Update EA notes: help section
Ever run a model search on your diagram notes or constraints in Enterprise Architect to find unnamed elements, making it difficult to use the search results ?
To cater for this situation, eaUtils Update Notes replicates the notes description to the name so it's visible in EA model search.
The purpose is illustrated below.
Update EA notes for EA Model Search purposes
Sparx EA Example project is used to illustrate the need and purpose.
Initial context: find a note that contains "Validation" by using Enterprise Architect Model Search (Ctrl+F), selecting eaUtils MDG to run 'Find Model Notes' search.
In the results list below, the name of all notes in the Object column is empty preventing to find the relevant item.
Note: eaUtils has an embedded MDG with a predefined search.
To explain this result, the content of a note is stored within the element's Notes field, whilst the Name field is empty. The model search applies to the Notes field.
To help using the above model search, the names of the notes can be populated with the notes using eaUtils (EA Specialize ribbon menu or with a right click on a diagram) and select [eaUtils] Update notes.
eautils will update the name of all Notes and Constraints with the first 255 characters of the notes (max length). As illustrated below, the number of elements to update in the EA model is given.
Once confirmed, wait for the end message before proceeding.
Note: the update process can be cancelled if needed.
The search results list is automatically updated and usable:
Important: this feature is available to address a specific issue. Its major limitation is that the names are only updated when running eaUtils Update Notes i.e. it's not done in real-time.
To revert to the initial state i.e. all names are null, run eaUtils Update Notes and select Clear the Notes.
Result:
