Application Connections

9 min

What

This view enables you to see your mapped application connections by data object when selected. When filtered, you can filter by application, application capability and data object. Allowing you to see related integrations, applications services and information going into and from the applications.

If you have lots of applications it may be best to use the filters. Do this by selecting an application or interface, or by selecting the Filtered option at the top, also giving the option to select an application or interface. The arrows indicate the direction of information flow.

When you click an arrow you will get a popup menu displaying in the information type. Selecting a new arrow will replace the information displayed in the popup menu. Expand the information tree to reveal data objects, and select the data objects to reveal details about the selected data object.

Select the information representation arrow to reveal the related information views, and any data objects under those. Selecting a data object will reveal details about the selected data object as shown below.

Filtering by an application will focus on a single application and related data. Filtering by an application capability will display applications using that capability. Choosing to filter by data object will highlight the arrows that use the selected data object.

There is also the option to change the Depth, with higher numbers providing a higher level of detail of the application connections.

Depth: 1

 

Depth 2:

 

Depth 3:

 

Usage

Use this to view and analyse your overall application data dependencies. For demonstrating your data dependency model you can export via PDF if you were presenting. This view is also integrated with our roadmap so you can demonstrate what future application connections will look like, and scoping capabilities.

Data Capture

To get your application connections to display in the view, you will need applications, application provider interfaces (optional), information representations, information view, and data objects.

We recommend capturing this data using the Dependencies tab in the Application Editor. Select the application you want to capture connections for. In the dependencies tab, create new relationships by dragging and dropping applications or interfaces in the dependencies window. For example, drag an application to the window and a list of your applications will appear.

After adding an application, create a relationship by selecting the arrow icon and dragging it to the target application. You can also drag applications and interfaces once they have been added to avoid arrows overlap existing dependencies.

When the relationship has been created, select the arrow then the pencil icon to capture data exchanged for the dependency. Select Add Information, then either the source application or the target application, then add a New Data Flow.

Added Data Flow:

Select the data flow to capture/maintain details about the flow, like the data acquisition method, service qualities, and information exchanged.

To capture these instances in the backend Capture screen, in an application, capture data for the following slots (Class Name) and the Uses Information slot.

In the application again, select ADD/NEW in the Uses Information slot, this will take you to the Application Provider to Information Relationship class, fill in the required fields; Information Representation Used, Using Application, and the CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete). Select the Information Representation Used slot, and add the Implementation Information Objects (Information View). Then, add the Supporting Data Objects and Implemented As (Information Representation). Once this has been captured, publish to the viewer and the data should be in the View.

For capturing scoping framework and roadmap enablement, follow this link.

Meta Model

To capture basic data required for this view, use the below Meta Model, along with any other data you need to capture for these instances.

For capturing the Application Dependency data, use the below Meta Model diagram. Some relationships here are the same as the meta model above, you won’t need to capture them again this is just to display the dependency model. You may need to use both diagrams depending on your requirements.

View Setup

The View will be in the Application section of the viewer. If the view is not there, you may need to enable it or add it to the portal. You can do this in the Capture tab, in the class tree, go to EA Class > EA Support > Essential Viewer > Report. Filter by “Application Connections” or scroll to find the view, make sure the Enabled box is ticked, then publish to the viewer.

You can also use the Viewer Configurator to manage your portals. Find the view in the Support section of the View Library then select ‘Set Portals’. Select the portal you want to add the view to, then Add Report and select the Application Connections view. Tick the box to enable the view and publish to make the changes.

Updated 21 November 2024