In this post, I will use the new names of IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) 7.0, previously known as the IBM Continuous Engineering solution. You can read more about the renaming activity in the blog post: Renaming the IBM Continuous Engineering Portfolio. In the details below, you will see the new names along with old abbreviations.

 Jazz Reporting Service (JRS)

• Reporting on link validity
  • JRS 7.0 allows you to use the Report Builder guided interface to build reports about link validity. Previously, the only way that you could report on link validity was by manually editing the SPARQL code generated by Report Builder. Existing reports still work as before, and the link validity for relationships for those reports will be set to Ignore.
  • You can modify the link validity for relationships on reports to Optional, Required, or Does Not Exist to report on link validity. For example, you might build reports that include the following link validity information:
    • Optionally show the link validity status of specified relationships.
    • Only show related artifacts where the link validity status is Valid.
    • Only show related artifacts where the link validity status is Invalid.
    • Show relationships that do not have any associated link validity (shown as Suspect in applications such as IBM Engineering Test Management (ETM) and IBM Engineering DOORS Next).

    To specify whether to query for link validity, choose an option from the Link Validity menu for each relationship that you add when defining traceability relationships in your report. You can add the related columns and set conditions on link validity properties such as status, who last modified the status, and the last time the link was changed.

Image of optionally reporting on link validity for ETM test cases that validate requirements:

Image of sample report with link validity status:

• Configuration picker enhancements
  • Report Builder now includes a newly redesigned configuration picker that scales and performs much better than the previous picker. Using the new picker, you can search for configurations instead of loading all the configurations at once. The search is run by LQE.

• Calculate custom column values from multiple attributes using functions provided by your database
  • You can calculate a custom column value based on the values of multiple other columns. For example, you can add a column to show the number of days between work item creation date and resolution date. Or you can add a column that combines the defect ID and title columns. In the Add a custom expression window, choose attributes one by one from the list and then click the > button to move the attribute into the Custom Expression editing area to continue working with the expression.

Engineering Lifecycle Optimization – Publishing (PUB) V7.0 (previously Rational Publishing Engine)

• Simplified document comparison
  • PUB introduced the option to generate document comparison as a multi-step action in PUB 6.0.5. Based on user feedback, we simplified document comparison in PUB 7.0 and you can now specify another configuration as the base document under the same data source. This allows you to generate a comparison of the target and base configuration in a single step.
  • Also, a new menu item named OSLC Base Configuration Selection was added to select the base configuration in the properties of the data source for Document Builder. This allows you to generate comparison documents from Document Builder too.

• Document Builder gained folder structure support to:
  • Create a new folder when selecting a folder (in the Select Folder window)
  • Select a folder when creating a report or schedule, uploading an asset, or generating a document
  • Drag and drop folders and assets from one location to another, to organize and move them with less effort
  • Delete folders
  • Copy assets from one folder to another
  • Group artifacts by folders in the Design and Generate pages. Artifacts that are not grouped will appear in the default folder named “Ready-to-use Assets”
  • Generate sample assets and view them under the default folder
  • Group artifacts by folders, the Create folder icon is visible. Click the icon to create a folder
  • Create nested folders by selecting an existing folder’s checkbox and creating a new folder
  • Move assets, reports, documents, or schedules from one folder to another

• Document Builder instances can be load balanced to using one of three techniques:
  • Weighted Round Robin (default): If you select this algorithm, you can also specify weights for the node URLs. For example, http://myMachine1:8080/dgaas=4;http://myMachine2:8080/dgaas=3;http://myMachine3:8080/dgaas=2. A node with no specified weight is assigned a default weight of 1. Nodes with higher weights receive more requests than those with lower weights. However, the nodes continue to receive requests in a round-robin sequence. For example, consider three servers named A, B, and C with assigned weights of 1, 2, and 3. The sequence in which the servers handles every 6 (1+2+3) incoming document generation requests is ABCBCC.

• • Least Jobs: If you select this algorithm, the node that handles the least number of document generation requests handles the new document generation request.

• • Dynamic weights: Under this algorithm, each document generation node is assigned a score based on the node attributes such as available memory, CPU usage, concurrent document generation limit, or availability. The node with the highest score is selected for document generation when a request comes. The value of these attributes is updated at regular intervals and the assigned scores as well.

Engineering Lifecycle Optimization – Engineering Insights (ENI) V7.0 (previously IBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager)

• ENI views in widgets of version-aware applications now include a “Dashboard Configuration” option in the widget setting
  • If the user selects the Dashboard Configuration option in the widget setting, it applies the selected configuration at the Dashboard level. Earlier, the user was required to go to the widget setting and change the necessary configuration. Now, with the “Dashboard Configuration” option in the widget setting, the dashboard configuration is automatically selected.

• Preview artifacts when you define containers
  • When you build ENI views, containers with a large number of artifacts might take a long time to load. You can preview the artifacts when you define the content of a container now. When you drag an artifact type onto the canvas, click the Show Query Result button to see the artifacts that will be included in the view container. To avoid loading the container with artifacts that you don’t need, you can add or refine the conditions.

You can find out about other reporting improvements in the new & noteworthy posts here: JRS 7.0, PUB 7.0 an  ENI 7.0.

Let us know what you think about our latest release and share this blog post with your peers.

Fariz Saracevic
ELM Offering Management

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