Business Process Modeling Tag

The latest MDG Office Integrations (v1.4.40) provides an enrichment feature named “BPMN Visualizer,” which allows the user to push the BPMN elements from the Microsoft Excel document into Sparx Enterprise Architect Model and vice versa.

Key Features of BPMN in MDG Office Integration

• Simplified Approach that eliminates the necessity for Profile Creation during import and export for mapping items. This drastically minimizes user time and the possibility of manual errors.
• Through a single click of “Excel to EA” menu, users can quickly synchronize BPMN Elements, seamlessly updating and aligning data between Excel and the Enterprise Architect model.
• The visual representation of diagrams from the EA model, as well as the related preconfigured mapping table, can be displayed within Excel.
• The capability to incorporate multiple diagrams is supported when a package is selected. This means that all diagrams within the chosen packages are exhibited, accompanied by their respective predefined mapping tables in separate sheets.

To import BPMN data into Enterprise Architect from Excel

 Figure 1 – Excel Ribbon

BPMN Visualizer in Excel Interface

	‘BPMN Visualizer’:  Import and Export between Excel and Enterprise Architect of BPMN element and their connectors.
	Allows users to select a Package or BPMN Diagram to Load from the EA Model to the Excel with the respective diagram image.

Once Enterprise Architect model is connected, the Excel sheet is loaded with diagram and its predefined mapping table.

Figure 2 – BPMN Element data along with diagram

Excel column definition

The table below describes the details of the predefined columns in the Excel

Action ID	The Unique ID of BPMN Elements. It’s used to map the connectors and parent.
Action Name	Name of the BPMN Element
Action Type	Type of the BPMN Element
Next Action IDs	Target BPMN Element to connect based on the Action ID.
Connector Name	Name of the BPMN Connector
Connector Type	Type of the BPMN Connector
Parent	The parent of a selected BPMN Element based on the Action ID.

Note

• The Excel sheet contains only the ‘BPMN 2.0 Technology’ based Elements and Connectors.
• Format of Excel sheet name – ‘DiagramName_DiagramID’.
• The supported element types are Activity, Gateway, StartEvent, IntermediateEvent, EndEvent, DataStore, DataObject, BusinessProcess, BPELProcess, GlobalTask, Pool, and Lane.
• The supported connector types are SequenceFlow, Message Flow, ConversationLink, DataAssociation and Association.

Element and Connector Creation in Excel

• To create a new element, enter a name in the ‘Action Name’ column(mandatory). By default, the ‘Action Type’ is ‘Activity’. Users can change the type using a drop-down list.

Figure 3 – Adding Element and its Connectors in Excel

• ‘Next Action ID’ creates a connector between two BPMN elements. Select the ‘Next Action ID’ checklist box and select the ‘Action ID’ to connect. By default, the connector type is ‘Sequence Flow’
• The ‘EA to Excel’ icon is used to restore the produced items to their original state as in the Enterprise Architect Model.
• After Creating Element and Connector, select the ‘Excel to EA’ icon. It will Create the new elements and connectors under the selected package in Enterprise Architect and the respective diagram is updated in the Excel sheet.

Figure 4 – Updated Element and Connector data in Enterprise Architect

Further Information

Please contact us or write an email to info@sparxsystemsindia.6thforce.com to have a live demo about the new EA 16 features and capabilities.

BPMN Visualizer is a powerful tool that makes it easy to import BPMN contents from Microsoft Visio into Enterprise Architect using MDG Integration for Microsoft Office. The BPMN Visualizer has a user-friendly interface that simplifies the import process.

Key features in MDG Integration for Microsoft Office – BPMN Visualizer

• It allows the user to import Visio BPMN shapes and connectors, along with their corresponding property values into Enterprise Architect.
• We can also Import Non-BPMN Shapes from Visio document by mapping the defined EA BPMN Types and Stereotypes. Otherwise, it will be ignored.
• It supports .vsd and .vsdx files.

Introducing the Interface

1. Select the Microsoft Visio Document that contain the BPMN information that needs to be imported.

2. Choose the profile that has been defined for the selected Visio document. If you don’t have a profile, click on ‘Create New’ option to Create a new profile

3. Select Import to create the BPMN Information into model elements in Enterprise Architect.

Figure.1 Import Visio Interface

Profile Mapping

Users can easily and adaptably map Visio documents to EA models using profiles. This makes it more effective.

To create a new profile, Specialize -> BPMN Visualizer -> Profile Manager -> Create New

Figure.2 Create New Profile

Profile Information: 

Profile Name	The name of the profile
Description	A brief description of the profile
File Name	Visio document path
Only Show Unmapped Objects	This option is used to display Unmapped Objects Separately.  Checked – It only display the unidentified objects for mapping.  Unchecked – It will display all objects from the Visio
GroupBy Type	This option is used to group based on shape type. If the option is checked, it maps the same definition for all similar types
Skip Unmapped Objects while Importing	Used to skip the dialog that displays unidentified shapes while importing.   Checked – Unidentified shapes will be ignored while importing.  Unchecked – Unmapped objects window will get pop’s up to map the objects while importing. Refer here.

Unmapped objects during import: 

It is used to map unidentified shapes like non-BPMN from a selected Visio document into EA BPMN element types and stereotypes. 

Figure.3 Mapping the Unmapped Shapes from Visio

Table information in Profile Mapping 

Visio Shape Type	Denotes the type of shapes present in the Visio Document
Shape Name	Displays the name of each shape from the document
Object Type	Display the EA BPMN element types that will be created in the EA Models. This column can also be modified via dropdown menu
Stereotype	Display the EA BPMN stereotypes that will be created in the EA Models. This column can also be modified via dropdown menu
Page Name	Displays the name of the page where each shape is located within the Visio document

By following the above simple steps, the user can import the Visio BPMN stencils and their relationships into Enterprise Architect with the help of profile mapping as displayed below.

Figure.4 Import Visio BPMN Stencils as EA Artifacts

Further Information 

Please contact us or write an email to info@sparxsystemsindia.6thforce.com to have a live demo about the new EA 16 features and capabilities.