Markdown model representation

ideas
1

Today if we want to share model information with someone (for example here in docs), we need to use screenshots from Architect.

Not only they take too much space, you cannot copy the information from there and when we change Architect UI, all the screenshots become obsolete.

It would be great to create a way how to represent those in Markdown and implement a Copy function in Architect, where the user would be able to quickly Copy/Paste the selected model element data for sharing over Discourse or other means like e-mail etc.

Maybe YAML?

Something like

DatabaseEntity:
  Name: Priority
  Caption: Priority
  Info:
    Id: 93be376a-d4cb-4339-ad70-c6d46371c00e
    ItemType: DataEntity
    PackageName: myapplication
    RelativeFilePath: myapplication\DataEntity\myapplication\Priority.origm
    SchemaItemType: Origam.Schema.EntityModel.TableMappingItem
  SchemaItem:
    Ancestors: IOrigamEntity2
    Inheritable: false
  Entity:
    AuditingSecondReferenceKeyColumn: null
    AuditingType: None
  Mapping:
    DatabaseObjectType: Table
    GenerateDeploymentScript: true
    MappedObjectName: Priority
  Misc:
    DescribingField: null
    LocalizationRelation: null

I can also imagine the possibility to export whole tree structures. The amount of information could be overwhelming so it might also be handy to offer an option to select just some of the attributes and only export a limited set (e.g. only DatabaseObjectType and MappedObjectName, omitting Ancestors, Inheritable, etc.

Example of full BusinessPartnerEntity with just most important elements:

DatabaseEntity:
  Name: BusinessPartner
  Caption: "Business Partner"
  Id: 457a4391-e94f-424c-89d0-dc3804121ce6
  ItemType: DataEntity
  SchemaItemType: Origam.Schema.EntityModel.TableMappingItem
  Audit: All
  ReadOnly: false
  DatabaseObjectType: Table
  GenerateDeploymentScript: true
  MappedObjectName: BusinessPartner

  Ancestors:
      - "Root/DataEntity/Dimensions/IDimensionsReference.origam#IDimensionsReference"
      - "Root/DataEntity/__Origam General Interfaces/IOrigamEntity.origam#IOrigamEntity"

  Indexes:
    - Name: ix_ReferenceCode
      Unique: false
      Fields:
        - name: ReferenceCode
          sort: Ascending
    - Name: ix_UniqueUserEmail
      Unique: true
      Fields:
        - name: UserEmail
          sort: Ascending

  Columns:
    - Name: UserName
      Label: "Login Name"
      Type: String
      Length: 255
      Nullable: true
      MappedColumn: UserName
      XmlMapping: Element

    - Name: FirstName
      Label: "First Name"
      Type: String
      Length: 255
      Nullable: true
      MappedColumn: FirstName
      XmlMapping: Element

    - Name: Name
      Label: "Name"
      Type: String
      Length: 255
      Nullable: false
      MappedColumn: Name
      OnCopyAction: PrependCopyText
      XmlMapping: Element

    - Name: ParentId
      Label: "Parent Business Partner"
      Type: UniqueIdentifier
      Nullable: true
      MappedColumn: ParentId
      ForeignKey:
        Entity: "Root/DataEntity/Partner Management/BusinessPartner.origam#BusinessPartner"
        Field:  "Root/DataEntity/__Origam General Interfaces/IOrigamEntity.origam#IOrigamEntity/Id"
      DefaultLookup: "Root/DataLookup/__system/LookupBusinessPartner.origam#LookupBusinessPartner"
      XmlMapping: Element

    - Name: UserEmail
      Label: "Login E-mail"
      Type: String
      Length: 255
      Nullable: true
      MappedColumn: UserEmail
      XmlMapping: Attribute

    - Name: ReferenceCode
      Label: "Shortcut"
      Type: String
      Length: 255
      Nullable: true
      MappedColumn: ReferenceCode
      XmlMapping: Element

    - Name: AvatarFilename
      Label: "Avatar"
      Type: String
      Length: 200
      Nullable: true
      MappedColumn: AvatarFilename
      XmlMapping: Attribute

    - Name: AvatarFile
      Type: Blob
      Nullable: true
      MappedColumn: AvatarFile
      XmlMapping: Attribute

    - Name: refLanguageId
      Label: "Language"
      Type: UniqueIdentifier
      Nullable: true
      MappedColumn: refLanguageId
      ForeignKey:
        Entity: "Root/DataEntity/__system/Language.origam#Language"
        Field:  "Root/DataEntity/__Origam General Interfaces/IOrigamEntity2.origam#IOrigamEntity2/Id"
      DefaultLookup: "Root/DataLookup/__system/Language.origam#Language"
      XmlMapping: Attribute

  ComputedColumns:
    - Name: FirstNameAndName
      Label: "Full Name"
      Type: String
      Length: 600
      Nullable: true
      XmlMapping: Attribute
      Expression:
        Function: Concat
        Strings:
          - If:
              Condition: FirstNameEmpty
              Then: "_empty_string"
              Else:
                Concat:
                  - ref: FirstName
                  - Space: 1
          - ref: Name

  Filters:
    - Name: GetUserProfile
      Expression: Equal(UserName, parUserName)

    - Name: GetUsers
      Expression: NotEqual(UserName, null)

    - Name: GetUsersWithoutME
      Expression: NotEqual(Id, parCurrentUserId)

    - Name: GetByParentId
      Expression: Equal(ParentId, parParentId)

    - Name: GetNonUsers
      Expression: Not(GetUsers)

    - Name: FirstNameEmpty
      Expression:
        Or:
          - Equal(FirstName, null)
          - Equal(FirstName, _empty_string)

    - Name: GetByReferenceCode
      Expression: Equal(ReferenceCode, parReferenceCode)

  Relations:
    - Name: Resource
      ParentChild: true
      RelatedEntity: "Root/DataEntity/Resource Management/Resource.origam#Resource"
      ColumnPairs:
        - BaseField: "IOrigamEntity.Id"
          RelatedField: "Resource.refBusinessPartnerId"

  Parameters:
    - Name: parUserName
      Type: String
      Nullable: false
      Length: 255
    - Name: parReferenceCode
      Type: String
      Nullable: true
      Length: 255
    - Name: parParentId
      Type: UniqueIdentifier
      Nullable: true
2

One of the benefits would be the possibility quote the model.

3

Very nice idea, I like it. We can even style it the same way as in the HTML Architect in Discourse (using our own theme for those code blocks), so even visually it can be 1:1 in Architect and documentation.
@washi - when can we implement this in the HTML Architect in order to start using it in the documentation?

4

Yes, we could even create a visual Discourse theme that could visualize this 1:1 to Architect. Similarly like Mermaid charts do. But YAML itself is good enough already, I think.