Archi is going multi-user: GRAFICO plugin (model repository support)

Started by Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie, March 25, 2015, 21:55:59 PM

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Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie

Quote from: BG_Nuon on September 08, 2015, 14:16:17 PM
Hi Jean-Baptiste, first off you have done great work on this Grafico format. I am currently investigating whether we can use it in my company. Currently I am being hindered by the same bug as you refer to below. Class 'ArchimateModel' is not found or is abstract is the exact message I get when I try to reopen a model that I have saved after importing from the Grafico format.

Any update on when a fix can be expected?

Cheers, Bas

Hi,

Thank you for your support.

I've started (re)working on this issue yesterday (I first had to fully reinstall my development environment following a major OS upgrade). The root cause of the issue is now known and I should be able to fix it in a couple of days. Thus a new beta version should be available really soon. Stay tuned, as I will need beta testers.

Regards,

JB
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PHD

HI Jean Baptiste,

First of all, thank you for your work.

I will try to use Archi in my companie but i am stuck with the hability to use the Grafico plugin with Git.

I create a folder on a network drive and creat a repository with all the files exported by Archi in the Grafico format.

The branch master in Git is Ok and i try to clone the repository on my computer in local to do some changes and try to commit the changes to the repository.

The issue i encounter is that the cloned model on my computer could not be opened via the Import fonction of Grafico.
I can import the model that is in the central repository but not the cloned one thta i have in local and have no error messages.

I checked the folders and xml files on the local folder and everything seems ok and identical to the repository.

So my question is, is this the way to follow to allow users to work on the same model concurently ?

Regards,
Philippe

Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie

Hi,

You might be affected by a small bug: Git doesn't commit empty folders, so if you export a model that doesn't contain images, you'll end up with an empty "images" folder that isn't commited to Git. And thus, when you clone the repository you get only the "model" folder and not the "images" one, leading to import not working.

If this is your case, then you can workaround it by creating a canvas view with an image. I shall fix this bug one day but unfortunately haven't so much time now.

If this is not your case then we'll have to investigate a little bit more.

Regards,

JB
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PHD

HI Jean Baptiste,

I have an issue when i save the model in its Archimate version after an export to Grafico.

The message says that it cannot open the model because it is incompatible: "Class 'ArchimateModel' is not found or is abstract.

Is it a problem with the file format ?

Regards,
Philippe

Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie

Hi,

This looks like the issue that was solved between v0.1 an v0.2. Are you sure to use the latest version of the plugin?

If you look at this thread, you should find more information about this issue (if this is the same).

Regards

JB
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PHD

Hi Jean Baptiste,

You mean the org.archicontribs.grafico_0.2.0beta ?

I have to use this onoe in order to solve this issue ?

Regards,
Philippe

yvain

Hiyah,

I've looked at the GRAFICO plugin and have proved at least to myself that it all works reliably with a git repository service like bitbucket.

My question is - what is it like to use in the workplace? Especially for people who aren't used to git repositories and that sort of thing?

Are there any tips out there for how to make using it, if not idiot-proof, then at least 'manager-proof' ? ;-)


Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie

Hi,

I'm happy to receive such good feedback ;-)

Asof now Grafico is still at POC stage: perfectly usable but relying heavily on Git knowledge. I don't have a perfect solution, but in my case I had some success (with people that don't know Git) with TortoiseGit. It is simple enough to be used by newcomers and you can set it up so that only useful menu entries are visible (a basic tutorial is available here).

Another option would be to use Grafico as the basis for another plugin that could come with its own Git implementation, making it easy to use. As one can imagine, such development requieres a lot of work and can't be done for free, but I guess that if enough people are ready to pay this could be "crowdfunded" so that Phil could work on it.

Regards,

JB
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JayVee

While I admit to not knowing much about it:

  • isn't Archi based on Eclipse?
  • isn't there rather good support for versioning in Eclipse (or its existing plugins), e.g. with menu's and everything in Eclipse itself?
  • is there a way to let Archi work directly on the many files Grafico creates and then use / activate some existing Eclipse functionality / plugins to get svn/git/... working?

I'm interested in the crowd-funding idea. I wonder, if you started a tiny kickstarter for a specific functionality like this and put a quote on it, if enough participants in this discussion would pitch in?

Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie

Hi,

Archi is based on Eclipse Rich Client framework, not the Eclipse IDE. This means that there are no such things as eGit plugin usable off the shelf.

So what could basically be done is to develop an Archi plugin that uses a pure Java Git lib (JGit for example) and implement all needed Git features. But that's a lot of work. Crowdfunding could be done, but as this would rely a lot on Archi internals, this would have to be done after any major code update (as the one needed to support ArchiMate 3.0).

Regards,

JB
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JayVee