On Dec 2, 2009, at 12:14 PM, Mike Schrag wrote:
> I whipped up a quick graffle generator: http://webobjects.mdimension.com/wolips/eomodelgraffle-latest.jar
And nobody even had to say you couldn't do it. :-D
> screengrab of output (you will want to click one of the autolayouts -- it doesn't try layout):
>
> <PastedGraphic-1.png>
> java -jar eomodelgraffle-latest.jar -output /tmp/Test.graffle -modelgroup /Users/mschrag/Documents/workspace/CallLogs/Resources
>
> It uses velocity templates for the graffle chunks, so you can make your own if you really want, though the layout within the group is done in code (because it has to compute offsets, etc). Could probably make that fancier, but whatever -- 1 hr.
And just to up the ante on this, you can a Builder that will automatically generate the diagram for you when your project builds.
1) Drop the eomodelgraffle-latest.jar into your Applications directory (or wherever you want)
2) Get Properties on your eclipse project, select "Builders"
3) Create a new "Program" Builder
4) Set location to (on OS X): /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home/bin/java
5) Set Arguments to: -jar /Applications/eomodelgraffle-latest.jar -output ${project_loc}/Resources/MyModel.graffle -model ${project_loc}/Resources/MyModel.eomodeld
6) Change the "Refresh" tab to refresh "The project containing the selected resource"
Next time you build your project, your diagram will be generated.
For extra credit, you can create your own templates.
Here's the usage:
eomodelgraffle -output /path/to/output/Model.graffle [-model /path/to/model.eomodeld]* [-modelgroup /path/to/working/dir] [-templates /path/to/templates] [-entityURLTemplate "http://whatever?${entity.classNamePath}.html"
>> There may be personal preferences on how to do things, but I mean, how can you have an overview and discuss about the relationships and the quality and naming of them when you have just a list of entities in a tool?
> Just how I work ... I can reword your sentence to say "just a pile of boxes and lines on 30 pages" and make it sound just as silly, I suppose. I find diagrams to be completely worthless. Maybe it's just me. When I go to a website for some new technology and it has an architecture diagram on it, my brain turns off. They just do nothing for me. I'd rather navigate EOModelDoc or just Entity Modeler. I can double-click a relationship and jump to its destination, i can open entities and see their subentities, all without filling my entire wall with a subway map. Maybe it's just me.
No, it's not just either of you. I think this delineates the difference between two different kinds of people. I'm guessing they are the exact same people on different sides of the WOBuilder vs Component Editor discussion. Some people need to see pictures to understand the more abstract ideas behind code, and others just mentally compile the code.
I, personally, am a visual person. I loved WOBuilder, I missed being able to switch over and look at a diagram in EOModeler and I still rely on D2JC's Assistant. They take abstract concepts and make them real for me.
I can only wish that I were the type that can just mentally "compile" code on the fly and understand it at the level Mike, Anjo and many others do, but I just can't. If I don't have the visual tools, I'm much less productive. That's just the way I am. Which also means that I'm likely not going to be creating those lovely visual tools either.
Dave
>
>> I can't speak for others, but in my environment I have never found anyone questioning the necessity of a diagram view to discuss and review a model within a group of people. May be I am living in another world ,-)
> I know lots of people like diagrams. I'm just not one of them.
>
>> My question is, how much of an effort would it be to include a diagram view in Entity Modeler similar to the EOModeler, even if it seems we would be the only ones using them? Or is the answer anyway that will never happen and we have to look for another tool? At least I know then there is no hope and we have to leave and look for something else, although not what we would like.
> It's enough effort that I haven't done it. If you care enough about it that you want to fund the development of it, we're always open to that, but I don't really plan on investing a huge amount of time in a diagramming component that will unquestionably be subpar compared to what Graffle can do. It doesn't make sense to me.
>
> ms
David Avendasora
Senior Software Engineer
K12, Inc.
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