How to copy DNG module templates from one project area to another project area.
I have a DNG project area which contains several Module Templates that I have created. I created a project template from this project area. I created a new project area. I imported the project template I created from the original project area. All of the artifacts area created in the new project area, except the Module Templates. The new project area has no module templates.
How do I copy DNG module templates from one project area to another project area?
Accepted answer
Jim,
It is confusing and tripped me up in the beginning as well.
In DNG there are two ways to initiate the project area creation, one is typical across the CLM applications (RDNG, RTC and RQM) from the applications "Active Project Areas" page and utilizing the "Create Project Area" control. This does NOT reference a project template, only the process template and if you utilize this method you would have to then go into the newly created project area and "Manage Project Properties" to apply a custom template. Very cumbersome and unnecessary steps to that approach.
The second method is to go into any RDNG project area (dashboard, artifact browser), the actual project area NOT the "Manage this Project Area" page (team areas, timelines, roles, permissions, members, etc....), then go to the administration menu (to the right of the user profile menu), and select "Create Project Area", in the wizard that opens, name the project area, then on the next screen choose (check off) "Use a template to initially populate the project" and select your custom template.
As Donald stated, your custom template definitely needs to have the Module Templates included (or any of the other artifact, links tags, views, etc...) in order for the newly created project area to include them after creation.
I hope this clarifies and helps you out.
Rgds,
Chris
Comments
Thank you for the help. I did indeed create the new Project Area from a Process Template and not from a project template. I do not fully understand the need for two type of templates or how you create a new project area that has both the process and project information from another area, but that is another question....
I am now left with a project area that does not have the module templates that I need. I have the project template and it does contain the module templates. How do I apply the project template to an existing project area ? When I select Import Project Properties, it only allows me to point to an existing Project Area and not to a template. I do not have any project areas that have needed module templates. The module templates are from a different server. I have confirmed the Project Template on server with the new project area has the needed templates.
Thanks in advance for any help.
4 other answers
Jim,
I think many of us are confused as to why there is a separation of project and process templates in RDNG. However, in order to deal with the way they are separately implemented you have to go through a few hoops in order to set things up so that future project areas created can be based on and contain the artifacts and other project template aspects you need.
In absence of having an initialized project area that contains the module templates to import from and since they are on another repository, you might try export the artifacts that make up the module template to a reqif file and then import into the target repository server's project area. Export/Import of Reqif files require the permissions associated with the "Administrator" role, by default I believe.
Create the Reif from "Manage Project Properties" and the "ReqIF" tab. You should create a ReqIF definition and add the module from the source repo server project area that is your template. After that you can export it from the ReqIF Definitions action menu. Next go into the target repo server project area and from the artifact view (or just the artifacts menu), choose Import Artifact and (assuming you are in the Admin role in this project area, should see a dialog with a selection of "Import requirements from a ReqIF file". You will be able to browse and locate the exported file from the source repo server proj area and import it into a target folder in the target proj area.
There are sometimes issues where the artifact types (and attributes, data types) are the same from the source to target proj areas, so some clean up after the import is appropriate. Go to the artifact browser view after the import and the target folder, make sure the view has the artifact type column showing, you will likely see the artifact type is similar to existing but with a "2" appended to the name. Multi select then from the action menu choose to "Edit the attributes for "# of" artifacts...." and then select artifact type, you can then select the artifact type without the incremented/appended "2" and put them back to the original artifact type in the project area. Once you have done that for all the various artifact types in the module (don't forget to check the module artifact itself for this issue as well), you should go into "Manage Project Properties" and starting with the artifact types, start removing/deleting the duplicate "2" appended entities (artifact; types, attributes and data types).
That is the best way I know to deal with your situation. I would definitely be eager to hear of any more streamlined approach to doing this.
-Chris
Comments
Thanks for the suggestions. For other people in this situation, here is what I did.
In the project area with the source templates:Create an artifact based on each template, Create a REQIF file containing the newly created artifacts, Download the REQIF file
In the project area which needed the templates: Upload the REQIF file.,Import the artifacts within the REQIF file. The import process creates duplicate artifact types, attributes and attribute types . Each of the new types ends in a "2". You have to change the artifact type of the newly import artifacts from the new types (ending in a "2"), to the original types. For me, this was over 1,000 artifacts. You then have to deleted all of the newly created artifact types, attributes and attribute types. Once everything is cleaned up. You can create new artifact templates by pointing the templates to the newly created, and newly cleaned up artifacts.This method was laborious, but it did work.
Here are my steps, and you can check against yours.
1. Create a project template, and ensure that Module Templates are included. Note that Artifacts, Artifact Types and Attributes, and Link Types are automatically included in this case, which means that _all_ artifacts will be included in the project template.
2. Create a new project area _based on_ the newly created project template.
3. Verify that the new project area has all the artifacts and the module templates.
Comments
Thanks for the response. I am new to DNG, so I may have some of the terminology wrong.
I have created both a process template and project template from an existing project area. The project template includes the module templates. When I create a new project area, I am given the choice to create it based on a process template, but not a project template. The newly created project area has only the default artifacts and attributes. It does not have any module templates.
I then manage the project properties of the newly create project area. I navigate to the templates tab. I select import project template. I select the correct project template. After the import the newly create project area contains all of the artifact and attributes from the original project area. However, it does not contain any module.
What am I doing wrong?
BTW - I find the process and project templates in DNG very confusing!
It's a bit confusing, but there is a rule of thumb for templates - after you create "something" out of a "something template", the template has no more link/relationship to that "something". For example, if you create an artifact out of an artifact template, the resulting artifact is completely independent of the artifact template after the creation. The same goes to a module template, a project template, and so on. In other words, a project template will have no way affect your existing projects. If you keep this in mind, you will never try to "import a project template into a project".
Hello, fellows,
