How to start developing for Decision Architect?
Prerequisites
Checkout, build, and run
- Instructions tested for Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2012.
- Important: VisualStudio needs Administrator privileges in order to automatically register the dll
- Connect to the Team Foundation Project Server using Visual Studio
- View > Team Explorer > Projects and My Teams > Connect to Team Projects
- You can find the URL and login credentials by clicking on Connect in the
SOURCE CODE tab on CodePlex
- Map the da project to a local folder in the Source Control Explorer
- On the Local Path it should write Not mapped. Click on this link and select a local location where you want to download the files. If you want to build the installer this path must end with a folder named ViewpointsAddIn
whose parent folder can be mapped to the logical P:\ drive (see below). This is due to the current configuration of the Installer project. Click on
Map and then Yes
- The project consist of four folders
- decisions: Contains architecture and decision documentation of the tool
- metamodel: Contains the sources of the MDG and the meta model
- src: Contains the projects files and the actual source code
- BuildProcessTemplates: Default folder. Can be ignored for now.
- Open the solution file src/DecisionArchitect.sln
- Add third party references to Interop.EA for the project
DecisionArchitect, EAFacade, and DecisionArchitectTests
- For each project, right click on "References" and click "Add Reference...".
- Add a reference to Interop.EA.dll by browsing to the file in the installation directory of Enterprise Architect.
- Add third party references to Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel for the project DecisionArchitect
- For the project DecisionArchitect right click on "References" and click "Add Reference...".
- Add a reference to Microsoft Excel [version] Object Library where [version] is the File Version number (e.g. 15.0). The reference can be found under COM > Type Libraries.
- Add third party references to DocumentFormat.OpenXML for the project
DecisionArchitect
- Add a reference to DocumentFormat.OpenXml.dll by browsing to the file in the installation directory of the
OpenXML SDK.
- Set EA. exe as start action in order to be able to debug the add-in.
- Right click on the project DecisionArchitect and select properties.
- Navigate to tab Debug and select the configuration debug
- Specify path to EA.exe in Start external program (When using the trial: C:\Program Files\Sparx Systems\EA Trial\EA.exe , otherwise: C:\Program Files\Sparx Systems\EA\EA.exe)
- Repeat for other configurations, e.g. release
- Add the add-in in the windows registry (if necessary), so it is automatically loaded by EA
- Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sparx Systems
- Right click and add a key with the name EAAddins (if it does not already exist)
- Right click on the EAAddins key and add a key with the name of the project in Visual Studio, in this case
Decision Architect.
- Double click on the (Default) value on the right pane, and enter the value in the form of [ProjectName].[ClassName], so in this case
DecisionArchitect.MainApplication
- If you plan to change the MDG or to create an Installer, you need to map the logical drive
P to the project folder
- Run the command net use P: \\folder\to\project\da\source, e.g.
net use P: \\computer\c$\Users\Developers\Documents\da\src for the main branch
- If you run VisualStudio as Administrator, you need to run the command as Administrator and normal user
- Test if the project can be compiled and debugged
- In Enterprise Architect
- Check if Extension > Manage Add-Ins lists Decision Architect and the status is
Enabled
- Check if Settings > MDG Technologies lists the technology
Decision Architect
- Check if the Extensions > Decision Architect is present
- Read the Developer Guidelines and Start coding! :-)