SOFTware is HARD

MindMap Hack I've been using Astah (download here ) more recently for the MindMap feature and felt to share this wonderful "hack" with you. I jotted some points in NotePad and wish to quickly transfer them into Astah as a MindMap. The easiest way to retain the hierarchy is to use [TAB].  Therefore I could easily transform this Hierarchical List of Points Into Same List of Points in MindMap Here is how it's done: Select all text in NotePad (or equivalent) and Copy (Ctrl-C) Go to Astah and create a New MindMap Diagram Click on Mindmap0 or whatever existing topic and Paste (Ctrl-V) Like magic, the MindMap is created and the hierarchy is retained. UML Deployment Diagram You wish to draw professional-looking diagrams using AWS/ Azure icons. Is that possible & easy to do in Astah? AWS Deployment Believe it or not, the above is drawn in Astah!  Here is how it's done: Go to Tools -> Project Settings -> Set Icon for Stereotype (See Custom Icons for Stereotypes Di...

I'm usually a visual person, hence reading and understanding standards (implementation protocols, etc.) can be quite challenging. In trying to understand and appreciate OIDC (Open ID Connect) from the OIDC website , I used Astah to model my understanding and summarised by understanding in a couple of diagrams. What was more challenging is that there are several flows in OIDC and each can be slightly different. My goal is to not only understand the protocol, but to appreciate how it is applied in my implementation. Fortunately, Astah makes it relatively easy for me to create high-level models that might not have any implementation elements. Remember I'm not implementing OIDC protocol and am modeling the flows in order to better understand them. As such, I'm not exactly interested in creating UML Classes, writing Operations, Attributes, Associations, etc., other than what is instrumental in creating the desired diagrams. Some of the Sequence Diagrams are here: Authorizatio...

I started using JUDE in the early days of UML modelling and have continued using Astah until now. In the day and age of Agile development, emphasizing "communication over documentation", is UML (and related UML tools) still relevant? I'll give a resounding YES! to the question. While we should do away with extensive documentation , we should still be able to communicate our intent in forms of architecture, design, workflow, processes, etc. In the course of my work in an end-user environment, I use Astah extensively to communicate with development teams, users, vendors and even senior management.  I find it's often a lot easier to use a tool like Astah to draw UML (or pseudo-UML) diagrams than pen-and-paper (or even napkins!). For instance, I can easily move things around, redraw and append/ update the diagram using the tool but not with paper. Some examples of diagrams I'd used in the course of work are below. I used Astah for the following: Share my thought proc...

https://github.com/SkeltonThatcher/run-book-template/blob/master/run-book-template.md https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/templates/devops-runbook https://medium.com/@shawnstafford/ops-runbook-16017fa78733

I usually begin modelling from a UML Sequence Diagram in order to have a sensing of a list of classes/ objects. However, the downside with starting with the Sequence Diagram is that the classes are not created automatically. Other than having to manually create classes to link to the object (lifeline) which is rather tedious, I finally found a great (undocumented?) feature in Astah that allows me to create a class (automatically) from an object (lifeline) in the Sequence Diagram! BEFORE : the usual steps to creating classes from Sequence Diagrams. Create lifelines and messages as required For lifeline objects that need to be created as a Class, click on the object. The properties panel should show the base class as <<Unspecified>> As the class has not been previously created, we need to create a new Class (usually) with the same name as the object. Click on New and rename the Class Press close on the dialog box. The lifeline object is now an in...

Objective I needed to prepare an Excel file for importing into SharePoint. Excel First, I need an Excel formula to populate a short name (255 characters) from a much longer name ( found in "col"). The length of the short name is constrained by SharePoint's "single line of text" field. The challenge is to find acronyms within col or if am acronym can't be found, to truncate col to 255 characters. Example:  GNU is Not Unix (GNU) => GNU This is another name => This is another name This is the formula to use.  = IF(ISNUMBER(FIND("(";[col]));MID([col];FIND("(";[col]) + 1; FIND(")";[col]) - FIND("(";[col])-1);LEFT(CLEAN(TRIM([col]));255)) Importing into SharePoint The only error free way to do this is to use Excel to export into SharePoint. Create an Excel table and select it Go to "table tools" tab and choose the "export table to SharePoint list" option within "export...