Views and Editors | ||
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Features | Search |
The Branch Manager View, shown by default in the Define Perspective, shows all branches and transactions on each branch managed by OSEE in a hierarchical fashion. By default, OSEE is initialized with two branches. The System Root Branch (visible to OSEE Administrators only) and the Common Branch. The System Root Branch is the base branch for all other branches in the system. The Common branch is used to store system-wide artifacts such as configuration artifacts, users, and user preferences.
Icon | Description |
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Refreshes the branch hierarchy tree with the latest branch information. |
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Opens the table customization dialog. This allows users to add or hide columns. |
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Opens an action against the Branch Manager View. |
To display, click on the inverted triangle located on the upper right-hand side of the Branch Manager view.
Command | Description |
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Open Branch Graph | Display a diagram showing the relations among branches. |
Open OSEE Data Model Editor | Opens a graphical editor of all the artifact, attribute, and relation types in the system. |
Branch Presentation | Switch presentation between flat or hierarchical views. |
Show Archived Branches | (Admins Only) Toggles archived branch visibility. |
Show Merge Branches | (Admins Only) Toggles merge branch visibility. |
Show/Hide Transactions | Toggles branch transaction visibility. |
Show Favorites First | Orders branches by showing favorite branches first. |
To display, perform a right-click on any branch.
Command | Description |
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Explore | Opens the Artifact Explorer View for the selected branch. This operation can also be performed by double-clicking on a branch. |
Change Report | Opens the Change Report View for the selected branch. |
Merge Manager | Opens the merge manager. This is used to resolve conflicts when committing a working branch back into its parent branch. |
Branch | Creates a child branch of the selected branch. |
Update Branch | Re-baselines a branch into its parent, leaving the selected branch in place. If there are conflicts, the merge manager will be opened to allow the user to resolve them. |
Commit Into | Commits changes made to a branch into another branch. Unlike "Update Branch," this feature does not assume that the destination branch is the parent. This feature can only be used by administrators. |
Delete Branch | Deletes the selected branch from the system by setting the branch state to deleted. The data from this branch will still be recoverable. |
Purge Branch | Purges the selected branch from the system by removing all data from the data store. This action cannot be undone. |
Purge Transaction | Purges the currently selected transaction from its branch. Removes all changes made on the selected transaction. (Not recoverable) |
Open Associated Artifact | Opens the artifact that was associated with the creation of the selected branch. |
Set Associated Artifact | Associates an artifact with the currently selected branch. |
Archive | Archives the branch so that it does not appear in a list of branches unless archived branches are specifically requested. |
Access Control | Opens the access control dialog. |
Rename | Allows users to change the branch name. |
Mark as Favorite | Sets/Unsets a branch as a favorite branch. |
Copy | Places branch information into the clipboard. |
Open Osee Data Model Editor | Opens a graphical editor of all the artifact, attribute, and relation types in the system. |
Open Branch Graph | Shows a graphical representation of branches using the currently selected branch as the base branch. |
Searching - Can be performed by typing text in the Search text box. Matching text will be highlighted. Click on the
icon to clear the search box and clear all the search results.
Filtering - Can be performed by typing text in the Filter box. Click on the
icon to clear the filter box and display all items.
The Artifact Explorer view, shown by default in the Define perspective, shows the artifact hierarchy of the selected branch. The artifact hierarchy is derived from the artifact's default hierarchy relation. By default, all branches have a default hierarchy root artifact which is the hierarchy tree's base element.
Icon | Description |
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Collapses all tree nodes. |
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Navigates to the parent container of the artifacts that are currently displayed at the top level in the view. |
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Opens a new instance of the Artifact Explorer view. |
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Opens the Change Report View for the Artifact Explorer's selected branch. This report will show all changes made to the selected branch. |
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Opens the Quick Search View for the selected branch. |
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Opens an action against the Artifact Explorer view. |
To display, select one or more artifacts and perform a right-click.
Command | Description |
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Open | Opens the selected artifact using the default editor. |
Open With | Opens a sub-menu listing the available editor's for this artifact. |
Reveal on Another Branch | Open's a new instance of Artifact Explorer for a user selected branch. Expands tree elements to display the selected artifact to be revealed. |
New Child | Creates a new artifact and places it directly under the selected artifact. |
Go Into | Sets the selected artifact as the base of the artifact hierarchy tree hiding artifacts except child artifacts. |
Mass Edit | Opens the Artifact Mass Editor populated with the selected artifacts. |
Sky Walker | Launches the Sky Walker View. |
Delete Artifact | Deletes the selected artifacts. |
Purge Artifact(s) | Purges the selected artifacts from the data store. |
Rename Artifact | Allows a user to quickly change the artifact's name attribute. |
Show Resource History | Opens the Resource History view for the selected artifact. This will display all transactions for this artifact. |
Import | Opens Eclipse's import dialog. |
Export | Opens Eclipse's export dialog. |
Lock | Locks the artifact so the current user is the only one allowed to make changes to its attributes. |
Copy | Copies the artifact. |
Paste | Pastes the artifact. |
Expand All | Expands all tree nodes from the selected artifact down. |
Select All | Selects all open tree nodes. |
Access Control | Opens the access control dialog. |
Operations that can be performed on an Artifact Explorer.
Command | Description |
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Cross Branch Drag and Drop | Artifacts can be referenced from other branches by dragging an artifact from one branch and dropping in onto another Artifact Explorer. The outcome will be one of two actions. If the artifact already existed on the branch it will be updated with the source artifacts state data. If the artifact did not exist on the destination branch it will be introduced to that branch. Meaning it will show up in the change report as an introduced artifact. |
File Document Drag and Drop | Artifacts can be created by dragging and dropping files directly onto the parent artifact. After the drop is performed, the Artifact Import Wizard should open. Select the import method and artifact type to convert file into. This should create a child artifact directly under the artifact where the file was dropped. |
Dragging An Artifact From The Artifact Explorer
Dropping Onto The Artifact Explorer
The Artifact editor provides specialized features for editing artifacts (this is the default editor for editing attributes and relations). The editor can be opened through Artifact Explorer, by double-clicking on any artifact or right-clicking on an artifact and selecting to Open With "Artifact Editor".
Associated with the editor is an Artifact-specific Outline view, which shows the structure of the active artifact. It is updated as the user edits the artifact.
The Artifact Editor is divided into the following sections (some sections can be expanded and collapsed by clicking on the section's title bar).
Icon | Description |
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Refreshes the artifact editor. Displaying the artifact's current data. NOTE: Changes made to the form will be lost unless data is saved before clicking on this button. |
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Opens an action against the Artifact Editor. |
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Opens the artifact or if clicking on the down-arrow, displays the open with sub-menu. |
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Deletes the artifact and closes the editor. |
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Displays the outline view. |
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Opens the artifact's resource history. |
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Displays the artifact in an Artifact Explorer view. |
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Open the Branch Manager View and highlights the artifact's branch. |
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Locks or unlocks the artifact for editing. Locking an artifact prevents other users from making changes to it. |
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Copies a link to the latest version of the artifact to the clipboard. |
Displays the artifact's branch, artifact type, and human readable id.
Displays attribute types to be edited. Attribute types can be added or deleted by clicking on the appropriate toolbar button located on the upper-right of the attributes section title bar. Note: The following operations follow min/max occurrence rules defined by the attribute's type.
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Opens an attribute type selection dialog; the selected attribute type instances will be reset to their default value. |
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Opens a dialog displaying attribute types that can be added to the artifact. |
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Opens a dialog displaying attribute types that can be deleted from the artifact. Note: Data entered for the attribute type to be deleted will be lost as soon as the dialog's '''OK button is selected. |
All relations that are defined as being valid for the artifact are shown. Relations can be added by dragging any set of artifacts into the appropriate relation group. Opening a relation group will show all the artifacts that are currently related. Double-clicking a related artifact will open it in its default editor (normally the Artifact Editor).
Pop-up Menu - To display, expand the Relations section, select one or more artifacts, and perform a right-click.
Command | Description |
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Open | Opens the selected relation using the default editor. |
Edit | Opens the Artifact for editing. |
Mass Edit | Opens the Artifact Mass Editor populated with the selected artifacts. |
View Relation Table Report | Opens an HTML report of the relation tree. |
Order Relation... | Select an order type for the relations in the group. Once the user makes a selection, the artifacts will be ordered appropriately. Options include: |
Delete Relation | Deletes the selected relations. |
Expand All | Expands all tree nodes containing relations to this artifact. |
Select All | Selects all tree nodes. |
Delete Artifact | Deletes the selected artifact and its relation to this artifact. |
Artifacts can be related by dragging and dropping artifacts from Artifact Explorer onto a relation link group.
Relation links may be reordered within the same relation link group by selecting the link and dropping it into the desired location.
Displays artifact meta-data.
BLAM Lightweight Artifact Manipulation (BLAM) allows non-programmers to graphically construct workflows to automate repetitive tasks. A given workflow can be used for variety of similar tasks by using customizable controls to specify workflow parameters.
The resource history view allows users to view the detailed changes to an aritfact.
In addition, the view also provides the user with the ability to select and compare artifacts.
The Mass Artifact Editor allows for easy view and editing of multiple artifacts and their attributes. To Open, right-click on the Artifact Explorer, the Search Results page, to open the pop-up menu and select the Mass Edit option. Single cells can be edited via Alt-Left-Mouse-Click. After editing any number of artifacts, click on the save button. All changes will be saved.
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Refreshes the data with the latest information. |
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Opens the table customization dialog. This allows users to add or hide columns. |
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Opens an action against the Mass Editor. |
See Xviewer for more information
The Quick Search view allows users to perform searches for information that is contained
inside artifacts in a selected branch or search for artifacts by their GUID. The view is opened by default in the Define Perspective. It can also be opened by clicking on the Artifact Explorer tool bar's
icon.
To find all artifacts that contain a particular set of keywords:
An option to search in a specific set of attribute types for artifacts on the selected branch. Type in the desired words to search for. Make sure the Attribute Type Filter option is selected under Options. By default, the filter is set to filter by attributes of type Name. If you wish to change the filter, select the button to the right of the configuration text area. When this is performed, a dialog displaying all the different tagged attribute types will be displayed. Check the items to include in the filter and select Ok. Press the Search button to execute the search.
Note: When Attribute Type Filter option is selected, By Id option is not allowed. Therefore, selecting Attribute Type Filter option disables the By Id option by setting its state to not selected.
An option to search for artifacts with a particular GUID on the default branch. Type in the desired GUID(s) separated by commas or spaces. Make sure the By GUID option is selected under Options, then press the Search button.
Note: When By GUID option is selected, Attribute Type Filter option is not allowed. Therefore, selecting By GUID option disables the Attribute Type Filter option by setting its state to not selected.
An option to include artifacts that have been deleted as part of a quick search on the default branch. Type in the desired words. Make sure the Include Deleted option is selected under Options, then press the Search button.
An option to match a phrase against artifacts during a quick search operation on the default branch. Type in the desired words. Make sure the Match Word Order option is selected under Options, then press the Search button.
An option to return exact matches to the input string. The case and special characters that are part of the input must be matched.
Type in the desired words. Make sure the Match Word Order option is selected under Options, select All Match Locations then press the Search button.
The Sky Walker View displays a graphical representation of artifacts and their relations for easy navigation.
The change report view shows all changes made to a branch. A Change Report can be performed for a branch two ways. The first way is by right-clicking a branch from the Branch Manager then choosing the "Show Change Report" menu item. The second way is to select "Show Change Report" from the Aspect view of an ATS Action that is still in work; this will do a Change Report for the working branch of the Aspect.
The Change Report will display all of the artifacts on the branch that have had an attribute or relation link modified. It will also do conflict detection on these artifacts against the parent branch. Attributes and relation links with multiple changes will provide a summarized node that shows the final effect of the changes and can be expanded to view all of the minor changes that were made. If an attribute or relation link was modified on both branches then the summary will show a red conflict mark to signify that a commit will cause an override to occur.
On the Transactions tab, OSEE will show all the transactions that were made on the branch. Author and timestamp show who and when and admins have the ability to purge a transaction.
Command | Description |
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Refreshes the data in the change report view with the latest information. |
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Opens the table customization dialog. This allows users add or hide columns. |
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Opens an action against the Change Report View. |
To display, click on the inverted triangle located on the upper right-hand side of the Change Report View.
Command | Description |
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Show Document Order | Switch presentation to show artifacts ordered by their default hierarchy relation. |
To display, perform a right-click on any branch.
Command | Description |
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Open | Opens the selected artifact using the default editor. |
Open With | Opens a sub-menu listing the available editor's for this artifact. |
Reveal in Artifact Explorer | Displays an artifacts location in the Artifact Explorer. |
Resource History | Opens the Resource History view for the selected artifact. This will display all transactions for this artifact. |
View Word Change Report | Displays a Word document populated with the branch differences of the selected artifacts. |
View Viewer Report | Generates a report of the Change Report View content. |
Copy | Copies the artifact. |
Replace with Baseline Version... | Displays dialog to Replace a single Attribute or Artifact. Attribute - Will replace the current attribute with the baseline version. Artifact - Will replace the complete artifact (all attributes and relations). |
The Define Navigator, shown by default in the Define Perspective, provides a central location to launch frequently used define operations. To quickly find a define operation to execute, enter text into the filter box. This will filter out all navigation items that contains the entered text. Select the clear action (
) to clear out the text and restore all navigation items. To execute the operation, double-click on any of the navigation item.
The Merge Manager is used to resolve conflicts that arise when doing development on parallel branches. The Merge Manager makes conflicts that arise easily identifiable and then provides the means for resolving the conflicts, so that the working branch can be committed. A conflict exists if the value of an attribute/artifact has changed on both the Destination and Source Branches. For reference the Source Branch is the users working branch. It is the branch that the user has been making changes to and would like to then add back into the Destination Branch or Baseline Branch. Both branches are identified by name in the header of the Merge Manager.
Depending upon the conflict found, the user may have several choices for resolution. These include:
Committing of Branches is blocked until all conflicts are resolved.
Icon | Description |
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Resolution has been started for the conflict |
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Conflict has been resolved and is ready to be committed, In the Merge column it means that the Source and Destination Branches have the same value even though they were both changed. |
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After a conflict has been marked as resolved the value changed on the source or destination branch |
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A conflict that provides the user special information but does not need to be resolved |
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A conflict that can not be resolved except by reverting the Artifact or Attribute, because it was deleted on the Destination Branch |
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Shows that the item defined by the column it is in has the Destination Branches value |
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Shows that the item defined by the column it is in has the Source Branches value |
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Shows that the item defined by the column it is in has a new value that is neither the Source Branch nor Destination Branch value. |
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Shows that the conflict has not been given an initial value |
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Opens the Associated Artifact for the merge |
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Opens up the Change Report for the Source Branch |
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Opens up the Change Report for the Destination Branch |
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Refreshes the Merge Manger view to find new conflicts |
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Allows the user to customize the Merge Manager tables |
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Report a bug with the Merge Manager |
The GUI is organized to provide the user with an ability to quickly identify conflicts.
To display, perform a right click on any row. This will provide a menu with options to resolve conflicts.
Item | Description |
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Set Source as Default Branch | This selection is a quick way to set the Source Branch as the default branch.
If the Source Branch is already set as the Default Branch, the menu item will be grayed out and there will be a check mark next to the option. |
Set Destination as Default Branch | This selection is a quick way to set the Destination Branch as the default branch.
If the Destination Branch is already set as the Default Branch, the menu item will be grayed out and there will be a check mark next to the option. |
Edit Merge Artifact | This option is only enabled for Word Formatted Content conflicts and will bring up the Merge Artifact in Word. |
Generate Three Way Merge | Will generate a Three Way Merge for the Word Formatted Content. |
Preview Source Artifact | Show a preview in Word of the Artifact based on the version selected. |
Preview Destination Artifact | |
Preview Merge Artifact | |
Show Source Branch Differences | Generates differences based upon which option is selected. Allows the user to see how different versions of the artifact differ |
Show Destination Branch Differences | |
Show Source/Destination Differences | |
Show Source/Merge Differences | |
Show Destination/Merge Differences | |
Reveal Artifact in Explorer | This option is only available when either the Source or Destination Branch is set as the default branch. When such is the case this will reveal the artifact in the Artifact Explorer for the Branch that is the default branch. |
Resource History | This option is only available when either the Source or Destination Branch is set as the default branch. When such is the case this will reveal the resource history of the artifact on the Branch that is the default branch. |
Type | Description |
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Informational Conflicts | Informational conflicts are identified by the
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Un-resolvable Conflicts | Un-resolvable Conflicts are identified by the
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Attribute Conflicts | Attribute Conflicts occur when both the Destination and Source branch modify an attribute. This section will cover all attributes except Word Formatted Content Attributes. |
Resolution of conflicts is provided in two different ways. They can either copy and paste the changes into their Merge Artifact document or they can generate a Three Way Merge and accept the changes that show up in the generated document. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages and are best suited for different situations. They can also be combined where the situation warrants it, however the three way merge must always be done first if this is the case.
Usage:
Manual Merging is the process of combining the Source Branch changes and the destination branch changes manually by copying and pasting them into the Merge Artifact document. The Merge Artifact is a separate version of the artifact that will preserve the details of the Merge, and will be reviewable in the Merge Manager after an artifact is committed. IMPORTANT: If the user makes the changes to their Source Branch instead of on the Merge Artifact the Merge Manager will incorrectly represent the merge in future reviews.
The following procedure illustrates the functionality available to facilitate a manual merge.
The user will first either launch the Merge Wizard by left clicking on the icon in the Merge Value column of the GUI or they may select the functionality from the right click menu for the conflict in question. The first thing to do is to bring up a word document comparison of both the Source Branch Version and the Destination Branch Version. These documents will show all of the changes that have been made to these two artifacts since the Source Branch was created. To launch these difference's the user either select "Show Source Diff" and "Show Destination Diff" from the wizard or "Differences"->"Show Source Branch Differences" and "Differences"->"Show Destination Branch Differences" from the right click menu. These will bring up the two difference's in different Word instances with window labels to allow the user to differentiate the files. The intention of bringing up these difference's is twofold. Firstly, it allows the user to identify the file that has the most changes. Secondly, it will come in use later when the user copy's and paste's changes into the Merge document.
Upon identifying the branch that has the most changes the user should then set the Merge Artifact to contain that branches value. This is done by either selecting "Populate with Source Data" or "Populate with Destination Data" from the Merge Wizard or left clicking on the icon or the icon in the Source and Destination Value columns in the Merge Manager GUI. The user can then bring up the Merge Artifact for editing by clicking on "Edit Merge Artifact" in the Merge Wizard or in the right click menu. The Document that comes up contains the Merge Artifact and any changes made to it will be reflected when the Source Branch is committed. The user can than begin to copy the changes from the diff report that showed the fewest changes (opposite of the one chosen as the baseline). After all changes have been migrated into the Merge Artifact document the user than saves the document, which will preserve the Merge Artifact value. The user should be aware that any changes they do not wish to preserve from either the Source or Destination version of the Artifact need to be omitted on the Merge Artifact.
The user then right clicks on the in the Conflict Status Column so that the icon is displayed. The conflict is resolved and will allow the Source Branch to be committed.
Usage:
Three Way Merging leverages Microsoft Words ability to merge documents. At the beginning of any Word Formatted Content merge it is recommended that user generate a Three Way Merge and check the complexity of the document. In most cases Three Way Merging is a quicker way to merge two documents, however in some cases the Three Way Merge will generate a document that is difficult to use and understand. This usually arises when the Source and Destination branches have edited the same text or if one of the branches has touched a large percentage of the file. As it runs fairly quickly it is always a good idea to run it at the beginning of a Merge to check if it is useful. Three Way Merging only allows the user to maintain format changes from one of the documents. If format changes are made on both documents the Three Way Merge will prompt the user as to which format changes they would like to maintain, the user will then need to copy the format changes from the other document into the Merge Artifact document manually.
A Three Way Merge is generated by selecting Generate Three Way Merge from either the Merge Wizard or the right click menu. IMPORTANT: Generating a Three Way Merge will discard any changes made to the Merge Artifact, therefore a prompt will make sure this is the intended operation. If a user had started a Three Way Merge previously but had not completed the Merge the user is also given the option of continuing the previous Merge in the prompt (Selecting Edit Merge Artifact will also have this effect). The following is an example of a Three Way Merge in Word.
The changes made by the Source Branch and Destination Branch are shown in different colors in the Word Document. In this particular case the changes made in Red were done by the Source Branch and the changes made in Blue were done on the Destination Branch. The color scheme is not consistent and the user needs to verify which color equates to which changes by hovering there mouse over one of the changes. A popup will be shown which will identify the author. The following Guide will explain how to resolve the changes in the document. IMPORTANT: All changes must be either accepted or rejected before the conflict can be marked as resolved. After the user has resolved all the changes it is a good idea to do generate a difference document between the Source Artifact and the Merge Artifact, and the Destination Artifact and the Merge Artifact by selecting "Show Source/Merge Diff" and "Show Destination/Merge Diff" from the merge Wizard or "Differences"->"Show Source/Merge Differences" and "Differences"->"Show Destination/Merge Differences" from the right click menu. These views will show the differences between the branch artifact and the merge artifact. For the Source/Merge difference this will show everything that is different between the source document and the Merge document. In the case where the user accepts all changes from the source and destination branches this diff will highlight all of the changes that occurred on the destination branch. In the Destination/Merge diff it will highlight all of the changes that happened on the source branch. It is always possible to use Manual Merging techniques in conjunction with Three Way Merging.
The user then right clicks on the in the Conflict Status Column so that the icon is displayed. The conflict is resolved and will allow the Source Branch to be committed.
The Merge Wizard contains a "Clear the Merge Artifact" that is not available from the right click menu and only available for Word Formatted Content. This will empty out the Merge artifact and allow the user to start with an empty document for editing. It will also place a
icon in the merge value column for that conflict.
Upon selecting to commit a working branch, OSEE will prompt the user to perform a merge if conflicts are detected between the changes made on the child branch and any changes made to the parent branch since the child branch was created.
The Merge Manager in OSEE will be used to reconcile these differences. From the Merge Manager tab, select the Merged Value icon which will cause the Edit the attribute window to appear.
Perform the following steps for each artifact listed on the Merge Manager tab:
The Test Run View provides an integration point with OTE (OSEE Test Environment). The test run view is used for viewing test run results. It can view a summary of output files that exist on a file system and it will upload those output files to the OSEE data store. It can also be used to view previous test runs that have been uploaded to the OSEE data store.
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Features | Search |