Exercise 27.1 - VOLTA Integration

Owned by Debesh Roy Chowdhury
Last updated: Sept 24, 2022 by Manas Bajaj
6 min read

Objectives:

The new learning objectives of this exercise are to create a repository connection to a VOLTA repository with the Syndeia Plug-in for MagicDraw, view the repository including search, and create a reference connection.

Preparation:

This exercise assumes the student has

·       Cameo System Modeler 19.0 (or MagicDraw with SysML plug-in) installed correctly on his or her machine with a valid license for use, and

·       Syndeia 3.5 installed as a plugin for Cameo/MagicDraw with a valid license for use

·       Syndeia VOLTA interface, correctly installed with a valid license for user

·       Syndeia Cloud 3.5 installed with a valid user account, and

·       A valid user account to a VOLTA repository.

The user can use any VOLTA repository they have available.  Because the content of your VOLTA repository will be different, the specific examples in the following exercise instructions are only a guide and example for your actions. It is generally advisable to carry out these exercises in a non-production repository, a “sandbox”, set up for training and practice purposes.

Background - VOLTA:

As envisioned by Intercax, the Digital Thread is composed of inter-model connections between models in different repositories, which Syndeia creates and manages, and intra-model connections between elements in the same repository, which the individual tool creates and manages. As of Syndeia release 3.4, the Syndeia Web Dashboard can extract and display some model information from the VOLTA repository. Figure 1 shows a view of this information in the Syndeia dashboard Repository Manager with labels identifying the VOLTA element types. Note the different icons. The label color coding indicates how the VOLTA element type is mapped to the Syndeia Cloud element types: Repository (green), Container (red), and Artifact (blue).

This information is important in formulating and interpreting Syndeia graph queries. A more complete diagram of the VOLTA data model as it is understood by Syndeia is available through the Syndeia help menu.

Figure 1: Repository Manager view of VOLTA repository

Exercise:

  1. Launch the Syndeia Dashboard (see Video 1.1) and open the Repository Manager tab (Figure 2).

Figure 2 : Syndeia Dashboard, Repository Manager tab

2. If no repository connection to VOLTA is available, right-click on VOLTA in the left column and select Add... Complete the form (consult your VOLTA administrator for the property values in your organization; Grant Type and Scope show default values) and click OK (Figure 3).

Figure 3 : Adding a VOLTA repository connection

3. If a VOLTA repository connection already appears under VOLTA, but you need to add your own access credential, right-click on the repository in the left column and select Update…. Complete username and password and click Update (Figure 4).

Figure 4 : Updating VOLTA repository info

4. In the left column, select a VOLTA repository connection (VOLTA @ Intercax). Your repository should appear at the top of the right side. Expand it to show Projects, Plans, Sessions and Models, as in Figure 5. See Background section for discussion of VOLTA artifact types. It may be necessary to right-click the repository and select Refresh before it can be expanded.

Figure 5 : Viewing VOLTA repository contents on Repository Manager tab

5. On the right border, click the button labeled Search Repository. In the Search window, use VOLTA Simple or VOLTA Advanced from the pull down menu under New Search

  1. From the Select item type pull down menu, select the VOLTA artifact type to be searched for. In our example in Figure 6, this is Folder.

  2. Using VOLTA Simple to search by Text, enter a text string in the Name Contains field from the name of the VOLTA folder to search for. In our example, we entered DEMO and clicked Search. The result(s) of the search are shown on the right, as in Figure 6.

  3. To search by ID, enter a text string with the VOLTA ID in the ID field. The version-independent VOLTA ID (externalKey or externalID) can be reported by right-clicking on an element to Get Info and checking in the Notification window at the bottom of the dashboard.

  4. If you select the VOLTA Advanced option before searching, you may enter a query in VQL (VOLTA Query Language) for the search.  See VOLTA documentation for a discussion of VQL.

6. Click outside the Search window to close it.

Figure 6 : Syndeia dashboard, Repository Manager tab, Search feature (search result highlighted in red)

7. To create a reference connection between a VOLTA item and an element in another repository, go to the Connection Manager tab, select and expand the VOLTA repository in one column and the second repository in the other. In our example in Figure 7, we have opened the MagicDraw model on the left and VOLTA on the right.

  1. Select Reference as the Connection Type in the center column.

  2. Create a reference connection by dragging an element in one column on top of an element in the other. Confirm that you want to create a reference connection. In our example, we dragged the Functional_Reqts requirement in SysML onto the MyPlan plan in VOLTA.

Note: In Syndeia release 3.5, it is not possible to create Model Transform inter-model connections to VOLTA. Some use cases of this type may be added in future releases.

Figure 7 :  Syndeia dashboard, Connection Manager tab, creating reference connection

8. Having created the reference link, it can be used from the SysML modeling tool to access VOLTA by right-clicking on the linked SysML element in either the Containment browser or a diagram and selecting Syndeia/Open Connected Artifacts, as in Figure 8. The VOLTA repository will appear in the user’s browser.

Figure 8 : MagicDraw interface, launching connection to VOLTA plan from linked SysML element

9. The reference link can be used to detect changes in the VOLTA plan from the Syndeia dashboard.

  1. Edit the VOLTA plan opened in the previous step and save a new version.

  2. In the Connection Search tab of the Syndeia dashboard, click Get All to ensure that all connections are showing. Right-click the reference connection just created and select Compare Source and Target, as in Figure 9.

Figure 9 : Syndeia dashboard, Connection Search tab, comparing across reference connection

9. The result of the compare operation is displayed as red (Figure 10) in a difference table. Hovering over the Comment section indicates that a newer version of MyPlan has been posted since the connection was originally created.

Figure 10 : Syndeia dashboard, Comparison Result tab

10. The reference connection can be updated to point to the latest version of the VOLTA plan by right-clicking on the connection in the Connection Search tab (Figure 9), the Comparison Result tab (Figure 10) or the Connection Browser tab (Figure 11) and selecting either Sync Source -> Target or Sync Target  -> Source. The result is the same for reference connections.

Figure 11   Syndeia dashboard, Connection Browser tab, syncing across reference connection