Is there a possibility to show container level dependencies between systems

[shahabganji]

Question

I would like to show the container level dependencies between different systems, without explicitly naming them, is there a possibility to do so?

workspace {

    model {
        sys1 = softwareSystem "Software System 1" {
            container1 = container "Container 1" {
                component1 = component "Component 1"
            }
        }

        sys2 = softwareSystem "Software System 2" {
            container2 = container "Container 2" {
                component2 = component "Component 2"
            }
        }

        component1 -> component2 "Uses"
    }

    views {
        component container1 {
            include component1 component2  //<- here  instead of explicitly adding them, having a wild card or something like sys2.*
            autoLayout
        }
    }
    
}

The same question also applies for component level view, where automatically show the dependency components from another container (either in the same system or different system)

Thanks!

[simonbrowndotje]

Yes, you can use an expression, and there's a cookbook entry about this exact use case.

[shahabganji]

I see, however, this will include all the containers in both systems. Maybe I asked the question in a wrong way, consider:

workspace {

    model {
        sys1 = softwareSystem "Software System 1" {
            container1 = container "Container 1" {
                component1 = component "Component 1"
            }
        }

        sys2 = softwareSystem "Software System 2" {
            container2 = container "Container 2" {
                component2 = component "Component 2"
                component3 = component "Component 3"
            }
        }

        component1 -> component2 "Uses"
    }

    views {
        component container1 {
            include component1 component2  //<- here  instead of explicitly adding them, having a wild card or something like sys2.*
            autoLayout
        }
    }
    
}

With the suggested solution, I will also see the component3, what I want is to show dependencies of component1 in the other container.

// omitted code

views {
        component container1 {
            inlcude component2
            include ->component1->
            autoLayout
        }
    }

// omitted code

[shahabganji]

And btw, it seems that the order matters, so actually if I write

views {
        component container1 {
            include ->component1->
            inlcude component2
            autoLayout
        }
    }

It will still show the container/system, not the component.

[ghost]

@shahabganji I have lodged feature request #355 which I believe addresses the problem you're describing. I've been having a similar issue to you, except with components rather than containers. Hopefully it's something they can implement without too much trouble.

[ghost]

Funnily enough shortly after posting that feature request, I discovered the solution I was proposing was already implement, it just isn't well-documented. Hope this helps you! #355 (comment)

Funny how I spent half an hour writing this, but it only took 10 minutes of going over the source code to realise this feature already exists, it just has to be in quote marks and use && instead of AND:

views {
    component DBcontainer {
        include "->(element.parent==DBcontainer)-> && element.type==Component"
    }
}

This feature should definitely be explained more clearly in the language reference, the cookbook, and elsewhere in the documentation

[shahabganji]

@Todd-EWN It works for me if I remove the parantheses

container CONTAINER_NAME "DIAGRAM_KEY" "DIAGRAM_DESCRIPTION" {
    include "->element.parent==CONTAINER_NAME-> && element.type==container"
}