What is ARIS Script?

API for ARIS reports and macros (ARIS Script) is based on the JavaScript programming language. It contains additional objects and methods that you need for writing scripts. Depending on whether you define a macro rule, a semantic check rule, or write a report script, you must use the designated methods.

The JavaScript standard is specified in the ECMAScript language specification. An engine frequently used for JavaScript is Mozilla Rhino. While JavaScript language is to be distinguished from Java language, the Rhino JavaScript engine is implemented in Java. The current ARIS version uses Mozilla Rhino 1.7.7. There is no strict definition for the supported ECMA version. The Rhino engine supports JavaScript 1.7. Rhino 1.7.7 used by ARIS additionally supports features from JavaScript 1.8.x, especially the JSON object that is part of ECMA 5. Rhino 1.7.7 does not support ECMA 6.

To use your own allowed Java packages in an ARIS report, add the jar file to the related script category or the Common files folder and force the script to import this file during runtime. Then you can use the classes from this jar file as any other class, for example, var x = new packagename.classname(xyz).

To obtain information on ARIS Script commands, open a script, move the mouse pointer to a command in the script code, and press the F1 key.

You can also open the command reference of the API for ARIS reports and macros in the help system.

Further information on JavaScript is available at http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm.

If you need additional evaluation scripts, you can create report output in the design view. If you are familiar with the JavaScript and ARIS Script programming languages, you can write your own report scripts or adapt copies of existing standard scripts.

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.

Reports/Macros/Report templates and files

Do not make any changes to the standard scripts we supply. Always adapt copies of report, macro, and JS files, and any other files. There are exceptions, for example, the file atsall<language code>.js.

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.

Further information and scripting tutorials are available in the ARIS Community at:

See also

Create macro

Write report scripts

Define profiles (semantic check)

Define rule types (semantic check)

Define rules of a rule type (semantic check)