Syndeia FAQs, Part 3: What is a Data Map Connection?

Syndeia has developed as a set of network-enabled services embedded in an integrated design environment, plus a set of user interfaces (UI), each of which can execute a particular set of those services. At it has developed, features introduced in its earliest versions can raise questions for newer users. This blog series tries to give coherent answers to some of the more frequent questions.

What is a Data Map Connection?

At the center of the Connection Manager tab for the Syndeia Plug-in and Standalone clients (e.g. Figure 1), the Connection Type column shows four options. Reference and Model Transform are widely used in building the digital thread and are dealt with extensively in Syndeia training and documentation. Function Wrap currently has no function at all; it is reserved for potential future use.

Data Map is somewhere in between. It was introduced in the earliest releases of Syndeia and has not been extended beyond its original purposes. Many of those purposes are now served by other Syndeia features, but there remain a few use cases where Data Map has a special role.

Data Map is special case of Model Transform. Model Transform transforms a model element, including its properties and relations, from one domain to another, creating a new model element in the destination repository and creating a link between the original and new elements. Transforming relations means that multiple related elements are shared. For example, the Terrain requirement in SysML in Figure 1 contains four subrequirements. A default Model Transform dragging-and-dropping Terrain from Cameo to Jama would carry over all five requirements and their properties and the relationships between them.

A Data Map connection created by dragging Terrain into a Jama project would transform only that element and its properties. The subrequirements and the relations to them would not be transformed. The Terrain elements  and their properties in Jama and SysML could be compared and updated, as with Model Transforms.

Creating a Data Map Connection between Cameo and Jama Connect

Figure 1 Creating a Data Map Connection between Cameo and Jama Connect

Data Map is only available from the Syndeia Cameo and Rhapsody plugin clients, not from Standalone or Web Dashboard. Except for Excel and MySQL (vide infra), it only applies to default mappings between SysML models in Cameo or Rhapsody and a few integrations: Jama, JIRA and DOORS NG. In those use cases, it has largely been replaced by Syndeia’s custom mapping feature, which allows the user to set how many levels of structure will be transformed: NO_CHILDREN, CHILDREN_IMMEDIATE and CHILDREN_RECURSIVE, with NO_CHILDREN being equivalent to a Data Map transform.

Data Map Connections for MS Excel and MySQL

The primary exceptions to the discussion above are for the integrations to MS Excel and MySQL. These are among the earliest integrations introduced for Syndeia and are set up very differently from many of the later integrations.  They are only available from the Syndeia Cameo and Rhapsody plugin clients and not through the Syndeia Cloud REST API.

The patterns for model transforms with both the MS Excel (link) and MySQL (link) integrations are similar.

  1. A Model Transform connection is created to convert a block in SysML to a table in Excel or MySQL. For example, a SysML block becomes an empty table in Excel and the value properties of that block become the columns of the table. The same operation also works in reverse.
  2. A Data Map connection is created to convert the (default) values of an instance or specialization of that SysML block into a row in that table. The same operation also works in reverse and can operate on several rows at the same time. The values can be compared and updated.

See Figure 2 for examples of an Excel-to-Cameo Data Map connection.

Figure 2 Excel-to-Cameo Model Transform (green) and Data Map (red) connections

Bottom Line

Data Map connections are a largely obsolete holdover from Syndeia’s early releases. They still play a significant role in the MS Excel and MySQL integrations.

Other Parts in this series:

About Author

Dirk Zwemer

Dr. Dirk Zwemer (dirk.zwemer@intercax.com) is COO and Co-founder of Intercax LLC (Atlanta, GA), a supplier of MBE engineering software platforms like Syndeia and ParaMagic. He is an active teacher and consultant in the field and holds Level 4 Model Builder-Advanced certification as an OMG System Modeling Professional.