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Topic Title: DOORS first impression / Linking blocks of text
Topic Summary: Master document
Created On: 27-Jun-2006 10:34
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Answer This question was answered by Harald Coeleveld, on Thursday, June 29, 2006 9:25 AM

Answer:

See code

 27-Jun-2006 10:34
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Harald Coeleveld

Posts: 3
Joined: 26-Jun-2006

My 2 cents:

I am just starting to use DOORS (7.1) and must say I find it quite a strange tool:
- If you select items in the left pane of the DOORS database window, several commands are greyed out (Delete, Purge, etc.).  When selecting the exact same objects in the right pane the commands are available.
- Some commands are available in the menu, but not listed in the right mouse button menu.
- How to move objects to higher/lower levels in the hierarchy of a formal module easily ?
- I have been able to purge deleted files one-by-one only.
- Links are complex and there isn't much detail in the manual about the concept or how-to-use.
- Using the right mouse button, insert a new object below/after requires multiple mouse clicks (workaround: use toolbar button)
- 'Undo' not always available (i.e. 'import from template')
- WEXP looks like it is a little batch script or macro judging from the blinking screen.  Not sure if using clipboard is proper way of exporting.
- The phrase 'Unloaded object: ##' is odd; fetching names of unloaded objects in a relational database isn't that difficult I would think.

==

For now I seem to be stuck with the following:

Even though DOORS offers 'links', I seem to be unable to link blocks of text (chapters) as a subset from a larger document.

Could anyone explain to me how I could build a requirements document which uses a subset of a 'master document'.

Example:
Document A contains requirements for all objects/projects in our portfolio:
1.1 Shape
  1.1.1  Round
  1.1.2  Square
  1.1.3  Oval
1.2 Color
  1.2.1 Red
  1.2.2 Green

Document B is about a specific project named 'Square Green'.
I want to build a requirements document which can have specific hard coded requirements, but for the larger part reuses the chapters "1.1.2 square" and "1.2.2 green" of the 'master document' (linking & embedding)

How to proceed ?

==

Cheers,

Harald



Edited: 29-Jun-2006 at 08:52 by Harald Coeleveld
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 27-Jun-2006 13:02
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Tony Goodman

Posts: 1098
Joined: 12-Sep-2002

My tuppence:

Congratulations on using DOORS. Yes it is strange to start with, but in my humble opinion it is by far the best requirements management tool on this little planet.

An item that is selected in the left hand pane (the explorer tree) is open. DOORS does not allow you to delete things that are open. Windows on the other hand allows you to select the delete option and complains later if the thing is being used!

Objects in a formal module can indeed be moved using drag-and-drop. When you drop an object the popup menu gives you the various copy/move options available.

Items (folders, projects, modules) and objects must first be soft-deleted before they can be purged.
Both the delete and purge operations do work recursively, so you can select a folder, delete it, purge it, and all its descendent items are purged too. Yopu do not have to purge individually.

Link management is extremely flexible. This allows you to set up your data model with varying degrees of complexity and control over how you want users to create links. A good data model also facilitates easier and better traceability and impact analysis.

There is no "default" action assigned to the right mouse button. The first item on the popup menu is insert (after), not insert below. If you want to insert objects faster then use Ctrl-N or Ctrl-L to insert a new object after or below respectively.

WEXP will always be slow because it uses thesystem clipboard in the same way as the builtin word exporter.

The phrase "unloaded object" is used to inform the user that the module being linked to is not open. DOORS is not a relational database.

-------------------------
Tony Goodman
http://www.smartdxl.com
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 27-Jun-2006 13:16
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Tony Goodman

Posts: 1098
Joined: 12-Sep-2002

quote:

Could anyone explain to me how I could build a requirements document which uses a subset of a 'master document'.


I have implemented a kind of link-and-embed function whereby objects are copied from the master module into the project specific module. I then use DXL to update the project specific module with information from the master module. Suspect links also help in highlighting changes to the master module that you may want to inherit in the project specific module.

This is relatively simple to do and works well, but requires a bit of DXL coding to do it.
For this to work, the "inheritance" links must exist in their own link module, i.e. don't use the same link module for other types of links. The link module must have a mapping of one-to-one.

The initial copy-and-link (referred to earlier as link-and embed) can be done using the doors GUI.

The script to update the project specific module with information from the master module needs to do something like the following:

for each object in the project specific module do ...
for each outgoing "inheritance" link do ...
compare attributes of current object with master object at other end of link
if attributes differ then copy values across

You will also need some other checking to ensure that objects exist, are not deleted, master module is the correct module etc etc etc

-------------------------
Tony Goodman
http://www.smartdxl.com
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 27-Jun-2006 13:24
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Harald Coeleveld

Posts: 3
Joined: 26-Jun-2006

Thank you for your quick reply and kind words Tony. There are little use model examples in the documentation how to apply linking, dxl scripts, etc. For now all is well, except for the fact that it requires quite some effort to use something as intuitive as linking chapters from a 'master document' into a subset document. However, you have addressed most of my questions and provided proper arguments. Over time I will learn to appreciate Doors more but at this time I remain puzzled by it's somewhat non-intuitive behaviour (like the graphical link manager :-)
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 27-Jun-2006 19:23
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Don Fowler

Posts: 12
Joined: 28-Jun-2005

My advice is to stay away from the all the graphical views. For those to make sense, you have to do more than speak in DOORS; you have to dream in DOORS. A different way to keep requirements in one module with all the flavors and colors is to create a what I call a "Document Module". The document module is made up of the outline or headings you want in your output document and create links to the headings in the document module. You would then need to create a view of what you want to print using a layout DXL. I use the layout dxl because you can use a skip list to sort the linked data in the order you want it to appear. I personally like this method because you don't need to continuously check the suspect links to update the document. the data are not actually part of the document module. The other advantage is that you can manage your requirements in one location and your document in another. Just my take. and to show that there are many ways to manage requirements in DOORS. Don
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 29-Jun-2006 09:25
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Harald Coeleveld

Posts: 3
Joined: 26-Jun-2006

Answer Answer

See code



Edited: 29-Jun-2006 at 09:33 by Harald Coeleveld
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