ea

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Quick start
  • Parse a QEA file (pure — no lutaml-uml needed)
  • Whole and partial XMI loading (pure — no lutaml-uml needed)
  • Generate a SPA from QEA (requires lutaml-uml)
  • Generate Sparx XMI from QEA (pure — no lutaml-uml)
  • Extract a diagram as SVG (requires lutaml-uml)
• Architecture
  • Pure layer (no lutaml-uml dependency)
  • Bridge layer (optional — lazy-requires lutaml-uml)
  • Data flow
• CLI commands
• Limitations
• Development
• License

Standalone Ruby gem for parsing Sparx Enterprise Architect data files (QEA SQLite database and Sparx XMI). Pure parse, optional bridge to lutaml-uml for cross-vendor UML output and SPA generation.

Installation

gem install ea

For SPA generation (optional):

gem install ea lutaml-uml

Or in your Gemfile:

source "https://rubygems.org"
gem "ea", "~> 0.2"
gem "lutaml-uml", "~> 0.5"   # optional: SPA + SVG diagram rendering

Quick start

Parse a QEA file (pure — no lutaml-uml needed)

require "ea"

db = Ea.parse("model.qea")   #=> Ea::Qea::Database
puts "#{db.packages.size} packages, #{db.objects.size} objects"

Whole and partial XMI loading (pure — no lutaml-uml needed)

Ea::Xmi.load parses an EA XMI export into the typed Sparx model. Whole load is the default and parses the entire file:

require "ea/xmi"

model = Ea::Xmi.load("export.xmi")

Partial load parses only the reference closure of the named elements. The wanted pairs are [package, name]; a nil package matches by name in any package. The closure is assembled in memory by Ea::Xmi::Slicer — the export is streamed once, no temporary files are written, and the parse runs over the slice:

model = Ea::Xmi.load("export.xmi", partial: [["bldg", "Building"]])

Partial load produces the same content as whole load for everything derived from the model’s elements: the slice keeps each wanted class with its attributes, operations, connectors, generalization parents, package ancestry, and the diagrams that reference kept elements. Use it when reading a handful of classes out of a large export — a 100 MB export parses as a few MB slice instead of a 10+ GB object graph.

Ea::Xmi.load_graph wraps the same two modes one layer up, returning the parsed EA graph: the parser, the parsed document, and the lookup indexes the table renders resolve through (Ea::Xmi::Loaded).

Generate a SPA from QEA (requires lutaml-uml)

ea spa model.qea --output browser.html

Produces a single-file Vue IIFE HTML (~300KB for a typical model) with package hierarchy, class details, and diagram navigation.

Generate Sparx XMI from QEA (pure — no lutaml-uml)

ea convert model.qea --to xmi --output model.xmi

Extract a diagram as SVG (requires lutaml-uml)

ea diagrams extract model.qea "Diagram Name" --output diagram.svg

Architecture

The ea gem has two layers:

Pure layer (no lutaml-uml dependency)

Ea.parse(path)	Returns Ea::Qea::Database (.qea) or Xmi::Sparx::Root (.xmi)
Ea::Transformers::QeaToXmi	Converts Ea::Qea::Database → Sparx XMI string
Ea::Qea.load(path)	Low-level QEA loader → Ea::Qea::Database
Ea::Xmi.load(path)	Low-level XMI loader → Xmi::Sparx::Root

Bridge layer (optional — lazy-requires lutaml-uml)

Ea.to_uml(path_or_model)	Returns Lutaml::Uml::Document (tool-agnostic)
Ea::Bridge::QeaToUml	Ea::Qea::Database → Lutaml::Uml::Document
Ea::Bridge::XmiToUml	Xmi::Sparx::Root → Lutaml::Uml::Document

Data flow

QEA file ──→ Ea::Qea::Database  ──┐
                                   ├──→ Ea::Bridge ──→ Lutaml::Uml::Document
XMI file ──→ Xmi::Sparx::Root    ──┘                        │
                                                           ├──→ SPA (HTML)
                                                           ├──→ SVG diagram
                                                           └──→ cross-vendor output

QEA file ──→ Ea::Qea::Database  ──→ Ea::Transformers::QeaToXmi ──→ Sparx XMI
                                    (pure, no lutaml-uml)

CLI commands

ea spa FILE	Generate single-page app from QEA/XMI/LUR
ea list FILE	List model elements (auto-detects QEA or XMI)
ea diagrams list FILE	List diagrams in a QEA/XMI file
ea diagrams extract FILE NAME	Render a diagram to SVG
ea validate FILE	Validate EA model
ea stats FILE	Show collection counts
ea parse FILE	Parse to internal model representation
ea convert FILE --to xmi	Convert QEA → Sparx XMI
ea version	Show gem version

Limitations

• Sparx only: QEA format and Sparx-flavored XMI only. Does not parse MagicDraw or Papyrus XMI.

• XMI parser: Parses <xmi:Extension> blocks for Sparx-specific diagram metadata. Generic OMG XMI is handled by the xmi gem.

Development

git clone https://github.com/lutaml/ea
cd ea
bundle install
bundle exec rspec        # run specs (2036 examples)
bundle exec ea help      # see CLI commands

License

MIT — see LICENSE file.