Objectives

The new learning objectives of this exercise are to create reference connections between a SysML element and an Artifactory element.

Preparation

This exercise assumes the student has

• IBM Rational Rhapsody 8.2 installed correctly on his or her machine with a valid license for use, and

• Syndeia 3.3 installed as a plugin for Rhapsody with a valid license for use

• Syndeia Artifactory interface, correctly installed with a valid license for user.

The user can use any Artifactory repository they have available with the ability to create and edit elements within a Artifactory project. It is generally advisable to carry out these exercises in a non-production repository, a "sandbox", set up for training and practice purposes.
We will use the provided Rhapsody project Syndeia_Artifactory_Tutorial.rpy (Get it here - SysML Models, Profiles and Mappings.). For this demonstration, we use the Automotive_Engineering project which contains an existing set of packages and artifacts, but you may use any existing elements in your Artifactory repository, instead.
Caution: Rhapsody has, by default, restrictions on the naming of SysML elements, which can create problems when Syndeia tries to create Rhapsody model elements that violate these restriction, e.g. beginning a SysML block name with a number. We recommend modifying any Rhapsody models you create to relax these restrictions. Modify the properties of the top-level package of the model under General::Model::NamesRegExp with the following string and save.
^(([a-zA-Z0-9_][a-zA-Z0-9_ ():-]*)|(operator.+))$

Background – Artifactory

Artifactory is a digital artifact repository solution from JFrog Ltd. It is widely used to manage non-source code digital content, e.g. deployable software packages used in an organization. It contains Repositories, which contain one or more Packages, which contain Artifacts. The package structure can have multiple levels. Repositories, Packages, and Artifacts are all recognized by Syndeia and can be used in building inter-model reference connections.

Exercise

1. Open the SysML project Syndeia_Artifactory_Tutorial.rpy (or your own) (Get it here - SysML Models, Profiles and Mappings.), right-click the Engineering Software Environment package, select a Syndeia project if necessary, and launch the Syndeia dashboard (Figure 1).

   Open

   

   Figure 1 Launching Syndeia dashboard

    

2. To connect to an Artifactory repository, right-click the Artifactory category under Repositories in the Repository Manager tab and select Add… (Figure 2), then enter a name, your own Artifactory URL and credentials, and click OK (Figure 3).

   Open

   

   Figure 2 Adding an Artifactory network connection
   
   
   

   Figure 3 Entering Artifactory repository info

    

3. Your repository should load. Expand it to show Repositories, Packages and Artifacts, as in Figure 4.

   Figure 4 Viewing Artifactory repository contents in Repository Manager tab

    

4. To create a reference connection between a SysML element and an Artifactory artifact, go to the Connection Manager tab on the Syndeia dashboard, as in Figure 5.

   Figure 5  Syndeia Dashboard, Connection Manager tab
   
   

   1. Expand the SysML model in the left pane to show the CFD 4.0 block.
      
      

   2. Select Reference under Connection Type in the middle pane.
      
      

   3. Select the Artifactory repository connection for the right-hand column and expand the Repositories folder to show the artifact to be connected, for example, CFD_4.0.pdf.
      
      

   4. Drag and drop CFD_4.0 from the left pane on top of CFD_4.0.pdf in the right pane to connect them (or vice versa).
      
      

5. To see the reference connections that have been created, go to the Connection Search tab on the Syndeia dashboard and click the Refresh button (see Figure 6).
   
   

   Figure 6  Syndeia Dashboard, Connection Search tab
   
   

6. The reference connections can be used in a number of ways by Syndeia. Close the Syndeia dashboard. To open an Artifactory element directly from Rhapsody, right-click on the CFD 4.0 block in the Entire Model View browser and select Syndeia → Open Connected Artifacts.. The Artifactory artifact CFD_4.0.pdf will be opened in the default web browser (see Figure 7). Note: your Artifactory user interface may appear different depending on your configuration settings.
   
   

   Figure 7  Artifactory web interface
   
   

7. The reference connection may also be used to detect changes across the connection. To demonstrate,

   1. Make a change in the file CFD_4.0.pdf in the Artifactory repository through its web interface, e.g. create a new version of the pdf and deploy it.
      
      

   2. Reopen the Syndeia dashboard. Go to the Connection Browser, expand to find the connection to CFD_4.0, right-click and select Compare Source & Target (Figure 8).
      
      

      Figure 8  Syndeia Connection Browser, comparison across new connection
      
      

   3. The Comparison Result tab (Figure 9) shows a newer version of the Artifactory file is available. The reference connection can be updated by right-clicking on the red row and selecting either Sync Source to Target or Sync Target to Source.
      
      

      Figure 9  Syndeia Comparison Results tab showing a newer version of the Artifactory file available