Quick Linker

Introduction

The Quick Linker provides a fast and simple way to create new elements and connectors on a diagram.

When an element is selected in a diagram, the Quick Linker arrow is displayed in the upper right corner of a element; simply clicking and dragging the arrow enables you to create new connectors and elements.

The philosophy behind the built-in Quick Linker definitions is to provide, not a complete list of valid or legal connections, but a short and convenient list of the commonest connections for the given context.

As part of a UML Profile, you can add to or replace the built-in Quick Linker definitions.

Quick Linker Definition Format

Quick Linker Example

Hide Default Quick Linker Settings

Quick Linker Object Names.

Customized Quick Linker Settings

A Quick Linker definition is a Comma Separated Value (CSV) format file; it is best manipulated in a spreadsheet, which should be set up to save the CSV file as comma-separated text without quotation marks around text fields.

To add a Quick Linker definition file to a profile or technology, simply place a DocumentArtifact element onto the Profile diagram, give it the name QuickLink, then double-click on it.

Open your CSV file in a text editor such as Notepad and copy and paste the contents into the DocumentArtifact element; the definitions are saved with the profile and are processed and applied when the profile is imported.

The same applies if a profile is included within a technology, with the proviso that the QuickLink element must be in the same profile as the link stereotype definitions; this means that a technology could have a set of Quick Link definitions for each profile.