Update EA notes: help section (eaUtils v1)
Have you ever run a search on your diagram notes or constraints in Enterprise Architect? If your answer is yes, you may have noticed that Notes and Constraints have an empty Name as per the search results list. To cater for this specific situation, I added to eaUtils a feature that replicates the notes description to the name so it's visible in EA model search.
The purpose is illustrated below.
Update EA notes to cater for EA Model Search (eaUtils v1)
02/2021 update: performance improvements are available in v1.19.3
Sparx EA Example project is used to illustrate the need and purpose.
Initial context: I'm looking for a note that contains "Validation" via Enterprise Architect Model Search (Ctrl+F). In the first drop down list, eaUtils MDG is selected so the 'Find Model Notes' can be used.
In the results list below, the name of the notes in the Object column is empty so it's not possible to easily review their content.
* Note: I introduced in eaUtils 1.18.6 an embedded MDG with a predefined search and UML Profile examples.
This result is due to the fact that when a note is created, the content is stored within the element's Notes field, whilst the Name field is empty:
To populate the names of the notes and help with the search as described above, open eaUtils menu (from EA main or ribbon menu) and select [eaUtils] Update notes.
By default the feature is configured to update the name of all Notes and Constraints with the first 255 characters of the notes (name max length). As illustrated below, the number of elements to update in the EA model is given.
Once you've clicked on YES, wait for the end message before proceeding. Note: you can cancel the update process if needed.
The search results list is automatically updated and usable as per the Object column:
Important: This feature is available to address a specific issue. Its major limitation is that the names are only updated when running eaUtils i.e. it's not done in real-time.
If the names need to be cleared, run eaUtils Update Notes and select Clear the Notes option.
