Copy an artifact in one project, then Paste Special in a second project and create a link back to the original artifact?
In RDNG 6.0.3, we have a set of requirements which have been apportioned to a number of contract packages. This apportionment is captured in a custom attribute.
I would like to select all requirements which have a particular apportionment enumeration, copy them, then paste them in a module in a new project. The paste should duplicate those requirements, and create a link back to the source requirement. Pretty simple, exactly the same as Paste Special, with the "Create a link from the original artifact to the copied artifact", but between projects.
Both projects are on the same server, or in our case the same cloud.
Is it possible? I have tried all ways I can think of, but none work.
2 answers
After some experimentation, allow me to answer my own question:
Yes, is it possible, using csv export, a bit of Excel manipulation, csv import, and link by attribute
- Filter on the desired attributes (apportionment enumeration and artifact type, in my case)
- Show ID, artifact type
- Export to csv, open in Excel
- Move the values in the ID column to a new column, Old_ID
- Clear the ID column
- Create a column called "Linking_IDs" or something similar
- Create the target module, which must contain the desired artifact type. That artifact type must have custom string attribute "Linking_IDs"
- Create a column "module" with each row contains the ID of the target module
- Populate "Linking IDs" with concatenate(module,".",Old_ID). That will give you, for example, 1234.11 for a artifact with ID 11, which you wish to clone into module 1234
- Export into a new csv, containing id, Artifact Type, Linking IDs, module
- In RDNG, select Import Artifact, Import requirements from a CSV file, select your csv, select Import Requirements into a module, select your target module
- Pray a little, then hit Finish. The cloned artifacts should appear in your target module
- Open that module, then (this is where the magic happens), select all the imported artifacts (200 at a time, because of an application limitation), select Link by Attribute, select create links, select attribute "Linking IDs", select the desired link type, pray a bit more, hit OK.
- The links will be created. This works even for cross-project links, provided your link constraints have been set up correctly.
Does this help?
https://jazz.net/help-dev/clm/topic/com.ibm.rational.rrm.help.doc/topics/t_copy_across_projects.html
While you cannot copy them directly into a module, I believe you can put them in different folders for easy organization.
Comments
Thanks Donald
That link however makes no mention of creating a link back to the source artifact.
Any ideas whether it is possible?
I can't see such option in my testing. Although there is another option "include links", it does not make much a difference - it only warns me that some links cannot be copied, but does not seem to copy any other links at all.