If you open the Features window for a message,
you can select the message type: primitive operation, or triggered
operation, or event. Once defined, these messages are displayed in
the browser, denoted by unique icons.
In the browser,
you can access modify a message by right‑clicking on it and selecting
the appropriate option from the menu.
Note: Once a message has been realized, you cannot
change its type.
Events
An event is
an instantaneous occurrence that can trigger a state transition in
the class that receives it. Because events are objects, they can carry
information about the occurrence, such as the time at which it happened.
The browser icon for an event is a lightning bolt.
The
following figure shows the Features window for an event.
Note: If an event argument
is of type *& (pointer reference),
IBM® Rational® Rhapsody® does
not generate code for it.
Triggered operations
A triggered operation can trigger a state
transition in a statechart, just like an event. The body of the triggered
operation is executed as a result of the transition being taken. The
browser icon for a triggered operation is a green operation box overlaid
with a lightning bolt.
Note: If an argument of a
triggered operation is of type *& (pointer reference),
Rational Rhapsody will
not generate code for that argument.
Operations
By
default, operations are primitive operations. Primitive operations are
those operations whose bodies you define yourself instead of letting Rational Rhapsody generate
them for you from a statechart.