Diagram Breadcrumb Trail: help section
eaUtils Breadcrumb Trail navigation feature generates hyperlinks on a diagram to navigate back to linking diagrams. A linking diagram has at least one element that opens the current diagram i.e. a composite element (business process, activity, use case, class, SysML block...), hyperlink, package, or navigation cell.
This feature runs from the active diagram.
Important - this feature can create hyperlinks objects on the diagram.
Generate hyperlinks with eaUtils diagram breadcrumb trail
When browsing through diagrams in Sparx EA or a web browser (HTML model export or Prolaborate), hyperlinks back to a calling diagram can be useful. By default, this requires a manual update in each diagram, involving looking up the model to create suitable hyperlinks.
eaUtils breadcrumb Trail navigation gathers all the calling diagram(s) to the active diagram and generates returning links.
The following example illustrates the different types of links that one can use in Sparx Enterprise Architect to open a diagram i.e. from a Composite Element, a Package, a Hyperlink, or a Navigation Cell (introduced in EA13).
Composite elements support
Using the breadcrumb trail feature on composite elements is illustrated via the following BPMN2 model:
- Diagrams 1, 2, and 3 contain ActivityA subprocess. In EA, a double click onto any ActivityA opens the same diagram ("Activity A" diagram on the right hand side).
- We will use Activity A diagram to illustrate the breadcrumb trail feature.
- Diagram 2 contains the ActivityB subprocess which has a link to Diagram 3.
Important: running eaUtils features are based on the displayed/active diagram.
Right click in the active diagram and select Extensions > eaUtils > [Diagram] Generate breadcrumb trail as shown below: (note: if the list is different, you are not working on a diagram).
Click on OK from the following dialog to generate a link to all types of linking diagrams.
Note: to change the selection of links types, click on Edit Setting or access eaUtils settings from EA menu.
Once the breadcrumb trail links have been generated, a confirmation message is displayed:
Activity A BPMN diagram has been updated with new hyperlinks as shown below. Hyperlinks can be moved to a suitable location.
Running the Breadcrumb Trail again leads to the following dialog box:
Package Links support
eaUtils breadcrumb trail feature can be run from the package's main diagram to generate a link back to the calling diagrams. In the example below, the Package option must be enabled.
Result:
