Artifact Generator is an Engineering Requirements DOORS NG extension developed by Softacus, which provides possibilities to simply select artifact content and create new or update existing artifact

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Introductory explanation

This extension is an easier and more organized approach to creating artifacts, you just fill the inputs and select boxes, and hit Create button and you have the new artifact.

Currently, the extension is working in the way that every selector (dropdown, checkbox, or Textarea field) has its own position in the artifact content. Selector called “subject” has its own switch button to change the selector values from “Singular to “Plural” and vice versa, and the “Name” selector is hidden and contains the same as artifact text (content) by default. If you want to make the Name and Content of the artifact different you can select the “Make Name Different as Text” checkbox and write your own customized title for the artifact.

User Interface

Is composed of several dropdown selections and text inputs that are used for composing artifact Content and the Name of the artifact. And at the bottom, we can see two buttons that say "Create" for the creation of the artifact, and "Update" for updating the existing artifact.

 

Explanation and Understanding 

Future Possibilities

• Defining the selector options in DNG attribute data type – currently, the selector's options are hardcoded, but in order to make the extension more flexible and allow customers to customize it independent on Softacus, selectors options can be loaded from custom DNG attribute data type
• Possibility to have more languages – if you are an international company and it’s important to write your documents in different languages for you, Softacus can enhance the extension and provide you the possibility to change the extension language and in order, to that, you will be able to create an artifact in any of the world’s languages
• Change location of the newly created artifact – as mentioned, the newly created artifact is created after the selected artifact (if the artifact is selected). This functionality can be customized based on your needs – a new artifact can be created e.g. below selected (as its child), before selected...

Create Artifact – if you want to create an artifact with selected content, use the “Create Artifact” button, it will create a new artifact at the bottom of the opened module if no artifact is selected or, if the artifact is selected, after this artifact (not below).

Update Artifact – if you want to update an existing artifact you have to select it, then select Content and Name and click the “Update Artifact” button.

 

Process of generating artifact

In the picture below you can see a step-by-step creation process of the artifact. 

Setting attribute data types

 

 

Limitations

• Updating multiple artifacts – in order to that the users can accidentally select more than one artifact and update them with wrong content for some of them, Softacus recommend not implement updating multiple artifacts at once

 

Pricing:
Every Softacus Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next extension is free of charge to all customers who have purchased IBM Jazz Products via Softacus.

Report Generator is an extension developed by Softacus. The extension is able to start the generation of a document from a DOORS Next Generation mini dashboard what gives us possibilities to enhance any of the Rational Publishing Engine Templates and make the generating more user-friendly.

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Introductory explanation

If you want to know what are the exact differences between the two configurations this extension is just for you. It will help you better imagine and see the changes between configurations that you made.

This extension was developed especially for printing documents, including a comparison section of the same document (module) in two different configurations (stream to baseline, baseline to baseline), which corresponds to the appearance of the user interface. 

User interface

As you can see in the picture on the left, the widget is looking simple – containing only a dropdown selection of Baseline to be compared with current configuration (configuration in which user currently is), checkbox where you can choose if you want comparison in the report or you want it without it, and “Generate Report” button to start generating.

On the right image, we can see the report generator with slightly more options to choose from, those options are custom made and they are not included in the base version of the extension. If you want more options or features that you would like to have, don't hesitate to contact us. 

 

Explanation and understanding

 

Cooperation with RPE MPT and Future Possibilities

As mentioned, the purpose of this extension is to make generating documents more flexible and easier for all of the users. In cooperation with Rational Publishing Engine Multiple-Purpose Template it can provide the following possibilities:

• Select different DNG attributes to print for different artifact types based on the view
• Choose if attribute shall be printed with or without Attribute Name
• Choose the formatting of attribute Name (bold or not bold)
• Choose the formatting of attribute Value (bold or not bold)
• Printing attributes in the table
• Define the table properties (columns width, names of the attributes – can be different than in DNG)
• Filter artifacts

All of the mentioned possibilities (except the last one) are already implemented in Rational Publishing Engine Multiple-Purpose Template, but they must be defined via RPE MPT Command described here.

Generating Report

As you can see in the picture above on the left generating report is easy for anyone. You just simply choose the baseline version that you want to report and compare and just hit that "Generate report" button and you are ready to go.

The browser automatically downloads the report file and you can share it with others, see the comparison, and all the other details that you care about in your project.

Let's get a closer look at the comparison section.