Visual Paradigm Know-how

Hashing your project contents using VP Project Anonymous Tool

VP Team — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:18:05 +0000

Visual Paradigm is always committed to deliver the best possible service to users. When users experience issues that seem to be too complex to diagnose over emails, users could send over their project files for us to better understand their problems and come back with a solution faster. However, we also understand that users might be concerned with passing along project files which contain sensitive or even confidential business information. To address this concern, we have developed the Project Anonymous Tool for users to hash their project data into meaningless information and make it safe to send in for diagnosis.

Visual Paradigm Project Anonymous Tool

What is VP Project Anonymous Tool?

VP Project Anonymous Tool is a small utility for users to hash project data into meaningless information. It is bundled in VP’s product* and you don’t need any extra work for setup. It replaces the names and documentations of all models in a project with meaningless information by converting the original text to random letters of the same length. This helps to preserve the model size while “erasing” all contents. Note that this anonymization process is irreversible. As there is no way to revert an anonymized project back to its original form (not even Visual Paradigm), it’s safe to send it to us for diagnosis.

The original model (shown on left) and the anonymized model (shown on right).

How to anonymize your project file

To anonymize your project:

Go to the scripts folder under the installation directory and execute the ProjectAnonymousTool script.
Launching Project Anonymous Tool
Click the Browse button next to the Source field to open the file chooser and select the project file that you want to anonymize.
The anonymized file will be placed into a folder called “anonymized” within the folder containing the source project. You can change the default output path either by editing it directly in the box or by clicking the Browse button next to the Target file using the file chooser.
A summary of the projects involved as well as the target output location will be listed in the Project list.
The Project Anonymous Tool will fill in the output location automatically upon selecting the source file.
Once you have specified the path, click the Start button to start the process.
The original name and the anonymized name of the model element will be shown in the Anonymization log. You can right click on the list and select Copy to system clipboard to make a copy.
You can copy the anonymization log to system clipboard, and paste it to a text file for future reference.

Handling of linked projects

Linked projects will be identified and automatically added to the Project list. All linked projects will also be outputted to the anonymized folder as the source project. The Project Anonymous Tool will resolve the linkages when performing anonymization and make sure that an anonymized project is appropriately linked to other anonymized project(s) but not the original project file.

The Project Anonymous Tool will resolve the linked projects and add them to the Project List.

Project versions

The Project Anonymous Tool can anonymize any Visual Paradigm’s projects saved by any version of Visual Paradigm products. The outputted file will remain at the same version as your original project file.

Use with caution

Please note the following when using the Project Anonymous Tool.

The anonymization process is irreversible. You cannot reverse an anonymized project back to its original form. Although the tool will output the anonymized file to another location, it is always recommended to make a backup for your original project files before performing anonymization.
Do not overwrite your working project with the anonymized project.
Do not commit the anonymized project to Teamwork Server. This will overwrite the models in Teamwork Repository.

Send us your work for diagnosis

Once you have anonymized your project, you can send us the anonymized project for diagnosis.

* Project Anonymous Tool is bundled in Visual Paradigm’s product starting from VP-UML 9.0, Agilian 4.0 and BP-VA 5.0 (build 20120327aw).

Obtaining a Key for Evaluation/Community Edition

VP Team — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 02:35:20 +0000

You are welcomed to evaluate any Visual Paradigm software products before purchase. Without a key, you can try any edition and evaluate it for up to 10 days. If you request and import an evaluation key, you can extend the trial period to 30 days.

For those who are interested in Visual Paradigm for UML (VP-UML), there is an additional option available. You could try its community edition. Once activated with an activation key, it won’t expire. There are some usage limitations, however, and we will go over them later.

In this article, we will walk through how to obtain (1) an evaluation key and (2) an activation key.

Obtaining a Key for Evaluation

Whenever you run a Visual Paradigm software, the Key Manager will prompt you for a valid license key if you haven’t imported one yet. At which, there are two ways to enable your evaluation copy:

Click Try without key to start the evaluation immediately for 10 days.
Click Request Key to request an evaluation key for 30-day trial. Fill the form below and click Sign up and Request Key.
01-request-key

You will then receive an email with the evaluation key file itself or instructions on downloading the file. After you get the file, you need to import it into the Key Manager by clicking Import key. Click Close to start the 30-day evaluation.

If you don’t hear from us after a while, please check the Junk box of your email program to make sure that our email wasn’t filtered out. If you have any problem getting the evaluation key file, feel free to contact our support team.

When the evaluation period expires (after 10 days or 30 days), you will no longer be able to launch the software. However, if you were evaluating Visual Paradigm for UML (VP-UML), you could switch to the community edition at this time. To do that, simply run the edition manager under %PRODUCT-INSTALL-DIR%\bin. Note that any evaluation key you imported previously, regardless of the edition it supports, is capable of unlocking the community edition. In other words, you do not need to request any key file again.

Technical support is available even during your evaluation period. You are welcomed to contact us if you have any questions or requests.

Restrictions of Evaluation

Evaluation copy is solely for evaluation purpose. Use of evaluation copy for any production or commercial purposes is prohibited. In terms of functionality, the only limitations are the patterned watermarks appearing on both image outputs and images embedded inside an output (e.g. a generated report).

Want to Evaluate Another Edition/Product?

To find out which edition/product best suits your needs, sometimes you may want to evaluate more than one edition or product.

Changing edition does not require any re-installation. You only need to run the edition manager under %PRODUCT-INSTALL-DIR%\bin to select a different edition. If you are switching to a lower edition (compared to your current edition), you do not need to request another key. Note that your evaluation period will be carried over with the switching and does not start over again.

If you want to evaluate another product, download it in the Visual Paradigm Products Download page and follow the steps described in the previous section to obtain a valid evaluation key. Note that this downloading of a different product comes with a new evaluation period.

Obtaining a Key for Community Edition

Unlike evaluation copies, the community edition of VP-UML has no time limit. You can continue to use it for as long as you like with zero cost. Note that out of the various Visual Paradigm modeling software products, only VP-UML offers the community edition.

When you run VP-UML without having imported a valid license key, the Key Manager will prompt you to import one. You can close the Key Manager by clicking Use CE without key. By doing so, you can continue running the software, but the Key Manager will prompt again after an hour. If you want to stop the prompting permanently, click Request Key to request an activation key. Fill the web form and click Sign up and Request Key.

01-request-key

An email with the activation key file itself or instructions on downloading the file will be sent to you. After you get the key file, simply import it into the Key Manager by clicking Import key. Click Close to continue.

If you don’t hear from us after a while, please check the Junk box of your email program to make sure that our email wasn’t filtered out. If you have any problem activating the community edition, feel free to contact our support team.

Restrictions of Community Edition

Community edition is solely for personal and non-commercial purposes. Use of community edition for production or commercial purposes is prohibited. In terms of functionality, you are limited to create at most one diagram per diagram type only.

If you didn’t go over the diagram limit, there will be a single line watermark on the image outputs. If you created more than one diagram per type, there will be patterned watermarks covering the entire outputs.

Organize Data Models Under Use Cases

VP Team — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 07:54:15 +0000

In helping you organize your modeling project, use cases can act as generic containers for all software development artifacts. Development teams can group and locate design artifacts by navigating use cases.

In this tutorial we are going to show you how to create a new data model (i.e. entity relationship diagram) and associate that with a use case. And in future, you can easily identify existing associations as such by use cases and conveniently, be taken to the related diagrams right on the spot in just a few clicks.

Software we’ll use
In the demo, we’ll be using Agilian Standard Edition. If you like, you are welcome to download a free evaluation copy and the sample project files below to follow the example with.

Steps to create a data model and associate it with a use case

We’ll begin with the sample use case diagram below.

01 - sample use case diagram

Select the use case Record patient visit report. Click on the icon Sub-diagrams.
02 - the sub-diagram icon on use case
From the popup menu, select Add > Other Diagrams > Database Modeling > Entity Relationship Diagram.
03 - select to create an entity relationship diagram
A new entity relationship diagram (ERD) will open. (Initially, it is named Record patient visit report after the use case but you are free to change it as you wish.) At the top right corner, select Conceptual Model.
04 - a new entity relationship diagram with the same name as the use case
From the diagram toolbar, drag Entity onto the diagram.
05 - drag an entity onto diagram
Name the new entity Patient. Right click on it and then select New column to create 2 columns – name and address.
06 - add new columns to an entity
Create a relationship from the entity Patient. Select Patient and drag the icon One-to-Many Relationship -> Entity to the right. Release your mouse button at where you want to place the new entity.
07 - create a new one-to-many relationship
Name the new entity Visit. Add 3 columns to it – visitDate, visitTime and description.
08 - the entity visit

How to view the list of existing diagram associations and jump to one

Let’s say some time in the future you’re studying the sample use case diagram again. And you want to check and see which diagrams are related to the use case.

To do that, simply select the use case Record patient visit report and click the icon Sub Diagrams. On the popup menu, you will see its related diagrams listed at the top (i.e. Record patient visit report). If you click it, the entity relationship diagram we drew earlier will open. So you won’t have to search around to locate it.

09 - see list of existing associated diagrams

Show Details of Model Elements in Tabular Form

VP Team — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:17:37 +0000

When the default attributes do not suffice to describe your model elements, you can add your own custom ones by using tagged values. These custom attributes can be added to model elements in various diagrams, such as an actor in use case diagram.

So if you are looking at model elements in a diagram, just how do you show their tagged values? This tutorial will show you how.

As an example, we will walk you through how to show tagged values associated with devices in an ArchiMate diagram.

What we are using in the examples

The below examples are all referring to the sample ArchiMate diagram below, which is composed of several devices (i.e. Firewall, Application Server). The software tool is called Visual Paradigm for UML (VP-UML).

Download the sample project file

01 - sample ArchiMate diagram

Example 1: View tagged values of a model element

Let’s say we want to look at the tagged values for the device called Firewall in the diagram.

Right click on Firewall and select Open Specification…
02 - right click on Firewall and select Open Specification
In the dialog box opened, select the Tagged Values tab.
Under it, you will see a tag called IP (value = 192.168.1.100) and another one called Setup Time (value= 5, July 2011).
Since we were viewing only (without any changes), click Cancel to close the dialog box.

03 - view the tagged values of the device (Firewall)

Example 2: View tagged values of multiple model elements without repeatedly opening the dialog box

Let’s say we are now interested in viewing tagged values for all devices in the diagram. So based on what we’ve just seen above, does it mean we must right click on every single device and repeatedly open and close the dialog box?

Well, that’s one way. Here’s a better way:

To begin, (just like before) right click on any of the devices and select Open Specification…
Open the Tagged Values tab and you’ll see the tagged values of the device currently being selected.
(Different steps) Do not click Cancel to close the dialog box yet. Instead, go to the upper right corner to click the Pin button.
04 - click the Pin button in the dialog box
Once you’ve clicked the Pin button, the button below it (with the tooltip saying “Auto open specification when select“) should be enabled. Click on it.
05 - click to Auto Open Specification When Select
Select another device (i.e. Application Server) and you’ll see that the tagged values in the dialog box are updated to Application Server’s. The dialog box continues to show tagged values of the model element currently being selected.

Example 3: View tagged values of model elements in tabular form

To view all tagged values across model elements in the same diagram, we will next create a grid and then populate it with those tagged values.

From the main toolbar, select Diagrams > Grid Diagram.
07 - select to create a Grid diagram
In the new Grid, click the down arrow next to Model Element to select Device. (Note: if Device is not listed initially, click More… at the bottom of the list and Device should show up then.)
08 - click More to list Device for selection

Select Device.

09 - select Device in the list for Model Element

The grid is now populated with all devices from the diagram.

10 - all devices listed in the grid
Click Configure columns…
11 - click the Configure columns button
In the dialog box opened, you will see the two default columns given initially – Name and Documentation.
As we don’t need the Documentation column, select it and click the left green arrow for removal.

12 - remove the Documentation column
In the dialog box, click the Tagged Values tab. Select IP and then click the right green arrow to insert that column.
13 - add the IP column
Repeat similar steps above to add the Setup Time column. The dialog box should look something like this after you are done. Click OK.
14 - dialog box after adding the IP and Setup Time columns
Upon closing the dialog box above, the grid will display the tagged values for all devices in the diagram.
15 - the final grid displaying tagged values for all devices in the diagram

How to Sync Requirements to A³ Platform

VP Team — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:35:06 +0000

Visual Paradigm for UML (VP-UML) is designed to help you focus on your modeling work. So it purposely doesn’t overwhelm you with any information unnecessary in an immediate sense. To help you project manage your software development life cycle (SDLC), Visual Paradigm offers another product called A³ Platform to do just that.

One of the nice things about A³ Platform is that it can actually talk to VP-UML to get software design requirements and feed them to A³ Platform for setting project milestones automatically.

In this tutorial we will show you how to sync requirements from VP-UML to A³ Platform.

Note: Here we are using VP-UML Standard Edition.

Background Information

In VP-UML, let’s just say that we’ve drawn a requirements diagram for a software design.
And we’re interested in setting project milestones for these requirements, without copying and pasting them over to A³ Platform manually.
In particular, we want to set the target date for the requirement of Less than 10s for Text Content as shown below.

01 - Requirements Diagram in VP-UML
In A³ Platform, the Process page is where you’ll see an overview of project milestones in a chart. In our example, we are going to fill the cell with a requirement targeted for completion under iteration 1 (I1) between Dec 9 and Jan 8 for the Fire Safety Department project.
02 - intro to Process page in A3; Platform

Steps to Sync Requirements to A³ Platform

In VP-UML, right click on the requirement of interest (e.g. the requirement of Less than 10s for Text Content) and select A³ Platform > Synchronize to A³ Platform…
03 - right click to select Sync function
In the dialog box opened, enter the Server URL, username and password to login to A³ Platform.
04 - login to A3 Platform
In another dialog box opened, select your project of interest in A³ Platform (e.g. Fire Safety Department).
Then click in the cell where you want to set the corresponding milestone in A³ Platform.
Click OK.

05 - select process cell in VP-UML
If you go back to the Process page in A³ Platform, click on the bar to go to the requirements summary.
06 - Requirement already been fed to A3 Platform
Click the link to the requirement (we’ve just added to our milestones) to view its details.
07 - Summary page for requirements under phase 1.0 and interation 1 (I1)
On the details page, you’ll see that information of the requirement (from VP-UML) has been parsed into various fields in A³ Platform.
08 - detail page of the newly added requirement in A³ Platform
In the follow-up section, you can leave notes for others to take action.
09 - Add things for others to follow up on
If you like, you can also ask a team member a question. Simply click the Ask Question tab to enter one.
10 - ask a colleague a question

How to define stereotype and tagged values using Open API

VP Team — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:19:35 +0000

Stereotype is one of the extension mechanisms in the Unified Modeling Language (UML). By defining stereotype, you can extend new notations by deriving from an existing one. You can define new properties to your derived notations using tagged values. In Visual Paradigm, it is not necessary to stereotypes and tagged values using application’s user interface. You can also do this using Open API. This article will show you how to create stereotype and tagged values using Open API.

Create Stereotype

You can create a new stereotype by calling createStereotype() from ModelElementFactory. But this is not yet done. A stereotype is bound to a specific model type. So, after you create a stereotype model, you have to specify what type model element it is bounding to.

IStereotype lStereotype = IModelElementFactory.instance().createStereotype();lStereotype.setName(“OpenAPI_Stereotype”);
lStereotype.setBaseType(IModelElementFactory.MODEL_TYPE_CLASS);

Create Tagged Values Definition

Once you created the stereotype, you can start defining your custom properties using tagged values definition through the TaggedValueDefinitionContainer. The tagged values definition will be create into tagged value automatically when you apply the stereotype to model element.

lTaggedValueDefinitionContainer = IModelElementFactory.instance().createTaggedValueDefinitionContainer();

Once you created the TaggedValueDefinitionContainer, you have to set it to your target stereotype.

lStereotype.setTaggedValueDefinitions(lTaggedValueDefinitionContainer);

To create tagged values, you can call lTaggedValueDefinitionContainer.createTaggedValueDefinition();

Similar to stereotype, you have define the type once you created it.

There are 7 types of tagged values you can create:

Single line textual tagged values
lTaggedValueDefinition.setType(ITaggedValueDefinition.TYPE_TEXT);Multi-line textual tagged value
lTaggedValueDefinition.setType(ITaggedValueDefinition.TYPE_MULTI_LINE_TEXT);Integer tagged value
lTaggedValueDefinition.setType(ITaggedValueDefinition.TYPE_INTEGER);Floating point number tagged value
lTaggedValueDefinition.setType(ITaggedValueDefinition.TYPE_FLOATING_POINT_NUMBER);Boolean tagged value
lTaggedValueDefinition.setType(ITaggedValueDefinition.TYPE_BOOLEAN);Enumeration tagged value
lTaggedValueDefinition.setType(ITaggedValueDefinition.TYPE_ENUMERATION);

Model element tagged value
lTaggedValueDefinition.setType(ITaggedValueDefinition.TYPE_MODEL_ELEMENT);

For Enumeration tagged value, you can define the ValueSpecification and add it as the numeration value

IValueSpecification lItem = IModelElementFactory.instance().createValueSpecification();
lItem.setName(“Item1″);
lItem.setValue(“value1″);
lTaggedValueDefinition.addEnumerationValue(lItem);

And for ModelElement tagged value, you can assign the model element only when creating the actual tagged value. Once the tagged value is created from definition, you can assign the model element using the setValue() method.

Sample Plugins

This sample plugin demonstrate how to create stereotype and definitions on classes. After deploy the plugin to VP applications, you can click on the plugin button in application toolbar to trigger it.

Trigger sample plugin

Download Sample Plugin

You can download the sample plugins at here.

Create and Access Logical View via Open API

How to add stereotypes from reference project to model element using Open API

How to create containment relationship with Open API

How to insert model reference to documentation using Open API

How to Model Gates in Sequence Diagrams

VP Team — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:12:33 +0000

To pass a message between two sequence diagrams in UML modeling, we can make use of gates. Through modeling gates, we could relate the message outside an interaction fragment with message inside another interaction fragment.

Graphically a gate, with an arrowed line, connects to the sequence diagram’s frame edge with one end and the other end connected to a lifeline.

In this tutorial we will show you how to model gates in sequence diagrams using Visual Paradigm for UML (VP-UML).

Steps to model gates

Let’s say we have a simple sequence diagram as shown below.
01 - a simple sequence diagram to begin with
Suppose there’s a back-end component represented by an interaction use.
From the Diagram Toolbar, drag Interaction Use onto the sequence diagram.

02 - add an ( interaction use ) to the diagram
Right click on the interaction use and select Refers to > New Sequence Diagram.
03 - select to elaborate the interaction use
Rename Sequence Diagram 2 to withdraw money inside the tab in the corner.
04 - rename Sequence Diagram 2 to ( withdraw money )
Back in Sequence Diagram 1, drag the Message -> LifeLine icon (from ATM Controller) to withdraw money. Release your mouse when you reach the frame’s edge.
05 - add a message to the interaction use
When prompted, select .
06 - a gate appears
Double click on the text “withdraw money” (inside the interaction use) to go to that sequence diagram. In it, you should see the Gate automatically inserted for what you’ve just drawn in Sequence Diagram 1.
07 - the same gate appears on the withdraw money sequence diagram
Drag the Message -> LifeLine icon (from Gate) to the right and release mouse to create a new lifeline.
08 - create a new lifeline in the withdraw money sequence diagram
Back in Sequence Diagram 1, add another gate. Drag Gate from the Diagram Toolbar to withdraw money (Note: You would see a letter ‘M’ displayed to indicate that it is a master view).
09 - add another gate to the interaction use
If you look at the withdraw money sequence diagram, you should see Gate2 which has been automatically inserted with our new addition from the previous step.
10 - Gate2 automatically appears in the other sequence diagram
We’ll now send a message from LifeLine back to Gate2.
Place Gate2 below Gate.
Select LifeLine and drag the Message -> LifeLine icon to the left. Release your mouse when you reach the right edge of Gate2.

11 - connect lifeline to Gate2 (the other sequence diagram)
Back in Sequence Diagram 1, drag the Message -> LifeLine icon backwards (from Gate2) to ATM Controller.
12 - connect Gate2 to ATM Controller
You should end up with a diagram that looks something like this.
13 - The sequence diagram you would end up with

What happens if you change the label of a gate in one of the diagrams?

Gates in Sequence Diagram 1 and the withdraw money sequence diagram share the same models in repository. So changes to them will be synced across these diagrams.

For example, if you rename the top gate to “input” in Sequence Diagram 1, you’ll see that the gate in the withdraw money sequence diagram will also be renamed to “input” automatically.

14 - change reflected across

Personalize Database Connection Settings to Aid in Team Development

VP Team — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:49:51 +0000

When a development team is developing a system that requires accessing a database, it is a common practice to setup local databases on each of the development environment and populate them with all the required schema of the system so that developers can develop and test the function they implement with test data in their own database, rather than working with actual data with production database.

Working with testing data in development environment

Visual Paradigm supports designing database schema with Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), exporting the design to a database and generating Hibernate ORM code for accessing database. We also enable users to share the design through team collaboration function, so that all the development and production environments can work consistently with the same and latest database design. Although different environments can share the same database design, it is impractical to have them share the same set of database connection information. For instance, developer Peter may have ‘demo’ as database name, with ‘peter’ as login, while developer Mary may have ‘dev’ as database name and ‘mary’ as login. The production environment, certainly won’t name the database as ‘demo’ or ‘dev’, but with more meaningful name like ‘shop’ that reflect the nature of the system.

Different environments have their own database settings

Due to fact that different environments can have their own set of database settings, it is a bad idea to bind the database connection setting required in generating ORM code and updating database along with the design. If that’s the case, all users will require a re-configuration of setting for their own environments prior to generating ORM code and/or updating database schema. This is not just cumbersome, but may corrupt important data in database if a wrong connection setting is supplied by mistake. For these reasons, Visual Paradigm supports personalizing the database connection information so that each user can have their own set of database connection setting. To be specific, the personalized setting is stored within workspace instead of project. Therefore, it will not affect any other user and the production environment. It affects only the generated Hibernate files and the database in specific environment.

Let’s take a look at how to personalize the database connection information. When you generate ORM code (Tools > Hibernate > Generate Code…) or database (Tools > Database > Generate Database…), you will be prompted the window where you can configure code and/or the way of generating database. In order to proceed with generation, you must supply the database connection information under the Database tab. At the bottom of the tab you can see the Database Configuration section where you can set the connection information. By default, the settings showed are made for production database. See the drop down menu Production:

Connection settings for production database

You usually update the production database only when the development activities are completed, tested and confirmed to be stable. If you are going to generate code/database for the production database and you need to change the connection setting, click Database Options and update the setting in the popup window.

If you are going to generate code/database for development or any other environments, click on the Production drop down menu and select Personal.

Switch to production settings

Then, the Connection URL, User and Password field will become editable. Edit them by entering the settings that matches your environment.

Personalize database connection setting entered-

From now on, when you update your Hibernate code or database, you can apply your own database connection setting without overwriting anyone else setting.

How to Model Permissions on Use Case for Actors

VP Team — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:37:59 +0000

In use case diagram, associations between actors and use cases are explicitly shown. We can see it clearly when an actor carries out a use case (or goal) from a line drawn between them. However, what if an actor does not carry out a use case but do refer to the output from it? How do we model that?

For example, the manager reorders stock but he/she may refer to orders placed by customers (while he/she does not actually carry out the order placing).

An example of a use case diagram

In this tutorial, we will show you one way to model relationships that are not so explicit. We will make use of chart diagram to create a matrix to store the permissions.

First, in a new chart diagram, we’ll create a new code type called Permission and 3 possible values under it – Read, Write and Execute. Then, we’ll create a matrix to list all combinations of actors and use cases (i.e. associations). In cells where appropriate, we use one of the 3 values to describe their associations. For example, if an actor actually carries out a use case, we give it the value, Execute. If an actor refers to output from a use case, we describe the relationship by the value, Read.

Note: The following example is shown using Visual Paradigm for UML (VP-UML) Professional edition.

Steps to Model Permissions

Define your own permissions code

Go to the toolbar on the top. Click on Diagrams > Chart Diagram.

Create a new chart diagram from toolbar

In the new chart diagram, locate the Code Type field and click the … button to the right.

Click button to configure code types

In the dialog box opened, (at the lower left corner) click Add and then select Code Type.

select to begin creating a new code type

Enter Permission for code type.

Name the new code type Permission

Next, we’ll add 3 new codes under the Permission code type that we’ve just created.
To add a new code, click Add and select Code.

Click to add a new code under Permission

Enter Read for Name. Then enter R for Code.

Enter the 1st new code

To add the second new code, just click Add and select Code again.
You’ll notice that the Read code we’ve just created shows up in the list and that to the right, it is ready for you to enter another new code.

1st new code shows up in the list

Repeat to enter the following 2 codes.
Name = Write; Code = W
Name = Execute; Code = E
After you enter the Execute code, click OK.

Enter the third new code

Note: Clicking OK will close the dialog box above. But if you want to look at your new list of codes, you can always click the … button to open it again.

Check your new list of codes
Set up a permissions matrix

In this section, we’ll set up a matrix to display all combinations of actors and use cases.
To specify the matrix row, select Actor and then click the top green right arrow.

Select Actor for row in matrix

To specify the matrix column, select Use Case and then click the lower green right arrow.

Select Use Case for column in matrix

Remember the Permission code type we added earlier? This is where we’ll put it into use.
To specify possible values that can go into the individual cells of the matrix, go to the Code Type field.
Click the down arrow to the right and select Permission.

Select the code type for possible values in matrix's cells

Click OK.

Click OK to generate matrix
Set permissions for individual actors on various use cases

In the matrix opened, you’ll see the 4 actors in rows and the 5 use cases in columns. Each cell in the matrix represents a combination of an actor and a use case. In it, that’s where we are going to specify the corresponding permissions (Read, Write or Execute).

A fresh matrix

A lot of times, we’d probably begin with the first row and column. But here, we’ll look at another combination first, just so we can address the manager’s case which is mentioned in the beginning of this tutorial. Then we’ll look at the other cases.

To model that the manager is authorized to reorder stock
Right click on the cell that intersects Manager and Reorder stock. Select E: Execute from the list. E should appear in that cell.

Model Execute permission on Reorder Stock for Manager

To model that the manager can have a look at sales orders
Right click on the cell that intersects Manager and Process order. Select R: Read from the list. R should appear in that cell.

Model Read permission on Process Order for Manager

Repeat to set the remaining permissions as shown.
1. Customers place orders (E) and write comments (E) for feedback.
2. Delivery staff makes delivery (E) for items ordered.
3. Sales clerks process orders (E) and sometimes refer to delivery orders for information (R).
  Matrix completed

So what happens to the matrix if I add a new use case afterwards?

Let’s just say that we add a new use case called Do Survey to the use case diagram (after we’ve completed the matrix with the steps above).

Added a new use case to the use case diagram

If you return to the matrix, you’ll see that a new column called Do Survey has been inserted into the matrix to reflect the new addition to the diagram.

New column for the new use case automatically

How to Reset Admin Password for VP Server 5.3

VP Team — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 08:08:40 +0000

In the event that the admin password for your existing VP Server 5.3 is lost and cannot be retrieved, there is a way to reset it. This tutorial will show you how.

For VP Server older than version 5.3, please refer here.

Before you start, please note…

Shut down your VP Server before actually carrying out the steps below.
Our example assumes that the VP Server is installed on C Drive:
- So the folder hierarchy would be C:\VPServer for our demo.
- If you installed yours in a different location, you would need to change the path in the steps below accordingly (e.g. C:\Apps\VPServer ).
- However, the relative structure under the VPServer folder remains unchanged (e.g. \VPServer\scripts or \VPServer\webserver ).

Step 1 – Prepare Script

Make a copy of the script file, migrate.bat (located under the \VPServer\scripts folder).
Right click migrate.bat and select Copy.

Copy the script file

In the same folder, right click on white space and select Paste.

Paste the script file
Right click the file copy and select Rename.
Name it anything you like (e.g. password.bat)

Rename the script file
Open password.bat (or however you named it above) in a text editor. Towards the end of the file, change the very last parameter value from migration.ExportVPServerMain to v.ResetAdmin and then save the file.
Edit the script file

Step 2 – Run Script

At the command prompt, change your directory to the VP Server’s script folder.
Example:
cd C:\VPServer\scripts

Change to the VPServer directory
Execute the following command.
password.bat < path >
Example:
password.bat “C:\VPServer\webserver\webapps\ROOT”
(Note: There is no “\” after ROOT)

Execute the command to run script
To confirm proceeding with the reset indeed, you will be given a math problem to solve.
Prompted to confirm with a math question
Upon entering the correct calculation result, a new admin password will be generated for you.
Enter the calculation result to confirm and be given a new password

Step 3 – Delete Script

To avoid accidental changes, delete the script file (e.g. password.bat) after use.

Step 4 – Login Using the Reset Password

Start the VP Server and login with the reset password by going to localhost:1999/admin.jsp
Click the Reset Admin. Password link at the top to change your password if you like.
After login with temp password, change your admin password

Visual Paradigm Know-how

Hashing your project contents using VP Project Anonymous Tool

What is VP Project Anonymous Tool?

How to anonymize your project file

Handling of linked projects

Project versions

Use with caution

Send us your work for diagnosis

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Want to Evaluate Another Edition/Product?

Obtaining a Key for Community Edition

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Example 1: View tagged values of a model element

Example 2: View tagged values of multiple model elements without repeatedly opening the dialog box

Example 3: View tagged values of model elements in tabular form

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Download Sample Plugin

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So what happens to the matrix if I add a new use case afterwards?

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How to Reset Admin Password for VP Server 5.3

Before you start, please note…

Step 1 – Prepare Script

Step 2 – Run Script

Step 3 – Delete Script

Step 4 – Login Using the Reset Password

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