Does RDNG allow attachments to artifacts?
I know that this is a basic question but should also be a simple one.
Does "Rational DOORS Next Generation, 6.0.6.1 (iFix025)" allow for attaching items; files, bitmaps, etc. to the artifacts in RDNG? I understand that you can embed such items but I am asking if you can attach similar to how you attach to work items in RTC?
I am not looking to attach or embed at this time, but my management has asked that I "download all the attachments in RDNG" as best as I can tell, none of the artifacts have, or allow attachments. I don't see them in link types and I don't seem them in attributes.
I am hoping that it's a simple yes/no answer. Yes, they do or No, they don't.
Thnx
Accepted answer
TL;DR No, they don't.
You can open an artifact, click edit, and use the Insert function to add a table, horizontal line, image, another artifact, symbol, or a link. However, you cannot attach something to it a specific artifact. The reason is that whatever you want to attach is supposed to be its own artifact. In a particular instance, I could insert an image to a text artifact, or I could create an artifact of the figure type and link it to its related artifacts (which is my prefered method). I do something similar with regulatory requirements: I add the source document as its own artifact, extract a set of regulatory requirements, and link the requirements back to their source document.
Basically, Rational DOORS Next Generation uses links between artifacts instead of attachments. Links provide traceability, while attachments complicate it.
If my leadership asked me to download all the attachments, that would provide an opportunity for requirements elicitation. what do they mean by an attachment? Can they define what they need using other terms? Can they provide an example? Has anyone else done something similar? Do they have a job guide or SOP for the process?
Comments
Thank you Kristofer, for the detailed answer. They are asking to download the attachments because we are discontinuing our use of RDNG and they want a way to "archive" anything that was "attached". As I thought, we can't attach anything to the artifacts but we can download the artifacts themselves. The problem with this obviously is that it is time consuming. Unless there is a way to bulk download the artifacts, while keeping all the inserted images, files, docs, etc. then it will have to be done by going to each artifact individually and download whatever is appropriate. Thank you for responding.