I can define two classes with an association between them, and instantiate them by creating the objects. I know I can set the association by associating a link between the two objects and the association.

Is it not possible to do the same thing with ports and links? The "Select Association to Instantiate" menu option is ghosted. I set the cardinality correctly. Is this not possible, or am I missing something? Any attempt to do this results in the link not being set. It seems silly to have to do this programatically.

I think you must be missing something but I'm not sure what it is. What do you mean by cardinality? If you provide an example model it would be easier to help you.

Yes, I came to the same conclusion late last night. Basically, I have 1 instance of ClassA associated to multiple instances of ClassB. I added ports with contracts on both ClassA and ClassB. I tried several things but either resulted in errors at compile time or crashing at runtime. I tried playing with one of the samples posted here, but it calls the function programatically rather than sending an event with the Send Action element. I couldn't get it to work with Send Action. I also couldn't get it to work programatically with multiplicity greater than 1.

I would still like to know how to use ports properly, but I've concluded I'm over using them anyway. I'm going to remove all but 1 and replace them with associations.

It takes a bit of practice to get the right mix of ports usage but as a general rule they should not be dynamically connected and therefore you should never have to handcode a connection. Overuse of ports is a common problem when you first discover how they can be used. The next stage is often underuse. It's a bit like inheritance in C++ in that respect.

Ok. I think I have a much better understanding of when to use ports, and found a situation where ports are a good fit. I still have a quick question though. I have 1 object that needs to call a function on a port on any one of 29 objects of the same class. I know I use the OUT_PORT macro to call a function when there's only 1 object at the other end. But what do I do if there are multiple? I want to specify which object the call goes to.

I assume its something to do with port multiplicity and the OUT_PORT_AT macro. Do I place the 29 multiplicity on the single object, or on the 29 objects?

I can't say I use Port multiplicity often but is this what you want?

I'm going to just stop posting for now. I should have tried what I suggested. I was right. That works. I don't know why I didn't get it to work the first time I tried a couple weeks ago.

Even if you know the answer to a question any little example and answer, a question generates, may well help others.