SERENA ®

DIMENSIONS CM 12.2.1 ®

Process Modeling User's Guide

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Publication date: July, 2012

Table of Contents

Welcome to Serena Dimensions CM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Typographical Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Printing Manuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Platform Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Demonstrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Contacting Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Part 1 Overview of Dimensions Process Modeling . . . . . . . 19

Chapter 1 Process Modeling Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

What Are the Components of the Process Model?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
About Product Organization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
About Design Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
About Design Part Variants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
About Object Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Items. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Projects and Streams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Baselines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
About Lifecycles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Example: Document Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Example: Single-State Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
About Privileges and Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
About Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
User-Defined Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Attribute Types and Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Valid Sets of Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Attribute Update Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Ordering of Attribute Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Attribute Role Sections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
How Attributes are Copied from one Item Revision to Another . . . . . . 33
About Authentication Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
About Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Item-Design Part Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Item-Item Relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Request-Request Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Item-Request Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
About Change Management Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Process Modeling User's Guide 3

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Rules for Request Lifecycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Rules for Item Lifecycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Examples of Rule Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

About Privileges and Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
What is the Difference Between Privileges and Roles? . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
How do I Manage Privileges? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
About Privilege Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Example of Privilege Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Privilege Rules Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Guidelines for Granting Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The Deliver into Project/Stream Privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
How do I Manage Roles?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Roles and Design Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Roles on Projects and Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
How do I Assign Roles to Baselines? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
How do I Assign Roles to Requests? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Roles on Design Part Variants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Roles and Lifecycles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Delegating Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Inboxes and Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Assigning Pending and Optional Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Choosing Role Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Special Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Default Privileges for Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Change Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Deleter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Deploy-Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Dev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Developer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Network-Administrator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Parts-Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Privilege Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Product Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Project Access. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
QA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Reg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Release-Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Reviewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Team-Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
TTDim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Valid-Set-Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Workset-Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Chapter 3 The Dimensions Administration Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

About the Dimensions CM Administration Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Working in the Administration Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
How to Log in to the Administration Console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Using SSO and Smart Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

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How to Log In to a Remote Node. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

How to Change to Another Base Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
How to Set the Preferences for the Administration Console. . . . . . . . . 75
The Administration Console Main Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
The Specific Function Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
The Administration Console Program Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
The Status Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Part 2 Process Modeling Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Chapter 4 Users and Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

About Users and Roles Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Types of Dimensions User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
About Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
About Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
About Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Users and Roles Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
About User and Group Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Users and Groups Tab ................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Users and Groups Tab: Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Users and Groups Tab: Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Users and Groups Tab: Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Managing Users and Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
How to Add Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
How to Promote Proxy Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
How to Modify Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
How to Assign Attributes to Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
How to Edit or Remove Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
How to Filter Users or Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
How to Create Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
How to Modify Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
About Role Definitions and Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
About Role Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Defining Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Role Definitions Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
How to Add Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
How to Modify Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Assigning Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Role Assignments Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
How to Assign Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
How to Delete Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
How to Filter Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
About Privilege Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Privileges Tab ................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Privileges Tab: Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Privileges Tab: Navigation Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Privileges Tab: Content Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Managing Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
How to Grant or Deny Explicit Privileges to Users or Groups . . . . . . . . 102

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How to Grant or Deny Explicit Privileges for Deployment Functions . . . 104

How to Enable or Disable General Grant Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
How to Assign or Unassign Privilege Rules for a Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
About Mail Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Mail Events Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Mail Events: Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Mail Events: Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Mail Events: Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Subscribing Users and Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
How to Subscribe and Unsubscribe Users to and from Mail Events. . . . 108
How to Subscribe and Unsubscribe Groups to and from Mail Events. . . 109
About User Interface Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
User Interface Profiles Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Profile Definitions Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Profile Definitions Tab: Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Profile Definitions Tab: Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Profile Definitions Tab: Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Defining Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
How to Add Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
How to Modify Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Profile Assignments Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Profile Assignments Tab: Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Profile Assignments Tab: Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Profile Assignments Tab: Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Assigning Profiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
How to Assign Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
How to Remove Profile Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Chapter 5 Design Part Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

About Design Part Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Design Part Structure Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Design Part Structure Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Design Part Structure Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Design Part Structure Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Defining Design Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
How to Define Design Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
How to Define Design Part Variants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
How to Manage Design Part Usage Relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Modifying Design Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
How to Edit Design Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
How to Update the PCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
How to Move Design Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
How to Delete Design Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
How to Suspend Design Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Chapter 6 Product Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

About Product Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Product Definitions Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

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Product Definitions Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Product Definitions Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Product Definitions Content Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Defining Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
How to Define Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
How to Modify Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Chapter 7 Valid Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

About Valid Sets Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Valid Sets Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Valid Sets Menu Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Valid Sets Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Valid Sets Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Defining Valid Sets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
How to Define Valid Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
How to Modify Valid Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
How to Assign Valid Sets to Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Chapter 8 Object Type Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

About Object Type Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Object Types Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Object Types Main Window Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Object Types Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Object Types Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
About the Object Type Definitions Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
How to Add a New Object Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
How to Copy an Object Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
How to Delete an Object Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
How to Copy Attributes and Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
General Object Type Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
About the General Object Type Details. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
About Item Type Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
About Library File Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
About Request Type Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
About Project Type Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
General Section for Object Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
How to Edit an Object Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Assigned Attribute Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
About the Assigned Attribute Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Reserved Attribute Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Attributes Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
How to Assign an Attribute to an Object Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
How to Unassign an Attribute from an Object Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
How to Edit an Attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Assigned Lifecycle Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
About Assigning Lifecycles to Object Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Lifecycle Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
How to Assign a Lifecycle to an Object Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
How to Edit an Object Type's Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Relationship Names for Items and Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

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About Relationship Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Relationship Names Section for Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Relationship Names Section for Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
How to Create a New Relationship Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
How to Edit a Relationship Name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
How to Delete a Relationship Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Valid Relationships for Items and Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
About Valid Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
About Minimum and Maximum Status Attribute Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Valid Relationships Section for Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Valid Relationships Section for Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
How to Assign a Valid Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
How to Edit a Valid Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
How to Delete a Valid Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Prime Mappings for Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
About Prime Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Prime Mappings Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
How to Create a New Prime Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
How to Edit a Prime Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
How to Delete a Prime Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Templates for Items and Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
About Templates for Items and Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
What is a Template? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Templates Section for Items and Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
How to Create a New Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
How to Set a Template as the Default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
How to Delete a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
How to Import a Template File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
How to Export a Template File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Change Management Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
About Change Management Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
What are Change Management Rules? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
CM Rules Section for Items. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
CM Rules Section for Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
How to Edit CM Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
How to View the CM Phase Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Item Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
About Item Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
What is an Item Library? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
About the Host Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
About the Directory Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
About Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
About Delta Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Item Libraries Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
How to Define a Default Item Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
How to Define an Item Library for an Item Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
How to Delete the Default Item Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
How to Delete an Item Library for an Item Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Chapter 9 Lifecycle Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

About Lifecycle Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Lifecycles Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

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Lifecycles Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Lifecycles Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Lifecycles Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Content Area for a Single Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Lifecycle Images Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
How to Add a New Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
How to Delete Lifecycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
How to Assign Object Types to a Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
How to Unassign Object Types from a Lifecycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
How to Edit the Description of a Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
How to View the Image of a Lifecycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
How to Associate an Image File with a Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
How to Set a Lifecycle Image as the Default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
How to Delete an Associated Lifecycle Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
How to Import an Image File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
How to Export an Image File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
About Editing Lifecycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
The Edit Lifecycle Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
The Edit Lifecycle Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
The Interactive Lifecycle Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
How to Define CM Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
How to Delete a Normal State. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
How to Rename a State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
How to Set the State Properties for an Object Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Managing Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
About Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Transitions Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
How to Create a New Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
How to Edit a Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
How to Delete Transitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Managing Attribute Rules . . . . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
The Attribute Rules Area . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
How to Create a New Attribute Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
How to Edit an Attribute Rule . .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
How to Delete Attribute Rules . .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Chapter 10 Baseline and Release Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

About Baseline and Release Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
What is a Baseline Template? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
About Item Baseline Template Selection Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
About Request Baseline Template Selection Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
What is a Release Template? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
About Release Template Selection Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
What is an Item Type Group? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Baseline and Release Templates Main Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Baseline and Release Templates Main Window Toolbar. . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Baseline and Release Templates Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Baseline and Release Templates Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Content Area for a Single Baseline Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Content Area for a Single Release Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Content Area for an Item Type Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
How to Create a New Baseline Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
How to Create a New Item Type Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

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How to Specify the Item Types in an Item Type Group . . . . . . . . . . . 219

How to Define the Selection Criteria for a Baseline or Release Template 220

Chapter 11 Upload Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

About Upload Rules Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
What are Upload Rules? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Assigning Files of the Same Data Type a Different Item Type . . . . . . . 225
Upload Rules Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Upload Rules Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Upload Rules Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Modifying Upload Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
How to Copy Upload Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
How to Include Files for Upload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
How to Exclude Files from Upload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
How to Modify Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Chapter 12 Preservation Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

About Preservation Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Preservation Policies Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Preservation Policies Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Preservation Policies Navigation Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Preservation Policies Content Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Managing Preservation Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
How to Create a New Preservation Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
How to Edit, Copy, or Delete Preservation Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
How to Add, Edit or Delete Preservation Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
How to Add or Delete Project Stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Chapter 13 Data Formats and MIME Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

About Defining Data Formats and MIME Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
About File Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
About MIME Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
About the MIME Subtypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Data Formats and MIME Types Main Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Data Formats and MIME Types Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Data Formats and MIME Types Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Working with Data Formats and MIME Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
How to Filter Data Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
How to Create a New Data Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
How to Edit a Data Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
How to Delete a Data Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Assigning Object Types to Data Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
About Assigning Item or Request Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
How to Assign Item or Request Types to a Data Format. . . . . . . . . . . 243
How to Unassign Item Types from a Data Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Chapter 14 Valid Version Branch Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

About Version Branch Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
What is a Valid Version Branch Name? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

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Version Branch Names Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Version Branch Names Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Version Branch Names Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Version Branch Names Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Defining Version Branch Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
How to Define Version Branch Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
How to Edit or Delete Version Branch Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Chapter 15 Area Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

About Area Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
About Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Area Definitions Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Area Definitions Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Area Definitions Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Area Definitions Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Defining Areas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
How to Create Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
How to Modify Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
How to Assign Areas to Project/Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Editing the Global Stage Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
About the Global Stage Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
The Edit Global Stage Lifecycle Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
The Edit Global Stage Lifecycle Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
The Interactive Lifecycle Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
How to Delete a Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
How to Modify a Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
How to Import an Image File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
How to Export an Image File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
How to Delete an Associated Lifecycle Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Managing Transitions in the Global Stage Lifecycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Transitions Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
How to Create a New Transition . . . ....... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
How to Edit a Transition . . . . . . . . . ....... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
How to Delete Transitions. . . . . . . . ....... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Managing Area Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
About Area Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
About File Pattern Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Area Filters Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Area Filters Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Area Filters Navigation Area . . . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Area Filters Content Area . . . . . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
How to Create a New Area Filter . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
How to Define the Selection Criteria for an Area Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Chapter 16 Miscellaneous Database Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

About IDM Tools Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
What is an IDM Tool?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
IDM Tools Configuration Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
IDM Tools Menu Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
IDM Tools Navigation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Process Modeling User's Guide 11

Table of Contents

IDM Tools Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Configuring IDM Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
How to Choose the Active IDM Provider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
How to Create an IDM Tool Instance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
How to Edit an IDM Tool Instance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
About Database Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
What are the Project/Stream Options? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Database Options Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Database Options Menu Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Database Options Navigation Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Database Options Content Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
How to Edit the Project/Stream Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Chapter 17 Scripting Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Supported OS Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Dimensions Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Using the Scripting Interface Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Running the Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Predefined Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Using the Object Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... ..... ... ..... ... 288
Interface Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Class Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Collection Interface Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Supported Collection Operations . . . . . . . . ... ..... ... ..... ... 294
Web-Based API Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Example Java Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Part 3 Appendixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Appendix A Item and Request Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

About Item and Request Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Item Format Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Request Format Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Example of Request Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Substitution During Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Single-Valued Dimensions CM Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Multi-Valued Dimensions CM Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
User-Defined Variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Displaying Multi-Valued Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Using Substitution Variable Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Appendix B Baseline and Release Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Baseline Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

12 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Table of Contents

Item Baseline Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Rule Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Illustration of Rule Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Rules Using Implicit-States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
The Default Rule and Other Uses of Implicit-States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Using *BUILT and *MADE OF Implicit States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Cross-Product Baselines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Suspended Item Revisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Checked Out Item Revisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Suspended Design Parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Examples of Baseline Template Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Request Baseline Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Creating a Baseline Using Request Baseline Templates . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Release Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Appendix C Managing Notification E-Mails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

About Notification E-mails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
How Do You Use the E-mail Notification System? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Notification Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
E-mail Digesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Using the dmemail Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
What is dmemail? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Command-Line Syntax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
dm.cfg parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
The Configuration Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Database processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Processing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Debugging options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Locating E-mail templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Miscellaneous options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Notification Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Multi-Value Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Administration and Error Handling for E-mails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Appendix D Dimensions CM Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Privilege Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Privilege Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Privilege Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Administration Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Baseline Level Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Item Level Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Design Part Level Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Product Level Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Project/Stream Level Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Release Level Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Request Level Privileges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Process Modeling User's Guide 13

Table of Contents

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

14 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Welcome to Serena Dimensions CM
Thank you for choosing Serena® Dimensions® CM, the configuration management
component of Dimensions. Dimensions CM is a powerful process management and change
control system that will revolutionize the way you develop software. Dimensions CM helps
you organize, manage, and protect your software development projects on every level—
from storing and tracking changes to individual files, to managing and monitoring an
entire development cycle.

About Serena Dimensions CM is the principal component of the integrated components that constitute
Dimensions the Serena Dimensions product. Other components include:
 Dimensions Express, which is an advanced SCM tool that is tailored to the needs of
the developer, and has particular strengths in parallel development and performance.
Dimensions Express helps you organize, manage, and protect your software
development projects on every level—from storing changes to individual files, to
managing entire projects.
Dimension Express provides a focused subset of the functionality available with
Dimensions CM. Additional functionality provided exclusively by Dimensions CM
includes:
• Issue (request) management.
• Process management.
• Deployment management.
• Release management.
• Build management.
• Replication.
• Release management.
• z/OS client.
 Serena Dimensions RM, which offers full requirements management and traceability
throughout the development lifecycle by centralizing and organizing requirements
using role base views and a user configurable requirements process.

Purpose of this This manual describes the principles underlying a Dimensions process model and how to
manual create and manage the process model using the Dimensions Administration Console and
the Process Modeling Scripting Interface.

The manual supplies full information on how to construct and tailor a process model for a
particular product. It contains three parts:
 Process Modeling Concepts introduces the Dimensions process model and supporting
concepts and terminology. It also provides a high-level overview of defining the
process model for the first time and gives suggestions on how to prepare for this
process. There is also an overview of the Administration Console
 Process Modeling Functions describes how to use each process modeling function
using the Administration Console. Chapter 17, "Scripting Interface" on page 279
addresses the Scripting Interface.
 Appendixes includes reference material on item, request, baseline, and release
templates, how to manage notification e-mails, and a reference to the Dimensions CM
privileges and rules.

Process Modeling User's Guide 15

Welcome to Serena Dimensions CM

Except where specifically noted otherwise, all the information in this manual is applicable
to the operation of Dimensions under UNIX, z/OS and Windows operating systems.

For more Refer to the Getting Started with Dimensions CM manual for a description of the
information Dimensions CM documentation set, a summary of the ways to work with Dimensions CM,
and instructions for accessing the online help.

Refer to the Administration Console Online Help for descriptions of process modeling
dialog boxes and fields.

For more information on the Process Modeling Scripting Interface, including a full
description of all available process modeling components and respective properties and
methods, refer to the Web-based (HTML) API documentation.

Edition status The information in this guide applies to Release 12.2.1.1 of Serena® Dimensions® CM.
This edition supersedes earlier editions of this manual.

Typographical Conventions
The following typographical conventions are used in the online manuals and online help.
These typographical conventions are used to assist you when using the documentation;
they are not meant to contradict or change any standard use of typographical conventions
in the various product components or the host operating system.

Convention Explanation
italics Introduces new terms that you may not be familiar
with and occasionally indicates emphasis.
bold Emphasizes important information and field names.
UPPERCASE Indicates keys or key combinations that you can
use. For example, press the ENTER key.
monospace Indicates syntax examples, values that you specify,
or results that you receive.
monospaced Indicates names that are placeholders for values
italics you specify; for example, filename.
monospace Indicates the results of an executed command.
bold
vertical rule | Separates menus and their associated commands.
For example, select File | Copy means to select
Copy from the File menu.
Also, indicates mutually exclusive choices in a
command syntax line.
brackets [] Indicates optional items. For example, in the
following statement: SELECT [DISTINCT],
DISTINCT is an optional keyword.
… Indicates command arguments that can have more
than one value.

16 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Printing Manuals

Printing Manuals
As part of your Dimensions license agreement, you may print and distribute as many
copies of the Dimensions manuals as needed for your internal use, so long as you
maintain all copies in strict confidence and take all reasonable steps necessary to ensure
that the manuals are not made available or disclosed to anyone who is not authorized to
access Dimensions under your Dimensions license agreement.

Platform Support
For details of supported server and client platforms, third party integrations, and Serena
Integrations , see the Serena Release Plan for Dimensions CM at:

http://support.serena.com/Roadmap/Product.aspx?sel=PVDIMENSIONS

and select the link for your release.

Demonstrations
Demonstrations of Dimensions CM features can be viewed at the following public Web
site:

http://courseware.serena.com/dimensions/index.html

Contacting Technical Support

Serena provides technical support for all registered users of this product, including limited
installation support for the first 30 days. If you need support after that time, contact
Serena Support at the following URL and follow the instructions:

http://support.serena.com/

Language-specific technical support is available during local business hours. For all other
hours, technical support is provided in English.

The Serena Support web page can also be used to:

 Report problems and ask questions.
 Obtain up-to-date technical support information, including that shared by our
customers via the Web, automatic e-mail notification, newsgroups, and regional user
groups.
 Access a knowledge base, which contains how-to information and allows you to search
on keywords for technical bulletins.
 Download fix releases for your Serena products.

Process Modeling User's Guide 17

Welcome to Serena Dimensions CM

18 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Part 1
Overview of Dimensions Process
Modeling

Part 1: Overview of the Dimensions Process Model contains the following

chapters.

Process Modeling Concepts 21

The Dimensions Administration Console 69

Process Modeling User's Guide 19

20 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1
Chapter 1
Process Modeling Concepts

In this Chapter

What Are the Components of the Process Model? 22

About Product Organization 22
About Object Classes 24
About Lifecycles 27
About Privileges and Roles 28
About Attributes 29
About Authentication Points 34
About Relationships 34
About Change Management Rules 38

Process Modeling User's Guide 21

Chapter 1 Process Modeling Concepts

What Are the Components of the Process Model?

The components of the Serena® Dimensions® CM process model can be broadly
categorized into the main areas listed below. The rest of this chapter describes these
component areas in more depth.
 Product organization: The design part breakdown structure for a product. See
"About Product Organization" on page 22.
 Object classes: Items, requests, baselines, and so on, which together comprise the
product. See "About Object Classes" on page 24.
 Lifecycles: Approval cycles that ensure objects are operated on by the correct role
and in a controlled manner. See "About Lifecycles" on page 27.
 Privileges: Assignments for users and groups the functions that users can perform.
See "About Privileges and Roles" on page 28.
 Role responsibilities: Role assignments that determine the product areas in which
users can operate. See "About Privileges and Roles" on page 28.
 Attributes: System and user-defined information for each object.See "About
Attributes" on page 29.
 Relationships: Associations between objects that determine how the objects may
impact each other. See "About Relationships" on page 34.
 Rules: Change management controls that govern the progress and coordination of
items with requests. See "About Change Management Rules" on page 38.

About Product Organization

You can view the organization of a product from several different management and
technical perspectives. A management perspective is an organizational view that focuses
on the team members, their areas of responsibility, and who they report to. A technical
perspective is a logical view that focuses on how product components are organized and
relate to each other.

To represent how a product is organized from both of these perspectives, Dimensions CM

models the system as a structure of design parts.

About Design Parts

A design part is an object that represents some conceptual component of the system.
Each design part owns a set of items associated with that part of the product, such as a
functional specification document, a test specification, or source code files.

Design parts are organized into a design part structure by defining hierarchical
relationships between them. Such relationships can be used to express the organization of
your development project to Dimensions CM, providing a structure in which you can
assign roles and responsibilities to specific users. Grouping items within a meaningful
design part structure makes it easier for users to understand how things fit together and
what role they have to play in the success of the development project.

22 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 About Product Organization

Design Part Dimensions CM has two predefined types of relationship between design parts,
Relationships breakdown and usage.

Breakdown relationships describe ownership of a design part by another design part. Each
design part has a parent that is defined when you create it. Dimensions CM uses
breakdown relationships to determine the inherited responsibilities for the items or
requests associated with a particular design part segment.

Usage relationships express dependencies between design parts, to show where design
parts are reused in the design structure.

Design Part Design parts follow a fixed system-defined lifecycle called LC_PART. You cannot assign
Lifecycle user-defined lifecycles to design parts.

Example: PAYROLL Product

For example, the BONUS and HOLIDAY design parts are children of the APPLICATIONS
design part. These design parts are in a breakdown relationship with APPLICATIONS. This
means that team members with roles on APPLICATIONS will inherit the roles on BONUS
and HOLIDAY, unless the same roles are assigned to other users on these lower level
design parts.

In this example, Will and Sarah inherit the DEVELOPER role on BONUS but do not on
HOLIDAY, since Adam is assigned the DEVELOPER role on that design part.

About Design Part Variants

A design part variant represents an alternative implementation of a design part. Typically
a variant represents a specific market requirement or demand. For example, a team
might develop a product that has two different markets, American and European. To
represent those markets, the team creates a set of design part variants specific to each
market.

You can create variants at any level within the product structure. A variant will appear at
the same level as its parent design part.

Example: Variants in the PAYROLL Product

The illustration below shows a simple set of design part variants that represent European
(V1) and American (V2) markets. As shown, Dimensions CM allows you to:
 Create variants of the same design parts: APPLICATIONS, TAX

Process Modeling User's Guide 23

Chapter 1 Process Modeling Concepts

 Use common design parts: BONUS

 Create new design parts specific to a variant: 401K and W4

About Object Classes

Dimensions CM functionality includes a comprehensive set of well-defined object classes.
These object classes allow you to place a diverse set of objects, such as files, projects,
deployment areas, and bug reports, under Dimensions CM configuration control.

The Dimensions CM data model provides support for the following object classes:
 Design parts (discussed previously)
 Items
 Requests
 Projects/streams
 Baselines
 Releases
 Customers

Items
Items are the components by which a product is implemented and described. Typical
items are source code files, executables, program resources such as graphics, and
specification documents. Entire directories of files can also be items. Items are versioned
objects with full lifecycle support.

24 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 About Object Classes

Each item is owned by a single design part and may be used by one or more other design
parts. Access to an item is controlled by the role assignments for the design part that
owns it and/or the design parts above that.

Requests
When a problem, bug, or enhancement arises, you can create a request within
Dimensions CM to represent that change or request. Requests help in the development
lifecycle by automating the change process and reducing corrective cycles. Requests also
have lifecycles.

Requests ordinarily affect one or more design parts and have relationships with other
objects such as items and design parts for the purposes of change authorization, change
tracking, and impact analysis.

Work Packages Requests can be grouped into a work package, which is a high-level request for a set of
interrelated changes or tasks. A work package can only be closed once all requests it
contains are closed.

Projects and Streams

A project or stream is a dynamic collection of items relevant to a development activity.
Examples include mainstream, customization, and maintenance. Projects and streams
differ in the working practices that they are designed to support.

Projects:
 Follow a "lock, modify, unlock" mode of working
 Can contain parallel sets of changes, or branches, at the same time.
 Can support operations that apply to individual items, such as check in or check out.

Streams:
 Follow a "copy, modify, merge" mode of working
 Only contain one set of tip revisions, or branches, at any one time
 Only support operations that process multiple items or folders, such as update or
deliver.
NOTE A stream is configured in the process model as a project of type "STREAM".
References to projects in the Administration Console and in his book refer to projects
generally, and therefore may apply to streams.

To support parallel development using projects, Dimensions CM provides interactive

facilities for merging projects, as well as for identifying and resolving the conflicting files
in the resulting merged project.

In the case of streams, you perform merge operations in the work area, using the Update
function, and the Serena merge tool where merging file content is necessary.

Global Project The global project contains all of the projects/streams and items for the product. Item
operations that are reflected in the global project include create, update, edit, check in,
and delete.

Project/Stream Every project or stream has a folder structure associated with it that consists of
Folders subfolders and items. This folder structure may differ from one project/stream to another.

Process Modeling User's Guide 25

Chapter 1 Process Modeling Concepts

When a structural change is made to the project/stream directory, the change affects only
that project/stream. For example, any new revision of an item appears only in the project
or stream in which it is created.

Default Work Area Users associate a work area to a project/stream, which is a specific setting to that user
alone. A work area identifies a location outside the Dimensions CM repository for item
files that are copied to and from the repository by functions such as deliver, update, check
out, or check in. Items are placed in the work area relative to their path in the project/
stream. A work area can also be a Dimensions CM-configured object that references a
location on disk.

Baselines
A baseline is a snapshot of a design part segment at a given point in time. This snapshot
is comprised of related design parts and item revisions selected from the current project/
stream. There are three categories of baseline:
 Release: A frozen configuration that captures single versions of items in the design
part segment. This configuration typically represents a development milestone within
a product lifecycle and is only done once per project/stream. Item revisions in this
configuration cannot be modified unless the baseline is deleted.
 Design: A configuration that captures all revisions of all items in the design part
segment. This configuration is used for reporting purposes. Item revisions in this
configuration can be modified.
 Archive: A special type of release baseline that captures item revisions using one or
more *ALL rules in the baseline template. This configuration is used for archive and
retrieval by Dimensions CM.

You can create baselines using a rich set of filtering criteria, including design part, item
type, and status,. You can also create baselines based on requests. When you create a
baseline, Dimensions CM records the status of all items included in it. All items in a
baseline are fully preserved for future use, such as rebuilding the entire configuration or
providing the basis for a new maintenance release.

Baselines are typically used to freeze a configuration within a project/stream for test,
integration, build, or release purposes. They can also be used to meet the audit
requirements for DOD-2167A, ISO9000, SEI Level accreditation, and contractual
commitments to milestone payments.

Like other Dimensions CM objects, baselines have lifecycles. The status of a baseline
reflects the status of the configuration as a whole, for example, PASSED TEST, FAILED
TEST, or READY FOR RELEASE. It provides important management information on the
progress of the project/stream.

Releases
A release is a set of items for the product to be issued to customers. When a baseline
passes testing, it may be considered ready for release to customers using the
Dimensions CM release management facilities. These facilities enable a full or delta
configuration of the product to be copied from the protected Dimensions CM environment
to a release directory. Dimensions CM provides templates that can be applied to the
baseline in order to select the objects for release.

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 About Lifecycles

Customers
A customer is the recipient of a release. Dimensions CM can record details on customers
who have received releases of a product and the specific releases which have been issued
to them.

About Lifecycles
A lifecycle defines the approval process for object types in Dimensions CM. You can define
a lifecycle independently and then associate it to an object type in the product's process
model, or you can define a lifecycle from within the context of an object type. Each object
will follow the lifecycle of its associated object type. The status of an object is its current
state in its lifecycle.

You can define lifecycles for requests, items, and baselines.

A lifecycle comprises:
 States: Approval levels through which an object must pass. States typically reflect
process states such as development, test, and release.
 Transitions: The permitted movement of an object between one state and another
state. Transitions determine the sequence of states for a lifecycle.
 Roles: The role holders who can move an object from one particular state to another,
which is known as actioning.
 Normal and off-normal paths: Paths that indicate how an object is progressing
through the lifecycle. The normal path is a linear succession between lifecycles states
that represents a successful path, while an off-normal path represents a failure or a
need for rework.

Lifecycles ensure that an organization's processes are followed and are auditable.
Lifecycles are user-defined so that they reflect the way in which the organization works.

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Chapter 1 Process Modeling Concepts

Example: Document Lifecycle

The following diagram illustrates a simple item lifecycle for a document. Only a user with
the Developer role can action the object from DRAFT to UNDER REVIEW, while only a user
with the Team Leader role can action it from UNDER REVIEW to APPROVED. Although not
shown in this example, note that you can assign more than one role to a transition.

The DRAFT, UNDER REVIEW, and APPROVED states form the normal path for the lifecycle.
WITHDRAWN and REJECTED are off-normal.

Example: Single-State Lifecycle

For item types, you can create lifecycles that consist of only a single state. As in the
example below, a single-state lifecycle may be used for intermediate derived files such as
compiled output files, which do not normally follow an approval procedure.

A single-state lifecycle has one normal transition with the same begin and end state. An
item assigned to a single-state lifecycle will not appear on any item inboxes.

Note that you cannot action an object with a single-state lifecycle.

About Privileges and Roles

The operations you can perform, and the object classes you can perform them on are
defined in the Administration Console, Users and Roles function. For more details see the
Process Modeling User's Guide. What you can do is determined by the privileges and/or
role assignments that have been defined for your user.

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 About Attributes

A privilege is the ability to perform a certain operation on a particular class of object, for
example to create a project, or to action a request. It can also be the ability to perform a
general administrative function, such as to manage lifecycles or privileges.

A role is a set of privileges that can be assigned to one or more users, enabling them to
carry out activities required for a certain position within the organization, for example
Developer, or Team Leader.

For details about privileges and roles and how to use them, see "Privileges and Roles" on
page 45.

About Attributes
Items, requests, baselines, design parts, users, and products have a set of attributes that
are specified in the process model. Attributes record and track important configuration
information such as creation date, owner, status, description, and last updated. You can
view, filter, and report on objects using these attributes.

Some attributes are inherent or system-defined and are always present for a particular
type of object. You can also set up user-defined attributes specifically for your
environment.

User-Defined Attributes
A user-defined attribute is a custom attribute that you set up for an object type. You can
define user-defined attributes to suit your processes.

A user-defined attribute consists of:

 Global properties
These are properties of the attribute that are independent of the assigned object type.
Examples of global properties include the attribute name and maximum length.
 Local properties
These are properties of the attribute relating to the specific object type. Examples of
local properties include the user prompt and default value.

For each object class, you can define a number of user-defined attributes in a base
database. For an Oracle or SQL Server database this can be up to 996, and for DB2, up to
56. For greater flexibility, Dimensions CM allows you to reuse the same attribute with
different local properties across object types. This enables you to derive more attributes
from the maximum number allocated to each object class.

Example: Reusing Attributes Across Object Types

Stephanie, the administrator, wants to define an attribute named NOTES for the RMR and
CR request types. For the RMR type, she wants to define a user prompt called "Review
Notes" and for the CR type, she wants the user prompt "Inspection Notes." Stephanie
creates the NOTES attribute for the RMR type with the desired user prompt, and then
assigns NOTES to the CR type and changes the user prompt. In this way, Stephanie can
modify the same attribute for use with two object types without creating two separate
attributes.

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Generally, each attribute definition includes:

 The name of the attribute.
 The maximum length of the attribute value.
 The user prompt that appears as the field label for the attribute in the GUI.
 The data type for the attribute value, described below.
 The type of attribute, described below.
 The display length and height of the attribute.
 An optional valid set of values, described in "Valid Sets of Values" on page 30.
 Attribute update rules and role sections, described in "Attribute Update Rules" on
page 31.

Attribute Types and Data Types

The type of attribute determines if the user can enter a single attribute value, a row of
values, or a table of values.

Type Description Example

Single-field, One value for the attribute.
single-value
Multiple rows of values can be assigned to
the attribute.
Single-field,
multi-value
Multiple rows and columns can be assigned
to the attribute.
In the example, an attribute called Contact
could consist of a table of Forename and
Dept. values.
Multi-field,
multi-value

The data type determines what kind of information the user can enter as the attribute
value. Below are the valid data types.

Data Type Description Example

One or more lines of text.
Character
The date in format DD-MMM-YYYY. You can enter
a date or choose one by clicking the calendar
Date button.
A real number or integer.
Number

Valid Sets of Values

A valid set is a discrete list of values that can be assigned to a particular attribute. A valid
set provides the permitted values that a user can select when specifying an attribute for

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 About Attributes

an item, request, baseline, design part, or user. Valid sets ensure that users only enter
valid combinations of data into attributes.

A simple valid set contains a single column that lists all of the acceptable values for one
attribute. For example, a valid set for the attribute Urgency could contain values High,
Medium, and Low. A more complicated valid set could consist of up to eight columns,
which can limit the combinations of values for up to eight different attributes. When the
user completes a field belonging to the valid set Dimensions restricts the permissible
values for the other fields in that valid set accordingly.

Example: Multi-Column Valid Set

Stephanie, the administrator, creates a valid set called CUSTOMER_NAME that contains
the following columns and rows:

CUST_SITE CUST_NAME CUST_CONTACT

Azur SA Marie Sancerre 10 46 92 21 56
High Tech Inc Jane Doe 810 544 6771
Technik AG Klaus Schmidt 89 5904 7112
Widgets Ltd 2 Joe White 01279 999001
Widgets Ltd 2 Fred Gray 01279 999001

Stephanie then assigns the first column of the valid set to the attribute CUST_SITE, the
second column to CUST_NAME, and the third to CUST_CONTACT.

Will, a developer, selects the Widgets Ltd 2 value for CUST_SITE, and then chooses
between the permitted values, Joe White and Fred Gray, for CUST_NAME. Sarah, another
developer, selects High Tech Inc for CUST_SITE and the values for the other attributes are
filled in automatically.
NOTE The order in which the fields are evaluated is determined by the setting of the
DM_SMART_ATTR_VALIDATION symbol in the dm.cfg file. If this option is set, the
evaluation of fields in the valid set only takes place from left to right, so that values to the
left of a field are not restricted by what is entered, only values to the right. See the
Administrator’s Guide for more details on the DM_SMART_ATTR_VALIDATION symbol.

Attribute Update Rules

Users can generally update attributes if they have the required update privilege. In
addition, Update rules may specify whether a particular role can view and update a
specific attribute and whether an attribute value is required. Each rule can apply
throughout the object's lifecycle or only when an object is in a particular lifecycle state.

For example, for requests of type Problem Report, you could specify that the SEVERITY
attribute is updateable only by a user with the Reviewer role during the DEFINED state.

The following list summarizes update rule applicability:

 Attributes cannot be updated unless it is in the user's inbox.
 If there are no rules for an attribute, then the attribute will appear in the
Dimensions CM GUIs as writable and not required.
 If there are attribute rules defined for a particular state, then by default all attributes
are not writable and not required at that state.

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However, if a rule exists for an attribute with the Writable at the From State setting
enabled for a particular state, then this rule will take precedence and the attribute will
be writable.
 If a rule is defined for an attribute as Required when actioned to the To state=yes
for a given From State and To State pair, then the attribute will be displayed as
required in the Dimensions CM Action dialog box when making that transition.
NOTE The Attributes tab in the Edit Attributes dialog box shows required attributes
based on the next lifecycle state (normal or off normal).
 Change Managers see all requests as writable and not required, and Product Manager
see all items and baselines as writable and not required.

Example: Defining an Update Rule for Actioning

Stephanie wants to create a rule so that a particular attribute is required during a
transition between the Approved and Implemented states. She chooses the attribute
name and role, and then sets the following:
 From State: Approved
 To State: Implemented
 Display in this role section: set
 Writable at the From state: set
 Required when actioned to the To state: set

As a result, a user with the specified role must define a value for the attribute in the
Action dialog box when actioning the object to the Implemented state. The user could also
define the value in the Edit dialog box before actioning.

Ordering of Attribute Rules

In the current version of Dimensions CM, by default, attribute rules are ordered by:

1 From state, then,

2 To state, then,

3 Rules (not Required ahead of Required), and finally,

4 Role.

In the example below the attributes rules relating to the attribute PLAN_FINISH are
ordered as follows:

Attribute From To Role Rules

PLAN_FINISH REVIEW WORK CRB Required, Writeable
PLAN_FINISH REVIEW WORK IMPLEMENTOR Writeable
PLAN_FINISH TESTER

NOTE In versions of Dimensions up to, and including 10.1.3, the attribute rules were
ordered by role; and rules that were non-mandatory took precedence over mandatory
rules. This meant that an attribute rule with no From and To states would take
precedence over one that had specified From and To states.

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 About Attributes

You can revert to this behavior, by adding the following symbol to dm.cfg on the
Dimensions CM server machine:

DM_ORDER_ATTR_RULES_BY_ROLE
For details see the Administrator’s Guide.

Attribute Role Sections

In the attribute update rules, you can also specify if you want an attribute to appear in a
role section. A role section is a list of attributes that are pertinent to the holders of a
particular role in an object's lifecycle. When viewing and updating attributes, users can
choose one of these sections in order to reduce the list to what they want to see.

For example, a user with the role Developer will normally be interested in a certain subset
of the user-defined attributes of an item revision, whereas a user with the role Quality
Assurance will be interested in a different subset.

Every attribute defined for an object type can be included in, or excluded from, any role
section. Note that role sections simply classify attributes according to roles; they do not
specify permissions. Any authorized users are permitted to view any of the role sections,
regardless of whether they hold the corresponding roles.

Example: Defining a Role Section

Stephanie wants to create a rule to set a role section for a particular attribute in the
Allocated state. She chooses the attribute name and role, and then sets the following:
 From State: Allocated
 Display in this role section: set
 Writable at the From state: set
 Required when actioned to the To state: unset

As a result, users with the specified role can view the attribute in their role section and
update it when the object is in the Allocated state.

The option that determines how attributes are set between different revisions of the same
item.

How Attributes are Copied from one Item Revision to

Another
There is a setting for an item attribute that determines whether, and how the attribute is
copied when a new revision of an item is created. The options are:

Stored per revision, default as specified: when a new revision of an item is created,
Dimensions CM does not copy the attribute values from the previous revision but initially
sets them to the specified default value according to the Default Value above. You can
subsequently override them for a specific revision.

Stored per revision, default to previous revision: when a new revision of an item is
created, Dimensions CM initially sets the attribute values to those from the previous
revision, but you can subsequently override them for a specific revision.

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Same for all revisions: Dimensions CM sets the attribute values for all revisions of the
same item to the same value. When you update the value of an attribute for any revision,
Dimensions CM will also update that attribute for all other revisions.

This is determined when an attribute is assigned to an item type. See "How to Assign an
Attribute to an Object Type" on page 150 for details of how to do this.

About Authentication Points

Dimensions CM provides the ability within the process model to define lifecycle states or
attributes as sensitive. This means that when a user attempts to action an item or request
to or from a sensitive lifecycle state, or attempts to update a sensitive attribute, this
results in an authentication point, requiring an electronic signature. The user is presented
with an Authentication Point dialog box, requiring them to re-enter their Dimensions CM
password in order to complete the update. Dimensions CM maintains an audit trail of all
failed and successful authentication attempts.

Authentication points are generated only for requests and items, and occur when you:
 Action an item or request to a sensitive lifecycle state, unless the sensitive state is the
first normal lifecycle state and you are creating the object.
 Action an item or request from a sensitive lifecycle state unless the sensitive state is
the first normal lifecycle state and you are creating the object.
 Modify the value of a sensitive attribute unless the modification occurs as part of
creating the object.
 Delete an item or request when it is at a sensitive lifecycle state.

Authentication points are not generated for held requests.

Authentication points are also generated in the Administration Console when you:
 Change a lifecycle state's sensitivity, unless this is done as part of creating the
lifecycle state.
 Change an attribute's sensitivity, unless this is done as part of creating the attribute
definition.
 Delete a sensitive lifecycle state, including automatic deletions that occur when you
delete the last transition involving the state or delete the entire lifecycle.
 Delete a sensitive attribute definition.

See "How to Assign an Attribute to an Object Type" on page 150 for details of how to set
attributes as sensitive.

See "How to Set the State Properties for an Object Type" on page 196. for details of how
to set lifecycle states as sensitive.

About Relationships
Relationships provide traceability between items, design parts, and requests. You can use
relationships to record whether an item is affected by an issue reported in a request or to

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 About Relationships

specify other items which are derived from, or which are used to derive, an item. You can
also unrelate items, if necessary, depending on the state the item is in.

Relationship types are system-defined or user-defined. If you are the Product Manager,
you can set up user-defined relationship types in the process model.

Item-Design Part Relationships

Items are related to design parts to establish where an item belongs and where it is used
within the product. An item is either owned or used by a design part. Only one design part
can own an item, but several design parts can use it. Item-design part relationships apply
to all revisions of the item.

Item-design part relationships are:

 Owned. A single design part can own any number of items. This relationship indicates
the part of the product in which the item belongs.
 Used. An item can be used by any number of design parts. This relationship indicates
that the item is reused in different parts of the product.

Example: A Reused Item

The item Logo.gif, which is the company logo bitmap in the product Sales, is owned by the
design part Docs and is also used by design part GUI.

Item-Item Relationships
Use item-item relationships to signify a dependency or connection between an item and
other items. Items can be related to one another by system-defined or user-defined
relationships. The system-defined relationships are determined by your process model
and cannot be changed.

System-defined item-item relationships are:

 Made Of. An item is made of those item revisions from which it was created by a
build process.
 Made Into. An item is made into those item revisions that are built from it.

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 Created From. An item is created from those earlier item revision(s) from which it
made by merging or editing.

User-defined relationships can also be defined to identify relationships that are specific to
your organization or product.

Notes on Relating For two items to be related to each other:

Items
1 The item types must be allowed to be in a valid relationship. This relationship is a
parent-child one.

2 The child item must be open and the parent item must be held or open.

Example: A Common Item-Item Relationship

At Program Utilities Inc., executable programs, such as their flagship product Process
Utility, are usually built from a number of object files, such as Setup, task1, task2, and
Finish. The system-defined relationship Made Of is used to relate these types of items.

Request-Request Relationships
Use request-request relationships to signify a dependency or connection between a
request and other requests. Requests can be related to one another by system-defined or
user-defined relationships. The system-defined relationships are determined by your
process model and cannot be changed.

System-defined request-request relationships are:

 Dependent. A request can be dependent on another request for closure.
 Information. A request can have an informational relationship to one or more
requests. This means that the requests are related for information purposes only.

User-defined relationships can also be defined to identify relationships that are specific to
your organization or product. These relationships are based on the system-defined
Dependent or Information types.

Notes on Relating For two requests to be related to each other:

Requests
1 The request types must be allowed to be in a valid relationship. This relationship is a
parent-child one and must be defined for both Dependent and Information
relationship types.

2 For both Dependent and Information types, the child request must be open and the
parent request must be held or open.

3 For the Dependent type, the request types must both have rules enabled or must both
have rules disabled. See "About Change Management Rules" on page 38 for
information.

4 For the Dependent type, if rules are enabled, then the relationship can only be
established (or dissolved) if the parent request is in the ANALYSIS or An+Work phase,
as described later.

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 About Relationships

Example: Dependent Requests

In-Car Software Inc. has a product set up in Dimensions CM called NAVIGATION. A bug
has been found such that the variable direction is sometimes being set to the wrong
value. A request is raised for this.

It is found on examination that both the animation and the sound software will need to be
changed. Two new requests are created for these functional areas, and they are related to
the initial request as Dependent.

Item-Request Relationships
You can relate items and requests in order to track which items need to be changed and to
see whether the items have been modified or approved. Items and requests can only be
related to one another by system-defined relationships.
NOTE Valid relationships are not effective if CM Rules have not been set up for a
particular request type. Therefor any request, whose type rules are disabled, may have
any product item revision related to it, provided its item type rules are also disabled.

Item-request relationships are:

 Affected By. An item (or item revision) can be affected by one or more requests. This
means that the item(s) need to be modified to implement the changes required by the
request(s).
 In Response To. An item (or item revision) can be in response to one or more
requests. This means that these versions of the items are intended to satisfy the
required changes as requested in the request.
 Information. An item (or item revision) can have an informational relationship to
one or more requests. This means that the change is related for information purposes
only.

Notes on Relating For a request and item to be related to each other:

Requests and
Items 1 If CM Rules are switched on, the item and request types must be allowed to be in a
valid relationship. This relationship is a parent-child one, with the request type always
the parent of the item type.
You can relate any item to any request if CM rules are off.

2 For all relationships types, the item and request must both be open.

3 For the Affected By and In Response To types, the request type and the item type
must both have rules enabled or must both have rules disabled. See "About Change
Management Rules" on page 38 for information.

4 For the Affected By type, if rules are enabled, then the relationship can only be
established (or dissolved) if the request is in the CREATE, ANALYSIS, or AN+WORK
phase.

5 For the In Response To type, if rules are enabled, then the relationship can only be
established (or dissolved) if the request is in the WORK or AN+WORK phase.

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Example: Relating a Request to Item Revisions

In-Car Inc. has decided to change its web site to American spelling. Sally was assigned
the task of combing through the pages and submitting requests for instances of different
spellings. One of the resulting requests is a request to change "catalogue" to "catalog".

The request passed to Jane, the web site manager, who identified the page as
Product_List.html. She relates the existing version, revision 3 of this item to the request
as Affected By.

The changes are assigned back to Sally. When she checks out this item to create revision
4 and update the file, this new revision is automatically related to the request as In
Response To.

About Change Management Rules

You can enable change management (CM) rules in the process model in order to gain
tighter control over planning, implementing, and closing changes. One set of rules,
defined for a request type, organizes a request's lifecycle states into phases. These
phases determine the relationships that can be established in each state, as well as which
other tasks can be performed. The rules also determine how parent-child requests affect
each other.

The other set of rules, defined for an item type, connects a request lifecycle and an item
lifecycle. These rules require item revisions to be related to requests at various states in
its lifecycle. In this way, CM rules bring version management and change management
closer together, ensuring that related items and requests progress through their lifecycles
in tandem.

You enable rules for specific item types and request types in a product. This means that
the same lifecycle can be reused within the same product or across products with different
rules applied per object type.

There is a per-project override you can apply that can cause item operations taking place
within that project to act in one of the following ways:
 To take effect according to whether the CM rules are enabled on the individual item
and request types or not
 To behave as if CM rules were enabled for all item and request types
 To behave as if CM rules were disabled for all item and request types.

These overrides do not apply to streams.

Most rules are related to states on the normal path through the relevant lifecycle.

Valid Relationships Note that rules can only be applied to object types that are allowed to be in valid
relationships. For items, you can specify relationships between two item types. For
requests, you can specify relationships between two requests types or a request type and
an item type.

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 About Change Management Rules

Rules for Request Lifecycles

When you apply rules to a request type, you must group its lifecycle states into phases. A
phase is a system-defined stage that determines what kind of processing can take place
while a request is at that state.

The phases are defined below.

Phase Description How Set? Permitted Tasks

HELD Specifies the stage in which an Automatically applies to  Relate design
originator prepares and holds a held requests. parts
request. A held request is not visible to
any other users. It appears in the  Update
originator's inbox with the status attributes
$TO_BE_DEFINED.
This phase does not correspond to an
actual lifecycle state.
CREATE Specifies the normal lifecycle states (if Automatically applies to  Relate design
any) which precede the ANALYSIS new requests. parts
phase.
 Relate items as
Affected
 Update
attributes
 Add action
descriptions
 Action
ANALYSIS Specifies the normal lifecycle states in Select the normal lifecycle  Relate design
which you analyze and plan the state that signifies the start parts
implementation of the change. of the ANALYSIS phase.
Good analysis during this phase If you select the first state  Relate items as
ensures that you understand the in the lifecycle, then the Affected
change and that you identify the CREATE phase does not
 Relate requests
dependencies and items that require exist; its activities are
changing. merged with those in the  Update
ANALYSIS phase. attributes
 Add action
descriptions
 Action
WORK Specifies the normal lifecycle states in Select the normal lifecycle  Relate items In
which you implement the change. You state that signifies the start Response To
can work on items that have been of the WORK phase.
related as Affected in this phase. On You cannot select a state  Update
check in, these items are automatically that precedes the state attributes
related as In Response To. specified for the ANALYSIS
 Add action
If item rules require that a request is phase.
specified on check out, and an item has descriptions
not yet been related as Affected, then  Action
Change Manager must relate the item
as In Response To in this phase.

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Phase Description How Set? Permitted Tasks

FROZEN Specifies the normal lifecycle states (if Select the normal lifecycle  Update
any) which follow the work phase but state that signifies the start attributes
may precede the final normal state. of the FROZEN phase.
This phase includes the states in which If you select the final  Add action
testing, baselining, and qualification of normal state, then the descriptions
the software may take place. FROZEN phase does not
 Action
Consequently, no changes are exist. The request becomes
permitted to any of the relationships, frozen only when it is
nor to any of the related item revisions. closed.
The related item revisions are also You cannot select a state
frozen by this stage, through baselining that precedes the state
and/or actioning. specified for the WORK
Note: The restrictions on updating phase.
relationships do not apply if the user
has the CHANGE MANAGER role.
CLOSED Specifies the final normal state. No Automatically applies to the None
further changes are permitted. final normal state.
REJECTED Specifies all final states except the final Automatically applies to any None
normal state. No further changes are off-normal final states.
permitted.
OFF NORM Specifies all other states that are not in Automatically applies to all  Update
the normal lifecycle and are not final off-normal, non-final states. attributes
states.
 Add action
descriptions
 Action
AN+WORK A composite phase that specifies all Select the same state for  Relate design
normal lifecycle states between the the WORK and ANALYSIS parts
CREATE phase and the FROZEN phase, phases.
as an alternative to assigning separate  Relate items as
ANALYSIS and WORK phases. Affected
Using this phase works best on small
 Relate items in
teams, where some implementation
may be allowed during analysis. For Response to
larger teams or projects, separate  Relate requests
ANALYSIS and WORK phases are
recommended for more control.  Update
attributes
 Add action
descriptions
 Action

NOTE A request is described as open when it is in any phase except HELD, CLOSED, or
REJECTED.

Parent-Child Rule In addition to the phases outlined above, you can define a rule regarding parent-child
requests. This rule specifies the minimum state that the request (the child) must reach so
that the parent request can close. Additionally, the parent request can close if the child
document is actioned to the REJECTED phase.

Roles and The tasks permitted in each phase can only be performed by the Dimensions CM users
Permitted Tasks who hold a role on the current state. In the case of the HELD phase, the only authorized

40 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 About Change Management Rules

user is the originator. If the leader responsibility is enforced, then only the users with the
leader responsibility can action the request and update its attributes.

Change Managers have additional permissions. They can relate and unrelate objects at
any lifecycle state except the final state, as well as action any request to any of its
lifecycle states. They can also reactivate a closed or rejected request by actioning it to a
non-final state.

Example: Change Request Phases

The following diagram shows how the normal lifecycle states in a change request (CR)
type are mapped to phases:
 Analysis phase starts with state: Allocated
 Work phase starts with state: Allocated
 Frozen phase starts with state: Implemented

Rules for Item Lifecycles

For item types, you can enable CM rules so that the development of items is subject to the
required level of change control and authorization. These rules provide the flexibility to
introduce change control on items at whatever stage in the process is most applicable to
them.

The rules for item types and their normal lifecycle states are described below. Note that
rules are only applicable when the related request is on a normal lifecycle path.

Rule Description Sample Scenario

Creation Requires a request to be specified when You need to enforce change control right
creating a new item. When the item is created, from the beginning of a project.
it will be related to the request as In
Response To.
New Revision Specifies the state in the item's lifecycle in You want to enforce change control after a
which all new item revisions based on the beta release of the project.
revision at the specified state must be related
to a request as In Response To.
If you specify the first lifecycle state, this
requires every new revision to be related to a
request.

Process Modeling User's Guide 41

Chapter 1 Process Modeling Concepts

Rule Description Sample Scenario

Action Specifies the state in the item's lifecycle in You want to make sure that only the
which an item cannot be actioned to the next appropriate revisions progress far enough in
normal state unless it is related to a request as their lifecycles to be baselined. You set this
In Response To. rule to catch item revisions from progressing
without approval.
Closure Specifies the state in the item's lifecycle that You do not want to allow a request to be
an item must reach in order for a related closed while any related item revision has
request to close. not reached a quality state in its lifecycle.

NOTE For the New Revision and Action rules, a request must be related In Response To,
which means that a previous revision of the same item must first be related as Affected. If
you cannot fulfill this latter condition, then the Change Manager is allowed to override it
when establishing the In Response To relationship.

Examples of Rule Usage

The following examples show how two development teams apply CM rules for item and
request types to meet their needs.

Example: A Highly Controlled and Visible Project

Team A is working on a highly controlled and visible project that requires a high level of
control and visibility. From the start of the project, the team needs to use CM rules to
ensure that no new revision is created unless it is related to a request and approved.

For item types, the team sets these rules:

 Creation rule: Set so that any new item requires a request.
 New Revision rule: Set to the initial state so all subsequent revisions require
requests.
 Action rule: Set to a state just prior to a test state so that only controlled item
revisions can be included in release baselines. This rule would also be used to catch
any item revisions that might become unrelated from a request for any reason.
 Closure rule: Set to a quality state in the item's lifecycle so a request can only close
when the item reaches this state.

For request types, the team:

 Specifies different normal lifecycle states for the ANALYSIS, WORK, and FROZEN
phases for full control.
 Specifies that a child request must reach a quality state before the parent request can
close.
 Enforces the Leader role responsibility to maximize control.

Example: Prototype Project

Team B, a small group of designers, must produce a prototype of a system in a short
amount of time. The goal is to demonstrate capability and win a contract. After winning
the contract, the team will expand to a larger development group, and will need to impose
more product controls to ensure consistent and repeatable overall functionality.

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 About Change Management Rules

During the initial stages of the prototype project, the team disables CM rules for items and
request types. This allows revisions to be freely created and actioned.

Just before delivery, the team enables CM rules to ensure that items in the release
baseline cannot be further developed without request authorization.

For item types, the team sets these rules:

 Creation rule: Disabled so that the team can still create completely new items
without requests.
 New Revision rule: Set to the initial state so that it is immediately effective. This
means that all subsequent revisions of an item require requests.
 Action rule: Set to a state just prior to the state specified in the baseline template.
Item revisions that existed prior to the rules being enabled are prevented from
progressing beyond a certain state without a request, ensuring that they do not get
included in any future baseline without this control. This rule would also be used to
catch any item revisions that might become unrelated from a request for any reason.
NOTE Any item revisions that have already progressed beyond the state specified in
the Action rule can still be actioned without the need for a request. The team must
manage these items outside the scope of the rules specifications.
 Closure rule: Set to a quality state in the item's lifecycle so a request can only close
when the item reaches this state.

For request types, the team:

 Combines the ANALYSIS and WORK phases.
 Specifies that a child request must reach a quality state before the parent request can
close.

Following the delivery of the prototype, the team imposes further controls to prevent any
unauthorized changes being made.

Process Modeling User's Guide 43

Chapter 1 Process Modeling Concepts

44 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Chapter 2
Privileges and Roles

In this Chapter

About Privileges and Roles 46

How do I Manage Privileges? 46
How do I Manage Roles? 51
Default Privileges for Roles 61

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Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

About Privileges and Roles

The operations you can perform, and the object classes you can perform them on, are
determined by the privileges and/or role assignments that have been defined for your
user.

The purpose of this chapter is to explain how privileges and roles work, the differences
between them, and how you can use them to control which users can perform the various
tasks in your applications and processes.

Managing privileges and roles using the Administration Console is described in "Users and
Roles" on page 83. There is a complete list of the privileges and their associated rules in
Appendix D, "Dimensions CM Privileges" on page 361.

What is the Difference Between Privileges and Roles?

A privilege is a function or action that a user or group can perform, such as editing the
content of items or managing lifecycles. There are a set of privilege rules that you can
specify in the Administration Console for each privilege that determines which users can
perform that function, and under what conditions. For example, the ability to update a
design part can be restricted to the user who originally created the design part or any
member of the ADMIN group.

A role consists a collection of privileges that can be assigned to a user or group. For
example, if you are assigned the role of PRODUCT-MANAGER you can perform all the
functions permitted for that role, for example deleting or renaming a product.

The fundamental differences between roles and privileges are:

 You can assign the same role to different users for different design parts or
subordinate design parts.
 You can assign different roles to different transitions in the lifecycle of an object type,
thus allowing different people to be responsible for the various stages in the approval
process within that lifecycle.
 You can control who can perform a specific task more precisely using privileges. For
example, you could explicitly allow only a particular user to edit lifecycle definitions.

How do I Manage Privileges?

A privilege is either a function that a user can perform on an object class, such as creating
a baseline, or it is an administrative task such as managing users and groups. Each
privilege has a set of rules that can be set at various levels to suit your organization's
ways of working. Unlike roles, privileges cannot be restricted to particular design parts,
but generally apply to all objects in a particular class.

You can have a privilege assigned to:

 Your user
 A group to which your user belongs
 A Dimensions CM role to which you have been assigned.

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 How do I Manage Privileges?

Privileges are classified into two areas:

Administration Privileges, privileges to perform various administrative functions within

the Dimensions CM database, for example to assign roles to users, or update the
properties of a deployment area. The settings for these privileges apply to all products in
the base database. They are subdivided into:
 Process Management
 Area Management
 Other Administration.

Product Level Privileges, privileges to perform operations on classes of Dimensions CM

objects within a specified product, for example to promote an item or create a baseline.
The settings you make in the Administration Console for these privileges only apply to
your current product.

The object classes are:

 Product
 Design Part
 Request
 Item
 Baseline
 Project/stream
 Release

About Privilege Rules

A privilege rule specifies the conditions under which a user has a given privilege. Privilege
rules fall into the following categories:
 General Grant Rules, privilege rules that do not designate specific users or groups.
The privilege applies to any user who satisfies the rule at that time. For example, a
user may have the privilege to action an item if it is in their inbox.
 Explicit Grant/Deny Rules, privileges that can be specifically granted or denied to
one or more users or groups. For example, a member of the group TEAMLEADS can
create a new project, or a member of the group QA cannot update the contents of an
item. These rules take precedence over other rules that grant the same privilege. For
example, a General Grant Rule may allow a user to update the attributes of a project/
stream if it is in their inbox. If an explicit deny rule is set for the group QA to prevent
them from updating project/stream attributes, then a user belonging to group QA
would be prevented from updating the attributes of a project/stream even if it was in
their inbox.
Certain privileges relating to promotion and demotion can be specified for specific
projects/streams and deployment stages, and privileges for deployment and rollback
can also be specified for specific areas.
 Other Grant Rules, privilege rules that specify a role. For example, a user may be
allowed to rename a project if they have the role PROJECT_MANAGER for any product,
or a user can delete an item if they have the role DEVELOPER on the design part that
owns the item.

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Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

Example of Privilege Rules

In the example below, the Revise Item Content privilege has the following rules set in the
Administration Console:

 General Grant Rules

• Object is in the user’s inbox or user has current role. This means that a user with
the necessary role to action an item from its current lifecycle state to the next one
is able to change its contents.
• User has any role on the initial lifecycle state transition. This means, for example,
that a user with the necessary role to action an item of type Document from the
Draft state (the first state in its lifecycle) is able to change its contents (even when
it is not currently in the Draft state).
 Explicit Grant/Deny Rules
• ADMIN: A member of the ADMIN user group can change the contents of an item.
 Other Grant Rules
• User has one of the following roles on the product: DEVELOPER, PRODUCT
MANAGER. This means, for example, that the user assigned the PRODUCT-
MANAGER role for the product owning the item can change its contents.

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 How do I Manage Privileges?

Privilege Rules Scenario

The example below shows how you might set up privileges for creating, updating, and
deleting projects:

Scenario Bill, the Administrator, is a member of the ADMIN group. The ADMIN group have the
privilege Manage Privileges explicitly assigned, therefore he can assign privileges to other
users.

1 He logs into the Administration Console and selects Users and Roles | Privilege
Assignments.

2 He selects Product Level Privileges | Project/Stream | Create Project.

3 He sets the privilege rules:

 User has any role on the initial lifecycle state transition
 Explicit Grant/Deny Rules: ADMIN
 User has one of the following roles on the product: TEAM LEADER

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Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

4 He then selects the privileges Delete Project and Update, and sets the same privilege
rules for those privileges.

5 Ted the Team lead, has the role of TEAM LEADER for the product QLARIUS. He logs
into the desktop client and creates a new project PROJA.

6 Some months later, development work in PROJA is complete, and it is no longer

needed. Ted, however, has left the company.

7 Bill deletes the project PROJA, as the privilege to do this is specifically assigned to the
ADMIN group.

Guidelines for Granting Privileges

Privileges, along with lifecycles, roles, and design parts, manage your organization’s
process control. Tighter process control can be achieved with the use of CM rules.

Some Considerations
When considering the level of process control that you wish to implement you should
consider the following guidelines:
 The general grant rules should be sufficient to implement process control for most
users.
 Although it is possible to grant or deny privileges to specific users, it is better for
administrative and maintenance purposes, to grant the privilege to a group and
include the user in that group.
NOTE The more rules you enforce the more checks will be needed and this may
impact your system’s performance.
 There may be times when you need to correct or undo an action just taken. For such
occurrences you could create a group to perform such semi-administrative tasks, for
example, product level item privileges:
• Move item to another design part
• Action to any state
• Revise item content
For example, a user has actioned an item revision to the next normal state but wishes
to return the item revision to the previous state.

The Deliver into Project/Stream Privilege

The ability to deliver item revisions into a project/stream is a key action and the privilege
to do so needs careful consideration. Dimensions can be configured, using privileges, to
enforce varying degrees of restriction. These range from the very restrictive "Object is in
the user's inbox or user has current role", to the unrestrictive, just get it done, "Grant to
all users".

The options are:

 Object is in the user's inbox or user has current role
 User is the originator of the object

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 How do I Manage Roles?

 User has any role on the initial lifecycle state transition

 User has any role on object lifecycle
 User holds any role on the product owning the object
 User holds any role on any product
 Grant to all users

Example
Qlarius, who have small development teams, have decided that their project/stream can
be delivered to by users with any role on the initial lifecycle state transition. To achieve
this general grant rules for the Project/Stream privilege Deliver file into Project/Stream
have been enabled:
 Object is in the user's inbox or user has current role
 User is the originator of the object
 User has any role on the initial lifecycle state transition

In this example, the "Deliver Files into Project/Stream" privilege is checked against the
project/stream into which you are delivering so it checks if:
 The project/stream is in the users inbox or the user has a current role on the project/
stream lifecycle, or
 They are the originator of the project/stream, or
 They hold any role on the product owning the project/stream

Also, by default, this privilege is enabled for anyone in the ADMIN group.

How do I Manage Roles?

A role is a set of privileges that can be assigned to one or more users or groups that
enables them to perform the functions associated with that role. When you install
Dimensions CM there is a set of roles already defined with the necessary privileges to
enable users to perform the functions for various positions within the organization, such
as Developer or Team Leader. For example, having the role of CHANGE-MANAGER gives a
user special abilities in relation to requests, such as to view other users’ inboxes and
action requests to any state in their lifecycle. You can, if you wish, change the rules that
determine the privileges assigned to these roles to more closely model your company’s
processes or you can add new roles. These default roles and their privileges are detailed
in "Privilege Reference" on page 363.

You create a new role or change the privileges for an existing role using the
Administration Console | Privileges and Roles | Role Definitions function. For details, see
"Defining Roles" on page 95.

A role can be assigned to one or more users or groups, and apply to a:

 product
 design part
 design part variant

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Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

 project
 lifecycle transition

Roles and Design Parts

You assign users to a role on a design part in order to allow those users to work on all
objects associated with that design part. In this way, roles promote ownership and
responsibility for different functional areas of a product.

Example
Joe and Jane are in the Maintenance group. They need control of the design part called
Pensions. Jim and Mary, in the Development group, need control of the Bonus design part.
You can assign the role of DEVELOPER to both groups, each on their own design part. If
the privilege rule for Update Item Content is set as "user has the DEVELOPER role on the
design part", Joe and Jane are able to update the items for Pensions, and Jim and Mary
can update items for Bonus.

If, in addition, the lifecycle for request type CR has the DEVELOPER role assigned to the
ALLOCATED state, the request will go to Joe and Jane’s inboxes for Pensions, and Jim and
Mary’s inboxes for Bonus.

Inheriting Roles
When a user has a role on a design part, that user also inherits the role on all subordinate
design parts in the design structure, unless a different user is assigned to the same role
on a lower design part. In that case, the latter user assumes responsibility for that design
part and any design parts below it.

Example
John holds the AUTHOR role for design part e. In this case, John is responsible for e and
its subordinate design parts, f and g. Note that only the hierarchical (breakdown)

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 How do I Manage Roles?

structure of the design parts determines role assignments. Therefore, John does not
inherit a role on design part d, which is in a usage relationship with design part f. If
someone else gets assigned the AUTHOR role for design part f, then John's responsibility
would be limited to e and g. John may also create items on these design parts if AUTHOR
is specified as the initial role in the lifecycle for the item types.

Roles on Projects and Streams

When you assign a role to a design part without specifying a project/stream, the role
assignment will apply to all items in that design part except those belonging to any
projects/streams to which another role has been specifically assigned. When you make
this assignment, you also have the option of additionally specifying a project/stream, in
which case it applies only to item revisions included in that project/stream.

This allows you to assign some users a role for a particular project/stream in the product
structure, while assigning other users the same role for any remaining projects/streams.

Example: Assigning Roles to project/streams

Consider the following assignments where <NULL> means that the project/stream field is
unspecified.

User Role Design Part project/stream

Dinesh DEVELOPER QUOTATION PROJA
Dawn DEVELOPER QUOTATION <NULL>

Dawn will then have the DEVELOPER role for the QUOTATION design part in every project/
stream except PROJA, where Dinesh holds this role.

Scenario Dawn has been assigned the role DEVELOPER for design part QUOTATION in Product
PAYROLL.

Ted the Team Leader creates a new project PROJA in product QLARIUS. Dawn is able to
check out file foo.java in PROJA to create a new revision, proja#1

Ted the Team Leader creates another project PROJB in product QLARIUS and has the
administrator assign the DEVELOPER role for PROJB to Dinesh.

Dinesh revises (updates) item foo.java in PROJB to create a new revision projb#1

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Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

When Dawn tries to check out item foo.java;B#1 she does not have the required role
because this revision is belongs to PROJB, and Dinesh has the DEVELOPER role for any
items belonging to PROJB.

How do I Assign Roles to Baselines?

When you assign a role to a design part, the role assignment applies to a baseline if its
top design part is in that design part segment.

For example, if the role of TEAM LEADER has the privilege to create baselines, and Ted is
assigned the role of TEAM LEADER for design part QUOTATION, he can create a new
baseline from design part QUOTATION or one of its subordinate design parts.

How do I Assign Roles to Requests?

Requests do not belong to one particular design part or segment, but can have one or
more design parts related to them. The way the roles apply to requests is determined by
the Take roles from all affected design parts option This option is set in the
Administration Console Object Type Definitions function for requests.

The Take roles from all affected design parts option allows you to specify whether a
request type should be routed to the role holders on the common ancestor of related
design parts, or to the union of the role holders on all related design parts.

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 How do I Manage Roles?

For example, consider the design part structure below

The effect of the Take roles from all affected design parts option is shown in the table
below.

Option set? Roles apply to... Example (below)

Yes All related design parts in a John can perform a task on a request if the following is
design part segment true:
 The AUTHOR role is assigned to a task in the
request's lifecycle.
 The request is related to part e, f, or g.
 The request is optionally related to part d in
addition to being related to e, f, or g.
No Nearest common ancestor of all John can perform a task on a request if the following is
related design parts in a design true:
part segment
 The AUTHOR role is assigned to a task in the
request's lifecycle.
 The request is related to part e, f, or g.
 The request is not related to part d.
If it is related to part d, then only Jill, who holds the
role on the common ancestor, part a, can perform a
task on the request.

Roles on Design Part Variants

You can assign a role so that it applies to all variants of a design part or only to a specific
design part variant. This allows you to assign some users a role for a particular variant in
the product structure, while assigning other users the same role for any remaining
variants.

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Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

Example: Assigning Roles to Variants

Consider the following assignments where <NULL> means that the variant field is
unspecified.

User Role Design Part Variant

Will DEVELOPER APPLICATIONS USA
Sarah DEVELOPER APPLICATIONS <NULL>

In this case, Will is granted the DEVELOPER role for the USA variant of the APPLICATIONS
design part. Sarah is granted the same role for all variants of the APPLICATIONS design
part, except for USA.

Roles and Lifecycles

You assign roles to transitions in order to:
 Determine which users are able to action an object type between any two specified
lifecycle states
 Determine which attributes users can view or update at a specified lifecycle state and
which attributes they are required to enter before they can action the object to the
next state. This is described in more detail in "Attribute Update Rules" on page 31.

Example of Roles and Lifecycle Transitions

Jane, the Administrator, has defined the normal lifecycle for the item type SRC using the
Administration Console. It is set up as shown below.

To action an item of type source from the Under Work state to Unit Tested, you need to
have the role of DEVELOPER. To action it from UNIT TESTED to APPROVED, you need to
have the role of TEAM LEADER.

Jane has assigned the DEVELOPER role on the PAYROLL product to Bill, and the TEAM
LEADER role to Sam

Bill needs to make a change to the source file calcs.c. He checks out the file, makes his
changes, and checks the file back in. This creates a new revision with a lifecycle state of
UNDER WORK. The item revision appears in his inbox as he is the originator.

After compiling and unit testing the change, he actions the item revision to UNIT TESTED.
Since Sam has the TEAM LEADER role, the item appears in his inbox. Sam performs a
system test on the Payroll product, which is successful. He therefore actions the item
revision for calcs.c to APPROVED.

How do I Assign a Role to a Lifectycle Transition?

You assign roles to lifecycle transitions using the Administration Console | Configuration
Object Management | Lifecycles function. For details, see "Managing Transitions" on page
197.

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 How do I Manage Roles?

Delegating Roles
If you need to be able to assign or reassign a role for an item or request, you can assign
delegation candidates for that role. This means that you will choose one or more of those
delegation candidates for a specific item or request at the time that it needs to be worked
on.

For example, there are times when allocating a request that you need to decide who it
should be forwarded to. You may have a large team of developers and only want to
forward the request to one of them. Who you choose may be based on expertise, work
load, absences, and so on.

To allow for this, Dimensions CM allows you to create delegate roles and assign delegate
candidates to such a role. For example, you could create a delegation role called
IMPLEMENTOR, and assign all the appropriate developers to this role. When the team lead
actions this request to the work state, the action wizard allows him to decide who the
request should be assigned to.

Scenario The lifecycle for request type CR has been defined as below.

The transition from Allocate to Work is assigned the role TEAM LEADER, which for the
design part QUOTATION is assigned to Ted. The transition from Work to Test has the role
Implementor assigned to it. For the design part QUOTATION, this role is assigned to
Dawn, Will, and Dinesh as delegation candidates.

User Role Delegation Role on CR Work state

Ted TEAM LEADER
Dawn DEVELOPER IMPLEMENTOR
Will DEVELOPER IMPLEMENTOR
Dinesh DOC WRITER IMPLEMENTOR

1 The Change Review Board (CRB) raise a change request against the QUOTATION
design part. They action this request to the Allocate state.

2 Ted, the team leader, receives this request in his inbox because he has the Team
Leader role on this design part.

3 On evaluating its impact, he decides that a change is required to the item

autoquote.java. As she is the expert on this part of the application, he decides to
allocate this work to Dawn.

4 Therefore, he selects the request in the desktop client and selects Action. In the
Action wizard, he selects WORK as the next state.

5 On the Roles page of the Action wizard, he selects the IMPLEMENTOR role, and then
selects Dawn from the list of available users for that role.

6 He then completes the Action wizard.

7 The request is actioned to the WORK state, and Dawn, as the delegated user, gets the
request in her inbox.

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Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

How do I Assign Delegation Candidates?

You assign the required delegate roles to the required design part using the
Administration Console | Privileges and Roles | Role Assignment function, and select an
Assignment Type of Delegation Candidate when creating the role assignments. For
details, see "Assigning Roles" on page 97. You then assign that role to the required
lifecycle transition using the Administration Console | Configuration Object Management |
Lifecycles function. For details, see "Managing Transitions" on page 197.

Inboxes and Roles

Every user has an inbox of requests, items, and baselines. An inbox contains objects that
are currently waiting on that user for further action. An object is added to a user's inbox
when it is actioned to a state in which the user has a role to action it on to the next state.
When the object is added to a user's inbox, the user automatically receives notification in
an e-mail message.

Whether an object appears in your inbox, and whether you can action it to the next state
can depend on whether the relevant roles are optional or pending as described below.

Assigning Pending and Optional Roles

Each role authorized on a lifecycle transition can be defined as pending or non-pending.
When an object is actioned to a state in which users have a pending role to action it
further, the users will automatically receive the object in their inbox and receive e-mail
notification. Users with a non-pending role will not receive the object in their inboxes, nor
will they be notified via e-mail, but they will still have full authority to work on the object
and action it to the next state.

A role on a lifecycle transition can also be defined as optional. this means that actioning
an object to the transition's from state does not require there to be a user holding that
role. If this option is not set, the actioning will be disallowed if there are no users holding
that role.

Scenario For example, if the lifecycle for the DOC item type has the following transitions defined in
the Administration Console:

From To Role Optional Pending User

Draft Under Review TESTER Y Y Ted
QA N Y Jane
DEVELOPER N Y Bill
Under Review Approved TEAM LEADER N Y Sam
QA Y N Jane

1 Bill, who holds the Developer role, updates an item of type DOC.

2 When he has completed his changes, the new revision is at the initial state of Draft.

3 He then actions it to the Under Review state.

 Sam, the Team Leader, gets an email notification and the item appears in his inbox
because the Pending option is set.
 Jane, who has the QA role does not receive an email, or see the item in her inbox.
She can, however, action the item to the Approved state just as Sam can do.

58 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 How do I Manage Roles?

In the second example below, the lifecycle for the DOC item type has the following
transitions defined:

From To Role Optional Pending User

Draft Under Review TESTER Y Y None
QA N Y Jane
DEVELOPER N Y Bill
Under Review Approved TEAM LEADER N Y Sam
QA N N None

1 Bill updates an item of type DOC to create a new revision (Draft state). Although
there is no-one with the TESTER role, he is able to do this because the role is optional.

2 After updating the file, he then attempts to action it to the Under Review state.
Because there is no user holding the QA role, Bill receives a message saying that
there is no user holding that role, and is not allowed to complete the action.

Choosing Role Capabilities

Dimensions CM allows you to assign any number of roles to a single user. This is
particularly important on smaller development projects, where users may perform many
different roles for multiple project/streams and segments of the product structure.

Additionally, Dimensions CM allows multiple users to share responsibility for a role, even
within the same product segment and project/stream. When users share a role on a
design part, all users receive e-mail notification and inbox entries when appropriate. To
help enforce levels of responsibility, Dimensions CM allows you to assign one of the
following capabilities to each user:
 primary
 secondary
 leader

Primary and Secondary

A user with the primary capability has the main responsibility for that role on the design
part or object. You can only assign this role capability to a single user. If you assign the
primary capability to a user, then you cannot assign the leader capability (described
below) to the same user; primary and leader capabilities are mutually exclusive.

Users with the secondary capability act as backup to the user with the primary capability.
They have exactly the same privileges as the user with the primary capability.

Leader
An alternative to assigning primary and secondary capabilities is the leader capability.
This concept mainly applies to requests, where a large group of users may need to
contribute comments without being granted the ability to action the request. This does
not apply to items.

If you assign the leader capability to a user, then you cannot assign the primary capability
to the same user; leader and primary capabilities are mutually exclusive.

Process Modeling User's Guide 59

Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

Users with the leader capability can, by default:

 Update the object's attributes
 Relate and unrelate subordinate objects
 Add and edit existing action descriptions
 Action the object to the next lifecycle state

If you assign the leader capability, then the remaining users can only:
 Relate and unrelate subordinate objects
 Add action descriptions

Special Roles
The default roles and their privileges are described in "Default Privileges for Roles" on
page 61. Each role has been configured to enable the user to perform the appropriate
tasks associated with a typical position within your organization. In a new installation they
will have the necessary privileges to allow them to perform the appropriate functions, but
you can change these, or add new roles.

This section describes some of the most significant roles.

 PRODUCT-MANAGER
This role allows users to set up and manage the process model for a particular
product. The ADMIN group assigns the PRODUCT-MANAGER role to a single user
during product creation (Administration Console | Product Definitions).
 PROJECT-MANAGER and WORKSET-MANAGER
This role grants users special permissions in the handling of projects/streams. The
Workset Manager/Project Manager can set up and maintain the project/stream
directory structure, add or remove items, set the project/stream options that regulate
how users work within projects/streams, and lock projects/streams to create
baselines.
 CHANGE-MANAGER
This role grants users special permissions in the handling of requests. The Change
Manager can view other users' inboxes and action requests to any state in their
lifecycle, provided that any enabled rules are followed.
 $ORIGINATOR
This role signifies the creator of a specific request, item, or baseline. It is assigned
automatically by Dimensions CM to the user when they create the object, and is only
applied to that object. Unlike other assignments, this role is not assigned explicitly,
and is not applied to other objects within the design part and/or project/stream that
have not been created by that user.

60 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Default Privileges for Roles

Default Privileges for Roles

The topics in this section show the privileges assigned to Dimensions Roles "out-of-the-
box". They are organized by Role and the area the privilege affects.
CAUTION! Default Grant Rules for Update and Deliver Privileges

When you create a new base database or upgrade an existing Dimensions 9 installation,
the default grant rules for the Update Files from Project/Stream and Deliver Files
into Project/Stream privileges include the User holds any role on the product
owning the object rule. As a result, there is a security issue where certain users are
able to download and upload files from any project in the product including those to which
they should not have access. To correct this, you must remove the User holds any role
on the product owning the object rule from the grant rules for the Update Files
from Project/Stream and Deliver Files into Project/Stream privileges.

Change Manager

Product:
 Override Process Checks

Request:
 Create
 Prime
 Browse
 Delete
 Update Attachments
 Update Request
 Add Action Description
 Edit Action Description
 Delegate
 Action to Any State
 Action to Next State
 Add/Edit Detailed Description
 Move
 Perform Replication Operations
 Relate Request to Request
 Relate Request to Design Part
 Relate Request to Item
 Relate Request to Baseline

Process Modeling User's Guide 61

Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

Deleter

No default privileges assigned

Deploy-Manager

Project/Stream
 Deploy Sub-Project Baseline to Any Stage
 Deploy Sub-Project Baseline to Next Stage

Request
 Deploy Request to Any Stage
 Deploy Request to Next Stage

Item
 Deploy Item to Any Stage
 Deploy Item to Next Stage

Dev

Item
 Revise Item Content

Developer

No default privileges assigned

Network-Administrator

No default privileges assigned

Parts-Controller

Design Part
 Create
 Delete
 Update
 Relate Design Part to Design Part
 Rename

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 Default Privileges for Roles

 Suspend

Privilege Manager

Process Management
 Manage Privileges

Product Manager

Product
 Delete
 Update
 Rename
 Manage Libraries
 Manage Object Types
 Assign Roles to Users And Groups
 Refresh Inboxes for All Users
 Perform Mover Deployments
 Run Reports
 Override Process Checks
 Manage Validsets
 View Other Users' Privileges
 Manage Project/Stream Upload Inclusions/Exclusions
 Relate Requests to Requirement

Project/Stream
 Create Stream
 Delete Stream

Baseline
 Create
 Delete
 Update
 Rename
 Action to Any State
 Action to Next State
 Create Archive

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Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

 Delete Archive
 Transfer Baseline In
 Transfer Baseline Out
 Build from a Baseline
 Relate Baseline to Baseline

Release
 Create
 Delete
 Forward to Customer

Item
 Create
 Browse
 Delete
 Update
 Delegate
 Move Item to Another Design Part
 Suspend
 Rename
 Action to Any State
 Action to Next State
 Relate Item to Item
 Relate Item to Design Part
 Revise Item Content
 Archive

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 Default Privileges for Roles

Project Access

No default privileges assigned

QA

No default privileges assigned

Reader

No default privileges assigned

Reg

No default privileges assigned

Release-Manager

No default privileges assigned

Reviewer

No default privileges assigned

Team-Leader

Project/Stream
 Create Project
 Rename Item Filenames
 Create Directories
 Delete Directories
 Rename Directories
 Attach Project as Sub Project
 Relate Requests to Project/Stream

Design Part
 Create

Process Modeling User's Guide 65

Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

Request
 Update Attachments
 Update Request
 Delegate
 Action to Any State
 Action to Next State
 Add/Edit Detailed Description
 Relate Request to Request
 Relate Request to Design Part
 Relate Request to Item

TTDim

Request
 Relate Request to Request
 Relate Request to Baseline

Valid-Set-Manager

Product
 Manage Validsets

Workset-Manager

Project/Stream
 Create Project
 Assign Deployment Areas to Project/Stream
 Action to Any State
 Action to Next State
 Delete Project
 Update
 Lock
 Bypass Locked Project/Stream
 Rename
 Add Item revisions to Project
 Remove Item revisions from Project
 Rename Item Filenames

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 Default Privileges for Roles

 Create Directories
 Delete Directories
 Rename Directories
 Build from a Project/Stream
 Audit a Project/Stream
 Populate an Area from a Project/Stream
 Attach Project as Sub Project
 Attach Baseline as Sub Project
 Relate Requests to Project/Stream
 Update Files from Project/Stream
 Deliver Files into Project/Stream
 Change CM Rules for Project/Stream
 Import Request into Project
 Create Stream
 Delete Stream

Baseline
 Update Files from Baseline

Writer

No default privileges assigned

Process Modeling User's Guide 67

Chapter 2 Privileges and Roles

68 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Chapter 3
The Dimensions Administration Console

In this Chapter

About the Dimensions CM Administration Console 70

Working in the Administration Console 70

Process Modeling User's Guide 69

Chapter 3 The Dimensions Administration Console

About the Dimensions CM Administration Console

The Serena® Dimensions® CM Administration Console enables Dimensions CM
administrative tasks to be performed from a web-based GUI interface. It provides a
framework in which all administrative areas are visible and available with a single click.
Only users with the appropriate privileges can update the details in the Administration
Console.

Highlights The Administration Console:

 Displays a comprehensive view of Dimensions CM administration while still allowing
quick access to common tasks
 Provides a consistent look and feel across the administrative tools
 Allows you to switch between administrative tools without having to log in again

Working in the Administration Console

This section describes how to access the Administration Console and provides a brief
overview of the interface.


How to Log in to the Administration Console

Purpose Follow this procedure to access the Administration Console when you are ready to perform
administrative tasks on a Dimensions CM base database.
NOTE It is not recommended to have more than one browser tab or browser window
containing the Administration Console main view. If there are multiple windows or tabs
displaying an Administration Console view, actions performed in one window or tab may
have an unexpected effect in the other window or tab.
NOTE If using Internet Explorer 6.0 SP2 or 7 on Windows XP SP2:
 The Pop-up Blocker may interfere with the operation of the Administration Console if
your Dimensions CM Web tools server is in the Internet security zone. If this happens,
just add the Dimensions CM Web tools server to the Pop-up Blocker Settings as an
Allowed site. Alternatively, you could add the Dimensions CM Web tools server to the
Local Intranet or Trusted Sites security zones to prevent the Pop-up Blocker from
stopping pop-ups from Dimensions CM Web tools.
 The Pop-up Blocker will by default interfere with the operation of the Administration
Console help. To enable Web help to function correctly you must check the Allow
active content to run in files on My Computer check box in the Security section
accessed from Tools | Internet Options | Advanced tab.

Using SSO and Smart Card

If your Administration Console has been configured to work using SSO authentication, you
will be presented with a Serena Dimensions CM log in page the first time that you log in.
You will then be presented with an Administration Console login page. Depending on how

70 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Working in the Administration Console

you log out, you may, or may not, be presented with the Dimensions CM log in page the
next time you access the Administration Console.

There is also the option to use Smart Card (CAC) authentication. If you are using this
feature, you will be prompted to supply your PIN, and the login credentials from the
certificate on the specified card will be passed to the application.

If you are not using SSO you will not see the Serena Dimensions CM log in page and you
will be presented with a slightly different Administration Console login page.

To log in to Dimensions CM using SSO:

1 Start your web browser, and type the URL for the Dimensions CM log in page.
The format of the URL is:
http://hostname:port/adminconsole/hostname is the Dimensions CM web
server and port is the web server port number.

2 If you are not already autheticated for SSO, you will be presented with the Serena
Dimensions CM authentication page.

3 Do one of the following:

 If you are logging in using Smart Card Log in:

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Chapter 3 The Dimensions Administration Console

a Make sure your card is inserted, and click the Smart Card Log In button.

b Select the certificate you want to use. If you want to view the details, click View
Certificate.

c Click OK in the Choose a digital certificate page.

d If you are authenticating for the first time, you are presented with a Login page
asking for your PIN

e Enter your PIN and click OK.

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 Working in the Administration Console

 If you are not using Smart Card log in, Enter your Username and Password, and
click Log In.

4 If your login is successful, or you are already authenticated with SSO, “Your user
name and password has been validated with SSO” will be displayed.

Click Log in.

To log out of Dimensions CM using SSO:

 To partally log out, i.e. be able to log back in without entering your login/password, do
one of the following:
• Close the browser displaying Dimensions web client.
• Close the browser tab displaying Dimensions web client.
• Open another Web application, site, etc in a tab within Dimensions web client.
 To fully log out,
• Click the Logout button in Dimensions web client.
This will require you to sign in to the Serena Dimensions CM page the next time
you access the Dimensions web client.

To log in to Dimensions CM without SSO:

1 Open your web browser and enter the Administration Console URL provided by your
administrator. The format of the URL is:
http://hostname:port/adminconsole/
where hostname is the machine hosting the Administration Console and port is the
web server port number.
Each time you access the Administration Console URL with your browser, you will be
prompted to allow the Administration Console applet to run. Click Yes to allow the
applet to run.

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Chapter 3 The Dimensions Administration Console

2 To log in, complete the fields on the Login page.

 Enter your user ID in the User Name field and password in the User Password
field. These are typically assigned by your administrator.

3 If you want to manually select the server and database:

 Select Manual from the Connect to list. The possible settings here are configured
in the web.xml file for the server installation. See the Administrator’s Guide for
details.
 Enter the name of the server in the Server field.
 Enter the name of the base database that you want to access in the DB Name
field.
 Enter the database connection string in the DB Connection field, if this is not
already present. This field enables you to connect to the database server for your
Dimensions CM database.

4 Click Login. The Administration Console opens.

To view information about the Administration Console:

If you want to check the version of the Administration Console that is installed, or other
system information, click the About link.

How to Log In to a Remote Node

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to log in to a remote node or change the password
for a remote node.

To log in to a remote node or change the password on a remote host:

1 Log in to Dimensions CM.

2 In the status area, click the Passwords link:

3 In the Network Node field, type the name of the remote node or select it from the
list.

4 For Username, type your user name for the remote node.

5 For Password, type your password for the remote node.

6 If you want to change your password on the remote node:

74 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Working in the Administration Console

a Enter the new password in the New password field.

b Re-enter the new password in the Confirm password field.
NOTE You can only change the password for a Windows remote node.

7 Click the OK button.

How to Change to Another Base Database

If you are using SSO, you can change to another base database without logging out.

1 In the Administration Console main window, click the Change DB link at the top right.

2 On the Login page, if necessary, enter your username and password.

3 Select the database from the list and click the Log in button.

How to Set the Preferences for the Administration

Console
Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to set preferences for the Administration Console.

To set user preferences:

1 In the status area, click the Preferences link:

2 In the Set User Preferences dialog box:

 In the User display format list, select the label to be displayed for the user name
in the status bar and dialog boxes:
• Select USERID if you want the only the ID of the user to be displayed.
• Select User Full Name if you want only the name of the user to be displayed.
• Select USERID (User Full Name) if you want the ID followed by the name in
brackets to be displayed.
• Select User Full Name (USERID) if you want the name followed by the ID in
brackets to be displayed.
 In the Paging size field, enter the number of rows that you want to be displayed
in each page of a table in the Administration Console

3 Click the OK button.

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Chapter 3 The Dimensions Administration Console

The Administration Console Main Window

The Administration Console main window consists of links to the administrative tools,
which are grouped together by overall functionality.

The table below describes each tool available in the Administration Console and refers to
the Dimensions CM guide where the tool is documented.

Tool Description Refer to the...

Configuration Object Management
Object Type Allows you to add and manage objects Process Modeling
Definitions types for a particular product. User's Guide
Allows you to add and manage lifecycles. Process Modeling
Lifecycles User's Guide
Data Format & Allows you to add and manage data Process Modeling
MIME Types formats and MIME types. User's Guide
Version Branch Allows you to add and manage version Process Modeling
Names branch names in the base database. User's Guide
Allows you to manage upload rules for Process Modeling
Upload Rules Dimensions CM, IDEs, and IDE projects. User's Guide
Allows you to define how different types Process Modeling
Preservation of build targets are preserved in User's Guide
Policies Dimensions CM.
Product Administration

76 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Working in the Administration Console

Tool Description Refer to the...

Product Allows you to add and manage products Process Modeling
Definitions in the base database. User's Guide
Design Part Allows you to add and manage design Process Modeling
Structure parts within the current product. User's Guide
Valid Set Allows you to add and manage valid sets Process Modeling
Definitions and assign them to attributes. User's Guide
Allows you to add and manage baseline Process Modeling
Baseline & Release and release templates in the base User's Guide
Templates database.
Users and Roles
Allows you to add and manage users in Process Modeling
User Registration the base database. User's Guide
Allows you to add and manage roles in Process Modeling
Role Definitions the base database. User's Guide
Allows you to assign roles to users and Process Modeling
manage existing role assignments. You User's Guide
can make assignments from the user
Role Assignments role, or design part perspective.
Specifies which users, groups, or roles Process Modeling
Privilege can perform which operations in User's Guide
Assignments Dimensions CM.
Defines events in Dimensions CM that Process Modeling
cause e-mail messages to be sent and User's Guide
specifies which users or groups they are
Mail Events sent to.
Allows you to select which features in Process Modeling
User Interface the Dimensions CM client tools are User's Guide
Profiles visible to a specified user or group.

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Chapter 3 The Dimensions Administration Console

Tool Description Refer to the...

Distributed Development
Allows you to define file areas on Process Modeling
Dimensions CM network nodes. Also User's Guide
allows you to define deployment areas
and assign them to a stage in the Global
Area Definitions Stage Lifecycle.
Build Allows you to add and manage build Dimensions CM Build
Administration projects. Tools User’s Guide
Allows you to list the remote jobs in the Administrator's Guide
job queue, to view their logs, and to edit
Remote Jobs and delete jobs in the queue.
Network Allows you to add and manage network Administrator's Guide
Administration nodes and client/server connections.
Allows you to add and manage Administrator's Guide
configurations for replicating items in
Replication projects and baselines, and requests,
Administration and to review replication logs.
Archives & Allows you to review the contents of Administrator's Guide
Transfers archives and baseline transfers.
Database Management
Connection Allows you to monitor database Administrator's Guide
Pooling Statistics connection pooling information.
User Reports Allows you to add and manage user Reports Guide
Administration report definitions.
Allows you to integrate an IDM provider
external to Dimensions to provide
requests/issues for change management
IDM Tools operations.
Allows you to set database options such
as whether to allow access to streams
Database Options and/or projects.

The Specific Function Window

When you access a specific function in the Administration Console, the window consists
of:

Menu Area: This contains a set of buttons that allow you to perform various operations
on the objects in the Content area.

Navigation Area: This contains icons in a tree structure. You can expand the tree and
select the nodes beneath it. Selecting an icon either displays a list of the objects that are
contained beneath one of these nodes, or the details of an individual Dimensions object in
the content area.

Content Area: This either contains details of a list of objects in a table or contains more
comprehensive details about a specific object.

78 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Working in the Administration Console

Status Area: This contains icons and links relating to what you have currently selected
and that you can change by clicking the icons or links.

The Administration Console Program Bar

The program bar, located in the upper-right corner of the Administration Console main
window, contains the following buttons:

Button Function
Clicking the Help link aunches the online
help, which contains procedural and
reference information on the Administration
Console features.
Clicking the list button allows you to select:
 e-Learning Tutorials. Takes you to a
page where there is a selection of on-
line tutorials.
 Serena Customer Support: Takes you to
the support site.
 About this Application: Displays details
on the version of Dimensions CM.

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Chapter 3 The Dimensions Administration Console

Button Function
Logs you out of the Administration Console.

Appears if you are in a submenu.

 Clicking the link returns you to the
Administration Console main window.
 Clicking the list button displays a
window containing a list of all the
functions in the Administration Console.
Click one of the names to take you to
that function in a single click.

The Status Area

When you click a tool, the tool's main window contains a status area at the bottom of the
window.

It contains the following icons:

Icon Description
User name and The user ID of the user currently logged in.
Preferences link Click the Preferences link to display the Set User Preferences
dialog box.
Product name The name of the current product. You can click the icon to
change the current product.
NOTE When you log in to the Administration Console under
your user, the current product will be the last one you have
previously set under that user.
Database The name of the base database currently accessed.
Passwords Link Click this link to display the Passwords dialog box to change a
user password.

80 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Part 2
Process Modeling Functions

Part 2: Process Modeling Functions contains the following chapters.

Users and Roles 83

Design Part Structure 117
Product Definitions 125
Valid Sets 129
Object Type Definitions 135
Lifecycle Management 181
Baseline and Release Templates 205
Upload Rules 223
Preservation Policies 229
Data Formats and MIME Types 235
Valid Version Branch Names 245
Area Definitions 249
Scripting Interface 279

Process Modeling User's Guide 81

82 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1
Chapter 4
Users and Roles

In this Chapter

About Users and Roles Management 84

Users and Roles Main Window 85
About User and Group Registration 86
Users and Groups Tab 86
Managing Users and Groups 88
About Role Definitions and Assignments 94
Defining Roles 95
Assigning Roles 97
About Privilege Management 100
Privileges Tab 101
Managing Privileges 102
About Mail Notifications 106
Mail Events Main Window 107
Subscribing Users and Groups 108
About User Interface Profiles 110
User Interface Profiles Main Window 111
Profile Definitions Tab 111
Defining Profiles 112
Profile Assignments Tab 113
Assigning Profiles 115

Process Modeling User's Guide 83

Chapter 4 Users and Roles

About Users and Roles Management

To control access to Serena® Dimensions® CM, you define users and groups of users. You
also define roles and privileges and assign these to users and/or groups. Dimensions uses
this information to ensure that only the users with the authorized roles or privileges can
perform specified actions on a particular part of the product.

The management of users and groups in the Dimensions Administration Console

comprises the following functions:
 User and Group Registration: Allows you to add new user accounts and modify
existing ones. See About User and Group Registration on page 86.
 Role Definitions: Allow you to add new role definitions and modify existing ones.
See About Role Definitions and Assignments on page 94.
 Role Assignments: Allows you to assign roles to users and modify existing role
assignments. See About Role Definitions and Assignments on page 94.
 Privileges: Allows you to grant or deny privileges to users, groups, or roles according
to specified rules. See About Privilege Management on page 100.
 Mail Subscriptions: Allows you to subscribe users or groups to receive e-mail
notifications when certain events occur. See About Mail Notifications on page 106.
 User Interface Profiles: Allows you to define and assign profiles to users that
determine which features are visible in the client tools. See About User Interface
Profiles on page 110.

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Users and Roles

NOTE When you access any of the functions above, you can easily switch between them
by selecting the Users, Role Definitions, and Role Assignments tabs.

Types of Dimensions User

These types of users exist in Dimensions:
 Normal: A user who has normal access to Dimensions. You can create this type of
user by adding a new user.
 Auto Registered (Proxy): A user who has limited access to Dimensions. This type of
user is created when an unregistered user logs on to Dimensions. You can promote a
proxy user to a normal user account.
The ability for an unregistered user to log on to Dimensions is controlled by the Proxy
User Login feature, which can be enabled by the Admin group. Proxy Login is enabled
via the creation of a new account with the reserved word "*" (asterisk) as the user
login name, and is disabled by de-registering this special user. See the Administrator's
Guide for details.
 Dormant: An inactive user who has been deleted from Dimensions. You can still view
details about a dormant user.

About Groups
A group is a set of users to which you can assign a privilege, thus assigning that privilege
to all the users that belong to that group. This provides a manageable way of granting and

84 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Users and Roles Main Window

denying privileges. For example, you could create a group called DEVELOPMENT, and
assign users USER1, USER2, and USER3 to that group. You could then grant to that group
the privileges to create, browse, and update items, thus giving these abilities to USER1,
USER2, and USER3.

The ADMIN Group

When you first install Dimensions CM, there is a group called ADMIN already defined. This
group is set up for administration purposes and has the necessary privileges granted to
perform tasks such as creating users and granting privileges to them, and so on.

About Privileges
A privilege is the ability to perform a certain operation on a particular class of object, for
example to create a project/stream, or to action an item. It can also be the ability to
perform a general administrative function, such as to manage lifecycles or privileges. A
privilege can be granted to a user, a group, or a role, or be made to apply generally to any
user or under particular rules. For more details see "How do I Manage Privileges?" on
page 46

About Roles
Roles determine:
 Who can action an object from one particular state to another in its lifecycle. This is
done by assigning a role to a lifecycle transition for an object type. For details see
"Managing Transitions" on page 197.
 Which users can work on a particular product segment. Roles can be assigned to users
at Product or Design Part level, but can also be assigned to a specific design part
variant and/or project/stream. When you assign users to a role on a design part for
example, this assignment allows those users to work on the objects associated with
that design part.

Having been defined, a role can be assigned to a user or a group, thus controlling which
users can perform the various operations on the Dimensions objects in particular parts of
a product. This distinguishes roles from privileges. Privileges determine which users can
perform specified operations on particular object classes within the product as a whole.

For more details about roles, see "How do I Manage Roles?" on page 51

Users and Roles Main Window

The Users and Roles main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the program's tabs and toolbars to help you carry out various
tasks.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from a list of objects, which includes
users, roles, or design parts, depending on the selected tab.
 Content area: Displays details about the selected objects or a summary of all
objects.

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 Status area: Displays log in details. See "The Status Area" on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

The information that displays in the menu, navigation, and content areas varies,
depending on which tab is active and what you have selected. For more details see:
 "Users and Groups Tab" on page 86
 "Role Definitions Tab" on page 95
 "Role Assignments Tab" on page 97
 "Privileges Tab" on page 101
 "About User and Group Registration" on page 86

About User and Group Registration

Purpose User and Group Registration allows you to:
 List, create, edit, and delete Dimensions user accounts for the current base database
 List, create, edit, and delete Dimensions user groups for the current base database
 Promote proxy users to normal user accounts
 Define custom attributes for users
PRIVILEGES Manage Users and Group Definitions

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Users and Roles | User and Group Registration

Users and Groups Tab

Users and Groups Tab: Menu Area

The Users and Groups tab enables you to create new users and groups of users as well as
modify existing users and groups. See the table below for a description of the toolbar
buttons that appear on the Users tab. The buttons that appear depend on the selection
you have made in the navigation area.

Button Function
or Define a new user using the New User dialog box.
Define a new group using the New Group dialog box.
or Copy details of the selected user/group to create a new user/
group using the Copy User or Copy Group dialog box.
or Delete the selected user(s) or group(s).

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Button Function
Promote a proxy (auto registered) user to a normal user using
the Promote Proxy dialog box.

Add, edit, or remove custom attributes from users using the

Manage Attributes dialog box.

Users and Groups Tab: Navigation Area

The navigation area on the Users and Groups tab lists the users in the base database. In
the navigation area, you can:
 Filter users by type by selecting All Groups, All Active Users, Auto Registered, or
Dormant Users from the list at the top of the navigation area.
 View the users by full name by clicking , or view by user ID by clicking (not
available when All Groups is selected).
 Select a user icon or group icon to view or modify the its associated details
in the content area.
 Select the top-level icon: to view a summary of all users or all groups in the
content area.
 Select a user/group section icon. This appears if a large number of users or groups
exist and they are separated into sections, so that you can view the users/groups in
that section.

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Users and Groups Tab: Content Area

The information displayed in the content area depends on what you have selected in the
navigation area.

If you select... Then the content area displays:

A single user  General: Section that displays details about the selected
user and any user-defined attributes.
 : Click to modify details and attributes for the user.
 Groups: Section that displays details about the groups
to which the selected user belongs, and any user-defined
attributes.
 : Click to modify details and attributes for the user
using the Edit User dialog box.
A single group  General: Section that displays details about the selected
group and any user-defined attributes.
 : Click to modify details and attributes for the
group.
 Users: Section that displays details about the users that
belong to the selected group and any user-defined
attributes.
 : Click to modify details and attributes for the group
using the Edit Group dialog box.
Users node  Dimensions Users/Groups: Section that displays a
detailed summary of all users in the user section or base
or Groups node database.
 : Click to modify details and attributes for the
selected user or group.
 : Click to filter the list of users or groups by
completing the filter dialog box.
 : Click to print the summary of users or groups.
 : Click to save the summary of users or groups as
comma-separated values.

Managing Users and Groups

How to Add Users

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to add a new user account to the Dimensions base
database. This procedure applies to the creation of normal users only.
PRIVILEGES Manage Users and Group Definitions
NOTE You cannot create a user ID with the same name as a group ID.

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To add a normal user:

1 From the User Registration main window, click the New button: . The New User
dialog box appears.

2 Enter the login ID for the new user in the ID field.

3 Enter the e-mail address to be used for notification e-mails sent by Dimensions CM to
the user. in the E-mail field.

4 Optionally, complete the rest of the fields in the dialog box.

5 Click the Attributes tab to enter values for custom attributes for this user.

6 If you want the dialog box to remain open after adding the new user, select the Keep
open check box.

7 Click OK to add the new user.

To set a user password:

NOTE You can only change the password for a Windows node.

1 In the status area, click the Passwords link:

2 For Username, type the Windows user name for the user on the Dimensions CM
server.

3 For Password, type your password.

4 Enter the new password in the New password field.

5 Re-enter the new password in the Confirm password field.

To reactivate a dormant user

Follow the instructions for To add a normal user above and enter the user ID of the
dormant user in the ID field.

How to Promote Proxy Users

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to promote a proxy (auto registered) user to a
normal user. Promoting a proxy user grants that user greater access to Dimensions
functionality, including the ability to perform operations on item revisions.
NOTE When you promote a proxy user, Dimensions CM does not check that mandatory
attributes are present. You will need to make sure that such attributes have been entered
PRIVILEGES Manage Users and Group Definitions

To promote a proxy user:

1 From the User Registration main window, select the proxy user that you want to
promote.

2 Click the Promote Proxy button: .

The Promote Proxy dialog box appears.

3 Click OK to promote the user.

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How to Modify Users

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to:
 Edit the information associated with a user account.
 Copy a user so that you can reuse all or most of the user's details for a new user
account, including role assignments.
NOTE Only the role assignments for the current product are copied to the new user.
Role assignments for other products are not copied.
 Delete a user account when the user no longer needs access to Dimensions. This frees
up the resources allocated to that user. The deleted user becomes "dormant", which
means the user account can still be displayed when you filter by Dormant Users in the
navigation area, though the user is inactive.
NOTE To reactivate a dormant user, add the user using the same ID and details in
the New User dialog box.
PRIVILEGES Manage Users and Group Definitions

To edit, copy, or delete a user:

1 From the User Registration main window, select the user that you want to edit, copy,
or delete. You can select multiple users in the content area if you want to edit or
delete a group of users.

2 Do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

Edit a user 1 Click the Edit button: .

2 In the Edit User dialog box, change the

values as necessary.

3 If you selected multiple users, you can

enter a value in any <Leave
Unchanged> field to apply it across
users.
Copy a user 1 Click the Copy button: .

2 In the Copy User dialog box, complete

the ID field.

3 Change any of the values that have

been copied from the selected user as
necessary.
Delete a user 1 Click the Delete button: .

2 Confirm that you want to delete the

user(s) by clicking Yes.

How to Assign Attributes to Users

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to define a custom attribute and make it available to
all user accounts in the $GENERIC product.

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PRIVILEGES Manage Users and Group Definitions

Constraints  You can only define single-field, single-value attributes for users.
 To assign a valid set to a user attribute, the valid set must be defined in the
$GENERIC product.

To assign an attribute:

1 From the Users Registration main window, click the Manage Attributes button:
.

2 In the Manage Attributes dialog box, click the Assign Attribute button: . The
Assign Attribute dialog box appears.

3 Enter a name for the new attribute in the Name field.

4 If necessary, change the default value for the maximum character length allowed in
the Max Length field.

5 Select the format for the attribute's value from the Data Type list.

6 Enter a field label for the attribute in the User Prompt field.

7 If necessary, change the default values for the display length and height of the
attribute in the Display Length and Display Height fields.

8 Optionally, complete the rest of the fields in the dialog box.

9 Click OK to add the new attribute.

NOTE

How to Edit or Remove Attributes

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit an attribute or remove it from the global user
account.

If you remove an attribute that is not in use by another object type, it will be deleted from
the database.
PRIVILEGES Manage Users and Group Definitions

To edit or remove an attribute:

1 From the User Registration main window, click the Manage Attributes button:

The Manage Attributes dialog box appears.

2 In the Attributes for User section, select the attribute you want to edit or remove. You
can select multiple attributes to remove a group of attributes.

3 Do one of the following:

 Click the Edit Attribute button: . In the Edit Attribute dialog box, change the
values as necessary.
 Click the De-Assign Attribute button: . Confirm that you want to remove the
attribute(s) by clicking Yes.

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How to Filter Users or Groups

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to restrict the list of users or groups in the
navigation area or content area to certain criteria. You can filter by user type or by user
details, such as Department or Group ID. You can filter groups by Group Name or
Description.

To filter by user type:

1 From the Users and Groups tab, click the drop-down list in the navigation area.

2 Select the user type you want to filter by:

 All Active Users: Lists all users who are activated in the base database.
 Auto Registered (proxy): Lists all users who have been automatically registered
in the base database.
 Dormant Users: Lists all users who have been deleted from the base database.
The list of users in the navigation area adjusts to the filter.

To filter by user details:

1 From the Users and Groups tab, select All Active Users from the drop-down list in
the navigation area.

2 Click the top-level icon: in the navigation area. A summary of all users appears in
the content area.

3 In the content area, click the Filter link: .

4 Set up your filtering criteria in the User Filter dialog box.

5 Click OK.

To view all users again, open the User Filter dialog box and click OK without entering any
values.

To filter user groups:

1 From the Users and Groups tab, select All Groups from the drop-down list in the
navigation area.

2 Click the top-level icon: in the navigation area. A summary of all groups appears
in the content area.

3 In the content area, click the Filter link: .

4 Set up your filtering criteria in the Group Filter dialog box.

5 Click OK.

How to Create Groups

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to add a new group of users to the Dimensions base
database.
PRIVILEGES Manage Users and Group Definitions
NOTE You cannot create a group ID with the same name as a user ID.

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To add a group:

1 In the Users and Groups tab, select All Groups from the drop-down list in the
navigation area.

2 Click the New button: . The New Group dialog box appears.

3 Enter the Name for the new group in the Group Name field.

4 Enter a description for the group in the Description field.

5 Include the users you want to belong to the group:

 To add a user, select the name in the Available Users list, and click the >> link to
move it to the Assigned Users list
 To remove a user, select the name in the Assigned Users list, and click the <<
link.

6 Click OK to create the new group.

To create a group by copying an existing group:

1 In the Users and Groups tab, select All Groups from the drop-down list in the
navigation area.

2 Select the group you want to copy in the navigation area and click the Copy button:
. The Copy Group dialog box appears.

3 Enter the Name for the new group in the Group Name field.

4 Enter a description for the group in the Description field.

5 To edit the list of users that will belong to the group:

 To add a user, select the name in the Available Users list, and click the >> link to
move it to the Assigned Users list
 To remove a user, select the name in the Assigned Users list, and click the <<
link.

6 Click OK to create the new group.

How to Modify Groups

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit the description or the list of users in a group,
or to delete a group.
PRIVILEGES Manage Users and Group Definitions

To modify a group:

1 In the Users and Groups tab, select All Groups from the drop-down list in the
navigation area.

2 Select the group in the navigation area and Click the Edit button: . The Edit Group
dialog box appears.

3 If necessary, Edit the description for the group in the Description field.

4 To edit the list of users that belong to the group:

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 To add a user, select the name in the Available Users list, and click the >> link to
move it to the Assigned Users list
 To remove a user, select the name in the Assigned Users list, and click the <<
link.

5 Click OK to commit the changes.

To delete a group:

1 In the Users and Groups tab, select All Groups from the drop-down list in the
navigation area.

2 Select the group in the navigation area and Click the Delete button: . The
Delete dialog box appears.

3 Click Yes to delete the group.

About Role Definitions and Assignments

Purpose Role Definitions and Role Assignments allow you to:
 List, create, edit, and delete roles in the base database.
 Assign roles to users from the user, role, or design part view.

Constraints  Role definitions are not constrained to a specific product but can be used throughout
the base database.
 You must be the Product Manager or Role Manager to perform role definition and
assignment tasks. Note that Role Managers cannot define or assign the Product
Manager role.
 Each role assignment must consist of an existing user, role, and design part.

Invocation  Dimensions Administration Console | Users and Roles | Role Definitions

 Dimensions Administration Console | Users and Roles | Role Assignments

About Role Capabilities

When more than one user has the same role, you can assign a role capability to
determine different levels of responsibility within those users. The role capabilities that
can be assigned to the users within the role are Leader, Primary, or Secondary, described
below:
 Leader: It is sometimes useful to have more than one user with a particular role with
respect to an item-spec or request e.g. so that they can add comments (called Action
Descriptions in requests). However, it may also be appropriate to restrict the number
of users in this group who can actually action the object to the next stage in its
lifecycle. The way to implement this is via the Leader function. When the Leader
capability is defined in a group of users who have the same role for a given object,
only the Leader can update the associated attributes and action on the object. All
other users with that role may add only Action Descriptions or user comments. If the
Leader role capability is assigned to a user, then the Primary role capability (described
below) cannot be assigned to the same user i.e. Leader role and Primary role
capabilities are mutually exclusive.

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 Primary: The Primary capability for a role in the lifecycle of an object is assigned to
the user regarded in the project as having the main responsibility for that role on the
object. There cannot be more than one Primary user defined for a role (as applicable
to any particular design part or segment of the product structure). If the Primary role
function is assigned to a user, then Leader role capability (described above) cannot be
assigned to the same user.
 Secondary: Secondary users are intended to act as deputies for the Primary. They
have exactly the same privileges as the Primary: they can add action comments and
also, unless the Leader capability has been assigned, update the object's attributes
and action it.

Defining Roles

Role Definitions Tab

The Role Definitions tab enables you to define new roles in the base database as well as
modify existing roles.

Role Definitions Tab: Menu Area

See the table below for a description of the toolbar buttons that appear on the Role
Definitions tab.

Button Function
Add a new role using the New Role Definition dialog box.

Copy details of the selected role to create a new role by using

the Copy Role Definition dialog box.

Delete the selected role(s).

Role Definitions Tab: Navigation Area

The navigation area on the Role Definitions tab lists the roles in the base database. In the
navigation area, you can:
 Select a role: to view or modify its associated details in the content area.
 Select the top-level icon: to view a summary of all roles in the content
area.

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Role Definitions Tab: Content Area

The information displayed in the content area depends on what you have selected in the
navigation area.

If you select... Then the content area displays:

A single role  General: Section that displays details about the selected
role.
 : Click to modify details for the role using the Edit
Role Definition dialog box.
 Role Definitions: Section that displays a detailed
summary of all users in the user section or base
database.
 : Click to modify details for the selected role(s)
using the Edit Role Definition dialog box.
 : Click to print the summary of roles.
 : Click to save the summary of roles as comma-
separated values.

How to Add Roles

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create a new role in the base database. You can
then use this role to limit access to Dimensions by assigning the role to individual users
for a specific product or design part.
PRIVILEGES Manage Role Definitions

To add a new role:

1 From the Role Definitions main window, click the New button: . The New Role
Definition dialog box appears.

2 Enter a name for the new role in the ID field.

3 Enter a description for the new role in the Description field.

4 Select the Keep open check box if you want the dialog box to remain open after
adding the role.

5 Click OK to add the new role.

How to Modify Roles

Purpose Follow this procedure to edit, copy, or delete an existing role.
PRIVILEGES Manage Role Definitions

Constraints  You cannot delete a role while it is specified within any lifecycle.
 When you remove a Dimensions user or role from a product, the inbox for that user
does not change. A relevant new user role will be able to carry out those actions.
 You cannot copy or edit the ID of an existing role.

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 When you copy a role, the role assignments of the existing role are also copied to the
new role.

To edit, copy, or delete a role:

1 From the Role Definitions main window, select the role that you want to edit, copy, or
delete. You can select multiple roles from the content area if you want to edit or
delete a group of roles.

2 Do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

Edit a role 1 Click the Edit button: .

2 In the Edit Role Definition dialog box, change the value of

the Description field.
Copy a role 1 Click the Copy button: .

2 In the Copy Role Definition dialog box, enter the name of

the new role in the ID field.

3 Change the value of the Description field that was

copied from the selected role as necessary.
Delete a role 1 Click the Delete button: .

2 Confirm that you want to delete the role(s) by clicking

Yes.

Assigning Roles

Role Assignments Tab

The Role Assignments tab enables you to define new role assignments as well as delete
existing role assignments.

Role Assignments Tab: Menu Area

See the table below for a description of the toolbar buttons that appear on the Role
Assignments tab.

Button Function
Switch to the User view to define role assignments by user.

Switch to the Roles view to define role assignments by role.

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Button Function
Switch to the Design Part view to define role assignments by
design part.

Add a role assignment without selecting any objects by using

the New Role Assignment dialog box.

Role Assignments Tab: Navigation Area

The navigation area on the Role Assignments tab lists the users or roles in the base
database, or the design parts in the current product. In the navigation area, you can:
 Switch between users, roles, and design parts by clicking the associated buttons in
the toolbar.
 Select one or more users: , design parts: , or roles: , to view the
associated role assignments in the content area.
 Select the top-level icon: , , or to view a
summary of all role assignments in the content area.

Role Assignments Tab: Content Area

The information displayed in the content area depends on what you have selected in the
navigation area.

If you select... Then the content area displays:

One or more users,  Role Assignments for: Section that displays a detailed
design parts, or roles; summary of assignments for the selected object(s).
or these top-level
icons:  : Click to add a new assignment for the selected
object(s) using the New Role Assignment dialog box.
 : Click to delete the selected assignment(s).
 : Click to filter the list of assignments using the
Assignment Filter dialog box.
 : Click to print the summary of assignments.
 : Click to save the summary of assignments as
comma-separated values.

How to Assign Roles

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to assign a role to a user or group for a particular
product or design part. You can make an assignment based on the selected role, user/
group, or design part. Alternatively, you can make an assignment without selecting any
objects first.
PRIVILEGES Manage Role Definitions
NOTE When you assign or unassign a role for a group, this is merely equivalent to
assigning/unassigning that role to each individual user that currently belongs to the group
at that time. The role assignments of users subsequently added to or removed from the
group will not be automatically updated.

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NOTE When certain privilege or role assignments are updated in the Administration
Console, the changes may not take effect during existing client sessions because of
privilege caching. In this case, the user will need to restart the client session for the new
privilege settings to apply. This behavior depends on variables that can be set in the
dm.cfg file. For further details, see the Administrator's Guide.
NOTE If you specify a project/stream when assigning a role, this will apply to requests
and baselines, and not just items as was the case in earlier releases of Dimensions. It is
therefore recommended that roles assigned for managing requests or baselines should
not normally be restricted to specific project/streams.

To assign a role to a user or group:

1 From the Role Assignments main window, select the view from which you want to
make the assignment by clicking:

 for the User view

 for the Design Part view

 for the Roles view.

2 If you selected the Design Part view, select the product in which you want to make the
role assignment from the list in the navigation area.

3 Do one of the following:

 Select one or more users/groups, design parts, or roles in the navigation area,
then click the New button: in the content area.
 Without making any selections, click the Add Assignment button in the toolbar:

The New Role Assignment dialog box appears.

4 Select a user or group from the User/group field, unless you already selected one or
more users or groups in step 2.

5 Select a role from the Project Role field, unless you already selected one or more
roles in step 2.

6 Select a design part from the Design Part field, unless you already selected one or
more design parts in step 2.

7 Select a level of capability from the Role Capability field.

8 Optionally, complete the rest of the fields in the dialog box.

9 Select the Keep open check box if you want the dialog box to remain open after
adding the role assignment.

10 Click Yes to add the role assignment.

How to Delete Assignments

Purpose Follow this procedure to delete one or more role assignments.
PRIVILEGES Manage Role Definitions

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To delete a role assignment:

1 From the Role Assignments main window, select the user/group(s), role(s), or design
part(s) from which you want to delete the role assignment(s).

2 In the content area, select the role assignments that you want to delete.

3 Click the Delete button: in the content area. Confirm that you want to delete the
role assignment(s) by clicking Yes.

How to Filter Assignments

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to restrict the list of role assignments in the
navigation area or content area to certain criteria. In the User view, you can filter by user
type (active, auto registered, or dormant). In the Design Part view, you can filter by
products in the base database. In any view, you can filter by role assignment details, such
as Project or Capability.

To filter by user type or product:

From the Role Assignments main window, do one of the following:

 In the User view, click the drop-down list in the navigation area and select the user
type that you want to filter by.
 In the Design Part view, click the drop-down list in the navigation area and select the
product that you want to filter by.

The list of users or design parts in the navigation area adjusts to the filter.

To filter by role assignment details:

1 From the Role Assignments main window, select the objects associated with the role
assignments you want to filter.

2 In the content area, click the Filter link: .

3 Set up your filtering criteria in the Assignment Filter dialog box.

4 Click OK.

About Privilege Management

Purpose Managing privileges allows you to:
 Grant or deny a privilege to a user or group.
 Enable or disable a general privilege rule for an object class or administrative function
 Enable or disable a privilege rule for a role.

Invocation  Dimensions Administration Console | Users and Groups | Privilege Rules

Privilege assignments are defined for the current product in which you are working. When
you create a new product based on an existing product, the privilege assignments are
copied to the new product. You can also set up privilege assignments by setting your

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current product to the $GENERIC product. Doing this enables you to use the $GENERIC
product as a template for privilege assignments when creating a new product.

Privileges Tab

Privileges Tab: Menu Area

Use the Privilege Rules tab to enable or disable the privilege rules for each class of objects
and assign those rules to users, groups or roles. See the table below for a description of
the toolbar buttons that appear on the Privilege Rules tab.

Button Function
Switch to the User view to define privileges by users/groups.

Switch to the Roles view to define privileges by role.

Switch to the Privileges view to define privileges either by user

or by role.

Privileges Tab: Navigation Area

The navigation area on the Privilege Rules tab lists the privileges in the base database.
What appears in the navigation area depends on which toolbar button you select in the
menu area.

If you have clicked the Privileges button: you can:

 Choose which category of privileges you want to access by selecting Product Level
Privileges, or Administration Privileges from the list at the top of the navigation
area.
 Expand a second-level icon: to view the privileges for an object class or
administrative function in the navigation tree.
 Select a privilege icon: to view or modify the privilege rules for that privilege in
the content area.

If you have clicked the Users button: you can:

 Choose how you want to access the privileges by selecting All Groups, All Active
Users, Auto Registered, or Dormant Users from the list at the top of the
navigation area.
 Select a user icon or group icon to view or modify its associated privilege
rule assignments in the content area.

If you have clicked the Roles button: you can:

 Select a role: to view or modify its associated privilege rule assignments in the
content area.

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Privileges Tab: Content Area

The information displayed in the content area depends on what you have selected in the
navigation area.

If you select... Then the content area displays:

A single user: ,  A number of sections that display the current
group: , or role: assignments for each object class and administration
area for the selected user, group, or role.
 : Click to modify details for the assigned privilege
rules.
A Privilege icon:  Privilege details: Section that displays the name,
category and description of the privilege
 General Grant Rules: Section that displays the rules
that apply at a general level and are not applicable to
specific users or groups.
 Click to grant this privilege rule.
 Explicit Grant/Deny Rules: Section displaying the
rules that apply at a specific user/group level for this
privilege
 Click to grant this privilege rule to specific users or
groups.
 Click to remove the selected privilege rule for the
user or group.
 Other Grant Rules: Section that displays the rules for
this privilege that apply to roles.
 : Click to remove an assignment for this privilege
rule.

Managing Privileges

How to Grant or Deny Explicit Privileges to Users or

Groups
Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to grant or deny a privileges to users or groups, or
to a role.
PRIVILEGES Manage Privileges
NOTE Administration privileges apply to all products in the base database. Product level
privileges only apply to your currently selected product.
NOTE When certain privilege or role assignments are updated in the Administration
Console, the changes may not take effect during existing client sessions because of
privilege caching. In this case, the user will need to restart the client session for the new
privilege settings to apply. This behavior depends on variables that can be set in the
dm.cfg file. For further details, see the Administrator's Guide.

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To grant or deny Privileges to Users or Groups

1 Do one of the following:

To grant or deny a privilege to one or more users or groups:
a On the Privileges tab, click the Privileges button: on the toolbar.
b In the navigation area, select the category to which the privilege belongs from the
list, Administration Privileges, or Product Level Privileges.
c Expand the folder: for the subcategory to which the privilege belongs in the
navigation tree and select the privilege.
d In the Explicit Grant/Deny Rules section of the content area, click the
button and choose an option: Grant User, Deny User, Grant Group, Deny
Group.
To grant or deny a user or group one or more privileges:
a On the Privileges tab click the User button: .
b In the navigation area, select the category of users to which you want to grant or
deny privileges from the list, All Active Users, All Groups, Auto Registered, or
Dormant Users.
c Select the user or group in the navigation area.
d In the content area, locate the section corresponding to the object class or
functional area for which you want to grant or deny privileges.
e Click the button in that area and choose an option: Grant or Deny.

2 Depending on the dialog box displayed, move the users or groups you want to be
granted or denied into the Granted Users, Granted Groups, Denied Users, or
Denied Groups list:
 To add a user/group, select the name in the Available Users/Groups to grant/
deny list, and click the >> link to move it to the Granted/Denied Users/
Groups list
 If you do not want to include a user/group, select the name in the Granted/
Denied Users/Groups list, and click the << link.

3 For certain privileges related to deployment, options are displayed that enable you to
grant or deny the privilege for a specific project or stream, deployment stage, or area.
For details, see "How to Grant or Deny Explicit Privileges for Deployment Functions"
on page 104.

4 Click OK to confirm the changes. A confirmation dialog box is displayed.

5 Click Yes to commit the changes.

To de-assign an explicit privilege rule for a privilege:

1 On the Privileges tab, click the Privileges button: on the toolbar.

2 In the navigation area, select the category to which the privilege belongs from the
list, Administration Privileges, or Product Level Privileges.

3 Expand the folder: for the subcategory to which the privilege belongs in the
navigation tree and select the privilege.

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4 In the Explicit Grant/Deny Rules section of the content area, select the User/Group
and click the button.

5 Click OK in the De-assign User/Group from Privilege Rule dialog box.I.

How to Grant or Deny Explicit Privileges for

Deployment Functions
Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to grant or deny explicit privileges to users or
groups, for deployment features. Certain privileges relating to promotion and demotion
can be specified for specific projects/streams and deployment stages, and privileges for
deployment and rollback can also be specified for specific areas. When this is the case
these extra fields will be displayed in the Grant/Deny Users/Groups dialog boxes.

For details of these functions see the Deployment Guide.

PRIVILEGES Manage Privileges
NOTE When certain privilege or role assignments are updated in the Administration
Console, the changes may not take effect during existing client sessions because of
privilege caching. In this case, the user will need to restart the client session for the new
privilege settings to apply. This behavior depends on variables that can be set in the
dm.cfg file. For further details, see the Administrator's Guide.

To grant or deny Privileges for Deployment for specific projects/streams/

deployment stages

1 On the Privileges tab, click the Privileges button: on the toolbar.

2 In the navigation area, select the category to which the privilege belongs from the
list, Administration Privileges, or Product Level Privileges.

3 Expand the folder: for the subcategory to which the privilege belongs in the
navigation tree and select the privilege.

4 In the Explicit Grant/Deny Rules section of the content area, click the button
and choose an option: Grant User, Deny User, Grant Group, Deny Group.

5 For Project/stream, if you want the assignment to only apply to a specific project or
stream, click the browse button and select a project or stream.

6 For Stage, if you want the assignment to only apply when the selected project/
stream is at a specific deployment stage, select the stage from the list.

7 If the privilege relates to deployment or rollback, for Deployment Area(s) select the
areas to which the privilege applies from the list.

8 Depending on the dialog box displayed, move the users or groups you want to be
granted or denied into the Granted Users, Granted Groups, Denied Users, or
Denied Groups list:
 To add a user/group, select the name in the Available Users/Groups to grant/
deny list, and click the >> link to move it to the Granted/Denied Users/
Groups list
 If you do not want to add a user/group, select the name in the Granted/Denied
Users/Groups list, and click the << link.

9 Click OK to confirm the changes. A confirmation dialog box is displayed.

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10 Click Yes to commit the changes.

To de-assign an explicit privilege rule for a Deployment privilege:

1 On the Privileges tab, click the Privileges button: on the toolbar.

2 In the navigation area, select the category to which the privilege belongs from the
list, Administration Privileges, or Product Level Privileges.

3 Expand the folder: for the subcategory to which the privilege belongs in the
navigation tree and select the privilege.

4 In the Explicit Grant/Deny Rules section of the content area, select the User/Group
and click the button.

5 Click OK in the De-assign User/Group from Privilege Rule dialog box.I.

How to Enable or Disable General Grant Rules

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to enable or disable general privilege rules for an
object class or administrative function.
PRIVILEGES Manage Privileges

To enable or disable general grant rules:

1 On the Privileges tab, click the Privileges button: on the toolbar.

2 In the navigation area, select the category to which the privilege belongs from the
list, Administration Privileges, or Product Level Privileges.

3 Expand the folder: for the subcategory to which the privilege belongs in the
navigation tree and select the privilege.

4 In the General Grant Rules section of the content area, click the button. The
Enable/Disable General Grant Rules dialog box appears.

5 Select or deselect the rules as required:

 To select a rule, check the corresponding box
 To deselect a rule, uncheck the corresponding box
 To select all the rules, click the Select All button
 To deselect all the rules, click the Deselect All button.

6 Click OK to confirm the changes.

How to Assign or Unassign Privilege Rules for a Role

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to assign or unassign privilege rules to a role.
PRIVILEGES Manage Privileges

To assign or unassign privilege rules for a role:

1 Do one of the following:

To assign/unassign a selected privilege rule for a role:

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a On the Privileges tab, click the Privileges button: on the toolbar.

b In the navigation area, select the category to which the privilege belongs from the
list, Administration Privileges, or Product Level Privileges.
c Expand the folder: for the subcategory to which the privilege belongs in the
navigation tree and select the privilege.
d In the Other Grant Rules section of the content area, click the button and
select the rule.
To assign/unassign a selected role for a privilege rule:
a On the Privileges tab click the Roles button:
b In the navigation area, select the role name for which you want to assign a
privilege rule.
c In the content area, locate the section corresponding to the object class or
functional area for which you want to assign privilege rules.
d Click the button in that area and select a rule.

2 In the Assign Other Grant Rules dialog box move the roles you want to be assign into
the Assigned Roles list:
 To add a role, select the name in the Available Roles to Assign list, and click the
>> link to move it to the Assigned Roles list
 To remove a role, select the name in the Assigned Roles list, and click the <<
link.

3 Click OK to confirm the changes. A confirmation dialog box is displayed.

4 Click Yes to commit the changes.

About Mail Notifications

A mail notification defines an event in Dimensions CM that causes an e-mail message to
be sent to specified users or groups. Dimensions CM provides a set of system-defined
notification rules that are triggered when common events take place, such as:
 An item or request arrives in a user's inbox.
 An attribute of an item, request, or baseline in a user's inbox is updated.
 An item is added or removed from a project.
 A user is added or removed from the base database.
 A product is added or removed from the base database.

In the Dimensions Administration Console, you can:

 View system-defined notifications
 Subscribe users or groups to notifications
PRIVILEGES Manage Email Notifications

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Users and Roles | Mail events

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Mail Events Main Window

The Mail Events main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the program's tabs and toolbars to help you carry out various
tasks.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from a list of mail events in the base
database.
 Content area: Displays details about the selected mail event or a summary of all
events.
 Status area: Displays log in details.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

Mail Events: Toolbar

The toolbar displays the available commands for mail events.

Button Function
Subscribe groups to a mail event using
the Subscribe Groups dialog box.

Subscribe users to a mail event using the

Subscribe Users dialog box.

Mail Events: Navigation Area

The navigation area lists mail events in the base database, grouped by object class. You
can:
 Select the top-level icon: to view a summary of all mail events in the content
area.
 Select an object class icon: to view a summary of all mail events for that object
class.
 Select an event icon: to view a the details for a specific mail event in the content
area.

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Mail Events: Content Area

The information displayed in the content area depends on what you have selected in the
navigation area:

If you select... Then the content area displays...

Base Database  List of mail events and associated descriptions,
or creation details, and update details.
Object Class
 : Click to print the list of mail events.
 : Click to save the list of mail events as
comma-separated values.
A specific mail event  General tab that displays the mail event's name,
description, creation details, update details, event
type, templates used for the e-mail notification,
object class, object type, and event context.
 Group Subscribers and User Subscribers tabs that
display the groups and users subscribed to the
mail event and subscription details. For promotion
and demotion subscriptions, user/group
subscriptions for specific stages are displayed. For
Deploy and Rollback subscriptions, areas are also
displayed.
 : Click to add to the list of users or groups
that are subscribed to the mail event.
 : Click to delete an entry from the list of
users or groups that are subscribed to the mail
event.

Subscribing Users and Groups

How to Subscribe and Unsubscribe Users to and from

Mail Events
Purpose Follow this procedure to specify which users are to receive an e-mail notification when the
selected event occurs. This subscription cannot be removed or modified by the user.
PRIVILEGES Manage Email Notifications

To add users to a mail event subscription:

1 In the navigation area, select the mail event that you want to subscribe the user to.

2 Do one of the following:

 Click the User button:
 Click the button on the User Subscribers tab.
The Subscribe Users dialog box appears.

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3 If you want to apply the subscription to a specific project or stream, use the browse
button to select the Scope to Project/stream. (This option only applies to
deployment-related events.)

4 If you want to apply the subscription to a specific stage in the GSL, select it from the
Stage list. (This option only appears for deployment-related events.)

5 If you want to apply the subscription to a specific area, select it from the Area list.
(This option only appears for deployment and rollback events.)

6 If you want multiple notifications for the same user to be combined into a single e-
mail, select Digest.

7 Select the user that you want to subscribe from the Available Users list. For multiple
users, press CTRL while selecting the users.

8 Click the >> link.

9 If you do not want to add a user to the list, select it in the Users to subscribe list,
and click the << link.

10 Click OK.

To unsubscribe a user from a mail event:

1 In the navigation area, select the mail event that you want to unsubscribe the group
from.

2 In the content area, select the entry on the Subscriber Users tab.

3 Click the Delete button: .

The Unsubscribe Users dialog box appears.

4 Click OK.

How to Subscribe and Unsubscribe Groups to and

from Mail Events
Purpose Follow this procedure to specify which groups are to receive an e-mail notification when
the selected event occurs. This subscription cannot be removed or modified by the users
in the subscribed groups.
PRIVILEGES Manage Email Notifications

To subscribe a group to a mail event:

1 In the navigation area, select the mail event that you want to subscribe the group to.

2 Do one of the following:

 Click the Group button:
 Click the button on the User Subscribers tab.
The Group Subscription dialog box appears.

3 If you want multiple notifications for the same group to be combined into a single e-
mail, select Digest.

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4 If you want to apply the subscription to a specific project or stream, use the browse
button to select the Scope to Project/stream. (This option only applies to
deployment-related events.)

5 If you want to apply the subscription to a specific stage in the GSL, select it from the
Stage list. (This option only applies to deployment-related events.)

6 If you want to apply the subscription to a specific area, select it from the Area list.
(this option only appears for deployment and roll back events.)

7 Select the group that you want to subscribe from the Available Groups list. For
multiple groups, press CTRL while selecting the users.

8 Click the >> link.

9 If you do not want to add a group to the list, select it in the Groups to subscribe list,
and click the << link.

10 Click OK.

To unsubscribe a group from a mail event:

1 In the navigation area, select the mail event that you want to unsubscribe the group
from.

2 In the content area, select the entry on the Group Subscribers tab.

3 Click the Delete button: .

The Unsubscribe Groups dialog box appears.

4 Click OK.

About User Interface Profiles

Purpose User interface (UI) profiles allow you to select which features in the Dimensions CM client
tools are visible to a user or group. By showing only the relevant views and operations,
profiles simplify the UI and enable users to focus on their tasks.

Profiles are not meant to enforce security. Use privileges to grant or deny access to
features.

There is a default UI profile that is created when you first install Dimensions CM. When
you create a new user, the default UI profile is automatically assigned to that user. You
can change this UI profile, and you can create other UI profiles and assign them to users
or groups.
NOTE When upgrading from a previous version Dimensions CM 12.1, the installer does
not automatically add new functionality to existing user profiles. You may need to add
these functions manually to each existing user profile you have defined.
NOTE There is also another way of determining which objects a user can see in the
Dimensions CM clients. This is by setting an entry in the DM.CFG file. If this option is set,
the clients will only list objects that are owned by products on which the current user
holds a role. For details of how to set this option, see the Administrator's Guide.
PRIVILEGES Manage User Interface Profiles

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Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Users and Roles | User interface profiles

User Interface Profiles Main Window

The User Interface Profiles main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the program's tabs and toolbars to help you carry out various
tasks.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from a list of objects, which includes
profile names, profile assignments, or users, depending on what you have selected.
 Content area: Displays details about the selected objects or a summary of all
objects.
 Status area: Displays log in details.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

The information that displays in the menu, navigation, and content areas varies,
depending on which tab is active and what you have selected. For more details see:
 "Profile Definitions Tab" on page 111
 "Profile Assignments Tab" on page 113

Profile Definitions Tab

Profile Definitions Tab: Toolbar

The toolbar displays the available commands for managing profiles.

Button Function
Create a new profile using the New UI
Profile dialog box.
Create a new profile using the details of
an existing profile.
Delete the selected profile.

Profile Definitions Tab: Navigation Area

The navigation area lists the profiles in the base database. You can:
 Click Profile Names at the top of the navigation area to:
• View a summary of all profiles in the content area.
• Select multiple profiles in the content area.

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 Select a profile to view its details or to perform an operation on it.

Profile Definitions Tab: Content Area

The information displayed in the content area depends on what you have selected in the
navigation area:

If you select... Then the content area displays...

Profile Names  A list of all profiles in the base database and their
descriptions.
 : Click to modify details for the selected
profile using the Edit UI Profile Definition dialog
box. You can also click the name of a profile to
open the Edit UI Profile Definition dialog box.
 : Click to print the summary of profiles.
 : Click to save the summary of profiles as
comma-separated values.
A single profile name  Tabs that display the profile's description and view
and operation settings.
 : Click to modify details for the profile using
the Edit UI Profile Definition dialog box.

Defining Profiles

How to Add Profiles

Purpose Follow this procedure to create a new profile that controls which features are visible in the
Dimensions CM clients. You can also create a profile using the details of an existing
profile.
PRIVILEGES Manage User Interface Profiles
NOTE When new functions are added in a release of Dimensions CM, they are tuned off
by default, so you may need to update existing profiles if you want users to have the new
features available.

To add a new profile:

1 On the Profile Definitions tab, do one of the following:

 To create a new profile, click the New button:
 To create a new profile using the details of an existing profile, click the Copy
button:

2 Enter a name for the profile in the Name field.

3 Optionally, enter text that describes the profile in the Description field.

4 Click the Views tab and select which views and subviews should be visible with the
profile.

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5 Click the Operations tab and select which commands should be visible with the profile.

6 To create another profile after adding this profile, select the Keep open check box.

7 Click OK.
You can now assign the new profile to the appropriate users or groups.

How to Modify Profiles

Purpose Follow this procedure to change the details of an existing profile, or to delete an existing
profile.
PRIVILEGES Manage User Interface Profiles

To modify a profile:

1 On the Profile Definitions tab, select the profile that you want to change.

2 Click the Edit button:

3 Change the profile as necessary.

4 Click OK.
The changes are in place the next time the users log on and select the profile.

To delete a profile:

1 Select the profile that you want to delete.

2 Click the Delete button:

Profile Assignments Tab

Profile Assignments Tab: Menu Area

The menu area displays the available commands for assigning profiles.

Button Function
Switch to view by users and groups.

Switch to view by profiles.

Assign a profile to a user or group using

the Add Assignment dialog box.

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Profile Assignments Tab: Navigation Area

The navigation area lists the profiles or users and groups in the base database. What
appears in the navigation area depends on which toolbar button you select in the menu
area.

If you clicked the User button: , you can:

 Select from the list to view profile assignments by all active users, all groups, auto
registered users (proxy), or dormant users (inactive).
 Select a user or group to view and manage profiles currently assigned to that user or
group.

If you clicked the Profiles button: , you can:

 Click Profile Names to view and manage all profile assignments, listed by profile
name.
 Select a profile to view and manage all assignments for that profile.

Profile Assignments Tab: Content Area

The information displayed in the content area depends on what you have selected in the
navigation area:

If you select... Then the content area displays...

The Users or Groups icon  A list of profile assignments for all of the users or
groups.
 : Click to assign a profile to all of the users or
groups.
 : Click to print the summary of profile
assignments.
 : Click to save the summary of profiles
assignments as comma-separated values.
A single user or group name  A list of profile assignments for the selected user
or group.
 : Click to assign a profile to the user or group.
 : Click to print the summary of profile
assignments.
 : Click to save the summary of profile
assignments as comma-separated values.

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If you select... Then the content area displays...

The Profile Names icon  A list of assignments for all of the profiles.
 : Click to assign all of the profiles to a user or
group.
 : Click to print the summary of profile
assignments.
 : Click to save the summary of profiles
assignments as comma-separated values.
A single profile name  A list of assignments for the selected profile.
 : Click to assign the profile to a user or group.
 : Click to print the summary of profile
assignments.
 : Click to save the summary of profiles
assignments as comma-separated values.

Assigning Profiles

How to Assign Profiles

Purpose Follow this procedure to assign one or more profiles to a user or group. This assignment
determines which profiles users can choose from when working in the client tools.
PRIVILEGES Manage User Interface Profiles

To assign a profile by user or group:

1 On the Profile Assignments tab, click the Users button: .

2 Do one of the following:

 To assign a profile to all users or groups, select a value from the list, and then
select the Users or Groups icon.
 To assign a profile to a user or group, select a value from the list, and then select a
single user or group.

3 Click the Add button: .

The New UI Profile Assignment dialog box appears.

4 Select the profile from the Project Profile list.

5 Click OK.

To add an assignment by profile:

1 On the Profile Assignments tab, click the Profiles button:

2 Do one of the following:

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 To assign all profiles to a user or group, select the Profile Names icon.
 To assign a profile to a user or group, select a single profile.

3 Click the Add button: .

The New UI Profile Assignment dialog box appears.

4 Select the user or group from the User Name list.

5 Click OK.

To assign a profile without selecting anything:

1 On the Profile Assignments tab, click the Add UI Profile Assignment button:

2 Select the user or group from the User Name list.

3 Select the profile to assign from the Project Profile list.

4 Click OK.

How to Remove Profile Assignments

Follow this procedure when you no longer want a profile to be available to a user or group.
PRIVILEGES Manage User Interface Profiles

To remove a profile assignment:

1 On the Profile Assignments tab, click the Users button: or Profiles button:

2 Select a user, group, or profile in the navigation area.

3 Select the assignments that you want to remove from the content area.

4 Click the Delete button: .

The Delete dialog box displays the profile assignments that will be removed.

5 Click Yes to remove the assignments.

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Chapter 5
Design Part Structure

In this Chapter

About Design Part Structure 118

Design Part Structure Main Window 118
Defining Design Parts 119
Modifying Design Parts 121

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Chapter 5 Design Part Structure

About Design Part Structure

Purpose Serena® Dimensions® CM Design Part Structure allows you to:
 Create design parts and design part variants.
 Move design parts within the design structure.
 Edit, suspend, or delete existing design parts.
 Manage design part relationships.

Constraints You must have one of the Dimensions roles described below:
 Product Manager: These roles can perform all part operations and additionally assign
Dimensions user roles within the design structure.
 PCMS Part Manager: This role can create and manipulate design parts within the
scope of their role assignment in the design structure.

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Product Administration | Design Part Structure

Design Part Structure Main Window

The Design Part Structure main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the program's toolbar to help you carry out various tasks. See
Design Part Structure Menu Area on page 118.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from the design part structure. See
Design Part Structure Navigation Area on page 119.
 Content area: Displays details about the selected design part. See Design Part
Structure Content Area on page 119.
 Status area: Displays log in details. See The Status Area on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

Design Part Structure Menu Area

The menu area displays the following toolbar buttons:

Button Function
Define a new design part or design part variant using the New
Design Part dialog box or the New Variant dialog box.

Delete the selected design part.

Move the selected design part to a different position in the

design structure using the Move Design Part dialog box.

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 Defining Design Parts

Button Function
Suspend the selected design part.

Create a usage relationship between the selected design part

and another design part using the Relate To dialog box.

Break a usage relationship between the selected design part

and another design part using the Unrelate From dialog box.

Design Part Structure Navigation Area

The navigation area displays the product's design part structure. You can select a design
part to view associated details in the content area and perform actions on the design part.

Design Part Structure Content Area

When you select a design part, you can do the following in the content area:
 Edit the selected design part by clicking the Edit button: in the Design Part
Details section.
 Update the design part's PCS by clicking the PCS button: in the Design Part
Details section.

When you select the top-level icon: , you can do the following in the content
area:
 Select a design part to operate on it. Click to select or deselect all of the design
parts in the list.
 Print the list of design parts by clicking .
 Save the list of design parts as comma-separated values by clicking .
 Sort the design parts by clicking the column headings.

Defining Design Parts

How to Define Design Parts

Purpose Follow this procedure to define a new design part beneath the selected design part (the
parent).

When you create a new design part, a breakdown relationship forms between it and the
parent design part. The new design part automatically inherits the role assignments from
its parent, unless you make explicit role assignments on that design part. See "How to
Assign Roles" on page 98 for instructions on how to assign roles to a design part.
PRIVILEGES Create design part

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To define a new design part:

1 From the Design Part Structure main window, select an existing design part to be the
parent of the new design part.

2 Click the New button: and select Part. The New Design Part dialog box
appears.

3 Enter a name for the design part in the Design Part ID field.
NOTE You cannot enter a part ID that contains a colon character “:”.

4 Select a design part type from the Design Part Category list.

5 Change the Variant or PCS default values if necessary.

6 Enter a description of the new design part in the Description field.

7 Click the Attributes tab to specify values for any user-defined attributes for the design
part.

8 Click OK to create the new design part.

How to Define Design Part Variants

Purpose Follow this procedure to define a new variant of an existing design part. You can use a
variant to represent an alternative implementation of a design part or item. For example,
a team might develop a product that has two different markets, American and European.
To represent those markets, the team creates a set of design part variants specific to each
market.

When you define a variant, it will appear at the same level as the original design part with
the same part ID and PCS value. For example:
PAYROLL:REPORTS.A;1 (original)
PAYROLL:REPORTS.EUROPEAN;1 (variant)
PAYROLL:REPORTS.USA;1 (variant)

Once you've defined a variant, you can operate on it like any other design part.
PRIVILEGES Create design part

To define a design part variant:

1 From the Design Part Structure main window, select the design part from which you
want to create a new variant.

2 Click the New button: and select Variant. The New Variant dialog box appears.

3 Enter a name for the variant in the Variant ID field.

4 Optionally, enter a description of the variant in the Description field.

5 Click the Attributes tab to specify values for any user-defined attributes for the
variant.

6 Click OK to create the new variant.

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How to Manage Design Part Usage Relationships

Purpose Follow this procedure to define a usage relationship between two design parts. You define
a usage relationship in order to reuse a design part in another part of the design
structure. Usage relationships may be important when building configurations and
baselines.
NOTE If you want to include usage relationships in a baseline, be sure to create the
usage relationships before building the baseline.

You can break the usage relationship by removing the used design part from the parent
design part.
PRIVILEGES Relate design part to design part

To create a usage relationship between design parts:

1 From the Design Part Structure main window, select the design part for which you
want to create a usage relationship.

2 Click the Relate button: . The Relate To dialog box appears.

3 Do one of the following:

 Enter the design part that you want to relate in the text field.
 Click the browse button: and complete the Select Design Part wizard.

4 Click Yes to create the relationship.

To break a usage relationship between design parts:

1 From the Design Part Structure, select the design part from which you want to break
a usage relationship.

2 Click the Unrelate button: . The Unrelate From dialog box appears.

3 Select the design part(s) that you want to remove from the selected design part from
the Used Parts list.

4 Click OK to remove the relationship(s).

Modifying Design Parts

How to Edit Design Parts

Purpose Follow this procedure to change a design part's description or attribute values.
PRIVILEGES
Update Design Part
Rename Design Part

To edit a design part:

1 From the Design Part Structure main window, select the design part you want to edit.

2 Click the Edit button: on the Design Part Details section. The Edit Design Part
dialog box appears.

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3 Change the Design part ID or Description field on the General tab or any of the
attribute values on the Attributes tab.

4 Click OK to save the changes.

How to Update the PCS

Purpose Follow this procedure to change the part change status (PCS) for a selected design part.
The PCS represents the version number of the design part.

Updating a PCS is not a commonly performed operation. Typically you would use this
command when you want to work on a new version of a design part.
PRIVILEGES Update Design Part

To update a design part's PCS:

1 From the Design Part Structure window, select the design part that you want to
update.

2 In the Design Part Details section, click the PCS button: . The Update PCS dialog
box appears.

3 Enter the new value for the PCS in the New PCS field.

4 Enter a new description for the design part in the Description field, if necessary.

5 Click Yes to update the PCS.

How to Move Design Parts

Purpose Follow this procedure to move a design part to a new location in the design structure
beneath a new parent. When you move a design part, its child design parts are moved as
well.

By moving a design part, note that you are creating a new breakdown relationship
between the design part and its new parent.
PRIVILEGES Relate Design Part to Design Part

Constraints  The design part to be moved and the new parent design part must not be suspended.
 You cannot move a design part to another product.
 The design part must not have any open requests related to it.

To move a design part:

1 From the Design Part Structure window, select the design part you want to move.

2 Click the Move button: . The Move Design Part dialog box appears.

3 Select the design part under which you want to move the design part from the New
Parent Design Part list.

4 Click Yes to move the design part.

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How to Delete Design Parts

Purpose Follow this procedure to remove a design part from the design structure. This procedure
also deletes a design part's audit history.

Deleting design parts is not a commonly performed operation. Typically you would use
this command for design parts that have been created in error or have never been used.
PRIVILEGES Delete Design Part
NOTE You cannot delete a top-level design part or variant within a product.

Constraints To be deleted, the design part must not:

 Be the top-level design part or its variant within the product.
 Be referenced by any requests.
 Have any children design parts.
 Own any items.
 Exist in any baseline.

To delete a design part:

1 From the Design Part Structure main window, select the design part you want to
delete.

2 Click the Delete button: .

3 Confirm that you want to delete the design part by clicking Yes in the Delete dialog
box.

How to Suspend Design Parts

Purpose Follow this procedure to suspend a design part from the design structure. When you
suspend a design part, you will still be able to view it in the design structure but will not
be able to operate on it.

Suspending design parts is not a frequently performed operation. Typically you would use
this command for design parts that are no longer used or required.
PRIVILEGES Suspend Design Part

To suspend a design part:

1 From the Design Part Structure main window, select the design part you want to
suspend.

2 Click the Suspend button:

3 Confirm that you want to suspend the design part by clicking Yes in the Suspend
dialog box.

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124 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Chapter 6
Product Definitions

In this Chapter

About Product Definition 126

Product Definitions Main Window 126
Defining Products 127

Process Modeling User's Guide 125

Chapter 6 Product Definitions

About Product Definition

Purpose Dimensions CM Product Definition allows you to:
 Create a new product based on an existing product.
 View, edit, and delete existing products.
 Assign Product Manager, Change Manager, and Parts Controller roles for a product to
Dimensions CM users.

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Product Administration | Product Definitions

Product Definitions Main Window

The Product Definitions main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the program's toolbar to help you carry out various tasks. See
Product Definitions Menu Area on page 126.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from a list of product definitions. See
Product Definitions Navigation Area on page 126.
 Content area: Displays details about the selected product definition or a summary of
all products. See Product Definitions Content Area on page 127.
 Status area: Displays log in details. See The Status Area on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

Product Definitions Menu Area

The menu area displays the following toolbar buttons:

Button Function
Define a new product using the New Product dialog box.

Delete the selected product(s).

Product Definitions Navigation Area

The navigation area displays the products that exist in the base database. You can:
 Select a product: to view associated details in the content area and perform
actions on the product.
 Select the top-level icon: to view a summary of all products in the content
area.

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Product Definitions Content Area

When you select a product, you can edit it by clicking the Edit button: .

When you select the top-level icon: , you can do the following in the content
area:
 Select a product to edit or delete it. Click to select or deselect all of the products in
the list.
 Print the list of products by clicking .
 Save the list of products as comma-separated values by clicking .
 Sort the products by clicking the column headings.

Defining Products

How to Define Products

Purpose Follow this procedure to define a new product in the base database. When creating a new
product, you must assign a registered Dimensions CM user to the Product Manager role,
and can additionally assign users to the Change Manager and Parts Controller roles. Refer
to "Managing Users and Groups" on page 88 for details on how to register new users.

When you create a new product, you use an existing product, or the $GENERIC product to
base its details on. Object type definitions and privilege assignments are copied from that
product.

You can also define values for any product attributes that appear on the Attributes tab.
These attributes must have been previously defined for the product selected in the Based
On field. To define product attributes, use the Administration Console | Object Type
Definitions | Attribute function and assign attributes to the PRODUCT design part
category.
PRIVILEGES Create Product

To define a product:

1 From the Product Definitions main window, click the New button: . The New
Product dialog box appears.

2 Specify a unique name for the product in the Product ID field.

3 Select the product that you want to use as the basis for the new product from the
Based On list.

4 Enter a description of the product in the Description field.

5 Change the Variant or PCS (revision no.) default values if necessary.

6 Select a user to be the product manager for the product from the Product Manager
list.

7 Optionally, complete the rest of the fields in the dialog box.

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8 Click the Attributes tab to specify values for any user-defined attributes for the
product.

9 Click OK to add the new product.

How to Modify Products

Purpose Follow this procedure to:
 Edit the description and attributes associated with a product.
 Delete a product.
PRIVILEGES Modify Product, Delete Product
NOTE When you delete a product, Dimensions deletes all information about it from the
database and removes any reference to a product's items from within a project/stream.
However, the contents of the libraries themselves are left intact. The Tool Manager can
back up or delete these files using standard operating system commands.

To edit or delete a product:

1 From the Product Definitions main window, select the product that you want to edit or
delete.

2 Do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

Edit a product 1 Click the Edit button:

2 In the Edit Product dialog box, you can change the

Description field and any user-defined attributes.
Delete a product 1 Click the Delete button:
.

2 Confirm that you want to delete the product(s) by

clicking Yes.
NOTE If you are attempting to delete your current product,
you will receive an error message. To delete it, you will need
to switch to another product by clicking the product link in the
status bar.
After you delete the product, you will be reminded to delete
the library files using operating system commands.

128 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Chapter 7
Valid Sets

In this Chapter

About Valid Sets Management 130

Valid Sets Main Window 130
Defining Valid Sets 131

Process Modeling User's Guide 129

Chapter 7 Valid Sets

About Valid Sets Management

Purpose The management of valid sets in the Serena® Dimensions® CM Administration Console
allows you to:
 Define and modify valid sets.
 Assign valid sets to user-defined attributes.

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Product Administration | Valid Set Definitions

For more For a description of valid sets, see Valid Sets of Values on page 43.
information

Valid Sets Main Window

The Valid Sets main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the program's toolbar to help you carry out various tasks. See
Valid Sets Menu Area on page 130.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from a list of valid sets. See Valid
Sets Navigation Area on page 130.
 Content area: Displays details about the selected valid set or a summary of all valid
sets. See Valid Sets Content Area on page 131.
 Status area: Displays log in details. Status area: Displays log in details. See The
Status Area on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

Valid Sets Menu Area

The menu area displays the following toolbar buttons:

Button Function
Define a new valid set using the New Valid Set dialog box.

Copy details of the selected valid set to create a new valid set
using the Copy Valid Set dialog box.

Delete the selected valid set(s).

Valid Sets Navigation Area

The navigation area displays the valid sets that exist in the product. You can:

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 Defining Valid Sets

 Select a valid set to view associated details in the content area or perform actions on
the valid set.
 Select the top-level icon: to view a summary of all valid sets in the
content area.

Valid Sets Content Area

When you select a valid set, the content area displays the following sections:
 General: Displays details about the current valid set. From this section you can edit
the general details of the valid set as well as the values of the valid set.
 Values: Displays the values that have been defined for the valid set. From this
section you can edit the values of the valid set as well as the general details of the
valid set.
 Used By: Displays details about the attributes that have been assigned to the valid
set. From this section you can assign and unassign the valid set from an attribute.

When you select the top-level icon: , the content area displays a summary of
the valid sets in the current product. You can:
 Select a valid set to edit, copy, or delete it. Click to select or deselect all of the valid
sets in the list.
 Print the list of valid sets by clicking
 Save the list of valid sets as comma-separated values by clicking
 Sort the valid sets by clicking the column headings.

Defining Valid Sets

How to Define Valid Sets

Purpose Follow this procedure to define a new valid set within the current product. You can then
assign the valid set to one or more attributes.
PRIVILEGES Manage Valid Sets

To define a valid set:

1 From the Valid Sets main window, click the New button: . The New Valid Set
dialog box appears.

2 Enter a name for the valid set in the Valid Set Name field.

3 Enter the number of columns that you want the valid set to be comprised of in the No.
of Cols field.

4 Optionally, complete the rest of the fields in the dialog box.

5 Click the Values tab. The Values tab displays the number of columns that you specified
on the previous tab.
You can return to the General tab to change the number of columns that appear.

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6 Enter attribute values in the table cells, clicking:

 to insert a new row below the current row.
 to insert a new row above the current row.
 to delete the current row.

7 Click OK to add the valid set.

How to Modify Valid Sets

Purpose Follow this procedure to:
 Edit the details or values specified for a valid set.
 Copy a valid set so that you can reuse all or most of the valid set's values for a new
valid set.
 Delete a valid set.
NOTE You can delete values from a valid set while they are still in use in existing
attributes.
PRIVILEGES Manage Valid Sets

To edit, copy, or delete a valid set:

1 From the Valid Sets window, select the valid set that you want to edit, copy, or delete.

2 Do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

Edit a valid set's 1 Click the Edit button: in the General or Values
general details or section.
values
2 In the Edit Valid Set dialog box, click the General tab to
change the valid set's details or the Values tab to change
the valid set's values.
NOTE You can change any of the valid set's details except
Valid Set Name.
Copy a valid set 1 Click the Copy button: .

2 In the Copy Valid Set dialog box, enter the name of the
new valid set in the Valid Set Name field.

3 Optionally, complete the rest of the fields in the dialog

box.
Delete a valid set 1 Click the Delete button: .

2 Confirm that you want to delete the valid set(s) by

clicking Yes.

How to Assign Valid Sets to Attributes

Purpose Once you've defined a valid set, you can assign it to one or more attributes. This restricts
the values of an attribute to those defined in the valid set.

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PRIVILEGES Manage Valid Sets

Constraint To assign a valid set to a user attribute, the valid set must be defined in the $GENERIC
product.

To assign a valid set to an attribute:

1 From the Valid Sets main window, select the valid set that you want to assign to an
attribute.

2 On the Used By section, click the Assign Valid Set button: . The Assign Valid Set
wizard appears.

3 Select the object class that the attribute belongs to from the Object Class list.

4 Select a particular type in the object class from the Object Type list.

5 Click the Next button.

6 For single-column valid sets, select the name of the attribute to which you want to
assign the valid set from the Attribute list.

7 For multi-column valid sets, do the following:

a Select the column number that you want to use as the set of values for the
attribute in the Valid Set Column field.
b Select the attribute to which you want to assign the valid set from the Attribute
list.
c Select an existing validation group name from the Validation Group Name list,
or enter the name of a new one.
d Select the Auto populate option if you want to automatically populate the
attribute if a single match against the valid set is found.

8 Click Finish to assign the valid set to the attribute.

To unassign a valid set from an attribute:

1 From the Valid Sets main window, select the valid set that you want to unassign.

2 On the Used By section, select the row with the attribute from which you want to
unassign the valid set.

3 Click the Unassign Valid Set button: and confirm that you want to unassign the
valid set.

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134 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Chapter 8
Object Type Definitions

In this Chapter

About Object Type Definitions 136

Object Types Main Window 137
General Object Type Details 141
Assigned Attribute Details 148
Assigned Lifecycle Details 153
Relationship Names for Items and Requests 155
Valid Relationships for Items and Requests 158
Prime Mappings for Requests 164
Templates for Items and Requests 166
Change Management Rules 170
Item Libraries 174

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Chapter 8 Object Type Definitions

About Object Type Definitions

Purpose The management of Object Type Definitions within the Serena® Dimensions® CM
Administration Console allows you to:
 List the existing object types for a particular object class (item, request, baseline,
design part, or project) for the current product.
 Define a new object type for a particular object class.
 Delete an object type of a particular object class.
 Specify additional options for item types, request types, and project types.
 Assign an existing lifecycle to an object type.
 View and edit the associated lifecycle details for a specific object type using the Edit
Lifecycle dialog box. This is described in About Editing Lifecycles on page 191.
 List, define or update attributes for a particular object type.
 Define item libraries for the current product and also for specific item types within the
product.
 Define templates for items and requests.
 Specify valid change management relationships between request types and other
request or item types for the current product.
 Add, edit or delete item to item relationships or request to request relationships
within the base database (i.e. across products).
 Add, edit or delete the attribute mappings used for the priming of requests for the
current product or across products.
 Specify the change management rules for controlling the development of item or
request types for the current product.

As there are numerous functions. Object Type Definitions is divided into a number of
sections that are presented in different tabs within the content area. More detailed
descriptions of these functions will be given in each section.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

Constraints  Object types (item types, request types, baseline types, design part categories, and
project types) cannot be deleted if there are any instances of that type existing within
the product. For request types, this constraint applies to requests located in both the
main and secondary catalogs.
 An item type or request type cannot be deleted if its rules are still enabled (see What
are Change Management Rules? on page 170).
NOTE An object type is defined in relation to the currently selected product. If you want
to set up an object class of the same type in different products you will need to define
them separately in each product.

When you create a new product based on an existing product, the object type definitions
are copied to the new product. You can also set up object types by setting your current
product to the $GENERIC product. Doing this enables you to use the $GENERIC product
as a template for object types when creating a new product.

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Configuration Object Management | Object Type

Definitions

136 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Object Types Main Window

Object Types Main Window

The Object Types main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays a toolbar with buttons to carry out various functions. See Object
Types Main Window Toolbar on page 137.
 Navigation area: Displays a list of all the object types in the product for the selected
object class (item, request, baseline, design part, or project). See Object Types
Navigation Area on page 137.
 Content area: If no object type is selected, this contains a table listing details of all
the object types for the product. See Object Types Content Area on page 138. If an
object type is selected in the navigation area, the content area displays specific
details for that object type. Which details are displayed depends on which tab has
been selected. See About the Object Type Definitions Sections on page 138.
 Status area: Displays log in details. See The Status Area on page 80

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

Object Types Main Window Toolbar

The Object Types toolbar displays the following buttons:

Button Function
Allows you to create a new object type using the New Object Type
dialog box.

Allows you to create a new object type by copying the details from
the selected object type using the Copy Object Type dialog box.

Allows you to delete the selected object type(s).

Allows you to copy the attributes and/or their attribute rules from
another object type using the Copy Type Attributes dialog box.

Object Types Navigation Area

The navigation area contains the following:
 Object Types: A list of all the types for the class of object (item, request, baseline,
design part, or project) selected in the Object Class field.
 Object Class: A list selection from which you choose the class of object whose types
appear in the Object Types list. If you made a specific selection under Object Type
Definitions from the main Dimensions Administration Console, this field will be set to
that selection. The selections are:
 Change Doc Types
 Item Types

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Chapter 8 Object Type Definitions

 Baseline Types
 Design Part Categories
 Project Types

Object Types Content Area

When you select an object type in the navigation area, the content area displays details
for that object type. Object type details are grouped into a number of sections displayed
within different tabs. These groupings are discussed in About the Object Type Definitions
Sections on page 138.

When the top level node, e.g: is selected in the navigation area, the
content area displays a table of details for all the object types in product for the selected
object class. It contains the following:
 A button to edit the selected object type's description, and also to edit various
options for item and request types.
 A button to display the list of object types as a separate HTML page to print or
save.
 A button to display the list of object types as comma-separated values to save as
a text file.
 Column headings for the object type fields. Clicking the icon selects or deselects
all the object types in the list. You can change the sort order of the list by clicking the
column headings.
 A table of object types with the following details:

Field Description
A check box to select or deselect the object type(s) for the
Check Box operations performed by the toolbar buttons.
The name of the object type. Clicking on the link will open the Edit
Name Object Type dialog box for that object type.
Lifecycle The lifecycle that is assigned to the object type.
Description The description of the object type.

About the Object Type Definitions Sections

Object type details within Object Type Definitions are grouped into a number of sections
displayed in different tabs. When an object type has been selected in the navigation area,
one of these sections is displayed in the content area. Clicking another tab at the top of
the content area brings that section to the front, allowing you to switch to another set of
object type details.

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Each section deals with a particular aspect of the object type, and may or may not exist
for a particular object class. It contains a toolbar enabling you to perform certain actions
on those details. Each is discussed under its own topic, listed below:

Content Area Object

Section Classes For information see...
General All General Section for Object Types on page 146.
Attributes All Attributes Section on page 149.
Lifecycle All Lifecycle Section on page 153.
Relationship Items, Change Relationship Names Section for Items on page 155
Names Docs or
Relationship Names Section for Requests.
Valid Items, Change Valid Relationships Section for Items on page 160
Relationships Docs or
Valid Relationships Section for Requests.
Prime Mapping Change Docs Prime Mappings Section on page 164.
CM Rules Items, Change CM Rules Section for Items on page 171 or
Docs CM Rules Section for Requests.
Templates Items, Change Templates Section for Items and Requests on page
Docs 167.
Item Library Items Item Libraries Section on page 177.

How to Add a New Object Type

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create a new type of item, request, design part,
baseline, or project in the current product. You can either create a new object type from
scratch, or you can base it on an existing object type. See How to Copy an Object Type on
page 140.

When you create an object type from scratch, you create it with a name, description and
general options. You can subsequently assign attributes, a lifecycle, and define other
properties using the various sections within Object Type Definitions.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To add a new object type:

1 From the Object Types main window, click the New button:
The New Object Type dialog box appears.

2 On the General tab, enter the name and description for the new object type in the
Name and Description fields.

3 Optionally, associate a lifecycle with the object type.

4 If you are creating an item or request type, choose an appropriate option for the
Closest Functional Match field based on the descriptions and the purpose for which
you intend to use it.

5 Complete the Options tab as necessary.

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Chapter 8 Object Type Definitions

6 If you want the dialog box to remain open after adding the new object type, select the
Keep Open check box.

7 Click OK to commit the details.

How to Copy an Object Type

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create a new type of item, request, design part,
baseline, or project in the current product based on the details from an existing object
type.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To copy an object type:

1 In the Object Types main window, select the object type whose details you want to
copy in the navigation area or the content area.

2 Click the Copy button: The Copy Object Type dialog box appears.

3 On the General tab, enter the name of the new object type in the Name field, and
optionally change the existing description in the Description field.

4 Under the Extended Copy options, choose the additional sets of details you want to
copy from the selected object type to the new object type.

5 If you are copying an item, request, or project type, complete the Options tab as
necessary.

6 If you want the dialog box to remain open after copying the object type, select the
Keep Open check box.

7 Click OK to commit the details.

How to Delete an Object Type

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete an object type that you created in error or
is no longer required.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types
NOTE You cannot delete the baseline type BASELINE.

Constraints  Object types (item types, request types, baseline types, design part categories, and
project types) cannot be deleted if there are any instances of that type existing within
the product. For request types, this constraint applies to requests located in both the
main and secondary catalogs.
 An item type or request type cannot be deleted if its Change Management rules are
still enabled.

To delete an object type:

1 In the Object Types main window, select the object type you want to delete in the
navigation area or the content area.

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 General Object Type Details

2 Click the Delete button: . This displays a dialog box asking you if you are sure
you want to delete the object type.

3 Click Yes.

How to Copy Attributes and Rules

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to copy the attributes and/or their associated rules
from one object type to another.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

Constraints Only attributes that are not already defined for the destination object type will be copied.

Any attributes rules currently defined for the destination object type will be deleted before
those for the source object type are copied. Also, attribute rules are defined in
relationship to lifecycle rules and states; therefore, only those rules involving attributes
and lifecycle states relevant to the object type will be copied.

To copy attributes and rules:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the object type to which you want to copy
the attributes and/or rules in the navigation area.

2 Click the Copy Attributes button: in the content area. The Copy Type
Attributes dialog box appears.

3 Select the source product and object type that you want to copy from the Type lists.

4 Select the Copy Attribute Definitions check box and/or Copy Update Rules check
box to specify which details you want to copy.

5 Click OK to copy the details.

General Object Type Details

About the General Object Type Details

Purpose In the General section of Object Type Definitions, you can edit the following details for an
object type:
 The Description given to the object type.
 For item, request, and project types, a number of options that determine their
behavior. For details of these, see:
• About Item Type Options on page 142.
• About Request Type Options on page 143.
• About Project Type Options on page 144.

You set these details when you first create the object type, and they can be displayed and
edited using the General section.

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About Item Type Options

The Item Type Options are a group of settings that determine the behavior of a particular
type of item. They are represented as check boxes that you check to enable them. You
can set or unset them in the Options tab of the New/Copy/Edit Object Type dialog boxes.
The options for item types are:

Option Description
When set, users can check out different or the same revisions of an
item in parallel provided that the project owning the item also has
Allow Parallel the Parallel Checkout option set. (See "About Project Type
Checkout Options" on page 144.)
When set, users must enter a comment concerning the reason for
the item revision update before Dimensions will permit the item
revision to be created, updated or checked in. This constraint applies
Require User when creating, updating, editing or checking in an item revision, or
Comment merging two item revisions.
When set, an item identifier is generated automatically when an
Auto-generate item is created. In this case Dimensions will generate a unique
Item identifier. Note that the identifier will be automatically generated
Identifier even if the user enters a value.
When set, item header substitution is enabled when users get a
Enable Item copy of an item or browse an item (but not when checking one out).
Header See Item Format Templates on page 304 for more details concerning
Substitution item header substitution.
When set, either the originator or all users (determined by the
Don't Force Restrict previous Option to Originator check box) can overwrite
new Revision an item at its initial lifecycle state without changing the revision.
Number on Note: When a request is used to apply refactoring changes, new
Checkin revisions are always created.
Restrict When the Don't Force new Revision Number on Checkin check
previous box is set, this check box can be set or unset to specify, respectively,
Option to that either all users or only the originator can perform such
Originator overwrites.

When set, files will be stored in compressed form in the Dimensions

item library. For more details, see About Library File Compression on
page 143.
NOTE The compress storage option is not available for delta library
storage.options:item types;item type:options
Compress CAUTION! It is strongly recommended that compression is not
Library File used for storing text items.
If set, when Dimensions receives a check in item request, it checks
that the checksum for the item revision in the item library is
different from its last value. This ensures that you cannot check in
exactly the same item revision that was checked out; it forces you to
change checked out item revisions before you check them in.
NOTE: This setting does not affect the web client. In the web
Check in only client, this behavior can be achieved for all item types on a per-user
changed basis in the Preferences dialog box by by deselecting Check in for
revisions the If workfile unchanged option.

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Option Description
When set, the user can action an item to a new, non-terminal state
only if a primary user exists for that lifecycle state.
Enforce If primary role function is assigned to a user, then leader role
Primary Role function (described below) cannot be assigned to the same user i.e.
Constraint primary role and leader role functions are mutually exclusive.
When set, the user can action an item to a new, non-terminal state
only if at least one leader user exists for that lifecycle state.
Enforce If leader role function is assigned to a user, then primary role
Leader Role function (described above) cannot be assigned to the same user i.e.
Constraint leader role and primary role functions are mutually exclusive.
Use the standard Dimensions Algorithm for determining the
numbering of item revisions when a new branch is created. This
means that the first revision of the first new branch of an item will
have ".1.0" appended. For example, a new branch created from
revision 2.1 would be 2.1.1.0 (if a named branch is not used) and
Use standard the next revision in this new branch would be 2.1.1.1, etc.
level If this option is not set, the first revision in a new branch will have
numbering ".1" appended. For example, a new branch created from revision 2.1
scheme for would be 2.1.1 (if a named branch is not used) and the next revision
revisioning in this new branch would be 2.1.2, etc.

About Library File Compression

Dimensions CM provides a file compression utility that you can enable for an item type.
This causes all files of that item type to be stored in compressed form in the relevant item
library. When a user browses, gets a copy, or checks out a compressed file,
Dimensions CM uncompresses the file. The compression used is affected by the settings of
the parameters DM_COMPRESS_FILES_ON_TRANSFER and
DM_COMPRESSION_MIN_FILELENGTH in the dm.cfg file. See the Administrator's Guide
for more details.

For example, you might want to store all binary files in compressed form.
NOTE You cannot enable file compression for delta libraries.

The compress and uncompress commands used by Dimensions CM by default are the
standard Lempel-Ziv compress and uncompress utilities. This default can be overridden
by setting the parameters described below. However, if you do set these parameters to
use another compression utility, it must be consistently used for all such item types.
 UNIX
The parameters COMPRESS and UNCOMPRESS in the Dimensions CM initialization file
$DM_PROG/dm.cfg to suitable settings.
 Windows
The parameters DM_PARAM_COMPRESS and DM_PARAM_UNCOMPRESS in the
Dimensions initialization file %DM_ROOT%\dm.cfg to suitable settings.

About Request Type Options

The Request Type Options are a group of settings that determine the behavior of that type
of request. They are represented as check boxes that you check to enable them. They can

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be set or unset in the Options tab of the New/Copy/Edit Object Type dialog boxes. The
options for request types are:

Option Description
When set, users can create a request of this type only if they
have the Create Request privilege. By default this means they
requre a role on the product to have this privilege. Note
Create Requires however, that users can also be granted the Create privilege for
Role requests under General Grant Rules, "Grant to all users".
When set, request attribute and action description history is
saved when actioning to a new state.
If set, the user can browse a request and view it at any
particular action number.
If not set, the user can only browse the request at the current
Save history action number.
Notify Originator When set, Dimensions CM automatically e-mails the request's
on Close originator when a request is actioned to its end lifecycle state.
When set, the user can action a request to a new state only if a
primary user exists for that state.
If primary role function is assigned to a user, then leader role
function (described below) cannot be assigned to the same
Enforce Primary user i.e. primary role and leader role functions are mutually
Role Constraint exclusive.
When set, the user can action a request to a new state only if
at least one leader user exists for that state.
If leader role function is assigned to a user, then primary role
function (described above) cannot be assigned to the same
Enforce Leader user i.e. leader role and primary role functions are mutually
Role Constraint exclusive.
This option affects the way that roles are calculated for the
Request type. When the option is set, the roles will be
calculated on a request of that type by including the role
assignments on all the design parts to which it is related.
When the option is not set, role assignments will be taken only
from the common ancestor design part for all the related
Take roles from all design parts.
affected design For a more detailed explanation, see "How do I Assign Roles to
parts Requests?" on page 54.
Disabled request When set, users cannot create any new requests of this type.
type

About Project Type Options

Project type options determine the behavior of that type of project. They can be set in the
Options tab of the New/Copy/Edit Object Type dialog boxes. The options for projects are
as follows.
NOTE
These are default settings for a new project of this type. You can override these.

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NOTE For streams, which are actually a project of type STREAM, some of these options
are grayed-out, and cannot be changed.

Field Description
When set, the numbering of item revisions is
determined by incrementing the last numeral. For
example, if an item is at revision 5, subsequent
revisions would be 6, 7, and so on.
When the option is not set, item revisions are
incremented by appending a period before the new
number. For example, if a branch is created from
revision 5, would be 5.1, 5.2, and so on.
For streams, by default this option is not set, and
Project is trunk cannot be changed.
When set, new revisions are automatically generated
when an item is edited or updated.
When the option is not set, new revisions are not
automatically generated. The user is asked to supply a
revision ID.
Automatic revision For streams, by default this option is set, and cannot
generation be changed.
When set, an item revision in this project can be
checked out by multiple users at a time.
Note that:
 This will be overidden by the Allow Parallel
Checkout setting for an individual item type.
(See "About Item Type Options" on page 142.)
 This setting will only apply to newly created
projects of this type. To change this option for
existing projects you will need to use the UWA
command. (See the Command-Line Reference
Guide for details.)
For streams, by default this option is not set, and
Parallel check out cannot be changed.

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Field Description
This deployment related option determines whether
the stage of item revisions is "local" to this project/
stream or can be affected by changes in other
projects/streams. (Note that this means that the same
item revision could be at a different stage in different
projects/streams.)
 If you select this option, the stage of an item
revision in this project/stream is not affected
when the same item revision is promoted/
demoted to another stage as a result of activities
in any other project/stream.
 If you do not select this option, when an item
revision in any project/stream is promoted/
demoted to another stage, then the stage of the
same item revision in this project/stream will also
be updated.
Note: The stage of an item revision can also be
changed when it is actioned if its lifecycle states have
Use local stages been mapped to stages in the GSL.
When set, a project of this type will have the option for
CM rules for items in that project set to Always
disabled by default when it is created (but you can
override this). When this option is set for a specific
project, item operations in that project will act as if CM
Rules were not enabled for any item types or request
types.
Always disable CM Rules
When set, a project of this type will have the option for
CM rules for items in that project set to Always
enabled by default when it is created (but you can
override this). When this option is set for a specific
project, item operations in that project will act as if CM
Rules were enabled for all item types and request
types. For details of these CM Rules, see "CM Rules
Section for Items" on page 171.
Always enable CM Rules
When set, a project of this type will have the option
Request required to refactor set by default when it
is created. When this option is set, the user will be
required to provide a request ID when making any
Require change control refactoring changes to the project, such as moving or
when refactoring renaming items or project folders.

NOTE If neither Always disable CM rules nor Always enable CM rules is set, the
default behavior is for items in a project to follow the CM rules as defined for their item
types. For details, see "CM Rules Section for Items" on page 171.

General Section for Object Types

The General section of the content area displays basic details for the selected object type,
and consists of:
 A Toolbar

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 Details for the selected object type.

The Toolbar contains buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to edit the General details for the object type using the Edit
Object Type dialog box.

The details displayed for the object type are:

Field Description
Name The name that identifies the object type.
Description The description of the object type.
Lifecycle The Lifecycle ID associated with this object type.
Enabled The options that have been set for the object type, indicated by a
Options checked box.
(Only present See "About Item Type Options" on page 142, "About Request Type
for items, Options" on page 143, and "About Project Type Options" on page 144
requests, and for a list and descriptions of these.
projects)

General section with an item selected screen shot???

How to Edit an Object Type

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit the general details of an item, request,
design part, baseline, or project type.

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PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To edit an object type:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the object type you want to edit in the
navigation area.

2 Click the General tab in the content area.

3 Click the button in the content area. This will display the Edit Object Type dialog
box.

4 On the General tab, update the Description field if required.

5 Optionally, if you are editing an item, request, or project type, update the Options tab
for item types, request types, or project types.

6 Click OK to commit the changes.

Assigned Attribute Details

About the Assigned Attribute Details

Purpose The following functions are provided for the attributes of an object type via the Assigned
Attributes section:
 List, define or update attributes for a particular object type for a particular product.
 Assign and unassign the attributes for an object type.
 Associate valid sets of values (single- or multi-column) for object attributes in the
current product. Constraining certain attributes to valid sets is done for particular
object types only.
 Set default values, help text, valid set usage, and so on for attributes, and to arrange
any of these values into multi-row multi-column blocks.
NOTE For individual objects this function specifies the existence of particular
user-defined attributes, but does not assign values to them (other than default
values). You specify attribute values for a specific object using the Dimensions web
client or Dimensions desktop client.
 Specify rules on updating attributes and role sections.
 Copy existing rules and role sections from elsewhere.

Constraints In addition to the Tool Manager and Product Manager, who can update attributes for all
object classes, Change Managers can update request attributes and Part Managers can
update design part attributes.

Reserved Attribute Names

There are a number of existing system-defined attributes defined for the various object
types. Do not use these when you define new attributes. These reserved attribute names
are:

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Item attributes: FORMAT, FILENAME, FILE_VERSION, ITEM_SPEC_UID, DIR_UID,

LIB_FILENAME, LIB_CHECKSUM, LIB_FILE_LENGTH, CHECKSUM, FILE_LENGTH,
EDITABLE, COMPRESSED, DIRPATH, USER_FILENAME, REVISED_DATE, SENDER_ID,
SHARED_BRANCH, STAGE_ID, EXTERNAL, CREATE_DATE, ORIGINATOR, PHASE,
LIFECYCLE

Design part attributes: PARTNO, LOCALNO, PHASE, ORIGINATOR

Request attributes: SENDER_ID, STAGE_ID, CHSEQ, CREATE_DATE, ORIGINATOR,

NO_ACTIONS, SUPER_TYPE, PHASE, UPDATE_DATE, LIFECYCLE,
DELEGATED_OWNER_SITE, REFERENCE_ONLY, OWNER_SITE, LOCKED

User attributes: PRIVILEGE, EMAIL, BASEDB, SITE, DEPT, PHONE, FULL_USERNAME,

GROUP

Baseline attributes: SENDER_ID, STAGE_ID, BASELINE_METHOD, TEMPLATE,

BASELINE_TYPE, CREATE_DATE, ORIGINATOR, PHASE

Attributes Section
The Assigned Attributes section of the content area displays details for the attributes that
are assigned to the object type selected in the navigation area, and consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to assign another attribute to the object type using the Assign
Attribute dialog box. It displays two options:
 Single Field. This displays the Assign Attribute dialog box.
 Multi Field. This displays the Assign Block Attribute dialog box.
Allows you to edit the details of the selected attribute. This displays the
Edit Attribute dialog box corresponding to the type of attribute:
 Single Field. This displays the Edit Attribute dialog box.
 Multi Field. This displays the Edit Block Attribute dialog box.
Allows you to unassign an attribute from the object type.

 A table of details for each attribute assigned to the object type:

Field Description
Check box A check box to select the attribute.
Name The name that identifies the attribute.
The type of attribute (SS = single field, single value; SM = single
Type field, multi-value; MM = multi-field, multi-value).
The name of the block attribute (if any) that this attribute is
Grouped by associated with.
Prompt The field label which is displayed for the attribute.
Data Type The format: char (character), date, or number.
Length The length that is displayed for the attribute.

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Field Description
MaxLength The maximum number of characters this attribute can contain.
Whether the attribute is sensitive. This means that the user is
Is Sensitive required to re-enter their password when they attempt to update it.
Valid Set The valid set assigned to this attribute (if any).

Assigned Attributes section

How to Assign an Attribute to an Object Type

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to assign an attribute to a request type, item type,
baseline type, design part category, or project type. Note that you can assign attributes to
a product by assigning them to the PRODUCT design part category.

There are a total of 220 (Serena-Supplied Runtime RDBMS, Oracle 10g or 11g, or SQL
Server 2005 or 2008) attributes that can be declared for all single-valued and multivalued
attributes. For further details of database dependant schema limits, see the
Administrator's Guide.

You can either assign an existing attribute or create a new one.

PRIVILEGES Manage Attribute Definitions
NOTE Do not use the name of an existing system-defined attribute when you define a
new attribute. For a list of the reserved attribute names, see "Reserved Attribute Names"
on page 148.
NOTE The ability to add a prompt or help message does not function for the Title
Attribute for requests. Adding the prompt or help message will have no effect in the client
GUIs in this case for the Title attribute.

To assign an attribute:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the object type you want to assign an
attribute to in the navigation area.

2 Click the Attributes tab in the content area.

3 Click the button in the content area. This will display the options:
 Single Field
 Multi Field (block)

4 Choose the required option. The Assign Attribute dialog box or the Assign Block
Attribute dialog box appears.

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5 Enter a name for the attribute or attribute block in the Name field.

6 Enter a field label for the attribute or attribute block in the User prompt field.

7 For single-field attributes, follow these additional steps:

a If necessary, change the default value for the maximum character length allowed
in the Max length field.
b Select the format for the attribute's value from the Data type list.
c If necessary, change the default values for the display length and height of the
attribute in the Display length and Display height fields.
d Optionally, complete the rest of the fields in the dialog box. If you want the dialog
box to remain open, select the Keep Open check box.

8 If the Data type is date, and you want to define validation for the date range:
 Select before if you want to validate that the entered date must be before another
date attribute entered for the object type. Select the attribute from the list:

 Select after if you want to validate that the entered date should be after another
date attribute, and select the attribute from the list.
 Select Fixed range if you want to validate that the entered date should be
between two specified date.
• Use the date picker to select the from date and click the tick in the top right to
confirm it

• Use the date picker to select the to date.

 Select Relative range if you want to validate that the entered date should be
between two specified dates relative to the current date (at the time the date is
entered).
• Select + or - from the from list, and enter the number of days from the current
date.
• Select + or - from the to list, and enter the number of days from the current
date.

9 For block attributes, follow these additional steps:

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a Select whether you want users to be able to modify or delete rows from the Block
Update Type field.
b In the Attributes in Block fields, add existing single-field, multi-value attributes to
the block as necessary to form the multi-field multi-value (block) attribute.
NOTE If a block attribute contains multi-value (MVA) attributes with assigned
values defined as mandatory, each populated row must have values assigned to
those mandatory attributes when the user enters them. This default behavior is
different from previous releases. You can revert to the previous behavior by setting
the DM_MANDATORY_MVA_ANY_ROW parameter in the dm.cfg file. For details see
the Administrator's Guide.

10 Click OK to commit the details.

NOTE If you have set the Is sensitive option, you will be presented with an
Authentication Point dialog box. Enter your Dimensions CM password and click OK.

How to Unassign an Attribute from an Object Type

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to unassign an attribute from an object type.
PRIVILEGES Manage Attribute Definitions

To unassign an attribute:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the object type you want to unassign an
attribute from in the navigation area.

2 Click the Attributes tab in the content area.

3 Select the attribute you want to unassign in the content area.

4 Click the Delete button: in the content area. This displays a dialog box asking
you if you are sure you want to unassign the attribute.

5 Click the button.

How to Edit an Attribute

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit an attribute for an object type.
PRIVILEGES Manage Attribute Definitions

To edit an attribute:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the object type whose attribute you want
to edit in the navigation area.

2 Click the Attributes tab in the content area.

3 Select the attribute you want to edit in the Attributes list.

4 Click the button in the content area. The Edit Attribute or Edit Attribute Block
dialog box appears, depending on what type of attribute you selected.

5 Make changes in the dialog box as necessary.

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6 If you want the dialog box to remain open, select the Keep Open check box.

7 Click OK to commit the changes.

Assigned Lifecycle Details

About Assigning Lifecycles to Object Types

Purpose The majority of lifecycle operations are normally performed using the Lifecycles option
from the Administration Console main window. These functions are described in About
Lifecycle Management on page 182.

The lifecycle functions provided here enable you to:

 View the states and transitions of existing lifecycles as well as any associated
graphical images.
 Assign a lifecycle to a particular object type for a particular product.
 Edit the details of the lifecycle associated with an object type. This lifecycle may also
be currently used by a number of other object classes and types.
 Edit or delete transition and lifecycle state details for existing lifecycles.

Constraints Please refer to About Lifecycle Management on page 182 for details on constraints in the
use of lifecycles.

Lifecycle Section
The Assigned Lifecycle section of the content area displays details for the lifecycle that is
assigned to the object type, and consists of:
 A Lifecycle Details area. This consists of:
 A button. This allows you to assign a lifecycle to the object type using the
Assign Lifecycle dialog box.
 Details for the assigned lifecycle:

Field Description
Name The name that identifies the assigned lifecycle.
Description The description for the lifecycle.
Graphics The name of the graphic file (if any) associated with the lifecycle.
Used By A list of the object types that are assigned to this lifecycle.

 A Lifecycle Flow area. This consists of:

 A button. This allows you to edit the details of the assigned lifecycle,
including its transitions and states, using the Edit Lifecycle dialog box.
 A diagram showing the normal states in the lifecycle.

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Lifecycle section

How to Assign a Lifecycle to an Object Type

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to assign a lifecycle to an object type, change the
lifecycle assignment, or unassign the assigned lifecycle.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles
NOTE The lifecycle for a design part is set to the value LC_PART, and cannot be changed.

To assign a lifecycle:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the object type to which to you want to
assign a lifecycle in the navigation area.

2 Click the Lifecycle tab in the content area.

3 Click the Assign button: in the content area. The Assign Lifecycle dialog box
appears.

4 Do one of the following

If you want to... Then...

assign an existing Choose the name of the lifecycle from the Name list.
lifecycle or change the
assignment to another
existing lifecycle
unassign the currently Choose <None> from the Name list.
assigned lifecycle

5 Click OK.

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How to Edit an Object Type's Lifecycle

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit the details, states or transitions for the
lifecycle assigned to an object type.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

To edit a lifecycle:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the object type whose lifecycle you want
to edit in the navigation area.

2 Click the Lifecycle tab in the content area.

3 Click the button in the content area. The Edit Lifecycle dialog box appears.

4 See The Edit Lifecycle Dialog Box on page 191 for details of how to edit the states,
transitions and rules for the selected lifecycle.

5 When you have finished editing, click Close to return to the Object Types main
window.

Relationship Names for Items and Requests

About Relationship Names

Purpose Relationship names are used when assigning actual relationships between items and
items or requests and requests. Relationship names for request to item relationships are
system-defined only.

Dimensions provides functions to list, create, edit or delete item to item relationship
names or request to request relationship names within the base database (i.e. across
products).
PRIVILEGES Manage Item Relationship Names

Constraints This functionality is available for items and requests only.

Relationship Names Section for Items

The Relationship Names section of the content area for items displays details for all the
relationships between items and other items in the base database. It consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add a new item relationship name using the New
Relationship Name dialog box.
Allows you to edit an item relationship name using the Edit Relationship
Name dialog box.
Allows you to delete an item relationship name.

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 A table of details for each item-item relationship name defined in the base database:

Field Description
Check Box A check box to select the relationship name.
Name The name that identifies the relationship.
Description The description for the relationship name.
A list of the item types that have this relationship name assigned to
Used By them.

Relationship Names section for Items

Relationship Names Section for Requests

The Relationship Names section of the content area for requests displays details for all the
relationships types between requests and other requests in the product. It consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add a new request relationship name using the New
Relationship Name dialog box.
Allows you to edit a request relationship name using the Edit Relationship
Name dialog box.
Allows you to delete a request relationship name.

 A table of details for each request-request relationship name defined within the
product:

Field Description
Check Box A check box to select the relationship name.
Name The name that identifies the relationship.
Class The class of relationship: Information or Dependant.

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Relationship Names section for Requests

How to Create a New Relationship Name

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create a new relationship name to assign to valid
relationships between items and items or requests and requests.
PRIVILEGES Manage Item Relationship Names/Manage Request Relationship Names

To create a relationship name:

1 From the Object Types main window, select Item Types or Request Types from the
Object Class list in the navigation area, according to the type of relationship name
you want to create.

2 Select an object type in the navigation area and click the Relationship Names tab in
the content area.

3 Click the button in the content area. The New Relationship Name dialog box
appears.

4 Enter the name of the relationship in the ID field

5 For a request type relationship, select the class on which to base the relationship from
the Class list.

6 Optionally, for an item type relationship, enter a description of the relationship in the
Description field.

7 Click OK to create the relationship name.

How to Edit a Relationship Name

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit the description of a relationship name used
to assign to valid relationships between items and items or requests and requests
PRIVILEGES Manage Item Relationship Names

To edit a relationship name:

1 From the Object Types main window, select Item Types from the Object Class list in
the navigation area.

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2 Select an item type in the navigation area and click the Relationship Names tab in the
content area.

3 Select the relationship name you want to edit in the content area and click the
button. The Edit Relationship Name dialog box appears.

4 Edit the ID or Description fields as required.

5 Click OK to commit the changes.

How to Delete a Relationship Name

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete a relationship name for items or requests.
PRIVILEGES Manage Item Relationship Names

To delete a relationship name:

1 From the Object Types main window, select Item Types or Request Types from the
Object Class list in the navigation area, according to the type of relationship name
you want to delete.

2 Select an object type in the navigation area and click the Relationship Names tab in
the content area.

3 Select the relationship name you want to delete in the content area.

4 Click the Delete button: in the content area. This displays a dialog box asking
you if you are sure you want to delete the relationship name.

5 Click Yes.

Valid Relationships for Items and Requests

About Valid Relationships

Purpose Valid Relationships are set up to define which type of relationships are possible between
items and requests.
NOTE Valid relationships are not effective if CM Rules have not been set up for a
particular request type. Therefor any request, whose type rules are disabled, may have
any product item revision related to it, provided its item type rules are also disabled.

Dimensions provides functions to list, define, edit or delete item to request relationships
within the base database (i.e. across products).
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

Constraints This functionality is available for items and requests only.

About Minimum and Maximum Status Attribute Fields

It is sometimes necessary that the progress of a request is measured by the minimum
status of its related child requests. For example, when a Problem Report (PR) is raised, a
Problem Assessor may want to create a number of Change Requests (CR) from it and

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assign these change requests to individual developers for implementation. In this scenario
the originator of the PR may want to assess the progress of the PR in terms of the
minimum status of the CRs that are related to it.

Dimensions CM provides a "status auto-tracking" option in the process model for every
possible pair of parent request types and children request types. When this option is
enabled for a pair such as <PR, CR>, Dimensions CM will track the minimum status of the
related CRs for each PR in a user-defined attribute for PR specified by the project
manager. The value of this attribute may be browsed or reported on using standard
Dimensions CM browse and report facilities.

As well as providing the minimum status information, maximum status may also be
tracked if required. The combination of minimum and maximum status may be used to
provide a better indication of the progress of the requests in general.

Constraints  Only requests that are on the normal lifecycle path can have their status combined in
a parent request. If more than two requests are related to the parent request, the
attribute value will be set to the minimum status of those requests that have a status
in the normal path.
For example, "WP_1" has an attribute "min_cn_status" which tracks the minimum
status of requests "CN_1" and "CN_2" that are related to it as Dependent. "CN_1" is
actioned to an off-normal state, so the attribute will contain the status of "CN_2."
 If there are no requests related as Dependent, then the minimum status attribute will
be NULL, even if requests were related at some earlier time.
 If all dependent requests are off the normal lifecycle path, then the combined status
will be $OFF-NORMAL.
 You can only track the minimum status of one type of request by using a specified
attribute for that request. You can use a different attribute to track a different request
type.
 The minimum status is only calculated based on requests in direct relationship to the
parent request. It does not take into account the dependents of the child requests.
 If requests follow different lifecycle states depending on the design parts they relate
to (see "Advanced Process Model Features" on page 73), then these lifecycles will be
mapped to the product lifecycle to determine the minimum or maximum status. If the
lifecycle states do not have an equivalent product-level lifecycle state, then the states
are mapped to the previous state which does have an equivalent. The exception to
this rule is the first state in a lifecycle, which always maps to the first lifecycle state in
the product-level lifecycle.

Example: Tracking the Minimum Status

The Product Manager wants to track the minimum status of requests of type CN (Change
Note) in relationship to requests of type WP (Work Package). The Product Manager
defines a new attribute for the WP request type called min_cn_status, and unchecks the
Display In options so the attribute is not visible to users. Then the Product Manager
defines a valid relationship between the CN request type (child) and the WP request type
(parent), and specifies the newly created attribute min_cn_status for the minimum status
setting.

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Example: Tracking Status with a Product-Level Lifecycle

Suppose the following lifecycles exist, with dependent request types assigned to them at
the "product-level" and design parts "DP_1" and "DP_2".

Product-level DP_1 DP_2

Created Initial Created
Active
Review Fix
Working Working
Integrate Done
Tested Tested
Released Released Released
Prod_integrate Supplied
Prod_test
Closed Closed Closed

In this case, if a request follows the product-level lifecycle and has status "Active" and
another request follows the DP_1 lifecycle and has status "Tested", then the minimum
status is "Active" and the maximum is "Tested".

The DP_2 lifecycle states "Fix", "Done", and "Supplied" do not have an equivalent in the
product-level lifecycle, so "Fix" and "Done" map to "Created", which is the previous state
that maps to an equivalent, and "Supplied" maps to "Released". So, if a request is on the
product-level lifecycle state "Active" and another is on the DP_2 at "Done", then their
combined minimum is "Created" and maximum is "Active."

Valid Relationships Section for Items

The Valid Relationships section of the content area for items displays details for all the
possible valid relationships between the selected item type and other item types. It
consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add a new valid item relationship using the New Valid
Relationship dialog box.
Allows you to edit a valid item relationship using the Edit Valid
Relationship dialog box.
Allows you to delete a valid item relationship.

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 A table of details for each valid relationship to other item types defined in the base
database:

Field Description
Check Box A check box to select the relationship.
Whether the selected item type is the Parent or Child in the
Direction relationship with the listed item type.
Product The product to which the item type belongs.
Type The item type.
Relationship The name of the relationship.
Name
A check box that indicates whether a new revision of the child item
Inherit will inherit all the parent relationships associated with the base
Parent revision it is being created from.
A check box that indicates whether a new revision of the parent item
will inherit all the child relationships associated with the base
Inherit Child revision it is being created from.

Valid Relationships section for Items

Valid Relationships Section for Requests

The Valid Relationships section of the content area for requests displays details for all the
valid relationships between the selected request type and other item or request types. It
consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add a new valid request relationship using the New Valid
Relationship dialog box.
Allows you to edit a valid request relationship using the Edit Valid
Relationship dialog box.
Allows you to delete a valid request relationship.

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 A table of details for each valid relationship with other request or item types defined
in the base database:

Field Description
Check Box A check box to select the relationship.
Whether the selected request type is the Parent or Child in the
Direction relationship with the listed request or item type.
Class The object class: Request or Item.
Product The product to which the item or request type belongs.
Type The item or request type.
Relationship The name of the relationship.
A field that indicates whether the minimum status of the request
types related to a the selected request type will be automatically
Min Status tracked and recorded by Dimensions. It contains the name of the
Attribute attribute to contain the recorded Minimum Status.
A check box that indicates whether the maximum status of the
request types related to the selected request type will be
Max Status automatically tracked and recorded by Dimensions. It contains the
Attribute name of the attribute to contain the recorded Maximum Status.

Valid Relationships section for requests

How to Assign a Valid Relationship

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to assign a valid relationship between item types
and/or request types.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To assign a valid relationship:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the object type you want to be the parent
of the relationship in the navigation area.

2 Click the Valid Relationships tab in the content area.

3 Click the button in the content area. The New Valid Relationship dialog box
appears.

4 For item types, do the following:

a For the item types to be related, select the product and item type from the Parent
Item Type and Child Item Type lists.
b Select the name of the relationship from Relationship list.

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c Optionally, specify the inheritance options for the relationship.

5 For request types, do the following:

a For the request type to be related, select the object class from the Object Class
list and the product and item type from the Object Type lists.
b Optionally, select the attributes to be used to track the minimum and maximum
status of the child request type from the Minimum Status and Maximum Status
lists.

6 Click OK to commit the details.

How to Edit a Valid Relationship

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit the details of a valid relationship between
item types and/or request types.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To edit a valid relationship:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the object type that is the parent of the
relationship in the navigation area.

2 Click the Valid Relationships tab in the content area.

3 Select the valid relationship you want to edit in the content area and click the
button. The Edit Valid Relationship dialog box appears.

4 Edit the inheritance options for a valid item relationship, or the Minimum Status and
Maximum Status fields for a valid request relationship.

5 Click OK to commit the details.

How to Delete a Valid Relationship

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete a valid relationship for an item or request
type.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To delete a valid relationship:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the object type that is the parent of the
relationship in the navigation area.

2 Click the Valid Relationships tab in the content area.

3 Select the valid relationship you want to delete in the content area.

4 Click the Delete button: in the content area. This displays a dialog box asking
you if you are sure you want to delete the valid relationship.

5 Click the button.

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Prime Mappings for Requests

About Prime Mappings

Purpose Prime Mappings enable you to create new requests by copying the details from existing
requests (priming). When you prime a request, the values of certain attributes from the
existing request are copied to certain attributes in the new request. Whether priming is
possible between two types of requests, and which attribute values are copied to which,
are defined by the Prime Mappings set up between the two request types involved.
NOTE The detailed description (PCMS_CHDOC_DETAIL_DESC) of the existing request will
automatically be copied to the new detailed description unless a mapping is defined for
the detailed description.

You can define the attribute mappings used for priming requests for a particular product
or across products in the same database.

Priming takes into account any default attribute values set up by the Product Manager or
individual user. Priming also causes the new request to be related to the product design
parts that were affected by the parent request. You can change these relationships after
priming is complete.

Constraints This function is available for requests only.

The attributes must have been previously defined and declared for both request types.

Prime Mappings Section

The Prime Mappings section of the content area for requests displays details for all the
request types for which attribute mappings have been defined, and allows you to create,
edit, or delete such mappings. It consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to set up a new prime mapping for a request type using
the New Prime Mapping dialog box.
Allows you to edit an existing prime mapping for a request type
using the Edit Prime Mapping dialog box.
Allows you to delete a set of attribute mappings.

 A table of details for each request type that has attribute mappings defined in the
base database:

Field Description
Check Box A check box to select the attribute mapping.
Product The product to which the request type belongs.
The request type for which the attribute
mappings are defined, that is to which the
Type attributes are to be copied.

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Prime Mappings section for requests

How to Create a New Prime Mapping

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to define the attribute mapping to be used between
two request types when one request is primed from another.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To create a new prime mapping:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the request type from which the attributes
will be copied in the prime operation in the navigation area.

2 Click the Prime Mappings tab in the content area.

3 Click the button in the content area.

4 On the first page on the New Prime Mapping Wizard, select the product and request
type for the request type to be primed, and then click Next.

5 On the second page on the New Prime Mapping wizard, map the attributes between
the parent and child request types.
NOTE The list of attributes for Child Attribute includes the Detailed Description,
PCMS_CHDOC_DETAIL_DESC, which is not selectable under Parent Attribute. If you
do not specify a mapping for this attribute, it will be copied from the Detailed
Description of the parent request.

6 When you have finished, click OK to commit the details.

How to Edit a Prime Mapping

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit the attribute mapping to be used between
two request types when one request is primed from another.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To edit a prime mapping:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the request type from which the attributes
will be copied in the prime operation in the navigation area.

2 Click the Prime Mappings tab in the content area.

3 Select the prime mapping you want to edit in the content area.

4 Click the button in the content area.

5 Update the attributes to be mapped in the Edit Prime Mapping dialog box.

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NOTE The list of attributes for Child Attribute includes the Detailed Description,
PCMS_CHDOC_DETAIL_DESC, which is not selectable under Parent Attribute. If you
do not specify a mapping for this attribute, it will be copied from the Detailed
Description of the parent request.

6 When you have finished, click OK to commit the details.

How to Delete a Prime Mapping

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete the attribute mapping to be used between
two request types when one request is primed from another.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To delete a prime mapping:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the request type from which you want to
delete the prime mapping in the navigation area.

2 Click the Prime Mappings tab in the content area.

3 Select the prime mapping you want to delete in the content Area.

4 Click the button in the content area. This displays a dialog box asking you if you
are sure you want to delete the prime mapping.

5 Click Yes.

Templates for Items and Requests

About Templates for Items and Requests

Purpose The functions for item header substitution files and request browse template files are
similar, as template creation and management are handled in a similar fashion. The
functions provided via the Templates section enable you to:
 Add a new template or a new revision of an existing template.
 Set a template as the default for an item or request type.
 Import a template file from your work area into Dimensions CM to be stored against a
template revision.
 Export the template file associated with a template revision in Dimensions CM to a file
in your work area.
 Delete a template or revision of a template.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

Constraints These functions are available for items and requests only.

The template files must have been previously been created outside Dimensions as
described in "Item Format Templates" on page 304 and "Request Format Templates" on
page 304.

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What is a Template?
Templates for requests and items are used to view the contents of a request or for item
header substitution, respectively. The functions provided allow you to associate pre-
prepared item header substitution files or request browse template files with a template.
When the template is added or imported, these template files are placed under revision
control by Dimensions CM and are stored in the Dimensions CM database in a manner
similar to items.

Templates for baselines and releases are different in nature and are discussed in About
Baseline and Release Templates on page 206.

Templates Section for Items and Requests

The Templates section of the content area for items and requests displays details for all
the templates defined in the product for items or requests.

It consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add a new template or template revision using the New
Template dialog box.
Allows you to export a template file using the Export Template dialog box.

Allows you to import a template file using the Import Template dialog box.

Allows you to delete a template from the product.

Allows you to set the selected template as the default for the object type
selected in the navigation area.

 A table listing details for each template in the product:

Field Description
Check Box A check box to select the template.
Name The name that identifies the template.
Revision The version of the template.
Created by The user who created the template.
Creation Date The date and time the template was created.
Last The user who last imported the template file.
Imported by
Last Import The date and time the template file was last imported.
Date
Whether the template is the default for the selected item/request
Default type.

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Templates section for items and requests

How to Create a New Template

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to add a new template for an item or request type or
add a new revision of an existing template.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To create a new template:

1 From the Object Types main window, select Item Types or Request Types from the
Object Class list in the navigation area, according to the type of template you want
to create.

2 Click the Templates tab in the content area.

3 If you want to create a new revision of an existing template, select the template in the
content area.

4 Click the button in the content area. The New Template dialog box appears.

5 Enter the name and revision number of the template in the Name and Revision
fields.

6 In the Filename field, enter the filename and path of the template file from your
work area, or browse to the location.

7 If you want this template to be the default, select the Default Template check box.

8 When you have finished, click OK to commit the details.

How to Set a Template as the Default

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to make a template the default for an item or
request type.

Note that you can also do this when you first create a new template or revision of a
template if you have the required object type selected in the navigation area.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

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To make a template the default:

1 From the Object Types main window, select Item Types or Request Types from the
Object Class list in the navigation area, according to the type of template you want
to set as default.

2 Click the Templates tab in the content area.

3 Select the template you want to make the default in the content area.

4 Click the button in the content area. The Set Default Template dialog box
appears, asking you if you are sure you want to set the template as default.

5 Click Yes.

How to Delete a Template

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete a template or revision of a template for an
item or request type.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types
NOTE Once a default template revision has been assigned, it can be replaced with
another template revision, but there always must be a default. Note also it is not
permitted to delete a default template

To delete a template:

1 From the Object Types main window, select Item Types or Request Types from the
Object Class list in the navigation area, according to the type of template you want
to delete.

2 Select an object type in the navigation area.

3 Click the Templates tab in the content area.

4 Select the template revision you want to delete in the content area.

5 Click the button in the content area. A dialog box is displayed asking you if you
are sure you want to delete the template.

6 Click Yes to confirm the deletion.

How to Import a Template File

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to import a new template file for an item or request
type without changing the name or revision number of the template in Dimensions.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To import a template file:

1 From the Object Types main window, select Item Types or Request Types from the
Object Class list in the navigation area, according to the type of template file you
want to import in the navigation area.

2 Select an object type in the navigation area.

3 Click the Templates tab in the content area.

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4 Select the template revision for which you want to import a template file in the
content area.

5 Click the button in the content area. The Import Template dialog box appears.

6 Enter or browse to the file you want to import in the Filename field.

7 When you have finished, click OK to commit the details.

How to Export a Template File

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to export a copy of the template file for an item or
request type to your work area.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To export a template file:

1 From the Object Types main window, select Item Types or Request Types from the
Object Class list in the navigation area, according to the type of template file you
want to export in the navigation area.

2 Select an object type in the navigation area.

3 Click the Templates tab in the content area.

4 Select the template revision for which you want to export the template file in the
content area.

5 Click the button in the content area. The Import Template dialog box appears.

6 Enter or browse to the file to which you want to export the template in the Filename
field.

7 When you have finished, click OK to copy the file.

Change Management Rules

About Change Management Rules

Purpose To query and define the change management rules for controlling the development of
item or request types for a particular product.

Constraints This function is available for items and requests only.

A request cannot be related to another request if rules are in force for one of their types
and not for the other.

What are Change Management Rules?

For item types, the CM Rules functions enable you to:
 Define when a request is required in order to perform certain functions on the item.

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 Specify the minimum state an item must be in before an associated request can be
closed.

For request types, the CM Rules functions enable you to:

 Specify the states for which the request is in the phases:
 Analysis
 Work
 Frozen.
The phase associated with a lifecycle state determines what kind of processing of the
request is permissible while it is at that lifecycle state.
 Specify the minimum state a child request must be in before its related parent
request can be closed.

These rules will apply to item types and request types for which the CM rules enabled
option has been set. They can also become applicable to item operations in projects which
have the CM rules Always enabled option set.

For an explanation of the effect of Change Management Rules, see About Change
Management Rules on page 50.

CM Rules Section for Items

The CM Rules section of the content area for items displays details for the Change
Management rules for the selected item type. It consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to edit the CM Rules for the selected item type using the Edit CM
Rules dialog box.

 Details for the item type selected in the navigation area consisting of:

Field Description
CM Rules Enabled? Whether CM Rules are enabled for this item type.
Require Request for new If this option is set, a new item of this type can be
Item created only when in response to a valid request.
Require Request when The first lifecycle state at which a request is mandatory
check out at or beyond for checking out a new revision of the item.
this state
Require Request when The first lifecycle state at which a request is mandatory
action at or beyond this for the item to progress by way of actioning.
state
Require that item must The minimum state an item must reach before requests
be at or beyond this state related to it as IN RESPONSE TO can be closed.
before permit closing of
associated request
A diagram of the normal states of the lifecycle
Lifecycle: associated with the item type.

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CM Rules section for items

CM Rules Section for Requests

The CM Rules section of the content area for requests displays details for the Change
Management rules for the selected request type. It consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to edit the CM Rules for the selected request type using the
Edit CM Rules dialog box.
Allows you to view the phase usage for the selected request type using
the CM Phase Usage dialog box.

 Details for the request type selected in the navigation area consisting of:

Field Description
CM Rules Enabled? Whether CM Rules are enabled for this request type.
Analysis Phase The first lifecycle state in the Analysis phase.
starts with State
Work Phase starts The first lifecycle state in the Work phase.
with State
Frozen Phase starts The first lifecycle state in the Frozen phase.
with State
If the request type is the child of another request, then this
Minimum State of lifecycle state specifies the minimum state at which this
Child before permit child request must be before the parent request may be
Parent to close closed.

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Field Description
Allow request to be Requests can be closed/actioned to a frozen phase without
closed with affected having an in-response-to item relationship.
item revisions
A diagram of the normal states of the lifecycle associated
Lifecycle: with the request type.

CM Rules section for requests

How to Edit CM Rules

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit the Change Management Rules for a request
or item type.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To edit the CM Rules:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the request or item type whose CM Rules
you want to edit.

2 Click the CM Rules tab in the content area.

3 Click the button in the content area. The Edit CM Rules dialog box appears.

4 To enforce CM rules, select Yes for the Enable CM Rules field.

5 For item types, set the rules to coordinate items with request states in the Require
Request Rules section.

6 For request types, map lifecycle states to phases in the Lifecycle Phase Rules
section, and set the Dependent Request Rule.

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7 When you have finished, click OK to commit the details.

How to View the CM Phase Usage

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to view the CM phases for a request type and the
permitted actions for each of these phases.

To view the CM phase usage:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the request type whose CM phase usage
you want to view.

2 Click the CM Rules tab in the content area.

3 Click the button in the content area. The CM Phase Usage dialog box appears.

4 When you have finished, click Close to return to the Object Types main window.

Item Libraries

About Item Libraries

Purpose Item libraries in Dimensions CM enable you to specify the operating-system directory that
Dimensions CM will use to store the associated item files, and the required level of
protection for that directory.
PRIVILEGES Manage Libraries

The functions provided enable you to:

 Define the default item library to be used for all item types in the product.
 Define the item library for a specific item type to override the default.
 Delete the item library definition for a specific item type.
 Delete the default item library definition for the product.

Constraints To maintain the integrity of the library data, follow these precautions:
 Do not use the directories that store Dimensions CM libraries for any non-
Dimensions CM files or subdirectories.
 Use each library for items of one or more types that belong to a single product.
 Make sure that there is adequate disk space available. Any disk-space quota limits, if
enforced, must be sufficient.
 Keep library names well within any operating system limits, such as the total filename
length and number of subdirectory levels. In general, keep directory names to 50-
60% of any operating system limits.
 Make sure that you do not use the same directory name for Dimensions CM libraries in
multiple Dimensions CM databases. This would cause Dimensions CM to be unaware
of potential clashes with filenames when operating on any of these databases.

The Product Manager is permitted to revise the library definitions in this function at any
time. However, Dimensions CM will not move the library contents to correspond with the

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revised definitions – it merely issues a warning message advising the Product Manager of
the need to do this. Therefore, the definitions must not be altered while other
Dimensions CM users are logged in and using them: to do so would be likely to
cause Dimensions to report fatal library access errors. After making alterations here, the
Product Manager must transfer the files in the library directories so they correspond with
the new definitions before permitting other users to access the libraries for this product.

What is an Item Library?

An Item Library is an operating-system directory that you specify for Dimensions CM to
use to store the associated item files, including the required level of protection. You can
assign a default item library for all the items in a product and define an item library that
overrides the default for a specific item type. The latter is recommended for an item type
where you anticipate that there will be a substantial number of items of that type created.

Item libraries can be stored on remote servers accessed using UNC path names, or via
mapped drives. These could be a Windows Network Access Storage (NAS) a fibre
connected storage area network (SAN) or a network share on a PC.
NOTE It is strongly recommended on UNIX platforms that the Item Libraries are owned
by the Dimensions CM Admin account and not by root.

When you define item libraries, Dimensions CM creates any directories and subdirectories
which do not already exist.

Generally, items that are machine-readable entities, such as software or documentation,

are stored directly in the item libraries under the control of Dimensions CM. When an item
is not a machine-readable entity—for example, hardware that has design parts
represented by part numbers—then a documentary control record must be created and
maintained. This is a placeholder item file that represents and documents the existence of
the physical item.

Defining an item library involves specifying:

 The Host machine. See About the Host Node on page 175 for details.
 The Directory path. See About the Directory Path on page 176 for details.
 Protection. See About Protection on page 176 for details.
 Whether to use Delta Storage. See About Delta Storage on page 177 for details.

About the Host Node

Dimensions CM item libraries can be defined to enable users with appropriate
Dimensions CM authorization to access the items stored in these libraries from any
Dimensions CM node in the network. A Dimensions CM network can consist of nodes
running on different operating systems and networked in a variety of ways using
TCP/IP. For further details on these networking aspects, refer to the related document, the
Administrator's Guide.

If Dimensions Network is installed and running, the host IDs (up to 20 characters and
case-sensitive) define the node on the network where the item libraries will be located.
The Tool Manager predefines these host IDs when setting up and maintaining the
Dimensions Network. You must choose a node for the item library; * is not a valid entry. If
you enter a node that is not known to Dimensions Network, you will receive an error
message when you attempt to create the library.

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NOTE This must not be a logical node.

If Dimensions Network is not installed, all filenames must be on the local node. To ensure
this, enter the node name of the Dimensions CM server in the combo box.

About the Directory Path

The directory path specifies the area on the host machine in which the item library or
libraries are to be stored. If desired, more than one specific item type may be stored in
the same library by specifying the same directory path, as long as all of the item types
use the same library storage scheme (Normal or Delta).

For libraries located on a UNIX system, the directory path must be an absolute path
ending with a /, for example:

/usr/user1/libraries/type_src/

For libraries located on a Windows system, the directory path must be a an absolute path
ending with a \, for example:

c:\usr\user1\libraries\type_src\

For libraries located on z/OS, refer to the document Dimensions for z/OS User's and
Administrator's Guide for details on creating VSAM datasets and bringing these datasets
'online'. For details of defining nodes using the Network Administration Tool, refer to the
Administrator's Guide.

About Protection
The Protection field is used to modify, if desired, the default protections assigned to an
item library when it is created (see also note below regarding library ownership).
NOTE The required protection level of the directories which hold the Dimensions CM
libraries must be appropriate for the operating system on the network node where the
library is being defined. If the Dimensions Network is being used, this node could be
using a different operating system from the one on which Dimensions CM is running.
 Libraries held on UNIX
The Protection field specifies what access to the Dimensions CM libraries is permitted
directly via the operating system. The normal access indicators:
UNIX: R = read, W = write, X = execute
are used in appropriate combinations to provide the required level of protection. The
format in which the protection is defined to Dimensions CM is:
on UNIX: <owner>, <group>, <world>
e.g. RX,RX,
In the examples above, "world" has no access indicators and, therefore, no access to
the directory (except for access to Dimensions CM items via Dimensions CM control).
 Libraries held on Windows systems
This Protection field is left blank during library creation. Once a library directory has
been created, and before it is used, its owner (the Product Manager) specifies the
protection level required for operating-system access by creating an ACL (Access
Control List) for it.

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 Libraries held on z/OS systems

Protection is not provided.
 All relevant operating systems
The criteria for choosing a protection level for these libraries is that the protection
level specifies what access is required (if any) other than via Dimensions CM, e.g. RX,,
[UNIX] may be sufficient. Dimensions will always grant access to an item, provided
the user requesting it holds the required role. (Exception: with a directory item,
although the archive/save-set file which comprises a directory item may itself be
retrieved as described, its reconstruction into directories is dependent on the user
having access permissions compatible with those recorded for the directories and files
in the archive/save-set.)
NOTE When a library is created its ownership will be that of the Product Manager
creating it – the access protection on the directory will be that specified by that user.
No matter what protection is specified, Dimensions CM will always have access to
these libraries as it enjoys special privileges when required to get from or write into
libraries.

About Delta Storage

The option is available to store items using the native Serena Version Manager delta
library storage scheme on UNIX or Windows. In this scheme, different revisions of the
same item are stored as deltas of previous revisions. This provides more efficient disk
space utilization, especially for text files. However, delta libraries are not recommended
for binary item files such as executables. There are some factors which may cause delta
libraries to be less efficient, such as long record lengths, the speed of the delta processing
and lastly, internal limits on the number of file branches.
NOTE The use of delta libraries is not supported on HP-UX 64-bit, Itanium.
NOTE UNIX Users: All new items that are created in the delta library will use the Version
Manager delta scheme. However, if any items were created in the delta library using a
pre-5.0 version of Dimensions CM, which utilized the Source Code Control System (SCCS)
mechanism, then existing or new revisions of that item will continue to use the SCCS
mechanism.
NOTE The compress storage option is not available for delta library storage.

Item Libraries Section

The Item Libraries section of the content area displays details for the item library that
applies to the item type selected in the navigation area.

It consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to define the item library that is assigned to the selected item
type using the Add Specific Library dialog box.
Allows you to edit the item library details assigned to the specific item
type using the Edit Specific Library dialog box.

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Button Function
Allows you to delete the library definition for the selected item type.

Allows you to define the default item library for the whole product using
the Add Default Library dialog box.
Allows you to edit the details of the default item library for the whole
product using the Edit Default Library dialog box.
Allows you to delete the default item library definition.

 Details for the item library associated with the selected item type. This may be the
default library for the product, or it may be the specifically assigned library for the
selected item type if one has been created. The following details are displayed:

Field Description
The name that identifies the network node where the item library is
Host Name held.
Directory The path of the directory on the host node where the library is held.
Whether the items are stored using the native Serena Version
Delta Storage Manager delta library storage scheme.
The required protection level of the directories which hold the
Protection Dimensions CM libraries.
Default Whether this library is the same as the default for the product.

Item Libraries section

How to Define a Default Item Library

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create or edit the default Item Library Definition
for the product. This will be the default for all the item types in the product unless a
library is created specifically for an item type.
PRIVILEGES Manage Libraries

To define a default item library:

1 From the Object Types main window, select an item type in the navigation area.

2 Click the Item Libraries tab in the content area.

3 Do one of the following:

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 If there is no default item library set up, click the right-most button in the
content area. (The right-most button will be grayed out). The Add Default
Library dialog box appears.
 If there is a default item library set up, click the right-most button in the
content area. (The right-most button will be grayed out). The Edit Default
Library dialog box appears.

4 Select the network node that holds the item library from the HostName list.

5 Enter the directory path to the item library on the host node in the Directory Path
field.
CAUTION! Item libraries must not reside in the root directories of Windows drives
or shares! This is unsupported, and may cause many operations to fail.
CAUTION! When the Dimensions server is installed on Windows 2008 server, item
libraries cannot be located in the folders beneath the Program Files folder.

6 Optionally, complete the rest of the fields in the dialog box.

7 When you have finished, click OK.

NOTE If you change the location of the item library, Dimensions CM does not relocate
the contents of the existing library to reflect this change. You will need to move the
library files manually to the new location.

How to Define an Item Library for an Item Type

NOTE If you change the location of the item library, Dimensions CM does not relocate
the contents of the existing library to reflect this change. You will need to move the
library files manually to the new location.

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create or edit the Item Library Definition for a
specific item type. This will override the default library.
PRIVILEGES Manage Libraries

To define an item library:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the item type for which you want to define
a library in the navigation area. Make sure the Item Libraries section is displayed in
the content area.

2 Do one of the following:

 If there is no item library set up for the specific item type, click the left-most
button on the left of the content area. (The left-most button will be grayed
out). The Add Specific Library dialog box appears.
 If there is an item library set up for the specific item type, click the left-most
button on the left of the content area. (The left-most button will be grayed
out). The Edit Specific Library dialog box appears.

3 Select the network node that holds the item library from the HostName list.

4 Enter the directory path to the item library on the host node in the Directory Path
field.

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CAUTION! Item libraries must not reside in the root directories of Windows drives
or shares! This is unsupported, and may cause many operations to fail.
CAUTION! When the Dimensions server is installed on Windows 2008 server, item
libraries cannot be located in the folders beneath the Program Files folder.

5 Optionally, complete the rest of the fields in the dialog box.

6 When you have finished, click OK to commit the details.

NOTE If you change the location of an item library, Dimensions CM does not relocate the
contents of the existing library to reflect this change. You will need to move the library
files manually to the new location.

How to Delete the Default Item Library

NOTE If you change the location of an item library, Dimensions CM does not relocate the
contents of the existing library to reflect this change. You will need to move the library
files manually to the new location.

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete the default Item Library Definition for the
product.
PRIVILEGES Manage Libraries

To delete the default item library:

1 From the Object Types main window, select an item type in the navigation area.

2 Click the Item Libraries tab in the content area.

3 Click the right-most button in the content area. A dialog box is displayed asking if
you are sure you want to delete the default item library.

4 Click Yes to confirm the deletion.

How to Delete an Item Library for an Item Type

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete the Item Library Definition for a specific
item type. This will cause the default library (if one has been defined) to be used for that
item type.
PRIVILEGES Manage Libraries

To delete an item library:

1 From the Object Types main window, select the item type for which you want to delete
the library in the navigation area.

2 Click the Item Libraries tab in the content area.

3 Click the left-most button in the content area. A dialog box is displayed asking if
you are sure you want to delete the item library.

4 Click Yes to confirm the deletion.

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Lifecycle Management

In this Chapter

About Lifecycle Management 182

Lifecycles Main Window 183
About Editing Lifecycles 191
Managing Transitions 197
Managing Attribute Rules 200

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About Lifecycle Management

Purpose Serena® Dimensions® CM Lifecycle Management enables you to specify the processing
that types of item, request, and baseline can undergo. A lifecycle consists of a number of
states. You define these states and the permitted transitions that can occur between any
of them. You also specify which Dimensions CM user roles are assigned to each transition.
Each lifecycle can be related to one or more object types, meaning that the object types
are to be processed according to that particular lifecycle.

Lifecycle Management allows you to:

 List all of the existing lifecycles in the base database, or those for items, requests, or
baselines.
 Create a new lifecycle from scratch or by copying an existing lifecycle.
 Delete a lifecycle.
 Relate a lifecycle to one or more object types.
 Edit certain lifecycle properties.
 Edit the states, transitions, and associated roles and rules for a lifecycle.
 View and manage graphical image files associated with lifecycles.

Constraints  The role titles defined in each lifecycle transition must have been previously defined
(except for $ORIGINATOR). See How to Add Roles on page 96 for details.
 A lifecycle can be deleted only if no object types in any product currently specify it.
 A different lifecycle ID may be specified for an object type, or the lifecycle relationship
may be deleted, only if there are no objects of that type already existing.

Provided the above constraints are complied with:

 The ADMIN group may update any lifecycle in the database.
 A lifecycle which is not in use by any product may be created/updated/deleted by any
Dimensions CM user who holds a Product Manager role for any product in the
database.
 A lifecycle which is in use in exactly one product may be updated by the Product
Manager of that product.
 A lifecycle which is in use by more than one product may be updated by a Product
Manager, only if this one Dimensions user holds the role of Product Manager for every
one of the products affected.

In addition to the preceding, an existing object lifecycle can only be modified if no

associated items or requests are currently in a checked out or held state, respectively;
that is, they need to be checked in or saved. If this is not done, you will receive a warning
message such as "Item requires status in lifecycle which is not included in update".

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Configuration Object Management | Lifecycles

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Lifecycles Main Window

From the Lifecycles main window you can:
 Create, copy, or delete lifecycles, or edit the name of a lifecycle.
 Relate a lifecycle to one or more object types.
 View and manage the image files associated with a lifecycle.

You edit the states, transitions, and associated roles and rules for a lifecycle using the Edit
Lifecycle dialog box. This is described in more detail in The Edit Lifecycle Dialog Box on
page 191.

The Lifecycles main window consists of the following:

 Menu area: Displays a toolbar with buttons to carry out various functions. See
Lifecycles Menu Area on page 183.
 Navigation area: Displays a list of all the lifecycles for the base database, optionally
restricted by a filter that selects only lifecycles for requests, items, or baselines. See
Lifecycles Navigation Area on page 183.
 Content area: If no lifecycles are selected, this contains a table listing details of all
the lifecycles. If a lifecycle is selected in the navigation area, it displays various details
for the lifecycle and a diagram showing its normal states. See Lifecycles Content Area
on page 184.
 Status area: Displays log in details. See The Status Area on page 80

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

Lifecycles Menu Area

The Lifecycles menu area contains the following toolbar buttons

Button Function
Allows you to create a new lifecycle using the New Lifecycle dialog box.

Allows you to create a new lifecycle by copying the details from the
selected lifecycle using the Copy Lifecycle dialog box.

Allows you to delete the selected lifecycle(s).

Lifecycles Navigation Area

The navigation area contains the following:
 Lifecycles: A list of all the lifecycles for the base database, or those selected by the
filter.
 Filter: A list from which you select the class of object (item, request, or baseline)
whose lifecycles appear in the Lifecycles list. The selections are:

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 All Lifecycles
 Requests
 Items
 Projects
 Baselines.

Lifecycles Content Area

When you select a lifecycle in the navigation area, the content area displays its individual
details. See Content Area for a Single Lifecycle, described on page 184. When the top
level node: is selected in the navigation area, the content area displays a
table of details for all the lifecycles in the navigation area. It consists of the following:
 A button to display the list of lifecycles as a separate HTML page to print or save.
 A button to display the list of lifecycles as comma-separated values to save as a
text file.
 Column headings for the lifecycle fields. Clicking the icon selects or deselects all
the lifecycles in the list. You can change the sort order of the list by clicking the
column headings.
 A table of lifecycles with the following details:

Field Description
A check box to select or deselect the lifecycle for the operations
Check Box performed by the toolbar buttons.
The name of the Lifecycle. Clicking on the link will open the Edit
Name Lifecycle dialog box for that lifecycle.
Description The description of the lifecycle.
Creation Date The date and time the lifecycle was created.
Originator The user who created the lifecycle.

Content Area for a Single Lifecycle

When an individual lifecycle is selected in the navigation area, the content area displays
the following fields for that lifecycle:
 Lifecycle Details section. This consists of:
 A toolbar with the following buttons:

Button Function
Allows you to assign object types to a lifecycle using the Assign
Object Types to Lifecycle dialog box.
Allows you to edit the description for the selected lifecycle using the
Edit Lifecycle Properties dialog box.

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 A table displaying the following fields:

Field Description
Name The name of the lifecycle.
Description The description of the lifecycle.
User Name The user who created the lifecycle.
A comma-separated list of the object types that use the lifecycle.
Clicking on the name link opens the Edit Lifecycle Dialog box
Used By with that object type selected in the Object Types filter.

 Lifecycle Flow section. This consists of:

 An Edit button: This displays the Edit Lifecycle dialog box, from which you
can perform a number of lifecycle editing functions.
 A diagram of the states in the normal path for the lifecycle.
 Lifecycle Images section. This enables you to maintain the images associated with
the lifecycle. For details, see Lifecycle Images Section, described below.

Lifecycles Content Area with a Lifecycle Selected

Lifecycle Images Section

The Lifecycle Images section of the content area displays details for all the graphic files
associated with the lifecycle.

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It consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add a new associated image using the New Lifecycle Image
dialog box.
Allows you to export an image file associated with a lifecycle to your work
area.
Allows you to import an image file using the Import Lifecycle Image dialog
box.
Allows you to delete an associated image for the lifecycle.

Allows you to set the selected image as the default for the lifecycle
selected in the navigation area.

 A table listing details for each associated image in the product:

Field Description
Check Box A check box to select the image.
Revision The version of the image.
Created by The user who created the image.
Creation Date The date and time the image was created.
Last The user who last imported the image file.
Imported by
Last Import The date and time the image file was last imported.
Date
Is Default Whether the image is the default for the selected lifecycle.

Lifecycle images section

How to Add a New Lifecycle

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create a new lifecycle to be used by one or more
types of item, request, or baseline. The created lifecycle will subsequently be available for
use in all products within the base database.

You can ether create a new lifecycle from scratch, or you can base it on an existing
lifecycle. When you copy an existing lifecycle, its states and transitions are copied to the
new lifecycle.

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PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

To create a new lifecycle:

1 From the Lifecycles main window, do one of the following

If you want to... Then...

create a new from the Lifecycles main window, click the New: button.
lifecycle from
scratch
copy an existing from the Lifecycles main window, select the lifecycle you want
lifecycle to copy and click the Copy:
button.

The New Lifecycle dialog box or Copy Lifecycle dialog box appears.

2 Enter the name of the lifecycle in the Name field, and optionally a description in the
Description field.

3 Click OK to add the lifecycle.

To define further details for the lifecycle, such as states, transitions, and attribute rules,
see About Editing Lifecycles on page 191.

How to Delete Lifecycles

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete lifecycles that are no longer required, or
were created in error.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

Constraints A lifecycle can be deleted only if no object types in any product currently specify it, and if
all its state transitions have first been deleted.

To delete one or more lifecycles:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, select the lifecycle(s) you want to delete.

2 Click the Delete button: You will be prompted with a dialog box asking you to
confirm the deletion.

3 Click OK. Dimensions CM deletes the lifecycle(s) and removes them from the list.

How to Assign Object Types to a Lifecycle

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to assign one or more object types to the selected
lifecycle. This specifies the object type as being processed according to this lifecycle's
states and transitions.

Note that you can also assign a lifecycle to a specific object type in the corresponding
dialog boxes in Object Type Definitions. See About Assigning Lifecycles to Object Types,
described on page 153.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

Constraints You cannot assign a lifecycle to an object type that already has a lifecycle assigned to it.

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To assign object types to a lifecycle:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, select the lifecycle to which you want to assign object
types.

2 Click the assign button: The Assign Object Types to Lifecycle dialog box appears.

3 To assign object types, select them from the Available object types list and click
Relate.

4 When you have finished, click OK to associate the object types.

How to Unassign Object Types from a Lifecycle

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to remove one or more object type(s) from the list
of object types that use a particular lifecycle.

Note that you can also unassign a lifecycle from a specific object type in the
corresponding dialog boxes in Object Type Definitions. See Assigned Lifecycle Details,
described on page 153.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

Constraints See About Lifecycle Management on page 182.

A different lifecycle ID may be specified for an object type, or the lifecycle relationship
may be deleted only if there are no objects of that type already existing.

To unassign object types from a lifecycle:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, select the lifecycle from which you want to unassign
object types.

2 Click the Assign button: The Assign Object Types to Lifecycle dialog box appears.

3 Select the object type(s) you want to unassign in the Object types associated with
this lifecycle list and click Unrelate.

4 Click OK to confirm the changes.

How to Edit the Description of a Lifecycle

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit the description for a lifecycle.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

To edit the description of a lifecycle:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, select the lifecycle to which you want to assign object
types.

2 Click the Edit: button. The Edit Lifecycle Properties dialog box appears.

3 Edit the description as required.

4 Click OK to confirm the change.

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How to View the Image of a Lifecycle

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to view the graphical image associated with a
lifecycle:

To view the image of a lifecycle:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, select the lifecycle for which you want to view the
image in the navigation area. This will display its details in the content area.

2 Select the revision for the image you want to view in the Lifecycle Images section of
the content area.

3 Click the button in the content area. The image will be displayed in a new
browser window.

How to Associate an Image File with a Lifecycle

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to associate an image file with a lifecycle or add a
new revision of an existing image file.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

To associate an image file with a lifecycle:

1 From the Lifecycles main window, select the lifecycle in the navigation area.

2 Click the button in the Lifecycle Images section of the content area. The New
Lifecycle Image dialog box appears.

3 Enter the version number of the image file in the Revision field.

4 Enter or browse to the filename and path of the image in the Filename field.

5 Optionally, select the Default Image check box to make this image the default for
the lifecycle.

6 When you have finished, click OK. The details of the new image appear in the content
area.

How to Set a Lifecycle Image as the Default

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to make an associated image file the default for a
lifecycle.

Note that you can also do this when you first create a new image or revision of an image.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

To make a lifecycle image the default:

1 From the Lifecycles main window, select the lifecycle for which you want to set the
default image in the navigation area.

2 Select the revision you want to make the default in the Lifecycle Images section of the
content area.

3 Click the button. The Set Default Image dialog box is displayed asking you if you
are sure you want to set the template as default.

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4 Click Yes to confirm the change.

How to Delete an Associated Lifecycle Image

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete an associated image file for a lifecycle.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

To delete an associated lifecycle image:

1 From the Lifecycles main window, select the lifecycle for which you want to delete the
associated image in the navigation area.

2 Select the revision you want to delete in the Lifecycle Images section of the content
area.

3 Click the button in the content area. A dialog box is displayed asking you if you
are sure you want to delete the image.

4 Click Yes to confirm the deletion.

How to Import an Image File

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to import a new graphic file for a lifecycle without
changing the revision number of the associated image in Dimensions.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

To import an image file:

1 From the Lifecycles main window, select the lifecycle for which you want to import the
associated image in the navigation area.

2 Select the revision for which you want to import the file in the Lifecycle Images
section of the content area.

3 Click the button in the content area. The Import Lifecycle Image appears.

4 Enter or browse to the filename and path of the image you want to import in the
Filename field.

5 Click OK to commit the details.

How to Export an Image File

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to export a copy of the associated image file for a
lifecycle to your work area.

To export an image file:

1 From the Lifecycles main window, select the lifecycle for which you want to export the
associated image in the navigation area.

2 Select the revision that you want to export in the Lifecycle Images section of the
content area.

3 Click the button in the content area. The image will be displayed in a new
browser window.

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4 Use the Save As function of the browser to save the image to your work area.

5 Click OK to copy the file.

About Editing Lifecycles

Editing a lifecycle involves the following:
 Deleting a state from a lifecycle.
 Renaming a lifecycle state.
 Defining or editing the available transitions for lifecycle states.
 Defining or editing the attribute rules for lifecycle transitions.
 For items or requests, defining the Change Management rules for lifecycle states.
 For items and requests, defining whether a lifecycle state is sensitive.
 For items, associating a build stage with a lifecycle state.
NOTE You create a new state only in the New Transition dialog box when adding a
new transition. This is because you cannot add a state to a lifecycle without there
being a possible transition for that state.

The Edit Lifecycle Dialog Box

The Edit Lifecycle dialog box allows you to perform a number of functions. From within it,
you can edit the details of the states, transitions, and rules for the selected lifecycle. You
access this editor from the Lifecycles main window by clicking the name link for the
lifecycle or one of its related object types in the content area. You can also access it from
the Object Type Definitions options of the Administration Console.

The Edit Lifecycles dialog box consists of:

 A menu area. This is described in The Edit Lifecycle Menu Area on page 192.
 An Interactive Lifecycle Model, a diagram which allows you to select and control what
appears in the Transitions and Attribute Rules areas. This is described in The
Interactive Lifecycle Model on page 193.
 The Transitions area, a list of possible transitions and the roles required for those
transitions. This is described in Transitions Area on page 198.
 The Attribute Rules area. This is described in The Attribute Rules Area on page 200.

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Example Edit Lifecycle Dialog Box:

The Edit Lifecycle Menu Area

The menu area consists of:

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 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to delete a normal state. For details, see How to Delete a
Normal State on page 195.

Allows you to rename a state. For details, see How to Rename a State on
page 196.

Allows you to set up or edit the CM rules for the selected state. This is only
appears if a request type has been selected in the object type filter. For
details, see How to Define CM Rules on page 195.
Allows you to configure a lifecycle state as a stage in Dimensions Build or
to define the state as sensitive. This is only appears if an item or request
type has been selected in the object type filter. For details, see How to Set
the State Properties for an Object Type on page 196.
Allows you to assign object types to a lifecycle. For details, see How to
Assign Object Types to a Lifecycle on page 187.

 A filter bar that has three filters:

 Role: When you select a role from the list, all the states in that role become
highlighted. When you select a state and a role, only those transitions in or out of
that state that are assigned to the selected role are displayed in the Transitions
area.
 State: When you select a state from the list, that state becomes highlighted in the
lifecycle model. It is an alternative to selecting the state in the lifecycle model.
When you select a state in the lifecycle model this filter updates to reflect your
selection.
 Object Type: If you have selected an object type from this list, then what is
shown in the Transitions area and Attribute Rules area reflect this specific object
type.

The Interactive Lifecycle Model

The Interactive Lifecycle Model has two rows showing transition states. You can scroll this
diagram horizontally if it is wider than the window. The first row shows the normal
transition states, in the path in which they are followed. They are connected by gray
arrows that indicate the normal transitions. The second row shows the off-normal
transition states.

You can select a state by clicking it or by choosing it in the State filter. The arrows
representing the possible transitions into that state become highlighted in light blue, and
the transitions out of it become highlighted in dark blue. When a state is selected, the
Transitions area only shows the possible transitions to and from that state, whereas when
no state is selected all the transitions for the lifecycle are shown.

When a request type is selected in the Object Type filter, and phases have been defined
for that request type, the phases are shown as a gray background against the lifecycle
states to which they apply.

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When an item type is selected in the Object Type filter, and build stages have been
configured for Dimensions Build for that item type, the build stages are shown as a gray
background against the lifecycle states to which they apply.

If a lifecycle state has been defined as sensitive, this is indicated by the following icon:

You can create a new transition by clicking in one state and dragging the mouse pointer
into another state. This displays New Transition dialog box.

Lifecycle Model with a State Selected

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How to Define CM Rules

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to define the change management rules for
controlling the development of request types for a particular product.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

Constraints This function is available for requests only.

A request cannot be related to another request if rules are in force for one of their types
and not for the other.

To define CM rules for a Request Type:

1 From the Lifecycles main window, click the top level node: in the
navigation area.

2 Click the name link of the lifecycle associated with the request type in the content
area. The Edit Lifecycle dialog box appears.

3 Select the request type for which you want to define the rules in the filter bar.

4 Do one of the following:

 Click the state for which you want to define the rule in the Lifecycle Model
 Choose the state from the list in the filter bar.

5 Click the Phases: button. This will display the Edit CM Rules dialog box.

6 To enforce CM rules, select Yes for the Enable CM Rules field.

7 Map lifecycle states to phases in the Lifecycle Phase Rules section, and set the
Dependent Request Rule.

8 When you have finished, click OK.

How to Delete a Normal State

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete a normal state from a lifecycle.

Note that you do not need to delete off-normal states as they are removed when there are
no transitions that involve them.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

Constraints See About Lifecycle Management on page 182.

To delete a normal lifecycle state:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, display the list of lifecycles in the content area by
clicking the top node: in the navigation area.

2 Click the name link of the lifecycle associated with the object type in the content area.
The Edit Lifecycle dialog box appears.

3 Select the state you want to delete in the upper row of the Lifecycle Model.

4 Click the Delete button: You will be prompted with a dialog box asking you to
confirm the deletion.

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5 Click Yes to delete the state.

How to Rename a State

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to change the name of a state for a lifecycle.

PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

Constraints See About Lifecycle Management on page 182.

To rename a lifecycle state:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, display the list of lifecycles in the content area by
clicking the top node: in the navigation area.

2 Click the name link of the lifecycle in the content area. The Edit Lifecycle dialog box
appears.

3 Select the state you want to rename in the Lifecycle Model.

4 Click the Rename button:

5 Enter the name in the New Name field.

6 Click OK to confirm the change.

How to Set the State Properties for an Object Type

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to define a lifecycle state for an item or request type
as sensitive. This means that an electronic signature is required by presenting the user
with an Authentication Point dialog box when they action the object type to or from this
lifecycle state.

Also follow this procedure to associate an item type with a stage in the Global Stage
Lifecycle.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

Constraints This function is available for items and requests only.

You can only assign a deployment stage to a state if no other deployment stage is
assigned to it.

You cannot assign or unassign a deployment stage other than DEVELOPMENT to or from a
lifecycle state if there are item revisions in the base database that:
 have item types following this lifecycle
and
 are currently at this lifecycle state

To set the state properties for an item or request type:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, display the list of lifecycles in the content area by
clicking the top node: in the navigation area.

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2 Click the name link of the lifecycle associated with the object type in the content area.
The Edit Lifecycle dialog box appears.

3 Select the item or request type whose state properties you want to set in the filter
bar.

4 Select the state for which you want to set the properties and click the Properties
button:

5 If you want to define the lifecycle state as sensitive, select Is sensitive.

6 For an item, request, or baseline type, select the stage you want to associate with the
lifecycle state from the Stage list. If you want to remove the association, select <No
Stage Assigned>.

7 Click OK.
NOTE If you have changed the Is Sensitive option, you will be presented with an
Authentication Point dialog box. Enter your Dimensions password and click OK.

Managing Transitions

About Transitions
A transition is a pair of lifecycle states between which it is possible to action the object.
For each possible transition, you specify one or more roles. A user must have one of these
roles in order to action the object from the from state to the to state.

In addition to this, there are two options associated with each role for a transition:
 Optional. If this option is set, this means that actioning an object to the transition's
from state does not require there to be a user holding that role.
If this option is not set, the actioning will be disallowed if there are no users holding
that role.
 Pending. If this option is set, the object will appear in the user's inbox, and the user
will receive an e-mail notification when the object is actioned to the from state for the
transition.
If this option is not set, it will not appear in the user's inbox and the user will not
receive e-mail notification, but the user will still be able to perform the action.

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For further details and an example, see "Assigning Pending and Optional Roles" on page
58.

Transitions Area
The Transitions area of the Edit Lifecycle dialog box displays the possible transitions in or
out of the state you have currently selected in the Lifecycle Model. If you have selected a
specific object type in the Filter bar, it also lists each attribute for which a role has a
defined rule. If no state has been defined, it displays all transactions for all states of the
lifecycle.

It consists of:
 A toolbar
 A table of transitions and roles.

The toolbar contains buttons to perform the following actions.

Button Function
Allows you to add a new transition using the New Transition dialog
box.
Allows you to edit a transition using the Edit Transition Lifecycle
dialog box.
Allows you to delete one or more transitions.

The table of transitions and roles contains a row for each combination of transition with
each role that is authorized to action the object type(s) through this state. If a role is
selected in the role filter, only that role will appear in the list.

Next to each role, there is an icon indicating whether the role is optional or pending.

Icon Meaning
O Optional. This means that actioning an object to the transition's from state
does not require there to be a user holding that role.
If the role is not optional, the actioning will be disallowed if there are no
users holding that role.
P Pending. The object will appear in the user's inbox and the user will receive
e-mail notification when the object is actioned to the from state for the
transition.
If the role is not pending, it will not appear in the user's inbox and the user
will not receive e-mail notification, but the user will still be able to perform
the action.

How to Create a New Transition

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to define a new transition for a lifecycle state and its
associated roles.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

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To create a new transition:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, display the list of lifecycles in the content area by
clicking the top node: in the navigation area.

2 Click the name link of the lifecycle in the content area. The Edit Lifecycle dialog box
appears.

3 Do one of the following:

 Optionally, select the state to which you want to add the transition in the Lifecycle
Model and click the New Transition button:
 In the Lifecycle Model, click the state from which you want to create the new
transition, drag the mouse pointer into the state to which the transition is to go,
and release the mouse button.
The New Transition dialog box appears.

4 Select the states in the transition in the From State and To State fields. To create new
states, enter them in the fields.
NOTE An existing normal transition can be split by creating a normal transition that
inserts a new state within the lifecycle path. If this is the case, the existing transition
will be adjusted, but you will be prompted with a message asking you to confirm this
before the new transition is created.

5 If the transition is a normal one, select the Is a Normal Transition check box.

6 Select the roles for the transition from the Roles list and specify if you want the roles
to be optional and/or pending.

7 If you want the dialog box to remain open, select the Keep Open check box.

8 Click OK to create the transition.

How to Edit a Transition

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit a transition for a lifecycle state.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

Constraints See About Lifecycle Management on page 182.

To edit a transition:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, display the list of lifecycles in the content area by
clicking the top node: in the navigation area.

2 Click the name link of the lifecycle in the content area. The Edit Lifecycle dialog box
appears.

3 Select the state for the transition you want to edit in the Lifecycle Model.

4 Select the transition in the Transitions area and click the Edit Transition button:

5 Update the roles on the transition as necessary.

6 Click OK to update the transition.

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How to Delete Transitions

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete one or more transitions for a lifecycle
state.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

Constraints See About Lifecycle Management on page 182.

To delete transitions:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, display the list of lifecycles in the content area by
clicking the top node: in the navigation area.

2 Click the name link of the lifecycle in the content area. The Edit Lifecycle dialog box
appears.

3 Select the state for the transition you want to delete in the Lifecycle Model.

4 Select the transition(s) you want to delete in the Transitions area and click the Delete
Transition button: You will be prompted with a dialog box asking you to confirm
the deletion.

5 Click OK to delete the transition(s). Any off-normal states that no longer have any
transitions to or from them will also be removed.

Managing Attribute Rules

The Attribute Rules Area

The Attribute Rules area displays the attributes and their rules for the state that is
currently selected in the Lifecycle Model. It consists of:
 A Toolbar
 A table of attributes and roles
 A status bar.

The Toolbar contains buttons to perform the following functions:

Allows you to add a new rule. For details, see How to Create a
New Attribute Rule on page 201.
Allows you to edit a rule. For details, see How to Edit an
Attribute Rule on page 202.
Allows you to delete one or more rules. For details, see How to
Delete Attribute Rules on page 203.

The table of attributes and roles contains a row for each combination of attribute and role
that has a rule. If a role is selected in the role filter, only rows for that role will appear in
the table.

Each row consists of:

 A selection check box to select a rule on which to perform an action

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 The name of the attribute

 The From state for which the rule applies
 The To state for which the rule applies
 The role for which the rule applies. If a role is not selected in the role filter, this row is
repeated for each role for which there is a rule
 The rules; whether the attribute is required or updatable for the role:

Required Means required. The attribute must have a value before the object
type can be actioned to a new state.
Writeable Means updatable. The attribute can be updated by this role when
the object type is at this state.

The Attribute Rules tab

How to Create a New Attribute Rule

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create a new attribute rule for a lifecycle state.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To create a new attribute rule:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, display the list of lifecycles in the content area by
clicking the top node: in the navigation area.

2 Click the name link of the lifecycle in the content area. The Edit Lifecycle dialog box
appears.

3 Select the Object type for which the rule is to apply in the Object Type field in the
filter bar.

4 Optionally, select the state to which you want to add the attribute rule in the Lifecycle
Model.

5 Click the Add button: The New Attribute Rule dialog box appears.

6 Select the attribute for which you want to create a rule from the Attribute name list.

7 Select a state from the From state list. If you want the rule to apply to a transition,
select a state from the To state list.

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NOTE The From state and To state must belong to the same transition. An attribute
rule only applies to a single transition.

8 Select a role from the Role list.

9 Select the check boxes as necessary:

 Required when actioned to the To state: Specifies that the attribute must
have a value before actioning to a new state.
 Writeable at the From state: Specifies that the attribute can be updated by this
role.
 Display in this role section: Specifies that the attribute is to be displayed for
this role and state or transition.
NOTE If you are defining a rule for an attribute within a multi-field, multi-value
block, you need to ensure that, for a given role section and transition, all of the
preceding attributes in the multi-field block will also be visible to the user. This means
that for all the preceding attributes in the block, if you have not selected Required
when actioned to the To state or Writeable at the From state, you will need to
select Display in this role section. This is so that the multi-field multi-value
attribute will be displayed correctly in the desktop and web clients.

10 If you want the dialog box to remain open, select the Keep Open check box.

11 Click OK to create the attribute rule.

How to Edit an Attribute Rule

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit an attribute rule for a lifecycle state.

You can create an attribute rule from scratch or you can copy the details from an existing
attribute rule.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To edit an attribute rule:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, display the list of lifecycles in the content area by
clicking the top node: in the navigation area.

2 Click the name link of the lifecycle in the content area. The Edit Lifecycle dialog box
appears.

3 Select the Object type for which the rule is to apply in the Object Type field in the
filter bar.

4 Optionally, select the state for which you want to edit the attribute rule in the Lifecycle
Model.

5 Click the Edit button: The Edit Attribute Rule dialog box appears.

6 Update the fields as necessary.

7 Click OK to update the attribute rule.

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How to Delete Attribute Rules

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete one or more attribute rules for a lifecycle
state.
PRIVILEGES Manage Object Types

To delete an attribute rule:

1 In the Lifecycles main window, display the list of lifecycles in the content area by
clicking the top node: in the navigation area.

2 Click the name link of the lifecycle in the content area. The Edit Lifecycle dialog box
appears.

3 Select the state for which you want to delete the rule in the Lifecycle Model.

4 Select the attribute/rule row(s) you want to delete in the Attribute Rules area and
click the Delete button: . You will be prompted with a dialog box asking you to
confirm the deletion.

5 Click Yes to delete the attribute rule(s).

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Baseline and Release Templates

In this Chapter

About Baseline and Release Templates 206

Baseline and Release Templates Main Window 210

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About Baseline and Release Templates

Purpose The management of Baseline and Release Templates within the Serena® Dimensions® CM
Administration Console enables you to define the criteria for the items that are included in
baselines or releases.

Managing baseline and release templates enable you to:

 List (query) existing baseline and release templates in the Dimensions base database.
 Create a baseline template to determine the items to be selected for inclusion when
creating a baseline.
 Create a release template to determine which items are included in a release and the
sub-directories into which they are copied.
 Optionally assign group names to collections of item types which may then be
specified for a release template rule.
 Edit or delete existing baseline and release templates.
PRIVILEGES Manage Baseline and Release Templates

Constraints  The template ID must be unique within the base database.

 Users must have a role on the product in order to restrict the list of item types when
defining or editing a baseline or release template. The template itself is not product
specific.
 A baseline template that has been used to make a release baseline cannot be
modified or deleted unless the release baseline has first been deleted.
 A release template cannot be modified or deleted if it is used to make a release.
 An item type group cannot be modified or deleted if it is specified in any release
template.

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Product Administration | Baseline and Release

Templates

What is a Baseline Template?

A Baseline Template is a set of rules which determines which Dimensions CM items are
included and excluded from a baseline. There are two types of baseline template, item
and request.

For an item baseline template, you specify the criteria for inclusion and exclusion of item
revisions by defining a set of rules based on the item's type, revision, status or build
stage, and item relationships.

For a request baseline template, you specify the criteria for inclusion of item revisions
based on a specified group of requests to which the item revisions are related as In
Response To, or optionally Info. You do this by defining a set of rules for the selection of
these requests.

Release and Archive baselines are defined by their associated templates; whereas a
Design baseline is essentially defined by the absence of an associated template in that
the baseline will include all revisions of the items from the top-level design part and its
subordinate design parts (regardless of their status). Baseline templates are unique with
respect to the base database; they are not restricted to particular products. Release

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baselines only include one revision of each item. Baselines based on a request baseline
template are always release baselines.

For a full discussion of the concepts underlying baseline and release templates, please
refer to "Baseline Templates" on page 324.

About Item Baseline Template Selection Criteria

An Item baseline template enables you to specify selection criteria for the item types to
be included in a baseline. It consists of a default criterion for all item types, and selection
criteria for specific item types that override the default for those item types for which they
have been defined. The baseline template thus consists of a list, or set of these criteria
that determine which item revisions to include.

Selection criteria can either be defined as implicit, or can be for a specific normal state or
build stage in the lifecycle.

The options for implicit states are:

Description
All revisions
Latest edit revision
Latest edit revision at Final State in Lifecycle
Latest edited revision at the most progressed state
Revision built from selected inputs
Revision that makes selected outputs

NOTE Latest edit revision in this context means the last item revision that was created.

If you choose one of these implicit states as the value for the Lifecycle State field, you
do not require any additional rules, since these are sufficient to determine which revisions
of an item to include. The State Selector field can therefore be left blank.

If you specify a specific lifecycle state for the Lifecycle State field, an additional status
rule will need to be provided in the State Selector field. The options for these additional
criteria are:

Additional status rule

Latest from state
Most progressed state above specified state OR specified state
Specified state OR most progressed state
Specified state OR next existing state upward
Specified state only

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If you specify a specific build stage for the Lifecycle State field, an additional stage
related rule will need to be provided in the State Selector field. The options for these
additional criteria are:

Additional build stage rule

Specified build stage and all next existing build stages upward
Specified build stage only.

Dimensions CM uses these additional rules together with a selected normal lifecycle state
or build stage to determine a grouping and order of preference for the item revisions to be
included in baselines using this template.

Please refer to "Baseline Templates" on page 324 for further details.

About Request Baseline Template Selection Criteria

Request baseline templates enable you to specify rules for selecting requests that will be
used as input for creating a baseline from their related items. They comprise one or more
rules that are made up from the following:
 Request type.
 Request status.
 Baseline status code, which itself comprises one of the following keys:
• EQS – specified state only.
• SUP – specified state and upward.

When a baseline is created specifying a request baseline template and a set of starting
parent requests, then all the requests that:
 are related to those parent requests, and
 match the template rules

will be collected together for processing.

The template rules will be processed in exactly the same way they are for item templates,
that is, requests will be selected based on the type, status, and the baseline status code
that was specified. For example, if a template had a rule that specified:
 all requests of type PR,
 at status ACCEPTED,
 with the baseline status code EQS

then all the requests of type PR, at the status ACCEPTED only, would be used for inclusion
into the baseline.

Once this list of requests has been determined, then only those items that are related to
those requests with either an InResponseTo or, optionally, an Info relationship will be
included in the baseline. However, because the baseline that is being created is a release
baseline, only one revision of each item will be included in the baseline (not all revisions,
as would be the case for a design baseline). This means, that even though the requests
being selected may contain multiple revisions of the same item, the final baseline can only
contain one revision of all these possible items.

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To ensure that only one revision of an item is included in the final baseline in
circumstances where multiple item revisions are related to requests, only the latest item
revision will be selected using that item's pedigree.

When the baseline has been created, the requests that were used to create it will be
related as InResponseTo that new baseline.

What is a Release Template?

A Release Template defines or modifies the rules by which baselined items are selected for
inclusion in a release to an operating system directory. The set of rules specifies:
 Which parts of the product structure are to be included.
 Which item types are to be included.
 How the selected items are to be structured in the operating system release directory.

Refer to "Release Templates" on page 338 for further details.

About Release Template Selection Criteria

A release template may consist of any number of selection criteria. Each criterion:
 Optionally specifies a design part. This rule is then applied to that design part and to
any part subordinate to it in the design part structure tree, unless and until another
criterion specifies a subordinate design part, in which case that other rule overrides
for that sub-tree, and so on. Alternatively, a criterion may be applied to ALL design
parts of the product.
 Specifies either one or all item types, or a group of item types identified by an item
type group you can create for this purpose.
 Optionally specifies a subdirectory of the release directory. The items of all types
specified by the criterion, for all design parts selected by the criterion, are placed in
the subdirectory if specified, or otherwise in the main release directory.

About Release Template Subdirectories

The purpose of subdirectories is to simplify subsequent handling of the release data. For
example, a release template can be used to specify that executable code, source-code
modules, user documentation and system-specification documents are each to be
grouped in different subdirectories. This field specifies a sub-directory to be added to the
release directory path name specified by users when they make a release. If a release
template is specified, the items will be placed in the sub-directory as specified in the
release template with the leaf node portion of their project filename; whereas, if a release
template is not utilized or the Release Sub-directory field is left blank, the items'
project filenames will be used, relative to the operating system release directory the user
requests for the release.

What is an Item Type Group?

An item type group is a set of item types you set up in order to help you specify which
ones are to be included in a release baseline. Dimensions CM allows you to assign a group
name to a number of otherwise unrelated item types. The group name may then be

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specified in a template rule instead of a specific item type, thereby bringing all the
associated item types within the scope of that rule.

Baseline and Release Templates Main Window

The Baseline and Release Templates main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays a toolbar with buttons to carry out various functions. See
Baseline and Release Templates Main Window Toolbar on page 210.
 Navigation area: Displays a list of all the baseline templates, release templates, or
item type groups that have been defined for the base database depending on the
selection you have made. See Baseline and Release Templates Navigation Area on
page 211.
 Content area: If no templates or item type groups are selected, this contains a table
summarizing details of all those objects in the navigation area. If one of those objects
is selected in the navigation area, the content area displays various details for that
object. See Baseline and Release Templates Content Area on page 211.
 Status area: Displays login details and the number of objects selected.For details of
the Administration Console status area, see "The Status Area" on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

Baseline and Release Templates Main Window

Toolbar
The main window toolbar displays the following buttons. The appearance of the buttons
depends on whether baseline templates, release templates, or item type groups have
been selected in the navigation area.

Button Function
Allows you to create a new template, or item type group using
one of the following:
 New Baseline Template dialog box
 New Release Template dialog box
 New Item Type Group dialog box
Allows you to create a new template by copying the details from
a selected one using one of the following:
 Copy Baseline Template dialog box
 Copy Release Template dialog box
Allows you to delete the selected template, or item type group.

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Baseline and Release Templates Navigation Area

The navigation area contains the following:
 Selection: A selection from which you choose what appears in the Baseline and
Release Templates main window. If you made a specific selection under Baseline and
Release Templates from the main Dimensions Administration Console, this field will be
set to that selection. The selections are:
 Baseline Templates
 Release Templates
 Item Type Groups
 Base Database Node: This shows the name of the base database and the type
of object selected.
 List: A list of all the objects (baseline/release templates or item type groups) as
determined by the List Selection above. Clicking on the base database node of this
list displays a list of all those objects in the content area. Clicking on a specific object
displays more comprehensive details for that object in the content area.

Baseline and Release Templates Content Area

When you select a template or item type group in the navigation area, the content area
displays details for that specific object. These details are grouped into sections which are
displayed in the content area according to the selection made. These details are discussed
in:
 "Content Area for a Single Baseline Template" on page 212.
 "Content Area for a Single Release Template" on page 214
 "Content Area for an Item Type Group" on page 216

When the top level node: is selected in the navigation area, the
content area displays a table listing all of the baseline templates, release templates, or
item type groups in the base database depending on the selection in the navigation area.
It contains the following:
 A button to display the list of templates as a separate HTML page to print or save.
 A button to display the list of templates as comma-separated values to save as a
text file.
 Column headings for the fields. Clicking the icon selects or deselects all the
objects in the list. You can change the sort order of the list by clicking the column
headings.
 A list of objects:
For baseline and release templates, this contains the following details:

Field Description
A check box to select or deselect the template(s) for the
Check Box operations performed by the toolbar buttons.
Template ID The name that identifies the template.
Creation Date The date the template was created.

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Field Description
Originator The user ID of the user who created the template
For a baseline template, whether it is an item or request baseline
Scope template.

For item type groups it contains the following details:

Field Description
A check box to select or deselect the template(s) for the
Check Box operations performed by the toolbar buttons.
Item Type The name that identifies the item type group.
Group Name

Content Area for a Single Baseline Template

The content area with a specific baseline template selected consists of:
 A General section displaying the following fields:

Field Description
Name The name that identifies the template.
Creation Date The date the template was created.
Created By The user ID of the user who created the template
Scope Whether this is an item or request baseline template.

 A Selection Criteria section consisting of the following:

 Toolbar buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add a selection criterion using the New Selection
Criterion dialog box.
Allows you to edit the selected selection criterion using the Edit
Selection Criterion dialog box.
Allows you to delete a selected selection criterion.

 A table of details for the selection criteria:

• For an Item baseline template

Field Description
A check box to select or deselect the criterion for the
Check Box operations performed by the toolbar buttons.
The item type for which the selection applies. "*" means
this applies as the default for all item types for which no
Item Type specific item type criteria have been defined.
Associated The lifecycle associated with the item type. This is blank if
Lifecycle Item Type is "*".

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Field Description
The state(s) for which the selection criterion applies. This
Lifecycle may be either a specific normal state or one of the implicit
State values.
Additional The criteria to be used when a specific lifecycle state has
Criteria been specified in the Lifecycle State field.

For a further explanation of these fields, see About Item Baseline Template
Selection Criteria on page 207.
• For a request baseline template

Field Description
A check box to select or deselect the criterion for the
Check Box operations performed by the toolbar buttons.
The item type for which the selection applies. "*" means
this applies as the default for all item types for which no
Request Type specific item type criteria have been defined.
Request The status on which the selection criterion is based.
Status
Baseline The rule that determines which requests are selected in
Status Code conjunction with the specified status.

For a further explanation of these fields, see "About Request Baseline Template
Selection Criteria" on page 208.
 A Baselines Using Above Template area, containing a table of baselines created
using the selected template. It displays the following for each baseline:

Field Description
Product Id The product to which the baseline belongs.
Baseline Id The ID of the baseline that uses this template.
Creation Date The date the baseline was created.
Created By The user ID of the user who created the baseline.

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Content Area for an item baseline template

Content Area for a Single Release Template

The content area with a specific release template selected consists of:
 A Release section displaying the following fields:

Field Description
Name The name that identifies the template.
Creation Date The date the template was created
The user ID of the user who created the
Created By template

 A Selection Criteria section consisting of the following:

 Toolbar buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add a selection criterion using the New Selection
Criterion dialog box.
Allows you to edit the selected selection criterion using the Edit
Selection Criterion dialog box.
Allows you to delete a selected selection criterion.

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 A table of details for the selection criteria:

Field Description
A check box to select or deselect the criterion for the
Check Box operations performed by the toolbar buttons.
The highest level design part to which the criterion applies.
The same criterion applies to all its subordinate child parts,
unless overridden by a more specific criterion.
"*" means this is the default for all design parts for which no
Part ID specific item type criteria exist.
This field limits the criterion to one variant of the design
parts specified by the Part ID field (plus subordinate design
part variants).
"*" means all variants of the design part will be subjected to
Part Variant the criterion
The item type(s) for which the selection applies. This will
either be a specific item type or the name of an item type
group that has been defined.
"*" means all items will be subjected to the criterion.
Hyphen "–" means that the selection criterion will be not be
Item Type/ applied to any items (i.e. items will not be selected for this
Group criterion).
Release If specified, all item types selected by this criterion will be
Subdirectory placed in this subdirectory.

For a further explanation of these fields, see "What is a Release Template?" on page
209.
 A Releases Using Above Template area, containing a table of releases created
using the selected template. It displays the following for each release:

Field Description
Product Id The product to which the release belongs.
Release Id The ID of the release that uses this template.
Creation Date The date the release was created.

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Content area for a release template

Content Area for an Item Type Group

The content area with a specific item type group selected consists of:
 An Item Type Group section consisting of the following:

Field Description
Name The name that identifies the item type group.

 An Item Types in Above Group section consisting of the following:

 Toolbar buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add an item type to the group.

Allows you to delete a selected item type from the

group.

 A list of the item types in the group:

Field Description
A check box to select the item type(s) to be
Check Box deleted from the group.
Name The name of the item type.

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 A Release Templates Using Above Item Types Group section displaying the
following fields for each release in which the item type group has been used:

Field Description
The name of the release template that uses the
Template ID item type group.
The user ID of the user who created the
Created By template.
Creation Date The date the template was created

Content area for an item type group

How to Create a New Baseline Template

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create a new template to specify which items are
included in a baseline. Once you have created the template, you can then define its
selection criteria.
PRIVILEGES Manage Baseline and Release Templates

To create a new baseline template:

1 From the Baseline and Release Templates main window, select Baseline Templates
from the list in the navigation area.

2 Do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

Create a new Click the New button: in the main window.
template from
scratch
Create a new Select the template you want to copy in the navigation area
template based on and click the Copy button: in the main window.
an existing
template

The New Baseline Template dialog box or Copy Baseline Template dialog box appears.

3 Enter a name for the new template in the Template ID field.

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4 For a new template, select item or request for the Scope.

5 Click OK to create the template.

Once the template has been created, you can subsequently define the selection criteria,
as described in How to Define the Selection Criteria for a Baseline or Release Template on
page 220.

How to Create a New Release Template

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create a new template to specify which items are
included in a release. Once you have created the template, you can then define its
selection criteria.
PRIVILEGES Manage Baseline and Release Templates

To create a new release template:

1 From the Baseline and Release Templates main window, select Baseline Templates
from the list in the navigation area.

2 Do one of the following

If you want to... Then...

Create a new template Click the New button: in the main window.
from scratch
Create a new template Select the template you want to copy in the navigation
based on an existing area and click the Copy button: in the main window.
template

The New Release Template dialog box or Copy Release Template dialog box appears.

3 Enter a name for the new template in the Template ID field.

4 Click OK to create the template.

Once the template has been created, you can subsequently define the selection criteria,
as described in "How to Define the Selection Criteria for a Baseline or Release Template"
on page 220.

How to Create a New Item Type Group

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create a new group of item types to use in a
release template.
PRIVILEGES Manage Baseline and Release Templates

To create a new item type group:

1 From the Baseline and Release Templates main window, select Item Type Groups from
the list in the navigation area.

2 Click the button in the main window. The New Item Type Group dialog box
appears.

3 Enter a name for the item type group in the Item Type Group Name field.

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4 Select the first item type to include in the group from the Item Type list. You can
include additional item types later.

5 Click OK to create the item type group.

How to Delete a Template or Item Type Group

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete a baseline template, release template, or
item type group that you created in error or is no longer required.
PRIVILEGES Manage Baseline and Release Templates

To delete a template or item type group:

1 In the Baseline and Release Templates main window, select the object that you want
to delete in the navigation area or the content area.

2 Click the Delete button: or

This displays a dialog box asking you if you are sure you want to delete the object.

3 Click the button. The object disappears from the list.

How to Specify the Item Types in an Item Type Group

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to add to or amend the list of item types to be
included in an item type list.
PRIVILEGES Manage Baseline and Release Templates

To specify the item types in an item type group:

1 From the Baseline and Release Templates main window, select Item Type Groups from
the list in the navigation area.

2 Select the item type group in the navigation area. This will display the details in the
content area.

3 Do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

add a new item type Click the Add: button. The Add Item Type to Item
to the list Types Group dialog box appears. Select an item type from
the list. If you want the dialog box to remain open to add
more item types, select the Keep Open check box.
remove an item type Select the item type in the Item Types in Above Group
from the list section in the content area and click the Delete:
button. This will display a dialog box asking you to
confirm the deletion.

4 Click OK to update the details.

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How to Define the Selection Criteria for a Baseline or

Release Template
Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to add or amend the selection criteria that specify
which items are included in a baseline or release.
PRIVILEGES Manage Baseline and Release Templates

To define the selection criteria for a baseline or release template:

1 From the Baseline and Release Templates main window, select the baseline or release
template for which you want to define the selection criteria in the navigation area.
This will display the template details in the content area.

2 Do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

add a new selection Click the Add button: The Add Selection Criterion
criterion dialog box appears.
edit an existing Select the criterion in the Selection Criteria section of the
selection criterion content area and click the Edit button: The Edit
Selection Criterion dialog box appears.
delete a selection Select the criterion in the Selection Criteria section in the
criterion content area and click the Delete button: This will
display a dialog box asking you to confirm the deletion.

3 For item baseline templates, do the following:

a From the Item Type list, select the item type to which the criteria applies.
b From the Lifecycle State list, select the lifecycle state or build stage to which the
criteria applies. Choose an actual state or one of the implicit values. See About
Item Baseline Template Selection Criteria on page 207.
c If you chose an actual state or stage from the Lifecycle State list, select a value
from the State Selector list. See About Item Baseline Template Selection Criteria
on page 207.

4 For request baseline templates, do the following:

a From the Request Type list, select the request type to which the criteria applies.
b From the Request Status list, select the lifecycle state to which the criteria
applies.
c From the Baseline Status Code list choose the option that applies to the Status
selected. See "About Request Baseline Template Selection Criteria" on page 208.

5 For release templates, do the following:

a From the Part Id list, select the highest-level design part to which the criteria
applies.
b In the Variant field, enter the design part variant.
c From the Item Type/Group list, select an item type or group.
d Optionally, specify a subdirectory name for the items selected by the criteria in the
Release Subdirectory field.

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6 Click OK.

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Chapter 11
Upload Rules

In this Chapter

About Upload Rules Management 224

Upload Rules Main Window 225
Modifying Upload Rules 226

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Chapter 11 Upload Rules

About Upload Rules Management

Purpose The management of upload rules in the Serena® Dimensions® CM Administration Console
allows you to:
 Specify rules that determine which files can be added to the Dimensions database and
which files should be excluded.
 Determine which item types are assigned to which types of file.
 View, edit, and delete rules for Dimensions clients, products, IDEs, and IDE projects.
PRIVILEGES Manage Project Upload Inclusions/Exclusions

Constraints You must be the Tool Manager to modify default rules for Dimensions or IDEs. You must
be the Product Manager to modify rules for a specific IDE project.

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Configuration Object Management | Upload Rules

NOTE The Upload Rules function in the Dimensions Administration Console was
previously known as IDE Setup in releases prior to Dimensions 8.0.

What are Upload Rules?

Upload rules map file name patterns to Dimensions file formats and item types. These
rules determine whether files that match a certain file name pattern can be added to the
database using a Dimensions client or an IDE. These file name patterns can also restrict a
rule to items within a specific project folder. Upload rules must exist in the base database
before you can start adding files.

Starting with Dimensions 7.0, default upload rules are automatically included when you
create a database. The default rules apply to Dimensions clients and each supported IDE.
You can modify the default rules, as well as create and modify rules for specific IDE
projects and Dimensions CM products.

If you modify the:

 Default rules for Dimensions CM: The modified rules will be used for all files added
to Dimensions CM through the desktop client, the web client, and the Project Merge
tool.
 Rules for a specific product: The modified rules will override the default
Dimensions CM rules for all files added to Dimensions through the desktop client, the
web client, and the Project Merge tool within that product.
 Default rules for an IDE: All subsequent projects created by that IDE in the same
base database will use a copy of the new default rules.
 Rules for a specific project: The modified rules will be used for all subsequent
operations in that project.

For more Upload rules determine the attributes of new items that are created in Dimensions. See
information About Attributes on page 42 for more information on how attributes work.

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Assigning Files of the Same Data Type a Different

Item Type
You may want to assign more than one item type for files of the same data type.

For example, a team lead wants to have a file to keep notes on the. project The file the
notes are kept in is a MS Word document and the item type is PN, with a lifecycle of Open
and Closed. Other MS Word and .txt documents in the project all have the same item
type, DOC, and so the same lifecycle, Draft, Review, and Approved.

When adding a single item to a project or stream the item type can be changed.

When adding multiple files of the same data type but different item type, this can be
achieved by using filename pattern matching:
 Make sure the project note files contain the same string in their names, for example,
are all named <project>_pn.doc.
 Update the upload rules for the client and product so that the filename pattern,
_pn.doc, is assigned the PN item type.

Upload Rules Main Window

The Upload Rules main window consists of the following:
 Navigation area: Displays a list of IDEs and IDE projects, as well as the Dimensions
Default project. See Upload Rules Navigation Area on page 225.
 Content area: Displays upload rule details for the currently selected IDE, IDE
project, Dimensions Default project, or product. See Upload Rules Content Area on
page 226.
 Status area: Displays log in details. See The Status Area on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

Upload Rules Navigation Area

The navigation area displays the following:
 Base Database: The current base database for which these upload rules apply.
 Dimensions Clients: Represents the default upload rules used by Dimensions when
files are added. (This was known as the Project Merge Tool IDE environment in
releases prior to Dimensions 8.0.) Beneath this section there is a Default Project
folder, representing the default upload rules for the base database, and a folder for
each product within the base database representing any product-specific rules.
 IDE Names: Lists the names of the supported IDEs. Beneath each IDE, the Default
Project folder represents the default upload rules for the IDE. Any specific IDE
projects are also listed. These folders represent any project-specific rules for the IDE.

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Upload Rules Content Area

When you select the Dimensions default project, a product, an IDE default project, or an
IDE specific project, the content area displays the following sections:
 General: Displays product and project information about the current selection.
 Include: Displays file inclusions, which determine the files that can be added,
checked in, or uploaded to Dimensions. From this section you can add, edit, and
delete file inclusions.
 Exclude: Displays file exclusions, which determine the files that are not normally
added, checked in, or uploaded to Dimensions. From this section you can add, edit,
and delete file exclusions.

Modifying Upload Rules

How to Copy Upload Rules

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to copy a set of inclusion/exclusion rules from an
existing IDE or Client project/product to the current one.
PRIVILEGES Manage Project Upload Inclusions/Exclusions

1 From the Upload Rules main window, select an upload project in the navigation area:
 Dimensions Clients | Default Project for the Dimensions default rule set.
 Dimensions Clients | product name for the rule set for a specific product.
 IDE Name | Default Project for an IDE default rule set.
 IDE Name | Project Name for an IDE project rule set.

2 In the General section in the content area, click the Copy button: . The Copy
Inclusions/Exclusions dialog box appears.

3 From the Source project list, select the project whose rules you want to copy.

4 Click OK.

How to Include Files for Upload

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to add a file inclusion to the upload rules for
Dimensions, an IDE, or an IDE project. A file inclusion allows files that match a certain file
name pattern to be added, checked in, or uploaded to Dimensions.
PRIVILEGES Manage Project Upload Inclusions/Exclusions
NOTE The order in which the inclusions are displayed in the list is significant. General
inclusions should appear above more specific inclusions, ensuring that the specific
inclusions are attempted for pattern matching first.

To add a file inclusion:

1 From the Upload Rules main window, select one of the following from the navigation
pane:

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 Dimensions Clients | Default Project to add the file inclusion to the Dimensions
default rule set.
 Dimensions Clients | product name to add the file inclusion to the rule set for a
specific product.
 IDE Name | Default Project to add the file inclusion to an IDE default rule set.
 IDE Name | Project Name to add the file inclusion to an IDE project rule set.

2 From the Include section, select an existing inclusion if you want the new inclusion to
be added above it in the list. Otherwise, the new inclusion will appear at the bottom of
the list.

3 Click the New button: . The New Upload Inclusion dialog box appears.

4 Enter the file name pattern for the files you want to include in the File Name Pattern
Match field.

5 Enter the Dimensions data format to map to the file name pattern in the Data
Format field.

6 Optionally, complete the rest of the fields in the dialog box.

7 Click OK.
NOTE Where there is a conflict, the list of files to exclude supersedes the list of files to
include.

How to Exclude Files from Upload

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to add a file exclusion to the upload rules for
Dimensions, an IDE, or an IDE project. A file exclusion prevents files that match a certain
file name pattern from being added, checked in, or uploaded to Dimensions.
PRIVILEGES Manage Upload Rules

To add a file exclusion:

1 From the Upload Rules main window, select one of the following from the navigation
pane:
 Dimensions Clients | Default Project to add a file exclusion to the Dimensions
default rule set.
 Dimensions Clients | product name to add a file exclusion to the rule set for a
specific product.
 IDE Name | Default Project to add a file exclusion to an IDE default rule set.
 IDE Name | Project Name to add a file exclusion to an IDE project rule set.

2 From the Exclude section, click the New button: . The New Upload Exclusion dialog
box appears.

3 Enter the file name pattern of the files you want to exclude from Dimensions in the
File Name Pattern Match field.

4 Click OK.

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How to Modify Rules

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit or delete file inclusions or exclusions from an
upload rule set.
PRIVILEGES Manage Project Upload Inclusions/Exclusions

To edit or delete an inclusion or exclusion:

1 From the Upload Rules main window, select one of the following from the navigation
pane:
 Dimensions Clients | Default Project to add an inclusion or exclusion to the
Dimensions default rule set.
 Dimensions Clients | product name to add an inclusion or exclusion to the rule
set for a specific product.
 IDE Name | Default Project to edit or delete an inclusion or exclusion from an
IDE default rule set.
 IDE Name | Project Name to edit or delete an inclusion or exclusion from an IDE
project rule set.

2 Select the file inclusion from the Include section that you want to edit or delete, or
select the file exclusion from the Exclude section.
You can select more than one inclusion or exclusion to delete.

3 Do one of the following:

 Click the Edit button: and change the fields as necessary in the Edit Upload
Inclusion or Edit Upload Exclusion dialog box.
 Click the Delete button: and click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the
file inclusion(s) or exclusion(s).

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Chapter 12
Preservation Policies

In this Chapter

About Preservation Policies 230

Preservation Policies Main Window 230
Managing Preservation Policies 231

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Chapter 12 Preservation Policies

About Preservation Policies

A preservation policy is a set of rules that determine how the output files from a build
process are represented in Dimensions CM. A preservation policy is associated with a
stage for a project/stream, and each type of target, or output file resulting from a build, is
preserved according to these preservation rules when a build is run for the project/stream
for that stage.

For further information on Build see the Build User's Guide.

There are three types of preservation rule that determine the type of item revision that
can be created for a build output:
 Normal: An output file from a build is stored as a normal item revision with the file
stored in a Dimensions item library.
 External: An output file from a build (such as a listing) that is stored outside a build
area. It is represented as an item revision but the item file is not stored in a
Dimensions item library. You can, however, get or check out the item revision, in
which case the external file is copied to your work area.
 Placeholder: An output file from a build that can be inside or outside a build area. It
is represented as an item revision but the item file is not stored in a Dimensions item
library and you cannot get or check out the item file.

Note that external and placeholder item revisions do not get promoted from one build
area to another.

When you define a preservation policy, you specify the default preservation rule for all
item types for build outputs by choosing one of these three options. You can then
optionally add one or more preservation rules to override the default one for any specific
item types that you want to be treated differently.

Once defined, you can associate different preservation policies with different stages of a
build project. If you do not specify a preservation policy for a build stage the default is to
preserve all build outputs as normal Dimensions items.

Preservation Policies Main Window

The Preservation Poilicies main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the toolbar buttons to help you carry out various tasks. See
Preservation Policies Menu Area on page 231.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from a list of preservation policies.
See Preservation Policies Navigation Area on page 231.
 Content area: Displays a list of valid preservation policies in the base database, or
the details of a selected version branch. See Preservation Policies Content Area on
page 231.
 Status area: Displays login details and the number of objects selected.For details of
the Administration Console status area, see "The Status Area" on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

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Preservation Policies Menu Area

The menu area displays the following toolbar buttons:

Button Function
Define a new preservation policy using the New Preservation
Policy dialog box.
Create a preservation policy by copying the details of an
existing preservation policy.
Delete the selected preservation policy.

Preservation Policies Navigation Area

The navigation area allows you to:
 Select the top-level icon: to view a list of all the
preservation policies in the product.
 Select a preservation policy icon: to view and edit its details in the content area.

Preservation Policies Content Area

When you select a preservation policy in the navigation area, you view and edit its details
in the content area.

When you select the product icon: in the navigation area,

you can do the following in the content area:
 Select a preservation policy to edit, copy, or delete it. Click to select or deselect all
of the preservation policies in the list.
 Print the list of preservation policies by clicking
 Save the list of preservation policies as comma-separated values by clicking
 Sort the preservation policies by clicking the column headings.

When you select a preserving policy icon: in the navigation area, you can do the
following in the content area:
 Add: edit: or delete: a preservation rule in the Preservation Rules
area.
 Add: or delete: stages for a project in the Used By area.

Managing Preservation Policies

When you create a new preservation policy you define the default rule to be used for the
items for the output files. See "How to Create a New Preservation Policy" on page 232

You can then:

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 Set up one or more preservation rules within the preservation policy for specific item
types that override the default rule. See "How to Add, Edit or Delete Preservation
Rules" on page 233.
 Associate this preservation policy with one or more stages for one or more projects.
See "How to Add or Delete Project Stages" on page 234

How to Create a New Preservation Policy

Purpose Create a preservation policy when you want to determine how outputs from a build are to
be preserved in Dimensions. Optionally, you can set up one or more preservation rules
within the preservation policy for specific item types that override the default rule. You
can subsequently associate this preservation policy with one or more stages in a project.

To create a new preservation policy:

1 In the Build Administration main window, click the Preservation Policies tab.

2 In the status area, select the product to which the preservation policy is to belong.

3 Click the New button:

The New Preservation Policy dialog box appears

4 Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the preservation policy.

5 Select the Default Rule for the preservation of items.

6 Click OK. The new preservation policy is added to the product.

How to Edit, Copy, or Delete Preservation Policies

Purpose Edit a preservation policy when you want to change its description or default rule.

Copy a preservation policy when you want to create a new preservation policy based on
an existing policy and its rules.

Delete a preservation policy when it is not required or has been created in error.

Constraints  When you edit a preservation policy, you cannot change its name.
 You can only delete a project whose status is SUSPENDED.

To edit, copy or delete a preservation policy:

1 Make sure the product to which the preservation policy belongs is selected in the
status area

2 In the Build Administration main window, click the Preservation Policies tab and select
the preservation policy in the navigation area.

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3 Do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

Edit a 1 In the General area, click Edit:
preservation
policy 2 In the Edit Preservation Policy dialog
box, change the description or Default
Rule, as required.

3 Click OK to confirm the changes.

Copy a 1 Click the Copy button:
preservation
policy 2 In the Copy Preservation Policy dialog
box, enter the Name, and optionally,
select a new Product, Default Rule, or
Description

3 Click OK to add the new preservation

policy.
Delete a 1 Click the Delete button:
preservation
policy 2 Click Yes to confirm that you want to
delete the preservation policy.

How to Add, Edit or Delete Preservation Rules

Purpose Add, edit, or delete the preservation rules within a preservation policy when you want to
determine how build outputs of specific item types are to be preserved in Dimensions CM.

To edit or delete preservation rules:

1 In the Build Administration main window, click the Preservation Policies tab and select
the preservation policy whose rules you want to change in the navigation area.

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2 In the Preservation Rules area, do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

Add a rule 1 Click Add:

2 In the New Preservation Rule dialog box, select the item

type for which you want to add a rule.

3 Select the rule you want to apply to this item type.

Edit a rule 1 Select the Type whose rule you want to edit.

2 Click Edit:

3 In the Edit Preservation Rule dialog box, select the rule

you want to apply to this item type.

4 Click OK to confirm the changes.

NOTE You cannot change the type. You must delete the rule
for a type and add a new one to change it.
Delete a rule 1 Select the Type whose rule you want to delete.

2 Click Delete:

3 Click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the rule.

How to Add or Delete Project Stages

Purpose Add, or delete the project stages assigned to a preservation policy when you want to
specify the projects, and the stages for those projects, to which the preservation policy
will apply.

To edit or delete project stages:

1 In the Preservation Policies main window, click the Preservation Policies tab and select
the preservation policy whose project stages you want to change in the navigation
area.

2 In the Used By section of the content area, do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

Add a project stage 1 Click Add:

2 In the Add Project and Stages dialog box, select the

project that you want to use this preservation policy.

3 Select the stage(s) for this project for which you want
the preservation policy to apply.
Delete a stage for a 1 Select the Project and stage you want to delete.
project
2 Click Delete:

3 Click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the rule.

234 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Chapter 13
Data Formats and MIME Types

In this Chapter

About Defining Data Formats and MIME Types 236

Data Formats and MIME Types Main Window 239
Working with Data Formats and MIME Types 240
Assigning Object Types to Data Formats 242

Process Modeling User's Guide 235

Chapter 13 Data Formats and MIME Types

About Defining Data Formats and MIME Types

Purpose Defining item and request data formats and MIME types and subsequently assigning
particular object types to them, is used by Serena® Dimensions® CM:
 To compel users to select from a list of defined and assigned formats when creating
items of a particular type.
 To determine how the Dimensions desktop client and the Dimensions web client
applications display requests or item files.
 To specify MIME types for the Dimensions web client.

If a data format is not assigned to a particular item type, you can use any format when
you create an item, including formats that have not been defined. If a data format is not
registered, then it is assumed by Dimensions to be of type BINARY. Binary files do not
undergo end of line translation when moving from one operating system to another.
Therefore it is important to plan and manage this information.

From the Data Format and MIME Types main window you can:
 List the data formats and Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) types currently
registered in the base database.
 Filter the list of data formats and MIME types according to user-defined criteria. See
"How to Filter Data Formats" on page 241.
 Create (register) a new data format and MIME type. See "How to Create a New Data
Format" on page 241.
 Edit an existing data format and MIME type. See "How to Edit a Data Format" on page
242.
 Delete a data format and MIME type. See "How to Delete a Data Format" on page
242.
 Assign item types to a data format and list the current assignments, see "About
Assigning Item or Request Types" on page 242.
PRIVILEGES Manage File Format Definition

Constraints Only the Tool Manager can define data formats and MIME types, and only a Product
Manager can assign them to item types.

About File Classes

What are File The File Class specifies the way in which the data of a file is encoded. For example, on
Classes? Dimensions desktop client this value determines the mode in which item files are
transferred between the client and the server. If you do not intend to use this client, you
may accept the default value of "ASCII". However, in anticipation of future developments,
Dimensions CM includes a number of other values for file classes and it is recommended
that you make a relevant choice from the following values:
 ASCII
 BINARY
 MAC (Macintosh)
 VMS

236 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 About Defining Data Formats and MIME Types

 Windows.

These classes are hard coded into Dimensions CM and cannot be modified. At present, all
items that do not have a class of "ASCII" will be transferred between Dimensions CM
clients and servers in binary mode.

About MIME Types

What are MIME A MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) type is an internationally defined data
Types? format. These types (and subtypes) are allocated by the Internet Assigned Number
Authority (IANA) and a fuller description is given below. These values are used by the
Dimensions web client to determine how to display a request or item's content within the
user's Internet browser. If you do not intend to use Dimensions web client, you may leave
this field blank, in which case a default MIME type will be used, but in anticipation of
future developments, it is recommended that you make a relevant choice.

MIME types comprise several broad categories, with each category also having subtypes
(see About the MIME Subtypes for full details) defined by using a separator. Common
examples of MIME types are "text/plain", "text/html", "application/msword" and
"application/pdf".

The broad categories are:

text Used to describe text of various types

multipart Indicates that the file contains multiple sections with potentially more
than one MIME type
message Used for various types of messages.
application A catchall description allowing for miscellaneous types of files
image Used for graphic files
audio Used for audio files
video Used for video files
model Multi-media modeling

To find out current IANA media types, visit the web site

http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/

About the MIME Subtypes

The MIME subtypes are subdivisions of the basic categories. A list of the various subtypes
is given in the following table.

Type Subtypes
text enriched plain html
richtext sgml tab-separated-values
vnd.fmi.flexstor vnd.latex-z
multipart alternative appledouble byteranges
digest encrypted form-data

Process Modeling User's Guide 237

Chapter 13 Data Formats and MIME Types

Type Subtypes
header-set mixed parallel
related report signed
voice-message
message external-body http news
partial rfc822
application activemessage andrew-inset applefile
atomicmail cals-1840 commonground
cybercash dca-rft dec-dx
eshop hyperstudio iges
mac-binhex40 macwriteii mathematica
msword news-message-id news-transmission
octet-stream oda pdf
pgp-encrypted pgp-keys pgp-signature
postscript prs.alvestrand. prs.nprend
titrax-sheet
remote-printing riscos rtf
set-payment set-payment-initiation set-registration
set-registration- sgml sgml-open-catalog
initiation
slate vemmi vnd.
$commerce_
battelle
vnd.businessobjects vnd.ecdis-update vnd.enliven
vnd.fdf vnd.FloGraphIt vnd.
framemaker
vnd.hp-HPGL vnd.hp-PCL vnd.hp-PCLXL
vnd.ibm vnd.intercon vnd.intertrust.
.MiniPay .formnet digibox
vnd.intertrust vnd.japannet- vnd.japannet-
.nncp directory-service jpnstore-wakeup
vnd.japannet- vnd.japannet- vnd.japannet-
payment-wakeup registration registration-wakeup
vnd.japannet- vnd.japannet- vnd.japannet-
setstore-wakeup verification verification-wakeup
vnd.koan vnd.lotus-1-2-3 vnd.lotus-approach
vnd.lotus-freelance vnd.lotus-organizer vnd.lotus-screencam
vnd. vnd.meridian- vnd.mif
lotus-wordpro slingshot
vnd.ms-artgalry vnd.ms-asf vnd.ms-excel
vnd.ms-powerpoint vnd.ms-project vnd.ms-tnef

238 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Data Formats and MIME Types Main Window

Type Subtypes
vnd.ms-works vnd.musician vnd.music-niff
vnd.noblenet- vnd.noblenet-sealer vnd.noblenet-web
directory
vnd.osa. vnd.powerbuilder6 vnd.powerbuilder6-s
netdeploy
vnd.rapid vnd.seemail vnd.shana.
informed.
formdata
vnd.shana. vnd.shana. vnd.shana.
informed. informed. informed.
formtemplate interchange package
vnd. vnd.svd vnd.truedoc
street-stream
vnd.webturbo vnd.xara wita
wordperfect5.1 x400-bp zip
image cgm g3fax gif
ief jpeg naplps
png tiff vnd.dwg
vnd.dxf vnd.fpx vnd.net-fpx
vnd.svf
audio 32kadpcm basic vnd.qcelp
video mpeg quicktime vnd.motorola.
video
vnd.motorola vnd.vivo
.videop
model iges mesh vrml

Data Formats and MIME Types Main Window

The Data Format and MIME Types main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Contains a toolbar enabling you to carry out various operations on the
data formats in the content area. See Data Formats and MIME Types Menu Area on
page 240.
 Content area: Displays a list of data formats and a filter to restrict what appears in
the list. See Data Formats and MIME Types Content Area on page 240.
 Status area: Displays log in details. See The Status Area on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

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Chapter 13 Data Formats and MIME Types

Data Formats and MIME Types Menu Area

The menu area contains a toolbar with buttons to perform operations on the data formats
selected in the content area. These are:

Button Description
Create a new data format using the new Data Format dialog box.
Edit a data format using the Edit Data Format dialog box.
Delete a data format.

Data Formats and MIME Types Content Area

The content area contains a list of all the data formats created for the base database to
which you are connected, optionally restricted by the selection you have made in the filter.
It consists of the following:
 A page navigator allowing you to select which page of the list to display, or to go to
the previous or next page.
 A filter link: enabling you to filter the list of data formats.
 A button to display the list of data formats as a separate HTML page to print or
save.
 A button to display the list of data formats as comma-separated values to save as
a text file.
 Column headings for the data format fields. Clicking the icon selects or deselects
all the data formats in the list. You can change the sort order of the list by clicking the
column headings.
 A table with a row for each data format, containing:
 A selection check box
 Data Format
 Class
 MIME Type
 Description.

Working with Data Formats and MIME Types

Working with Data Formats and MIME Types includes the following topics:
 How to Filter Data Formats
 How to Create a New Data Format
 How to Edit a Data Format
 How to Delete a Data Format

240 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Working with Data Formats and MIME Types

How to Filter Data Formats

Purpose Filter data formats when you want to restrict the list in the Data Formats and Mime Types
main window to those in which you are interested.
PRIVILEGES Manage File Format Definitions

To filter data formats:

1 In the Data Format and MIME Types main window, click the Filter link:

2 Set up your filtering criteria in the Data Format Filter dialog box.

3 Click OK. The data formats listed in the main window will be filtered on the criteria
entered.

To reset the filter:

1 In the Data Format and MIME Types main window, click the Filter link: The
Data Format Filter dialog box appears.

2 Click the Reset Filter button. This will clear all the fields in the dialog box.

3 Click OK. The main window will now contain all the data formats in the base database.

How to Create a New Data Format

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create a new data format to associate with one or
more item types.
PRIVILEGES Manage File Format Definitions

To create a new data format:

1 From the Data Format and Mime Types main window, click the New button: The
New Data Format dialog box appears.

2 Enter the name of the new format in the Data Format field.

3 Select the class of the item type from the Class list.

4 Select the Compression level. This is the level of compression to be used when
getting item revisions that are assigned this data format. Choose between:
 No Compression.
 Fast Compression —This performs the compression quickly and using less
memory but is the least compressed.
 Normal Compression—a normal degree of compression. This is a happy medium
between Fast and Best.
 Best Compression—This is the slowest but gives the best compression.

5 data format.

6 Enter a valid MIME type in the MIME Type field.

7 Optionally, enter a description of the format in the Description field.

8 Click OK.

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Chapter 13 Data Formats and MIME Types

How to Edit a Data Format

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit the properties of a data format, including the
name, description, file class, or MIME type, of a data format.
PRIVILEGES Manage File Format Definitions

To edit a data format:

1 From the Data Format and Mime Types main window, click the name link of the data
format you want to edit, or select it and click the Edit button:

2 Update the fields in the Edit Data Format dialog box as necessary. For details of these
fields, see "How to Create a New Data Format" on page 241.

3 Click the Used By tab if you want to assign or unassign item types. See How to Assign
Item or Request Types to a Data Format on page 243 for details.

4 Click OK.

How to Delete a Data Format

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete a data format you no longer require, or
have created in error.
PRIVILEGES Manage File Format Definitions

To delete one or more data formats:

1 In the Data Format and Mime Types main window, select the data format(s) you want
to delete.

2 Click the Delete button: You will be prompted with a dialog box asking you to
confirm the deletion.

3 Click OK.

Assigning Object Types to Data Formats

Assigning Item Types to Data Formats and MIME Types includes the following topics:

About Assigning Item or Request Types

Assign data formats to item types to ensure that items are added in the correct format.
For example, C source files are assigned as source code, Word document files as design
documents, and so on. The assignment mappings here are in the direction of item type
list -> data format; that is, a data format is assigned to one or more item types.
NOTE If a data format is not assigned to a particular item type, then any format can be
used at the time of item creation even ones that have not been defined.

Assign Data formats to request types to determine how they are displayed in
Dimensions CM. Once assigned, the format and MIME type are used by the
Dimensions CM client applications (web client, desktop client, and IDE) to correctly
choose an application/viewer to display the request.

242 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Assigning Object Types to Data Formats

How to Assign Item or Request Types to a Data

Format
Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to assign one or more item or request types to a
data format.
PRIVILEGES Manage File Format Definitions

To assign item or request types to a data format:

1 From the Data Format and Mime Types main window, click the name link of the data
format you want to edit, or select it and click the Edit button: The Edit Data
Format dialog box appears showing the General tab.

2 Click the Relationships tab.

3 Click the Assign button:

4 Select To Item Type or To Request Type according to the type of assignment to

want to make.
The Assign dialog box appears.

5 Select the product that owns the item or request type you want to assign from the
Product Id list.

6 Select the item or request type you want to assign from the Item/Request Type
Name list.

7 Click OK. You will be returned to the Edit Data Format dialog box.

8 Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5 for each item or request type you want to assign.

9 When you have finished, click OK.

How to Unassign Item Types from a Data Format

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to remove the assignment of item types from a data
format.
PRIVILEGES Manage File Format Definitions

To unassign item or request types from a data format:

1 From the Data Format and Mime Types main window, click the name link of the data
format you want to edit, or select it and click the Edit button: The Edit data
Format dialog box appears showing the General tab.

2 Click the Used By tab.

3 Select the Item or request type(s) you want to unassign from the data format.

4 Click the Unassign button: The Unassign dialog box appears asking you if you
are sure you want to unassign the item or request type.

5 Click Yes. You will be returned to the Edit Data Format dialog box.

6 Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5 for each item or request type you want to unassign.

7 When you have finished, click OK.

Process Modeling User's Guide 243

Chapter 13 Data Formats and MIME Types

244 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Chapter 14
Valid Version Branch Names

In this Chapter

About Version Branch Management 246

Version Branch Names Main Window 246
Defining Version Branch Names 247

Process Modeling User's Guide 245

Chapter 14 Valid Version Branch Names

About Version Branch Management

Purpose The management of version branches in the Serena® Dimensions® CM Administration
Console allows you to view, define, edit, and delete valid version branch names in a base
database.
PRIVILEGES Manage Version Branch Definitions

Constraints  This function can only be run by the ADMIN group or the Product Manager.
 You cannot delete a version branch name if it is currently used to label any item
pedigree trees.
An option to delete a currently used version branch name is available using the
Dimensions Remove Version Branch (RMVB) command with the /FORCE qualifier.
Please refer to the Command-Line Reference Guide for further details.

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Configuration Object Management | Version Branch

Names

For more If you have installed the separately licensed Dimensions CM Replicator, refer to the
information Dimensions CM Administrator's Guide for branch details specific to Replicator.

What is a Valid Version Branch Name?

A valid version branch name is a permitted branch that users can choose when performing
a command that assigns a version to a new item revision. Using the Administration
Console, you can define valid version branches, and then make them available to a
specific project using the desktop client, the web client, the command-line interface, or
the ISPF client. When users add, check out, revise, or edit a revision from that project,
they are allowed to choose from the list of available version branches.

In the case of a stream, a single branch name is assigned that is used for all new item
revisions in that stream. When you create a new stream, you can either assign an existing
branch name or create a new one as a part of the Create Stream process.

The use of version branch names within a project is optional, but a stream must have a
branch name.

Version Branch Names Main Window

The Version Branch Names main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the toolbar buttons to help you carry out various tasks. See
Version Branch Names Menu Area on page 247.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from a list of valid version branches.
See Version Branch Names Navigation Area on page 247.
 Content area: Displays a list of valid version branch names in the base database, or
the details of a selected version branch. See Version Branch Names Content Area on
page 247.
 Status area: Displays login details and the number of objects selected.See "The
Status Area" on page 80.

246 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Defining Version Branch Names

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

Version Branch Names Menu Area

The menu area displays the following toolbar buttons:

Button Function
Define a new version branch name using the New Version
Branch dialog box.

Delete the version branch name(s).

Version Branch Names Navigation Area

The navigation area allows you to:
 Select the top-level Branches icon: to view a list of all the version
branches in the base database:
 Select any version branch to view and edit its details in the content area.

Version Branch Names Content Area

When you select a version branch name in the navigation area, you view and edit its
details in the content area.

When you select the Branches icon: in the navigation area, you can do the
following in the content area:
 Select a branch name to edit or delete it. Click to select or deselect all of the
version names in the list.
 Print the list of branch names by clicking
 Save the list of branch names as comma-separated values by clicking
 Sort the branch names by clicking the column headings.

Defining Version Branch Names

How to Define Version Branch Names

Purpose Follow this procedure to define a valid version branch name in the base database.
Defining valid version branches enables users to select specific development branches for
their item operations within a project.
PRIVILEGES Manage Version Branch Definitions

Process Modeling User's Guide 247

Chapter 14 Valid Version Branch Names

To define a valid version branch name:

1 From the Version Branch Names window, click the New button:
The New Version Branch dialog box appears.

2 Enter a name for the branch in the Version Branch Name field.

3 Optionally, complete the rest of the fields in the dialog box.

4 Click OK to add the new version branch name.

How to Edit or Delete Version Branch Names

Purpose Follow this procedure to modify or remove a valid version branch name from the base
database.
PRIVILEGES Manage Version Branch Definitions

Constraint You cannot delete a version branch name if it is currently used to label any item pedigree
trees.

To edit or delete a valid version branch name:

Do one of the following from the Version Branch Names window:

 Click a version branch name to edit it, or select a version branch name and click the
Edit button:
Change the fields in the Edit Version Branch dialog box as necessary.
 Select one or more version branch names and click the Delete button:

248 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Chapter 15
Area Definitions

In this Chapter

About Area Definitions 250

About Areas 250
Area Definitions Tab 251
Defining Areas 254
Editing the Global Stage Lifecycle 256
Managing Transitions in the Global Stage Lifecycle 262
Managing Area Filters 265
Area Filters Tab 267

Process Modeling User's Guide 249

Chapter 15 Area Definitions

About Area Definitions

Purpose Serena® Dimensions® CM Area Definitions allows you to:
 Create and modify work areas, deployment areas, and library cache areas.
 Assign work areas to project/streams.
 Edit the Global State Lifecycle.
 Create and modify area filters.

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Distributed Development | Area Definitions

About Areas
Areas are locations that are defined in order to contain item files for Dimensions CM
project/streams when certain item operations are performed. You define a network node
and folder for the area so that the files are held under that "root" folder in the same
hierarchical folder structure as the items in the project/stream. There are three types of
area:
 Work Area: An area that is defined for one or more users or groups, so that their
Dimensions CM file operations such as check in, check out, and so on, automatically
use this area to contain the item files for those operations.
 Deployment Area: An area that is defined to contain files whose items have reached
a particular stage in the lifecycle for a project. This means that item files are moved to
that area when the item revisions are deployed to the corresponding stage in the
Global Stage Lifecycle.
Deployment areas can also have a Filter specified. A filter is a template file containing
a set of rules that determine which files from the project/stream are held in the file
area. You can specify that only the items matching a certain filename pattern, or that
belong to a certain design part, are transferred to that area.
You can also specify Transfer Scripts for a deployment area. These are scripts that
are performed:
• Before files are transferred to the area.
• After files have been transferred to the area.
• On Fail. The script is performed if, for any reason, the transfer of the files has
failed to complete successfully.
 Library Cache Area: An area that is defined in order to contain copies of files whose
items are located on a database on a remote server. The purpose is to improve
Dimensions CM file get performance. When a user obtains a copy of a file using an
operation such as get or check out, Dimensions CM first looks in the library cache area
to see whether that file is already there and uses that copy instead of transferring the
file from the item library. This makes the processing more efficient if, for example the
files are being transferred via the network from another country, and a number of
users are accessing them. (The administrator could also set up a batch process to
populate the library cache area with the latest file versions overnight, when users are
not accessing it.)

250 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Area Definitions Tab

The use of library cache areas is supported for the following clients:
• Desktop client
• DMCLI
• DMPMCLI
• PowerBuilder
• Eclipse plug-in
• .NET integration
• Web client
NOTE A library cache area can be used in the web client provided that the user sets
the work area to a work area that has been defined in Dimensions as opposed to a
folder location on their local machine. A library cache area is assigned for your user
for a given project/stream using the Project/Stream Properties dialog box in the web
client or desktop client. If the working location is not set to a Dimensions-defined
work area, the library cache area will not be used for item file operations in the web
client although it will be used in the desktop client.

Once you have defined a file area you relate it to one or more projects/streams so that it
is used to contain item files for those projects/streams

Area Definitions Tab

The Area Definitions tab consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the program's toolbar to help you carry out various tasks. See
Area Definitions Menu Area on page 252.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from the areas in the base database.
See Area Definitions Navigation Area on page 252.
 Content area: Displays details about the selected area(s). See Area Definitions
Content Area on page 253.
 Status area: Displays log in details. See The Status Area on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

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Chapter 15 Area Definitions

Area Definitions Menu Area

The menu area displays the following toolbar buttons:

Button Function
Create a new area using one of the following:
 New Work Area dialog box
 New Deployment Area dialog box
 New Library Cache Area dialog box.
Delete the selected area(s).

Edit the Global Stage Lifecycle.

Area Definitions Navigation Area

The navigation area displays the areas in the base database. It contains a tree structure
in which the second-level nodes represent the types of area:
 Work
 Deployment
 Library Cache.

In the navigation area, you can:

 Select the top-level icon: to view a summary of all areas in the Dimensions CM
database in the content area.
 Select a second-level node to view a summary of all the areas of that type in the
content area:
•
•
•
 Expand the Deployment Areas node and select the node for a stage in the Global
Stage Lifecycle: to view a summary of the deployment areas associated with
that stage.
 Select an area icon:
• Work area:
• Deployment area:
• Library Cache area:
to view or modify that area's associated details in the content area.

252 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Area Definitions Tab

Area Definitions Content Area

The information that displays in the content area varies, depending on what you have
selected in the navigation area. The tables below describe what you'll see in the content
area based on your selection.

Area Definitions Tab: Content Area

If you select... Then the content area displays:

A single Work area:  General: Section that displays details about the
selected Work area.
Click the Edit: button to edit the area details
and assign users or groups.
 Assigned Users and Groups: Section that displays
the users and/or groups that have been assigned to
the work area.
A single Deployment area:  General: Section that displays details about the
selected Deployment area.
Click the Edit: button to edit the area details.
 Global Stage Lifecycle: A graphical representation
of the Global Stage Lifecycle.
Click the Edit: button to edit the lifecycle.
 Projects: Section that displays the project/streams
that have been related to the deployment area.
Click the button to assign a project/stream the
area using the Assign Area to Project dialog box.
Click the button to unassign a project/stream
from the area.
A single library cache  General: Section that displays details about the
area: selected library cache area.
Click the Edit: button to edit the area details.
Top-level node:  Areas: Section that displays a detailed summary of
or all areas in the base database, or of the selected
second-level node: type.

  Click the Name link to modify details for the selected

area.

 : Click to print the summary of areas.


or  : Click to save the summary of areas as comma-

Stage node: separated values.

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Chapter 15 Area Definitions

Defining Areas

How to Create Areas

Purpose Follow this procedure to create a new area.
PRIVILEGES
Create Work Areas for work areas
Create Deployment Areas for deployment areas
Create Library Cache Areas for library cache areas

To create a new area:

1 From the Areas tab, click the New button: on the toolbar, and select an option
for the type of area you want to create from the list; Work Area, Deployment Area,
or Library Cache Area. The New Area dialog box appears.

2 Enter a name for the area in the Name field. Optionally enter a Description.

3 Select a Network node from the list and enter a Directory to be used for the area
on that node or use the browse button to select it.
NOTE This is a logical network node that needs to have been defined in the
Administration Console Netwoek Administration. See the Administrator's Guide for
details.
NOTE You cannot assign the same location (the same network node and directory) to
more than one area. An error will occur if this location has already been assigned.

4 Enter the Node user ID and Node password to use for the operating system on the
network node. You can also enter a credential set, in which case the Node password
is not required. For details on credential sets, see the Administrator's Guide.
NOTE This user ID and password need to have been registered using the dmpasswd
utility. See the Administrator's Guide for details.

5 If you have selected Deployment Area, select a Stage ID to be associated with this
area from the list.

6 If you have selected Deployment Area, optionally enter the name of a template
containing filtering criteria for the items to be included in this area.

7 Enter the Dimensions CM user ID for the Area owner, or accept your current user as
the default.

8 If you have selected Deployment Area, optionally enter the name(s) of any files
containing Transfer Scripts you want to be performed in relation to the transfer of
files to the area, Pre-event, Post-event, or Fail-event.
For details of configuring and using these scripts, see "Deployment Area Scripts" in
the Developer’s Reference.

9 If you have selected Deployment Area or Library Cache Area, and you want to
exclude the area from all transfer operations at the present time, select Is this area
currently offline?

10 If you have selected Work Area, include the users/groups you want to assign to the
area:

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 To add a user/group, select the name in the Available Users list, and click the >>
link to move it to the Assigned Users list
 To remove a user/group, select the name in the Assigned Users list, and click the
<< link.

11 Click OK to create the new area.

NOTE When assigning the area to a project/stream in the GUI clients, you must
specify the name of the area and not the path.

How to Modify Areas

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit the details of an area.

To edit an area:
PRIVILEGES
Update Work Areas for work areas
Update Deployment Areas for deployment areas
Update Library Cache Areas for library cache areas

1 On the Area Definitions tab, in the navigation area, select a area.

2 In the content area, in the General section, click the Edit button: . The Edit Work
Area, Edit Deployment Area, or Edit Library Cache Area dialog box appears.

3 Edit the fields as described in "How to Create Areas" on page 254.

4 Click OK to commit the changes.

To delete an area:
PRIVILEGES
Delete Work Areas for work areas
Delete Deployment Areas for deployment areas
Delete Library Cache Areas for library cache areas

1 On the Area Definitions tab, select the top-level node: or an area type node: in
the navigation area.

2 Select the area in the navigation area and Click the Delete button: .

3 Click Yes to delete the area.

How to Assign Areas to Project/Streams

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to assign an area to a project/stream in order to
assign that area to item files for that project/stream.
PRIVILEGES
Assign Deployment Areas to Project for deployment areas

To assign an area to a project/stream:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, in the navigation area, select a deployment area.

2 In the navigation area, in the Projects section, click the Add button: . The
Assign Area to Project dialog box appears.

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3 Select a project/stream from the Projects list.

4 If you want to use a folder that is offset, or located in another folder relative to the
Area's directory, enter the relative path to be used in File path relative to Area
Directory.

5 Select Deploy by default if you want files to automatically be deployed to this area
when the item revisions are promoted or demoted to this stage.

6 Select an Audit filter from the list, or leave this as default to use the default filter for
the area.

7 Enter a Sequence order if you want deployments to this area to occur in a particular
order relative to other deployment areas when there is more that one deployment
area for this project/stream. See the Deployment Guide for the rules for deployment
sequences.

8 If you want the area to be populated with item files as soon as you relate the project/
stream, select Populate Area with Project contents.

9 Click OK to commit the changes.

To edit an area assignment:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, in the navigation area, select a deployment area:

2 In the navigation area, in the Projects section, select a project and click the
button. The Edit Assignment dialog box appears.

3 If you want to use a folder that is offset, or located in another folder relative to the
Area's directory, enter the relative path to be used in File path relative to Area
Directory.

4 If you want the area to be populated with item files as soon as you relate the project/
stream, select Populate Area with Project contents.

5 If you want the item files to remain where they are if the relative path changes, select
Do not delete files from old relative path if relative path changes.

To unassign an area from a project/stream:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, in the navigation area, select a deployment area:

2 In the navigation area, in the Projects section, select a project/stream and click the
button. The Unassign Project from Area dialog box appears.

3 Click Yes to unassign the area.

Editing the Global Stage Lifecycle

About the Global Stage Lifecycle

The Global Stage Lifecycle is the lifecycle that items follow that controls which versions
are included in configurations and builds of the project. Item revisions are moved to the
next stage in this lifecycle when they have reached the appropriate stage of approval (a
process called deployment). This lifecycle is defined for the base database. Deployment

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areas for a project can be associated with these stages so that item files are copied to
those areas when they are deployed to the corresponding stage.

The Edit Global Stage Lifecycle Dialog Box

The Edit Global Stage Lifecycle dialog box allows you to:
 Rename a stage
 Delete a stage
 Import, export, or delete an associated lifecycle image
 Add a valid transition
 Delete a transition
 Assign roles to a transition.
NOTE You create a new stage only in the New Transition dialog box when adding a
new transition. This is because you cannot add a stage to a lifecycle without there
being a possible transition for that stage.

The Edit Lifecycles dialog box consists of:

 A menu area. This is described in "The Edit Global Stage Lifecycle Menu Area" on page
258.
 An Interactive Lifecycle Model, a diagram which allows you to select and control what
appears in the Transitions area. This is described in "The Interactive Lifecycle Model"
on page 259.
 The Transitions area, a list of possible transitions and the roles required for those
transitions. This is described in "Transitions Area" on page 262.

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Edit Global Stage Lifecycle Dialog Box:

The Edit Global Stage Lifecycle Menu Area

The menu area consists of:
 A Toolbar containing buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to delete a stage. For details, see How to Delete a Stage.

Allows you to rename a stage. For details, see How to Modify a Stage.

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Button Function
Allows you to edit the description of a stage.

Allows you to import an image file using the Import Lifecycle Image dialog
box.
Allows you to export an image file associated with a lifecycle to your work
area.
Allows you to delete an associated image for the lifecycle.

 A filter bar that has filters allowing you to control what appears in the Transitions
area:
 Role: When you select a role from the list, all the stages available to that role
become highlighted. When you select a stage and a role, only those transitions in
or out of that stage that are assigned to the selected role are displayed in the
Transitions area.
 Stage: When you select a stage from the list, that stage becomes highlighted in
the lifecycle model. It is an alternative to selecting the stage in the lifecycle model.
When you select a stage in the lifecycle model this filter updates to reflect your
selection.

The Interactive Lifecycle Model

The Interactive Lifecycle Model has a diagram showing transition stages. You can scroll
this diagram horizontally if it is wider than the window. It shows the transition stages, in
the path in which they are followed. They are connected by arrows that indicate the valid
transitions.

You can select a stage by clicking it or by choosing it in the Stage filter. The arrows
representing the possible transitions into that stage become highlighted in light blue, and
the transitions out of it become highlighted in dark blue. When a stage is selected, the
Transitions area only shows the possible transitions to and from that stage, whereas when
no stage is selected all the transitions for the lifecycle are shown.

You can create a new transition by clicking in one stage and dragging the mouse pointer
into another stage. This displays New Transition dialog box.

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Lifecycle Model with a stage and transition selected

How to Delete a Stage

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete a stage from the Global Stage Lifecycle.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles (ADMIN_LIFECYCLEMAN)

To delete a stage:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, in the navigation area, click the Edit Global Stage
Lifecycle button: The Edit Global State Lifecycle dialog box appears.

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2 Select the stage you want to delete in the Lifecycle Model.

3 Click the Delete button: You will be prompted with a dialog box asking you to
confirm the deletion.

4 Click Yes to delete the stage.

How to Modify a Stage

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to change the name of a stage for a lifecycle.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles (ADMIN_LIFECYCLEMAN)

To rename a lifecycle stage:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, in the navigation area, click the Edit Global Stage
Lifecycle button: The Edit Global State Lifecycle dialog box appears.

2 Select the stage you want to rename in the Lifecycle Model.

3 Click the Rename button:

4 Enter the name in the New Name field.

5 Click OK to confirm the change.

NOTE Renaming the stage does not update the description. You will need to change the
description (see below) in order to identify the stage in the desktop client.

To change the description of a lifecycle stage:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, in the navigation area, click the Edit Global Stage
Lifecycle button: The Edit Global State Lifecycle dialog box appears.

2 Select the stage whose description you want to change in the Lifecycle Model.

3 Click the Properties button:

4 Enter the description in the Description field.

5 Click OK to confirm the change.

How to Import an Image File

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to import a new graphic file for the Global Stage
Lifecycle.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

To import an image file:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, on the toolbar, click the Edit Global Stage Lifecycle
button: The Edit Global State Lifecycle dialog box appears.

2 Click the button in the toolbar. The Import Lifecycle Image appears.

3 Enter or browse to the filename and path of the image you want to import in the
Filename field.

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4 Click OK to commit the details.

How to Export an Image File

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to export a copy of the associated image file for the
Global Stage Lifecycle to your work area.

To export an image file:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, on the toolbar, click the Edit Global Stage Lifecycle
button: The Edit Global State Lifecycle dialog box appears.

2 Click the button in the toolbar. The image will be displayed in a new browser
window.

3 Use the Save As function of the browser to save the image to your work area.

4 Click OK to copy the file.

How to Delete an Associated Lifecycle Image

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete an associated image file for the Global
Stage Lifecycle.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

To delete an associated lifecycle image:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, on the toolbar, click the Edit Global Stage Lifecycle
button: The Edit Global State Lifecycle dialog box appears.

2 Click the button in the toolbar. A dialog box is displayed asking you if you are
sure you want to delete the image.

3 Click Yes to confirm the deletion.

Managing Transitions in the Global Stage Lifecycle

Transitions Area
The Transitions area of the Edit Global Stage Lifecycle dialog box displays the possible
transitions in or out of the stage you have currently selected in the Lifecycle Model. If no
stage has been selected, it displays all transactions for all stages of the lifecycle.

It consists of:
 A toolbar
 A table of transitions and roles.

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The toolbar contains buttons to perform the following actions.

Button Function
Allows you to add a new transition using the New Transition dialog
box.
Allows you to edit a transition using the Edit Transition Lifecycle
dialog box.
Allows you to delete one or more transitions.

The table of transitions and roles contains a row for each combination of transition with
each role that is authorized to promote item revisions through this stage. If a role is
selected in the role filter, only that role will appear in the list.

Next to each role, there is an icon indicating whether the role is optional or pending.

Icon Meaning
O Optional. This means that promoting an object to the transition's from stage
does not require there to be a user holding that role.
If the role is not optional, the promoting will be disallowed if there are no
users holding that role.
P Pending. The object will appear in the user's inbox and the user will receive
e-mail notification when the item is promoted to the from stage for the
transition.
If the role is not pending, it will not appear in the user's inbox and the user
will not receive e-mail notification, but the user will still be able to perform
the promotion.

How to Create a New Transition

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to define a new transition for the Global Stage
Lifecycle and its associated roles.
PRIVILEGES
Manage Lifecycles to create transitions

To create a new transition:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, in the navigation area, click the Edit Global Stage
Lifecycle button: The Edit Global State Lifecycle dialog box appears.

2 Do one of the following:

 Optionally, select the stage to which you want to add the transition in the Lifecycle
Model and click the New Transition button:
 In the Lifecycle Model, click the stage from which you want to create the new
transition, drag the mouse pointer into the stage to which the transition is to go,
and release the mouse button.
The New Transition dialog box appears.

3 Select the stages in the transition in the From Stage and To Stage fields. To create
new stages, enter them in the fields.

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NOTE An existing transition can be split by creating a transition that inserts a new
stage within the lifecycle path. If this is the case, the existing transition will be
adjusted, but you will be prompted with a message asking you to confirm this before
the new transition is created.

4 Select the roles for the transition from the Roles list and specify whether you want the
roles to be optional and/or pending.

5 If you want the dialog box to remain open, select the Keep Open check box.

6 Click OK to create the transition.

How to Edit a Transition

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to edit a transition for a stage in the Global Stage
Lifecycle.
PRIVILEGES
Manage Lifecycles to edit transitions

Constraints  The role titles defined in each lifecycle transition must have been previously defined
(except for $ORIGINATOR). See "How to Add Roles" on page 96 for details.

To edit a transition:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, in the navigation area, click the Edit Global Stage
Lifecycle button: The Edit Global State Lifecycle dialog box appears.

2 Select the stage for the transition you want to edit in the Lifecycle Model.

3 Select the transition in the Transitions area and click the Edit Transition button:

4 Update the roles on the transition as necessary.

5 Click OK to update the transition.

How to Delete Transitions

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to delete one or more transitions for a lifecycle
stage.
PRIVILEGES Manage Lifecycles

To delete transitions:

1 On the Area Definitions tab, in the navigation area, click the Edit Global Stage
Lifecycle button: The Edit Global State Lifecycle dialog box appears.

2 Select the stage for the transition you want to delete in the Lifecycle Model.

3 Select the transition(s) you want to delete in the Transitions area and click the Delete
Transition button: You will be prompted with a dialog box asking you to confirm
the deletion.

4 Click OK to delete the transition(s). Any off-normal stages that no longer have any
transitions to or from them will also be removed.

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Managing Area Filters

About Area Filters

Purpose You define an area filter in order to specify which types of item file are copied to a
deployment or library cache area. For more information about defining areas and
associating them with a project/stream, see "About Areas" on page 250. Defining an area
filter and associating it with the deployment or library cache area enables you to specify
that only certain types of item file are automatically copied to that area.

You can define a series of filename matching patterns and specify that files matching
those patterns are either to be included in the filter, or to be excluded from the filter.

The management of Area Filters within the Administration Console enables you to:
 List (query) existing area filters in the Dimensions CM base database.
 Create an area filter in order to add a series of file selection criteria for that filter.
 Add, edit, or delete a file selection criteria for the items to be excluded in a
deployment.
 Add, edit, or delete a file selection criteria for the items to be excluded from a
deployment.
 Create a new area filter by copying the details of an existing one.
 Delete an area filter.

You associate an area filter with a deployment or library cache area using the
Administration Console Area Definitions option. See "Defining Areas" on page 254.

How are the Criteria Evaluated

When Dimensions CM is about to copy item files to a deployment or library cache area, it
first checks to see whether there is an area filter associated with it. For a given item
revision and area filter, the rules are evaluated according to the following criteria (in
order):

1 If the area has no area filter defined, the item revision is transferred into the area.

2 Otherwise, if the item revision matches an exclusion rule, the revision is not
transferred into the area.

3 Otherwise, if there are no inclusion rules, the revision is transferred into the area.

4 Otherwise, if the item revision matches an inclusion rule, the revision is transferred
into the area.

5 Otherwise, the item revision is not transferred into the area.

NOTE When you assign a project or stream to an area, you specify a folder offset for the
location of the files for that project/stream. Any file matching pattern will need to Any file
matching pattern will need to take account of the fact that different projects/streams are
likely to have different folder offsets relative to the base directory for the area.

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About File Pattern Matching

Patterns can be used for the inclusion and exclusion of files. For example:
 '*' matches zero or more characters
 '?' matches one character
 '/' is used to separate folders/directories

Patterns are considered in terms of relative paths, relative to a base directory. So a

pattern like ../foo.java will not match anything when applied since the base directory's
parent is never included.
NOTE When you assign a project or stream to an area, you specify a folder offset for the
location of the files for that project/stream. Any file matching pattern will need to take
account of the fact that different projects/streams are likely to have different folder
offsets relative to the base directory for the area.

Examples:
 *.java matches .java, x.java and Foo.java, but not Foo.xml
 ?.java matches Q.java, x.java, but not .java or abc.java

Combinations of *'s and ?'s are allowed.

Matching is done per-directory. First the first directory in the pattern is matched against
the first directory in the path to match, then the second directory is matched, and so on.
For example, when we have the pattern /?abc/*/*.java and the path /xabc/foobar/
test.java, the first ?abc is matched with xabc, then * is matched with foobar, and
finally *.java is matched with test.java. They all match, so the path matches the
pattern.

There is an extra feature, which makes it possible to match multiple directory levels. This
can be used to match a complete directory tree, or a file anywhere in the directory tree.
To do this, ** is used as the name of a directory. When ** is used, it matches zero or
more directories. For example: /test/** matches all files/directories under /test/,
such as /test/x.java, or /test/foo/bar/xyz.html, but not /xyz.xml.

There is one other convention. if a pattern ends with / or \, then ** is assumed to be

appended. For example, mypackage/test/ is interpreted as if it were mypackage/test/
**.

Here are further examples:

 **/xyz/** Matches all files that have a string xyz in their path, including xyz as a
filename.
 **/CVS/* Matches all files in CVS directories that can be located anywhere in the
directory tree.
Matches:
CVS/Repository
org/apache/CVS/Entries
org/apache/jakarta/tools/ant/CVS/Entries
But not:
org/apache/CVS/foo/bar/Entries

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 org/apache/jakarta/** Matches all files in the org/apache/jakarta directory tree.

Matches:
org/apache/jakarta/tools/ant/docs/index.html
org/apache/jakarta/test.xml
But not:
org/apache/xyz.java

Area Filters Tab

The Area Filters tab consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the program's toolbar to help you carry out various tasks. See
Area Filters Toolbar on page 267.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from the file filters in the base
database. See Area Filters Navigation Area on page 267.
 Content area: Displays details about the selected file filter(s). See Area Filters
Content Area on page 268.
 Status area: Displays log in details. See The Status Area on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

Area Filters Toolbar

The toolbar displays the following buttons:

Button Function
Create a new file filter using the New Area Filter dialog box

Allows you to create a new area filter by copying the details

from a selected one using one of the Copy Area Filter dialog
box.
Delete the selected area filter(s).

Area Filters Navigation Area

The navigation area displays the area filters in the base database. It contains:
 Base Database Node: This shows the name of the base database. Clicking on
this node displays a list of all the area filters in the content area.
 Area filter nodes: Clicking on an area filter node displays more comprehensive
details for that area filter in the content area.

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Area Filters Content Area

The content area of the Area Filters tab with the base database node selected
contains the following details:

Field Description
A check box to select or deselect the area filter(s) for the
Check Box operations performed by the toolbar buttons.
Filter ID The name that identifies the area filter.
Creation Date The date the filter was created.
Originator The user ID of the user who created the filter.

The content area of the Area Filters tab with a specific area filter selected consists of:
 A General section displaying the following fields:

Field Description
Filter ID The name that identifies the area filter.
Creation Date The date the filter was created.
Created By The user ID of the user who created the filter.

 An Excluded Selection Criteria section consisting of the following:

 Toolbar buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add a selection criterion using the New Selection
Criterion dialog box.
Allows you to edit the selected selection criterion using the Edit
Selection Criterion dialog box.
Allows you to delete a selected selection criterion.

 A table of details for the excluded selection criteria:

 An Included Selection Criteria section consisting of the following:
 Toolbar buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add a selection criterion using the New Selection
Criterion dialog box.
Allows you to edit the selected selection criterion using the Edit
Selection Criterion dialog box.
Allows you to delete a selected selection criterion.

 A table of details for the included selection criteria:

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Content area for an area filter

How to Create a New Area Filter

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to create a new area filter to specify which item files
are included when items are deployed to a new stage. Once you have created the area
filter, you can then define its selection criteria.

To create a new area filter:

1 From the Area Definitions main window, select the Area Filters tab.

2 Do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

Create a new area Click the New button: in the main window.
filter from scratch
Create a new area Select the area filter you want to copy in the navigation
filter based on an area and click the Copy button: in the main window.
existing filter

The New Area Filter dialog box or Copy Area Filter dialog box appears.

3 Enter a name for the new template in the Template ID field.

4 Click OK to create the template.

Once the template has been created, you can subsequently define the selection criteria,
as described in How to Define the Selection Criteria for an Area Filter on page 269.

How to Define the Selection Criteria for an Area Filter

Purpose Follow this procedure when you want to add or amend the selection criteria that specify
which items are included or excluded for an area filter.

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To define the selection criteria for an area filter:

1 From the Area Definitions main window, select the Area Filters tab and select the
area filter for which you want to define the selection criteria in the navigation area.
This will display the template details in the content area.

2 Do one of the following:

If you want to... Then...

add a new excluded In the Excluded Selection Criteria section, click the Add
selection criterion button: The Add Selection Criterion dialog box
appears.
add a new included In the Included Selection Criteria section, click the Add
selection criterion button: The Add Selection Criterion dialog box
appears.
edit an existing Select the criterion in the Excluded Selection Criteria or
selection criterion the Included Selection Criteria section of the content area
and click the Edit button: The Edit Selection Criterion
dialog box appears.
delete a selection Select the criterion in the Excluded Selection Criteria or
criterion the Included Selection Criteria section of the content area
and click the Delete button: This will display a dialog
box asking you to confirm the deletion.

3 If required, enter the file path pattern to use for matching the files that you want to
exclude/include in the File Path Pattern field. For details, see "About File Pattern
Matching" on page 266.

4 If you want to only exclude/include items belonging to a particular design part, enter
the design part specification in the Design Part field, or use the browse button
to select it.

5 If you want to include the child design parts belonging to the selected Design Part,
select Recurse Part Structure.

6 If required, from the Data Format list, select a data format for the items you want to
exclude/include.

7 If required, from the Item Type list, select an item type for the items you want to
exclude/include.

8 Click OK.

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Miscellaneous Database Options

In this Chapter

About IDM Tools Configuration 272

IDM Tools Configuration Main Window 272
Configuring IDM Tools 273
About Database Options 277
Database Options Main Window 277

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About IDM Tools Configuration

Purpose IDM Tools Configuration in the Serena® Dimensions® CM Administration Console allows
you to determine the provider for issues/requests to be used for tracking item updates in
Dimensions CM.
PRIVILEGES Manage IDM Tools

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Database Management | IDM Tools

What is an IDM Tool?

An IDM (Issue Defect Management) tool is a tool that is used to raise and manage issues,
defects, or change requests. Dimensions provides the capability to use the issues or
change requests provided from an external IDM tool to track item revisions as an
alternative to using internal Dimensions requests.

At the present release, the only type of external request provider supported is Serena®
SBM. This external request provider is supported in the Visual Studio and Eclipse
Integrations, and the desktop client.

An IDM tool instance is a distinctly named definition for a particular installation of of the
IDM Tool, in this case Serena SBM. The instance is identified by its name and specifies
the URL of the Web Interface, the URL for Web Services and a SBM Solution from which
issues will be available for use.

In order to use an external request provider, you need to:

1 Create an IDM tool Instance

2 Set this IDM tool instance as the Default.

The use of an external IDM tool is optional, and the default is to use Serena Dimensions
CM requests.

IDM Tools Configuration Main Window

The IDM Tools main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the toolbar buttons to help you carry out various tasks. See IDM
Tools Menu Area on page 273.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from a list of IDM tool instances. See
IDM Tools Navigation Area on page 273.
 Content area: Displays a list of IDM tool instances, or the details of a selected IDM
tool instance. See IDM Tools Content Area on page 273.
 Status area: Displays login details and the number of objects selected. See "The
Status Area" on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

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IDM Tools Menu Area

The menu area displays the following toolbar buttons:

Button Function
Set an IDM tool instance as the default.

Create a new IDM tool instance.

Edit an IDM tool instance.

IDM Tools Navigation Area

The navigation area allows you to:
 Select the top-level base database icon: to view a list of all the IDM Tool types in
the base database (currently only Serena SBM).
 Select an icon for an IDM Tool type: to view a list of all the IDM Tool instances of
a particular type.
 Select an icon for an IDM tool instance: to view and edit its details in the content
area.

IDM Tools Content Area

When you select a node for an IDM Tool type: in the navigation area, you can use
the toolbar buttons to perform the following functions:

Button Function
Allows you to add an IDM tool instance using the New IDM Tool
Instance dialog box.
Allows you to edit a selected IDM tool instance using the Edit IDM Tool
Instance dialog box.
Allows you to delete a selected IDM tool instance.

When you select an IDM tool instance in the navigation area, you can view the details, or
edit them using the button.

Configuring IDM Tools

How to Choose the Active IDM Provider

Purpose Follow this procedure to determine the use of requests in Dimensions CM clients. You can
choose to use:

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 Dimensions CM internal requests

 No requsts at all
 An external request provider (IDM tool instance).

In order to use an external request provider, you need to:

1 Create an IDM tool Instance. See "How to Create an IDM Tool Instance" on page 274.

2 Set this IDM tool instance as the Default. (See below.)

NOTE

If you change the default IDM tool instance or provider, user’s working lists and project
default requests will be cleared.

When changing the default IDM tool instance or provider, you should make sure that no
clients are connected to the server when the change is being made.
PRIVILEGES Manage IDM Tools

To set the active IDM provider:

1 Click the Default button:

The Set Default IDM Tool Instance dialog box appears.

2 Select a Default IDM Tool Instance from the list:

 Select DIMENSIONS CM to use Dimensions CM internal requests
 Select NONE if you do not want to use requests
 Select the name of an IDM tool instance if you want to use an external IDM
provider.

3 Click OK.
If you have changed the default IDM instance then you will see the following warning
message:
"Warning: if the default IDM tool instance is changed the working lists and project
default requests of ALL users will be erased."
Click OK again to change the default IDM tool instance or press Cancel.

How to Create an IDM Tool Instance

Purpose Follow this procedure to create an instance of an IDM tool in the base database. Defining
an IDM tool instance enables you to use it to provide issues/requests to relate to item
revisions when using the desktop client, Eclipse, or Visual Studio integrations.
PRIVILEGES Manage IDM Tools

To create an IDM tool instance:

1 From the IDM Tools Configuration window, click the New button:
The New IDM Tool Instance dialog box appears.

2 Enter a name for the IDM Tool Instance Name.

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 Configuring IDM Tools

3 Select the Attributes tab.

4 For Web GUI URL, enter the URL of the GUI for the Serena SBM service. For
example:
http://<hostname>/tmtrack/tmtrack.dll?
where hostname is the host name of the SBM server.

5 For Web Services URL, enter the URL of the Web services application for the Serena
SBM service. For example:
http://<hostname>/gsoap/gsoap_ssl.dll?aewebservices71
where hostname is the host name of the SBM server.

6 For Application, enter the name of the application in Serena SBM that contains the
issues to be provided, for example:
ISSUE_DEFECT_MANAGEMENT

7 Click OK to add the new IDM tool instance.

How to Edit an IDM Tool Instance

Purpose Follow this procedure to modify or remove an IDM tool instance from the base database.
NOTE

If you change the default IDM tool instance, user’s working lists and project default
requests will be cleared.

When changing the default IDM tool instance, you should make sure that no clients are
connected to the server when the change is being made.
PRIVILEGES Manage IDM Tools

Constraint You cannot delete an IDM tool instance if it is currently used to label any item pedigree
trees.

To edit an IDM tool instance:

1 From the IDM Tools Configuration window, expand the tree in the navigation area and
select the node: for the IDM tool instance.

2 click the Edit button:

The Edit IDM Tool Instance dialog box appears.

3 If required, edit the name in the IDM Tool Instance Name.

4 If required, select the Attributes tab and edit the required fields:
 For Web GUI URL, edit the URL of the GUI for the Serena IDM service.
 For Web Services URL, edit the URL of the Web services application for the
Serena IDM service.
 For Solution, edit the name of the solution in Serena IDM that contains the issues
to be provided.

5 Click OK.

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To delete an IDM tool instance:

1 From the IDM Tools Configuration window, expand the tree in the navigation area and
select the node: for the IDM tool type.

2 In the content area under the IDM Tool Instances tab, select the IDM tool instance.

3 Click the button and click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the instance.

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About Database Options

Purpose Database Options in the Serena® Dimensions® CM Administration Console allows you to
configure various options at the base database level.

Note that at present, the only such option available is Project/Stream Options.
PRIVILEGES Manage Database Options

Invocation Dimensions Administration Console | Database Management | Database Options

What are the Project/Stream Options?

Dimensions CM provides two types of container for the files used in software
development, projects and streams. You can set the following options in relation to them:
 Both projects and streams are active: This means that users in the base database
can create and work with both streams and projects and perform operations on the
items contained within them.
 Only projects are active: This means that users can only create projects and
perform those operations available for projects. Any streams previously created in the
database will not be visible.
 Only streams are active: This means that users can only create streams and
perform those operations available for streams. Any projects previously created in the
database will not be visible.

For details of the differences between streams and projects and the operations that can
be used with them, see the User's Guide.

Database Options Main Window

The IDM Tools main window consists of the following:
 Menu area: Displays the toolbar buttons to help you carry out various tasks. See
"Database Options Menu Area" on page 278.
 Navigation area: Allows you to view and select from a list of IDM tool instances. See
"Database Options Navigation Area" on page 278.
 Content area: Displays a list of DM tool instances, or the details of a selected DM tool
instance. See "Database Options Content Area" on page 278.
 Status area: Displays login details and the number of objects selected. See "The
Status Area" on page 80.

For the location of the parts of the Administration Console main window, see "The Specific
Function Window" on page 78

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Database Options Menu Area

The menu area displays the following toolbar buttons:

Button Function
Edit a database option.

Database Options Navigation Area

The navigation area allows you to:
 Select the top-level base database icon: to view a list of all the database options
in the base database.
 Select an icon for a specific database option: to view and edit its details in the
content area.

Database Options Content Area

The content area displays the following:
 Database Option: The name of the option
 Value: The current value that is set for this option.

How to Edit the Project/Stream Options

Purpose Follow this procedure to modify the Project/Stream options for the base database.
PRIVILEGES Update Database Options

To edit the Project/Stream Options:

1 From the Database Options window, expand the tree in the navigation area and select
the node: for Project/Stream Options.

2 Click the Edit button:

The Edit Project/Streams Options dialog box appears.

3 For Projects/Streams, select an option from the list:

 Both projects and streams are active
 Only projects are active
 Only streams are active,
For details of these options, see "What are the Project/Stream Options?" on page 277

4 Click OK.

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Chapter 17
Scripting Interface

In this Chapter

Introduction 280
Supported OS Platforms 280
Dimensions Components 280
Using the Scripting Interface Shell 285
Using the Object Model 288
Web-Based API Documentation 294
Example Java Scripts 295

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Introduction
Dimensions is a rich environment available on a wide range of platforms. Until recently
Dimensions functionality could only be accessed via the command-line or from the DTK/
trigger API. Both of these interfaces exposed only a subset of the existing functionality.
The scripting interface overcomes this limitation by providing a set of Java classes that
expose Dimensions components via a simple and consistent object model. This object
model is primarily intended for use by scripting languages hosted in the JVM (Java Virtual
Machine), such as JavaScript™, Python, Tcl and others. The current scripting interface
includes Rhino, an open-source Java-based JavaScript interpreter from www.mozilla.org,
and sample scripts that demonstrate the functionality that is available.

This chapter is intended for installers, administrators and users of Dimensions on UNIX
and Windows platforms.

Supported OS Platforms
All platforms certified for use with a Dimensions 12.2.1.x server are supported, provided
that Java™ 2 Runtime Environment Standard Edition, version 1.3.x or higher, is available
on that platform.

Dimensions Components
The scripting interface includes support for the following Dimensions components.

Supported Dimensions
Component Supported Operations
Attribute Blocks  List existing attribute block definitions.
 Create a new attribute block definition for an object
type.
 Update an attribute block definition.
 Delete an attribute block definition.
 List attributes assigned to an attribute block's columns.
 Assign attributes to, or deassign attributes from, an
attribute block's column.
Attribute Definition  List existing attribute definitions.
 Create a new attribute definition for an object type.
 Update an attribute definition.
 Deassign an attribute definition from an object type;
and delete it (optional).
 List types assigned to an attribute definition.

(Sheet 1 of 6)

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Supported Dimensions
Component Supported Operations
Base Database  Log in to Dimensions.
 Log out from Dimensions.
 Authenticate a user in order to perform tertiary node
access to items located on a remote node.
Baseline Template  List existing baseline templates.
 Create a baseline template.
 Delete a baseline template.
 List baselines using a baseline template.
 Copy baseline template rule definitions between
baseline templates.
Baseline Template Rule  List existing baseline template rules.
 Create a baseline template rule.
 Delete a baseline template rule.
 Update a baseline template rule.
Build Areas  List existing build areas.
 Create new build area definition.
 Update a build area definition.
 Delete a build area definition.
Build Projects  List existing build projects.
 Create new build project definition.
 Update a build project definition.
 Delete a build project definition.
 List projects assigned to a build project.
Build Stages  List existing build stages.
 List lifecycle states using a build stage.
 List build areas defined for a build stage.
Request Relationship Type  List defined request relationship types.
 Create a relationship type.
 Delete a relationship type.
 Update a relationship type.
Request Type CM Rules  Define and/or update change management (CM) rules.
File Format  List existing formats.
 Create a new format.
 Update format attributes.
 Delete a format.

(Sheet 2 of 6)

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Supported Dimensions
Component Supported Operations
Item, Request, and Baseline  List existing item and baseline replication
Replication Configurations configurations.
 Create new replication configuration.
 Update a replication configuration definition.
 Delete a replication configuration definition.
Item To Item Relationship Type  List item to item relationship types.
 Create an item to item relationship type.
 Delete an item to item relationship type.
 Update an item to item relationship type.
Item Type CM Rules  Define and/or update change management rules.
Item Type Group  List defined item type groups.
 Assign an item type to an item type group.
 Deassign an item type from an item group.
 List types assigned to an item type group.
 List release templates assigned to an item group
Item/Request Browse Templates  List existing browse template revisions.
 Create a template revision.
 Delete a template revision.
 Import a file into a template revision.
 Export a file from a template revision.
Lifecycle  List existing lifecycles.
 Create a new lifecycle.
 Update lifecycle attributes.
 Delete a lifecycle.
 List the types using a lifecycle.
 List assigned image revisions.
 Assign, or deassign, default image revisions to a
lifecycle.
Lifecycle and Browse Template  List existing assignments for a request type.
Assignments at Design Part Level
 Create a new assignment.
 Delete an assignment.
Lifecycle Image Revision  List lifecycle image revisions assigned to a lifecycle.
 Create an image revision.
 Delete an image revision.
 Import a file into an image revision.
 Export a file from an image revision

(Sheet 3 of 6)

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Supported Dimensions
Component Supported Operations
Lifecycle State Transition  List a lifecycle's state transitions.
 Create a new transition.
 Delete a transition.
 Add roles to, and remove roles from, the list of roles
authorized to perform a transition.
 Rename a state.
 Delete a normal state.
Object Type  For all object types:
 List existing object types.
 Create an object type.
 Update an object type definition.
 Delete an object type definition.
 Assign, or deassign, a lifecycle.
 Define attributes and attribute blocks.
 Copy attributes between object types.
 For item types:
 List assigned file formats.
 Assign, or deassign, a file format.
 Assign, or deassign, a default template revision to an
item/request object type.
 Define, update or delete item libraries and/or the default
item library.
 Define change management rules.
 For request types:
 Assign, or deassign, a default template revision to an
item or request object type.
 Define change management rules.
Priming Relationship  List priming relationships defined for a request type.
 Create a priming relationship.
 Delete a priming relationship.
 List attribute mappings.
 Add and/or delete attribute mappings.
Product  List existing products.
 Create a new product.
 Update a product definition.
 Delete a product.
(Sheet 4 of 6)

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Supported Dimensions
Component Supported Operations
Projects  List existing projects.
 Create new project definition.
 Update a project definition.
 Delete a project definition.
 List build areas defined for a project.
Relationship Names  List relationship names defined in a base database.
 Create a relationship name.
 Delete a relationship name.
 Update a relationship name.
 List item to item relationship types using a relationship
name.
Release Template  List existing release templates.
 Create a release template.
 Delete a release template.
 List releases using a release template.
 Copy release template rule definitions between release
templates.
Release Template Rule  List existing release template rules.
 Create a release template rule.
 Delete a release template rule.
 Update a release template rule.
Role  List existing roles.
 Create a new role.
 Update role attributes.
 Delete a role.
Role Assignment  List existing role assignments.
 Add a role assignment.
 Delete a role assignment.
User Report Definitions  List existing user report definitions.
 Create a new report definition.
 Update a report definition.
 Delete a report definition.
 Assign report files to, or deassign report files from, a
report definition.s

(Sheet 5 of 6)

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Supported Dimensions
Component Supported Operations
User Report Files  List existing report files.
 Create a new report file.
 Delete a report file.
 Import a file into a report file.
 Export the contents of a report file.
Valid CM Relationship Type  List valid change management relationships defined for
a request type.
 Create a valid relationship type.
 Delete a valid relationship type.
 Update a valid relationship type.
Valid Sets  Add a valid set object.
 Delete a valid set object.
Version Branch  List existing branches.
 Create a new branch.
 Update branch attributes.
 Delete a branch.
(Sheet 6 of 6)

Using the Scripting Interface Shell

Running the Shell

To run the scripting interface shell, type dmpmcli at your command prompt.

Syntax
The shell has the following syntax:

dmpmcli
[-user <username>
-pass <password>
-dbname <database>
-host <server>
-dsn <dsn-name>
]
[-param <parameter file>
[-file <script file> [<script arguments>]]
[-help]
[-version]

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where:

Parameter Description
-user <username> Specifies a user ID that is registered on the Dimensions base
database.
-pass <password> Specifies the password for the user ID that you entered
above.
-dbname <database> Specifies the name of the base database.
-host <server> Specifies the name of the Dimensions server. The <server>
string may explicitly specify the port number of the
Dimensions listener, for example:
-host servername:5555
-dsn <dsn-name> Specifies the connection string that enables you to connect to
the database server for your Dimensions base database.
-param <parameter file> Specifies a file containing connection parameters (see the
example immediately below this table).
-file <script file> <script Specifies a file containing a script to be executed, and the
arguments>] script's (optional) arguments.
-help Displays Help for the dmpmcli syntax.
-version Displays the version of dmpmcli that you are running.

Prior to executing the specified javascript spource:

 dmpmcli overrides and specifies its own custom error reporting.
 Dimensions CM defines the additional non-ECMA global javascript functions:
• system
• source
• run
• print
• quit
• version
• help
• exit
 The variable "arguments" are populated with the specified command-line arguments.

Specifying Connection Parameters in a File

You can specify the connection parameters in a file rather than in the command line, for
example:

-user dmsys
-pass <password>
-dbname intermediate
-host server1
-param PC50

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 Using the Scripting Interface Shell

Executing Scripts
You can use the -file option to specify a file containing a JavaScript™ script that is to
be executed. If you do not specify a script, the interpreter enters interactive mode and
the script source is read and executed from standard input until an EOF (End of File)
character is detected (CTRL+Z on Win32 platforms and CTRL+D on UNIX platforms), or
you invoke the exit() or quit() functions.

Examples
Entering interactive mode:

dmpmcli -user dmsys -pass <password> -dbname intermediate

-dsn PC50 -host dimhost

Connects to the Dimensions server node dimhost and enters interactive mode. To quit
dmpmcli use the quit() or exit() functions.

Executing a script:

dmpmcli -user dmsys -pass <password> -dbname intermediate

-dsn PC50 -host dimhost:5555 -file
/home/dmsys/script/setupAttributes.js

Connects to the Dimensions server node dimhost (assuming that the Dimensions Listener
is listening on port 5555) and executes the following script:

/home/dmsys/script/setupAttributes.js

Reading connection information from a file:

dmpmcli -param /home/dmsys/connection.data -file

/home/dmsys/script/setupAttributes.js

Connects to the Dimensions server node identified by the connection

information in the file

/home/dmsys/connection.data,

and executes the following script:

/home/dmsys/script/setupAttributes.js

Predefined Properties
Scripts executing in the dmpmcli shell have access to the following pre-defined top-level
object properties:

Command Description
arguments An array containing the strings of all the arguments given at the
command line when the shell was invoked.
help() Displays usage and Help messages.
defineClass(className) Defines an extension using the Java class named with the string
argument. Uses ScriptableObject.defineClass()

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Command Description
run(["foo.js", "arg0", ...]) Runs the JavaScript source file specified by the first string in the
argument, and passes the remaining arguments as that script's
arguments. The parent environment is visible but cannot be
modified.
source(["foo.js", "arg0", ...]) Runs the JavaScript source file named by the first string in the
argument, and passes the remaining arguments as that script's
arguments. The parent environment is visible and can be
modified.
system(["cmd", ...]) Runs one or several native OS commands specified by the string
argument.
loadClass(className) Loads a class named by the string argument. The class must be
a script compiled to a class file.
print([expr ...]) Evaluates and prints expressions.
quit() Quits the shell. The shell will also quit in interactive mode if you
exit() enter an EOF character at the prompt.

version([number]) Gets or sets the JavaScript version number.

Using the Object Model

Access to the Java objects from JavaScript™ is based on the LiveConnect technology. For
a detailed description of JavaScript™ and LiveConnect, refer to the Core JavaScript Guide
and Core JavaScript Reference documentation at the following URL:
http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/

For an introduction to Java scripting with Rhino, refer to Rhino documentation at the
following URL:
http://www.mozilla.org/rhino/scriptjava.html
NOTE For performance reasons, running Dimensions commands from dmpmcli via
BaseDatadabase.instance.runCommand() does not refresh the object model
collections.

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Interface Summary
Interface Description
AttributeBlock Represents an attribute block (a multi-value, multi-field
attribute definition).
AttributeDefinition Represents one of the following attribute definitions:

 Single-value, single-field.
 Single-value, multi-field.
Contains the collection of assigned object types.
Baseline Represents a baseline.
BaselineReplicationConfiguration Represents a baseline replication configuration.
BaselineTemplate Represents a baseline template and contains a
collection of assigned baseline template rules.
BaselineTemplateRule Represents a baseline template rule.
BuildArea Represents a build area.
BuildProject Represents a build project.
BuildStage Represents a build stage.
ChangeDocumentType Represents a request type, and contains the collection
of assigned browse templates.
ChangeDocumentTypeCMRules Represents a request type's change management rules.
ChdocRelationshipType Represents a request relationship type.
ChdocReplicationConfiguration Represents a request replication configuration.
DimensionsObject A marker interface representing a generic Dimensions
object.
DimensionsObjectDetails A marker interface representing generic details of a
Dimensions object.
FileFormat Represents a file format.
ItemLibrary Represents an item type's item library or the default
item library.
ItemRemoteSubordinate Represents a remote subordinate definition used by
item replication configurations.
ItemReplicationConfiguration Represents an item replication configuration.
ItemToItemRelationshipType Represents an item to item relationship type.
ItemType Represents an item type and contains the collection of
assigned file formats.
ItemTypeCMRules Represents an item type's change management rules.
ItemTypeGroup Represents an item type group.
Lifecycle Represents a lifecycle and contains collections of
lifecycle state transitions, assigned object types, and
lifecycle image revisions.
LifecycleAndTemplateAssignment Represents a lifecycle and browse template assignment
for a request type at the design part level.
(Sheet 1 of 2)

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Interface Description
LifecycleImageRevision Represents a lifecycle image revision.
LifecycleTransition Represents a lifecycle state transition and contains the
collection of roles authorized to perform the transition.
LocalSubordinate Represents a local subordinate definition used by item
replication configurations.
PrimingRelationship Represents a priming relationship and associated
primed attribute mappings.
Product Represents a product and contains collections of role
assignment details, object types, baseline templates,
release templates, browse templates, request
relationship types, and valid sets.
Project Represents a Dimensions project.
ProjectStage Represents a Dimensions project stage.
RelationshipName Represents an item to item relationship name.
Release Represents a release.
ReleaseTemplate Represents a release template and contains a collection
of assigned release template rules.
ReleaseTemplateRule Represents a release template rule.
RemoteSubordinate Represents a remote subordinate definition used by
baseline replication configurations.
Replication Represents the replication administration tool.
ReplicationConfiguration Represents an abstract replication configuration.
ReplicationSubordinate Represents an abstract subordinate definition.
Report Represents a user report definition.
ReportFile Represents a report file.
Role Represents a project role.
TemplateRevision Represents an item/request type browse template
revision.
Type Represents an object type, and contains collections of
attribute blocks, attribute definitions and attribute
rules.
ValidRelationshipType Represents a valid relationship type.
ValidSet Represents a valid set.
VersionBranch Represents a version branch.
(Sheet 2 of 2)

For details about supported collection operations, see page 294.

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Class Summary
Class Description
AttributeBlockDetails Represents details of an attribute block.
AttributeDataType Represents predefined attribute data types.
AttributeDetails Represents details of an attribute definition.
AttributeMappingDetails Represents an attribute mapping used in priming.
AttributeRuleDetails Represents the details of a Dimensions attribute rule.
AttributeType Represents predefined attribute types.
defaultDatabase Represents the root of the object hierarchy.
Authenticates users and contains collections of
version branches, file formats, item type groups,
lifecycles, products, relationship names, and roles.
BaselineReplicationConfigurationDetails Represents details of a baseline replication
configuration.
BaselineTemplateDetails Represents details of a baseline template.
BaselineTemplateRuleDetails Represents details of a baseline template rule.
BuildAreaDetails Represents details of a build area.
BuildProjectDetails Represents details of a build project.
ChdocRelationshipTypeDetails Represents details of a request relationship type.
ChdocReplicationConfigurationDetails Represents details of a request replication
configuration.§
ChdocSuperType Represents predefined request super types.
CMPhasePermissions Encapsulates permissions on operations that may be
applied to requests, when they are at certain
predefined lifecycle phases.
FileFormatDetails Represents details of a file format.
FileFormatType Represents predefined file format types.
ImplicitStateCode Encapsulates predefined implicit state shortcut codes
used by Dimensions baseline template rules that do
not require a normal lifecycle state to be specified.
ItemLibraryDetails Represents details of an item library.
ItemRemoteSubordinateDetails Represents details of a remote subordinate definition
used by item replication configurations.
ItemReplicationConfigurationDetails Represents details of an item replication
configuration.
ItemToItemRelationshipTypeDetails Represents details of an item to item relationship
type.
ItemTypeGroupDetails Represents details of an item type group.
LifecycleAndTemplateAssignmentDetails Represents details of a lifecycle and browse template
assignment for a request type at the design part
level.
LifecycleDetails Represents details of a lifecycle.
(Sheet 1 of 2)

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Class Description
LifecycleImageRevisionDetails Represents details of a lifecycle image revision.
LifecycleTransitionDetails Represents details of a lifecycle state transition.
LocalSubordinateDetails Represents details of a local subordinate definition
used by item replication configurations.
OsType Represents predefined OS types used by user-defined
report definitions.
PrimingRelationshipDetails Represents details of a priming relationship.
ProductDetails Represents details of a product.
ProjectDetails Represents details of a Dimensions project.
ProjectStageDetails Represents the details of a Dimensions project stage.
PseudoBranches Represents predefined pseudo branches used by
Dimensions replication configurations.
RelationshipClass Encapsulates the system-defined request relationship
types Info and Dependent.
RelationshipNameDetails Represents the details of an item type relationship
name.
ReleaseTemplateDetails Represents details of a release template.
ReleaseTemplateRuleDetails Represents details of a release template rule.
RemoteSubordinateDetails Represents details of a remote subordinate definition
used by baseline replication configurations.
ReplicationConfigurationDetails Represents details of an abstract replication
configuration.
ReportDetails Represents details of a user report definition.
ReportFileDetails Represents details of a report file.
ReportScope Encapsulates predefined Dimensions report scopes.
RoleAssignmentDetails Represents details of a role assignment.
RoleCapability Represents predefined role capabilities.
RoleDetails Represents details of a role.
RuleStateSelector Encapsulates predefined baseline template rule state
selectors.
TemplateRevisionDetails Represents details of a template revision.
TransitionRoleDetails Represents details of a Dimensions role authorized to
perform a lifecycle state transition.
TypeDetails Represents details of an object type.
TypeOptions Represents predefined object type options that might
be enabled for a specific class of an object type.
TypeScope Represents predefined object type scopes.
ValidRelationshipTypeDetails Represents details of a valid relationship type.
ValidSetDetails Represents details of a valid set.
ValidSetRowDetails Represents an eight column row of a valid set.
VersionBranchDetails Represents details of a version branch.
(Sheet 2 of 2)

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Collection Interface Summary

Collection Interface Description
AttributeBlocks Contains all attribute blocks in a product.
AttributeDefinitions Contains all attribute definitions in an object type.
BaselineTemplates Contains all baseline templates in a base database.
BaselineTemplateRules Contains all baseline template rules in a baseline template.
BuildAreas Contains all build areas defined for a project or build stage.
BuildProjects Contains all build projects in a base database.
BuildStages Contains all build stages in a base database.
ChdocRelationshipTypes Contains all request relationship types in a product.
DimensionsObjectCollection Contains the common interface of the Dimensions collection
hierarchy.
FileFormats Contains all file formats in a base database.
ItemTypeGroups Contains all item type groups in a base database.
LifecycleImageRevisions Contains all lifecycle image revisions for a lifecycle.
Lifecycles Contains all lifecycles in a base database.
LifecycleStates Contains lifecycle state objects (cannot be modified).
LifecycleTransitions Contains all lifecycle state transitions in a lifecycle.
LocalSubordinates Contains all local subordinates for an item replication
configuration.
Products Contains all products in a base database.
Projects Contains all projects in a base database.
ProjectStages Contains all project stage objects that are defined for a project.
RelationshipNames Contains all relationship names in a base database.
ReleaseTemplateRules Contains all release template rules in a release template.
ReleaseTemplates Contains all release templates in a base database.
RemoteSubordinates Contains all remote subordinates for an item or a baseline
replication configuration.
ReplicationConfigurations Contains all replication configuration definitions scoped by
replicated object type.
ReportFiles Contains all report files in a base database.
Reports Contains all user report definitions in a base database.
Roles Contains all roles in a base database.
TemplateRevisions Contains all template revisions defined for an item or request
type.
Types Contains all object types of the same scope in a product.
ValidSetRows Contains all valid set rows in a valid set.
ValidSets Contains all valid sets in a product.
VersionBranches Contains all version branches in a base database.

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Chapter 17 Scripting Interface

Supported Collection Operations

The collection operations described in the table below apply to the collection interfaces in
the section "Collection Interface Summary" on page 293

Operation Name Description

Object add(ObjectDetails Adds a new Dimensions object to the collection. Typically,
details) creation of a Dimensions object requires many arguments. In
order to deal with this relative complexity, the object model
provides a number of ObjectDetails objects classes representing
information required to create a Dimensions component.
Normally, you create an ObjectDetails object and pass it to the
collection's add method.
Object get(String name) Returns an existing Dimensions object from the collection. If
Object get( null is returned, the object was not found.
String namePart1, Some collection objects are identified by a pair of 'names' (for
String namePart2) example, a Lifecycle Transition is uniquely identified by its 'From
State' and 'To State'). In such cases, the corresponding
collection provides a convenient method, by accepting all
components of a 'name' as parameters.
ObjectDetails remove(Object Removes a Dimensions object from the collection, and returns
obj) an ObjectDetails object that represents the removed object.
Iterator iterator() Returns a java.util.Iterator object over the names of the
collection objects.
void refresh() Reloads the objects in the collection in order to reflect the
current contents of the base database. You should reacquire
references to the collection's objects after calling this method.
Note: Changes to the data held in the base database made by
other processes (for example, the Administration Console or
other dmpmcli sessions) after the collection was accessed for
the first time, might not be automatically reflected in the
collection unless the refresh() method is explicitly invoked.
int size() Returns the number of objects in the collection.

NOTE Both add and remove methods automatically commit changes to the
database.

Web-Based API Documentation

For a full description of all exposed components and their respective properties and
methods, refer to the Web-based (HTML) API documentation available in the following
directories:
 UNIX platforms:
${DM_ROOT}/java_api/docs/api/index.html
 Windows platforms:
%DM_ROOT%\java_api\docs\api\index.html

294 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Example Java Scripts

Example Java Scripts

Example Java scripts are located in the following :
 UNIX platforms:
${DM_ROOT}/AdminConsole/examples/
 Windows platforms:
%DM_ROOT%\AdminConsole\examples\

The following Java scripts illustrate common Dimensions tasks:

Script Name Description

assignedFormatsDemo.js  Assigns a file format to an item type.
 Deassigns a file format from an item type.
 Lists all file formats assigned to an item type.
assignedTypesDemo.js  Lists types assigned to a lifecycle.
 Assigns a lifecycle to a type.
 Deassigns a lifecycle from a type.
attributeBlockDemo.js  Creates attribute blocks.
 Updates attribute block details.
 Deletes attribute blocks.
 Assigns, or deassigns, attributes to or from
attribute blocks.
 Lists attribute blocks defined for a type.
attributeDemo.js  Creates attributes and assign them to types.
 Updates attribute details.
 Deassigns attributes from types.
 Lists attributes assigned to an object type.
attributeRuleDemo.js  Creates attribute update rules.
 Deletes attribute update rules.
 Lists attribute update rules.
baselineReplConfigsDemo.js  Creates a baseline replication configuration.
 Creates a remote subordinate.
 Updates replication configuration details.
 Updates details of a remote subordinate.
 Deletes remote subordinates.
 Deletes replication configurations.
 Lists baseline replication configurations.
 Lists remote subordinates defined for a replication
configuration.
(Sheet 1 of 6)

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Chapter 17 Scripting Interface

Script Name Description

baselineTemplateDemo.js  Creates a baseline template.
 Modifies baseline template rules.
 Copies baseline template rules between baseline
templates.
 Deletes a baseline template.
 Lists all baseline templates defined in the base
database.
 Lists all baselines using a baseline template.
branchDemo.js  Creates version branches.
 Updates branch details.
 Deletes branches.
 Lists all defined branches.
browseTemplatesDemo.js  Creates a browse template revision.
 Lists all browse template revisions defined for an
object type.
 Exports or imports browse template contents.
 Deletes a browse template revision.
buildAreasDemo.js  Creates build areas.
 Updates build area details.
 Deletes build areas.
 Lists build areas.
buildStagesDemo.js  Assigns, or deassigns, a lifecycle state to a build
stage.
 Lists build stages.
 Lists lifecycle states assigned to a build stage.
chdocRelTypeDemo.js  Creates request relationship types.
 Updates request relationship type details.
 Deletes request relationship types.
 Lists request relationship types defined in a
product.
CMRulesDemo.js  Defines and updates CM rules for item and request
types.
 Updates CM rules details for item and request
types.
 Enables and/or disables CM rules for item and
request types.
 Lists CM rules defined for item and request types.
copyAttrsDemo.js  Copies attribute definitions between object types.
 Lists attributes assigned to an object type.
(Sheet 2 of 6)

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 Example Java Scripts

Script Name Description

copyRulesDemo.js  Copies attribute update rules between object types.
 Lists attribute update rules assigned to an object
type.
formatsDemo.js  Creates file formats.
 Updates file format details.
 Deletes file formats.
 Lists file formats defined in a base database.
itemLibraryDemo.js  Defines a default item library for a product.
 Defines an item library for an item type.
 Updates default item library details.
 Updates item type item library details.
 Deletes an item library.
itemReplConfigsDemo.js  Creates a local or remote subordinate.
 Creates an item replication configuration.
 Updates replication configuration details.
 Updates details of a local or remote subordinate.
 Deletes replication configurations.
 Deletes local or remote subordinates.
 Lists item replication configurations.
 Lists local and remote subordinates defined for a
replication configuration.
itemToItemRelTypeDemo.js  Creates an item to item relationship type.
 Updates item to item relationship types details.
 Deletes an item to item relationship type.
 Lists item to item relationship types defined for an
item type.
itemTypeGroupDemo.js  Creates item type groups.
 Assigns and deassigns item types to, or from, item
type groups.
 Deletes item type groups.
 Lists item type groups defined in a base database.
 Lists release templates using an item type group.
lifecycleDemo.js  Creates a lifecycle.
 Updates lifecycle details.
 Deletes a lifecycle.
 Lists all lifecycles defined in a base database.
 Lists lifecycle state transitions.
 Lists roles authorized to perform a lifecycle
transition.
(Sheet 3 of 6)

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Script Name Description

lifecycleImagesDemo.js  Creates new image revisions.
 Assigns, or deassigns, the default image revision to
a lifecycle.
 Exports images from, or imports images to, a
lifecycle image gallery.
 Deletes image revisions.
 Lists image revisions assigned to a lifecycle.
lifecycleTemplateAssignmentsDemo.js  Creates a lifecycle and browse template assignment
at the design part level.
 Deletes a lifecycle and browse template assignment
at the design part level.
 Lists lifecycle and browse template assignments at
the design part level.
lifecycleTransitionsDemo.js  Modifies a lifecycle by adding or deleting a normal/
off-normal transition.
 Modifies a lifecycle by adding, removing or updating
the list of user roles authorized to perform a
lifecycle state transition.
 Modifies a lifecycle by removing a normal state.
 Modifies a lifecycle by renaming a state.
 Lists all lifecycles defined in a base database.
 Lists lifecycle state transitions.
 Lists roles authorized to perform a lifecycle
transition.
primingRelDemo.js  Defines a priming relationship.
 Deletes a priming relationship.
 Modifies attribute mappings for a priming
relationship.
 Lists request types that may be primed from a
request type.
productDemo.js  Creates a product.
 Updates product details.
 Deletes a product.
 Lists products defined in a base database.
relationshipNameDemo.js  Defines an item type relationship name.
 Updates item type relationship name details.
 Deletes item type relationship names.
 Lists item type relationship names defined in a base
database.
(Sheet 4 of 6)

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 Example Java Scripts

Script Name Description

releaseTemplateDemo.js  Creates a release template.
 Modifies release template rules.
 Deletes a release template.
 Copies release template rules between release
templates.
 Lists all release templates defined in the base
database.
 Lists all releases using a release template.
renameAttributeDemo.js  Renames an attribute's ID within the base
database.
reportsDemo.js  Creates user report definitions.
 Updates user report definitions.
 Exports or imports report file contents.
 Assigns and deassigns a report file to, or from, a
user report definition.
 Deletes user report definitions.
 Lists user report definitions.
roleAssignmentsDemo.js  Adds or removes role assignments.
 Lists all role assignments for a product.
roleDemo.js  Creates a user role.
 Updates role details.
 Deletes a role.
 Lists all roles defined in a base database.
typesDemo.js  Creates object types.
 Updates object type details.
 Assigns, or deassigns, a lifecycle to or from a type.
 Deletes object types.
 Lists object types within a certain scope in a
product.
typesUsingAttrsDemo.js  Lists all object types using an attribute definition.
validRelTypesDemo.js  Creates a valid relationship type.
 Updates valid relationship type details.
 Deletes a valid relationship type.
 Lists valid relationship types defined for a request
type.
(Sheet 5 of 6)

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Script Name Description

validsetsDemo.js  Creates valid sets.
 Updates valid sets.
 Deletes valid sets.
 Lists valid sets.
validsetValuesDemo.js  Appends valid set values.
 Replaces valid set values.
 Removes valid set values.
 Lists valid set values.
(Sheet 6 of 6)

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Part 3
Appendixes

Part 3: Appendixes contains the following appendixes.

Item and Request Templates 303

Baseline and Release Templates 323
Managing Notification E-Mails 341
Dimensions CM Privileges 361

Process Modeling User's Guide 301

302 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1
Appendix A
Item and Request Templates

In this Appendix

About Item and Request Templates 304

Item Format Templates 304
Request Format Templates 304

Process Modeling User's Guide 303

Appendix A Item and Request Templates

About Item and Request Templates

This appendix contains reference information on item and request format templates in
Serena® Dimensions® CM. These format templates specify the content and layout for an
item or request type.

Use this appendix to determine what variables you can use in a template. Once you've
defined a template, you associate it with the appropriate item or request type using the
Administration Console Object Type Definitions | Templates function. You can easily edit
the template and store it back in the Dimensions CM using the export/import feature.

Item Format Templates

An item format template is a user-defined text file that specifies the content of an item
when you create it without any content. If you create an item without specifying an initial
filename, Dimensions CM creates the new item and uses the item format template defined
for the item type as the initial content.

If you specify a filename at item creation, Dimensions CM does not insert the item header
template into the file. To apply the substitution variables, you need to manually insert
them at the desired position in the item file before creating the item.

For details of how to specify item header substitution variables, see Item Header
Substitution in the User’s Guide.

Request Format Templates

A request format template is a user-defined text file that specifies the content and layout
of a request when it is browsed or printed. Format templates are required for every
request type.

The format template contains substitution variables that are dynamically expanded when
you browse a request. Variables can represent both system-defined (Dimensions CM) and
user-defined attributes that are single or multi-valued.

A template might include:

 The Dimensions CM identity of the request, including the product ID, request type,
and serial number.
 The status of the request.
 The values for one or more user-defined attributes.
 The date of the last update.

You create request templates outside of Dimensions CM, usually using a standard text
editor. Though you can use the same template for multiple types, Serena recommends
that you create a template for each request type so you can manage each template
independently.

304 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Request Format Templates

After creating a format template, you associate it to a request type. At this point, the
format template is placed under revision control by Dimensions CM and is stored in a
manner similar to items.

Rules and  You can use either lower-case or upper-case text when you define variables in a
recommendations request format template.
 When using RTF as a request format, any backslash (\) characters included in
attributes are removed because the backslash is treated as a qualifier in RTF.
Also, any word immediately following a backslash without a space is completely
removed.

Example of Request Template

Next is an example of a Change Request (CR) request template, followed by an example
of an expanded request.

Change Request (CR) Template

CHANGE REQUEST
CR No:%ch_doc_id% Create Date:%create_date% Status:%current_status%
Originator:%originator% Severity:%severity% Customer Name:%customers%

Reported by:%cust_contact%
Title:%title%
Affected Product Details
Platform:%platform% Operating System:%op_sys%
Main Description:
%description%
%description_end%
Affected Item:
%affected_item%
Affected Parts:
%affected_part%
Solution Details:
%solution%
Target Release Expected effort:%exp_effort% Actual effort:%actual_effort%
Id:%target_release%

Reason for Deferral

%reason_deferral%
Reason for Rejection:
%rejection%
Action Message
%action%
Action:%action_number% by %user_name% on %date% %time%
%action_text%
%action_end%

Process Modeling User's Guide 305

Appendix A Item and Request Templates

Related Requests
%related_doc%
Action History
%action_history%

Expanded Change Request

CHANGE REQUEST

CR No:PAYROLL_CR_1
Originator:DMSYS
Reported by:Mike Corelli
Create Date:02-APR-2003
Severity:1_critical
Status:CLOSED
Customer Name:Acme Inc

Title:New field for staff form

Affected Product Details

Release:2.0.0
Platform:Sun Sparc

Operating System:SunOS 5.3

Main Description:
Staff commented that they were unable to state if they
were ill during a holiday

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 Request Format Templates

Affected Item:
Affected
2 PAYROLL:SICK PAY REPORT.A-SRC;1 (Affected) DMSYS
(reports/src/rep_sick.c)
Report Sick Pay details
Response
4 PAYROLL:SICK PAY REPORT.A-SRC;2 (Response) DMSYS
(reports/src/rep_sick.c)
Report Sick Pay details

Affected Parts:
0 PAYROLL:PAYROLL.A;1 DMSYS
(PRODUCT)
Payroll Product
2 PAYROLL:REPORTS.A;1 DMSYS
(SUB-SYSTEM)
Offline statistics reports

Solution Details:

Target Release Id:Expected effort:Actual effort:

Reason for Deferral

Reason for Rejection:

Process Modeling User's Guide 307

Appendix A Item and Request Templates

Action Message

Related Requests

Action History
1 02-APR-2003 14:15:32 DMSYS 010
DMSYS DEPT
Document created
2 02-APR-2003 14:33:37 DMSYS 010
DMSYS DEPT
Actioned document from RAISED to ANALYSED
3 02-APR-2003 14:33:41 DMSYS 010
DMSYS DEPT
Actioned document from ANALYSED to VERIFIED&CLOSED
4 02-APR-2003 14:42:59 DMSYS 010
DMSYS DEPT
Actioned document from VERIFIED&CLOSED to IMPLEMENTED
5 02-APR-2003 14:44:17 DMSYS 010
DMSYS DEPT
Actioned document from IMPLEMENTED to VERIFIED&CLOSED
6 02-APR-2003 14:47:20 DMSYS 010
DMSYS DEPT
Actioned document from VERIFIED&CLOSED to IMPLEMENTED
7 02-APR-2003 14:48:13 DMSYS 010
DMSYS DEPT
Actioned document from IMPLEMENTED to CLOSED

Substitution During Operations

When you browse or print a request, Dimensions CM formats the request using the
currently defined request template. The request is generated with the current attribute
values replacing the substitution variables.

Dimensions CM also allows any request to be retrieved with the attribute values as they
were at any previous point that it was actioned. You can do this using the command-line
interface BC command with the /ACTION_NO option. See the Command-Line Reference
Guide for details.

Single-Valued Dimensions CM Variables

These single-valued variables are built into Dimensions CM and may appear anywhere in a
request template. The table below contains variables that generally retain the same value
throughout the life of the request.

Variable Description
%ch_doc_id% The request ID, which consists of the product ID, request
type, and serial number. For example: PAYROLL_CR_1
%product% The ID of the product to which the request belongs.
%base_db% The base database to which the request belongs.
%dsn% The database connection string for the Dimensions server
to which the request belongs.

308 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Request Format Templates

Variable Description
%hostname% The name of the machine hosting the Dimensions server to
which the request belongs.
%type_head% The description of the request type.
%create_date% The date when the request was created.
%originator% The originator's full name.
%department% The originator's department.
%location% The originator's site.
%telephone_no% The originator's phone number.
%originator_id% The originator's login ID.
%group% The originator's user group.
%action_date% The date the request was last actioned.

The remaining variables change frequently during the life of the request.

Variable Description
%current_status% The current lifecycle status of the request.
%lifecycle_phase% The current phase of the request, which is determined by
the current status and any applicable rules.
%action_number% The number of the current (most recent) action.
%update_date% The date the request was last updated.
%user_name% The current user's full name.
%user_department% The current user's department.
%user_location% The current user' site.
%user_telephone_no% The current user's phone number.
%user_group% The current user's group.
%date% The current date.
%time% The current time.

Multi-Valued Dimensions CM Variables

These multi-valued variables are built into Dimensions CM and may appear anywhere in a
request template. Unlike single-valued variables, they are replaced by a list of entries,
each of which may occupy several lines.

Below are descriptions of the multi-valued Dimensions CM variables. For some multi-
valued variables, column variables exist that allow you to access information in a
particular column. This column information can duplicate the information provided by the
multi-valued variables, or provide additional information. Column variables also enable
you to have greater control over the formatting of each variable. See "Using Substitution
Variable Syntax" on page 316 for help with formatting.

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Appendix A Item and Request Templates

Multi-Valued
Variable Description Column Variables
%action_history% A list of all actions performed on  %ah_action_number%: The action
the request. number.
Each entry includes a short
description of the action, the  %ah_date%: The action date in format
action number and date, plus the DD-MON-YYYY HH:MM:SS.
login user name, full name,
 %ah_status%: The state to which this
phone number, and department
of the user performing the action. request was actioned.
 %ah_user_name%: The full user name.
 %ah_user_phone%: The user's phone
number.
 %ah_user_dept%: The user's
department.
 %ah_action_note%: The action note.
 %ah_user_group%: The action history
user group.
%audit_trail_ Lists the details of the audit
failure% records for failed authentication
attempts on a request.
%audit_trail_ Lists the details of the audit
success% records for successful
authentication attempts on a
request.

310 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Request Format Templates

Multi-Valued
Variable Description Column Variables
%affected_ A list of all baselines currently  %bln_action_number%: Request action
baseline% related to the request. number when the relationship was created.
Each entry includes details about
the relationship, the current  %bln_baseline_id%: The related
status of the baseline, and the baseline specification.
user who created the
 %bln_baseline_type%: The type of the
relationship.
baseline.
 %bln_brief_desc%: A brief description of
the baseline.
 %bln_creation_method%: How the
baseline was originally created: merged,
revised, etc.
 %bln_relationship%: The name of the
relationship.
 %bln_status%: The current status of the
baseline.
 %bln_template%: The template name
that was used to create the baseline.
 %bln_user%: The OS id of the user who
created the relationship.
 %bln_user_name%: The full user name
of who created the relationship.
%affected_item% A list of all item revisions  %ai_action_number%: The action
currently related to the request. number.
Each entry includes the full item
specification, item library  %ai_item_id%: The item's identity.
filename, the action number  %ai_user_name%: The full user name.
when the relationship was
created, the type of relationship,  %ai_filename%: The item's filename.
and the full name of the user who
created the relationship.  %ai_brief_desc%: The item's brief
description.
%affected_part% A list of all design parts currently  %ap_action_number%: The action
related to the request. number.
Each entry includes the full part
specification, the design part  %ap_part_id%: The part's identity.
category, the action number  %ap_user_name%: The full user name.
when the relationship was
created, and the full name of the  %ap_user%: The user.
user who created the
relationship.  %ap_category%: The design part
category.
 %ap_brief_desc%: The part's brief
description.

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Appendix A Item and Request Templates

Multi-Valued
Variable Description Column Variables
%parent_doc% A list of all higher-level requests  %pd_relationship%: The relationship.
to which this request (child) is
currently related.  %pd_doc_id%: The document's identity.
Each entry includes the higher-  %pd_product%: The document's owning
level request ID, its title product.
(attribute no. 1), the action
number when the relationship  %pd_status%: The status.
was created, and the full name of
the user who created the  %pd_user_name%: The full user name.
relationship.
 %pd_user%: The user.
 %pd_brief_desc%: The brief description.
%related_doc% A list of all lower-level requests  %rd_action_number%: The action
currently related to this request number.
(parent).
Each entry includes the lower-  %rd_relationship%: The relationship.
level request ID, its title  %rd_doc_id%: The document's identity.
(attribute no. 1), the action
number when the relationship  %rd_product%: The document's owning
was created, and the full name of product.
the user who created the
relationship.  %rd_status%: The document's status.
 %rd_user_name%: The full user name.
 %rd_user%: The user.
 %rd_brief_desc%: The document's brief
description.
%update_history% A list of all modifications other  %uh_action_number%: The action
than actioning to the request. number.
Each entry includes a short
description of the modification,  %uh_date%: The date in format DD-
the action number and date, plus MON-YYYY HH:MM:SS.
the login user name, full name,
 %uh_user_name%: The full user name.
phone, and department of the
user making the modification.  %uh_user%: The user.
 %uh_user_telephone_no%: The user's
telephone number.
 %uh_user_dept%: The user's
department.
 %uh_user_note%: The user's note.
 %uh_user_group%: The update history
user group.

312 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Request Format Templates

Multi-Valued
Variable Description Column Variables
%attribute_update A list of attribute updates made  %auh_action_number%: The change
_history% to the request. document action number indicating when
Each entry includes the action the update was done.
number and date, plus the login
user name, full name, phone, and  %auh_user_name%: The full user name
department of the user making of the user who did the update.
the modification, details of the
attribute and the value before  %auh_date%: The date the update was
and after the change. done.
 %auh_user%: The OS name of the user
who did the update.
 %auh_user_telephone_no%: The
telephone number of the user who did the
update.
 %auh_user_dept%: The department of
the user who did the update.
 %auh_user_group%: The group of the
user who did the update.
 %auh_user_note%: The user note of the
user who did the update.
 %auh_attrno%: The attribute number for
which the change was made.
 %auh_attr_variable%: The attribute
variable for which the change was made.
 %auh_old_value%: The old attribute
value.
 %auh_new_value%: The new attribute
value.
%user_roles% A list of the primary, secondary,
and leader users for every role in
the lifecycle.
%description%, The detailed description of the
%description_ request. These two substitution
end% variables must appear on
separate, successive lines in a
request template.

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Multi-Valued
Variable Description Column Variables
%action%, These three variables are used  %user_name%: The full name of the
%action_text%, to define a subtemplate for user entering the action description.
%action_end% action descriptions. The
 %user_department%: The user's
subtemplate is part of the
department.
overall request template and
contains a list of all recorded  %user_location%: The user's site.
action descriptions.
 %user_telephone_no%: The user's
This subtemplate starts with the phone number.
variable %action% and ends
 %date%: The date of the action
with the variable
description was entered.
%action_end%, both
appearing on separate lines.  %time%: The time of the action
Between these, the variable description was entered.
%action_text% must appear
on a separate line, to define
where the text of the action
description will appear.

You can also use the column

variables described to the right,
as well as the other substitution
variables described above
(including user-defined
variables) in the subtemplate.
NOTE This subtemplate is
required for add action
description operations to be
recorded in the database,
regardless of whether you want
the data to show up in a browse
template.
%chdoc_attachmen A list of files that are attached to
ts% the request.
%primary_user% A list of users who currently have
the request in their inbox and
have the primary role capability.
%secondary_ A list of users who currently have
user% the request in their inbox and
have the secondary role
capability.
%leader_user% A list of users who currently have
the request in their inbox and
have the leader role capability.

User-Defined Variables
User-defined variables correspond to the user-defined attributes set up for a request type.
You can define single-valued attributes as well as multi-valued attributes in list or table
form. See "Using Substitution Variable Syntax" on page 316 for information on formatting

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multi-valued attributes in tables.

Use the following variables to signify a user-defined attribute:

 %<variable-name>%
where <variable-name> is the name of the user-defined attribute that you want to
substitute.
 %PRODUCT_<variable-name>%
where <variable-name> is the name of the user-defined product attribute that you
want to substitute.
 %<variable-name>_PROMPT%
where <variable-name> is the name of the user-defined attribute that you want to
substitute, and PROMPT indicates that you want to display the value of the
attribute's Prompt field.
 %<variable-name>_BLOCKNAME%
where <variable-name> is the name of the user-defined attribute that you want to
substitute, and BLOCKNAME indicates that you want to display the value of the
attribute's block name. This substitution applies to block attributes only.

The example below uses each type of variable. The first row uses the attributes' block
name to label the table of attributes. The second row uses the attribute prompt names to
label the column headings. The third row substitutes the actual values of the attributes.

%CUSTOMERS_BLOCKNAME%
---------------------
%CUSTOMER_PROMPT% %PHONE_PROMPT% %PRIORITY_PROMPT%
----------------- -------------- -----------------
%CUSTOMER% %PHONE% %PRIORITY%

Block attributes To define block attributes in a table, specify the block name as the table heading, as
shown in the example above (%CUSTOMERS_BLOCKNAME%). Each attribute that you
want to include in the table must have the same block name. Next, define each attribute
name and value as a column heading and column. The order of the attributes must follow
the order of the columns specified in the block attribute, from left to right. See "Using
Substitution Variable Syntax" on page 316 for information on how to format columns.

Note that if you update the block attribute name or values, you'll need to update the block
in the template.

Displaying Multi-Valued Variables

To define a variable for a multi-valued attribute (user-defined or Dimensions CM-defined),
you use the substitution variables or %<variable-name>% as explained earlier. This
displays the values of the attribute in a list, with each of the values appearing on a new
line. For example:

Attribute name
--------------
Value 1

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Value 2
...
Value n

You can also display multi-valued attributes as a table. For example:

Table Heading
-------------
Attr name 1 Attr name 2 Attr name 3
------------ -------------- ------------
Value 1 first value alpha
Value 2 second value beta
... ... ...
Value n nth value nu

To define the precise layout of the columns, see "Substitution Variable Syntax," below.

Using Substitution Variable Syntax

For any Dimensions CM or user-defined variables, you can use substitution variable
syntax for greater control over formatting. This syntax organizes the attributes into
precise columns as an alternative to using manual spacing or tabs in a template as
formatting.

The syntax is:

%<variable-name>:<c>:<w>:<s>%

where:
 <c> is an integer specifying where the column starts from the left of the template, in
characters.
 <w> is an integer specifying the column width in characters. Specify a positive
number to add padding to the right of the field, which ensures that if data doesn't fill
the field, the text written to the right of the field will always start at the next column
position. To eliminate padding, specify the column width as a negative number. Text
following this field will then appear in the next column following the last character of
data.
 <s> is a single character (upper or lower case) that specifies the column alignment.
The available characters are:
 L: Left-justified. Data will be aligned with the left-hand edge of the column. Excess
data will be truncated at the column boundary.
 R: Right-justified. Data will be aligned with the right-hand edge of the column.
Excess data will be truncated at the right-hand column boundary.
 C: Centered. Data will centered within the column. Excess data will be truncated at
the right-hand column boundary.
 W: Wrapped. Data will be aligned with the left-hand edge of the column. Excess
data will be wrapped onto successive lines.

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For example:

%CUSTOMERS_BLOCKNAME%
---------------------
%CUSTOMER_PROMPT:9:16:L% %PHONE_PROMPT:27:7:L% %PRIORITY_PROMPT:40:7:L%
------------------------ --------------------- ------------------------
%CUSTOMER:9:16:L% %PHONE:27:7:R% %PRIORITY:40:7:C%

Rules and  You must either include all of the fields in the substitution variable syntax (c:w:s) or
recommendations none of them.
 Generally, make the starting column equal to or greater than the previous column's
starting column value plus its width. This ensures that the columns of data are
separated by whitespace.
 We do not recommend using substitution variable syntax (%<variable-
name>:<c>:<w>:<s>%) and plain substitution variables (%<variable-
name>%) on the same line. This can lead to unpredictable formatting results.
You can use a mixture of both variable types on different lines without any problem.
 Substitution variable syntax is only supported for plain text substitution.
 Substitution variable syntax is not supported for proportional fonts because positions
are determined by the number of characters you specify.
 Do not use tab characters or insert text to the left or right of substitution variable
syntax. These actions may lead to unpredictable formatting results.

Examples
If a template is specified as:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
Line prefix:%token1:25:15:L% %token2:42:7:w%%token3:50:9:r%

Notice that there is a space character between the "%" characters ending "token1" and
beginning "token2", but there is no space between "token2" and "token3". This "extra"
space will be forced into the output in some circumstances illustrated below. In practice, it
may be better to include this space to make both the template and resulting output
slightly more understandable. However, it is recommended that no characters, particularly
not the "tab" character, or at most a single space character is inserted between the
substitution variable declarations within the template file (later examples will illustrate the
associated problems). If the data supplied is:

for token1 oneisawidestring, four, seven

for token2 two, fiveisawidestring, eight
for token3 three, six, nine

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then the result will be:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
Line prefix: oneisawidestrin two three
Line prefix: four fiveisa six
Line prefix: widestr
Line prefix: ing
Line prefix: seven eight nine

Notice that the first value "oneisawidestring" is truncated while "fiveisawidestring" is

wrapped. In general, the columns should be specified in such a way that they do not
overlap. If this rule is broken then the resulting table may not "look" as expected by the
user. To illustrate this the template is changed so that the first column overlaps the "line
prefix:" text within the template:

Line prefix:%token1:9:15:L% %token2:42:7:w%%token3:50:9:r%

The resulting substituted text will be:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
Line prefix:oneisawides two three
Line prefix:four fiveisa six
Line prefix: widestr
Line prefix: ing
Line prefix:seven eight nine

On each row, the data within the first column has been "pushed" to the right by the fixed
text, it should start in character column 9 and be 15 characters wide therefore the last
character column in which data is displayed is 23. The first value "oneisawidestring" is
truncated at this column. The other data in the first column ("four" and "seven") has also
been "pushed" to the right by the fixed text, but because these strings are shorter than
the remaining column width they are not truncated.

If we now allow the column specifications to overlap (not recommended):

Line prefix:%token1:9:15:L% %token2:22:18:w%%token3:35:9:r%

Then the result will be:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
Line prefix:oneisawides two thre
Line prefix:four fiveisawidestri six
Line prefix:seven eight nine

Remember that, with a positive column width, data within a column is padded with spaces
to occupy the full column width specified.
 We know (from the previous example) that the last character column in which the first
column of data should appear is 23.

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 The padding characters "push" all of the second column of data to the right. The space
character in the template (between token1 and token2) appears in column 24, and so
all of the second column of data actually starts in character column 25. However,
because it was specified to start in column 22 for 18 columns, the last character
column in which the second column of data should be printed is 39.
 The first character column in which the third column of data may be printed is 40,
similarly its last printing character column is 43.

Thus the strings "three" and "fiveisawidestring" are truncated to "thre" and
"fiveisawidestri" respectively. One reason why the column specifications should not
overlap is illustrated here, because the second column of data is specified as 18
characters wide and "w" (wrap). Data in this column will be wrapped at 18, 36, 54, etc.,
but the displayed column is only 15 characters wide, resulting in three characters being
truncated from each wrapped line! Do not allow the column specifications to overlap.

Consider the implications of putting a "tab" character in the template between the
"token1" and "token2" declarations (again not recommended), then the file will appear as
follows:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
Line prefix:%token1:9:15:L% %token2:22:18:w%%token3:35:9:r%

The "tab" has printed as blank space up to the next multiple of eight, in this case 32, and
so the string "token2" starts at character column 33. The resulting output will be:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
Line prefix:oneisawides two thre
Line prefix:four fiveisawidestri six
Line prefix:seven eight nine

which is exactly the same as with the space character, because column 24 is also a
multiple of eight. If we had put a space followed by a "tab" character in the template file,
then when printed out the template file will appear exactly the same as above, but the
printed output file would be as follows:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
Line prefix:oneisawides two thre
Line prefix:four fiveisawidestr six
Line prefix:seven eight nine

The result is very confusing because the program has put out two characters (space and
"tab") between the substitution variables "token1" and "token2", but this has resulted in
the printed columns shifting to character column 33 instead of 26. Consequently the third
column of data (three, six and nine) is also displaced by seven characters. You are
advised not to use "tab" characters in the template file.

Going back to the original template file, containing a single space between the
substitution variables "token1" and "token2", if we now change the column width
specification for "token1" from "15" to "-15" then it will not force the first column of data
to end in character column 23 (the minus sign requests no padding characters).

Line prefix:%token1:9:-15:L% %token2:22:18:w%%token3:35:9:r%

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The result will be:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
Line prefix:oneisawides two thre
Line prefix:four fiveisawidestring six
Line prefix:seven eight nine

It can be seen that the column one data finishes in character column 23, but the second
data column should start in character column 22, thus the value "two" is "pushed" to the
right, but "fiveisawidestring" and "eight" start in their correct character columns. The
space character between the "token1" and "token2" declarations in the template file has
been forced in at character column 24 before the string "two". By luck, "fiveisawidestring"
has not "pushed" the value "six" because there was space to right-justify the three
characters. However had the value "six" been "sixteen", then the result would be:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
Line prefix:oneisawides two thre
Line prefix:four fiveisawidestring sixt
Line prefix:seven eight nine

If we change the specification of "token2" width from "18" to "-18" then the result will be:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
Line prefix:oneisawides two three
Line prefix:four fiveisawidestringsixte
Line prefix:seven eight nine

There is no space separating the declarations for "token2" and "token3", so the two
strings have run together at the data column boundary, but "three" is no longer "pushed"
to the right and so this string is all displayed. If we now change the data again so that
"oneisawidestring" is shortened to "oneiswide" and "fiveisawidestring" becomes
"fiveiswide" then the result is:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
Line prefix:oneiswide two three
Line prefix:four fiveiswide sixteen
Line prefix:seven eight nine

The point to note here is that even if the columns are specified in such a way that they
overlap, the data is only "pushed" to the right by non-white-space characters in the
preceding column.

The next six examples illustrate that the user encounters while trying to create a "boxed"
table by adding characters into the template. The behavior of any character (or string of
characters) between the declaration of the substitution variables in the template file is
exactly the same as we have already seen for the space character (between "token1" and
"token2"). So if the line in the template was:

|%token1:9:-15:L%|%token2:22:-18:w%|%token3:35:9:r%|

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Then the resulting substituted text is:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
| oneiswide| two| three|
| four| fiveiswide| sixteen|
| seven| eight| nine|

With the wider strings the result would be:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
| oneisawidestrin|two| three|
| four| fiveisawidestring|sixt|
| seven| eight| nine|

Either of which is probably not what was intended. The situation gets even more complex
if data within the table is wrapped. The template line:

|%token1:9:-15:L%|%token2:22:-7:w%|%token3:35:-9:r%|

generates the table:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
| oneisawidestrin|two| three|
| four| fiveisa| sixteen|
|| widestr||
|| ing||
| seven| eight| nine|

which is clearly not what was wanted, but it does serve to illustrate what the substitution
program will do with characters in between the token declarations. In general, it is
recommended that no characters (except perhaps a single space) should be put between
the substitution variable declarations in the template file.

If we allow padding characters to be printed then:

|%token1:9:15:L%|%token2:22:18:w%|%token3:35:9:r%|

results in substituted text:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
| oneisawidestrin|two| |thr|
| four |fiveisawidestri|six|
| seven |eight |nin|

The template line:

|%token1:9:12:L%|%token2:22:7:w%|%token3:35:9:r%|

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generates the table:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
| oneisawidest|two | three|
| four |fiveisa| sixteen|
| |widestr| |
| |ing | |
| seven |eight | nine|

and the template line:

|%token1:2:18:L%|%token2:22:7:w%|%token3:35:9:r%|

generates the table:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
|oneisawidestring | two | three|
|four | fiveisa| sixteen|
| | widestr| |
| | ing | |
| seven | eight | nine|

For completeness, the last example has the formatting data removed from the line in the
template file, but uses the same data:

%token1% %token2% %token3%

Note that there are now spaces between the substitution variable declarations, resulting
in the following output text:

....:....1....:....2....:....3....:....4....:....5....:....6
oneisawidestring two three
four fiveisawidestring sixteen
seven eight nine

As expected, there is now no formatting of the data into columns. Substitutions occur one
after another across the output line, and are separated by the spaces specified between
the substitution variables in the template file.

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Baseline and Release Templates

In this Appendix

Baseline Templates 324

Item Baseline Templates 324
Request Baseline Templates 336
Release Templates 338

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Appendix B Baseline and Release Templates

Baseline Templates
In Chapter 2, "Process Modeling Concepts", the concept of a baseline is introduced in the
topic "About Object Classes" on page 30. A Baseline Template consists of a set of rules
which are used as criteria for inclusion/exclusion of items under Serena® Dimensions®
CM control into a baseline. There are two types of baseline template. These are described
in:
 "Item Baseline Templates" on page 324
 "Request Baseline Templates" on page 336.

Release and Archive baselines are defined by their associated templates; whereas a
Design baseline is essentially defined by the absence of an associated template in that
the baseline will include all revisions of the items from the top level design part and its
subordinate design parts (regardless of their status). Baseline templates are unique with
respect to the base database i.e. they are not restricted to particular products. Baseline
templates are defined using the Administration Console Baseline and Release Templates
function.

Item Baseline Templates

An item baseline template consists of a set of rules for selecting item revisions based on
the item's type, revision, status or build stage.

There can be one rule for default item types (specified as item type *); this default rule
is applied to all relevant-items which are not covered by the other rules. The inclusion of a
default rule in a template ensures that all relevant-items receive consideration for
inclusion in a baseline.

The simplest baseline template could select the latest revision of all the items in the
current project/stream i.e. item type * and latest edit revision (*LATEST). This baseline
template allows manual selection of item revisions to be included in a baseline.

Baseline rules divide into two classes:

 Rules that only operate on a specified normal lifecycle state or build stage. One of
these must be chosen for the selected normal lifecycle state or stage.
 Rules that do not require a normal lifecycle state to be specified. These correspond to
implicit states. These do not apply to build stages.

For brevity in the following pages the shortcut codes shown in the table below are used.

Lifecycle State Shortcut

Baseline Rules that Operate on a Specified Normal Lifecycle State
Latest from state LFS
Most progressed state above specified state or specified state MPS
Specified state or most progressed state SMP
Specified state or next existing state upward SUP
Specified state only EQS

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Baseline Rules that Operate on a Specified Build Stage

Specified build stage and all next existing build stages BUP
upward
Specified build stage only EQB
Baseline Rules that do not Require a Normal Lifecycle State to be
Specified
*All revisions *ALL
*Latest edit revision *LATEST
*Latest edit revision at final state in lifecycle *FINAL
*Latest edited revision at the most progressed state *HIGHEST
*Revision built from selected inputs *BUILT
*Revision that makes selected outputs *MADE OF

Rule Operation
Only one rule may be defined for each item type. The rule is used to determine, for
relevant-items of that type, what status (lifecycle state) or build stage is acceptable, or to
be preferred, for any revision to be included in a baseline. To specify the rule, any one of
the states or build stages in the normal lifecycle associated with that type may be chosen,
together with one of the rules below, which determines how that state and others in the
normal lifecycle are to be grouped and arranged in an order of preference. (A normal
lifecycle consists of a single chain of states, starting with the first state at the beginning
of the chain, and progressing upward through later states to the final state at the end
of the chain.)

Then for each relevant item which is of the type concerned within this rule, we look at
each grouping of normal lifecycle states in the order of preference indicated by the rule,
until we find the first group which is not empty, i.e. where there is at least one revision of
the relevant-item in that group. If we then find that there are two or more revisions in
that group, we always select the revision which has been created/updated most recently;
this is often, but need not necessarily be, the one with the highest entry in the revision
field. If all groups in the order of preference are empty, then that item will not be included
in any baseline specified using this template.

Note that, except when a *ALL rule is used (this is detailed later), no more than one
revision of any item is selected for inclusion in a release-baseline.

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Rule Grouping and Order of Preference

Latest from state (LFS) Latest from specified state and upward: there is just one
group – it consists of all revisions which are at any of
the normal lifecycle states between the specified state
and the final state, both of these states inclusive.
(Conversely, if a relevant-item of the given type has all
its revisions at states which are not in the normal
lifecycle, and/or at states which are in the normal
lifecycle but are below (earlier than) the specified state,
then such a relevant-item is not selected using this
template.)
Most progressed state Most progressed state not below specified state: there
above specified state or are several groups, each of which includes revisions (if
specified state (MPS) any) at just one lifecycle state. The order of preference
for the groups is then:

1 the group for the final state in the normal lifecycle

2 the group for the next-to-final state

then so on downwards, ending with the group for the
specified lifecycle state.
Specified state or most Specified state or most progressed state: there are
progressed state (SMP) several groups, each of which includes revisions (if any)
at just one lifecycle state. The order of preference for
the groups is then:

1 the group for the specified lifecycle state

2 the group for the final state in the normal lifecycle

3 that for the next-to-final state
then so on downwards to earlier states, ending with the
group for the next state upwards from the specified
state.
Specified state or next Specified state or upward: there are several groups,
existing state each of which includes revisions (if any) at just one
upward (SUP) lifecycle state. The order of preference for the groups is
then:

1 the group for the specified lifecycle state

2 the group for the next later normal lifecycle state

upward from this
then so on, ending with the group for the final state.
Specified state only (EQS) Equal to specified state: there is just one group – it
consists of revisions which are at the specified lifecycle
state only.
(A relevant-item of the given type, which has no revision
at this state, will not be selected using this template.)

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Rule Grouping and Order of Preference

Specified build stage and all Latest from specified build stage and upward: there are
next existing build stages several groups, each of which includes revisions (if any)
upward (BUP) at just one build stage. (Conversely, if a relevant-item of
the given type has all its revisions at stages which are
below the specified build stage, then such a
relevant-item is not selected using this template.)
The order of preference is then:

1 the group for the specified build stage

2 the group for the next existing higher build stage

upward from this
then so on, ending with the group for the final stage.
Specified build stage only Equal to specified build stage: there is just one group –
(EQB) it consists of revisions which are at the specified build
stage only. (A relevant-item of the given type, which has
no revision at this stage, will not be selected using this
template.)

Illustration of Rule Operation

The precise meaning of the different rules is perhaps best illustrated by considering this
rather abstract example. Suppose a normal lifecycle is defined as:

STATE 1 → STATE 2 → STATE 3 → STATE 4 → STATE 5

and suppose a rule is specified as STATE 2, along with the rule shown in the left-hand
column below. Then, for a relevant-item of the type concerned within this rule, the
revision which is selected for inclusion in the baseline is the most recently updated
revision chosen from those whose status is as shown in the right-hand column.

Rule Selects Latest Revision from those:

Latest from state (LFS) at any of the states: STATE 2, STATE 3,
STATE 4, STATE 5.
Most progressed state above at STATE 5; or else at STATE 4; or else at
specified state or specified state STATE 3; or else at STATE 2.
(MPS)
Specified state or most progressed at STATE 2; or else at STATE 5; or else at
state (SMP) STATE 4; or else at STATE 3.
Specified state or next existing at STATE 2; or else at STATE 3; or else at
state upward (SUP) STATE 4; or else at STATE 5.
Specified state only (EQS) at STATE 2 only.

In the first and last cases the item is not included in the baseline, if no revision meets the
given requirement. In the middle three cases, we look at each "or else" in the list, only if
no revision has been found which meets the requirements up to that point; the item is not
included in the baseline, only if we reach the end of the list, still without success.

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Rules Using Implicit-States

Instead of specifying a particular state in the normal lifecycle, one of the following six
implicit-states may be chosen. These do not apply to build stages. None of the rules
discussed in the previous sections are required in such cases, as each such title implies its
own order-of-preference grouping:

Implicit State Grouping and Order of Preference

*All revisions All revisions of each relevant-item of the type specified, regardless
(*ALL) of their lifecycle status, are selected for inclusion in a baseline
specified using this template. This is for use with Dimensions
Archive, Retrieval, and Transfer facilities (ART). If a baseline is
made using a template which contains one or more rules with
*ALL, such a baseline cannot be used for configuration-build or
release-control purposes.
*Latest edit There is just one group, consisting of all revisions which are at any
revision of the normal lifecycle states. It is equivalent to choosing the first
(*LATEST) normal lifecycle state specifically, with a LFS rule.
*Latest edit There is just one group, consisting of revisions at the final normal
revision at final lifecycle state only. It is equivalent to choosing that state
state in lifecycle specifically, with an EQS rule.
(*FINAL)
*Latest edited The order of preference of the groups is: first the group of
revision at the revisions (if any) at the final normal lifecycle state, then the group
most progressed of revisions at the next-to-final state, and so on downwards to the
state group at the first normal lifecycle state. It is equivalent to
(*HIGHEST) choosing that first state specifically, with a MPS rule. This implicit
state is principally of value at an early stage in the development of
a product, as it ensures that every relevant existing item (of the
type that the rule is concerned with) gets selected at the latest
revision of its most-progressed status.
*Revision built The selection procedure used here is entirely different from that
from selected specified above for other implicit states; and regardless of the
inputs (*BUILT) order in which they were specified, rules with implicit states
*BUILT (and *MADE OF – see below) are interpreted after all other
rules have been used to select item revisions of other types. All
relevant-items of the type(s) specified in *BUILT rule(s) are
reviewed for potential inclusion in the baseline, and each
relevant-item is inspected individually as follows.
The lifecycle status of the relevant-item's revisions is not
significant in this case, but each of the revisions is considered in
turn, to see if one can be found which has been built, using as
input(s) some of the item revisions already included in the
baseline. For such a revision to qualify, it must have been the
output of a Dimensions build process, and all the inputs used in
that process must be found, either already included in the baseline
(as a result of processing the template rules of other types – i.e.
rules other than *BUILT), or included in the baseline as a result of
earlier processing by this *BUILT procedure. (But it does not
matter in which order *BUILT rules are specified, because this
*BUILT processing is reiterative: the whole cycle will be repeated
as often as necessary on all the relevant-items of types in *BUILT
rules, until all possible orders and combinations have been dealt
with.) If such a revision can be found to qualify, then this revision
is also included in the baseline, and the item is considered to have
been successfully selected.

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Implicit State Grouping and Order of Preference

*Revision built However, if each of the item's revisions has been considered, and
from selected none has been found to meet these criteria (and further iterations
inputs (*BUILT) of the entire cycle could not improve on this), then a warning
(Continued) message is issued to say that this item has not been included in
the baseline; and the inspection process starts over again on the
revisions of the next relevant-item.
*Revision that This selection procedure uses an inverse criterion to that used for
makes selected *BUILT. In *MADE OF rules also, the lifecycle status of
outputs (*MADE relevant-item revisions of the types specified is not significant in
OF) selecting them for inclusion in the baseline. In *MADE OF rules the
selection is made by examining the made-of lists of built item
revisions which either are already in the baseline or have been
included in it as a result of previous iterations of this *MADE OF
processing. Wherever such a made-of list contains any item
revision which is of the type(s) specified in *MADE OF rule(s), as
well as being a relevant-item (i.e. within the scope of the
baseline), then that item revision is also included in the baseline,
provided that no other made-of list so examined contains a
different revision of the same item. If such a conflict of revisions
does arise, then no revision of that item is included in the
baseline, and an error message is issued to explain this.

For notes and guidelines on using *BUILT and *MADE OF rules refer to this sub-topic
below.

The Default Rule and Other Uses of Implicit-States

The default rule (item type *) is applied to all item types not specified in other rules.
These default types may be associated with several different item lifecycles, and therefore
no specific lifecycle state may be used in the default rule, but instead one of the above
implicit-states must be chosen. Therein lies the value of such titles as *FINAL, *LATEST
and *HIGHEST, as they can be re-interpreted according to the different lifecycles
associated with the types of item to be selected by the default rule.

The default rule is just a short alternative to specifying a separate rule (with the same
implicit-state in each) for every item type used by all the relevant-items, except for the
item types which have rules to themselves.

The implicit-states can, of course, be useful in other rules besides the default rule. If a
template is to select items of several different types, and for each of them to pick, say,
the latest revision at the final normal lifecycle state, it is probably more convenient (and
clearer) to choose *FINAL for the rule for each of these item types, rather than look up
and select the name of the actual final normal state in each case. (The template would
function equally effectively, specified either way.) A further advantage of implicit states
can be in defining general-purpose templates, for use by several different products. For
example, several products may have items of type XYZ, but in each product a different
lifecycle is specified for that item-type. A template consisting of the single rule: XYZ
*LATEST could be used by any of these products to create a baseline which included the
latest revision (at any normal lifecycle state) of each relevant-item of type XYZ.

Using *BUILT and *MADE OF Implicit States

A typical build configuration is:

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 a compiler build tool which produces one item of type OBJECT from one input of type
SOURCE; and
 a linker build tool which produces one output item of type EXE from several inputs of
type OBJECT.

There will usually be other inputs in addition to these, but by considering this simple
example of a configuration involving just three item-types, it will become apparent how
*BUILT and *MADE OF can be used in any configuration.

Example 1
A suitable baseline template would be:

EXE *BUILT
OBJECT *BUILT
SOURCE *MADE OF

(Note that the order in which template rules are specified makes no difference to the
content of a baseline.) The effect of this template is:
 first (because *BUILT processing comes at the end) to include in the baseline SOURCE
item revisions at the *FINAL (i.e. final normal) state;
 then to include those OBJECT item revisions which were built (compiled) from the
SOURCE revisions already included;
 finally to include any EXE item revision(s) built (linked) from some combination of
these included OBJECT revisions.

There must be a specified rule (or the default rule) to cover each stage in the build
process: if the rule for OBJECT had been omitted, then the rule for EXE could not have
included anything, because none of the build inputs for any EXE item would be present.

Example 2
Another suitable baseline template would be:

EXE *HIGHEST
OBJECT *MADE OF
SOURCE *MADE OF

(Again note that the rules could be given in any order.) This template might be used to
prepare a beta-test version of a product for release. The effect is:
 first (because *MADE OF processing, like that for *BUILT, comes at the end) to include
in the baseline all the EXE items, choosing the revisions at the *HIGHEST state (i.e.
the best revision available so far for each EXE item);
 then to include those revisions of OBJECT items which were used to build the revision
of each EXE item already included, unless it is found that two or more different
revisions of the same OBJECT item were used in building those EXE items (the EXE
rule would have to have included at least two different items for such a conflict to
possibly arise) – if such a conflict is found, it is flagged and reported, and no revision
of that OBJECT item is included;

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 then to include the SOURCE item revisions which were used to build each OBJECT
item revision already included (and therefore not flagged) – which, provided that
there is a one-to-one correspondence between SOURCE and OBJECT items, will not
result in any further conflicts being found.

Again, there must be a rule to cover each stage in the build process: if the rule for
OBJECT had been omitted, then the rule for SOURCE could not have included anything,
because the SOURCE items do not themselves belong to the made-of list of any EXE item.
(Although an EXE item is built ultimately from SOURCE items, this requires made-of lists
to be used in combination.)

Example 3
Another example of how revision conflicts could arise would be in a template consisting
of:

OBJECT *LATEST
SOURCE *MADE OF
ENV *MADE OF

(where ENV items are environment-items, some of which may be used in the build
compilations of several different OBJECT items), different revisions of one ENV item might
have been used in the compilations which produced the OBJECT items already included.

Example 4
It is valid to have a template with both *BUILT and *MADE OF rules, such as:

EXE *BUILT
OBJECT *LATEST
SOURCE *Revision that makes selected outputs

It is necessary that the other rule(s) in such a template include items which are in
between in the build process. This means that the rules for *BUILT inclusion and those for
*MADE OF inclusion will never conflict with each other. In this example OBJECT items
have been included first, followed by both the EXE revisions built from them and the
SOURCE revisions used to build them.

Example 5
It is not valid to have a template consisting solely of *BUILT and/or *MADE OF rules. For
example a template of simply:

OBJECT *BUILT
SOURCE *MADE OF

would include nothing, because there is nothing selected to start off with, and so neither
the *BUILT nor the *MADE OF processing could possibly find anything to qualify for
inclusion.

Note 1: *MADE OF rules do not guarantee that the baseline will include the entire contents of
any made-of list. If a complete made-of list is to be assured of being included, then:

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either the template should be designed to use *BUILT; or else the *MADE OF rules
must be sufficiently all-embracing to cover the made-of list. For example:

EXE *HIGHEST
* *MADE OF

could be used to include all the made-of lists for the included EXE items; but only
provided that the scope of the baseline is large enough to include every configuration
part which was specified or implied in each of the build processes used.

Note 2: *BUILT and *MADE OF rules are incompatible with *ALL rules: neither *BUILT nor
*MADE OF may be used in any template which contains one or more *ALL rules.

Cross-Product Baselines
A cross-product baseline is one which includes design parts and/or items which belong to
two or more products, because within the baselined design-structure USAGE relationships
have been created (using the Dimensions functions Relate Design Part Usage and/or using
Relate Item to Part) and these have specified design parts and/or items in other
product(s).

The product whose design-structure (or a sub-tree of it) is being baselined, is referred to
here as the baselining product, and all relevant-items which do not belong to this
product, are called foreign-items belonging to foreign products.

To create a cross-product baseline successfully, the first requirement is that the

item-types of all relevant-items, including foreign-items, must be defined in the process
model for the baselining product.

The remaining requirements and limitations concern the lifecycles associated with these
item types, in the various process models for all the products represented in the baseline.
Obviously, the most straightforward case is where, for each item type concerned, taken in
turn, that item type uses the same lifecycle in every process model. If this is indeed the
case, then there are no further complications, and revisions of all relevant-items,
including foreign-items, can be selected using the procedures already described.

However, it may be impracticable for different products to share identical lifecycles for the
same item type. Therefore when the lifecycle used for an item type in a foreign product
differs from that used for the same item type in the baselining product, the extent to
which these two lifecycles need to be similar to each other needs to be examined in some
detail.

First, suppose the normal lifecycles in the two lifecycles are identical: the same state
names appear in the same order; and the lifecycles differ only in the number and/or
arrangement of the lifecycle transitions which do not lie on the normal path. Then there is
no further problem for relevant-items of that type in either product: as far as a
baseline-template is concerned, the two lifecycles function in an identical manner,
because their normal lifecycles are equivalent.

We now look at the cases where the normal lifecycles for an item type differ in some
respect between the baselining product and a foreign product. We need to consider
individually the different alternatives for the template rule for that item type, starting with
the simplest.

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 *ALL rule
This rule raises no problems, as it selects all revisions of a relevant-item, regardless
of their lifecycle states. This applies equally to foreign-items.
 *BUILT and *MADE OF rules
These rules also raise no particular problems, as they are processed in an entirely
different way, and are not directly concerned with normal lifecycles. The *BUILT and
*MADE OF procedures are applied equally to relevant-items of both the baselining and
foreign products.
 *LATEST rule
This rule is handled in a special way, the effect of which is that the normal lifecycles
for the baselining and foreign products do not need to correspond with each other at
all. For a relevant-item of the baselining product, the latest revision is selected from
all at any of the states in the baselining product's normal lifecycle; and for a
foreign-item, the latest revision is selected from all at any of the states in that foreign
product's own normal lifecycle.
 LFS rule with a specific state
This is a more general version of *LATEST and is handled as follows. The specific state
given is looked up in the normal lifecycle for the baselining product. Let us suppose
the normal lifecycle has six states and that the specified state is number 3 (the first
state is number 1, and the final normal state, in this case, number 6). For a
relevant-item of the baselining product, the latest revision would be selected from all
those at any of the states whose numbers are 3, 4, 5 and 6. For a foreign-item, we
look up the foreign product's normal lifecycle for the names of the states which are
number 3 (the same number as that of the specified state) or greater, and select the
latest revision from those at any of these states.
This would mean, if this normal lifecycle had nine states instead of six, that there
would be seven states from which a selection could be made (numbers 3 to 9
inclusive) instead of four in the baselining product. In an extreme case, if the normal
lifecycle for a foreign product had only two states (unlikely, but possible), then there
would be no states from which to select, and so no revision could be selected for a
foreign-item of this item type in that product.
One example of this rule, which could be very useful, is to specify LFS along with the
state which is number 2 in the baselining product's normal lifecycle. The effect of this
rule would be that, for every relevant-item of that item type in any product, the
revision selected would be the latest at any normal state, excluding those which had
initial status; i.e. it would guarantee that the selected revision had been actioned at
least once after modification.
 All other codes and implicit states *FINAL and *HIGHEST
A rule of this kind requires a significant degree of consistency between the normal
lifecycles in the baselining product and a foreign product, in order to satisfactorily
select a revision of a foreign-item. What happens is that only the baselining product's
normal lifecycle is consulted, and the search (in the appropriate order of preference)
is performed on all relevant-items of that type (i.e. associated with that normal
lifecycle), including foreign-items, using the state names in the baselining product's
normal lifecycle.
So, to take one of the simpler cases, if the rule specified *FINAL, and the final normal
state in the baselining product's lifecycle was DONE, then DONE would at least have
to appear somewhere in the corresponding lifecycle for the foreign product, and the

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foreign-item's revision selected would be the latest (if any) which had DONE status,
regardless of what DONE actually meant in the foreign product's lifecycle.
It is therefore necessary, if any of these codes are going to be used, to have sufficient
agreement among the normal lifecycles for all the products concerned, as to the
meaning of most, if not all, of the state names used, in order to ensure that the
selected revision of a foreign-item is the one actually desired.

Suspended Item Revisions

If the selection is by a *ALL (which is for archiving only), any suspended status is ignored,
and all revisions, both non-suspended and suspended, are selected for inclusion.

Apart from *ALL, a suspended revision; is never selected for inclusion in a new
release-baseline, created using a baseline-template. The selection processes already
detailed (apart from those for *ALL) are applied exactly as if the suspended revisions did
not exist.

(Suspended revisions can, of course, be found in already existing template

release-baselines, due to having been selected for inclusion because they had not yet
been suspended at the times when those baselines were created. It is also possible for
suspended revisions to be included in new non-template baselines: i.e. revised and
merged baselines.)

Checked Out Item Revisions

A checked out revision is never included in a release-baseline (and once a revision has
been included in a release-baseline, its file is no longer available to be checked out – or
indeed, altered in any way).

If the selection is by a *ALL rule, and a checked out revision would have been among
those selected (if it had not been checked out), then this is flagged, and the requested
baseline is not created.

Apart from *ALL rules, the selection processes already detailed are applied exactly as if
the checked out revisions did not exist.

Suspended Design Parts

The specifications already given apply to all relevant items which are either OWNED or
USED by at least one non-suspended design part included in the baseline. But if any item
is relevant only because all the included design parts, which either OWN it or USE it, are
SUSPENDED, then its processing is as above for "Suspended Item Revisions". All the
revisions of such an item are processed as if they were suspended, regardless of their
actual status.

Examples of Baseline Template Rules

Suppose the normal lifecycle for item type XYZ is:

PRELIMINARY → DESIGNED → COMPLETED → TESTED → RELEASED

and suppose an item of type XYZ (OWNED by an included, non-suspended design part)
exists in five revisions (none of which is currently checked out or suspended) as follows,

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each most recently updated on the date shown, and then actioned to the lifecycle state
shown:

Last
Revision Updated Current State
1 1/1/2003 TESTED
2 1/2/2003 TESTED
3 1/4/2003 COMPLETED
4 1/3/2003 COMPLETED
5 1/5/2003 PRELIMINARY

Then consider in turn each of the following alternative choices of template rule for item
type XYZ. If the template rule were as shown, then for the above item, the revision which
would be selected, together with the reason for this selection, is as shown alongside.

Revision
Lifecycle State Code Selected Reason
DESIGNED Latest from state (LFS) 3 1, 2, 3 & 4 qualify; 3 is
latest
DESIGNED Most progressed state 2 Latest at nearest-to-final
above specified state or state
specified state (MPS)
DESIGNED Specified state or most 2 Latest at nearest-to-final
progressed state (SMP) state
DESIGNED Specified state or next 3 Latest at next state up
existing state upward
(SUP)
DESIGNED Specified state only None None at DESIGNED state
(EQS)
PRELIMINARY Most progressed state 2 Nearest-to-final state
above specified state or preferred
specified state (MPS)
PRELIMINARY Specified state or most 5 Specified state preferred
progressed state (SMP)
*All revisions 1,2,3,4 Includes everything
(*ALL) &5
*Latest edit 5 Latest of all at normal
revision states
(*LATEST)
*Latest edit None None at final state
revision at final
state in lifecycle
(*FINAL)

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Revision
Lifecycle State Code Selected Reason
*Latest edited 2 Work back from final
revision at the state; take latest at 1st
most progressed state found
state
(*HIGHEST)
*Revision built ? Cannot say; see following
from selected notes
inputs (*BUILT)
*Revision that ? Cannot say; see following
makes selected notes
outputs (*MADE
OF)

Notes 1 "None" means that, if this were the template rule, then this item would not appear in
the baseline.

2 The revision (if any) which would be selected by *BUILT cannot be determined from
the information given. This is because if this is a built item, the revision selected
would depend on the corresponding revision(s) of the input item(s) used to build it,
and those revisions would be selected by template rules for other item-types.

3 The revision (if any) which would be selected by *MADE OF cannot be determined
from the information given. This is because if this is an item selected because it is in a
made-of list of some built item, the revision selected would depend on which revision
of the built item was included, and that revision would be selected by a template rule
for some other item-type.

4 Revisions 1 or 4 could not be selected by any rule (except *ALL, and possibly *BUILT
or *MADE OF, because in each case another revision, more recently updated, exists at
the same lifecycle state.

Request Baseline Templates

Request baseline templates enable you to specify rules for selecting those requests that
will be used as input for creating a baseline. They comprise one or more rules that are
made up from the following:
 Request type.
 Request status.
 Baseline status code, which itself comprises one of the following keys:
• EQS – specified state only.
• SUP – specified state or next existing state upward.
NOTE Baseline collective codes such as *MADE_OF and *LATEST, which are used in item
baseline templates, are not relevant to request baselines and are not provided.

A request baseline template consists only of request template rules – it will not allow the
addition of rules using item types. Conversely, an item baseline template does not allow
the addition of request baseline template rules.

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Creating a Baseline Using Request Baseline

Templates
When a baseline is created specifying a request baseline template and a set of starting
parent requests, then all the requests that:
 are related to those parent requests, and
 match the template rules

will be collected together for processing.

The template rules will be processed in exactly the same way they are for item templates,
that is, requests will be selected based on the type, status, and the baseline status code
that was specified. For example, if a template had a rule that said that:
 all requests of type PR,
 at status ACCEPTED,
 with the baseline status code EQS

were to be considered, then all the requests of type PR, at the status ACCEPTED only,
would be used for inclusion into the baseline.

Once this list of requests has been determined, then only those items that are related to
those requests with either an In Response To or, optionally, an Info relationship will be
included into the baseline. However, because the baseline that is being created is a
release baseline, only one revision of each item will be included in the baseline (not all
revisions, as would be the case for a design baseline). This means, that even though the
requests being selected may contain multiple revisions of the same item, the final
baseline will only contain one revision of all these possible items.

To ensure that only one revision of an item is included in the final baseline in
circumstances where multiple item revisions are related to requests, only the latest item
revision will be selected using that item's pedigree. If item revisions are in conflict, that is,
no common successor to these items are found, then the creation of the baseline will fail
with an appropriate error message.

When the baseline has been created, the requests that were used to create it will be
related as In Response To that new baseline.

Constraints
To enforce a consistent model with its behavior with respect to items only, the following
additional constraints apply to creating a baseline with respect to cited requests:

1 Requests that are either at a closed or off-norm lifecycle state will not be processed
by the SUP baseline code.

2 Only requests in the primary catalog will be processed.

3 Only requests related through a dependency relationship, that is, DEPEND, will be
included in traversal scans.

4 If a request related through a dependency relationship does not fulfill the criteria
specified in the request template rules, then that request will be ignored—as will
every other request that is a child of that request. This means, that for a situation
where N levels of requests are related together in a chain through dependent

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relationships, for example, CR_1 → CR_5 → CR_7 → CR_9 → CR_12, if CR_7 fails to
match a template rule, then it, and CR_9 and CR_12 will be ignored from any further
processing.

5 Only requests that are owned by the product on which the baseline is being created
will be processed. Any requests owned by other products will be ignored—this
includes children that such requests might have.

6 Only parts or items that are owned, or have usage relationships to the parent part
specified when the baseline is created will be included in the final baseline. This
means, that if a request refers to affected parts and/or items that may be out of
scope – that is, not owned by or related to the parent part or any of its children – then
these parts and items will be ignored.

Release Templates
In Chapter 2, "Process Modeling Concepts", the concept of a release is introduced in the
topic "About Object Classes" on page 30. A Release Template:
 Defines a set of user-defined rules or criteria by which baselined design parts are
selected for inclusion in a release. This rule is then applied to that design part and
also to any subordinate to it in the design-structure tree, unless and until another rule
specifies any such subordinate design part, in which case that other rule overrides for
that sub-tree, and so on. Alternatively, a rule may be applied to ALL design parts of
the product.
If asterisk (*) is specified as the design part, then the rule will be applied to all design
parts for which no specific item type rule exists i.e. "select all". The definition of a
default rule in a template ensures that all design parts within a baselined structure
are considered for inclusion in the release.
 Defines a set of user-defined rules or criteria by which baselined items are selected
for inclusion in a release.
If asterisk (*) is specified as the item type, then the rule will be applied to all items for
which no specific item type rule exists i.e. "select all". The definition of a default rule
in a template ensures that all items within a baselined structure are considered for
inclusion in the release.
If hyphen (-) is specified as the item type, then the rule will be applied to no items
(this is used to inhibit the selection of items for some sub-tree of the design part
structure).
 Optionally specifies operating system subdirectories to be added to the release
pathname specified by users (directory into which the above are to be copied). The
subdirectory must be a relative format (such as xxx/yyy UNIX or xxx\yyy
Windows). If a subdirectory is specified, the items of all types specified by the rule,
for all design parts selected by the rule, are placed in the subdirectory with the leaf
node portion of their project filename. On the other hand, if a subdirectory is not
specified, the items' project filenames will be used, relative to the operating system
release directory the user requests for the release.
Any operating system directories or subdirectories which do not exist, Dimensions CM
creates as and when they are needed (subject to the user having the necessary
operating system file access rights for such directory creation).

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The objective of subdirectories is to simplify subsequent handling of the release data.

For example, a release-template can be used to specify that executable code, source-
code modules, user documentation and system-specification documents are each to
be grouped in different subdirectories. It is possible to include one item a number of
times in a release, provided each copy is assigned to a different subdirectory.
 In support of the above operations, to optionally assign a database-unique "group
name" to a number of otherwise unrelated item types. The group name may then be
specified in a template rule, thereby bringing all the associated item types within the
scope of that rule.

Release templates are defined using the Administration Console Baseline and Release
Templates function.
NOTE All release-template rules apply only to the items selected by the baseline
specified for a release. If a release-template is not used, then all the items in the baseline
are placed in a single release directory, their project filenames being used relative to the
operating system release directory the user requests for the release.

Different release-templates may be used with the same baseline to create a number of
different release-configurations (e.g. test configurations of subsystems) or to make
available different groups of items (e.g. user documentation).

Where appropriate, the same release-template may be used:

 in creating different releases of the same configuration
 in conjunction with different baselines and for different products.

Process Modeling User's Guide 339

Appendix B Baseline and Release Templates

340 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Appendix C
Managing Notification E-Mails

In this Appendix

About Notification E-mails 342

Using the dmemail Utility 346
The Configuration Parameters 348
Notification Templates 352
Administration and Error Handling for E-mails 358

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Appendix C Managing Notification E-Mails

About Notification E-mails

Overview
The e-mail notification system in Dimensions CM is designed to provide more control over
e-mail notification and content, and also to provide a mechanism to allow administrators
to configure which particular users/groups receive e-mail notifications. This new
notification system is designed to work in tandem with the existing e-mail notification
mechanism and if switched on via subscriptions, will replace the standard default
Dimensions CM e-mail notifications.

There are a number of standard ("system") notifications defined to which a user or group
can be subscribed. (See "Notification Types" on page 343.) This subscription process is
performed by an administrator with the appropriate privilege (as described in "How Do
You Use the E-mail Notification System?" on page 342). Once one or more users have
been subscribed to a particular notification then the default e-mails, which are usually
sent to everyone with the appropriate role, will be "switched off" in favor of the new
subscriptions. In this way, an administrator can configure users to only receive those
notifications that are relevant to them and disable all other "spam" e-mail.

When using the default e-mail notification system, e-mail messages are sent immediately
whenever a command is run. This can mean that systems with a slow connection to the e-
mail server can suffer from an unnecessary time lag before the command completes. The
new e-mail subscription system however, writes every e-mail event to the database to
allow it to be processed "on-batch" via a new utility called dmemail at a later time. This
means that commands are no longer tied to the response time of the e-mail server, and
also allows a system administrator much more flexibility as to scheduling when e-mails
are processed.

The dmemail utility is a new application which allows much more fine-grained control over
the processing of e-mail than is provided by the default mail system, and can be
configured to run either as a scheduled task or "on demand" as desired by an
administrator. This utility will go through all the e-mail events that are pending to be sent,
apply all the various e-mail templates, and then send the resulting e-mail to the
subscribed users. For more information on the dmemail utility see "Using the dmemail
Utility" on page 346.

As mentioned above, this new e-mail subscription model supports the use of e-mail
templates to allow the administrator to customize the e-mail content which is sent to the
end user. The templating syntax, which is used within the template files, is the same as
that used for writing remote jobs and build templates, which means it can support
complex IF/ELSE constructs and other control conditions For more information on this
syntax, please refer to the Dimensions Build User's Guide. The location of the templates is
controlled by the variable DM_EMAIL_TEMPLATE_DIR in the Dimensions CM file dm.cfg,
but by default, is under the $<DM_ROOT> directory in a subdirectory called
email_templates. One template file exists for each subscribable notification, and can be
found using the Administration Console. By default, these templates are written to
support HTML syntax.

How Do You Use the E-mail Notification System?

To take advantage of the new e-mail notification system, you need to do the following:
 Subscribe users or groups to the mail events for which you want notifications to be
generated via either the command line or the Administration Console.

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 About Notification E-mails

 Create/edit the required e-mail templates to customize the notification content as

desired.
 Edit the dmemail configuration file (email_config.dat) and lastly, run the dmemail
utility as required.

The process of subscribing users to e-mail notifications using the Administration Console
is described in "About Mail Notifications" on page 106, or you can use the following
commands below. These are more fully described in the Command-Line Reference Guide.
 SUB: Subscribe user/group to notification.
 USUB: Unsubscribe user/group to notification.
 LMNR: List mail notification rules.

The templates supplied, and the variables available, are described in "Notification
Templates" on page 352. For more details on the email templating language, see Scripts
and Templates in the Developer's Reference.

The dmemail command-line utility is described in this Appendix in "Using the dmemail
Utility" on page 346. The options for the configuration file are described in "The
Configuration Parameters" on page 348.

Notification Types
The predefined notification types to which users and groups can be subscribed are listed
below.

Object
Notification Name Type Class Description
DEMOTE_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION Demote Baseline A baseline has been demoted.
DEPLOY_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION Deploy Baseline A baseline has been deployed.
PENDING_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION Action Baseline A Dimensions baseline has come into your
inbox. This is a mail notification that will be
triggered when a baseline comes into
someone's inbox. This can be as a result of a
creation or an action.
PROMOTE_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION Promote Baseline A baseline has been promoted.
ROLLBACK_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION Baseline This event does not have any effect, and will
be removed in a future release.
UPDATED_BASELINE_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFI Update Baseline This is a mail notification that will be
CATION triggered when someone updates an
attribute of a baseline in your inbox.
ADD_ITEM_PROJ_NOTIFICATION Add Item An item has been added to a project. This is
a mail notification that will be triggered when
someone adds an item that is in your inbox
to a project.
DELEGATED_ITEM_NOTIFICATION Delegate Item A Dimensions item has been delegated to
you. This is a mail notification that will be
triggered when an item comes into
someone's inbox as a result of a delegation.
DEMOTE_ITEM_NOTIFICATION Demote Item An itemhas been demoted.

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Object
Notification Name Type Class Description
DEPLOY_ITEM_NOTIFICATION Deploy Item An itemhas been deployed.
ITEM_LOCK_NOTIFICATION Lock Item An itemhas been locked in a stream.
ITEM_UNLOCK_NOTIFICATION Unlock Item An item deployment has been unlocked in a
stream.
MERGE_ITEM_CONFLICT_NOTIFICATION Merge Item An item needs to be merged. This is a mail
notification that will be triggered when
someone needs to merge an item conflict.
PENDING_ITEM_NOTIFICATION Action Item A Dimensions item has come into your inbox.
This is a mail notification that will be
triggered when an item comes into
someone's inbox. This can be as a result of a
creation or an action.
PROMOTE_ITEM_NOTIFICATION Promote Item An itemhas been promoted.
REMOVE_ITEM_PROJ_NOTIFICATION Remove Item An item has been removed from a project.
This is a mail notification that will be
triggered when someone removes an item
that is in your inbox from a project.
ROLLBACK_ITEM_NOTIFICATION Rollback Item An item deployment has been rolled back
from an area.
UPDATED_FILENAME_NOTIFICATION Update Item A project filename has been updated. This is
a mail notification that will be triggered when
someone changes the project filename of an
item in your inbox.
UPDATED_ITEM_ATTRIBUTE Update Item This is a mail notification that will be
_NOTIFICATION triggered when someone updates an
attribute of an item in your inbox.
DELIVERY_NOTIFICATION Deliver Project A deliver has been made to a stream.
PENDING_PROJECT_NOTIFICATION Action Project A Dimensions project has come into your
inbox. This is a mail notification that will be
triggered when a project comes into
someone's inbox. This can be as a result of a
creation or an action.
PROJECT_LOCK_NOTIFICATION Lock Project A project or stream has been locked.
PROJECT_UNLOCK_NOTIFICATION Unlock Project A project or stream has been unlocked.
UPDATED_PROJECT_ATTRIBUTE Update Project This is a mail notification that will be
_NOTIFICATION triggered when someone updates an
attribute of a project/stream in your inbox.
UPLOAD_NOTIFICATION Upload Project An upload has been made to a project.
DELEGATED_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION Delegate Request A Dimensions request has been delegated to
you. This is a mail notification that will be
triggered when a request comes into
someone's inbox as a result of a delegation.
DEMOTE_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION Demote Request A requesthas been demoted.
DEPLOY_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION Deploy Request A requesthas been deployed.

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 About Notification E-mails

Object
Notification Name Type Class Description
PENDING_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION Action Request A Dimensions request has come into your
inbox. This is a mail notification that will be
triggered when a request comes into
someone's inbox. This can be as a result of a
creation or an action.
PROMOTE_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION Promote Request A request has been promoted.
REQUEST_CLOSURE_NOTIFICATION Update Request This is a mail notification that will be
triggered when a request has reached its end
of lifecycle state.
ROLLBACK_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION Request This event does not have any effect, and will
be removed in a future release.
UPDATED_ACTION_DESCRIPTION Update Request The action description of a request in your
_NOTIFICATION inbox has been updated. This is a mail
notification that will be triggered when
someone adds or updates an action
description of a request in your inbox.
UPDATED_DETAILED_DESCRIPTION Update Request The detailed description of a request in your
_NOTIFICATION inbox has been updated. This is a mail
notification that will be triggered when
someone updates the detailed description of
a request in your inbox.
UPDATED_REQUEST_ATTRIBUTE Update Request This is a mail notification that will be
_NOTIFICATION triggered when someone updates an
attribute of a request in your inbox.
UPDATED_REQUEST_RELATIONSHIPS Update Request This is a mail notification that will be
_NOTIFICATION triggered when someone relates or unrelates
an object to a request in your inbox.
UPDATED_REQUIREMENT_NOTIFICATION Update Require A requirement has been updated. This is a
ment mail notification that will be triggered when
someone has made a change to a
requirement that is related to a request in
your inbox.
CREATE_USER_NOTIFICATION Create User A new Dimensions user has been created.
This is a mail notification that will be
triggered when a new user has been created
in the base database. This is an
administration mail notification.
DELETE_USER_NOTIFICATION Delete User A Dimensions user has been deleted. This is
a mail notification that will be triggered when
an existing user has been deleted from the
base database. This is an administration mail
notification.

E-mail Digesting
When a user or a group is subscribed to a notification, there is the option to make the
subscription a digest type, which means that all e-mails for that user, or group of users,
will be "batched up" and sent as a single digest e-mail. This will allow users or groups to

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receive a summary of all the activity that has been undertaken which matches their
subscriptions.

Using the dmemail Utility

What is dmemail?
The dmemail utility is a command that processes queued notification events held in the
Dimensions CM database and turns them into actual e-mails. It is responsible for
expanding the e-mail templates with the mail content and sends the resulting e-mail to
end users.

Modes of Operation
dmemail is a command-line utility that can be run in three ways:
 Direct from a command prompt.
 Automated via an existing customer scheduling system, such as cron.
 Automated via the Dimensions listener itself.

Security
dmemail needs to run from a user account that is part of the Dimensions "ADMIN" group.
When dmemail is scheduled using the Dimensions listener, then it will run as the same
user as the dmpool process, which is specified in the file %DM_ROOT%\dfs\listener.dat
(Windows) or $DM_ROOT/dfs/listener.dat (UNIX).

Command-Line Syntax
The command-line syntax for this utility is:

dmemail [config-file]

if config-file is omitted however, it defaults to:

%DM_ROOT%\dfs\email_config.dat (Windows)
or
$DM_ROOT/dfs/email_config.dat (UNIX)

Other parameters can either be specified as part of the command line or entered in the
configuration file. See "The Configuration Parameters" on page 348 for details of the
parameters.

Subsequent parameters when entered on the command line are used as key-value pairs.
If you want to use the default configuration filename and have parameters, use "-" as
parameter 1.

Parameters entered on the command line take precedence over those options specified in
the configuration file.

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If you need spaces in the parameters, use double quotes. The parameter names are not
case sensitive, and values of Y/y and N/n are equivalent.

Examples:

dmemail

dmemail -?

dmemail - debug=y logging=n "hello = greetings tim"

dm.cfg parameters
The following entries are required in the dm.cfg file. For details of editing this file see the
General Administration section of the Administrator's Guide:
DM_TMP
Dimensions temporary file folder. This is used as default for working files, if other
(e-mail specific) options are not specified.
DM_MAILS
Symbol used by existing Dimensions e-mail system to interface with an Operating
System mail command. This is documented in the General Administration section
of the Administrator's Guide.
DM_MAILS_HTTP
Custom version of the above symbol for use with HTML e-mail. Some mail
commands have special options to enable HTML mail. For example, the Dimensions
supplied program "pcmsmail" needs to be given the "-i" option. This would be
specified in this variable.
Here is an example of the last two symbols:

DM_MAILS %DM_PROG%pcmsmail.exe -h "mail-server.com" -f

"PCMS" -file "%%s" -s "%%s" -t "%%s"
DM_MAILS_HTTP %DM_MAILS% -i

DM_EMAIL_AUTOSTART_TIMES
This variable is used to control the automatic startup and running of the dmemail
application. It specifies the scheduled times that dmemail is required to start
processing content.

DM_EMAIL_AUTOSTART_TIMES <spec> <spec> <spec> ........

<spec> : XX:YY | +XX:YY
XX:YY : process e-mails at exactly XX:YY on the local 24 hour
clock. (eg 03:00 will run a 3am local time)
+XX:YY : process e-mails every XX:YY hours/minutes, repeatedly.
(eg. 01:00 will run every hour)

DM_EMAIL_AUTOSTART_DIR
Working files and a log of activity is recorded in this directory when dmpool is
managing the dmemail process. The default is DM_TMP.
DM_EMAIL_MSG_LEVEL

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A severity level indicating the level of event that will generate a record in the log. 0
generates the most information. Higher values restrict the messages to more
severe events. To only see information about serious errors, set this to 4.
DM_EMAIL_TEMPLATE_DIR
This overrides the default location of the e-mail templates, if required. If not
specified, the default is %DM_ROOT%\email_templates (Windows) or $DM_ROOT/
email_templates (UNIX).

The Configuration Parameters

These configuration parameters can be specified in the file email_config.dat or in the
command line. They are case-insensitive, and are specified as keyword=value. A "#"
indicates a comment in this file, and blank lines are allowed.

These keywords and their parameters are described in the sections that follow, grouped
under functional headings.

Database processing
DATABASE
Multiple databases can be processed in sequence, by specifying a keyword
"DATABASE_i" where i is an integer (such as 1,2 3) for each subsequent database to
be processed. In each case, the DATABASE key specifies the usual Dimensions CM
"connection string" for a database, i.e. as you would for DMDB. If the database
requires a password to allow the user id to connect, then this can be set using the
dmpasswd utility documented in the Command-Line Reference Guide.
Example:

DATABASE_1 =intermediate@dim10
DATABASE_2=intermediate@dim10-test
DATABASE_3=db2user/db2passwd:intermediate@dim10-db2-test

HOST
DMUSER

HOST and DMUSER

These are specs for a Dimensions server and user id. This is only required for
Dimensions RM functionality. In general operation, dmemail does not require a
Dimensions server to be running, only the database to be available.

HOST_<i>
DMUSER_<i>

These operate similarly to DATABASE_<i> in the case where multiple databases are to
be processed.

Processing Options
PROCESS_FILES

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 The Configuration Parameters

Y or N
Indicates if dmemail should process the stored "e-mail files" and physically "post"
them to the e-mail system. Setting this to N is very useful in testing to avoid a flood
of unwanted e-mails.
Temporary files are created, used, and then deleted for each email. During a long run
of dmemail, only a handlful of temporary files should exist.

Debugging options
These options should only be changed if requested by Serena Support personnel.

These debug options are probably best specified in the command line. if you have set
debug=y, then the options in effect are printed in the log.

PROCESS_ROWS
Y or N
Indicates if dmemail should generate new "e-mail files" on disk from the event record
rows in the database. Setting this to N means that new events are not processed,
which is helpful if you are working on fixing a problem with existing e-mails.

DELETE_ROWS
Y or N
Indicates if dmemail should delete rows from the database once they have been dealt
with. This is essential in a live operation, or the same e-mail will be regenerated
repeatedly. However, in testing it may be useful to keep the data for a second test.

DELETE_FILES
Y or N
Indicates if dmemail should delete the physical "e-mail files" after posting them. This
is essential in a live operation, or the same e-mail will be generated repeatedly.
However, in testing it may be useful to avoid deleting the body files, so you can
inspect them for testing purposes

LOGGING
Y or N

LOG_FILE
<filename>

DEBUG
Y or N
Add very detailed information to output, including the "symbol table" contents. The
symbol table dump will contain details of all symbols available for expansion in the
template.

Locating E-mail templates

TPL_SEARCH_<i>

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i is a small number starting at 0, and is used to specify a list of locations where e-mail
templates can be found. The reason for allowing a list of locations is so that custom
versions of supplied templates can be stored in a local directory that is searched
ahead of the system directory.

LOCALE_MAP_<i>

LOCALE_DIR_<i>
Where i is a small number, starting at zero. For each value of i, these two symbols
specify a mapping from a "locale name" to a directory name.
The locale name is a string defining the preferred "language" for a particular e-mail
recipient. The resulting directory name is then added to the front of the search list
defined above. This allows certain e-mail templates to be redesigned in a language-
sensitive way, while at the same time allowing the default templates to be used if no
such customizing has been provided.
example:

TPL_SEARCH_0=c:\custom\email_templates
TPL_SEARCH_1=c:\Serena\Dimensions\12.1\email_templates
LOCAL_MAP_0 =GERMAN
LOCAL_DIR_0 =c:\custom\email_templates\german
In this example, a template will be searched for in the following places:

default:c:\custom\email_templates
c:\Serena\Dimensions\12.1\email_templates
German:c:\custom\email_templates\german
c:\custom\email_templates
c:\Serena\Dimensions\12.1\email_templates

Miscellaneous options
MAX_EMAIL_LIST_SIZE
Integer
E-mails are sent using a shell command line, which may have a limited length. If this
(MAX_EMAIL_LIST_SIZE ) is set to a fairly low value (in characters), then when large
distributions are generated, they will be split into multiple e-mails, each with a
smaller list of recipients.

DEFAULT_SUBJECT
Specifies a default subject line that will be used if the template being processed does
not specify one. Most templates will set the subject line, as this allows variables (such
as item names) to be show in the subject itself.

DEFAULT_SUBJECT_MULTIPLE
When multiple e-mails are merged together in a digest structure, this variable
specifies what the default subject will be.

MULTIPLE_TEMPLATE
This names a special template that is a "container" that holds the individual pieces of
a merged (digest) e-mail. It can be customized to achieve certain formatting effects.

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 The Configuration Parameters

The supplied version, called "multiple_notifications.tplt", uses a simple HTML splitter

bar between individual e-mail bodies. Consult this example for further information.

ENVELOPE
This names a special template which is used like an envelope, wrapping up the e-mail
body just prior to posting. The supplied example, "html-envelope-outer.tplt" adds the
necessary HTML syntax to the top and bottom of the e-mail, to make a valid HTML
message. It could be customized to add customer-specific branding to all
Dimensions CM e-mails.

EMAIL_SLEEP
In some configurations, SMTP servers cannot respond quickly enough to a large
number of e-mails, such as may be generated by dmemail. This could, for example,
be the result of an anti-spam policy implemented by the SMTP server. This parameter
specifies a value in seconds which is used as a delay between sending messages. By
default, this figure is set to 30. If you do not have any such spam policy in place, then
it is highly recommended that you lower this to a figure of 1 or 2.

EMAIL_DIRECTORY
E-mails are first created as files, in this directory. If this is not specified, the default at
DM_TMP will be sent.

DIGEST
This controls the way emails are digested.
0 - No digesting for super-fast processing of an email backlog. This directly sends
each row.
1 - (default) The current behavior based on digest flag against user subscription
2 - Forced mode - all messages will be digested, to produce only one email per user
no matter what. This could be used to ease the burden on the mail server in a backlog
situation.

DIGEST_THRESHOLD
This sets the limit for the number of messages to be digested.
Numeric value, default 10000.
If the number of rows to be processed is larger than this, then dmemail refuses to
work unless DIGEST=0 is in effect. This limit can be overridden when large runs are
required.

FILTER_SQL
This specifies a "sql where clause component" that will be used to select rows from
the MAILS2PROCESS table. An administrator can use this to great effect to test out
situations on a live system without sending thousands of mails.
Here are some examples:
dmemail - "filter_sql=obj_uid=12345"
dmemail - "filter_sql=create_date between xxxx and yyyyy"
dmemail - "filter_sql=rel_class = 7"
The full SQL generated is shown in the log when debug=y.

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here is a typical test:

dmemail - process_files=n delete_files=n "filter_sql=obj_uid>12345"

PURGE_ROWS
Y/N
If Y, then rows that are ignored by the filter used above, are purged from the table. If
the FILTER_SQL specified a condition that requested only recent rows, then this would
delete all the older rows.
This works by inverting the condition specified with FILTER_SQL

NO_STOPFILE
Y/N
Specifying this in the config file will allow the command line program to use
scheduling mode, just as if it had been started from the Dimensions pool process. The
syntax is:
dmemail -dmpool
For this to work, the dm.cfg variables that control scheduling need to be setup.

ALLOW_MISSING_SYMBOLS
If this is set to Y, then the email template will expand, even if some variables are not
defined. This is very useful for processing a batch of emails which have a known minor
problem (such as a missing description). In place of the symbol, text will be
generated as in the following example:
Template before expansion:
Request: %DMTEST.
Email after expansion:
Request: [symbol DMTEST is not defined]

Notification Templates
The default e-mail templates can be found in the directory: <DM_ROOT>/
email_templates/

The table below is a list of the template names used for each of the default notifications.

Notification Name Template Name

ADD_ITEM_PROJ_NOTIFICATION ADD_ITEM_PROJ_NOTIFICATION.tplt
CREATE_USER_NOTIFICATION CREATE_USER_NOTIFICATION.tplt
DELEGATED_ITEM_NOTIFICATION DELEGATED_ITEM_NOTIFICATION.tplt
DELEGATED_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION DELEGATED_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION.tplt
DELETE_USER_NOTIFICATION DELETE_USER_NOTIFICATION.tplt
DELIVERY_NOTIFICATION DELIVERY_NOTIFICATION.tplt
DEMOTE_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION PROMOTE_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION.tplt

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Notification Name Template Name

DEMOTE_ITEM_NOTIFICATION PROMOTE_ITEM_NOTIFICATION.tplt
DEMOTE_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION PROMOTE_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION.tplt
DEPLOY_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION DEPLOY_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION.tplt
DEPLOY_ITEM_NOTIFICATION DEPLOY_ITEM_NOTIFICATION.tplt
DEPLOY_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION DEPLOY_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION.tplt
ITEM_LOCK_NOTIFICATION ITEM_LOCK_NOTIFICATION.tplt
ITEM_UNLOCK_NOTIFICATION ITEM_UNLOCK_NOTIFICATION.tplt
MERGE_ITEM_CONFLICT_NOTIFICATION MERGE_ITEM_CONFLICT_NOTIFICATION.tplt
PENDING_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION PENDING_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION.tplt
PENDING_ITEM_NOTIFICATION PENDING_ITEM_NOTIFICATION.tplt
PENDING_PROJECT_NOTIFICATION PENDING_PROJECT_NOTIFICATION.tplt
PENDING_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION PENDING_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION.tplt
PROJECT_LOCK_NOTIFICATION PROJECT_LOCK_NOTIFICATION.tplt
PROJECT_UNLOCK_NOTIFICATION PROJECT_UNLOCK_NOTIFICATION.tplt
PROMOTE_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION PROMOTE_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION.tplt
PROMOTE_ITEM_NOTIFICATION PROMOTE_ITEM_NOTIFICATION.tplt
PROMOTE_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION PROMOTE_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION.tplt
REMOVE_ITEM_PROJ_NOTIFICATION REMOVE_ITEM_PROJ_NOTIFICATION.tplt
REQUEST_CLOSURE_NOTIFICATION REQUEST_CLOSURE_NOTIFICATION.tplt
ROLLBACK_ITEM_NOTIFICATION DEPLOY_ITEM_NOTIFICATION.tplt
UPDATED_ACTION_DESCRIPTION_NOTIFICATION UPDATED_ACTION_DESCRIPTION_NOTIFICATION.tplt
UPDATED_BASELINE_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION UPDATED_BASELINE_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION.tplt
UPDATED_DETAILED_DESCRIPTION_NOTIFICATION UPDATED_DETAILED_DESCRIPTION_NOTIFICATION.tplt
UPDATED_FILENAME_NOTIFICATION UPDATED_FILENAME_NOTIFICATION.tplt
UPDATED_ITEM_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION UPDATED_ITEM_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION.tplt
UPDATED_PROJECT_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION UPDATED_PROJECT_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION.tplt
UPDATED_REQUEST_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION UPDATED_REQUEST_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION.tplt
UPDATED_REQUEST_RELATIONSHIPS_NOTIFICATION UPDATED_REQUEST_RELATIONSHIPS_NOTIFICATION.tplt
UPDATED_REQUIREMENT_NOTIFICATION UPDATED_REQUIREMENT_NOTIFICATION.tplt
UPLOAD_NOTIFICATION UPLOAD_NOTIFICATION.tplt

For each of the following notification templates, the following variables are valid.
NOTE System-defined and user-defined attributes are associated with a particular object
type. You can only use attributes in a notification template that belong to the object type
for which that notification is generated.

Notification Name Variable Name Variable Description

ADD_ITEM_PROJ_NOTIFICATION NOTIFICATION_ID The name of the notification.
CREATE_USER_NOTIFICATION MAIL_REASON The reason for the e-mail.

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Notification Name Variable Name Variable Description

DELEGATED_ITEM_NOTIFICATION CLASS_TYPE The class of the object, e.g.
item.
DELETE_USER_NOTIFICATION OBJECT_SPEC The specification of the object.
MERGE_ITEM_CONFLICT_NOTIFICATION OBJECT_DESCRIPTION The description of the object.
PENDING_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION ATTR_* User-defined attributes.
Note: Attributes like this have
user defined names,
descriptions and values. This
information is delivered to the
template in an array. The first
element of the array is the
description, so this would be,
for example,
ATTR_SOMETHING(0). The
second element of the array is
the actual value of that
attribute for this instance,
which is coded as
ATTR_SOMETHING(1). There
will not be a
ATTR_SOMETHING(2).
PENDING_ITEM_NOTIFICATION ATTRS_* System-defined attributes. See
the Serena Dimensions
Developer's Reference for
more information.
See note above.
PENDING_PROJECT_NOTIFICATION MAILING_USERS The users who are being e-
mailed.
REMOVE_ITEM_PROJ_NOTIFICATION MAILING_DIGEST If these are digested
notifications.
UPDATED_BASELINE_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION PRODUCT The product id.
UPDATED_FILENAME_NOTIFICATION OBJECT_ID The object id.
UPDATED_ITEM_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION USER_COMMENT A user comment, if specified.
UPDATED_PROJECT_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION CURRENT_OWNER The current owner.
CURRENT_USER The current user doing the
operation.
VARIANT The object variant, if
applicable.
REVISION The object's revision, if
applicable.
PREVIOUS_STATUS The object's previous status, if
applicable.
CURRENT_STATUS The object's current status, if
applicable.
ROLE The delegated role, if
applicable.

354 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Notification Templates

Notification Name Variable Name Variable Description

NEW_STATUS The object's new status, if
applicable.
NEXT_STATUS The object's next status, if
applicable.
ORIGINATOR The object's originator, if
applicable.
ACTION_DATE The object's action date, if
applicable.
CREATE_DATE The object's creation date, if
applicable.
UPDATE_DATE The object's update date, if
applicable.
OBJECT_TYPE The object's type name, if
applicable.
ACTION_USER The user actioning the object,
if applicable.
PENDING_USERS The user(s)s who have the
object in their inbox, if
applicable.
STAGE_ID The object's stage ID, if
applicable.
OWNER_SITE The object's owning site, if
applicable.
WEB_URL A HTTP URL for accessing the
object.
MAIL_SUBJECT The mail subject.

DELEGATED_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION NOTIFICATION_ID The name of the notification.

PENDING_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION MAIL_SUBJECT The mail subject.
UPDATED_ACTION_DESCRIPTION_NOTIFICATION MAIL_REASON The reason for the e-mail.
UPDATED_DETAILED_DESCRIPTION_NOTIFICATION CLASS_TYPE The class of the object, e.g.
item.
UPDATED_REQUEST_ATTRIBUTE_NOTIFICATION OBJECT_SPEC The specification of the object.
UPDATED_REQUEST_RELATIONSHIPS_NOTIFICATION OBJECT_DESCRIPTION The description of the object.
UPDATED_REQUIREMENT_NOTIFICATION ATTR_* User-defined attributes.
ATTRS_* System-defined attributes. See
the Serena Dimensions
Developer's Reference for
more information.
MAILING_USERS The users who are being e-
mailed.
MAILING_DIGEST If these are digested
notifications.

Process Modeling User's Guide 355

Appendix C Managing Notification E-Mails

Notification Name Variable Name Variable Description

PRODUCT The product id.
OBJECT_ID The object id.
PREVIOUS_STATUS The object's previous status, if
applicable
CURRENT_STATUS The object's current status, if
applicable.
CURRENT_OWNER The current owner.
CURRENT_USER The current user doing the
operation.
ROLE The delegated role, if
applicable.
NEW_STATUS The object's new status, if
applicable.
NEXT_STATUS The object's next status, if
applicable.
ORIGINATOR The object's originator, if
applicable.
ACTION_DATE The object's action date, if
applicable.
CREATE_DATE The object's creation date, if
applicable.
UPDATE_DATE The object's update date, if
applicable.
OBJECT_TYPE The object's type name, if
applicable.
ACTION_USER The user actioning the object,
if applicable.
PENDING_USERS The user(s)s who have the
object in their inbox, if
applicable.
OWNER_SITE The site owning the object.
DELEGATED_SITE The site delegated the object.
WEB_URL A HTTP URL for accessing the
object.
MAIL_OPTION Mail option being performed, if
applicable.
RELATED_OBJECTSPEC The related object
specification, if applicable.
ITEM_ID The item id if applicable.
RELATED_CLASS The related object class, if
applicable.
RELATE_OPERATION The relate operation being
performed, if applicable.

356 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Notification Templates

Notification Name Variable Name Variable Description

VARIANT The variant of the object, if
applicable.
REVISION The revision of the object, if
applicable.

DEPLOY_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION NOTIFICATION_ID The name of the notification.

DEPLOY_ITEM_NOTIFICATION
MAIL_REASON The reason for the e-mail.
DEPLOY_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION
ROLLBACK_ITEM_NOTIFICATION CLASS_TYPE The class of the object, e.g.
item.
OBJECT_SPEC The specification of the object.
OBJECT_DESCRIPTION The description of the object.
USER_COMMENT The user comment supplied.
PROJECT_SPEC The specification of the
project/stream.
AREA_ID The name of the area deployed
to.
AREA_JOB_STATUS The status of the job.
AREA_JOB_MESSAGE The message from the job.

PROMOTE_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION NOTIFICATION_ID The name of the notification.

PROMOTE_ITEM_NOTIFICATION
MAIL_REASON The reason for the e-mail.
PROMOTE_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION
DEMOTE_BASELINE_NOTIFICATION CLASS_TYPE The class of the object, e.g.
DEMOTE_ITEM_NOTIFICATION item.
DEMOTE_REQUEST_NOTIFICATION
OBJECT_SPEC The specification of the object.
OBJECT_DESCRIPTION The description of the object.
CURRENT_USER The current user doing the
operation.
PREVIOUS_STAGE The stage the object was
promoted from.
NEW_STAGE The stage the object was
promoted to.
USER_COMMENT The user comment supplied.
NEXT_STAGE The next possible stage(s) the
object can be promoted to.
PENDING_USERS The user(s) who have the
object in their inbox, if
applicable.

Process Modeling User's Guide 357

Appendix C Managing Notification E-Mails

Notification Name Variable Name Variable Description

RTM_DATABASE
RTM_PROJECT These variables are
RTM_CLASS only applicable to
users of RM and
RTM_OBJECT_ID cover RM object
details.
RTM_MAIL_REASON
RTM_MAIL_MESSAGE

Please note, not all of the variables specified above will be populated under all
circumstances. Trying to use variables that are not populated under all circumstances will
result in either the variable being given a blank value, or a template error when trying to
process that template. Please see below for more details on how to resolve such issues.

Multi-Value Attributes
The following variables can be used for multi-value attributes:
 ATTR_<name>_VALS for user-defined attribute values
 ATTRS_<name>_VALS for system defined attribute values
 where <name> is the attribute name.

These can be used for single-value or multi-value attributes.

For example:

)IFDEF ATTR_<name>
<P>List of ~(ATTR_<name>(0)). values:<BR>
<UL>
)REP ATTR_<name>_VALS
<LI>~ATTR_<name>_VALS.</LI>
)ENDR
</UL></P>
)ENDIF

If you wish to display a multi-field multi-valued attribute, you would need to display the
grouped multi-value attributes that it consists of.

Administration and Error Handling for E-mails

If you customize your e-mail templates, you must ensure that the changes you have
made contain valid variables and comply to the necessary templating syntax. You can
check this by running dmemail with the debugging symbols set (see "Debugging options"
on page 349) and running the utility in command-line mode after events which fire the
modified e-mail template have been performed. Running in this mode, dmemail will send
output to the console window detailing exactly what it is doing. This will also include any
errors encountered while expanding the templates. If any error is encountered while
trying to process a mail event, then dmemail will skip that event and move on to process
the others This means that if your users are not receiving the e-mails that you would

358 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Administration and Error Handling for E-mails

expect, then you might have introduced errors into the templates that need to be
corrected as described above.
NOTE Please be aware that some mail servers implement anti-spam policies by filtering
out invalid e-mail addresses. When using mail notifications, please ensure that all the e-
mail addresses specified for your users are correct (see User Registration in the
Administration Console). Failure to do so may result in e-mail notifications being blocked
by the mail server.

Process Modeling User's Guide 359

Appendix C Managing Notification E-Mails

360 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Appendix D
Dimensions CM Privileges

In this Appendix

Privilege Overview 362

Privilege Rules 362
Privilege Reference 363

Process Modeling User's Guide 361

Appendix D Dimensions CM Privileges

Privilege Overview
In Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1, all implicit privilege definitions that used to be
encapsulated in role definitions and inboxes have now been made explicit and grantable
to users, roles, or groups based on certain rules. This is to allow the maximum level of
flexibility when allowing certain users to do things. This appendix lists what those
privileges are and what rules can be used to say when those privileges apply. It is
important to note that certain system roles like PRODUCT-MANAGER, CHANGE-MANAGER,
PARTS-CONTROLLER, and WORKSET-MANAGER amongst others, still retain their implicit
abilities, although in some circumstances these abilities can be changed by altering the
default privilege set up.

Privilege Rules
This appendix lists all the privileges that are available in Dimensions CM together with the
available rules for each privilege. Each rule specifies the circumstances under which a
privilege is to be activated for a user. Not all of the rules are available for all of the
privileges.

The procedure for assigning privilege rules in the Administration Console is described in
"Managing Privileges" on page 102.

The complete set of privilege rules is listed below together with their descriptions.

Name Rule ID Description

Explicitly deny to users/ USER_DISABLE The privilege will be explicitly denied for the users/
groups groups listed.
Explicitly grant to users/ USER_ENABLE The privilege will be explicitly granted for those users/
groups groups listed.
Grant to all users ANYUSER The privilege will be granted to everyone.
Object is in the user's inbox or OBJ_PEND The privilege will be granted if the object for which the
the user has current role general grant rule is specified is in the user's inbox or
the user has a role on a state transition from the
object's current state.
Note: When the privilege is action to next state (for
baselines, requests, items, or project/streams) the
"or" in the above rule becomes "and".
User has any role on any ANYROLE_DB The privilege will be granted if the user has any role
product on any product in the base database.
User has any role on any ROLE_STAGE_LIFECYCLE The privilege will be granted if the user holds any role
transition of the whole stage on any transition in the whole Global Stage Lifecycle.
lifecycle
User has any role on the ANYROLE_PART The privilege will be granted if the user has any role
design part owning the object on the design part that owns the object for which the
general grant rule is specified.
User has any role on the initial ROLE_INITIAL_LIFECYCLE The privilege will be granted if the user holds any role
lifecycle state transition on the initial state transition in the lifecycle of the the
object for which the general grant rule is specified.

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 Privilege Reference

Name Rule ID Description

User has any role on the object ROLE_LIFECYCLE The privilege will be granted if the user holds any role
lifecycle on any transition in the whole lifecycle of the the
object for which the general grant rule is specified.
User has any role on the ANYROLE_PRODUCT The privilege will be granted if the user has any role
product owning the object on the product owning the the object for which the
general grant rule is specified.
User has one or more of the ROLES_DB The privilege will be granted if the user holds one of
following roles on any product the listed roles on any product in the base database.
User has one or more of the ROLES_STAGE The privilege will be granted if the user holds one of
following roles on any the listed roles on any transition to the current stage
transition to the current stage in the Global Stage lifecycle.
in the stage lifecycle
User has one or more of the ROLES_PART The privilege will be granted if the user holds one of
following roles on the design the listed roles on the design part owning the the
part object for which the general grant rule is specified.
User has one or more of the ROLES_PRODUCT The privilege will be granted if the user holds one of
following roles on the product the listed roles on the product owning the the object
for which the general grant rule is specified.
User has one or more of the ROLES_NEXT_STAGE The privilege will be granted if the user holds one of
following roles on the the listed roles on the transition from the current
transition from the current stage to the next stage in the Global Stage lifecycle.
stage to the next stage in the
stage lifecycle
User is the originator of the ORIGINATOR_OBJ The privilege will be granted if the current user is the
object originator/creator of the the object for which the
general grant rule is specified.

CAUTION! Default Grant Rules for Update and Deliver Privileges

When you create a new base database or upgrade an existing Dimensions 9 installation,
the default grant rules for the Update Files from Project/Stream and Deliver Files
into Project/Stream privileges include the User holds any role on the product
owning the object rule. As a result, there is a security issue where certain users are
able to download and upload files from any project in the product including those to which
they should not have access. To correct this, you must remove the User holds any role
on the product owning the object rule from the grant rules for the Update Files
from Project/Stream and Deliver Files into Project/Stream privileges.

Privilege Reference
This section describes all of the different privileges, and lists the rules that can apply to
each. For a detailed description of each rule, see "Privilege Rules above".

There are several different types of privileges described:

 "Administration Privileges" on page 364
 "Baseline Level Privileges" on page 367
 "Item Level Privileges" on page 369
 "Design Part Level Privileges" on page 370

Process Modeling User's Guide 363

Appendix D Dimensions CM Privileges

 "Product Level Privileges" on page 371

 "Project/Stream Level Privileges" on page 372
 "Release Level Privileges" on page 373
 "Request Level Privileges" on page 374

Administration privileges apply to all products in the base database. The other, product
level privileges only apply to your currently selected product.

Note About Roll Back Privileges

Access to all roll back operations is controlled through the use of the item roll back
privilege. Although they are displayed through the user interface, the roll back request
and roll back baseline privileges are not used, and will be ignored. Future releases of
Dimensions will provide a single roll back privilege to control access to these operations.

Note About Default Grant Rules for Download Files from Project Privilege
When you create a new base database, the default grant rules for the Update Files from
Project/Stream and Deliver Files into Project/Stream privileges include the "User holds
any role on the product owning the object" rule. As a result, there is a security issue
where certain users are able to download and upload files from any project in the product
including those to which they should not have access. To correct this, you must remove
the "User holds any role on the product owning the object" rule from the grant rules for
"Update Files from Project/Stream" and "Deliver Files into Project/Stream" privileges.

Administration Privileges
Administration privileges apply to all products in the base database.

Name ID Description
Create ADMIN_CREATE_DEPLOY_AREA This privilege allows you to create a
Deployment Areas deployment area.
Create Library ADMIN_CREATE_LIBCACHE_AREA This privilege allows you to create a
Cache Areas library cache area.
Create Products ADMIN_CREATE_PRODUCT This privilege allows you to create
products.
Create Work Areas ADMIN_CREATE_WORK_AREA This privilege allows you to create a
work area.
Delete ADMIN_DELETE_DEPLOY_AREA This privilege allows you to delete a
Deployment Areas deployment area.
Delete Library ADMIN_DELETE_LIBCACHE_AREA This privilege allows you to delete a
Cache Areas library cache area.
Delete Work Areas ADMIN_DELETE_WORK_AREA This privilege allows you to delete a
work area.
Manage and View ADMIN_OTHER_PENDLIST This privilege allows you to view and
Other Users' Lists manage other users' lists.
Manage Baseline ADMIN_TEMPLATEMAN This privilege allows you to manage
and Release baseline and release template
Templates definitions.

364 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Privilege Reference

Name ID Description
Manage Build ADMIN_BUILDMAN This privilege allows you to manage
Configurations build configurations.
Manage Customer ADMIN_CUSTDEFMAN This privilege allows you to manage
Definitions customer definitions.
Manage Email ADMIN_EMAILNOTIFY_SUBSCRIBE This privilege allows you to manage
Notifications e-mail notifications.
Manage File ADMIN_FORMATMAN This privilege allows you to manage
Format Definitions file formats for items and requests.
Manage Item ADMIN_ITEMRELSMAN This privilege allows you to manage
Relationship item relationships.
Names
Manage Lifecycles ADMIN_LIFECYCLEMAN This privilege allows you to manage
lifecycle definitions.
Manage Mover ADMIN_MOVER_DEPLOY This privilege allows you to manage
Deployment deployments via Serena Mover.
Definitions
Manage Network ADMIN_NETWORK This privilege allows you to manage
Definitions the Dimensions network definitions.
Manage Privileges ADMIN_PRIVILEGEMAN This privilege allows you to grant
admin and non-admin privileges.
Manage Public ADMIN_PUBLICQUERIES This privilege allows you to manage
Queries public based queries.
Manage ADMIN_REPL This privilege allows you to manage
Replication Replication configuration definitions,
Configurations run replicator, and also run pdiff
Manage Role ADMIN_ROLEMAN This privilege allows you to manage
Definitions role definitions.
Manage Upload ADMIN_UPLOADMAN This privilege allows you to manage
Rules upload and item/request format
definitions.
Manage User ADMIN_UI_PROFILES This privilege allows you to manage
Interface Profiles user interface profiles.
Manage User ADMIN_REPORTMAN This privilege allows you to manage
Report user report configurations and
Configurations definitions.
Manage Users and ADMIN_USERMAN This privilege allows you to manage
Group Definitions users and groups for a database.
Manage Version ADMIN_BRANCHMAN This privilege allows you to manage
Branch Definitions the version branches in the database.
Publishing ADMIN_PUBLISHPREFS This privilege allows you to publish a
Preferences set of default preferences.
Run Admin ADMIN_RUN_REPORT This privilege allows you to run admin
Reports reports and other reports.
Update ADMIN_UPDATE_DEPLOY_AREA This privilege allows you to update
Deployment Area deployment area properties such as
Properties hostname, area owner user and
password.

Process Modeling User's Guide 365

Appendix D Dimensions CM Privileges

Name ID Description
Update Library ADMIN_UPDATE_LIBCACHE_AREA This privilege allows you to update
Cache Area library cache area properties such as
Properties hostname, area owner user and
password.
Update Work Area ADMIN_UPDATE_WORK_AREA This privilege allows you to update
Properties work area properties such as
hostname, area owner user and
password.

366 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Privilege Reference

Baseline Level Privileges

Name ID Description
Action to Any BASELINE_ACTION_ANYSTATE This privilege allows you to action a
State baseline to any state in the lifecycle.
Action to Next BASELINE_ACTION_NEXTSTATE This privilege allows you to action a
State baseline to the next state in the
lifecycle.
Note: When the rule is Object is in
the user's inbox or the user has
current role (OBJ_PEND) the "or" in
this rule becomes "and".
Build from a BASELINE_BUILD This privilege allows you to build
Baseline from a baseline.
Create BASELINE_CREATE This privilege allows you to create
baselines.
Create Archive BASELINE_CREATE_ARCHIVE This privilege allows you to create
an archive (ART) within the product.
Delete BASELINE_DELETE This privilege allows you to delete
baselines.
Delete Archive BASELINE_DELETE_ARCHIVE This privilege allows you to delete
an archive (ART) from your product.
Demote to Any BASELINE_DEMOTE_ANYSTAGE This privilege allows you to demote
Stage baselines to the any demotion stage
in the lifecycle
Demote to Next BASELINE_DEMOTE_NEXSTAGE This privilege allows you to demote
Stage baselines to the next demotion
stage in the lifecycle
Deploy to Areas BASELINE_DEPLOY This privilege allows you to deploy
baselines to areas
Promote to Any BASELINE_PROMOTE_ANYSTAGE This privilege allows you to promote
Strage baselines to the any promotion
stage in the lifecycle
Promote to Next BASELINE_PROMOTE_NEXSTAGE This privilege allows you to promote
Strage baselines to the next promotion
stage in the lifecycle
Relate Baseline to BASELINE_RELATE_BASELINE This privilege allows you to relate/
Baseline unrelate a baseline to/from another
baseline.
Rename BASELINE_RENAME This privilege allows you to rename
baselines.
Rollback from BASELINE_ROLLBACK Note: This privilege does not have
Areas any effect, and should not be used.
See "Note About Roll Back
Privileges" on page 364.
Transfer Baseline BASELINE_TRANSFER_IN This privilege allows you to transfer
In baselines into a product (ART).
Transfer Baseline BASELINE_TRANSFER_OUT This privilege allows you to transfer
Out baselines out from a product (ART).

Process Modeling User's Guide 367

Appendix D Dimensions CM Privileges

Name ID Description
Update BASELINE_UPDATE This privilege allows you to edit
baseline attributes.
Update Files from BASELINE_DOWNLOAD This privilege allows you to update
Baseline files in your work area from a
baseline.

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 Privilege Reference

Item Level Privileges

Name ID Description
Action to Any ITEM_ACTION_ANYSTATE This privilege allows you to action an item to
State any state in the lifecycle.
Action to Next ITEM_ACTION_NEXTSTATE This privilege allows you to action items to
State the next state in the lifecycle.
Note: When the rule is Object is in the
user's inbox or the user has current role
(OBJ_PEND) the "or" in this rule becomes
"and".
Archive ITEM_ARCHIVE This privilege allows you to archive items
and retrieve previously archived items
(ART).
Break Lock ITEM_UNLOCK_OTHER This privilege allows you to unlock an item
previously locked by another user in that
stream.
Browse ITEM_BROWSE This privilege allows you to browse an item
or search its content.
Create ITEM_CREATE This privilege allows you to create items.
Note: If a user has the necessary privilege
to create an item, but they do not hold the
necessary role on the initial lifecycle state,
Dimensions will temporarily grant them that
role, thus enabling the create operation to
complete successfully.
In such a case, a warning message will be
displayed, and when the user actions the
item to the next state the temporary role
will be deleted.
Delegate ITEM_DELEGATE This privilege allows you to delegate items
to users and groups.
Delete ITEM_DELETE This privilege allows you to delete items.
Demote to Any ITEM_DEMOTE_ANYSTAGE This privilege allows you to demote items to
Stage the any demotion stage in the lifecycle
Demote to Next ITEM_DEMOTE_NEXSTAGE This privilege allows you to demote items to
Stage the next demotion stage in the lifecycle
Deploy to Areas ITEM_DEPLOY This privilege allows you to deploy items to
areas
Lock/Unlock ITEM_LOCK This privilege allows you to lock or unlock
items in a stream
Move Item to ITEM_MOVE_PART This privilege allows you to move an item to
Another Design a different design part.
Part
Promote to Any ITEM_PROMOTE_ANYSTAG This privilege allows you to promote items
Strage E to the any promotion stage in the lifecycle
Promote to Next ITEM_PROMOTE_NEXSTAG This privilege allows you to promote items
Strage E to the next promotion stage in the lifecycle
Relate Item to ITEM_RELATE_PART This privilege allows you to relate/unrelate
Design Part items to/from a design part.

Process Modeling User's Guide 369

Appendix D Dimensions CM Privileges

Name ID Description
Relate Item to ITEM_RELATE_ITEM This privilege allows you to relate/unrelate
Item items to/from items.
Rename ITEM_RENAME This privilege allows you to rename item
identifiers.
Revise Item ITEM_UPDATECONTENT This privilege allows you to check out, check
Content in and merge items.
Rollback from ITEM_ROLLBACK This privilege allows you to rollback items
Areas from areas. See "Note About Roll Back
Privileges" on page 364.
Suspend ITEM_SUSPEND This privilege allows you to suspend items.
Update ITEM_UPDATE This privilege allows you to edit the
attributes of an item.

Design Part Level Privileges

Name ID Description
Create PART_CREATE This privilege allows you to create design parts.
Delete PART_DELETE This privilege allows you to delete design parts.
Relate Design Part PART_RELATE_PART This privilege allows you to relate/unrelate a
to Design Part design part to/from another design part.
Rename PART_RENAME This privilege allows you to rename design parts.
Suspend PART_SUSPEND This privilege allows you to suspend design parts.
Update PART_UPDATE This privilege allows you to update the attributes
of the design part and create a new design part
revision (or pcs).

370 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Privilege Reference

Product Level Privileges

Name ID Description
Assign Roles to PRODUCT_ROLE_ASSIGN This privilege allows you to assign roles
Users And to users and groups.
Groups
Delete PRODUCT_DELETE This privilege allows you to delete a
product.
Manage PRODUCT_LIBRARYMAN This privilege allows you to define
Libraries product libraries.
Manage Object PRODUCT_OBJTYPEMAN This privilege allows you to manage the
Types object type definitions and their
attributes in your product.
Manage PRODUCT_PROJECTUPLOADMAN This privilege allows you to manage
Project/Stream project/stream-specific upload
Upload inclusions/exclusions.
Inclusions/
Exclusions
Manage PRODUCT_VALIDSETMAN This privilege allows you to manage
Validsets valid-set definitions and values.
Override PRODUCT_OVERRIDE_PROCESS_ This privilege allows you to override
Process Checks CHECK certain levels of process checks.
Perform Mover PRODUCT_RUN_MOVER_DEPLOY This privilege allows you to perform
Deployments deployments via either Mover or
Dimensions.
Perform PRODUCT_REQUIREMENTMAN This privilege allows you to perform
Requirement requirement related operations.
Related
Operation
Refresh PRODUCT_RUN_REFRESH_INBOX This privilege allows you to refresh the
Inboxes for All ES user in-box of objects belonging to the
Users product via the PEND command.
Rename PRODUCT_RENAME This privilege allows you to rename a
product.
Run Reports PRODUCT_RUN_REPORT This privilege allows you to run reports.
Update PRODUCT_UPDATE This privilege allows you to update the
attributes of the product.
View Other PRODUCT_VIEW_USERS_PRIVS This privilege allows you to view other
Users' users' privileges.
Privileges

Process Modeling User's Guide 371

Appendix D Dimensions CM Privileges

Project/Stream Level Privileges

Name ID Description
Action to Any PROJECT_ACTION_ANYSTATE This privilege allows you to action a
State project/stream to any state in the
lifecycle.
Action to Next PROJECT_ACTION_NEXTSTATE This privilege allows you to action a
State project/stream to the next state in the
lifecycle.
Note: When the rule is Object is in the
user's inbox or the user has current
role (OBJ_PEND) the "or" in this rule
becomes "and".
Add Item PROJECT_ADDFILE This privilege allows you to add item
revisions to revisions to a project.
Project
Assign PROJECT_ASSIGN_DEPL_AREA This privilege allows you to relate/
Deployment Areas unrelate deployment areas to/from a
to Project/Stream project or stream.
Attach Baseline as PROJECT_ATTACH_BASELINE This privilege allows you to attach/
Sub Project detach a sub project baseline to/from a
project.
Attach Project as PROJECT_ATTACH_SUBPROJECT This privilege allows you to attach/
Sub Project detach a sub project to/from a project.
Audit a Project/ PROJECT_AUDIT This privilege allows you to audit a
Stream project or stream via the AUDIT
command.
Build from a PROJECT_BUILD This privilege allows you to build from
Project/Stream a project or stream.
Bypass Locked PROJECT_BYPASSLOCKED This privilege allows you to bypass
Project/Stream locked project/stream constraints.
Change CM Rules PROJECT_EDIT_CMRULES This privilege allows you to change
for Project/ whether or not CM Rules are active for
Stream a projec or streamt
Create PROJECT_CREATE This privilege allows you to create
projects.
Create Directories PROJECT_CREATE_DIR This privilege allows you to create
project/stream directories.
Create Stream PROJECT_STREAM_CREATE This privilege allows you to create
streams.
Delete PROJECT_DELETE This privilege allows you to delete a
project.
Delete Directories PROJECT_DELETE_DIR This privilege allows you to delete
project/stream directories.
Delete Stream PROJECT_STREAM_DELETE This privilege allows you to delete a
stream.
Update Files from PROJECT_DOWNLOAD This privilege allows you to update files
Project/Stream in your work area from a project/
stream.

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 Privilege Reference

Name ID Description
Import Request PROJECT_IMPORT_REQUEST This privilege allows you to import a
into Project request into a project.
Lock PROJECT_LOCK This privilege allows you to lock and
unlock a project or stream.
Populate an Area PROJECT_POPULATE_AREAS This privilege allows you to populate
from a Project/ an area from a project or stream.
Stream
Relate Requests to PROJECT_RELATE_REQUEST This privilege allows you to relate/
Project/Stream unrelate requests to/from a project or
stream.
Remove Item PROJECT_REMOVEFILE This privilege allows you to remove
revisions from item revisions from a project.
Project
Rename PROJECT_RENAME This privilege allows you to rename a
project or stream.
Rename PROJECT_RENAME_DIR This privilege allows you to rename or
Directories move directories.
Rename Item PROJECT_RENAME_FILE This privilege allows you to rename
Filenames project filenames.
Update PROJECT_UPDATE This privilege allows you to update the
attributes of a project or stream.
Deliver Files into PROJECT_UPLOAD This privilege allows you to deliver files
Project/Stream from your work area into a project or
stream.

Release Level Privileges

Name ID Description
Create RELEASE_CREATE This privilege allows you to create a
release.
Delete RELEASE_DELETE This privilege allows you to delete a
release.
Forward to RELEASE_FORWARD_CUSTOMER This privilege allows you to forward or
Customer withdraw releases from customers.

Process Modeling User's Guide 373

Appendix D Dimensions CM Privileges

Request Level Privileges

Name ID Description
Action to Any REQUEST_ACTION_ANYSTATE This privilege allows you to action a
State request to any state in the lifecycle.
Action to Next REQUEST_ACTION_NEXTSTATE This privilege allows you to action
State requests to the next state in the
lifecycle.
Note: When the rule is Object is in the
user's inbox or the user has current role
(OBJ_PEND) the "or" in this rule
becomes "and".
Add Action REQUEST_ADD_ACTION_DESC This privilege allows you to add the
Description action description of a request.
Add/Edit Detailed REQUEST_DETAILDESC This privilege allows you to add/edit the
Description detailed description of a request.
Browse REQUEST_BROWSE This privilege allows you to browse
requests.
Create REQUEST_CREATE This privilege allows you to create
requests.
Note: If a user has the necessary
privilege to create a request, but they
do not hold the necessary role on the
initial lifecycle state, Dimensions will
temporarily grant them that role, thus
enabling the create operation to
complete successfully.
In such a case, a warning message will
be displayed, and when the user actions
the request to the next state the
temporary role will be deleted.
Delegate REQUEST_DELEGATE This privilege allows you to delegate
requests to users and groups.
Delete REQUEST_DELETE This privilege allows you to delete
requests.
Note: This only applies to draft
requests.
Demote to Any REQUEST_DEMOTE_ANYSTAGE This privilege allows you to demote
Stage requests to the any demotion stage in
the lifecycle
Demote to Next REQUEST_DEMOTE_NEXSTAGE This privilege allows you to demote
Stage requests to the next demotion stage in
the lifecycle
Deploy to Areas REQUEST_DEPLOY This privilege allows you to deploy
requests to areas
Edit Action REQUEST_EDIT_ACTION_DESC This privilege allows you to edit the
Description action description of a request.
Move REQUEST_MOVE This privilege allows you to move
requests between the primary and
secondary catalog.

374 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Privilege Reference

Name ID Description
Perform REQUEST_RREPLIC_OPS This privilege allows you to perform
Replication replication specific operations for
Operations requests.
Prime REQUEST_PRIME This privilege allows you to prime
requests.
Promote to Any REQUEST_PROMOTE_ANYSTAGE This privilege allows you to promote
Strage requests to the any promotion stage in
the lifecycle
Promote to Next REQUEST_PROMOTE_NEXSTAGE This privilege allows you to promote
Strage requests to the next promotion stage in
the lifecycle
Relate Request to REQUEST_RELATE_BASELINE This privilege allows you to relate/
Baseline unrelate a request to/from baselines.
Relate Request to REQUEST_RELATE_PART This privilege allows you to relate/
Design Part unrelate a request to/from design parts.
Relate Request to REQUEST_RELATE_ITEM This privilege allows you to relate/
Item unrelate a request to/from items.
Relate Request to REQUEST_RELATE_REQUEST This privilege allows you to relate/
Request unrelate a request to/from other
requests.
Rollback from REQUEST_ROLLBACK Note: This privilege does not have any
Areas effect, and should not be used.
Update REQUEST_UPDATE_ATTACH This privilege allows you to add/remove
Attachments attachments.
Update Request REQUEST_UPDATE This privilege allows you to edit
attributes and add/remove action
descriptions.

Process Modeling User's Guide 375

Appendix D Dimensions CM Privileges

376 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Index
Symbols user interface profiles 112
users 88
*All revisions 328 valid version branch names 247
*All revisions rule 334 administering Dimensions 45, 69
*ALL rule 333, 334 AN+WORK phase 40
*ALL see *All revisions ANALYSIS phase 39
*BUILT rule archive baseline 206
*BUILT, see *Revision built from selected inputs area definitions 250
*FINAL rule area filters
*FINAL, see *Latest edit revision at final state in creating 269
lifecycle areas
adding 255
*HIGHEST rule
ares
*HIGHEST, see *Latest edited revision at the
defining 254
most progressed state
ASCII text file format value 236
*LATEST
assigning
*Latest edit revision 328
attribute to object type 150
*Latest edit revision at final state in lifecycle 328 data formats and MIME types, to item types 243
*Latest edit revision rule 328 lifecycle 153, 154
*Latest edited revision at the most progressed object types to lifecycles 187
state 328 roles 98
*LATEST rule 324, 333 user interface profiles 115
*LATEST, see *latest edit revision valid relationship 162
*MADE OF rule associating
*MADE OF, see revision that makes selected out- lifecycle image 189
puts attribute
*Revision built from selected inputs 328, 329 is sensitive setting 150
*Revision that makes selected outputs 328, 329 attribute update rules
adding 201
creating 201
deleting 203
A editing 202
role sections 33
action description history 144
attributes
Action rule (items) 42
assigned to object types 148
adding assigning to object type 150
areas 254, 255 data types 30
attribute update rules 201 definition 29
data formats 241 editing 152
design part variants 120 multi-field, multi-value 30
design parts 119 multi-value in e-mail templates 358
groups 92, 93 ordering 33
IDM tool instance 274 required value 201
lifecycle 186 role sections 33
object type 139 single-field, multi-value 30
poject stages to preservation policies 234 single-field, single-value 30
preservation rules 233 system-defined 29
prime mapping 165 types 30
products 127 unassigning 152
relationship name 157 user-defined 29
role assignments 98 valid sets 30, 132
roles 96
attributes and rules
template for items and requests 168
copying 141
transition 198, 263
attributes section
upload rules 226

Process Modeling User's Guide 377

Index

object types 149 specified state or most progressed state 327

authentication 196 specified state or next existing state upward 327
authentication point 152 baselines
authentication points 34 attributes 29
auto-registered users 84 checked out item revision 334
definition 26
roles 54
suspended design part 334
B suspended item revision 334
Baseline and Release Templates 205 baselining product 332
content area 211 binary file format value 236
main window 210 build stage
navigation area 211 associating with lifecycle state 196
toolbar 210
baseline item template
rule operation 325 C
baseline item templates 324
baseline request template change management
constraints 337 linking with version management 38
baseline request templates 336 rules 38
baseline template 324 change management rules 170
*All revisions 328 Change Manager 60
*ALL rule 334 checking out item revision
*FINAL 333 baseline exclusion 334
*HIGHEST 333 class
*Latest edit revision 328 file 236
*Latest edit revision at final state in lifecycle 328 CLOSED phase 40
*Latest edited revision at the most progressed Closure rule (items) 42
state 328 CM phases
*LATEST rule 324 viewing permitted operations 174
*Revision built from selected inputs 328, 329 CM rules
*Revision that makes selected outputs 328, 329 defining 195
classes of rules 324 editing 173
code 325 CM rules section
copying 217, 218 items 171
creating 217 object type definitions 171
cross-product baseline 332 requests 172
cross-product use 332
code
default rule 324, 329
lifecycle states 335
defined 206
see also baseline template code
deleting 219
compression for library files 143
examples of rules 334
implicit-state 328, 329 contacting technical support 17
item selection criteria 207, 208 content area
LFS 333 Baseline and Release Templates main window 211
lifecycle state 325 baseline template 212
rule operation 327 File Formats and MIME Types main widow 240
baseline template rule lifecycle images 185
*ALL 333 lifecycles main window 184
*All revisions 334 Object Types main window 138
*BUILT 333 release template 214
*LATEST 333 conventions, typographical 16
*MADE OF 333 copying
latest From state 326 attributes and rules 141
most progressed state above specified state or baseline template 217, 218
specified state 326 object type 140
specified build stage and all next existing build preservation policies 232
stages upward 324 products 128
specified build stage only 324 release template 217, 218
specified state only 327 roles 96

378 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Index

valid sets 132 products 127

CREATE phase 39 role assignments 98
creating roles 96
area filters 269 selection criteria for area filters 269
attribute rule 201 selection criteria for baselines and releases 220
baseline template 217 valid sets 131
data formats 241 valid version branch names 247
IDM tool instance 274 delegating roles 57
new product 127 deleting
assigning registered Dimensions users to attribute rule 203
roles 127 baseline template 219
prime mapping 165 data formats 242
relationship name 157 design parts 123
release template 217 item type group 219
requests 144 lifecycle 187
template for items and requests 168 lifecycle image 190
transition 198, 263 lifecycle image, global 262
Creation rule (items) 41 lifecycle relationship 182, 188
cross-product baseline 332 lifecycle state 195, 260
object type 140
customers
preservation policies 232
definition 27
preservation rules 233
prime mapping 166
products 128
D project stages for preservation policies 234
relationship name 158
data format release template 219
assigning item types 243 roles 96
creating 241 template for item or request 169
default file class 236 transitions 200, 264
deleting 242 valid sets 132
editing 242 valid version branch names 248
filtering in main window 241 deployment stage
unassigning item types 243 associating with lifecycle state 196
data format value design baseline 206
ASCII text 236
design part structure 22, 118
data formats design part variants
specifying for the Dimensions desktop client 236
definition 23
default IDM tool roles 55
setting 273
design parts
default item library attributes 29
defining 178 defining 119
default lifecycle image 189 definition 22
default rule for baseline template 329 deleting 123
default template editing 121
setting 168 moving 122
defining PCS 122
areas 254 relationships 23
CM rules 195 relationships with items 35
data formats and MIME types 241 roles on common ancestor 55
default item library 178 suspended 334
design part variants 120 suspending 123
design parts 119 suspending baseline 334
item library 179 union of roles 55
item library for specific item type usage relationships 121
all operating systems 177 variant,defining 120
libraries held on UNIX systems 176 Dimensions
libraries held on Windows 2000/NT sys- product components 15
tems 176 Dimensions Administration Console
ownership 177 about 70

Process Modeling User's Guide 379

Index

logging in 70 F
Dimensions CM
documentation set 16 file class 236
Dimensions object class values 236
object definitions 135 file format class 237
Dimensions roles 60 file format value
Dimensions upload rules 224 binary 236
directory path Macintosh 236
item library 176 Windows 2000/NT 237
DM_ORDER_ATTR_RULES_BY_ROLE 33 filter
DM_USE_OLD_CRB 33 lifecycle editor 193, 259
documentation set 16 filtering
dormant users, reactivating 89 data formats in main window 241
role assignments 100
*FINAL 207
E format templates
items 304
edit lifecycle dialog box requests 304
transitions area 198, 262 FROZEN phase 40
editing
assigned lifecycle 155
attribute 152 G
attribute rule 202
CM rules 173 general section
data formats 242 object types 146
design parts 121 global lifecycle image
IDM tool instance 275 deleting 262
lifecycle 191, 257 importing 261
lifecycles 191 global projects 25
object type 147 groups
preservation policies 232 adding 92, 93
preservation rules 233
prime mapping 165
products 128
project/stream options 278
H
relationship name 157
HELD phase 39
roles 96
transitions 199, 264 *HIGHEST 207
user interface profiles 113 host node for item library 175
valid relationship 163
valid sets 132
valid version branch names 248 I
electronic signature 34, 196
email IANA 237
user's address for email notifications 89 IANA media types 237
e-mail notification 58 IDEs
defining rules for 106 upload rules 224
request IDM tool
actioned 144 definition 272
e-mail templates IDM tool instance
multi-value attributes 358 creating 274
EQS, see specified state only editing 275
excluding files from Dimensions 227 setting default 273
exporting implicit-state
template file 170 default rule 329
of baseline template 328
implicit-state title
*All revisions 328
*Latest edit revision 328

380 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Index

*Latest edit revision at final state in lifecycle 328 roles 54

*Latest edited revision at the most progressed rules 41
state 328 template 166
*Revision built from selected inputs 328, 329 templates 304
*Revision that makes selected outputs 328, 329 valid relationships 160
importing
lifecycle image 190
lifecycle image, global 261 L
template file 169
inboxes 58 *Latest edit revision 207
notification 58 *Latest edit revision at final state in lifecycle 207
including files in Dimensions 226 *Latest edited revision at the most progressed
interactive lifecycle model 193, 259 state 207
internet assigned number authority, see IANA latest From state 207, 324, 326, 327, 335
item attribute rules 224 leader capability (roles) 59
item baseline templates 324 LFS 324
item class see also latest From state
values 236 libraries
item data formats 236 UNIX systems 176
item libraries section Windows 2000/NT systems 176
object type definitions 177 z/OS systems 177
item library library file compression 143
about 174 library ownership 177
defining 179 lifecycle assigned to object type
directory path 176 editing 155
host node 175 lifecycle image
protection 176 associating 189
supported locations 175 deleting 190
item revision importing 190
checking out in content area 185
baseline exclusion 334 setting default 189
suspended 334 lifecycle relationship
item rules deleting 182, 188
Action 42 lifecycle section
Closure 42 object types 153
Creation 41 lifecycle state
New Revision 41 associating with build stage 196
item type lifecycle state code 335
assigning to data formats and MIME types 243 lifecycles
cross-product baseline 332 adding 186
defining item library assigning 153, 154
all operating systems 177 assigning object types 187
ownership 177 definition 27
UNIX systems 176 deleting 187
Windows 2000/NT systems 176 deleting a normal state 195, 260
options 142 editing 191
unassigning from data formats 243 editing properties 188
item type group 219 editor 191, 257
defined 209 final state 325
deleting 219 first state 325
item types image, viewing 189
revision values option 33 interactive model 193, 259
items main window 183
attributes 29 modifying 182
CM rules section 171 non-pending roles 58
definition 24 normal 27
relationships with design parts 35 off-normal 27
relationships with other items 35 optional roles 58
relationships with requests 37 pending roles 58

Process Modeling User's Guide 381

Index

relating object types 187 Object Types main window 137

roles 27 New Revision rule (items) 41
roles sections 33 normal lifecycles 27
rules for items 41 baseline template use 325
rules for requests 39 cross-product baseline compatibility 332
single-state 28
states 27
transitions 27
unassigning object types 188
O
unrelating object types 188
object class
updating 182
filter in lifecycles navigation area 183
selection in object types navigation area 137
object definitions by specified Dimensions object
M class 135
defining item library for specific item type
Macintosh file format value 236
all operating systems 177
*MADE OF 207
libraries held on UNIX systems 176
mail notification rules
libraries held on Windows 2000/NT 176
about 106
ownership 177
main window 107
subscribing groups to 109 object types
subscribing users to 108 adding 139
assigning attribute 150
main window
assigning lifecycle 153, 154
Baseline and Release Templates 210
assigning to lifecycles 187
lifecycles 183
attributes 148
object types 137
copying 140
maximum status attribute 158
deleting 140
menu area editing 147
edit lifecycle 192, 258 main window 137
MIME type 237 relating 34
application 237 relating to lifecycles 187
audio 237 unassigning attribute 152
image 237 unassigning from lifecycles 188
message 237 unrelating to lifecycles 188
model 237 OFF NORM phase 40
multipart 237
off-normal lifecycles 27
specifying for the Dimensions web client 236
options
text 237
item types 142
video 237
project types 144
minimum status attribute 158
request type 143
miscellaneous database options 271
ordering of attributes 33
modifying
Originator 60
lifecycle 182
most progressed state above specified state or
specified state 207, 324, 327, 335
moving design parts 122
P
MPS, see most progressed state above specified parallel checkout
state or specified state allowing 145
multi-field, multi-value attributes 30 password
multipurpose internet mail extension, see MIME setting for user 89
type phases for requests 39
AN+WORK 40
ANALYSIS 39
N CLOSED 40
CREATE 39
navigation area FROZEN 40
Baseline and Release Templates main window 211 HELD 39
File Formats and MIME Types main widow 240 OFF NORM 40
lifecycles main window 183 REJECTED 40

382 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Index

WORK 39 R
platform support 17
preservation policies reactivating dormant users 89
adding project stages 234 REJECTED phase 40
copying 232 relating
deleting 232 object types to lifecycles 187
deleting project stages 234 relationship names 155
editing 232 creating 157
preservation rules deleting 158
adding 233 editing 157
deleting 233 relationship names section
editing 233 item types 155
primary capability (roles) 59 request types 156
prime mappings relationships 34
creating 165 Affected By (item/request) 37
deleting 166 breakdown 23
editing 165 Created From (item/item) 36
request 164 Dependent (request/request) 36
prime mappings section In Response To (item/request) 37
object type definitions 164 Information (item/request) 37
printing manuals 17 Information (request/request) 36
process model item/design part 35
attributes 29 item/item 35
change management rules 38 item/request 37
components 22 Made Into (item/item) 35
cross-product baseline 332 Made Of (item/item) 35
design parts 22 Owned (item/design part) 35
lifecycles 27 usage 23
objects 24 Used (item/design part) 35
privilege rules 28 release baseline 206
relationships 34 release configuration 339
Product Manager 60 release template
products copying 217, 218
copying 128 creating 217
defining 127 defined 209
deleting 128 deleting 219
editing 128 selection criteria 209
project setting up 338
management perspective 22 subdirectory 209
technical perspective 22 releases
project directories 25 definition 26
Project Manager 60 renaming
project root directories 26 state 196, 261
project type request baseline template
options 144 constraints 337
project/stream options request baseline templates 336
definition 277 request phases
editing 278 AN+WORK 40
projects CLOSED 40
and parallel development 25 FROZEN 40
definition 25 OFF NORM 40
directories 25 REJECTED 40
global 25 WORK 39
root directories 26 request type
properties options 143
lifecycle editing 188 requests
protection attribute history 144
item library 176 attributes 29
proxy users 84 CM rules section 172

Process Modeling User's Guide 383

Index

definition 25 scripting interface

parent-child requests 40 API, Web-based Help 16, 294
phases 39 class summary 291
relationships with items 37 collection interface summary 293
rules 39 collection operations 294
template 166 Dimensions components
templates 304 Attribute Blocks 280
valid relationships 161 Attribute Definitions 280
required attribute 201 Base Database 281
*Revision that makes selected outputs 207 Baseline Template 281
revision values option, copying between item Baseline Template Rule 281
types 33 Build Areas 281
role assignments Build Projects 281
filter 100 Build Stages 281
for related requests 146
File Formats and MIME Types 281
role capabilities 94
Item and Baseline Replication Configura-
role sections 33
tions 282
role-based visibility of objects 110
Item To Item Relationship Type 282
roles 28
Item Type CM Rules 282
and role sections 33
Item Type Group 282
assigning 98
capabilties 59 Item/request Browse Templates 282
Change Manager 60 Lifecycle and Browse Template Assign-
copying 96 ments at Design Part Level 282
defining 96 Lifecycle Definitions 282
delegation 57 Lifecycle Image Revision 282
deleting 96 Lifecycle State Transitions 283
editing 96 Object Type Definitions 283
leader capability 59 Priming Relationship 283
non-pending 58 Product Definitions 283
on design part variants 55
Projects 284
on items and baselines 54
Relationship Names 284
on lifecycles 27
optional 58 Release Template 284
Originator 60 Release Template Rule 284
pending 58 request Relationship Type 281
predefined 60 request Type CM Rules 281
primary capability 59 Role Definitions and Assignments 284
Product Manager 60 User Report Definitions 284
Project Manager 60 User Report Files 285
secondary capability 59 Valid CM Relationship Type 285
Workset Manager 60 Valid Sets 285
rule operation Version Branches 285
for baseline item template 325 example scripts 295
rules 38 interface summary 289
baseline template introduction 280
examples 334 object model, using 288
change management 170 shell
items 41 examples 287
parent-child requests 40 predefined properties 287
request phases 39
syntax 285
requests 39
using 285
supported operations 280
supported platforms 280
S secondary capability (roles) 59
selection criteria
saving
defining for area filters 269
action description history 144
defining for baselines and releases 220
request attribute history 144
item baseline template 207, 208

384 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Index

release template 209 system-defined attributes 29

sensitive system-defined variables
attributes 34 request templates 308
lifecycle state 196
states 34
sensitive attribute 150 T
setting up
baseline template 324, 342 technical support
release template 338 contacting 17
signature 34 template file
signature, electronic 196 exporting 170
single-field, multi-value attributes 30 importing 169
single-field, single-value attributes 30 templates
single-state lifecycles 28 creating 168
SMP 207 default, set as 168
SMP, see specified state or most progressed deleting 169
state items 166, 304
requests 166, 304
specified build stage and all next existing build
templates section, object type definitions 167
stages upward 324
specified build stage only 324 third party integrations support 17
specified state only 207, 208, 327, 335 toolbar
attribute rules 200
item baseline template 324
Baseline and Release Templates main window 210
request baseline template 336
lifecycle editor 193, 258
specified state only code 327
lifecycles main window 183, 184
specified state or most progressed state 207, Object Types main window 137
324, 327, 335 transitions area, edit lifecycle dialog box 198,
specified state or most progressed state code 263
327 transition
specified state or next existing state upward adding 198, 263
207, 208, 327, 335 creating 198, 263
item baseline template 324 deleting 200, 264
request baseline template 336 editing 199, 264
specified state or next existing state upward code transitions area, edit lifecycle dialog box 198,
327 262
specifying 219 typographical conventions 16
different lifecycle id for an object type 182, 188
state
deleting 195, 260 U
renaming 196, 261
Status Area 80 unassigning
subdirectory attribute from object type 152
release 209 item types from data formats 243
subscribing to notification rules object types from lifecycles 188
groups 109 UNIX system libraries 176
users 108 unrelating
SUP, see specified state or next existing state up- object types to lifecycles 188
wards updating
supported platforms and third-party integrations lifecycle 182
17 upload rules
supporting refactoring changes when creating re- adding exclusions to 227
vised baselines 33 adding inclusions to 226
suspended design part 334 definition 224
suspended item revision 334 usage relationship between design parts 121
suspending user interface profiles
design part baseline 334 about 110
design parts 123 adding 112
item revision baseline 334 assigning 115
editing 113

Process Modeling User's Guide 385

Index

main window 111

user-defined attributes 29
user-defined variables
request templates 314
users
registering 88

V
valid relationship 158
assigning 162
editing 163
maximum status attribute 158
minimum status attribute 158
valid relationships section
items 160
requests 161
valid sets
associating with attributes 132
copying 132
defining 131
definition 30
deleting 132
editing 132
variables
multi-valued 309
single-valued 308
version branch names 245
defining 247
definition 246
deleting 248
editing 248
viewing
CM phase usage 174
lifecycle image 189

W
Windows 2000/NT file format value 237
Windows 2000/NT system libraries 176
work packages 25
WORK phase 39
Workset Manager 60

Z
z/OS system libraries 177

386 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1