The connection between ARIS and Alfabet is established by ARIS database attributes. The Alfabet REST API v2 interface is configured using the ARIS-ALFABET-mappingV2.xml configuration file and related Alfabet reports.
This file defines the general mapping for models, connections, and assignments. It handles the data transfer between ARIS and Alfabet using Alfabet RESTful API v2. Script administrators can adapt this file.
Alfabet interoperability is available for objects of the Application system type type by default. Objects can be mapped to Alfabet objects of the Application Alfabet object class. If you want to define other ARIS object types or Alfabet object classes, you must:
Adapt the related reports that are used in the Alfabet system to transfer the defined data to ARIS.
Alfabet reports supporting the default configuration are shipped with Alfabet releases 10.5p2 and later. You can adapt these reports in Alfabet or define your own reports.
The report reduces the amount of data transferred from Alfabet to ARIS. The reports make a set of used properties available and enable access to properties that are not defined in the current class, but that should become ARIS attributes of the imported object, such as lifecycle attributes of an Application system type object. If a referenced report is not available in Alfabet, the import log reports this issue. In this case, the import tries to fall back to the default import without using the report.
Further information on the interface and on how to configure the data exchange is available in the related manual. The Alfabet reference manual of the ARIS - Alfabet Interoperability Interface can be found on the Alfabet installation media. You can also download it from Empower.
Adapt the ARIS-ALFABET-mappingV2.xml configuration file
Warning
After a program update all changes made to standard scripts and files are lost. If you adapt a duplicated file, the file will not be affected by the program update. Original XML files are overwritten and updated. After an update you must copy the adapted lines into the new XML file.
ARIS is supplied with numerous standard scripts. We generally recommend documenting all changes to scripts externally so that the documentation can be used to ensure that they are incorporated correctly during the update process.
When updating ARIS, all ARIS standard scripts and files are overwritten and customer-specific changes to these files are discarded. Copied scripts and files and those you have created yourself are not overwritten.
If you have changed files we supplied but not copied them, before the update (updatesystemdb) they must be exported and then imported after the update. This enables you to retain your adapted standard scripts from the previous version. However, in this case you do not receive any corrections or updates to the files we supplied.
Semantic checks
We recommend creating custom rule types and custom profiles for semantic checks, in which the ARIS standard rule types and rules are referenced.
This is not possible for configurable rule types (relationship attribute rules, model attribute rules, object attribute rules, existence rules, and allocation rules). If you have added rules to these rule types, you must export the rule types before the update and then import them after the update.
Make sure that the defined attribute types are available for each object type.
Alfabet REST API v2 is activated and configured in Alfabet. The Alfabet reference manual of the ARIS - Alfabet Interoperability Interface can be found on the Alfabet installation media. You can also download it from Empower.
Procedure
In ARIS Architect, click ARIS >Administration.
Click the group Evaluations > Reports in the Navigation bar.
Open the IT Architecture category.
Double-click the file ARIS-ALFABET-mappingV2.xml. The file opens in Script Editor.
Add further entries or change entries related to the modifications made in the report, as required.