Question & Answer
Question
What is Source Artifact and how is it used in IBM Rational Rhapsody?
Cause
The information about Source Artifact is limited since it is not a standard UML element but a special model element specifically used by Rhapsody to preserve the look of your code as original as possible.
Answer
Before version 7.2 of the product, a SourceArtifact was referred to as a Component File. While component files still exist, they now refer to elements explicitly created under the Components folder in Rational Rhapsody.
When component files are located under packages or classes, and so on, they are referred to as Source Artifacts.
Source Artifact and RoundTrip is tightly related. RoundTrip is a powerful feature Rhapsody provides. RoundTrip refers to an activity to reflect changes you made to the source code back into model, and vice versa. Such change includes not only updates to code but also mapping and ordering information. When you make a change to source code, Rhapsody will analyze the source code and determine the type of change you made, and model it correctly. If the change was considered as something that is not appropriate to be modelled, for example a comment, Rhapsody will store that information as a textual information in Source Artifact.
Source Artifact is normally created at the time of round-tripping and used for ordering and various manipulations. It serves the role of information holder. Note that Source Artifact created by Reverse Engineering or RoundTrip are signed as synthesized with the small 's'
. If you make changes to the Source Artifact, it stopped to be synthesized ('s' is removed). If it is not synthesized, Rhapsody will treat the particular Source Artifact more carefully, same as it was not automatically added by Reverse Engineering or RoundTrip, and thus Rhapsody will not change its location nor delete it automatically. In general, Source Artifacts are managed by Rhapsody, you can add new Source Artifact in order to affect the generated code, but bear in mind it could be altered by RoundTrip.
For more information about Source Artifact, refer to the IBM Rational Rhapsody Information Center documentation for your installed Rhapsody version in the following topics:
Related Information
Product Synonym
Rational Rhapsody
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Document Information
Modified date:
27 May 2022
UID
swg21640396