Tag: Web Publisher

The Web Publisher tool (WEBP) allows users to publish sections of their Cradle databases as fully hyperlinked websites.

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Cradle Modules – WEBP

Cradle-WEBP Module

The Cradle WEBP module publishes sections of Cradle databases as fully hyperlinked, standalone, websites that can be viewed independently of Cradle.

Cradle WEBP Module
Cradle Web Publisher WEBP Module

In general, users will access a Cradle database through a Cradle web UI or a  non-web UI such as WorkBench.

There are situations where direct access is not possible, particularly if the users are remote from the database and do not have any external electronic access, of if the data is classified and cannot be sent across a public network, such as the Internet, even if the connections are secured.

In such cases, database information is normally published into one or more documents that are provided to the external users. This works well, except that documents are linear, a sequence of pages, and it is not always easy to explore their contents. This is particularly true for analysis and design models where there are many connections between the models’ components, and also when following cross references between items.

Website Pages

The Web Publisher tool generates a static website containing some or all of the items in a database. This website contains three types of page:

  • A top-level page
  • Pages containing lists of each item type that has been published
  • Individual pages for each item

The pages for individual items contains lists of links to related items of each type, grouped by the type of cross reference.

Diagrams are published as SVG so they can be zoomed, panned and scrolled. All diagram symbols are hyperlinked to lower-level diagrams and to the symbols’ descriptions in specifications and data definitions.

Website Links

So the pages for individual items are connected by hyperlinks in the same way that the database items are connected by cross references.

Users can follow these hyperlinks to explore the information in any way that is convenient to them.

Website Distribution

By being static, the website is fully independent of Cradle. By being read-only, the websites can be distributed on CD or DVD, In effect, the website is a self-contained snapshot of the parts of the database that you have chosen to publish.

Templates/Themes

User-defined criteria specify the item types, and items of these types, to be published from the database. The form and content of the website’s main page can be controlled with a user-defined template. The tables for each item type have user-defined columns and contain any attributes. The pages for items have individual user-defined templates so that the layout and attributes to be published can be controlled.

Collectively these templates are called a theme. Several themes are provided with Web Publisher. You can create your own themes to include your company or project logos and branding.

Items in a Cradle database can contain any number of attributes of a wide variety of types, including URLs. So any item in Cradle can contain URLs that link it to other resources, either on the Internet, or intranet, or data in another environment.

You can include these URL attributes in your templates for the Web Publisher. By doing so, the pages published by the Web Publisher will contain these URLs so that a user browsing the published website can follow the URLs to access the related information, wherever it may be.

Publishing

Websites are published into a user-defined top-level file and a directory containing all other pages. It is easy to link the generated site into a larger set of information, including any site-specific modifications to the hyperlink URLs.

Different baselines, or work-in-progress, can be published to separate websites, for comparison between approved and current activities.

Feature Summary

Feature Summary - WEBP
Feature Summary – WEBP

Please contact 3SL for further information about adding a Cradle WEBP module to your existing system.

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Cradle Modules – Overview

Cradle Modules

Cradle is an integrated requirements management and systems engineering environment with the features, flexibility and scalability for the full lifecycle of today’s complex agile and phase-based projects.

Overview of Cradle Modules
Overview of Cradle Modules

From concept to creation, from Cradle to grave.

Cradle is unique. It provides the tools and features to create and manage all your data, at all stages in your systems development, and at all levels. By managing all the data in one place, only Cradle can provide traceability across the entire lifecycle in one tool. Without Cradle, you have to assemble many products from many vendors, and you will still not have the full traceability that Cradle can provide.

What does Cradle Provide?

Cradle provides full requirements management, analysis, design, architecture and performance modelling, test, risk and interface management and metrics in one product. You can use all of these facilities, or combine Cradle with tools from other vendors. If you have such tools then Cradle will link to them, extending their scope from a part of the system lifecycle to all of it.

Cradle is multi-user, multi-project, distributed, open and extensible. It links to your existing desktop tools to create a tailored environment to suit your process.

Cradle provides built-in issue, risk and interface management. It supports comparative trade studies and analyses. Cradle provides a built-in  configuration management and control system with baselines, version control, change histories and formal change control. It bidirectionally links a WBS and progress reporting to your project planning tool. With these capabilities,  Cradle removes the need for you to try to connect risk, CM or change tracking tools to your systems engineering. Cradle provides everything you need, integrated and ready to use.

Access Control and Authentication

Cradle has customisable, hierarchical, access control facilities and integrates with your authentication, access control and security mechanisms including firewalls, LDAP and SSL. Cradle provides user-definable views of project data, tailored to each stakeholder group. With customisable navigation, review and entry tools and tailored web UIs, Cradle shows each user the data that they want to see, in the way that they want to see it.

Cradle Databases

Projects use user-defined, arbitrarily extensible databases, linked to external files, URL resources and data in external repositories. Each database is configuration controlled, with change histories, baselines, versions and variants, managed by configurable change requests and change tasks.

Cradle Access

Cradle supports off-line and remote access from geographically separate groups. Internet and VPN access is provided, with full support for project and company firewalls and DMZs.

It connects dispersed teams together, with tailorable discussions, alerts and e-mail.

Cradle Modules Overview

Cradle is modular, using floating licences to share resources dynamically across the project. The Cradle modules overview is:

  • Cradle-PDM provides a project infrastructure, from access control and user accounts, through a user-defined schema, phase hierarchy, team hierarchy and access controls to configuration management and open external interfaces.
  • Cradle-REQ provides requirements management from external source documents to baselined, engineered requirements linked to the rest of the system lifecycle. It allows you to define and manage user stories, validations, test cases, and any other types of information for all of your process.
  • Cradle-MET provides user-definable metrics to gather and analyse statistics from project data.
  • Cradle-SYS is a flexible analysis and design modelling environment. It allows any number of models to be built and grouped into model hierarchies in distinct analysis and design domains. Models are fully cross referenced to requirements and all other information. SysML is also supported.
  • Cradle-DASH provides user-definable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) calculated from live project data in user-defined dashboards shown as tables or dials.
  • Cradle-PERF provides performance assessment, budget apportionment and data aggregation facilities for design models at any level in a system development.
  • Cradle-SWE provides code generation and reverse engineering for C, Ada and Pascal, to synchronise design and source code.
  • Cradle-DOC provides user-defined project document generation and a formal document register of project deliverables.
  • Cradle-WEBP provides web publishing of project data to static, hyperlinked, websites for external stakeholders.
  • Cradle-WEBA allows read-only and read-write access to project data through multiple, user-defined, web UIs that are tailored to each stakeholder group. It also provides external access to Cradle items through URLs.
  • Cradle-RISK provides ability to open and edit items of the mapped item type for risks. Also allows you to create and open risk profile graphs.
  • Cradle-TEST provides ability to execute test plans and create/edit test information, e.g. test cases, test results and test runs.

Feature Summary

Feature Summary - Overview
Feature Summary – Overview

Please contact 3SL for further information about adding any of the Cradle modules to your existing system.

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April 2017 Newsletter

Spring is Here

Since our last update spring has sprung. Once you have got used to losing that valuable extra hour sleep, as day light saving kicked in, it’s traditionally time to think out with the old and in with the new.

Consider a spring clean, remove all those stacks of dusty files full of project requirements version 1 to version 9.

Why Are You Keeping Them?

Will you really be able to find what you are looking for without a way of searching? Consider whether you can sensibly access the details of those designs sitting rolled up in mailing tubes. Do you have the means to edit them electronically any more. Does anyone know where the file is kept?

A New Way Forward

Convert projects you want to keep by inputting them into Cradle. Either by loading the documents through Document Loader or scanning old paper copies. Once scanned they could be stored as an image in an appropriate item type, or stored as a file reference within the Cradle item or an external URL within a form.  Now you have a way of searching through your project data, following the links between items and possibly retiring items / standards / tests that are not longer applicable.

Create A Published Copy

For those poor souls with no copy of Cradle that they may need access to, you can publish a copy to your Intranet, or print a full report through Document Publisher (Just don’t be tempted to print it out hard copy as that’ll defeat the object of the spring clean!).

PS: We’re quite happy for those of you in the Southern hemisphere to have an Autumn Tidy instead !

Cradle Around the Globe

Great to see out Brazilian Partner OPENCADD hosting a MBSE event for the Automotive sector. Well done all.

Social Media

Twitter

Anyone looked into the mystery of a @verified  Verified Twitter Twitter account, we’d be interested to hear? We note that there are a mixture of verified and non-verified users amongst our customers. We can assure you that @threesl  Follow us on Twitter, is our genuine account, even if Twitter will take a bit more convincing. If you’re not a Tweeter, on LinkedIn or Facebook, you can reach us on Google if you sign in with Google+ Follow us on Google+

YouTube Learning

Thanks for those who responded last month to requests for new ‘How Tos’ for our Subscribe to our YouTube channel YouTube channel.  If you didn’t get a chance to reply, here’s the link again ’How To’ ideas.

“Faster and Better Performance”

No, it’s not an advert for a new sports car or for the latest 2017 regulation changes that may ‘increase performance’ in F1 races. You can even put your screwdriver and spanners away. These tweaks to Cradle will help ensure it is in tip top condition and you won’t need an oily rag to do them.

1. Check the time between clients and the server. In the ‘Help’ tab, select ‘About WorkBench’ and ‘Resources’. Look for the ‘average roundtrip time’ line. If the CDS is in your local network, it should be <2 msec. If you connect over a VPN, it should be <25 msec. If longer, you may have a network problem.

2. Consider turning off the user preference ‘Refresh items when modifying links’. In the ‘Home’ tab, click ‘Preferences’, then ‘UI Control’.

3. Consider turning off ‘indicate linked items in trees’ in the same group of preferences.

4. Consider enabling caching of top-level items in Project sidebar, reduces time to find top-level items, in UI Control -> Sidebar preferences.

5. Note that when links are created, modified or deleted, the change histories are updated for items at both ends of the link.

6. Changes to links to/from items could raise alerts to be sent as and possibly sent to large numbers of users.

7. Run the cross reference and item integrity checks in the ‘Project’ tab to find and fix any problems. Issues can arise from ‘unvalidated’ imports of data or links.

8. Ensure that message compression and server-side processing are both active. Look in ‘CDS Settings’ in the preferences for any user. Checkboxes may be greyed out (can only be set on the server), but its set/not set value is accurate.

9. Large numbers of unread alerts will slow Cradle down at login and logout. Check options in the ‘Alerts’ section of the schema, from ‘Project Setup’ in the ‘Project’ tab. Use ‘Delete alerts’ in this tab to remove current user’s alerts.

10. Read the performance section in the System Administration manual

Hints of the Month

Here are some links to helpful topics since our last newsletter, they should improve your Cradle experience:

Whether it’s Daylight Saving or Cross border timezones, you can set your preferences within Cradle described in this Set Display Time Zone.

IT department worried about a downloaded copy of Cradle? Worry no more and check out Digital Certificates in Cradle.

If you import data from other sources in CSV or TSV or from Excel, you may have wondered what the difference is between the different import options. What will get overwritten, what will remain? You can read an overview and example in this blog article.

You can read Hints & Tips on New Cradle-7.2 Features in the 3SL Blog.

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Shippable Version of your Project

Read-only Copies of your Project

Want to ship a read-only copy of your project to a Customer or Supplier?

Making project output available as web pages
Web Publisher Output

Use Web Publisher to create a hyper-linked output of your project. This can be copied onto a pen-drive, CD, Intranet and sent to your customer. They don’t have to have Cradle to see your work on the project, just an html browser. Of course we would suggest that they get a copy of Cradle for themselves and then they load the project items and query, publish, alter and necessary, but we know that’s not always practicable.

You can limit what an end user will see by selecting various options. This could be either one item type or All the items types within the project. You can then give the hyper-linked project an owner and select a location of where the files are to be sent.

If you require any more information on Web Publisher then you can find this within our Cradle help. Please click the link.

Article updated 05/12/2018 – Added information about restricting items published