I have in my diagram an element (call it ElementA) that is represented in the diagram as a compartment item in a compartment shape. ElementA has a 1-1 reference relationship to another element (ElementB). Neither ElementB nor the relationship have a visual representation in the diagram (other than the TreeView). The reference from ElementA to ElementB is set via a drop-down in the properties window.

I want to to perform some custom logic when the ElementA -> ElementB relationship is first created. I provided a custom implementation of ConnectSourceToTarget for the (RelationshipName)Builder class. When establishing the relationship via the properties window, ConnectSourceToTarget is never called. In fact, no methods in the builder class are called.

Should this have worked? Is there another place I can implement this logic? I considered providing a custom setter for the associated property on ElementA, but would that get called during deserialization?

Thanks,

Daniel

The connection builder is usually only called when you use a connection tool. If you set the relationship through the properties window, or through custom code where you do something like elementA.B = elementB, then no connection builder is called: it just sets up an instance of the relationship.

So what you need is an AddRule on the relationship. It will look something like this:

[RuleOn(ABRelationship, FireTime = TimeToFire.TopLevelCommit)]
private class ABrelationshipAddRule : AddRule
{
public override void ElementAdded(ElementAddedEventArgs e)
{
base.ElementAdded(e);
ABRelationship newLink = e.ModelElement as ABRelationship;
// etc with newLink.A, newLink.B - use the relationship's Role Names
}
}