Category ' Hints & Tips ' - Page 17 of 20

20th February 20174th February 2019

Add a Document Attribute to Items

It is often helpful to be able to store document(s) inside items in a Cradle database.

This is easy to set up. You simply add one or more new document ‘frame’ attribute(s) to the type of item in which you want to store documents, such as your test cases, or your System Breakdown Structure (SBS). To do this:

1. Start WorkBench and login to your database as a user with PROJECT privilege so you can change the schema
2. Select ‘Project Setup’ from the ‘Project’ tab to open the schema
3. With ‘Options’ set to ‘Item Definitions’, select the ‘Item’ type (this is the default)
4. Select the item type and select ‘Frames…’
5. Select ‘New…’ and enter the name of the new image attribute, such as: document
6. Set the new attribute’s frame type to be WORD (DOCX) or OO WRITER that are provided with all Cradle systems. With no frame type, the frame stores plain text.
7. Select ‘OK’ to close the schema

Now any/all items of your chosen item type can have a document frame that can contain a Word document (for WORD (DOCX) frames) or a LibreOffice/Open Office document (for OO WRITER frames). The entire document is embedded inside the item’s attribute.

When you view the attribute, it will appear as <DATA>. If you select View or Edit for this attribute, then it will open in Word or Writer. If you chose Edit, then any changes that you made to the document will be saved back into the database.

You can capture tables or images or ranges of text from external Word documents into the attribute using Document Loader. You can include these Word documents in reports and in documents published by Document Publisher. If you edit the document, then the change history will store the documents from before and after each edit.

Article Updated 04/02/2019 – Increased image size to make it readable

20th February 201730th January 2019

Opening an External URL reference from a Form

Referenced Information

Sometimes you need to reference an external resource from an item. These external references can be easily achieved by adding a URL frame to a Cradle item type. Each instance of that item type can then hold a reference to an external resource. The URL can then be opened to view it from the link element in the form.

Creating a URL Frame

While the ability to reference external resources via URL in a form is useful, you must first assign the HTML frame type to your Item Type(s).

It is very easy to do this, simply open Project Setup > Go to Item Types > Select your desired Item Type and click “Frames”. From here, create a new frame and then from the Type drop down select “HTML”.

Screenshot showing how to assign a frame — Assigning a Frame

We hope you find this useful! For information on other useful frame types see this cradle help article.

Article Updated 30/01/2019 – Added extra information

19th February 201722nd October 2018

Login Messages and User Acknowledgement

You can add your own messages into the Cradle Login dialog to communicate important information to your Cradle users.

You can also add a checkbox to the Login dialog that users must select before they can login. This includes users who use Single-Sign-On (SSO) to login to Cradle.

This checkbox can be used to, for example, ensure that users have acknowledged that they understand their security and confidentiality obligations every time that they login to Cradle.

Article Updated 22/10/2018 – Made image slightly bigger

18th February 201711th May 2017

Avoid Problems Opening Source Documents and Statements

You can capture information from Word documents into items in a Cradle database. The items are linked to the ‘source statements’ inside the document. You can follow a link from the item to the paragraph, table, or table row or cell that is the origin of the requirement. When you do this, Word will open to show the source document, correctly positioned to show the source statement.

If you see an error about a command, such as EditGoTo not being available as the document is read-only, then you need to clear the ‘open e-mail attachments read-only’ setting in Word, as shown in the figure.

We hope that this helps!

17th February 201716th December 2022

Single User to Enterprise Conversion

Project Grown?

Has your project grown? Is it too big for a single user? Do you need to work in an enterprise environment?

When you first start with a project you may just need one person working away at the initial Requirements (single-user environment). However, when more stakeholders, designers, reviewers and managers join (an enterprise environment) the installation needs to grow.

The good news is that in Cradle this is simply a reconfiguration of your Cradle licence for an Enterprise version and then you can all carry on with the same project.

16th February 201716th May 2017

Linux or Windows

Spot the difference

Cradle is supported on whichever platform your business uses. Cradle WorkBench will run on Linux/Windows Cradle Database Server (CDS) is equally at home on a Linux or Windows box. Of course Web Access is available wherever you browser runs. As you can see from the screenshots there is no need for users to learn a new UI between versions.

Screenshots in Linux and Windows — Windows or Linux

Convert Later?

Yes absolutely you can convert between versions. That’s great news for your IT department, if they decide to change the server machine they’ll need to port the data across to the new installation and then chat to salesdetails@threesl.com to obtain a new licence.

Continue reading “Linux or Windows”

16th February 20175th December 2018

Linked Items in a Form

Seeing other linked items

When you want to see the other items that are linked to the current item in a Cradle display, you can do so by showing the linked items in a Form. This is an effective way to get a comprehensive overview of the interconnections in a formatted and repeatable way.

Linked items shown in a form — Items that are linked to the current item

You can find more information on setting up a form to display this links in this Cradle help article.

Alternatives

You can see items that are linked to the subject item in a number of different ways including:

Configure a View to show a linked items column
Use the right click context menu and select Show Linked Items
Double click the item in a Table View to expand extra rows
Follow the [+] expansions in a tree view

The View method is as repeatable as setting in a form, the other methods are transient.

Article updated 05/12/2018 – Added link to Cradle help

15th February 201731st January 2019

Make a Hierarchy Diagram (HID)

What is a Hierarchy Diagram (HID)?

A Hierarchy Diagram (HID) is a diagram style that is used to graphically show cross references between items. A HID is a tree that starts with the item of interest (source item) and shows the items that are linked to it by cross references. Each of these items’ cross references can be shown with their cross referenced items.

What’s linked to what?

Generate a HID (Hierarchy Diagram) in Cradle for a clear graphical representation of how your items interconnect. Simple to see what depends on what at many levels.

Hierarchy Diagram Options and Information

When a HID is opened, the Control sidebar is refreshed to show the following tabs:

Starmap – Is a highly zoomed view of the diagram.

From Item – Shows details of the from item.

Hierarchy – Ability to define a hierarchy and set the links to follow for each item type.

Diagram Summary Information – Shows the number of items, cross references, levels and symbols in the current HID.

If you would like more information on Hierarchy Diagrams and how you can use them, you may find this Cradle help article useful.

Article Updtaed29/01/2019 – Added more information and examples

14th February 201719th July 2018

Shoulds and Shalls

Conformance Checker

Do you need to validate the quality of your Requirements? Using Cradle’s Conformance Checker will help you sort the to sort the “shoulds” from the “shalls”. Validate your items’ text with a set of regular expressions to ensure you have clear statements.

Language Analysis

There are numerous aspects you can search for in the Cradle Conformance Checker.

Stipulations such as Shall and Must
Expectations such as Should
Desires such as Might
Continuations such as As Follows
Exemplifications such as e.g.
Detractions such as Around
Incompletes such as TBD

These can all be altered to suit your language and product / engineering domain. They are written as Regular Expressions (Regexes) through the project setup.

10th February 201727th June 2017

All Linked or Cross Referenced Items?

What’s the difference between “All linked items” and “All cross referenced items”

If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between these link types in a view in Cradle, this should clarify:

Cross references are actual links that have their own properties and can be tailored by the user. They have rules to control their creation, modification and deletion.
Links include Cross References, but also include pseudo associative links. An example would be a Specification that is associated with a Diagram by its identity.
Linked or Cross Referenced