Example

The following diagram shows the elements defined in a package with a variety of alias values to illustrate the use of eaUtils Sort By Alias feature.

Using the alias field to sort elements

This feature lets you use the elements Alias field to define their sorting order within a package or element.

Sort elements within a package by alias

Option 1: default settings

Right click on the package from the Project Browser where the elements need to be sorted > Extensions > eaUtils > [Browser] Sort elements.

In the following dialog window, select Alias as the sorting option and confirm that you would like to proceed.

Note: eaUtils current sort by settings are displayed. The settings can be opened and modified if needed.

Once the sorting is complete, the following confirmation is displayed:

The expected result is illustrated below (note that the option "Identify and sort integers within string values" is enabled by default).

The new sorting order is visible in Enterprise Architect project browser as illustrated below:

Option 2: "Identify and sort integers within string values" setting disabled

When the option "Identify and sort integers within string values" is disabled in eaUtils settings, there is no attempt to extract integer values and sort them accordingly. Based on the previous data set, disabling this option will impact use cases with UC-x-Test alias values, and requirements with REQx values:

• The expected order for the use cases is UC-1-Test, UC-12-Test, UC-29-Test, UC-3-Test,whereas the previous result with this option enabled by default was UC-1-Test, UC-3-Test, UC-12-Test, UC-29-Test.
• The expected order for the requirements is REQ1, REQ12, REQ4, REQ45, whereas the previous result was REQ1, REQ4, REQ12, REQ45.

The expected result is illustrated below. Note that ActorC with alias "UC-12-Test" is placed before Actor4 with alias "UC-1-Test" due to a constraint in the sorting method used in C#.

The new sorting order is visible in Enterprise Architect project browser as illustrated below:

Option 3: Use the Case Sensitive Value setting

eaUtils can be set as case sensitive on the values.

This can be useful when you need to treat values like "Requirement1, requirement2, REQUIREMENT3, requirement4, Requirement5" as within the same list or not. When making eaUtils case sensitive, the previous list will be sorted as follows: "requirement2, requirement4, Requirement1, Requirement5, REQUIREMENT3".

Option 4: Sort numbering sequences setting

The following diagram illustrates a package content which alias need to be sorted using eaUtils Sort numbering sequences option.

When enabled, this option leads to the following result in the project browser:

Note: this option is limited to the first level of the sequence e.g. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and does not support examples like 1.1.1, 1.2.1, 1.2.3...

Option 5: sort sub elements 

Introduced in eaUtils 1.14, the "process sub elements" sorting setting is available so that not only elements within the selected package are sorted, but also elements placed within elements of that package.

This option has been implemented to cater for a user working with ArchiMate business processes, summarized and illustrated as follows:

• The business processes' alias field value match their executing order (e.g. BP-1, BP-2, etc.).
• BP-2 process includes subprocesses, located under that element (BP2-1, BP2-2, etc.).
• All the process elements within this model need to be ordered by alias.

Running eaUtils sort by alias on the main package with the sub elements setting enabled leads to the following result:

Note: in the main example model, running the sort by alias with the sub elements setting enabled makes it possible to sort elements within the selected package, as well the the elements within the composite use case (Use Case0), illustrated in the next section.

Sort elements within an element by alias

When an element contains itself elements, e.g. a UML activity or use case contains activities, nodes, etc., these elements can be sorted with eaUtils addin.

Option 1: default settings

Right click in the Project Browser on the element that contains the embedded elements to be sorted > Extensions > eaUtils > [Browser] Sort elements.

In the following dialog window, select Alias as the sorting option and confirm that you would like to proceed.

The expected result is illustrated below (note that the option "Identify and sort integers within string values" is enabled by default).

Once confirmed, the elements are sorted as illustrated below, matching the above expected results:

Option 2: "Identify and sort integers within string values" setting disabled

When the option "Identify and sort integers within string values" is disabled in eaUtils settings, there is no attempt to extract integer values and sort them accordingly.

The expected result is illustrated below.

Once confirmed, the elements are sorted as illustrated below, matching the above expected results:

Video

An example on using this feature is available from UMLChannel YouTube channel.