Adding New Attribute to Existing Artifacts in DOORS Nex Gen 5.0.2

Scott Raley (135●4●28●31) | asked May 14 '15, 10:04 a.m.

Is there a process that will document how to update existing artifacts to show the new attributes added? Currently we find inconsistencies if I add an attribute for something I need to track after the requirement artifacts are enter, the column shows but I cannot edit unless I do some changes to the artifact. If I add a new artifact of course I have full access to modify that attribute column. An IBM paper is stating if I already have 100 artifacts created and now I need to track a new attribute, I have to go modify the column in a certain way in order to be able to use it. This seems like it is double the work than what I had to do in DOORS 9.6. I didn't copy and paste the IBM information here but if you need to see it please let me know.

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Kirk Grotjohn (1.2k●3) | answered May 14 '15, 10:27 a.m.
JAZZ DEVELOPER

That doesn't sound right... I'd be curious to see where you saw this.

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Scott Raley commented May 14 '15, 11:43 a.m.

The ibm information was "

The 'initial' value is only used during the creation of the artifacts. There isn't anything that triggers the use of the initial value to automatically update if you add it after the artifacts have been created, so you would do a filter on the artifacts and then do a mass change to the attribute. " <o:p> </o:p>

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Mike Jaworski (1.4k●6) | answered May 14 '15, 10:29 a.m.
JAZZ DEVELOPER

Hi Scott,

I'm a little confused by what you're describing here, though maybe it's just because I lack the background in legacy DOORS that you're attempting to simulate through DOORS Next Gen. It seems like you are creating a new Attribute definition in RDNG, and then you are trying to assign a value for this attribute to any applicable Requirement artifacts from the artifact Grid view - is that correct? If so, you should be able to find an "Edit Attributes" option from the row context (pencil) menu within the Grid view, and it appears to be possible to edit Attributes for multiple Requirement artifacts simultaneously (i.e. bulk update). See my attached screenshot below:

In the scenario above, I can select multiple artifacts within the grid view by clicking the checkbox at the top of the grid, then select the context (pencil) menu from one of the rows, and click the "Edit the attributes for X artifacts" option from the menu. I then chose to edit the "Status" attribute for all selected artifacts, and set the value to "Under Review", as shown in the screenshot above.

Note: You'll notice that one of the artifacts in this view was not updated to contain the Status attribute change, and that is because the Artifact Type of that specific artifact does not contain a reference to the Status attribute, therefore it is not possible to assign a Status attribute value to artifacts of that type. In order to allow an artifact of a specific type to refer to the Status attribute, you would need to make that change in the Manage Project Properties page under the Artifact Types section, by adding the Status attribute to the Artifact Type in question.

Does this help to answer your question at all? Or am I still misunderstanding?

- Mike

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Scott Raley commented May 14 '15, 11:44 a.m.

Let me try this and see if this is what I need to do. Thanks

Scott Raley commented May 14 '15, 11:53 a.m.

Sorry I misread. I don't want to change the artifact I want to add an attribute and be able to access the new attribute on existing data. Right now if the artifact exists and I decide I need to track more data by adding an attribute, existing artifacts will not let me edit the new attribute column. I can only add data for new artifacts.

Mike Jaworski commented May 14 '15, 12:40 p.m.

JAZZ DEVELOPER

Scott,

Let me make sure I understand you correctly: are these the steps you are following, but the operation is not possible?

1) Create a new Attribute 'A'

2) Add Attribute definition 'A' to an Artifact Type 'X'

3) Attempt to modify Attribute 'A' for an existing Requirement artifact of Artifact Type 'X'

I followed these steps in my RDNG 5.0.2 environment, but I was still able to edit the Attribute for existing Requirement artifacts. Could you please clarify if I am still misunderstanding? It might also be helpful if you could provide a screenshot of what you're trying to do.

Thanks,

Mike

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Dominic Tulley (381●1●4) | answered May 15 '15, 5:20 a.m.

Scott, depending on quite what your question is (!) it may be that the recent response on this question is what you're asking about:

https://jazz.net/forum/questions/181234/i-have-a-module-with-alot-of-artifacts-i-want-to-add-another-multi-value-attribute-to-the-module-and-select-that-attribute-to-change-the-default-in-a-current-artifact-not-a-new-artifact

To repeat what you've read in the docs and quoted earlier in this discussion, Attributes have an "initial" value not a "default" value. Initial value applies when artifacts are created - they are not retrospectively added to artifacts that already exist. This is different from DOORS behaviour where they have a default value which is applied to all objects which don't have an explicit value supplied. The answer on the other thread gives a couple of options for how to work around this by updating all the existing rows in your module to have the initial value set..
thanks
-Dominic

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