Quicklinkers in Sparx Enterprise Architect

Quicklinkers is a popular and helpful capability for developing domain-specific MDG technologies. Each rule has its own set of characteristics, such as specified connectors between stereotypes, filtering in classifiers, defining stereotyped Relationship between stereotypes, and so on.

In the UML profile, each rule may be constructed between the stated stereotypes. Methods for defining Quicklinkers rules are

• Meta-Constraint
• Meta-Relationship
• Stereotyped Relationship

            Figure 1.  Methods for Quicklinkers

Meta-Constraint

• A Meta-Constraint specifies a rule between two specified Stereotypes.
• The value should be assigned in the tag ‘umlRole’ on the meta-constraint connection.

To create a Meta-Constraint

• In the below example we are extendinggeneralizing two stereotypes named Application and ApplicationInstance from ArchiMate_ApplicationComponent.
• Creating a new meta-constraint with type filter between the created stereotypes.
• The created meta-constraint will be used to specify the type for the target Stereotype element when it is dropped from the Browser window into a diagram.

Figure 2.  MetaConstraints

Figure 2.1  Profile MetaConstraints

Figure 2.2 – Creating MetaConstraints

Figure 2.3  Pasting the Constraints

Figure 2.4  Added MetaConstraints

Meta-Relationship

A valid UML Connector between two defined Stereotypes is specified using Meta-Relationship.

The name of the UML Connector should be set in the value of the tag ‘metaclass’ on the Meta-Relationship connector.

To create Meta- Relationship

• Creating a new metarelation with Association connector between the created stereotypes.
• The created metarelation will be used to create an Association connector in quick links.

Figure 3: MetaRelationship

Figure 3.1  Profile MetaRelationship

Figure 3.2   Adding the Meta Relationship QuickLinker

Figure 3.3   Meta Relationship Created.

Stereotyped Relationship

Stereotyped Relationship defines a stereotyped connection between two specified Stereotypes.

The name of the stereotyped connection is set in the value of the tag ‘stereotype’ on the Stereotyped Relationship connector.

To create Stereotyped Relationship

• Create a new stereotyped relationship between the already defined element stereotypes.
• The created stereotyped relationship will be used to connect the target stereotype element with created connector stereotype – composedOf

Figure 4.  Stereotyped Relationship

Figure 4.1  Profile Stereotyped Relationship.

Figure 4.2  Added Stereotyped Relationship.

Figure 4.3  Creating Elements using Stereotyped Quicklinks.

Figure 4.4  Stereotype Relationship Created.

Further Information

Please contact us or write an email to info@sparxsystems.in to have a live demo about the new EA 16 features and capabilities.