with "use excel leading zero/spaces workaround" checked
• open something.csv with Excel, edit it and save it keeping CSV file format, or
• open something.csv with Excel, save in in XLS format, work on it and and the end, save it back to something.csv
• import something.csv

The key point is that when you open the CSV file, Excel understand some formula to keep good id values (those which have leading zeros/spaces). Then, when you save the file using CSV format, you get rid of those formula and save only the value to the CSV file which will not create new entries but update existing ones.

Of course I may be wrong...

Regards

JB

That's correct JB. Normally the files are edited and saved in CSV format as you suggest. However, it certainly is possible that the original export file was re-imported.

Thanks for the explanation!

Regards,
Peter

What JB says is correct. Please regard the "leading zero" option as an option just to stop ids getting mangled when importing to Excel. Best practice is to use identifiers with characters, like "dfe456", but as Archi itself auto-generates identifiers this may not always be possible.

Phil

Just a note regarding export to CSV.

As I was testing this just now, I thought that it didn't make sense to create an empty "properties.csv" or "relations.csv" file if the model did not contain any properties or relations. So I started to implement this...and then I realised that things could go wrong if one exports to the csv files with a model that has properties, then edits the model and removes all properties, and re-exports to CSV. The original "properties.csv" file would still exist, containing orphans. So it seems better to export all three to be on the safe side, even if one is empty. This way we can be sure that elements, relations, and properties are always a matched tuple.

Hi, during 3.0 install i saw a message stating that the version/installation will expire sept 30.. exactly what does this mean ?

thx koen

It means that because this is a beta version, it won't work after that date.

Before that date comes, there will either be a newer beta version or the full version.

This is to ensure that people don't carry on using versions that may be buggy.

Archi 3.0 Release Candidate 1 is available:

http://www.archimatetool.com/dev/beta (http://www.archimatetool.com/dev/beta)

Archi:Version: 3.0.0, Build: 201409141854.

A few small things:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6BFQ0vlLSkHSGMwMGxrcVhPS2s/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6BFQ0vlLSkHUlhFTEltRmliT28/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6BFQ0vlLSkHYzZRZExQUnhGQmM/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6BFQ0vlLSkHaTdMS0lURDZZeWM/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6BFQ0vlLSkHbHM4Q2lOQl9vaEU/edit?usp=sharing

PS
"Hint window" works correctly on libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 (64-bit Linux SolydXK - Debian "testing" fork)(!!!!)

Hi keypey,

I had similar issue when using a non "standard" Gtk theme under Ubuntu. All my issues were fixed when comming back to "official" Ubuntu theme.

Could you test using different Gtk themes (maybe the default one on your distribution) and/or different Archi/Eclipse themes.

JB

OK, so where does the problem lie? Are these problems visible within Eclipse itself, for example? Is it an SWT problem or a GTK problem. So far I've tested on Ubuntu 14.04 standard, Mint, and Elementary.

What distro and setup are you using?

Ok. I'm using oxygen-gtk-theme (xfce) on different Debian forks: LinuxLite and SolydXK.

You're right, everything works correctly on Advaita-theme. Figures derived from oxygen-gtk.

I'll stay with oxygen-gtk.
Thank you for your help.

Regards,
kp.,

Ok, thanks for the info. I looked at the code for the prefs UI and I don't think there's anything non-standard about it. I would have to set up a test platform specific to test it...and I don't really want to do that, so if it turns out to be a theme issue that would save me some work ;)

Hi all,

I'm just testing Archi 3.0 (on Windows 7) as I think it is an amazing and promising modelling tool.

Yet, the .csv-export just exports one property per element - actually always the last one. I played a little bit around with the export configuration possibilities, but couldn't solve this problem. Does anyone experience the same problem?

ps: hoping this is the right place for posting this issue/question  :)

Thanks,
Jonas

Yes, the .csv-export just exports last one property per element.

kp.,

Quote from: Jonas Fluhr on September 15, 2014, 16:56:07 PM

Yet, the .csv-export just exports one property per element - actually always the last one. I played a little bit around with the export configuration possibilities, but couldn't solve this problem. Does anyone experience the same problem?

ps: hoping this is the right place for posting this issue/question  :)

Thanks,
Jonas

Good catch, thanks for finding this. It's a regression. Blame = me  :o I'll fix it and release another version.

Phil

Archi 3.0 Release Candidate 2 is available:

http://www.archimatetool.com/dev/beta (http://www.archimatetool.com/dev/beta)

(Fixes the CSV export bug)

Hi!
I have been testing the export/import function in both RC1 and RC2. It is a very useful function but...

I am using it on Windows and I work in Norway. Different regions use different default list separators. In my region it is semicolon.
The challenge is that Archi will only import comma separated files but for me to open the file directly in Excel I need to export as semicolon separated and then do a manual export from excel using comma to get i back into Archi. Doable but not very slick.

Could Archi default to regional settings for import and export or have a preference for separator that affects both export and import?

Br, Henrik

Hi Henrik,

As you have found, you can export with the semi-colon as the delimiter. Once set in the export wizard, it will remember this setting as the default.

For the next version RC3, it will detect comma, semi-colon or tab delimiter when importing.

Phil

Great!  :) The detection of delimiter when importing will absolutely fix this.

Br, Henrik

Thanks for the very fast RC2! This will help a lot.

I dare to throw in another question: Is it a wished or normal behavior that the name of a relation is showed behind its relation? In many cases this makes the name difficult to read (in particular when the relation is drawn horizontally).

I would have expected the name 'within' the relation, i.e. the text field is before the relation and the text fields background color corresponds to the background color of the view. Unfortunately, the option to position the name at source or target is not so helpful in these situations.
A more sophisticated solution could offer to resize and move the name's text field freely. Resizing would be useful to wrap the text individually and therewith change the needed space.

Quote from: Jonas Fluhr on September 17, 2014, 08:23:19 AM
I dare to throw in another question: Is it a wished or normal behavior that the name of a relation is showed behind its relation? In many cases this makes the name difficult to read (in particular when the relation is drawn horizontally).

I would have expected the name 'within' the relation, i.e. the text field is before the relation and the text fields background color corresponds to the background color of the view. Unfortunately, the option to position the name at source or target is not so helpful in these situations.
A more sophisticated solution could offer to resize and move the name's text field freely. Resizing would be useful to wrap the text individually and therewith change the needed space.

This issue will eventually be solved.

Perfect. So I am looking forward to becoming this feature reality ... :)
Many thanks.

Btw: Great job! Archi is really a very complete and nice EA tool.

Archi 3.0 Release Candidate 3 is available:

http://www.archimatetool.com/dev/beta

• Detect comma, semicolon or tab delimiter on CSV import
• Fix small bug on OrthogonalAnchor
• Add support for Export As Image in PDF format
• Edited diagram Views show "modified" asterisk in title bar again
• [magic-connector] small label changes

Phil

Bug report :-(

(test done under Ubuntu Linux 14.04)

• Open an ArchiMate view (don't select anything) and go through menus, some submenus should be disabled (Edit > Text alignment, View > Viewpoint...) and when trying to open them, Archi crashes or freeze
• Same for Sketch view and Canvas.

Yep, I'm getting a total wipe-out on Ubuntu when trying to select a sub-menu. Works OK on Linux Mint, could be an Ubuntu thing. Need to check if Eclipse 4.4.1 itself does this.

It's happening under 4.4, never mind 4.4.1. The thing is, the problem only occurs if a View is not already open when you launch Archi. It happens after you open a View.

Seems to be only on "radio button" sub-menus after a View has been opened.

Tracking at https://github.com/Phillipus/archi/issues/96

New (small, easy to fix) bug: when using Motivation viewpoint, Composition is not visible in the palette (but can be created through the magic connector).

BTW, Phil, do you want me to create an issue on GitHub each time or is a post or mail enought for the moment ? (Of course, submitting a pull request is even better, but hey, I'm at work ;-)

EDIT - I've just found another bug (maybe related to Phil's patch on bendpoint fix to grid) : the snap position is moving ;-) in fact it seems the grid used is relative to the part of diagram visible (GEF viewpoint ?) and not the diagram itself. To test: create a view, put 2 concepts, add a relation between them, show the grid, create some bendpoints, see how they match (or not) the grid, move the diagram visible area (may require a small window and more elements), create some new bendpoints, see how they match (or not) the grid: you should not be able to realign with previous bendpoints...

Hi JB,

thanks for the reports. I fixed the Viewpoint problem, and also corrected a few other viewpoints.

GiHub is better for bugs. I only found your second bug because I came back here to reply. ;-)

Phil

Quote from: Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie on September 19, 2014, 13:27:25 PM
I've just found another bug (maybe related to Phil's patch on bendpoint fix to grid) : the snap position is moving ;-) in fact it seems the grid used is relative to the part of diagram visible (GEF viewpoint ?) and not the diagram itself. To test: create a view, put 2 concepts, add a relation between them, show the grid, create some bendpoints, see how they match (or not) the grid, move the diagram visible area (may require a small window and more elements), create some new bendpoints, see how they match (or not) the grid: you should not be able to realign with previous bendpoints...

This can happen not only with bend-points but also with figures, when the figure is in negative space. There is a 5-pixel border that causes this. I can remove the border to fix it. But the problem will still occur, say, when a connection or figure is located in negative space and you select it. The Selection handles push the grid a few pixels and mess up the grid positioning for snap. I guess allowing negative space wasn't really a good idea!

Quote from: Phil Beauvoir on September 19, 2014, 15:35:18 PM
This can happen not only with bend-points but also with figures, when the figure is in negative space. There is a 5-pixel border that causes this. I can remove the border to fix it. But the problem will still occur, say, when a connection or figure is located in negative space and you select it. The Selection handles push the grid a few pixels and mess up the grid positioning for snap. I guess allowing negative space wasn't really a good idea!

I've fixed this issue, this was simply because I used mouse position. I've submitted a pull request to fix it.

Hi Phil,

I am using RC 2, and it generally works quite well.  I did notice, however that there is an issue properly situating connectors, particularly when symbols are centered vertically.  I've noticed this when one elements realizes another.  If the two elements are centered vertically, under some circumstances, the arrow of the realization relationship can end up suddenly very far away from the symbol for the realized element.  Also, sometime the problem is with the non-pointy end as well.  The fix is to jiggle things around a bit.  I've also noticed this with used by as well.  Unfortunately, I was running into this last night, but can't recreate an example right now.

The other thing that I have noticed is in the documentation.  The chapter Importing and Exporting the Model and its Views is labeled Exporting the Model... in the User Guide table of contents.  This makes it harder to search for and find when one is looking to find out how to import.

Keep up the great work!

Iver

Hi Iver,

welcome to the forums, good to see you here. :-)

Quote
I did notice, however that there is an issue properly situating connectors, particularly when symbols are centered vertically.  I've noticed this when one elements realizes another.  If the two elements are centered vertically, under some circumstances, the arrow of the realization relationship can end up suddenly very far away from the symbol for the realized element.  Also, sometime the problem is with the non-pointy end as well.  The fix is to jiggle things around a bit.  I've also noticed this with used by as well.

If you go to Archi's Preferences, then the "Connections" tab, and uncheck "Use orthogonal connection anchors" you'll be able to see if there are bendpoints on the connection. If there are try clearing these bendpoints. Does that help? I've noticed that when this option is on, and when moving connections by grabbing a bendpoint handle in the middle of the connection the connection seems to jump about a bit.

Quote
The other thing that I have noticed is in the documentation.  The chapter Importing and Exporting the Model and its Views is labeled Exporting the Model... in the User Guide table of contents.  This makes it harder to search for and find when one is looking to find out how to import.

Thanks for spotting this, I've updated the TOC.

Phil,

Attached is an example of the problem that I triggered by simply changing the zoom from 100% (no problem) to 25% (protruding connector).  As I mentioned in my previous post, there are other ways to trigger this behavior besides changing the zoom.  Changing the zoom back fixes the problem.  The view consists of a business service realizing two principle and a goal, which is centered above the business service.  The two principles influence the goal.

Thanks for updating the TOC.


Regards,

Iver

---

And also, the orthogonal connectors option was unchecked before during and after the case that I just shared.

Hi Iver,

This is a known bug, for some strange reasons, figure radius (used in rounded rectangles and ellipses) are not affected by the zoom: if you move the relationship, you should see the anchor moving along a rounder corner which is either too big (zoom lt 100%) or too small (zoom gt 100%).

Phil or I should have a look soon.

JB

Archi 3.0 Release Candidate 4 is available:

http://www.archimatetool.com/dev/beta

(I hope this is the last RC before the final one!)

Phil

Quote from: Phil Beauvoir on September 23, 2014, 11:14:25 AM
(I hope this is the last RC before the final one!)

We should be happy, it's rare to check a new release so deeply.

I'm downloading it now ;-)

Quote from: Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie on September 23, 2014, 11:19:26 AM

Quote from: Phil Beauvoir on September 23, 2014, 11:14:25 AM
(I hope this is the last RC before the final one!)

We should be happy, it's rare to check a new release so deeply.

I'm downloading it now ;-)

What usually happens is that one has months of alpha, beta and release candidates and then the final release of version 1.0.  :)

2 hours after the final release, somebody finds a bug and you have to issue version 1.0.1.  :-[

I forgot to add that we still have to fix issue on anchors and zoom, so you may have to release a RC5 tomorrow...

Quote from: Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie on September 23, 2014, 12:39:56 PM
I forgot to add that we still have to fix issue on anchors and zoom, so you may have to release a RC5 tomorrow...

BTW - if someone knows how to get zoom factor from an Anchor which only knows about its associated figure....

The Zoom Factor comes from the Zoom Manager which you can get from the GraphicalViewer, which you can get from an EditPart.

Quote from: Phil Beauvoir on September 23, 2014, 12:53:45 PM
The Zoom Factor comes from the Zoom Manager which you can get from the GraphicalViewer, which you can get from an EditPart.

I came to the same conclusion, but how do I get an EditPart from an Anchor classe (OrthogonalAnchor or RoundedRectangleAnchor) ?

Quote from: Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie on September 23, 2014, 12:57:25 PM
I came to the same conclusion, but how do I get an EditPart from an Anchor classe (OrthogonalAnchor or RoundedRectangleAnchor) ?

Answer to myself: the easiest workaround is to add it to constructor used by AbstractConnectedEditPart...

I now have to test it tonight :-)

Just installing - noted that settings for Windows are in ~/Application data  - I think the normal place on Windows should be ~/AppData/Roaming

Paul

Quote from: pcmanning on September 24, 2014, 14:32:53 PM
Just installing - noted that settings for Windows are in ~/Application data  - I think the normal place on Windows should be ~/AppData/Roaming

Paul

Hi Paul. Yes, you're right. But there's a reason for this. ~/AppData/Roaming was intoduced I think in Windows Vista or 7. By specifying ~/Application Data it works for XP. On Windows 7 and 8 this should automagically resolve to ~/AppData/Roaming but doesn't on some systems, I think 64-bit versions. I need to take another look at this. I know that XMind (an Eclipse-based mind mapping tool) has the same issue.

Phil

Archi 3.0 Release Candidate 5 is available:

http://www.archimatetool.com/dev/beta

Fixes anchor point issue on Zoom.

(This should be the last RC before the final one!)

Phil

Quote from: Phil Beauvoir on September 24, 2014, 14:40:41 PM

Quote from: pcmanning on September 24, 2014, 14:32:53 PM
Just installing - noted that settings for Windows are in ~/Application data  - I think the normal place on Windows should be ~/AppData/Roaming

Paul

Hi Paul. Yes, you're right. But there's a reason for this. ~/AppData/Roaming was intoduced I think in Windows Vista or 7. By specifying ~/Application Data it works for XP. On Windows 7 and 8 this should automagically resolve to ~/AppData/Roaming but doesn't on some systems, I think 64-bit versions. I need to take another look at this. I know that XMind (an Eclipse-based mind mapping tool) has the same issue.

Phil

I'm on Windows 8.1 64bit - so that fits your pattern.  But would be inclined to drop XP support anyway, Microsoft have! (Please don't ask how many we have still running though!)

Paul, you are right. And Archi 3.0 would be a good time to change this. I'm now uploading Archi 3 Beta 5a...

In the meantime you can simply edit the Archi.ini (or Archi32.ini or Archi64.ini) file to contain:

-Dosgi.instance.area=@user.home/AppData/Roaming/Archi
-Dosgi.configuration.area=@user.home/AppData/Roaming/Archi

Quote from: Phil Beauvoir on September 25, 2014, 14:06:57 PM
I'm now uploading Archi 3 Beta 5a...

I thought RC5 would be the last... If now we start to publish RC5a, the next bug will lead to RC 5a.1 ?  :P

Quote from: Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie on September 25, 2014, 16:29:11 PM
I thought RC5 would be the last... If now we start to publish RC5a, the next bug will lead to RC 5a.1 ?  :P

:o

As I only changed the .ini files I could have simply re-packaged the Windows builds and re-uploaded, but that would have messed with my OCD.  :D

Hello all!

I used Archi 2.7.1 and now I am trying Archi v.3. Export to CSV is a great feature - I have to make xslt to build csv files before. But when I try to export my model (with Cyrrilic) to csv file it contains question marks instead of Cyriilic letters. What's wrong?

Andrey

It isn't exporting using UTF-8 encoding.  I made this decision after determining that Excel prefers ANSI encoding for CSV files. However, I found out that UTF-8 is OK, and if you are opening a CSV file in Excel with such characters you need to open it from the "Data -> Get External Data -> From Text" menu item in order to see Cyrillic characters.

Will be fixed in Archi 3.0.1 coming soon.