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Topic Title: MS Word Document Merge
Topic Summary: How can I merge from a Word doc to a module?
Created On: 24-Aug-2006 16:48
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 24-Aug-2006 16:48
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John Lemonovich

Posts: 4
Joined: 25-Jul-2006

I have an existing module in DOORS that was imported from MS Word.  I export it back to Word for viewing.  I would then like to modify the document in MS Word and export the modified version back to DOORS as a merge - in other words update the things that were detected as being changed.  I know it works this way with SCADE (software safety development environment).  Is there a built-in way (easily) to do this?  Basically it's much easier to work editing in Word than DOORS so to do this I need to merge.  I need to do this for many modules so if the answer involves many steps it would not be easier than just maintaining in both places.

Thanks in advance,

John

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 24-Aug-2006 17:21
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Tony Goodman

Posts: 1098
Joined: 12-Sep-2002

There is no 'easy' way to do this in DOORS.
We have a utility to update a module from a Word document, but I cannot share it because it is part of a bigger system and as such does not work stand-alone.

What I can do is tell you how it works. It was done in this way because in our system users do not have access to the doors explorer.

The user selects "Update from Word" from within the Formal module.
Then browse for the word document.
It then runs Telelogics "Export to DOORS" macro from within Word and creates a new scratch module.
Then I use the built in comparison routines to compare the original module with the newly created one.

If the module was originally populated from the same word document, then the comparison works very well as object will not have change/moved too much to confuse it.

Once the comparison has been done, matching objects are linked and the user is able to review changes in a layout DXL column and accept or reject them.

Once all changes have been accepted or rejected then the links are removed.

The only REALLY tricky part of this is that you have no control over where the Word macro creates the new module - it assumes that you want it in the folder that is currently open in the explorer. To get round this the script has to look for the module that was just created.

-------------------------
Tony Goodman
http://www.smartdxl.com
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 24-Aug-2006 18:37
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John Lemonovich

Posts: 4
Joined: 25-Jul-2006

Thanks Tony for the reply, it helps just to confirm that there's no "easy" way to do this (very hard to believe) and I'm not missing something.  It's unfortunate that I can't have your utility though..  is that in any way negotiable??!!   
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 24-Aug-2006 20:01
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cliff Bly

Posts: 58
Joined: 11-Apr-2003

I have done this in 2 ways. This method is only used when we went to external meetings to discuss the module but DOORS was not avail. Best used when only the Object Header and Object Text were modified.

Method 1.
Export to Excell. Column 1 would be the Object ID, Column 2 the Heading/Text. I used the enhanced excel dxl avail on the web to get good formating.
Changes were made in excel.
If objects were moved or there were new objects, 2 other columns were created - ChildOf and SiblingOf. These were used to place the moved or new objects into the correct location.

Convert the excel sheet to .csv format and use the import spreadsheet option.
or read the .csv file into a big skip and let dxl to a comparison and update of the module.
If the module objects had a newer date time than the date time of the excel file, then the user had to choose which version to use.

Method 2.
Export the module to word. The export was the Object Heading and Object text but with the object unique ID after each in square brackets. [1].
Update the word doc.
Import the word doc into a new module.
DXL parsed the data and detected the uniqueID. If no unique ID, then a new object was created in a suitable location.
Used the unique ID to put the data into a skiplist.
Used the skip list to update the original as needed.


The code and detailed explanation was for a specific project and delivered to the end-user. No longer mine to give out.

The normal work environment was to work in DOORS.

I guess this confirms that there is "no easy" way again. I did use RTM years ago. This application exported data and created bookmarks. When syncing back to the database, the bookmarks were used to match the data. Very slow.

-------------------------
Cliff Bly
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 25-Aug-2006 08:22
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Pekka Mäkinen

Posts: 276
Joined: 18-Mar-2004

I have written a procedure on this but it (http://www.softqa.fi/pdf/doors_word_doors.pdf)) is in Finnish, so here's s short recap in English:

- create an export view in DOORS containing Object Identifier, Object Number, Object Heading and Object Text and all other attributes you want to export
- delete the main column from this view
- note that the title for Object Identifier column should be exactly that
- export this view (Export / Microsoft Office / Word) to Word in table format
- modify the data in Word table, e.g. by adding new table rows (there is no need to give ne Object Identifiers for these, DOORS will handle this later on) or changing attribute values
- before re-import to DOORS it is better to remove extra paragraphs or returns from the Word table (otherwise after import you could have empty ohjects in DOORS module)
- when you are finished with the modifications in Word, convert the table to text: select whole table and the use the function Convert table to text using a tabulator as a separator
- save the file as a tex file from Word and import to DOORS using the spreadsheet import (Import / Spreadsheet) with "Tab" as a separtor - the Object Identifier is the unique identifier


This worked at least with Word 2000/2003. One problem with this approach is that quite often the Word table generated by DOORS overflows the page size.

-------------------------
Pekka.Makinen@softqa.fi
SoftQA Oy -http://www.softqa.fi/

Edited: 25-Aug-2006 at 10:07 by Pekka Mäkinen
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 25-Aug-2006 13:09
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John Lemonovich

Posts: 4
Joined: 25-Jul-2006

Thanks, I appreciate the help but I guess this defintely confirms there is no built-in "easy" way to do this.  It appears to be easier to just be stuck working within DOORS once the module is created.  Or, we can use file compares to sync.  We're working with design documents with many drawings, figures, tables, etc... and there are other problems with import/export with Word.  Tables that have merged cells do not export back to Word correctly at all.  Also, table and figure captions do not work when exporting back to Word so these need manually repaired.

We have this SCADE tool that is completely integrated with DOORS.  Hard to believe - but it's much more integrated with DOORS than Word.

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 26-Aug-2006 17:06
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Hazel Woodcock

Posts: 78
Joined: 6-May-2005

One more suggestion...

import the updates as a new formal module, and then run the built in module compare tool.

At this point you have to decide whether to
a) keep the new module as the new master and have different ID numbers
or
b) manually apply the changes that are now obvious to the old module and discard the new one.

The only supported round trip to another tool is via spreadsheet.

Best way forward is one of the following
-get everyone using DOORS and then you have the full traceability
-try DOORSNetEdit so people can add change proposals
-use Excel as the 'off line' tool

Hazel
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