Custom Meta-Model Support in Essential Project

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modikunal
Posts: 2
Joined: 31 Jul 2012, 11:39

Hi all,

First of all, I would like to congratulate the Essential Project Team on creating such a wonderful product for the open source community. Not only it is a good software, it is backed by some of the most elaborate documentation, tutorials and support I have seen for an open source product in this area.

We are planning on leveraging Essential Project to create an EA Repository for our artifacts at different layers. Our requirement is to create a simple repository which points to various artifacts at different layers of architecture and capture dependency in between.

We have reviewed the Essential Project's (EP) Meta-Model which comprises of 4 architectural layers and 3 views for each of those layers. In total there are 12 boxes which needs to be populated. Within each of these boxes there are many classes which actually capture the required data.

For our usecase, this model is very comprehensive. We were wondering is if there is a way to create a custom meta-model or strip down the existing EP Meta-model to cater to our usecase. We do understand that this will require modifications throughout the product right from capturing the data to presenting it in reports.

We would like to know what all steps are involved in lets say

1. Create a custom meta model (either new or a strip down version of the EP meta-model)
2. Capture instance data based on this custom model
3. Publish the data based on the custom model to the Essential Viewer
4. Create Reports to display the data based on this custom model

Any help or guidance in this regards is highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Kunal
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jonathan.carter
Posts: 1087
Joined: 04 Feb 2009, 15:44

Hi Kunal,

All makes sense.

The first comment I would make is that although the 12-boxes are very comprehensive, you do not have to complete every box in order get some value or meet your coarser-grained needs. Indeed, we recommend to and work with a number of clients to start with a particular scope (maybe focussed in a particular box) or a maybe broader and shallower across a number. Once you're getting some value from that, build on what you've already got to meet the requirements of the next iteration.

Rather than strip down what is in the meta model in the tool, start by

1. Understanding the scope of what it is that you need to capture.
2. Establish which classes and which slots (relations and free text) you will be using
3. Focus on only completing those fields in only the relevant forms (instances of classes)
4. Publish the model to the Viewer

This way, you are more likely to be able to leverage the OOTB Views - even if they are just a starting point for some custom Views.

Don't be put off by having lots of empty form-fields on the instances. If they are becoming a distraction, you can go into the Forms tab and hide those fields that are not currently relevant and add them back in when you find that you need them.

The meta model is open source and you can create your own derivations (suitable credited as per the license ;) ) but I think you might find that it's quicker to ignore the parts of the meta model that you don't need right now - and it will certainly be simpler in the future when you find that you need some of the other aspects!

Jonathan
Essential Project Team
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