Is there any way to promote a link from module level to base artefact level?
Hi all,
I am currently working with a client to tidy up a substantial DNG project and have discovered a world of pain with module level links.
Several different people have been working in the project creating links between requirements and as a result there have been links created between base level artefacts (this is the desired state), while others have been created within the module. This is completely messing up reporting among other things so I now have to go through their modules, find the links that have been made at the module level and promote them to base level links.
I have spent a very frustrating time because here doesn't appear to be any way to do this simply
- there is no way to filter a module to only show module level links in order to identify the problem ones
- there is no way to identify a module level link vs a base level link in an exported Excel spreadsheet so you can do a bulk change
- once a module level link is identified, there appears to be no way to convert it to a base artefact link. The only way is to relink it at base level and then delete the module level one
- if you create the base level link first and refresh the view, the link disappears completely! The only way you can delete the module level one is to open the requirement and delete it from the right hand section. The moment you do that the link reappears in the view with the base level icon.
Anybody faced this before and found a nice, simple way to adjust the link level?
|
2 answers
|
I have spent a very frustrating time trying to fix this for the client, and it appears there's no way to do it easily.
The only way I have found is to:
- inside the Module, export the artefacts and the problem links to Excel
- inside the Module, use Link By Attribute on an empty attribute to remove ALL the links in question
- in Excel, extract the ID numbers of the linked items into a new column
- import these back into an attribute as a number (not as a link)
- in the base artefact folder, use Link By Attribute to relink everything
This is actually a huge problem for teams who need to build compliance reports - if any of their team members created module links by mistake then their reporting could be wrong if they aren't super careful. At the very least you need to be able to filter module local links in some way so that you can find and fix, or understand them. This is also critical in order to be able to understand things like deltas on product variants etc.
|
I don't have a solution but DNG needs a way to enforce that all link creation within a given project or module will be either base artifact linking or module context linking so that users do not end up doing an ad hoc mixture.
Telling users that they have to remember to open the base artifact before making a link is a poor solution.
And telling them to find the target in a folder of random artifacts when it is much easier to locate in the module is also poor.
Not meaning to hijack Davyd's thread but if anyone knows a way to enforce that all linking is base artifact linking within a given module or project I would be interested to know.
|
Your answer
Dashboards and work items are no longer publicly available, so some links may be invalid. We now provide similar information through other means. Learn more here.