Separating ActivityParameters in Action Pin

[jplusip]

I have an Activity with numerous ActivityParameters (in and out) and I would like to use it on an activity diagram as an Invocation (which would ideally replace the ActivityParameters with action pins).


However, what's happening is that only one action pin is being made and under behavior it has ALL of the ActivityParameters listed. This would be OK if it at least split up the inputs and the outputs, but it's not, and anytime I try to add an action pin myself it still crams all of the ActivityParameters into one action pin.

Is there a way for me to split these up?

[PeterHeintz]

Not sure what you are talking about.

When you call an Activity from an action you can use the structural element dialog to get the  Activity Parameters as action pins (each activity parameter you select will be an action pin).

How do you get one action pin containing all activity parameters at all?

[natvig]

When you call an Activity from an action you can use the structural element dialog to get the  Activity Parameters as action pins (each activity parameter you select will be an action pin).

This is not the preferred way to do this. Instead you should right click on the call behaviour action and choose 'Properties...'. Then press the 'Call' tab. Finally press the button 'Synchronize with Parameters'.

However, what's happening is that only one action pin is being made and under behavior it has ALL of the ActivityParameters listed. This would be OK if it at least split up the inputs and the outputs, but it's not, and anytime I try to add an action pin myself it still crams all of the ActivityParameters into one action pin.

Is there a way for me to split these up?

I can also not understand how you make this happen. Are you are referring to the problem where all pins are stacked on top of each other in a diagram when first created? An improvement would be to make EA distribute them evenly around the action. However, you need to move them around yourself for now.

[PeterHeintz]

No idea why one should prefer one way over another.
When doing your style, I get the same results as with my style. The different is just in your way the pin are stacked over each other so it is hard to see that there are more than one pin.

[jplusip]

Not sure what you are talking about.

When you call an Activity from an action you can use the structural element dialog to get the  Activity Parameters as action pins (each activity parameter you select will be an action pin).

How do you get one action pin containing all activity parameters at all?

That's what the tool was doing. When I would go into the Structural menu, it would just list one ActivityParameter (despite there being 10 or so), and that one ActivityParameter would become the Action Pin on the call, but in the Behavior text field in the Properties it just listed all of the ActivityParameters.

This is not the preferred way to do this. Instead you should right click on the call behaviour action and choose 'Properties...'. Then press the 'Call' tab. Finally press the button 'Synchronize with Parameters'.

This actually solved my problem! Thanks!

I can also not understand how you make this happen. Are you are referring to the problem where all pins are stacked on top of each other in a diagram when first created? An improvement would be to make EA distribute them evenly around the action. However, you need to move them around yourself for now.

Nope, I checked for that. I was only given one ActivityParameter as an option in the Structural Elements menu, and then the resulting Action Pin had every single parameter listed under Behavior.

Actually, I just checked, and even doing what you said all of the parameters are still listed under Behavior (in the pin menu), so maybe they're all supposed to be there and I was getting confused because only one action pin was being made, so I assumed they were all being combined.

Regardless, your process worked, so thanks again!