Chapter 10 PowerDesigner Public Metamodel

Using the metamodel with VBS

You can access and manipulate PowerDesigner internal objects using Visual Basic Scripting. The scripting lets you access and modify object properties, collections, and methods using the public names of objects.

The PowerDesigner metamodel provides useful information about objects:

Information	Description	Example
Public name	The name and code of the metamodel objects are the public names of PowerDesigner internal objects	AssociationLinkSymbol ClassMapping CubeDimensionAssociation
Object collections	You can identify the collections of a class by observing the associations linked to this class in the diagram. The role of each association is the name of the collection	In PdBPM, an association exists between classes MessageFormat and MessageFlow. The public name of this association is Format. The role of this association is Usedby which corresponds to the collection of message flows of class MessageFormat
Object attributes	You can view the attributes of a class together with the attributes this class inherits from other classes via generalization links	In PdCommon, in the Common Instantiable Objects diagram, you can view objects BusinessRule, ExtendedDependency and FileObject with their proper attributes, and the abstract classes from which they inherit attributes via generalization links
Object operations	Operations in metamodel classes correspond to object methods used in VBS	BaseModel contains operation Compare that can be used in VB scripting
<<notScriptable>> stereotype	Objects that do not support VB scripting have the <<notScriptable>> stereotype	RepositoryGroup

For more information on public names, see section Public names.

For more information on generalizations, see section Generalizations.

VBS help file

If you need more information on object collections and attributes during VB scripting, you can use the help file available from the Edit/Run Script dialog box. This HTML help file is another view of the metamodel, designed to help VBS users identify object collections and attributes.

For more information on VB scripting, see section Accessing Objects using VBScript in the General Features Guide .