Rhapsody Tip #24 - Using change events with flowports (Intermediate)

I've not posted in a while (I have a good excuse, I committed to do some volunteering work!).

I keep getting asked about Flow-ports and how to get them to work in Rhapsody, hence I thought I'd kick things off again by providing a video on this. My gut-feeling, SysML proxy-ports still lack the simplicity you can achieve with flow-ports (which, given they are the base of the Simulink integrations, are unlikely to go away in Rhapsody anytime soon).

Despite the introduction of proxy ports in SysML 1.3, flow-ports remain very useful when simulating systems. In this video I demonstrate how to use flow-ports in IBM Rational Rhapsody to transfer data values from Parts defined by different Blocks, and get the receiving Block to react to changes to the value in the transmitting Block. One of the good things about flow-ports is that they are multi-cast, e.g. it's possible to draw connectors to multiple parts. This, in combination with the fine granularity makes them very useful for simulating automotive systems.

While I admire the intent behind proxy-ports, I think there are practical reasons therefore why flow-ports persist as useful. They are also the basis of Simulink integration in Rhapsody, another reason why they are not going away quickly. The trick to using flow-ports for simulation in Rhapsody is to understand that it uses naming conventions. This video illustrations the use of a change event (e.g. chSpeed) and a setter (e.g. setVehSpeed), together with name equivalence between the flow-port and the value property/attribute to get it working for simulation.