Hi,
I was wondering if you could give me some details on developing reports on the inter-layer relationships (the relationships and links between the different architecture domains). Thanks, appreciate the help.
Gaurav
reporting on inter-layer relationships
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jason.powell
- Posts: 32
- Joined: 04 Feb 2009, 15:01
Hi Gaurav,
When developing reports, the first and most important step is to have a clear understanding of the question or questions that the report should be answering (e.g. “Which of my applications are being shared across business units?”).
Once the questions to be answered are understood, the next step is to go into he Essential Modeler (Protégé) to identify the classes, relationships and slots that will need to be traversed in order to provide the required view.
TIP - VIEWING META-MODEL CLASS/SLOT NAMES IN PROTEGE: Click on the “Project | Configure…” menu item to view the full list of additional tabs that are available. Place a tick in the box next to the “ClsesTab” entry and then click "OK". There will now be a new tab inside of Protégé labelled “Classes”. This tab provides access to the underlying meta-model and most importantly in this context, the class and slot names that will be referenced by Essential Reports.
Developing the actual report template requires familiarity with XML/XSL (for querying the relationships/links in your repository) and HTML (for formatting the output). We would suggest that you review one of the packaged report templates included with the download to use as an example of how it is done or even as a starting point for your custom report. Perhaps a good one to look at would be the Application Impact Analysis report template, which can be found in your Essential Viewer installation in the following location:
NOTE: if you are using a tool such as XMLSpy or Oxygen to develop your XSL then you may need a copy of your repository in XML format for debugging purposes. The simplest way to retrieve this is to publish your repository to Essential Viewer (see tutorial Publishing Your Architecture Model) and then copy the following file from your Essential Viewer installation to a location of your choice:
We are in the process of developing further tutorials specifically for this area and appreciate your patience in the mean time. As always, if you do get stuck, feel free to post additional questions here and we will do our best to respond as quickly as possible.
Jason (Essential Project Team)
When developing reports, the first and most important step is to have a clear understanding of the question or questions that the report should be answering (e.g. “Which of my applications are being shared across business units?”).
Once the questions to be answered are understood, the next step is to go into he Essential Modeler (Protégé) to identify the classes, relationships and slots that will need to be traversed in order to provide the required view.
TIP - VIEWING META-MODEL CLASS/SLOT NAMES IN PROTEGE: Click on the “Project | Configure…” menu item to view the full list of additional tabs that are available. Place a tick in the box next to the “ClsesTab” entry and then click "OK". There will now be a new tab inside of Protégé labelled “Classes”. This tab provides access to the underlying meta-model and most importantly in this context, the class and slot names that will be referenced by Essential Reports.
Developing the actual report template requires familiarity with XML/XSL (for querying the relationships/links in your repository) and HTML (for formatting the output). We would suggest that you review one of the packaged report templates included with the download to use as an example of how it is done or even as a starting point for your custom report. Perhaps a good one to look at would be the Application Impact Analysis report template, which can be found in your Essential Viewer installation in the following location:
This report traverses the Application and Business Layers (across Logical and Physical views) and should help you understand how to construct the queries in XSL that you will need.{Tomcat_Install_Dir}/webapps/essential_viewer/application/app_impact.xsl
NOTE: if you are using a tool such as XMLSpy or Oxygen to develop your XSL then you may need a copy of your repository in XML format for debugging purposes. The simplest way to retrieve this is to publish your repository to Essential Viewer (see tutorial Publishing Your Architecture Model) and then copy the following file from your Essential Viewer installation to a location of your choice:
Once you have developed your new report template and saved it to an appropriate sub-folder under your Essential Viewer installation, e.g.{Tomcat_Install_Dir}/webapps/essential_viewer/reportXML.xml
, the final step is to publish the report in Essential so that others can have access to it. Instructions for doing this can be found in the Creating New Reports tutorial.{Tomcat_Install_Dir}/webapps/essential_viewer/my_custom_reports/my_custom_report.xsl)
We are in the process of developing further tutorials specifically for this area and appreciate your patience in the mean time. As always, if you do get stuck, feel free to post additional questions here and we will do our best to respond as quickly as possible.
Jason (Essential Project Team)
Essential Project Team
