Did you know you can perform basic summary metric calculations without having a metric licence in Cradle?
View Summary Metric
We all run queries to produce lists of data that match certain criteria.
In the example shown it would be possible to run the query to return only water constituents with the Group set to Harmful. Whilst this would produce useful results, it may be more important that other items are showing too, so they can be seen in context. By setting a View Summary MetricOperation of count and Action of = with a Valueof ‘Harmful’ it is possible to see a simple count of the constituents grouped as ‘Harmful’ in the sidebar.
Read our help for more information about simple Summary Metrics.
It’s Friday 30th June and it’s National Cream Tea Day
National Cream Tea Day celebrates a very British tradition of tea and scone. There is a long ‘ranging’ debate as to whether the clotted cream should be spread first then the jam or the jam first followed by cream. This debate has separated Devon and Cornwall for years!
From a design point of view, we offer the following:
If using clotted cream instead of butter, then it can be spread first with a small dollop of jam atop.
If you are using whipped cream then it always has to go on after the jam.
Our Extended Functional Flow Block Diagram (eFFBD) allows the user to choose the Devon or Cornwall route. Flexibility in a system’s functions is a crucial part of modelling. Now if you have that #FridayFeeling – go and enjoy a cream tea.
National Cream Tea day – eFFBD
Feel free to share our post with #NationalCreamTeaDay
It would be a bit silly to have a requirements management tool and not use it to manage your requirements, wouldn’t it? Cradle’s continued development is controlled within Cradle. Changes, testing and feature management are all controlled in a Cradle database. This allows us to track each change from the initial proposal or enhancement request through development and testing through to final documentation and release.
Ongoing Feature Development
This is the basic case of ‘Cradle designed in Cradle’. You can see from this sneaky peek at our 7.3 release a number of features you’ll benefit from in the coming months.
Cradle Development Database
Obviously we have removed customer references, but this simple view shows the ‘Change‘ items that follow a lifecycle through Cradle. The Change has a set of Test Cases written to cover different aspects from usability through to access permissions and of course that it matches the original design requirement.
Change to Test Result HID
During development and testing it is useful to get a quick overview. The hierarchy diagram above shows a simple view tracing from the feature through the Test Case to the Test Result. (GC: Luckily they all show ‘pass’ which is a relief as it is a feature I coded!)
Larger features
Again it is a case of Cradle designed in Cradle. For example Cradle 7.1’s SysML functionality, a separate project was used, as there were more collaborators, and the design team was spread both sides of the Atlantic. The view below shows multiple item types linked together, the «relationships», linked to the symbols, reported for the ‘act’ diagram type.
Multiple Cradle Database Server (CDS) Environments
Cradle supports multiple Cradle database servers, in a single environment, based on the CDS Host Access List. The following file contains a list of the TCP/IP hostnames of the hosts that the CDS will respond to:
Windows – %CRADLEHOME%\admin\cds_hosts
Linux – $CRADLEHOME/admin/cds_hosts
The file is empty by default, which mean a CDS will respond to all hosts.
Two or more Cradle systems may be installed and operate in the same network by ensuring that each CDS has a non-empty Host Access List that defines the lists of hosts that are to be serviced by that CDS. Multiple Cradle systems are consequently achieved by ensuring that the hosts used to run the CDSs appear in the Host Access List of only one CDS.
Multiple CDS on the same network
Clients Connecting to Multiple CDS
Each Cradle client such as WorkBench may be executed on a host which is in the Host Access List of more than one CDS. In this case, WorkBench should be told which CDS it is to connect to, for example by using the command-line option: -cds hostname
Methods of connecting Cradle tools to a CDS
There are several methods of specifying which CDS, when you have multiple Cradle database servers, a client is to use, or alternatively a client can attempt automatic CDS discovery.
-cds command line option
Cradle tools for example the WorkBench client, supports a -cds command line option that takes an argument which is interpreted to be either the hostname or IP address of the machine where the CDS is executing.
-cds hostname
If invoked with this command line option, the WorkBench client does not attempt CDS discovery via broadcast, but instead attempts to link directly to the CDS on the specified machine.
CRADLE_CDS_HOST environment variable
If a -cds command line option has not been specified, the WorkBench client tests for the presence of a CRADLE_CDS_HOST environment variable, and if defined, uses its value as the hostname or IP address of the host executing the CDS.
In this case, WorkBench does not attempt CDS discovery via broadcast, but instead attempts to link directly to the CDS on the specified machine.
Automatic CDS discovery by broadcast
If a CDS host has not been specified through other means (such as via the –cds command-line option, or CRADLE_CDS_HOST environment variable), a Cradle client such as WorkBench will attempt to locate a CDS automatically by broadcasting. If the client can connect to two or more CDSs and is using this method, the client will connect to which ever CDS responds quickest.
For a more in-depth look at environments with multiple Cradle database servers, please refer to our online help.
Annually on June 27 National Sunglasses day commemorates the importance of wearing ultraviolet (UV)-protective eye-wear #NationalSunglassesDay
It is time to stop viewing Requirements Management through rose tinted spectacles.
Rose Tinted Views
If you really believe office tools are up to the job of helping plan and manage your most important developments, you could be looking through rose tinted spectacles.
All too often it is believed that a spreadsheet or word-processor document is sufficient to manage a set of requirements. Only when a project is asked to change a requirement or how they intend to test a feature do things become unstuck.
If a single component is used in a number of places in the project (whether this is a nut or a software module) how easy is it to find all the places that may need attention when the supplier changes the specification?
If something fails, how simple is it to get from the design backwards to the requirement that it was derived from or forwards to the test case that was used to demonstrate it?
Link rules are used in Cradle as a way of defining constraints for cross reference operations within a project. They specify who can manipulate cross references, the link types that can be used, between what types of item, and which items of these types. This guide to getting started with link rules will help first time users understand the concepts.
The level of detail for each link rule can vary as required for your project’s needs. On one hand they can be very simplistic, allowing links of any link type between all item types. On the other hand they can be more detailed and specific, allowing links between different item types, models and individual item identities.
Throughout this blog post, and future posts, we will explore the Link Rule Setup dialog. These posts will cover the different options available and the result this will have on cross references between items in your project.
You will undoubtedly know that Cradle UIs are supplied in a number of different languages. This internationalisation is driven by our customer base and distributors. However, because a language may spoken in many parts of the world we offer localisation of our message catalogues. But did you know that you can also support regionalisation of your catalogue?
fr_CA = Canadian variant likely to be used in Quebec, or Eastern Ontario
But you can get more specific
en_GB_cumb = A variant covering the Cumbrian dialect
Whilst my choice of a Cumbrian dialect regionalisation is unlikely to have a practical use, we do recognise that some terms may be better understood in some areas of the world, than others. These stages could be used to create any language or variant you wish.
Message Catalogue Manager Steps
Open the base language catalogue, in this case en, then Create New Language country gb and region cumb
Alter only the words that differ from the base catalogue in the country / regional variant and save the file
Ensure your environment language or the CRADLE_UI_LANG environment variable is set for the new language
Open up a Cradle tool such as WorkBench and check the word has been replaced
There is also an XLIFF export and import function in the Tools section that allows the new catalogue to be sent for external translations.
Can I set Cradle so that I can receive alerts via email?
To be certain not to miss a modification or change to the project without even having to open Cradle to check, you can have alerts sent by email. This can be especially important when a user is ‘away from base’ or is in a role that doesn’t warrant them logging into Cradle daily.
Setting up alerts to be sent via email
When setting up alerts in project setup you have three choices on how you and users will send/receive user and system alerts:
Cradle message – Alerts are dispatched as Cradle alerts and appear in users’ lists of alerts.
Email or message – Alerts are dispatched as emails (if available) to users, and as Cradle alerts if not.
Both – Each alert is dispatched both as a Cradle alert and an email.
Email dispatch to a user is only possible if the user has an e-mail address in their User Profile.
On Linux emails are dispatched using the contents of the E-mail command attribute that is set in User Preferences
On Windows®, emails are despatched by calling an extended MAPI client. If an extended MAPI client doesn’t exist, e-mails will be despatched using a MAPI compliant e-mail client on the machine where the alert is being generated. If a MAPI compliant mail client doesn’t exist, or cannot be launched, then e-mail despatch will fail.
Follow these three simple steps to set this up
In Project Setup set alert delivery to be either “Email or message” or “Both”
Alert Delivery option on Project Setup
Ensure that users in your project have email addresses set in their User Profile so that Cradle knows where to send the email
Set mail address in Users Profile
Have a valid mail program and account setup on the client machine which is using Cradle.
It’s as simple as that, your users will now receive Cradle alerts via email.
Alerts being received via email
To read more on alerts please refer to this previous post.
All Cradle licences are configured by 3SLSecurity Codes. This new Security Code must be installed on the host running the CDS (Cradle Database Server). It does not need to be installed on any machines were Cradle clients are installed.
Security Codes are in the file:
$CRADLEHOME\.c_config – Linux
%CRADLEHOME%\c_config.dat (usually c:\Program Files\Cradle\c_config.dat) – Windows
WARNING: Please be careful NOT to change any part of this file! If you do, you can easily prevent your Cradle system from working!
The Security Code contains the Cradle system’s serial number that identifies the Cradle system, and provides some basic information about it. The composition of the serial number is:
Composition of Security Code
The serial number contains the system sequence number that is the unique identifier of the Cradle system. The serial number itself may change if, for example, you purchase additional licences to increase the number of simultaneous users that the system will support, but the system sequence number within the serial number will remain unchanged.
To obtain the serial number of your Cradle system (on Linux) at any time, enter the following command: c_serial
Installing Security Codes on Windows
Shut down all Cradle tools and servers
Select Cradle Utilities > New Security Code from the Windows Start menu:
Security Code Configuration Utility
Copy and paste the Security Code into the Security Code Configuration Utility dialog and select Decode
If the decoded details are correct, click Configure to apply the new Security Code
Once this is complete, you should reboot the machine, or (if not possible) restart the Cradle servers
Installing Security Codes on Linux
Shut down all Cradle tools and servers
Run the following command, you can then restart the CDS and CWS servers:
All User Variables in Document Publisher can be used throughout the template. You can use the variables within Headers, Footers,boilerplate text and document titles.
What are Variables?
The Variables store bits of data to be used in tags that allow the use of either a variation of data or static data.
For example the variable $UserName is static will only output the currently Logged in Users Name within the document. The User Name will also be output if the template is being generated through the Phase sidebar in WorkBench.
Some variables can be used to hold items identities in a static list like $IDList or lists of item identities collected from Hierarchy Tables like $ItemList. The lists for $ItemList can change depending on cross references and/or if the template uses parameters.
The variable tags can be used within a Header and/or Footer in conjunction with Microsoft® Word’s own data fields.
In the Word tab, select the Header or Footer option. Then select the Edit Header/Footer option. Once the Header/Footer is open, select the User Variable button and the variable you wish to use.
Several variable tags can be placed to output within the Header/Footer so you get the output required. These tags can also be formatted.
When editing the Header or Footer the View will change to Print View as they don’t show in Draft view.
Using variables in a Word Header.Using variables and Word fields in a Footer.
The final output looks like this:
User Variables in Boilerplate
The variable tags can be placed within any boilerplate text. This allows for changes in data like the date or user publishing the document.
Boilerplate text with User Variables.The User Name and Todays date within the Boilplate text.
User Variables in Title Text
A User Variable or a Paragraph Group tag can be used to set the Document Title. A variable is quicker but does not allow for parameters are used in a field tags.
$TemplateName User Variable
So the output looks like this:
Or you can have the Title only output when you are generating a Formal Document. Use any of the $FormalDoc variables and they are only generated during a Formal Publish. In this example I have used $FormalDocTitle:
Using $FormalDocTitle means the title will output as to the same as the User entered in the Title in the Publish Formal Document UI.
Publish Formal Document User InterfaceDocument Title set by the words entered by a User during a Formal Publish.
