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Getting started with reporting by using LQE data sources

Catherine Trinkwon, Information Developer, IBM Canada
Last updated: December 14, 2015
Build basis: IBM Jazz Reporting Service version 6.0.1

You can use the Report Builder in the Jazz Reporting Service to create and run reports about artifacts across projects, or versioned data in configurations. Using indexed data from the Lifecycle Query Engine (LQE) data sources, you can, for example:

  • Create a report on multiple projects that shows test cases, the requirements that they validate, and related defects.
  • Run this report, scoping the results by choosing a configuration (stream or baseline).

Learn how to set up your environment and understand some of the limitations when you use either the LQE or LQE using Configurations data source. You can also do limited reporting on configurations by using Rational Publishing Engine. For more information, see this help topic about generating configuration-aware documents.

As of version 6.0.1, you do not have to accept a license before you can create LQE-based reports in Report Builder. However, consider the limitations described here before you use LQE data sources for production reports.

What’s new

Licenses: You no longer have to accept a license before you can create LQE-based reports in Report Builder.

Merged artifact types: For each application type (and therefore each unique TRS feed), project-specific artifact types (resource shapes) are merged.

  • Previously, you saw an artifact type for each resource shape defined by each project. The system now combines all the properties that are defined for each project-specific artifact type with the same name.
  • The artifact types are merged based on the application type. For example, an artifact type called CustomType from Rational Quality Manager is not merged with CustomType from DOORS Next Generation. When you select projects to limit the scope of your report, you see only the merged artifact types that are defined in the selected projects.

      You can now report on the following new merged artifact types:

  • DOORS Next Generation: baselines, streams, and their versioned artifacts
  • Rational Quality Manager: test environment, test data, and lab artifacts
  • Rational Team Concert (RTC): work items, merged artifact types, artifacts with enumeration values

      When you limit the scope of your report by selecting the projects to report on, you see only the merged artifact types, properties, and enumeration property values for those projects. When you set a condition in your report, you can select only the values that are available in the projects that you are a member of.

External URIs: You can create enumeration values in CLM applications and then assign external URIs to those values. Then, in cross-project reports, you can create conditions that return artifacts from the projects that define the same enumeration external URIs. At this time, Report Builder does not support external URIs that are specified for properties.

Reporting on other project elements: To report on the following items, you must create custom SPARQL queries:

  • Link validity
  • Information about configurations (including global configurations)
  • Artifacts from Design Manager web client and Rhapsody Design Manager
        In Report Builder, create a report about any artifact type. Then, replace the generated query text in that report with your custom SPARQL query. For details, see the next item about editing queries.

Editing queries (including SPARQL code): To report on some items, you must edit the query text (including SPARQL code) in a report.
      Before you begin, check whether query editing access is restricted for the data source that you use. If so, only report managers can manually edit the query text in the Advanced section.

  1. In Report Builder, go to the Data Sources page at https://server:port/rs/endpoint, and click a data source name.
  2. If the Restricted textual query editing option is enabled, only a report manager can edit the query. You must give your new query to a report manager to add to the Advanced section.

      To manually edit a SPARQL query:
  1. Use the Report Builder guided graphical interface to create your report. For guidance about which LQE data source to select, see Differences between the two LQE data sources.
  2. Name and save your report.
  3. Return to the Format Results page. In the Advanced section, click Edit and OK to disable the guided graphical Report Builder interface .
    If you cannot use the Edit Query button, query editing access might be restricted for this data source, as described in the preceding steps. Skip the rest of these steps, and give your new query to a report manager to add to the Advanced section.
  4. Edit the query: remove all references to the original artifact type, and replace the existing query text with SPARQL code to access the item you want to report on.
  5. Validate the query.
    Important: When you manually edit the query text in the Advanced section, after you save your changes, you can only use the guided graphical interface to add query parameters and columns to the report. You can no longer modify the traceability links in Traceability links section.
  6. Save and run the report.

What’s new for administrators

Access control: In Report Builder, access to projects and artifacts is now handled only by LQE by using process TRS feeds from CLM applications.

  • Access control is granted at the project level.
  • Project membership information and access to artifacts in each CLM application is gathered automatically by LQE by using process TRS feeds. LQE then creates groups with users based on the project area’s access control settings from each CLM application.
  • You can control how frequently the system refreshes the access information in LQE. See Synchronizing project membership information.
  • Team members can report on, or limit report results to include, only the projects they belong to. Report results contain only the artifacts from those projects.

Linking: Report Builder has some support for several standard links between artifacts where the link is saved in only one of the artifacts (before version 6.0, this feature was called back linking).
Report Builder now generates SPARQL code to support back-link relationship properties that have predefined and stable URIs. The SPARQL query searches for link references in the forward direction, as well as for link references in the other direction.

Restricted query editing: You can prevent team members from manually editing the query text in the Advanced section:

  1. In Report Builder, go to the Data Sources administration page at https://server:port/rs/endpoint, and click a data source name.
  2. On the page for that data source, select Restricted textual query editing.
        After you enable this option, only report managers can edit the query text in the Advanced section of a report.

DOORS Next Generation: To avoid overpopulating the LQE index, you can configure the automatic deletion of versioned resources that are no longer referenced by a configuration (stream or baseline).

  1. On the Advanced Properties page of the Requirements Management (RM) application, search for delete unused.
  2. Ensure the value of the Delete unused versioned resources in TRS 2.0 property is set to true.

LQE-based data sources

Before you enable configuration management in RM and Quality Management (QM) project areas, their information is sent to both the CLM data warehouse and LQE. After you enable configuration management in these project areas, they stop their feeds to the CLM data warehouse, which archives their data. From that point on, all configuration data is stored in the lifecycle index and is accessed by using the LQE application.

IBM Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager can use Report Builder to report on data in the LQE using Configurations data source.

RTC does not support configuration-enabled projects areas, so it does not publish any versioned resources to LQE. All resources that RTC publishes to LQE are compatible with all configurations.

Differences between the two LQE data sources

Select the correct data source for your cross-project report.

  • Choose the LQE data source to do these things:
    • Report on RM and QM projects that are not configuration-enabled.
      After an administrator activates configuration management in these applications, projects must be enabled individually for configurations. This means some projects are enabled, and others are not enabled.
      When you select the LQE data source, in the Limit scope section, select only non-enabled projects to ensure valid report results. If you select a mix of projects, or select only configuration-enabled projects, your report will return a cross product of selected attribute values. See this example.
    • Report across all configurations in an RM or QM configuration-enabled project area. Your report will contain information about all the versions of the selected artifact in those configurations.
      Consider this scenario: a configuration-enabled project represents a product, and each stream in the project represents a release. You can report on some aspect of the product, such as requirements not implemented, across all the releases. To get the same information by using the LQE with Configurations data source, you have to run the report on each stream and then manually collate the results.
      Your report results might be very large with unexpected results because the property values defined in all versions of the resources are extracted, and all combinations of those values appear in the results. See this example.

  • Choose the LQE using Configurations data source to do these things:
    • Report on artifacts in RM or QM configuration-enabled project areas. When you run the report, you must choose a configuration.
      If your report contains traceability relationships between RM and QM artifacts, you must choose a global configuration.
    • Report on a global configuration itself (not the artifacts in the configurations that it references).
    • Report on model information that is managed by Design Manager.
    • Note: To report on these last two items, you must write the SPARQL query in the Advanced section of Report Builder.

LQE-based data sources do not contain information about the following artifact types or project elements. Instead, use the data warehouse as your data source.

  • DOORS Next Generation: View results
  • QM: lab management resources
  • RTC: work item approval records, time sheets, and build information
    • Use the data warehouse even if your RTC project has friend relationships with RM and QM projects that are enabled for configurations.
    • If these RTC artifacts have links to RM or QM artifacts in configuration-enabled projects, these links do not resolve and your report will not contain RM or QM artifact information. The data warehouse does not contain information about configuration-enabled projects.

Using reports from version 6.0 and earlier

  • You must recreate all existing reports created in Report Builder that use LQE or LQE using Configurations data sources.
  • Existing Report Builder reports for the data warehouse should still work in version 6.0.1.
  • Recreate manual Report Builder reports with custom SPARQL queries if they no longer generate the results that you expect.
  • SPARQL queries created in RELM should continue to work if the corresponding metadata assumptions are still true. An example of a query that might not work is one that assumes that resources contain back-link properties, because back links are no longer created and links in the “reverse” direction are not stored.

Administrators: Getting started

Before you can report on artifacts from the LQE-based data sources, including versioned artifacts, you must activate and enable configuration management in the RM and QM applications. These steps are not required for Design Manager or RTC: Design Manager uses configurations but you don’t need to enable them, and RTC does not send information about versioned artifacts to LQE.

Enabling configuration management in your CLM tools

  1. Upgrade all Rational solution for Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) and JRS applications to version 6.0.1. Report Builder cannot use the version 6.0 metadata (resource shapes) that were published to LQE by the CLM applications.
  2. Enable configuration management:
    1. Get an activation key. See Enabling configuration management in CLM 6.0.1 applications.
    2. Set the activation key for each RM and QM application. Go to the corresponding administration page:
      https://server:port/application_context_root/admin
      In each application, enter the key under Advanced Properties, in the Local Versioning Component field; then, click Save.
    3. Enable configuration management on the Configuration Management page of the RM and QM project areas that will use configurations.
      The project’s data in the data warehouse is archived. The project sends data only to LQE as described in the LQE-based data sources.
  3. Click Explore Project and if there are no artifacts, create some for the project. The initial configuration and its versioned resources are published to LQE.

Setting up reporting on configurations in JRS

The next step is to upgrade TRS feeds. After you upgrade all CLM applications and JRS to version 6.0.1:

  1. In the LQE application, add “process” TRS feeds for the applications (RTC, Rational Quality Manager, DOORS Next Generation, Global Configuration Management). Each process TRS feed provides information about project and access control resources.

    2. For each application context root, the URL for the process TRS feed is https://host:port/application_name/process-trs2
  2. Remove TRS 1.0 feeds for DOORS Next Generation and Rational Quality Manager. The TRS 2.0 feeds replace them.
  3. Re-index the other TRS feeds so that artifact types (resources shapes) can be merged for Report Builder.
    If an application is registered with a different Jazz Team Server (JTS) than JRS, see TRS feeds in LQE 6.0.1.
  4. Refresh the LQE using Configurations data source. When you do this, the LQE data source is refreshed automatically because the two data sources have the same metadata.
    1. On the Report Builder page, click Admin.
    2. In the banner near the upper right, click Data Sources.
    3. Click the data source name; then, click Test Connection > Refresh.

Creating your report

As you build your report, your choices are shown in the My Choices pane on the right side of the page. To change your choices:

  • Click the heading near the top of the page and go to the section to change.
  • In the My Choices pane, click the pencil Edit beside the section to change.

Build your report:

  1. Open Report Builder at https://host:port/rs, and click Build.
  2. In the Choose report type section, select an LQE-based data source.
    Click the pencil Edit to select a different data source. See Differences between the two LQE data sources to help you decide which one to select.
    Accept the default value Current Data (table or graph). For LQE-based data sources, reporting on artifact and project metrics and historical trends is not supported at this time.
    • To create these metrics and trends reports, you must use the data warehouse, which does not contain data about configuration-enabled projects. For details, see the Reporting on metrics and historical data help topic.
  3. In the Limit scope section, select the projects to show results from, and click Continue. You see only the projects that you belong to.
    The selected projects affect the artifact types available in the Choose artifacts and Traceability links sections. For example, if you don’t select a QM project, you cannot report on QM artifacts, and you cannot create traceability relationships that include QM artifacts (for example, a report that shows requirements and the test cases that validate them).
    After you select artifact types later on, you might have to return to the Limit scope section and select additional projects.
    If you know the artifact type you want to report on and your report will include multiple artifact types, for example, a report showing test cases and the requirements that they validate:
    1. Skip to the next step to choose an artifact type.
    2. After you select the artifact type, return to the Limit scope section and select List only the projects that contain the artifact for your report.
    3. Select the projects to report on.

    You must know which RM and QM projects are configuration-enabled project and which are not, and select only one type (enabled or not enabled). This constraint does not apply to RTC projects, which are compatible with either type of RM and QM project.
    For example, to show related work items, select the correct RTC projects even though they are not configuration-enabled; otherwise, you cannot add the relationship to the work items in the Traceability links section.

    You must know which projects contain the artifact type that you want to report on. If two project areas define semantically different types but use the same artifact type name, then Report Builder assumes these types are equivalent. See the item describing merged (non-OSLC) shape types in Choosing an artifact type.

    If don’t see the project that you want, see the administrator who created the data sources for Report Builder.

  4. Choose the artifact type to report on, and click Continue. See Choosing an artifact type.
    • Artifact types are shown hierarchically to help you find them more easily, but the view does not necessarily imply inheritance among the types.
    • The top-level artifact types correspond to OSLC types. Nested artifact types correspond to merged artifact types from one application. If you select an OSLC type, your report might contain results from any application that publishes that type.
    • You must select at least one project that contains the artifact type. To show these projects, return to the Limit scope section and select List only the projects that contain the artifact for your report.
    • Tip: To report on requirements from specific DOORS Next Generation modules, click Requirement and select the requirement types. In a later step, you specify the requirement collections or modules.
  5. Optional: Set traceability links to show how your artifacts relate to those from other lifecycle applications. Click Add Relationship, select the relationship, and then click OK.
    Tip: To help you choose the correct target artifact type, the list of target types is shown as a hierarchy. See Creating traceability relationships.
    Some custom link types are not shown in this list: for example, DOORS Next Generation custom link types from artifacts that do not own the link are not shown. See DOORS Next Generation limitations.

    Example: if you are reporting on DOORS Next Generation requirements and the QM test cases that validate them, and you selected a DOORS Next Generation Requirement (merged type) requirement in step 4:

    1. Click Add Relationship > Test Case > Validated By Test Case, and click OK.
    2. In the Pick an artifact pane, click QM Test Case, and click OK.
    3. To list the defects that are associated with those QM test cases, click Add Relationship > Work Item > Related (a defect is a type of change request), and click OK.
      The following image shows the complete traceability path to build this report:

      Traceability links that associate requirements, their related QM test cases, and defects associated with those test cases.
  6. Set conditions to further refine your report. You can specify conditions for any attribute of the selected artifact type, and for any artifact type that you created relationship links for.
    1. Click Add condition.
    2. From the list, select an artifact type.
    3. Choose the attribute that you want to specify a condition for, and select the values to return the artifacts you want.
    4. Click Add to keep the window open so that you can add other conditions, or click Add and Close if you are finished adding conditions.
    5. Optional: Change the lock Lock to control whether people can or must supply a value for the condition when they run the report.

    Sometimes multiple projects give custom attributes the same name, however, typically the attribute IDs are different across projects. The question mark Question mark beside the attribute provides information about the duplication or conflict. Select the instances of the attribute that correspond to the projects that you selected in the Limit scope section. See Adding equivalent properties as columns. If you add these equivalent properties with conflicts as columns, add all of them to your report and follow the prompt to combine them.

    Additional tips:

    • To report on requirements in specific modules, from the attributes list, select the requirement or requirement type and choose the Collection or Module attribute; then, choose the collections or modules, and click Save.
    • To create logical groups of conditions, they must be beside each other. Select their check boxes and click Group.
    • To remove conditions, select their check boxes and click Remove.
    • To show a specific relationship to another artifact, you must create a specific condition. For example, to show that a requirement is validated by a test case, select the Related Test Case relationship. In the Set conditions section, you can create a condition that selects the specific relationship.
    After you create your conditions, click Continue or Format results.

  7. In the Format section, select whether to show the report as a table or a graph. To preview what your report looks like, click Refresh. Only a subset of data is shown in this section. To see all the results, you must run the report.
  8. Specify the details of your report.
    1. Give your report a name and a description. The description is important to help other team members find your report if it is public.
      Note: You might include the traceability link names that you built in the Traceability links section, so that team members can find your report easily.
    2. Optional: Tag your report to make it easier to find or to group it with related reports. Each tag becomes a category in which you can see your report on the Use and My Stuff pages.
    3. Specify if your report is public or private. Public reports show up in the Report Builder catalog.
      • If you make the report public, team members can add the report from the catalog as a widget to their Jazz™ dashboards.
      • If you tag the report, the tag becomes a category in the report catalog to make your report easier to find or to group it with related reports.
    4. Specify whether the default visualization for your report is a table or a graph. For example, if you select Graph, but then run the report to generate a table, the next time you run the report, the results are shown again in a graph.
    5. Click Save, and click Continue.
  9. To see the complete report, click Run report.
    • If you created conditions that team members can specify values for, click Filters, and select the filter values.
    • To see a subset of the results to preview the data, click Preview.
    • To get all results that meet the conditions, click Run.
  10. Click Save to save the report with the values that you selected for the conditions.

What to do next

  • Run your report.
  • To see your report in the list of other reports, click Use or My Stuff.
  • To further edit your report, click a pencil Edit in the My Choices pane at the right. Click Save near the top to save your changes.
  • To export your report results, click Export near the upper right. You can export your results to a spreadsheet, to Rational Publishing Engine as a document-style report, or export a report graph to an image file. See the links to help topics at the end of this article.

Running cross-project reports

Assume you have created a cross-project report to show QM test cases and the RM requirements that they validate.

  • Reporting on versioned artifacts from a specific configuration
    • Data source: The report must have been built by using the LQE using Configurations data source.
    • Traceability: You must know which configurations will return results based on the traceability relationships and conditions specified in the report.
      This is especially important if the report’s scope is limited to specific projects: no results are returned if the projects that are associated with the selected configuration do not intersect with the projects in the report’s scope.
    • Global configuration: Because the report includes artifacts from different lifecycle tools, ensure that the configurations from those tools are in a global configuration.
      When you run the report, in the Filters > Choose a Configuration section, select the global configuration that contains the project area configurations to report on. If you run the report against a project area configuration only, you will not see any results.
      • Tip: To avoid version skew, in the Global Configuration Management application, do not add multiple streams from the same project to the same global configuration. Version skew occurs when a global configuration refers to multiple versions of the same artifact.
    • Hierarchy: Configurations are shown hierarchically, as shown in the following image.
      Screen capture showing OSLC types and nested application-specific types
      • Baselines (top-level entry): All baselines that are not associated with any stream; for example, the initial baseline of a project area.
      • Streams: Global streams and project area streams that are not associated with a global stream.
        To reduce clutter, project area configurations that belong to a global configuration are not shown, unless those streams have baselines.
        For example, the “Config Banking (QM) Initial Stream” is part of the “Config Banking (GC) Initial Development” stream. You cannot select the “Config Banking (QM) Initial Stream” stream, but you can expand it to see its baselines (and optionally select one to run the report against).
      • Baselines (nested): All baselines created from the preceding stream.
  • Reporting on projects that are not enabled for configurations
    • Data source: You must select the LQE data source.
    • Mixed environment: If you work in an environment that has projects that are enabled for configurations and ones that are not, limit the scope of the report by selecting specific projects that are not enabled. Otherwise, the report results show a cross product of all the property values for an artifact; the values are extracted from the multiple versions of that artifact in a configuration-enabled project.
      Example:
      • In Stream_1, an artifact has these properties and values: state=draft and priority=low.
      • In Stream_2: state=approved and priority=high.

      Instead of two entries in the report results, there are 4 (cross product of the property values):
      • state=draft priority=low
      • state=draft priority=high
      • state=approved priority=low
      • state=approved priority=high
  • Access: When you run your report, you see only the artifacts that you have access to.

Details of Report Builder capabilities

TRS feeds in LQE version 6.0.1

  • If you add a TRS feed for an application that is registered with a different Jazz Team Server (JTS), all user URIs in the artifacts refer to the user registry in that other JTS application. Therefore, you must also add the feed from the other server (https://host:port/jts/trsUsers).
  • Ensure that the data source permissions are assigned correctly:
    • Assign the Report Builder functional user (jrs_user) to the Lifecycle Query Engine Index data source permissions.
    • Assign the Everyone group to the Rational Jazz Team Server data source permissions. This includes all JTS user TRS feeds that are added manually.
    • In version 6.0, the Everyone group was manually added to the Lifecycle Query Engine Index top-level LQE entry on the Data Groups page. In version 6.0.1, you must remove this Everyone group from this entry.
  • To see the access for each project, look at the application’s Process feed (TRS 2.0 for DOORS Next Generation Process Resources, TRS 2.0 for GC Process Resources, and so on).

Synchronizing project membership information

  • You might not see updated project membership information immediately in Report Builder. The system refreshes LQE with project membership information every 10 minutes. You can change the default interval on the Advanced Properties tab of the LQE application by clicking the Show Internal link. For example, before you add members to a project in a CLM application, you might change this interval to 1 minute so that the new project members can see the information they need in Report Builder sooner. After LQE refreshes, change the interval back to its previous or default value.

Choosing an artifact type

  • The top-level artifact types correspond to OSLC types. Nested artifact types are merged artifact types (merged shape types) from one application.
    • Select the OSLC type to report across different applications in the given domain. For example, to include test cases from any application that has a test case artifact type, select Test Case.
    • Select a nested type to report across projects for the specific application. For example, to include test cases only from the QM application, select QM Test Case.

    Screen capture showing OSLC types and nested application-specific types
  • If you select a top-level (OSLC) type, you might see unexpected results in your report if multiple applications publish that type of artifact to LQE.
    For example, if you choose the OSLC Requirement type to find all DOORS Next Generation requirements, your report might also return Requirement artifacts published by the Design Management (DM) application. Report Builder does not support DM types at this time. To exclude DM requirements from your report results and report only on DOORS Next Generation requirements, select the nested Requirement type, and in the Limit scope section, select only DOORS Next Generation projects.
  • Merged (non-OSLC) artifact types are combined based on their name.
    • If two project areas define semantically different types but use the same type name, Report Builder assumes they are equivalent.
      • For example, if QM project area Proj1 defines a artifact shape type “QM Test Case” and QM Proj2 defines a “QM Test Case” that has different properties, the hierarchy in the Choose artifact section shows only one “QM Test Case” type.
    • If you select a merged type for your report, it shows resources from both projects, which might include unexpected results.
    To avoid this problem, in the Limit scope section, select only the projects that contain the type that you want to report on.
  • Requirements Management:
    • Most DOORS Next Generation merged shape types are shown under both Requirement and Requirement Collection.
    • If a specific merged type is shown in both places, it is the exact same type. The generated report does not infer which hierarchy you chose it from. The system examines all the artifacts that correspond to that merged type, whether the underlying RDF type is Requirement or Requirement Collection.

Creating traceability relationships

  • The list of target shape types is shown hierarchically. If you choose an OSLC type, such as “Requirement”, the report results include all the Requirement types published to LQE that satisfy the traceability relationship, project scope, and conditions that you define.

Identifying equivalent but conflicting properties in merged shapes

  • Conflicts among properties can occur when the system (LQE + Report Builder) merges project-specific artifact shapes. These conflicts are indicated by a question mark Question mark in the Add Attributes to the Report section of Report Builder. See the image in Adding equivalent properties as columns.
  • Hover over the question mark Question mark to identify and select the correct property (attribute). The tooltip typically includes the project name and indicates the reason for the conflict.
  • If you add a property that has a conflict, your report might return unexpected results.
    These properties prevent cross-project reporting. The report results for that type are limited to the resources in the corresponding project.

Adding equivalent properties as columns

  • When you add equivalent but conflicting properties as columns to your report, you can combine them into a single column in the report results. Remember, conflicting properties have a question mark Question mark beside them.
    1. Select the conflicting properties with the same name that you want to include in your report, and click Add.
      Conflicting attributes show a question mark beside them
    2. When you reach the Format results page, follow the prompt in the message that explains combining the conflicting properties into one column.

Report Builder limitations

General limitations

Data source for metrics or historical trends: To create these reports, you must use the data warehouse as a data source, and it does not contain data about configuration-enabled projects. You cannot create these reports if you select an LQE data source. For details, see this help topic about reporting on metrics and historical data.

Data source for calculated columns in reports: You cannot add calculated columns (sum, average, and so on) to reports that use LQE-based data sources.

Artifacts from DM applications: This information is available in the LQE, but you cannot access it in the Report Builder guided interface. You must create SPARQL queries to report on artifacts from Rhapsody Design Manager or the Design Manager web client.

Artifact types and information you cannot report on with Report Builder: Neither the data warehouse nor the LQE contain the following information. Instead, use the dashboard widgets for the specific CLM application.

  • RTC: SCM information, plan resources, work item comments
  • DOORS Next Generation: Change set information; review or module hierarchy information

Artifacts from DOORS: Reporting on DOORS (DOORS Web Access) artifact types is not supported at this time. If an LQE TRS feed exists for the DOORS application, you might see the corresponding artifact types on the Choose data page in the Choose artifact > Requirements Management section, but reporting on them is not supported.

Attributes with the same name: Sometimes a set of projects uses the same custom attribute, and although the attribute has the same name across the projects, its ID is different in each project.
To report on this attribute:

  1. Select it for all the projects in scope for your report. For example, if the projects you select each have a Risk Status attribute that has the same meaning in each project, select this attribute for all the projects.
  2. In the Set conditions section, group them and add an OR between them.
  3. You must also combine the same-named columns into one column: In the Format section, give the same column name to each version of the attribute.

Editing SPARQL queries: To report on some types of artifacts or project elements, you must manually edit the query for your report in the Advanced section of Report Builder (for example, to add SPARQL code). After you save your changes, you can only add query parameters and columns to that report in Report Builder. You can no longer modify the links in Traceability links section.

Reporting about configurations: To report on data about configurations themselves, write SPARQL queries in the Advanced section of Report Builder. Use the LQE using Configurations data source for your report.
For example, to find out which configurations refer to a specific requirement, create a Report Builder report about requirements, and replace the generated query with a custom SPARQL query that extracts data from the configurations directly. See editing queries for details.
Otherwise, Report Builder exposes configurations only in the Choose a Configuration menu when you run a report that uses the LQE using Configurations data source. Because you can pick only one configuration from this menu, the query that Report Builder generates cannot find the information you want from all configurations.

Link validity: Reporting on link validity information is not supported at this time. You must write SPARQL queries to access this information. See editing queries for details.

Translation: When you create a report that uses an LQE-based data source, the types and property names that you see in Report Builder are extracted from metadata that is published to the LQE by the lifecycle tools. Typically, this metadata contains only English names.

Team membership: LQE controls what you can report on based on the project membership specified in lifecycle tools. Access to a project based your team area membership is not supported at this time.
For example, if you are a member of Project A but are only in a team area for Project B, you can see artifacts from Project A, but not from Project B.

LQE using Configurations data source limitations

  • Manually created data sources: If you manually create LQE data sources in Report Builder, you must create the (all-data) LQE data source first, and then create the configuration aware LQE data source; be sure to check the option to require configurations before saving the data source. After you save a data source, you cannot change this option.
  • Reports on configurations: Reports that are run against a configuration have access to all versioned artifacts in that configuration, as well as all non-versioned artifacts.
  • Global configurations: A global configuration can contain configurations from several CLM applications, but you can create reports only about the artifacts in its RM and QM configurations.
  • Errors when no configuration is defined: When Report Builder runs a query on the LQE using Configurations data source, a configuration must be defined in the request, or LQE generates an error. If Report Builder detects this situation, the query is redirected to the normal (all data) LQE data source, but the results might not be correct.
  • Both LQE data sources: Typical queries that must be redirected to the normal (all-data) LQE data source include queries to obtain the metadata for the data source and queries to find the available configurations. Therefore, Report Builder cannot create and run an LQE configuration-based report unless both LQE data sources are defined.

DOORS Next Generation limitations

  • Traceability and link types: If two artifacts are connected by using any of the following OSLC link types, you can create a traceability report (starting with either artifact A or artifact B).
    These are the names that you see in Report Builder. The names in parentheses, (), are the link types in DOORS Next Generation. For details, see the help topic about link types in requirements projects.
    • Affected By
    • Artifact Term Reference
    • Decomposition (Parent Of, Child Of)
    • Embeds (Embeds, Embedded In)
    • Extraction (Extracted, Extracted From)
    • Implemented By
    • Link (Link To, Link From)
    • References
    • Synonym
    • Tracked By
    • Validated By

    In your Report Builder report, for the following link types in DOORS Next Generation, you can define traceability links start with the source of the link (the first link type listed in each pair). To create a report that starts with the target of the link, you must add SPARQL code to the query in the Advanced section of your report:
    • Elaborates, Elaborated By
    • Specifies, Specified By
    • Satisfies, Satisfaction

    If artifacts A and B are connected by any other type of Rational DOORS Next Generation link, you can report only in the forward direction. There is no workaround. To get the results of all the relationships and artifacts that are attached by the relationship, you must build two traceability reports: in one report, start the traceability links with artifact A; in the other report, start with artifact B. Then, run both reports, and manually compare the results.

    To avoid confusion about link direction, type definition administrators for Rational DOORS Next Generation should not use “By” in link labels.

  • Merged artifact types: You can create reports only about the merged artifact types (shape types) that are defined in the initial stream of a DOORS Next Generation project. LQE and Report Builder do not expose DOORS Next Generation versioned artifacts in non-default streams.
    For example, if you add a custom property to an artifact type in a child stream, Report Builder does not show that custom property when you select that artifact type.

    Update the initial stream with changes to the artifact types, so that Report Builder shows these changes for other streams. Otherwise, to report on custom attributes or links that are only defined in non-default streams, manually edit the report and modify the SPARQL query to extract the values from the custom properties. See editing queries for details.

  • Duplicate link types and attributes: These items are duplicated. In the Traceability links section, hover over the question mark Question mark to identify the project the attribute is from.
    You must set a condition for each attribute with the same name; then, group them and add an OR relationship between them.
    To show them in one column when you run the report, in the Format section, give them the same column name.
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