Report Writer - Numbered/Bullet lines

General Questions/Discussions
1

When I try and include Documentation of a class in Report Writer and it includes either a numbered or bullet list, the text for these lines are not reported only the numbers or bullets.

I am using VP-UML 6.4 (sp2_20090206a)

Thanks.

Mitchell.

2

Hi Mitchell,

Thanks for your post. Recently we fixed some problems on numbered and bullet list in Report Writer, could you please try the latest patch (link below) to see whether your problem can be solved?

http://files2.visual-paradigm.com/200903/Patch/sp2_20090312c/VP_Suite_Windows_3_4_sp2_20090312c.exe

Best regards,
Lilian Wong

3

Lilian.

Yes that did the trick, but have some other questions on report writer. Is there a User Guide, there are obviously some aspects we don’t understand e.g. removing inserted model element, these seam to reappear when you update from model.

Is there also a way of creating a dynamic report, that is one that will report on new classes, attribute, operation etc. without having to explicitly create them in the report. The equivalent to what Crystal Reports and IBM/Rational’s Soda allow you to do.

I’ve looked at Generate Word Report but that does’nt give you the flexibiity in structure or content.

4

Hi Mitchell,

Thanks for replying. You can customize the template for Report Writer to generate contents to fit your need (e.g. not to show some details of model element), so that it only refreshes the details you want based on your changes in project. Details of customizing template can be found from the following link:
http://oldresources.visual-paradigm.com/vpsuite3.2/enhanced_report_writer.html

In next release, we will introduce a new report engine which is more customizable to get a output to suit/to be closer to your requirements.

BTW, recently users are actively asking questions about customizing template for Report Writer in product forum “Visual Paradigm for UML (VP-UML)” ( http://forums.visual-paradigm.com/forums/show/1.html ). You can take a look at the posts, you may find them helpful.

Best regards,
Lilian Wong

5

Thanks Lilian.

6

Hi Mitchell,

You are welcome. Please feel free to ask if you need any help on customizing template.

Best regards,
Lilian Wong

7

Lilian.

I’ve looked at the information you gave me but still can’t see how to get the format required, maybe a need a customised template as you mentioned.

I’ve attached a screen shot of out model structure and layout for the report we are trying to get. Basically it’s to iterate through all the Sub-Processes in a Package, display it’s Documentation and sub-diagram and enclosed tasks with the documentaion for each task displayed. Ideally this really should be dynamic i.e. if I add sub-processes or new tasks the report should add new entries without having to re-edit to the report - just re-fresh.

Thanks.

Mitchell.
Report Example.doc

8

Hi Mitchell,

Thanks for replying. I’ve forwarded the issue to our engineers to follow-up, and will come back to you when there is feedback.

Best regards,
Lilian Wong

9

Hi Mitchell,

Sorry for my late response. Attached please find the sample template, which should be placed inside VPSuite/resources/Report/Default/BPSubProcess folder.

Hope this helps. If you need any further assistance, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards,
Lilian Wong
AllSubProcesses.xml

10

Lilian.

Excellent, works a treat, thankyou.

This raises another question, how do we find out about all the different property name and the type of construct in order to write our own xml.

For example we were trying to write a report to extract the contraints propery of the operations for a class, but there is no selection for this property.

Thanks again

Mitchell

11

Hi Mitchell,

Thanks for replying. Please specify:
modelType="ConstraintElement"
to extract constraint of operation.

Best regards,
Lilian Wong

12

Thanks Lilian but we are still unsure what the XML construct should be i.e. iteration block, property etc. We ahve looked at the equivalent XML for constrains for a class but this doesn’t appear to work, even for the class. Ca you give us example XML.

Is there a source document of meta model that will give us the elemnt types and hence what xml constructs we need to use, it would save us occupying your valuable time.

Thanks again.

Mitchell.

13

Hi Mitchell,

Thanks for replying. Generally, IterationBlock is for retrieving children of the model, property can be used for diagram and model element.

About element types should be used in template, we will support getting the model statements so that you can easily know the element Types for customizing templates. I’ll keep you informed for any news on this issue.

Best regards,
Lilian Wong

14

Hi Mitchell,

I just sent you a private message about the getting model statement, please check your private message box. Hope you find the information helpful.

Best regards,
Lilian Wong

15

Got that thanks, will have a look.

One other question, I have just tried to share a report with another collegue to run agains a different model. I assumed that I neede to export and he should then import. But upon importing Report Writer doesn’t appear to recognise the XML when refreshing the report.

I assume then this is the wrong way to share reports, what is the correct way and where are these reports stored.

I think I’ve asked this before, but is there a User Guide to answer such questions.

Mitchell.

16

Hi mitchell,

Thank you for the post. You mentioned “XML”, which makes me feel that you are talking about the customized templates. You said that the XML aren’t recognized. Did you mean that the customized templates aren’t recognized?

If so, did you send your colleague the customized report templates, and make sure that the templates files are put in the correct folders? To make sure the templates are well placed, please try in Report Writer dragging and dropping new content with the customized templates.

Secondly, you also mentioned “different model”, were you talking about another .vpp project file? In such case, refresh of report won’t work. In order to make an imported report able to refresh, the project for importing report must be the creator of the report so that the mapping between project data and report file can be made. (The mapping is stored in project, not in report)

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,
Jick

17

Jik.

I have developed a Report using barious XML Templates some out of the Box one custome (as supplied by lillian - see page 1 of topics). I now want to run that Rport for another .vpp Project File. I will also want “others” to run the same report against own .vpp (they will be in differet sites with their own VP software and set-up etc.)

What steps do I need to perform to allow that to happen (we are new to VP Report Writer) and how do we also ensure everyone has the same Styles etc. so that the reports render in the same way.

Thanks.

Mitchell.

18

Hi Mitchell,

First, I am afraid that this is impossible to make a report link up to different projects. You can imagine, if Project-A is for modeling an Order Processing System, while Project-B is for an ATM system, they two have different project data. If you created content for a “Process Order” use case in Project-A, you cannot locate such use case in Project-B.

You can imagine Report Writer to work in this way:
You have a .vpp project file. There is a bridge to link up the project file and the report. The bridge is important to link up project data and the report, which makes the report able to refresh. Without the bridge, the report will lost the refresh capability. If you export the report, and import it to ANOTHER project, the bridge will then lost.

Although it is impossible to share a Report, it is perfectly alright to share the XML templates. Assuming that you are the owner of customized XML templates, all you need to do is to:

  1. distribute your %VP-Suite-Dir%\resources\Report folder to your colleagues
  2. Ask them to replace the Report folder with yours

By doing so, your colleagues can create report with the templates you designed.

Hope this helps. Please feel free to let me know if there are any questions.

Best regards,
Jick

19

Jick.

But you could make the initial seeding e.g. Package Name, parameter driven in the way IBM/Rational Soda does with Word. Which then allows re-usable reports to be written, as most Project Package Structures should be standard. This is the appraoch we use with Rational Rose and Soda (being replaced by VP, so we are looking at what works differently).

The second question, given that we can get re-usability through XML Templates is how we standardise on styles i.e Heading 1 is the same when reports from different Projects are run. Are the Open Office styles export/importable or are they part an parcle of the Template, as in Word?

Mitchell.

20

Hi Mitchell,

I regret that our Report Writer works as an agile reporting tool rather than soda -like tool.

As per the enquiry on style, styles are stored in the report file. Therefore, you can define style in a report. Exporting the report to another user will have styles preserved.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Jick