Home » Modeling » GMF (Graphical Modeling Framework) » Some explanation/guidance/help for the GMF graph editor?
| Some explanation/guidance/help for the GMF graph editor? [message #61406] |
Thu, 12 October 2006 07:05  |
Eclipse User |
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I must admit I find the .gmfgraph editor not exactly self-explanatory!
Is there some help or guidance on this available? The tutorial is rather
silent on this. So I am like staggering along through a dark forest
during the night, banging my head left and right.
I loaded a couple of default resources listed in the tutorial
("basic.gmfgraph", "classDiagram.gmfgraph" and "stateDiagram.gmfgraph")
and I am now trying to compose my own "widgets" by copy-pasting figure
gallery items from those over into my own figure gallery and then
defining my elements using the above as figures. Some work, some
don't.... I am e.g. trying to define a simple connection with an arrow
tip. For this I copied the "PolyLine Connection SolidLineWDstArrow" from
classDiagram.gmfgraph (which also references "Polyline Decoration
Arrow", which I copied over as well). If I now define a Connection "foo"
and try to set the "Figure" property to be the above "....
SolidLineWDstArrow", then as soon as I leave the property field its
content is reset to empty. I don't get why this is not accepted! Is
there something missing? But if so: what? There is no issue listed in
the Problem view, no error message displayed, no entry in the .log nor
anything similar. My input is just silently discarded and that's it :-(
When I got stuck with the above I tried whether I would get any further
with the "graphical designer" mentioned in the tutorial (i.e. I
installed the "Experimental SDK"). I created the gmfgraph_diagram file
and fired that editor up (guessing that this is how that's supposed to
work) and I see a couple of boxes with familiar names placed along the
top border, but then what? What is a user supposed to do, draw or
connect at this point? *Any* intro or explanation on this?
Michael
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| Re: Some explanation/guidance/help for the GMF graph editor? [message #61534 is a reply to message #61406] |
Thu, 12 October 2006 09:17  |
| Eclipse User |
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First, you don't need to copy figure to use it, the idea of figure galleries
is to have reusable libraries of figures, instead of redefining them each
time. Nevertheless, having your own copy should be possible, and the issues
you faced migth have something to do with EMF generated editor, rather than
with .gmfgraph model itself
Experimental designer gives you space to create new figures and diagram
elements, relate them with links. Though I won't recommend it to study
..gmfgraph.
Artem
"Michael Moser" <mmo@zurich.ibm.com> wrote in message
news:egl7ib$7u0$1@utils.eclipse.org...
>I must admit I find the .gmfgraph editor not exactly self-explanatory! Is
>there some help or guidance on this available? The tutorial is rather
>silent on this. So I am like staggering along through a dark forest during
>the night, banging my head left and right.
>
> I loaded a couple of default resources listed in the tutorial
> ("basic.gmfgraph", "classDiagram.gmfgraph" and "stateDiagram.gmfgraph")
> and I am now trying to compose my own "widgets" by copy-pasting figure
> gallery items from those over into my own figure gallery and then defining
> my elements using the above as figures. Some work, some don't.... I am
> e.g. trying to define a simple connection with an arrow tip. For this I
> copied the "PolyLine Connection SolidLineWDstArrow" from
> classDiagram.gmfgraph (which also references "Polyline Decoration Arrow",
> which I copied over as well). If I now define a Connection "foo" and try
> to set the "Figure" property to be the above ".... SolidLineWDstArrow",
> then as soon as I leave the property field its content is reset to empty.
> I don't get why this is not accepted! Is there something missing? But if
> so: what? There is no issue listed in the Problem view, no error message
> displayed, no entry in the .log nor anything similar. My input is just
> silently discarded and that's it :-(
>
> When I got stuck with the above I tried whether I would get any further
> with the "graphical designer" mentioned in the tutorial (i.e. I installed
> the "Experimental SDK"). I created the gmfgraph_diagram file and fired
> that editor up (guessing that this is how that's supposed to work) and I
> see a couple of boxes with familiar names placed along the top border, but
> then what? What is a user supposed to do, draw or connect at this point?
> *Any* intro or explanation on this?
>
> Michael
>
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| Re: Some explanation/guidance/help for the GMF graph editor? [message #61773 is a reply to message #61534] |
Thu, 12 October 2006 11:40 |
| Eclipse User |
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Hi Artem,
"Artem Tikhomirov" <artem.tikhomirov@borland.com> wrote in message
news:eglf3p$hrd$1@utils.eclipse.org...
> First, you don't need to copy figure to use it, the idea of figure
> galleries is to have reusable libraries of figures, instead of
> redefining them each time. ...
I tried exactly that - i.e. instead of defining my own figure gallery I
loaded the ".../basic.gmfgraph" file and then tried to assign a figure
from that gallery (e.g. "Rectangle NodeRectangle") to a node that I had
defined. But that exhibits exactly the behavior that I described: As
soon as I leave the drop-down field the field is empty again, i.e. my
selection (even though it is displayed as one of the options in the
drop-down list) is apparently not accepted.
Michael
> ... Nevertheless, having your own copy should be possible, and the
> issues you faced migth have something to do with EMF generated editor,
> rather than with .gmfgraph model itself
>
> Experimental designer gives you space to create new figures and
> diagram elements, relate them with links. Though I won't recommend it
> to study .gmfgraph.
??? But what is it then good for? The way that note in the tutorial was
phrased, I thought it was exactly for that purpose, namely to generate
the visual representations (i.e. eventually the .gmfgraph file) required
for the GMF mapping step. Shouldn't it then also be possible to
visualize existing .gmfgraph files? I'm lost...
Michael
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| Re: Some explanation/guidance/help for the GMF graph editor? [message #64112 is a reply to message #61773] |
Tue, 17 October 2006 08:23 |
| Eclipse User |
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Hmm, apparently, a fix for a different problem introduced in a meantime made
this not possible :(
Copy-pasting figure works, however.
>> Experimental designer gives you space to create new figures and diagram
>> elements, relate them with links. Though I won't recommend it to study
>> .gmfgraph.
>
> ??? But what is it then good for? The way that note in the tutorial was
> phrased, I thought it was exactly for that purpose, namely to generate the
> visual representations (i.e. eventually the .gmfgraph file) required for
> the GMF mapping step. Shouldn't it then also be possible to visualize
> existing .gmfgraph files? I'm lost...
I won't recommend it just because it's (a) *experimental* and (b) we do not
pay a lot of attention to making it nice and sophisticated. Though, it's
functional to certain extend.
Artem.
"Michael Moser" <mmo@zurich.ibm.com> wrote in message
news:eglnlp$a3p$1@utils.eclipse.org...
> Hi Artem,
>
> "Artem Tikhomirov" <artem.tikhomirov@borland.com> wrote in message
> news:eglf3p$hrd$1@utils.eclipse.org...
>> First, you don't need to copy figure to use it, the idea of figure
>> galleries is to have reusable libraries of figures, instead of redefining
>> them each time. ...
>
> I tried exactly that - i.e. instead of defining my own figure gallery I
> loaded the ".../basic.gmfgraph" file and then tried to assign a figure
> from that gallery (e.g. "Rectangle NodeRectangle") to a node that I had
> defined. But that exhibits exactly the behavior that I described: As soon
> as I leave the drop-down field the field is empty again, i.e. my selection
> (even though it is displayed as one of the options in the drop-down list)
> is apparently not accepted.
>
> Michael
>
>> ... Nevertheless, having your own copy should be possible, and the issues
>> you faced migth have something to do with EMF generated editor, rather
>> than with .gmfgraph model itself
>>
>> Experimental designer gives you space to create new figures and diagram
>> elements, relate them with links. Though I won't recommend it to study
>> .gmfgraph.
>
> ??? But what is it then good for? The way that note in the tutorial was
> phrased, I thought it was exactly for that purpose, namely to generate the
> visual representations (i.e. eventually the .gmfgraph file) required for
> the GMF mapping step. Shouldn't it then also be possible to visualize
> existing .gmfgraph files? I'm lost...
>
> Michael
>
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