MDK User's Guide: 2 Functions

Owned by robert karban
Nov 27, 2022
6 min read

Logging in to MMS

Because many MDK features expect that you are logged in to the MMS, you may be prompted to login to the MMS when a MDK-enabled project is loaded. This login prompt occurs near the end of the load cycle, but will not block MagicDraw from completing the model load. If the login fails or is cancelled, MDK will revert to offline mode. Any changes will be persisted in the model, and you will be unable to receive changes from or send changes to MMS until you successfully log in. Other offline features of MDK are unaffected. You may login at any time by selecting "Login" from the "MMS" menu and submitting your credentials through the dialog box.

 

If you commit a MDK-enabled project to Teamwork Cloud (TWC) but are not logged in to MMS, you will be prompted to log in the MMS. This prompt occurs immediately after you submit the commit message, and will block MagicDraw from completing the commit to TWC until it is submitted or cancelled. If this login fails or is cancelled, you will continue to not have access to the online functionality as described above.

MMS Menu

The following provides an overview of the different operations that are offered through the top MMS menu. For information about the MMS menu that appears when selecting an element, such as a document, refer to Manually Generate Views and Validate with MMS (link tbd).

  • Login  - Trigger a prompt for credentials to be used to log in to the MMS. When logged in, the options that require MMS interaction will be enabled.

  • Logout - Clear your MMS authentication. It will also disable any options that require a connection to the MMS.

  • Generate All Views - Generates all Views in the project. It is functionally equivalent to finding all Views, right clicking, and selecting "MMS" > "Generate View Contents".

  • Validate - Validate elements or project attributes in bulk, such as Views and branches.

 

MMS Syncing

Syncing with MMS is an automated process that is typically transparent to the user. These views explain how this occurs, cases where manual intervention is required i.e. conflicts, and how to recover from a loss of parity.

 

Coordinated Syncing

Coordinated Sync ties the MMS synchronization functionality to MagicDraw's Teamwork Cloud (TWC) commit action. When a TWC commit is initiated in MagicDraw, coordinated sync triggers a similar commit to the MMS. This minimizes the user interactions required to keep the model up to date on the MMS and ensures that parity is maintained between the TWC model and the MMS model. This also vastly reduces the need for alternative sync methods such as Manual Syncing.

Description:

While you are editing the model, element changes are collected in memory to be processed on your next save / commit. This includes direct changes to your model, such as new elements or updated documentation, as well as reference changes that can arise from changes to mounted projects. MMS changes by other users, in MagicDraw or View Editor, are also stored in memory to be processed during the sync operation (these changes are not stored in memory if you are not logged in to the MMS). 

When a TWC commit is initiated and a coordinated sync occurs, these two change lists are processed. MMS element changes are updated into the MagicDraw model as possible. After this model update, MagicDraw model changes are committed to the MMS in the background of the TWC commit. Finally, the model save/commit occurs.

Any conflicts caused by changes to elements in both MagicDraw and MMS introduced by any user on either end will be stored in the model for any user to resolve as desired. They will also be presented to the user in the validation window upon save/commit. These conflicts will be presented to the user on every save/commit until resolved. The presence of conflicts does not prevent completion of the TWC commit operation.

Usage:

  • On Model Open

    • Coordinated Sync will prompt the user to log in to MMS. Logging in allows it to listen to messages track changes in real time, and be ready to gather and apply them at the appropriate time.

      • Cancelling this login, or submitting invalid credentials, will not prevent you from working on the model. It will only prevent you from receiving messages about elements changed in the MMS and prevent you from committing to the MMS until after you log in manually. Changes made to the model will be persisted locally for later commit.

  • On Model Save / TWC Commit

    • Coordinated Sync will automatically perform model synchronization with MMS, committing MagicDraw elements to MMS or deleting elements no longer present in MagicDraw.

    • Coordinated Sync will update elements in MagicDraw based on MMS changes if the element can be edited and there is no version conflict between the MagicDraw and MMS versions of the elements.

      • Elements with pending updates will be presented to the user as a validation violation so that the user can plan to lock them before next commit, if desired. These will be stored in a list in the model for future checking.

    • Coordinated Sync will not update elements in MagicDraw of MMS that have pending changes on both the MagicDraw and MMS side, as it cannot determine which version of the element is correct. 

      • Elements with these conflicts will be presented to the user as a validation violation for manual resolution. These will be stored in a list in the model for future checking.

    • Coordinated Sync will also validate all elements in its list of elements whose updates failed due to locks or conflicts, according to the above rules. If an update can be performed, the element will be updated in MagicDraw and removed from the list. Similarly, if the element is equivalent between MagicDraw and MMS, the element will be removed from the list. Any elements that remain out of sync with MMS will be again displayed as a validation violation.

 

Manual Syncing

Manual validation is intended to only be used to re-establish parity if it is lost, i.e. by application error, MagicDraw project reversion, etc., but models should generally be synced using Coordinated Syncing. If you have to manually validate, it is best to follow the CRUD rules about order of operations: 1) create 2) update 3) delete.

Manual validation options can be found  by right clicking any element and selecting the "MMS" category. The three options are as follows:

  • Validate Models: Run validation on the element(s) selected and all those contained by them.

  • Validate Models (specified depth): Run validation on the element(s) selected and elements that are contained by them to the specified depth.

  • Validate Element: Run validation on the element(s) selected.

 

Resolving Conflicts and Errors

During any of the MMS synchronization operations, the MDK checks for conflicts between the MMS and the MagicDraw model. These conflicts may indicate a difference between what is in the current project model and an edit in View Editor, or they may be caused by data being updated on the MMS by a different application.

Conflicts will appear either in a Validation window, and each one may be interacted with via the context (right-click) menu in order to commit the MagicDraw version or updated from the MMS version. Additional information about the conflict may be available in the context menu as well. Error messages will appear on the Notification window, and may not be interacted with.

 

Branch Syncing

Note: This applies to Teamwork Cloud (TWC) projects, but not local projects as the latter do not have branching.

For TWC branching, see NoMagic's User Guide: https://docs.nomagic.com/display/MD190/Branching+projects

 

Both TWC and MMS support branching as a part of their version control functionality. MDK syncs branches created in TWC by committing them to MMS. To validate the branches on both sides, select "MMS" from the main menu > "Validate" > "Branches". Validation rule violations will be presented if they are not in sync, and resolutions can be selected by right clicking each violation.

 

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