ClearDDTS 3.3.x is an enhancement of version 3.2 with added support for Japanese characters in the user enclosures and AIX for the IBM RS6000 architecture. Also, several bugs in 3.2 have been fixed. See the file "BUGFIXES" for a detailed list of resolved bugs. See the file "UNRESOLVED" for a detailed list of the known unresolved bugs. Both files reside in the ddts home directory.
This release is fully backwards compatible with 3.2. In addition, it supports all the 3.1 commands and is fully interoperable with 3.x sites. This means your 3.3 server can be connected via adminbug conn to any 3.x server.
Customers running versions of ClearDDTS earlier than 3.1.0 should NOT use this release to upgrade directly. Instead, please contact Rational Software Corporation Technical Support at (408) 863-4000 for special instructions. You can determine which version of ClearDDTS you are running by executing the command: whichddts.
ClearDDTS release 3.3 formally supports the following platforms:
The ClearDDTS SQL server does not have the capability to perform parallel SELECT and UPDATE statements. This means that updates to the database would have to wait until all queries have been processed. During busy times updates could take a while. For this reason so we have added a timeout that blocks all new queries until the update is completed which takes effect 2 minutes after an update has been queued.
During normal operation users should not be aware of this timeout feature. However, if the system has many users and is busy and someone makes a very long query (over two minutes) and then someone else commits a defect record to the database, there is a possibility that all other users will have to wait for the first user's query to complete before their query is processed. This can cause the appearance of a lockup but is in fact due to action queuing.
There are two workarounds. First you can make users aware of this limitation and make sure they cancel queries running longer than two minutes or do them at non peak hours. Alternatively you can use a commercial database like Oracle with the ability for parallel actions.
The ClearDDTS SQL database server allows the user to search unlimited length enclosures in queries. However, please note that this new feature is not available if you use Oracle as the ClearDDTS SQL server. A workaround is to use fixed length text of 1 or 2 Kbytes to store the enclosure fields. This will allow you to search the first 1 or 2 Kbytes of enclosure text in your searches.
In order to use the ClearDDTS read access control you need to have the fields View (defects.ddts_view) and Security-token (defects.security_token) in your database config files. Please refer to the Administration Manual Appendix F for details on how to add these fields.
ClearDDTS supports SQL statements like INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE. This is how our database daemons update the online database. However since all data is also kept in the flat files all data changes must happen in both places. All of the ClearDDTS programs do this by using the above statements and then updating the flat files automatically.
Please be advised that if you use the INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE statements directly without also updating the flat files, all your changes will eventually be lost. As a general rule you should use our client programs (xddts, bugs, batchbug) for database updates and limit your use of the ddtssql program to the SELECT statement only.
On Solaris 2.5 there is a problem with writing to files in the tmp directory owned by the real user and this may cause a problem with new bug submission. If you experience this problem you can work around it by setting your umask to 0. To isolate the security risks associated with this, you can create a small shell script to run xddts with the following lines:
#!/bin/sh
umask 0
xddts "$@"
This will set the umask for the xddts program only and will not affect any other programs or files.
ClearDDTS 3.3 is integrated with Softbench versions 3.x and 4.x. If you are using Softbench version 5.0 you will need to contact us for an updated integration package.
The ability to include Japanese language enclosures in ClearDDTS requires a Japanese license. If you experience problems enabling this feature, check that you have entered all of the licensing information exactly as it appears on your License Certificate.
ClearDDTS allows you to choose the editor to use for editing files (called enclosures) that are included with the defect. In general there are two ways to edit. You can use the internal text editor provided with xddts or use another editor such as vi or emacs. To define the editor you want to use, select Editor from the Options menu. The popup displayed will be slightly different than the example printed in the ClearDDTS User's Manual. This popup allows you to indicate whether you want to use the Internal editor or an External editor and the command to run the editor.
To add or edit Japanese language enclosures, select External Editor then select the format appropriate for your editor from the list of Enclosure Encoding options. The following formats (encoding types) are available:
After selecting an enclosure format from the list, enter the command to run the editor (for example, xterm -e vi) and click OK or Save As Default in the Editor Options popup window.
Note: Although xddts allows you to select the format of your choice for adding and editing Japanese language enclosures, internally, ClearDDTS stores these enclosures in New-JIS format. If you add or edit enclosures without using xddts, for example through the character-based (tty) interface ddts or through e-mail, you should be sure those enclosures are encoded in New-JIS.
If you intend to print full page defect reports with Japanese language enclosures, you should be sure that your printer accepts files in New-JIS format because this is how the enclosures are encoded within ClearDDTS. If your printer does not accept New-JIS, you will need to convert the format before printing.
Currently it is not possible to search Japanese language enclosures from within ClearDDTS. If you have the means for performing an external search of these enclosures, keep in mind that they are encoded and stored in New-JIS format.
If you are viewing or editing Japanese language enclosures and characters are not displayed properly, check your X resources file. If your resources or default fonts are not set properly, characters may appear as black boxes or be missing strokes or be improperly formed. Consult your system manager for more information.
Part #: 310-00001-01