5.3.3 General commands
This category contains the basic and often used commands other
than those used to access design elements.
Report header
The report header is the name of the generator:
report 'data flow report'
The name of a generator
can be used to affect the user interface shown to a modeler:
 | If
the name begins with an underscore, ‘_’, the
generator is not shown in the list of generators the modeler can run. This is
useful for hiding subgenerators from modelers.
|
| If
the name begins with a double underscore ‘__’, it is not shown to
modelers or as a subgenerator in the hierarchical view of the Generator Editor.
This is useful for ‘utility’ subgenerators that are called from
almost all generators, and which might otherwise clutter up the hierarchical
view for the metamodeler. Rather than showing these subgenerators many times
throughout the hierarchy, they are shown once at the top level of the
hierarchy. |
| If
the name begins with an exclamation mark,
‘!’, the generator is added as a button on the action toolbar of the
Diagram Editor and other editors. The button shows the name without the
exclamation mark; since there is limited space in a button, such names should be
limited to a few letters. These generators are also not shown in the list of
generators the modeler can run. Usually, such a generator simply calls a normal
generator that will be visible in that list. |
For
brevity’s sake, the report header is not present in the generators used in
metamodeling tools for generator identifiers, and in the Symbol Editor for text
element contents and conditions.
Report end
Generators end with an endreport statement:
endreport
For brevity’s sake, this is not
present in the generators used in metamodeling tools for generator identifiers,
and in the Symbol Editor for text element contents and conditions.
Comments
A comment sequence is started with the /* token and terminated
with the */ token.
/* This is a comment */
Line end
Each statement within the generator body (except the foreach
construct) may end with an optional semicolon. Note that several statements can
be written on the same line by separating them with whitespace, and optionally a
semicolon after each command. Semicolons are obligatory in a few places, e.g. to
mark the end of a type name that contains a space or precedes a
command.
Newline
As well as being allowed as part of a string, new lines can be
inserted in the generator output by the keyword newline.
newline
Strings
The strings to be generated appear as they are written inside
' single quote marks. To include a ' in a string write it twice '' (2 single
quotes).
'This will appear as it is here' newline
'This will ''appear'' a little different'
would appear
like this in the generator output:
This will appear as it is here
This will 'appear' a little different
Type
The name of the current element’s type can be printed to
the generator output by:
type
The command can also be used to access elements
in containing loops by following the command with a semicolon and level number:
see “
Level number” in
Section
5.3.2.
Identifier
The identifier
of the current element
is printed by:
id
If an element has an identifying property, the
string representation of that property forms its identifier. If an element has
no identifying property, e.g. if it has no properties, the name of its type
forms its identifier. If an element has a generator identifier, the output of
that generator forms the identifier.
The command can also be used to access elements in
containing loops by following the command with a semicolon and level number: see
“
Level number” in Section
5.3.2.
Unique object identifier
Each design element within the system has a unique object
identifier. This can be printed by:
oid
The object identifier is of the form 12_234,
where the number before the underscore refers to the repository area in which
the element is located and the number after the underscore is the unique
identifier for the element within that area. This object identifier is thus
useful when a unique tag for an element is required, e.g. if the element has no
properties, or if the identifier should remain the same even when the
element’s name changes.
The separate parts of the identifier can be output by the
projectId and
objectId commands. Note that if the
current element is not a proper design element, but just a Text or String, empty
strings are output in place of the numbers, so the result is just an
underscore.
The command can also be used to access elements in
containing loops by following the command with a semicolon and level number: see
“
Level number” in Section
5.3.2.
ProjectId
Each design element is stored in a certain project, and each
project has a numerical project id, which can be printed by:
projectId
Note that if the current element is not a
proper design element, but just a Text or String, an empty string is
output.
The projectId
number is the same as the first part of the
oid. The mapping of numbers to project
names is visible in the repository’s
manager.ab file.
The command can also be used to access elements in
containing loops by following the command with a semicolon and level number: see
“
Level number” in Section
5.3.2.
ObjectId
Each design element has a numerical object id, unique within
its project, which can be printed by:
objectId
Note that if the current element is not a
proper design element, but just a Text or String, an empty string is
output.
The objectId
number is the same as the last part of the
oid.
The command can also be used to access elements in
containing loops by following the command with a semicolon and level number: see
“
Level number” in Section
5.3.2.
Project
The name of the project where the current element is stored
can be printed by:
project
Note that an empty string is output if the
current element is a Text or String.
The command can also be used to access elements in
containing loops by following the command with a semicolon and level number: see
“
Level number” in Section
5.3.2.
MetaType
The metatype of the current element can be printed by:
metaType
which outputs ‘Object’ for
objects, ‘Relationship’ for relationships, ‘Graph’ for
graphs, ‘Text’ for text and ‘String’ for
strings.
The command can also be used to access elements in
containing loops by following the command with a semicolon and level number: see
“
Level number” in Section
5.3.2.
Stack
To output the current stack contents, use:
stack
which outputs the stack contents so that the
current element of this loop is printed first, and the current element of the
outermost loop is printed last.
Decompositions
To output the decomposition graph’s name of an object,
use:
decompositions
You can also iterate over the
decompositions with the
do and
dowhile commands; as an object only has
zero or one decomposition, the loop will be executed at most once each time. See
“
Iterating over
decompositions” in Section
5.3.4
Explosions
To output the explosion graphs’ names of an object,
relationship or role, use:
explosions
