Rational RequisitePro
Version 2000.02.10


This document provides information about the 2000.02.10 release of Rational RequisitePro. The release number is listed in the About RequisitePro dialog box (Help > About RequisitePro).

Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Visual Basic, Microsoft SQL Server, and Visual SourceSafe are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Oracle, Oracle7, Oracle8 and SQL*Net are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation.

Rational, the Rational logo, Requisite, Rational Rose, SoDA, and ClearCase are trademarks or registered trademarks of Rational Software Corporation in the United States and in other countries. All other names are used for identification purposes only and are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Copyright © 1995-2000 Rational Software Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Contents

Section 1: What's New in RequisitePro

Requirement Authoring via the Web
In-View Editing
Extended Editing
Security Enhancements
New RequisitePro Extensibility Interface Features
Improved Integrated Use Case Management
Improved Rational ClearQuest/RequisitePro Integration
Internationalization
Miscellaneous Enhancements
Archiving
Updated Templates

Section 2: Getting Started with RequisitePro

Compatible Applications
RequisitePro Folder or Group
Let's Go RequisitePro

Section 3: Known Issues and Incompatibilities

Upgrade Issues
Running RequisitePro on Micron Systems
Numerical Attributes
Dialog Boxes and Wizards
Traceability History
Views and Queries
Requirement Metrics
RequisitePro Extensibility Interface
Offline Authoring
Microsoft Word Issues
Enterprise Database Issues
Internationalization Issues
Let's Go Display
Integrated Use Case Management
ClearQuest Integration

Section 4: Contact Information

Rational Software Corporation
RequisitePro Users Mailing List

Section 1: What's New in RequisitePro

Requirement Authoring via the Web

Rational continues to make requirements even more accessible by providing requirements authoring via the Web. RequisiteWeb is no longer a separate product, but is included as a component of RequisitePro. With RequisiteWeb, you can now modify the text of all requirements and create, modify, delete and re-parent requirements that are not located in documents - all through the Web. All changes are automatically tracked, just as they are from the Windows client. Requirement authoring via the Web allows better support of distributed teams and multiple-platform environments.

In-View Editing

Directly within an Attribute Matrix view, you can now edit and create requirements. Simply click on a selected requirement in the view to start editing the requirement text in place. Create new requirements directly in the view without having to go through a dialog box.

Extended Editing

Extended Editing of documents allows you to change requirement text outside a document: from a view, from RequisiteWeb, from the RequisitePro Extensibility Interface, or from integrated tools. You can now update requirement text without having to open the document. This allows multiple people to simultaneously edit requirements within a single document. All changes are still tracked in the database.

Security Enhancements

Traceability: You can now set security specifically on traceability relationships, giving you better control over who on the project can modify traceability. Permissions on traceability are set by requirement type. There are four traceability permissions: Create, Delete, Mark Suspect, and Clear Suspect. Users must have the appropriate permission on requirements on both ends of the relationship to perform the selected action.

Requirement Text: You can now set security on requirement text. For example, you can select user groups that can modify other requirement attributes but not requirement text.

Group Permissions Default: When you add a new security group in an existing RequisitePro project, the group has all security permissions by default. You can remove permissions using the Edit Permissions buttons in the Group Permissions dialog box.

New RequisitePro Extensibility Interface Features

The following documented features have been added to the RequisitePro Extensibility Interface:

Object

Property

Attr

Hidden

Attr Value

Attr

Attr Value

IsHidden

Group

ReqTraceabilityPermission

Group

ReqTraceabilityPermissions

Group

ReqTypePropertyPermission

Group

ReqTypePropertyPermissions

Project

PermissionsForReqText

Project

PermissionsForReqTraceability

Requirement

IsPermittedFor

Requirement

PermissionsFor

In addition, new values have been added for the following constants:

For the Project, Requirement, and Requirements objects, the Delete method has been replaced by the DeleteRequirementHierarchy method.

Additional documentation has been added to the online help regarding accessing the RequisitePro GUI Type Library using the GetObject.

Improved Integrated Use Case Management

The integrated management of use cases between Rational Rose and Rational RequisitePro has been improved in this release allowing users to start or work in either environment -- according to your process.

Integrated Use Case Management allows Rational Rose and RequisitePro users to consistently and seamlessly manage all use case artifacts: specification documents, attributes, traceability, and diagrams from either the Rose or RequisitePro environment. Previously, you could create and associate requirement documents and properties with use cases from within Rose. This integration has been improved to allow you to create and update use cases items in Rose from their associated requirements and use case specifications in RequisitePro.

Improved Rational ClearQuest/RequisitePro Integration

Understanding the details and context of an enhancement request that is associated with a requirement is now just a click away. Previously, you could associate and create requirements from an enhancement request in ClearQuest. Now, from RequisitePro, you can associate enhancement requests with requirements and navigate directly to the enhancement request record in ClearQuest.

For information on configuring this integration, refer to Chapter 4 of Configuring Rational Suite, available on the Rational Documentation CD.

Internationalization

RequisitePro is internationalized to support international operating systems and applications. In addition to French, German and Japanese, RequisitePro now supports:

For all international systems listed above, displays, menus, controls, wizards, reports and user documentation are in U.S. English.

Note that internationalization assumes homogeneous language environments; for example, a French operating system using French versions of SQL Server and Microsoft Word.

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Archiving

RequisitePro teams use a variety of configuration management tools for archiving projects. Because of this, the PVCS Version Manager and Visual SourceSafe commands have been removed from the Project > Archive menu. You can continue to use these and other configuration management tools to archive your projects from within those configuration management environments. First use the RequisitePro Archive command to create an archive or each file; then archive these files using your configuration management tool.

The RequisitePro Archive and Rational ClearCase commands are still included on the Project > Archive menu.

The RequsitePro Archive command now is available for projects with Access, Oracle or SQL Server databases. Using the RequisitePro Archive command copies all project documents into a user-specified archive directory. Database administration online help is available for archiving Oracle- and SQL-Server-based projects.

Archiving RequisitePro projects with ClearCase is now similar to archiving with the RequisitePro Archive command. The many ClearCase-specific dialog boxes have been replaced with a simpler dialog box.

Updated Templates

In this release, the rup_fcnltst.def and rup_fcnltst.dot templates were renamed to fcnltst.def and fcnltst.dot. When you open a project created in a previous version of RequisitePro, select the updated outline "Functional Test Case Specification" in the Document Type dialog box.

Section 2: Getting Started with RequisitePro

Compatible Applications

RequisitePro is compatible with:

RequisitePro Folder or Group

RequisitePro setup creates a Start menu program group for RequisitePro with the following items: Let's Go RequisitePro, Online Help, Rational License Key Administrator, Rational RequisitePro, Rational Software Installed Product Information, Rational Synchronizer, Release Notes, and Technical Support.

To start RequisitePro, select the Rational RequisitePro menu item.

Let's Go RequisitePro

Use the Let's Go RequisitePro feature to access getting started online help as well as these release notes, white papers, the Rational Unified Process, and Web resources.

Let's Go RequisitePro appears when RequisitePro is first launched. It can also be launched from the RequisitePro Help menu.

Section 3: Known Issues and Incompatibilities

The following is a list of known issues and incompatibilities with RequisitePro and auxiliary applications.

Upgrade Issues

Shared files and components

During the Rational Software Setup, the Upgrade Compatibility dialog box appears if you have additional, older, Rational products installed on your system. Because Rational tools share files and components, this installation can cause the older Rational products to stop working. You will see no visual clue to indicate that the older products may be compromised.

For each of the additional, older products listed, we strongly recommend that you take one of the following actions:

A Web site exists to provide more details about interactions between specific products. To visit the Web site, please see http://www.rational.com/sitewide/support/index.jtmpl. Click Patches and Upgrades, and then click Upgrade Compatibility.

Upgrading from RequisitePro 4.5

If you are upgrading from RequisitePro 4.5 and have not uninstalled 4.5 and removed the RequisitePro 4.5 installation folders, you should remove the reqpro.gid and letsgo.gid files from the \Rational\RequisitePro 4.5\help directory if they are still present. (11427)

Upgrading to a Microsoft Access 2000 database

Microsoft Access 2000 is the default database format for RequisitePro version 2000.02.10. If you have a project that was created in a previous release of RequisitePro, the project database is in Microsoft Access 97 format. If you want to view a RequisitePro project from a previous release in Microsoft Access 2000, you will need to upgrade the project to Microsoft Access 2000.

Rational has provided a utility to convert Microsoft Access-based RequisitePro projects from Access 97 format to Access 2000 format. The utility "RqAcc2KConv.exe" can be invoked by either dragging and dropping the RequisitePro project file (.rqs) onto the executable, or running the utility from the command line and specifying the entire path to the RequisitePro project file (.rqs) file. As part of the conversion process, the utility will create a backup copy of your database with the .tac extension instead of the .mdb extension. The backup copy can be removed once you are satisfied that the conversion was successful. The utility will also repair and compact the database.

Running RequisitePro on Micron Systems

If you experience problems running RequisitePro on Micron systems, contact Rational Technical Support for a technical note relating to the issue. For additional information contact Micron PC Technical Support at: http://support.micronpc.com/contact/support/.

Numerical Attributes

RequisitePro does not support a digit grouping symbol of any kind (i.e., a thousand separator, such as the comma in 2,350). You cannot enter attributes with this symbol. RequisitePro does not display numbers with this symbol. (6858)

Dialog Boxes and Wizards

If a dialog box or wizard in RequisitePro appears to stop responding, a hidden error message may be displayed behind the dialog box. Drag the box to another part of your screen to see if a hidden error message is displayed. Respond to the error message and continue. (11979)

Traceability History

When you mark the "Traceability/Changes logged in history" check box on the Tools > Options dialog box, changes to requirement traceability appear on the revision history list in the requirement properties dialog box. However, traceability changes caused by the MS Project Integration wizard are not logged in the revision history. (6019)

Views and Queries

Requirement Metrics

RequisitePro Extensibility Interface

The color and style set through the RequisitePro Extensibility Interface are off by one index number. To set the color and style correctly from the extensibility interface, use enum - 1. (11746)

Offline Authoring

Microsoft Word Issues

Text Boxes in Word

Avoid creating requirements inside text boxes. RequisitePro cannot access them properly.

Tables in Word

Avoid creating requirements inside tables. (11967)

Customized Macros

RequisitePro doesn't support Word customized macros. (10108)

Revision Numbers in Word

When saving RequisitePro documents, Microsoft Word records the revision number for all revisions as "2." This revision number is available on the Statistics tab of the document Properties dialog box, which is accessed from the File menu using the Properties command. This revision number does not affect the document revision information in RequisitePro, which is available on the Revision tab of the Document dialog box. This dialog box is accessed from the RequisitePro Document menu using the Properties command. (1826)

Importing Word Documents with Existing Formatting

If you are importing a Word document that uses a template other than Word's normal.dot template or an existing RequisitePro outline, you should set up that template as a RequisitePro outline prior to importing the document. RequisitePro will overwrite any unrecognized formatting with the normal.dot formatting.

If you have customized the formatting within the Word document, you should save the document as a Word template and copy it to the RequisitePro outlines directory. Refer to the Microsoft Word documentation for help in creating Word templates. Refer to the RequisitePro online help topic "Creating outlines" for help in managing RequisitePro outlines.

Hidden Text in Requirements

RequisitePro will not create a requirement if the block of text and/or images highlighted contain hidden text at the beginning or end of the selection. This occurs because RequisitePro uses hidden text at the beginning of a requirement to assign a requirement tag number and at the end of a requirement to store formatting information about the requirement.

Do not type information within the hidden part of a requirement, as the information is formatted as hidden. If the requirement is deleted, the information you typed is deleted as well.

Protect for Revisions

If Protect for Revisions is turned on automatically in RequisitePro documents due to reqistry permissions problems, do the following: Run regedt32, select the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and select Security > Permissions. Assign Full permissions to the Everyone user. (10205)

Word 2000 Issues

Non-Text Requirements

If you include the following in the text of a requirement located in a document, you will not be able to edit the requirement text outside the document (even when the extended editing feature is enabled):

Enterprise Database Issues

Internationalization Issues

Let's Go Display

Integrated Use Case Management

ClearQuest Integration

Section 4: Contact Information

Rational Software Corporation

Corporate Headquarters:

Rational Software Corporation
18880 Homestead Rd.
Cupertino, CA 95014
Toll-free: 1-800-728-1212
Telephone: 408-863-9900
Fax: 408-863-4120
E-mail: ratlinfo@us.ibm.com

Technical Support

Telephone: 1-800-433-5444 or 408-863-5000 (outside the U.S. and Canada)
Fax: 408-863-4300
E-mail: support@rational.com
Web site: http://www.rational.com

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RequisitePro Users Mailing List

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