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Topic Title: Using link by attribute instead of manually creating links
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Created On: 24-Feb-2006 04:21
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 24-Feb-2006 04:21
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Kevin James

Posts: 32
Joined: 12-Dec-2005

I mentioned in another post that we're in the middle of setting up our DOORS software.  One thing that was recommended to me was using link by attribute to create links as opposed to allowing users to create links directly.  Instead of dragging and dropping, users would enter absolute numbers in an attribute and later an administrator, or a nightly scheduled task, would create the links automatically on a regular interval.

Do a lot of other folks out there do this as a policy for how they manage links?  If so, what are some of the reasons for doing so?

I can see the benefits of link by attribute as a tool for use at different times, but I'm not sure I see why it's superior to the direct linking process built into DOORS.

One of the reasons given to me was that by having users enter absolute numbers, links could always be regenerated if a problem occurred with a link module (corruption, linkset being inadvertently deleted, etc).  I can see this argument, though we would be able to restore the project from a nightly archive.  Restoring from the link attributes would be easier, but I'm not sure if that justifies not using the DOORS built-in method.

Storing links in attributes could also give you finer control over the nature of the link between the objects, similar to how having different foreign key columns in a database represents different relationship types.  It seems like you can do this to a degree with link modules, but there are some limitations (for example, a link module cannot be indicated explicitly when a link is created manually unless you go through the edit links interface).

On the other hand, I think there are downsides to the link by attribute approach.  From a data entry perspective I think our users would prefer the standard link approach to entering absolute numbers manually.  Also, all of our layout/attribute DXL columns are not updated until the actual links are created, so users don't always get the immediate feedback of seeing a column update with link information after they enter the link absolute number. (These scripts could be written to parse the link by attribute column instead of the actual links, I guess, but that seems to add a level of indirection to things.)

Anyway, these are just some thoughts.  I don't know which method is superior, which is more commonly used, or if there's a combination of the two that we're not thinking of.  If other users out there have had more experience with either and would like to weigh in your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Kevin

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 24-Feb-2006 13:12
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Anton Drexler

Posts: 25
Joined: 9-Dec-2003

There may be situations where Link-by-Attribute may be superior to the built-in link process. My personal experience is that users mostly prefer the drag-and-drop-linking because it's easy and straightforward.

On the other hand, there is a major drawback in Link-by-Attribute: if a user mistypes and, thus, enters a wrong ID (or several wrong IDs), then the automatically created links are wrong, yielding an incorrect traceability. This will only be detected by chance or by intensive reviews.

Using drag-and-dro-linking, howeber, allows the user direct control of the link he creates: reading both the source and target, he can directly check whether the contents of source and target belong together or not. Thus, the probability of creating a wrong link is strongly reduced.

By using linkset pairings and not allowing the creation of links besides those defined, you have very good control over links created by the users.

Regards
Toni
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 24-Feb-2006 16:17
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Martin Hunter

Posts: 86
Joined: 10-Jan-2005

Most users I have worked with prefer to create the links themselves. The linkset pairings must be defined for each module, prior to linking, to ensure only permissable links are created and link modules used.

The link information can be backed up to an attribute as required using a short DXL Script (DOORS does not have this feature) enabling use of the Link-by-Attribute feature to regenerate the links as and when required. I often do this prior to module baselining or archiving such that the link information is stored within the module.

- Martin

-------------------------
- Martin
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 24-Feb-2006 20:16
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Louie Landale

Posts: 2070
Joined: 12-Sep-2002

We are teamed with Raytheon and they have "forced" us to use the "Link by Attribute" method: users enter absolute numbers (or sometimes Object Identifiers) instead of creating the links.

The big plus was their "CreateLinks" script that makes the process easy; at least once all the bugs are out of the script. Their particular script is a nightmare come true, written by one of those rare brilliant folks who can keep track of a million details in his head all at once, and therefore sees no need for clean and simple easy-to-understand software. I think the script if about 4 times as big as it needs to be, but I digress...

We schedule the script to run nightly, and that was no easy task but I figured it out. Manually created links support the notion of running a script nightly that captures the links in text attributes such that they can later, if need be, linked back up.

On the plus side, RCRB is cleaner since one makes specific and objective recomendations to modify a particular object attribute; whereas the manual method requires the RCRB to review nebulous and subjective recommendations.

On the plus side I find it very difficult to manually create links in the "correct" link module, without constantly telling DOORS which link module to use. LinkSet Pairings don't help, they just stop you from making the wrong links (usually in DOORS Links).

I like it.

- Louie
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 27-Feb-2006 08:50
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Hubertus Grobbel

Posts: 58
Joined: 3-May-2005

Hi altogether,

letting users link normally would let them participate in the standard DOORS functionality with wysiwyg GUI, wizard support, Suspect links etc.... Of course, I would generally prefer that....

To boundle both philosophies (normal and link-by-attribute-linking) might be to let users link normally *and* to read linkinfo from time to time and let it be pasted in a text-attribute by a script. (This shall surely not affect changebars, but may generate history (great feature!) entries only if link info has changed).

The script can be run as a nightly task and/or as part of the baseline process.

If your external partner is only intersted in the existance of the link-text-attribute you can fulfill his requirement and have the benefit of easy usage. :-)

Just as an idea.

Hubertus
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 2-Mar-2006 03:43
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Kevin James

Posts: 32
Joined: 12-Dec-2005

Thank you guys for your feedback.  I think we will stick with the standard method of creating DOORS links, while running a nightly script to backup links to specific attributes.  As Louie said, it would nice if there were a better way of specifying the link module when creating a link, but this still seems to be workable solution.

Thanks,
Kevin
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 3-Mar-2006 08:51
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Paul Worrall

Posts: 87
Joined: 30-Sep-2003

DOORS 5.2 has a "Link -> Create Links..." command which lets you specify the link module. Has this been removed in the later versions?
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 3-Mar-2006 14:53
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ron lewis

Posts: 650
Joined: 20-Sep-2004

DOORS 7 still has it.
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 6-Mar-2006 14:26
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Kevin James

Posts: 32
Joined: 12-Dec-2005

DOORS 8 has the "Link -> Create Links..." option as well, but it's not a very fast or convenient way to create links if your a regular user who does a lot of linking here and there.  You can't drag and drop and still have control over which link module you pick, for example.  Yes, an administrator can set a default linkset pairing, but that limits you to creating a single relationship type via drag-and-drop.
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