IBM Rational Software Modeler, Version 7.0 Release Notes

Material ID: GC23-6213-00

© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2004, 2006. All rights reserved. US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

Contents

1.0 About this release

IBM^® Rational^® Software Modeler is a UML 2-based visual modeling and design tool for architects, systems analysts, and designers who need to ensure that their specifications, architectures, and designs are clearly defined and communicated.

You can find the latest English version of the Release Notes online at http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/rationalsdp/v7/rsm/70/docs/readme/readme.html.

Additional updates about limitations and problems can be found in the form of individual technotes in the Support knowledge base at http://www.ibm.com/software/rational/support/. As problems are discovered and resolved, the IBM Rational Software Support team updates the knowledge base. By searching the knowledge base, you can quickly find solutions or workarounds to problems.

This file is also available in the following national languages:

1.1 New in this release

This release of Rational Software Modeler contains enhancements to version 6.0 releases and new features, including:

• Easier Rational installation experience: Open selection menus allow you to easily configure your team’s environment, reducing your installation footprint.
• New UML modeling features and enhancements
  • Support for UML 2.1.1: The Rational Unified Modeling Language (UML) modeling products and extensibility APIs now support the UML 2 metamodel based on the UML 2.1.1 specifications by the Object Management Group (OMG). Here are a few changes that you might notice when you create UML models:
    • UML object diagrams are now supported.
    • In state machine diagrams, triggers have been separated from events. The various concrete triggers, such as call triggers, are replaced by the corresponding event type, such as call events.
    • Applied stereotypes are now root elements in a model.
    • Actions in activities are replaced with opaque actions.
    • In associations, ownership is no longer used to imply direction.
    • Message ends and stop nodes in sequence diagrams have changed.
  • Instance modeling using UML object diagrams: Object diagrams enable you to perform instance modeling, where instances of classes in a model describe the behavior of a system. The relationships between the instantiated classes are depicted at a point in time. You can use object diagrams to explore behavior scenarios or to test your class diagrams to validate the relationships between the classes.
  • UML state machine diagram improvements: New subdiagram support for composite states enables you to view the contents of a composite state region within the composite state or inside a new diagram. You can also add internal transitions to states and view them in the Transitions compartment. When you add triggers to transitions, you can display the name of the trigger, as well as the events and attributes.
  • UML activity diagram improvements: Several improvements to activity diagrams make it easier for you to create and manage partitions, view the contents of structured activities, and control the layout of actions and their corresponding pins. A new partition tool makes it easier for you to add partitions to activity diagrams. You also have greater control of their position and alignment, and have the option to display partition notation on the actions in your diagrams.
    New subdiagram support for structured activity nodes enables you to view their contents within the structured activity node itself or in a new diagram. Changes to the behavior and appearance of pins provide more flexibility when you create object flows between pins in activity diagrams.
  • UML deployment diagram improvements: Graphical compartments are now available for nodes, node instances, and artifacts. You can nest several levels of nodes, instantiate those nodes, and view them in the nested nodes graphical compartment. Deployed artifacts and their dependencies are displayed in the Deployments graphical compartment, and you can view the internal structure of a node, consisting of parts and collaborations, in its Structure compartment.
    Deployment diagrams now support tagged values, which extend UML by attaching arbitrary information to model elements. You can create diagram elements as stereotyped elements with preset values. These values of the properties for the applied stereotype are tagged values, which you can change in the Properties view.
  • UML class diagram improvements: Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) and Windows^® Metafile (WMF) formats are now supported in stereotype profiles. Support for template parameters is now improved, which makes it easier for you to create and update template parameters, template signatures, bindings, and parameter substitutions by using the Properties view. You can use UML data types to define data values in class diagrams and choose how to display the parent name for classes in your diagrams.
  • UML sequence diagram improvements: You can now display the operation signatures for messages in sequence diagrams.
  • UML composite structure diagram improvements: A structure compartment is now available for parts in composite structure diagrams, which enable you to display their internal structure. Assembly connectors are now displayed with a ball-and-socket notation.
  • UML package diagram improvements: Improvements to packages make it easier for you to view and manage their contents. A new shape compartment enables you to display the elements that are contained in each package. In addition, you can now nest packages within packages.
  • Logical models and model fragments: The contents of modeling projects are organized into three types of logical folders in the Project Explorer view: diagrams, models, and profiles. This structure displays the logical containment of the UML model elements, regardless of where they are stored physically. You can also display the names of the physical UML model files and UML profile files in the Project Explorer view by disabling the corresponding filters in the Available customizations dialog box. This structure is especially useful in situations where modeling artifacts are shared within and across teams.
    You can now divide a logical model into fragments by extracting parts of the model into physical subunits. The physical location of these model elements is transparent, but the fragments remain a logical part of the original model and are only loaded when they are required.
  • Navigating and managing models using the Project Explorer view: The Project Explorer view replaces the Model Explorer view as the primary means of navigating through model contents. It also replaces the Model Editor view as the means for managing the lifecycle of your models. You can open, save, and close models, diagrams, and profiles without opening the Model Editor view.
    The Project Explorer view also makes it easier for you to review the signatures of model elements. When you select an element in the Project Explorer view, the full signature is displayed in the status bar, which means that you do not have to be in edit mode for the selected element to see the full signature.
  • Model Editor view improvements: You can open a model by starting the Model Editor view, but closing it no longer closes the model. In addition, the Model Editor view does not open when cross-referenced models or profiles are opened in the background.
    Model editing capabilities are improved by the addition of new sections that enable you to open the associated diagrams and models, and add profiles, model libraries, and fragments.
  • Model search functionality improvements: Model search functionality has been integrated with the Eclipse search dialog box. You can search for specific UML types, specify search string patterns by using asterisk (*) and question mark (?) syntax, and select a search scope. You can also include or exclude simple textual matches in comments, diagram descriptions, notes, constraint bodies, and other text strings in your models.
    Your search results are displayed in the Search view and can be sorted based on different criteria. Depending on the type of the match, you can navigate to the element in the Project Explorer view and display it in a diagram or in the Properties view.
  • General usability enhancements: You will notice some general usability enhancements when you work in the diagram editor.
    • Diagram element duplication support (cut/copy/paste)
    • Zoom tool and animated zoom support
    • Layout algorithm enhancements
    • Gradient fill support for diagram elements
    • Diagram preview and printing enhancements, including global and per diagram printing preferences, enhanced localization support, and page break support
    • Support for insertion of images in diagrams
    • Connector handle and anchor enhancements for diagram elements, notes, and geometric shapes
• New UML modeling integration features and enhancements:
  • Analyzing models for trace relationships: Model analysis to find broken traceability relationships between model elements, specifications, and implementations is now part of the consolidated static analysis user interface. Using this upgraded UI, you can define analysis configurations that include analysis of your model elements in conjunction with analysis of code elements.
  • New exemplar-based transformation authoring capabilities: You can take an example of the desired transformation output and use that to seed the implementation of your transformation.
  • Reconcile models with code as they evolve: New reverse transformation and model comparison features enable you to detect variations from specifications and help visualize differences between as-designed and as-built architectures.
  • Model transformations:
    • New configuration editor and wizard: The user interface for creating and editing transformation configurations is improved. An editor for creating and editing transformation configurations replaces the Configure Transformations dialog box in v6.0 releases of products. The new editor contains similar tabs, and the following two new tabs have been introduced:
      • Main: Contains descriptive information about the transformation
      • Source & Target: Replaces the target tab and provides controls for selecting the source and target for the transformation
      You can now save the source of the transformation. Also, transformation configurations are stored in files with the .tc file name extension in your workspace, which enables you to place the configurations under source control. You can import transformation configurations from an Eclipse workspace, from a file that contains previously exported transformation configurations, or from any version 6.0 release of Rational Software Architect or Rational Systems Developer.
    • Generating WSDL artifacts from UML: You can now create a UML model of a Web service and use the UML-to-WSDL transformation to generate Web Services Description Language (WSDL) documents. The UML-to-WSDL transformation supports the following WSDL 1.1 bindings:
      • SOAP DOCUMENT LITERAL
      • SOAP RPC LITERAL
      • SOAP RPC ENCODED
      • HTTP GET
      • HTTP POST
      You can customize existing bindings or create new ones that the UML-to-WSDL transformation uses to generate WSDL artifacts.
    • Generating a UML model from 3GL code: Transformations are now available to construct a UML model from a source code base. You can create a unique Java^™-to-UML or C++-to-UML transformation configuration for each transformation. You can also enable a "reverse" transformation when configuring UML-to-Java, UML-to-C++, Java-to-UML, or C++-to-UML transformations.
      Transformation configurations are now version-controlled artifacts that are generally co-located with the UML model that serves as the "source" for the transformation; the code file is the "target" for the transformation. This file has an extension of ".tc". When recovering structure, an advanced merge interface provides assistance to the modeler to allow the code and model structures to be manually aligned and then "fused." A full synchronization step is always performed, with code structure recovery first, followed by reapplying a model transformation. This order preserves code refactorings and reduces the risk that extra code resources might be created in the wrong location.
  • Support for subunits within models: You can partition a model into separate files, which allows for finer-grained sharing of a model with team members through configuration management systems.
  • New model comparing and merging capabilities: You can compare and merge models that do not share a common ancestry. Thus, two team members who begin to model a system independently can now combine those models by indicating which pieces in one model correspond to the same pieces in the other model. Compare/Merge will then intelligently combine those pieces.
    • Combine dissimilar models: You can now combine models that are not related by a common ancestry, such as independently created models. For example, modelers might want to assemble several models that were created informally at the beginning of a project into a formal set of models that can be managed with version control. You can also use this feature to apply a transformation to update a conceptual model from Java or C++ code.
    • CVS automatic merge: You can accept all non-conflicting changes from two contributors with a single button click when Concurrent Versions System (CVS) flags a conflict. This will make it quicker to perform CVS merges.
    • Revert session: While you are learning how to handle merges, it is possible to get far into a merge only to realize that the approach is incorrect and you need to start over. This can be very inconvenient, especially in the middle of a ClearCase^® operation, because ClearCase merges all artifacts in sequence and interrupting and restarting the flow can be tedious. The new revert session functionality enables you to restart the merge without exiting the merge application.
    • Package composite deltas: The diagram delta groups have now been augmented by the creation of model, diagram, and fragment views, each of which is further grouped hierarchically by UML packages. This permits you to accept or reject changes at any package level in the hierarchy.
    • Validating models before ClearCase check-in: During a long ClearCase operation, such as when you are delivering many changed artifacts, you can now validate each model merge after the merge has completed, but before committing the update to ClearCase. You do not need to remember which models need validation after a long delivery operation; instead you can perform the validation immediately after the merge while all decisions are still fresh in your mind.
    • Field-level merge: For multiline text fields in which Java scripts or snippets are embedded, it is now possible to resolve conflicting changes by merging these fields. You no longer need to discard work from one side of the merge.
    • Full context merge: CVS integration in Rational modeling products supports a new CVS feature that permits you to synchronize the workspace to the repository in a logical model mode. This feature reports conflicts at the model level instead of the fragment level. Therefore, you merge the entire model instead of merging individual artifacts. This provides a stronger merge experience, as each delta and conflict is generated with knowledge of the full context of the models, which eliminates a common source of corruption: the resolution of related conflicts to opposite contributors.
    • Automated profile upgrade: During a model merge, if a contributor is found to be using a newer version of a profile and the profile is available on the computer that is performing the merge, an in-memory upgrade of all contributors to the latest profile version is automatically performed.
• New user assistance features:
  • Contextual and dynamic help: Eclipse now provides a dynamic help view where you can find context-sensitive help and related topics for any active area in the development environment. By clicking the question mark icon in a dialog box or wizard, or by pressing a platform-specific trigger key on the keyboard in any context, you can open the Help view.
    This new view gives you a way to navigate and search the help topics, even when you are in a modal dialog box or wizard, by presenting the Help view in an attached fly-out pane. You can see context-sensitive help and related topics links, as well as read all the help topics while you are completing the current task.
    Although the yellow infopops supported in previous versions of the product are still available, seeing the information in context along with search and index options allows you better access to the information you need when you need it.
  • Dynamic search: Now you have a fast and easy way to search virtually all the user assistance in the product to find exactly the type of information you need at any time.
    Open the search pane of the Help view by clicking Help > Search or by clicking the Search icon at the bottom of the Help view. From here, you can run a centralized search of the help topics, the Welcome pages, and the Tutorials and Samples galleries to find conceptual information, detailed help topics, or tutorials and samples to help you to understand and use product features.
    You can set the dynamic search to return Web hits from sites such as eclipse.org and developerWorks^®.
  • Indexed help: Product help topics are now indexed. Open the new Index tab in the Help window and scroll to find topics, or start typing in the top field to have the index automatically locate the term you want. Similarly, in the Help view, click the Index icon at the bottom of the view to open the index pane.
  • Improved access to tours and tutorials: In addition to the Watch and Learn, and Do and Learn tutorial types from earlier releases, you can now find tutorials from IBM developerWorks in the Tutorials Gallery. Another addition to the Tutorials Gallery is the Tours section, which contains a broad range of conceptual tours.
  • Improved access to samples: In addition to the technology and application samples you have become familiar with, you now have samples from IBM developerWorks into the Samples Gallery. Look in the developerWorks samples section of the gallery table of contents.
  • New RSS in the Welcome: Really Simple Syndication (RSS) provides dynamic links to the latest product and technology white papers and other new postings on IBM developerWorks. Check for RSS feeds on the Web Resources page of the Welcome.

  For an overview of key features and functionality, including descriptions of new features and enhancements, links to tutorials and samples, and links to get started, visit the Welcome (Help > Welcome).

2.0 Installation information

For information about installing Rational Software Modeler, installation prerequisites, installing from a command line, and using a local repository on an HTTP server, see the latest English version of the Installation Guide at http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/rationalsdp/v7/rsm/70/docs/install_instruction/install.html.

You can also view the Installation Guide for your product from the installation launchpad, in the documentation directory of the first product CD, or in the documentation subdirectory of the product's installation directory.

For updated documentation on commands for running Installation Manager in silent mode, refer to the Installation Manager online help.

Note the following changes and corrections that might not be available in the translated version of the Installation Guide:

• The instructions for extracting the Packaging Utility are incorrect in translated versions of the Installation Guide. Correct instructions are available in the Packaging Utility limitations, known problems, and workarounds file.
• Instructions for silently installing IBM Installation Manager are not available in translated versions of the Installation Guide. Correct instructions are available in the Installation Manager limitations, known problems, and workarounds file.
• The installation guide lists incorrect paths for the default shared resources directory and the default directory for the package group. The correct default directories are:
  • For the shared resources directory, the default locations are C:\Program Files\IBM\SDP70Shared on Windows and /opt/IBM/SDP70Shared on Linux^®.
  • For a new package group, the default locations are C:\Program Files\IBM\SDP70 on Windows and /opt/IBM/SDP70 on Linux.

2.1 Hardware requirements

For information about hardware requirements for installing Rational Software Modeler, see the Installation Guide.

2.2 Software requirements

For information about software and browser requirements for installing Rational Software Modeler, see the Installation Guide.

Note the following updates which might not appear in translated versions:

• To extend an existing Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE), you must have Eclipse version 3.2.1 with the latest updates from eclipse.org.
• If you use SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) Version 9, then you must have the IBM JRE 1.5 (SR3) installed before you can extend an existing Eclipse IDE.
• The launchpad does not support Mozilla 1.6; if your browser is Mozilla, you need version 1.7 or higher to run the launchpad.

3.0 Known limitations, problems, and workarounds

These release notes include release-specific information, such as problems and limitations that were not available until after the product documentation was finalized.

• Autonomic Log and Trace Analyzer
• Compare/merge
• DoDAF modeling
• Extensibility reporting framework
• Generic Log Adapter
• IBM Installation Manager
• JET authoring
• Packaging Utility
• Patterns and transformation
• Rational ClearCase server
• Rational Rose model import
• Rational SoDA integration
• Rational Unified Process (RUP)
• Rational XDE model import
• Reusable Asset Specification (RAS) support
• Software Development Platform core
• Transformation authoring
• UML Modeler
• UML modeling and visualization
• User assistance
• WebSphere Business Modeler integration

4.0 IBM Rational Software Support

IBM Rational Software Support provides you with technical assistance.

For contact information and guidelines or reference materials that you will need when you require support, read the IBM Software Support Handbook at http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/guides/handbook.html.

For FAQs, lists of known problems and fixes, and other support information, visit the product support page for Rational Software Modeler at http://www.ibm.com/software/awdtools/modeler/swmodeler/support/index.html.

For product news, events, and other information, visit the product home page for Rational Software Modeler at http://www.ibm.com/software/awdtools/modeler/swmodeler/.

Before you contact IBM Rational Software Support, gather the background information that you will need to describe your problem. When describing a problem to an IBM software support specialist, be as specific as possible and include all relevant background information so that the specialist can help you solve the problem efficiently. To save time, know the answers to these questions:

• What software versions were you running when the problem occurred?
• Do you have logs, traces, or messages that are related to the problem?
• Can you reproduce the problem? If so, what steps do you take to reproduce it?
• Is there a workaround for the problem? If so, be prepared to describe the workaround.

5.0 Notices and trademarks

IBM World Trade Asia Corporation
Licensing
2-31 Roppongi 3-chome, Minato-ku
Tokyo 106, Japan

The following paragraph does not apply to the United Kingdom or any other country where such provisions are inconsistent with local law: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some states do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties in certain transactions, therefore, this statement may not apply to you.

This information could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made to the information herein; these changes will be incorporated in new editions of the publication. IBM may make improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this publication at any time without notice.

Any references in this information to non-IBM Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of those Web sites. The materials at those Web sites are not part of the materials for this IBM product and use of those Web sites is at your own risk.

Licensees of this program who wish to have information about it for the purpose of enabling: (i) the exchange of information between independently created programs and other programs (including this one) and (ii) the mutual use of the information which has been exchanged, should contact:

Intellectual Property Dept. for Rational Software
IBM Corporation
20 Maguire Road
Lexington, MA
02421-3112
USA

Such information may be available, subject to appropriate terms and conditions, including in some cases, payment of a fee.

The licensed program described in this documentation and all licensed material available for it are provided by IBM under terms of the IBM Customer Agreement, IBM International Program License Agreement or any equivalent agreement between us.

Any performance data contained herein was determined in a controlled environment. Therefore, the results obtained in other operating environments may vary significantly. Some measurements may have been made on development-level systems and there is no guarantee that these measurements will be the same on generally available systems. Furthermore, some measurements may have been estimated through extrapolation. Actual results may vary. Users of this document should verify the applicable data for their specific environment.

Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from the suppliers of those products, their published announcements or other publicly available sources. IBM has not tested those products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance, compatibility or any other claims related to non-IBM products. Questions on the capabilities of non-IBM products should be addressed to the suppliers of those products.

All statements regarding IBM's future direction or intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.

Trademarks and service marks

The following terms are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both:

• CICS
• ClearCase
• Cloudscape
• developerWorks
• IBM
• iSeries
• Rational
• Rational Rose
• RequisitePro
• WebSphere
• XDE
• zSeries

Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.

Windows and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.

Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.

Other company, product or service names, may be trademarks or service marks of others.