Connecting to the Rational DOORS data source

When an Rational® DOORS® data source is present in a document template, you must define the properties for the data source. The Rational DOORS view listed in the document specification defines a filtered and sorted subset of data to use in the generated output.

Before you begin

Add a Rational DOORS template to a document specification.

For more information about how user names and passwords are stored, see Security considerations for IBM® Rational Publishing Engine.

Procedure

  1. In the Document Specification view, expand Templates > Data Sources.
  2. Right-click the data source and select a configuration option:
    • If there is configuration layer metadata for the data source, click Configure using metadata.
      1. If authentication is required to connect to the data source specified in the configuration layer metadata, a window opens where you can enter your user name, password, and authentication type. Click OK.
      2. Select the value to use from the configuration layer and click OK.

        After selecting a value from the configuration layer, the data source is configured and you are not required to complete the remainder of this task.

    • If there is not configuration layer metadata for the data source, click Configure Data Source and continue to the next step.
  3. In the DOORS Data Source Selection Wizard, click Next.
  4. Specify your Rational DOORS connection details. These fields are required to continue.
    1. User name: Enter the Rational DOORS account name.
    2. Password: Enter the Rational DOORS account password.
    3. Database: Enter the database name to connect to. By default, -data 36677@localhost is used. If -data is not specified, it is automatically appended for you. If no value is specified, Rational Publishing Engine retrieves the default value from the registry whenever possible.
    4. Path to doors.exe: Enter the full path to doors.exe. If the path is invalid or cannot be accessed, the wizard corrects the path for you when possible. Example: C:\Program Files\IBM\Rational\DOORS\version\bin\doors.exe
  5. Choose to use a running instance of Rational DOORS or start a new instance for these situations:
    • Use running DOORS instance for module selection in this wizard:
      • If Rational DOORS is running currently from the location you specified for the Path to doors.exe field, select the Use running DOORS instance for module selection in this wizard option to complete this wizard.
      • If Rational DOORS is not running currently from the location you specified for the Path to doors.exe field, clear the Use running DOORS instance for module selection in this wizard option to start a new instance to complete this wizard.
    • Use running DOORS instance during document generation
      • If Rational DOORS is expected to be running from the location you specified for the Path to doors.exe field when you generate a document from this document specification, select the Use running DOORS instance during document generation option. Processing time can be faster when you use the running Rational DOORS instance.
      • If Rational DOORS is not expected to be running from the location you specified for the Path to doors.exe field when you generate a document from this document specification, clear the Use running DOORS instance during document generation option to start a new instance.
        Note: If the Remote services application is used, the doors_home and new_instance properties are always rewritten by the Remote services application. After the document specification is uploaded, Rational Publishing Engine rewrites the properties to match the server configuration.
  6. To specify a Module URI, View, and Baseline, complete one of the following steps:
    • Click Next to select values for the Module URI, View, and Baseline. If you click Next, in the Select a view from the DOORS database window, you can select from lists of modules, views, and baselines. Then click Finish.
    • Enter a Module URI. After a module URI is entered, Finish is enabled and you can click it to use the default values for view and baseline. To use a view and baseline different from the defaults, enter View and Baseline values to use instead and click Finish.
      Note: If you manually edit the Module URI value and enter an incorrect value, you might prevent the output from being generated. When you provide an incorrect or null value for View or Baseline, the output generates from the standard view of the current module version. The output generates, but the data might not be correct.

Results

When you select the data source, the Properties view displays the selections that you made when you configured the data source:

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