. CM-Consult offers special terms for buying license packs. The offer is valid till April 1, 2013.

Starter license pack – 20% discount
Advanced license pack – 25% discount
Professional license pack – 30% discount
Ultimate License pack - 35% discount

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CM-Consult Company is pleased to announce the release of special license pack "Ultimate" that include licenses for the most popular CM-Consult products (GanttChart for ClearQuest, ProjectTracker, UML2ClearQuest).  Besides, the license pack include one year of advanced technical support that allows you to get consultations of CM-Consult specialists and help in configuring ClearQuest Schema for effective use of GanttChart for ClearQuest and ProjectTracker. License pack also include high-priority modifications for our products made according to your requirements.  

We often face a situation when our clients use non-standard ClearQuest schemas that require adapting GanttChart for ClearQuest and ProjectTracker. License pack allow our clients to get special versions of GanttChart for ClearQuest and ProjectTrackeradapted according to their requirements.
License pack also allow significantly save money since they include the most popular products at a big discount. 

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CM-Consult is now offering one year fixed-term licenses for packages that were previously available with a perpetual license only. Some of CM-Consult product packages are now available with both perpetual and fixed-term licenses. CM-Consult company gathered feedback from its clients and concluded that it would be benefitial for them to have an opportunity to choose between perpetual and fixed-term licenses when purchasing CM-Consult products.

One year fixed-term licenses offer several benefits. Fixed-term licenses:

• Provide a lower introduction cost than perpetual licenses and offer a lower-cost option for projects of a shorter duration.
• Include support and maintenance, so there is no additional maintenance cost.
• May be used to provide a better method to control and allocate cost to individual projects and may allow more flexibility in categories of procurement funds.

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CM-Consult Company is pleased to announce the release of special license packs that include licenses for the most popular CM-Consult products (GanttChart for ClearQuest, ProjectTracker, UML2ClearQuest).  Besides, the license packs include one year of advanced technical support that allows you to get consultations of CM-Consult specialists and help in configuring ClearQuest Schema for effective use of GanttChart for ClearQuest and ProjectTracker. License packs also include high-priority modifications for our products made according to your requirements.   We often face a situation when our clients use non-standard ClearQuest schemas that require adapting GanttChart for ClearQuest and ProjectTracker. License packs allow our clients to get special versions of GanttChart for ClearQuest and ProjectTrackeradapted according to their requirements.
License packs also allow significantly save money since they include the most popular products at a big discount.  You will save from $7817,58 to $44 885 (30%-45%)  depending on the License pack type.
Further, our clients will be able to buy additional license packs and single products at a discount between 10% and 25%.
Available Packs: "Starter","Advanced" and "Professional".

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GanttChart for ClearQuest 1.3 is a plug-in for IBM Rational ClearQuest 7.1 or later version. This plug-in is of interest for everybody who uses IBM Rational ClearQuest and who lacks for project management functionality. The module does not substitute the existing project management tools. It just adds operational slices into IBM Rational. For most users, the functions provided by the plug-in are enough for planning and operation management (see more info).

New features in version 1.3:

1. Ability to demonstrate a workload diagram to the owners basing on the selected diagram or general workload by projects:

• Building the owners workload diagram on basis of the Gantt chart built earlier or data from ClearQuest
• Representing the owners workload diagram in two views: In task view with ability to perform planning; In bar chart vie
• Building the workload diagram by owners
• Distributing change requests into basic (for example, tasks that have planned dates and workload), and auxiliary (for example, defects and enhancement requests that do not have planned dates and workload) by workload
• Splitting the workload diagram into sections by owners
• Automatically synchronizing changes in the Gantt chart and the workload diagram to improve the effectiveness of planning

Read more (screenshots and video) -->

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Contents

1. List of Abbreviations and Terms 

2. Glossary 

3. Introduction 

3.1 Field of Application of This Document 

3.2 Purpose of This Document 

3.3 System Requirements 

4. General Description 

5. Configuration 

5.1 Setting up parameters 

5.2 Export and import of settings 

6. Using the plug-in 

6.1 Building a Gantt chart 

6.2 Opening forms 

6.3 Modifying planned dates 

6.4 Reassigning owners 

6.5 Saving changes 

6.6 Export information 

6.7 Visualization of states 

7. Appendix A 

List of Abbreviations and Terms

Glossary

Introduction

Field of Application of This Document

This Guide is intended for users of ClearQuest.

Purpose of This Document

The document provides users with information on functionality of the GanttChart for ClearQuest application that allows effectively use ClearQuest when planning works and tracking their statuses.

The document covers the following topics:

• Configuring the application
• Using the application

System Requirements

To be able to use the GanttChart for ClearQuest plug-in you must have

• IBM Rational ClearQuest Eclipse Client 7.0.0 or later version.

General Description

GanttChart for ClearQuest is the plug-in for the Eclipse client for ClearQuest that provides the following opportunities:

• Building a Gantt chart on basis of executed queries. It allows building a chart of any necessary view.
• Visualizing change request hierarchy and relations between the requests in the form of a Gantt chart.
• Visualizing task completion rate.
• Visualizing ratio of planned to actual dates.
• Visualizing change requests using different colour schemes depending on the completion rate and ratio of planned to actual dates.
• Splitting a Gantt chart on sections for visualization of composite requests for more convenient analysis and work planning.
• Changing and saving results of updating planned dates of change requests.
• Assigning owners for change requests.
• Opening forms of change requests from a Gantt chart;
• Printing;
• Visualizing State Chart Diagram;
• Exporting to MS Project XML file.

Configuration

Setting up parameters

Configuration includes setting up the parameters of record types for which the Gantt chart will be build. First, you should set up the connection to the DB (see Figure 1. Setting up the connection to the ClearQuest database).

Figure 1. Setting up the connection to the ClearQuest database

To adjust the module settings, in the Window menu, select Preferences. (see Figure 2. Opening the dialog box for adjusting the module settings).

Figure 2. Opening the dialog box for adjusting the module settings

In the Preferences dialog box, on the left, select CMC Plug-ins/GanttChart for ClearQuest. The Preferences dialog box will open. (see Figure 3. Configuring the module (the ALMRequest entity is taken as an example). This dialog box contains the following tabs:

1. Record types - on this tab, you can configure all necessary record types, for which the Gantt chart will be built.
2. Record types hierarchy - on this tab, you can set up all necessary relations between change requests:
   1. Hierarchical relations
   2. Sequential relations
3. Advanced - on this tab, you can adjust additional settings.
4. Custom - on this tab, you can adjust some custom settings to make your work with GanttChart for ClearQuest more convenient.

Figure 3. Configuring the module (the ALMRequest entity is taken as an example)

The Record types tab contains the following settings:

1. Connection - the list of active ClearQuest connections. In this list, you should select the connection to the user's ClearQuest database.
2. Record types - the list of record types that are used in the user's ClearQuest DB. In this list, select the record types that should be used for building the Gantt chart. For every record type, you can set up a number of parameters displayed on the right of the record types list:
   1. Modify action - the action performed by ClearQuest to modify the change request. It is used for saving planned values for the change requests. This is an optional parameter. You need not set it up unless you need to save changes in the Gantt chart.
   2. Assign action - the action performed by ClearQuest to transfer a change request into the Assigned state. It is used if it is necessary to automatically transfer a change request into the Assigned state when an owner is assigned to the request. This is an optional parameter. You need not set it up unless you need to automatically transfer a change request into the Assigned state.
   3. Headline - this field contains a brief description. This is a mandatory parameter.
   4. Owner - this field contains a name of an owner assigned to a change request. This parameter is optional.
   5. Plan start date - this field contains a planned date of starting work in the ClearQuest request. This field is not mandatory for change requests with child requests.
   6. Plan end date - this field contains a planned date of finishing work in the ClearQuest request. This field is not mandatory for change requests with child requests.
   7. Actual start date - this field contains an actual date of starting work in the ClearQuest request. This field is not mandatory for change requests with child requests.
   8. Actual end date - this field contains an actual date of finishing work in the ClearQuest request. This field is not mandatory for change requests with child requests.
   9. Completing percent - this field contains the task completion rate. Its value should fall into the range between 0 and 100. This parameter is optional.

Figure 4. Configuring the hierarchy for the ALMActivity entity

For setting up relations between change requests, you should open the Record types hierarchy tab (see Figure 4. Configuring the hierarchy for the ALMActivity entity). This tab contains the Record types list containing the list of record types that were configured on the Record types tab. For every record type, you can set up a number of relationship parameters:

1. Parameters for hierarchical relations, that are displayed in a Gantt chart as aggregated tasks:
   1. Parent record - a parent change request for the request that is currently being configured.
   2. Child record - a child change request for the request that is currently being configured.
2. Parameters for the sequential relations:
   1. Predecessor record - a change request that goes before the request that is currently being configured.
   2. Successor record - a change request that goes after the request that is currently being configured.

Figure 5. Additional settings

The Advanced tab contains the following settings:

1. Color theme - the color scheme that will be applied to a Gantt chart.
2. Use color events - if this option is selected, all tasks will be highlighted by different colors depending on their states:
   1. Grey - the task has not been planned.
   2. Blue - the task has been planned and the plan end date has not come yet.
   3. Yellow - the task has been planned and is in progress.
   4. Crimson - the task has been planned, but the planned start date is past due.
   5. Red - the task has been planned and the planned finish date is past due.
   6. Green - the task is completed.
3. Split chart by section - if this option is selected, the Gantt chart is divided into sections concerning records of the first level of hierarchy.
4. Use AMWorkActivitySchedule package - if this option is selected, you can use the AMWorkActivitySchedule package.
5. Use users - allows creating lists of owners for using them in the Gantt chart:
   1. Use the record choice list - creates the list of owners that corresponds to the selected record and its Owner field;
   2. Use users record type - creates the list of owners on basis of the Users record type;
   3. Use specified record type - creates the list of owners on basis of the specified type of record Record type and its main field User name, which contains the owner name.
6. Enable change preferences by administrators only - if this option is selected, the settings can be edited only by users with Super user and Security admin privileges.

Figure 6. Custom settings

The Custom tab contains the following elements:

• Auto build queries - allows defining the list of queries. As a result of execution of these queries, a Gantt chart will be automatically built.

To finish the configuration, click Apply.

Export and import of settings

GanttChart for ClearQuest allows exporting and importing settings. You can do it in the Preferences window using the corresponding buttons (see Figure 7. Buttons for exporting and importing settings

).

Figure 7. Buttons for exporting and importing settings

To export settings, perform the following steps:

1. In the Preferences window, click Export.
2. In the dialog box, select the directory and specify the name of the file that will store the imported settings.

To import settings, perform the following steps:

1. In the Preferences window, click Import.
2. In the dialog box, select the file with the settings.
3. To apply the new settings, click Apply.

Using the plug-in

Building a Gantt chart

Since GanttChart for ClearQuest uses requests selected from the ClearQuest, to build a Gantt chart it is necessary to execute a query that will return the list of records (see Figure 8. Configuring the filter of displayed records).

Figure 8. Configuring the filter of displayed records

In the CMC Plug-ins menu, select GanttCart for ClearQuest (see Figure 9. Launching the plug-in). The new tab GanttCart for ClearQuest will open (see Figure 10. Plug-in's tab displayed in ClearQuest).

Figure 9. Launching the plug-in

On the GanttCart for ClearQuest tab, in the Executed queries list, select the executed query and, to build a Gantt chart, click Fill from result (see Figure 10. Plug-in's tab displayed in ClearQuest, Figure 11. Running a query).

Figure 10. Plug-in's tab displayed in ClearQuest

Figure 11. Running a query

As a result of the plug-in installation and configuration, you will get the Gantt chart (see Figure 12. Displaying the Gantt chart).

Figure 12. Displaying the Gantt chart

Opening forms

GanttChart for ClearQuest allows opening forms of change requests directly from a Gantt chart. To open a change request form, click the necessary task in the Gantt chart. The ClearQuest form will open where you can perform all regular operations with the request, i.e. view, modify, change its state, etc.

Figure 13. ClearQuest Form Opened from a Gantt Chart

Modifying planned dates

GanttChart for ClearQuest supports changing planned dates directly from a Gantt chart. To be able to modify planned dates for tasks, you should specify the following parameters:

1. Fields containing planned dates.
2. Modify action for a record.

To modify planned dates for a task on a Gantt chart, you should pull one of the tasks ends by the cursor.

GanttChart for ClearQuest also supports grouped operations for tasks of a Gantt chart.

1. Selecting a group of tasks. You can select multiple tasks by clicking Shift or Ctrl and selecting the necessary tasks. Also, you can select a group of tasks by clicking Ctrl and then, using the right mouse button, selecting an area on a Gantt chart where the necessary tasks are displayed (see Figure 14. Selecting a group of tasks
2. )

Figure 14. Selecting a group of tasks

1. Modifying a group of tasks. To modify a group of tasks, you should modify one of the selected tasks holding the Ctrl button.
2. Modifying connected tasks. To modify connected tasks, you should modify one of the selected tasks holding the Shift button.
3. Aggregated tasks. When you move an aggregated task, its child tasks are also moved, including the aggregated ones.

The plug-in allows evaluating how the new planned dates differ from the previous ones. To do it, right-click a Gantt chart and select Show Planned Dates (see Figure 15. Displaying the shift between old and new planned dates

). In the chart, additional green and red lines appear indicating the shift between old and new planned start dates and planned finish dates correspondingly. If a task has actual dates, these lines will indicate the shift between actual and planned dates of the task.

Figure 15. Displaying the shift between old and new planned dates

Reassigning owners

GanttChart for ClearQuest allows assigning owners for change requests directly from a Gantt chart. To make it possible, it is necessary to apply the following settings for the record type:

1. Owner field.
2. Modify or Assign action.

To assign a new owner or reassign an existing owner, do the following:

1. On a Gantt chart, right-click a task and select Assign owner.
2. The dialog appears (see Figure 16. Selecting an owner
3. ) with the list of available owners. To find a necessary owner in a large list, use the filter field.

Figure 16. Selecting an owner

1. Click OK to save changes, or Cancel to quit without saving.
2. Before you have saved the new settings, you can restore the previous owner by clicking Restore.

Saving changes

To save the results of planning in the Gantt chart, you can use two methods (see Figure 17. Saving changes.):

1. Complete saving of all changes Click (Apply changes). All changes made in the Gantt chart are saved into the ClearQuest change requests.
2. Selective saving. Click (Analyse changes). The dialog box with the list of change requests to be saved and changed fields will open (see Figure 18. Selecting tasks for saving
3. ). In this dialog box, you can select the change requests to be saved. Besides, you can select the following options:
   1. Save plan dates if actual dates exist - if this option is selected, the list of change requests to be saved will be supplemented with the change requests with the actual dates, for which the planned dates were modified;
   2. Update plan dates for summary tasks - if this option is selected, the list of change requests to be saved will be supplemented with the change requests that correspond to the aggregated tasks of the Gantt chart and for which the planned dates and the Modify action are specified in the settings of GanttChart for ClearQuest.

Figure 17. Saving changes.

Figure 18. Selecting tasks for saving

The process of updating the planned dates is logged into the console window of the Eclipse client for ClearQuest (see Figure 19. Log of the planned dates saving process):

Figure 19. Log of the planned dates saving process

Export information

GanttChart for ClearQuest allows you to export the displayed information to the file in MS Project XML. For export, follow these steps:

1. Click "Export";

Figure 20. Exporting data

1. Set the file name that you want to export the information;

Figure 21. Selecting file name

1. Launch MS Project and select "FileaOpen";
2. Choose a file export;

Figure 22. Opening file

1. Select "Append the data to active project"

Figure 23. Import Wizard

1. The new plan to add a display field "Text1" and "Text2", which contain CQID information and the type of record ClearQuest;

Figure 24. Inserting text fields

1. Information on the planned dates stored in the baseline, so to display it on the MS Project Gantt chart to choose the type of View "Tracking Gantt"

Figure 25. View "Tracking Gantt"

Visualization of states

GanttChart for ClearQuest allows you to view a state chart diagram for the selected change request. To do this, follow these steps:

1. At the required change request, right-click and choose "Show state chart"

Figure 26. Openning state chart

1. On the resulting graph displays the states and transitions between states. In parentheses at the transitions is also reflected in the number of transitions executed during the entire lifecycle of the change request.

Figure 27. StateChart Vizualizer

Appendix A

Example of ALM-schema configuration

The following configuration is given for guidance only.

This appendix contains detailed description of configuration and step-by-step instructions for adjusting the ALM-schema:

1. Changes in the schema. Since the ALM-schema does not have all necessary fields for setting planned and actual dates, you should add them using ClearQuest Designer. For the ALMActivity record type it is necessary to add the following fields:
   1. Plan_start - planned start date, type DATE_TIME;
   2. Plan_start - planned end date, type DATE_TIME;
   3. Fact_start - actual start date, type DATE_TIME;
   4. Fact_end - actual end date, type DATE_TIME;
   5. Percent_complete - completion rate, type INT;
   6. PredecessorActivity - predecessor for a task, type REFERENCE_LIST for the record type ALMActivity;
2. Configuring the application
   1. Configuring fields for ALMRequest:

1. Configuring fields for ALMTask:

1. Configuring fields for ALMAcivity:

1. Configuring relations for ALMTask:

1. Configuring relations for ALMRequest:

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Alexey Chernikov,

Alexander Novichkov ,

CM-Consult (www.rational-tools.info) .

Introduction

Introduction to RSA

Developing a Rational Software Architect plug-in

General notion

Installing a plug-in in RSA

ClearQuest JNI

Implementation requirements

Creating and configuring the plug-in

Connecting the plug-in to ClearQuest

Getting the list of ClearQuest databases

Getting the list of schemas located in a ClearQuest database

Getting the list of entities in a ClearQuest database

Getting the list of states and transitions for a ClearQuest entity

Visualizing a state machine in UML

Putting it all together

Conclusion 

Resources 

Introduction

Years of experience with IBM's change management tool – IBM Rational ClearQuest – have brought to light both its good and bad sides. While there is no doubt in the flexibility of the mechanism for creating and editing change management schemas (creating forms, programming states and transitions for change requests), one can notice a drawback in the process of programming the state transition matrix when defining the lifecycle of a change request.

In a simple scenario, a CM Manager first develops the structure of a Change Request and describes its lifecycle in a UML diagram (this is the abstract, descriptive level, see Picture 1). After a cycle of approval, the diagram is sent to a transition matrix programmer (perhaps the Change Management Administrator), who creates a low-level implementation of the process in IBM Rational ClearQuest, based on the UML diagram.

This is an ideal scenario, which isn't as common in practice as it should be. The Change Request lifecycle is often programmed directly into IBM Rational ClearQuest, and the UML model is never created.

Picture 1. The "Defect" change request's lifecycle as a UML diagram

As a rule, the processes used in an organization don't remain frozen – they evolve with time. As a process evolves, the schema of a process (in ClearQuest), and its UML model must both be changed. Both operations are manual. So a CM administrator would have to commit the changes to the model first, then to the ClearQuest schema (or vice versa). Both operations are prone to human error: an important transition could be missed either in the schema, or in the diagram. Unfortunately, this happens all the time in practice. The disparity between the schema and model of a documented process can be as high as 30%. Often a process continues to evolve, but its description gets left behind, and the changes go undocumented.

Picture 2. The state transition matrix in IBM Rational ClearQuest. The sequence of transitions between different states in a change request is defined here. This matrix is a physical, low-level depiction of the process. The screenshot shows the transition matrix for the "Defect" change request.

The solution to this problem lies on the surface: connect a UML modeling tool, like IBM Rational Software Architect, to ClearQuest, and import a Change Request lifecycle into that tool, then output the state transition matrix as a UML diagram.

Such a solution would make the current state of a process readily available as a UML diagram, without the potential for translation errors.

This article describes in detail how to create an RSA plug-in that will perform the outlined actions.

The next logical step in making such a plug-in is providing the opportunity to export a UML diagram describing the lifecycle of a process to a ClearQuest schema, allowing for a fully automated creation process, but that is a topic of a separate article.

Inset: A process can be represented as:

• A UML diagram (the abstract representation);
• A state transition matrix (the physical representation).

Introduction to RSA

Rational Software Architect is a modern integrated development environment based on Eclipse.

Eclipse in turn is an expandable IDE; in fact, its broad capability for expansion is what makes it stand out from most other modern development environments. Eclipse is a Rich Client Platform, which means it has a micro kernel that controls the lifecycle of the application and a host of auxiliary services, which can be accessed when integrating with the environment.

RSA can be thought of as an expanded version of Eclipse, featuring additional development tools, which retains Eclipse's ability for further expansion.

Developing a Rational Software Architect plug-in

The prime instrument for enhancing RSA's functionality is the plug-in. Plug-ins can have any functionality attached to them – anything that can be written in Java can work inside an Eclipse plug-in.

Plug-ins can often be very heavyweight applications, and since the environment consists of a large number of plug-ins, which must all be initialized, it usually takes a long time to launch. For this reason it can be difficult to debug plug-ins in the development environment (especially considering that it can take a long time just to update a plug-in to the latest version – RSA 7.0.0 searches all known update sites for plug-ins, and there's no mechanism to update only a single plug-in). So for testing needs, a special Runtime Workbench is used.

The Runtime Workbench has all the services required for RSA to work properly, but usually only contains a small subset of the plug-ins used in the normal workbench (the exact configuration of plug-ins used in the Runtime Workbench can be found in Window à Preferences à Plug-in development à Target platform).

However, even with the simplifications of the Runtime Workbench, RSA's initialization can still take a rather long time. For more effective testing and debugging, a simpler type of application can be used, which, like the plug-in, has access to RSA's inner services – the Pluglet. It can be launched directly from a working RSA instance, without the need for a Runtime Workbench. Pluglets are a feature available only in RSA, not in Eclipse.

Unfortunately, Pluglets are not fit for some tasks. In Rational Software Architect 7.0.0, a Pluglet containing native calls can't be launched more than once without restarting the environment, which beats the point of using them (it's faster to launch a Runtime Workbench than to restart the environment). This problem arises because a native library can only be loaded in one Java class loader at a time, and on second launch the Pluglet thinks the library it needs is already loaded in another class loader, but it has no access to the loaded library.

In this article we'll emphasize using native libraries to interact with ClearQuest, so we won't look into Pluglets any further.

General notions

Plug-ins can extend the user interface, perform background tasks or provide services to other plug-ins. The specific way a plug-in is connected to the environment can be configured when creating the plug-in.

A plug-in can be built into almost any place in RSA's user interface: different context menus, the Menu Bar, a custom View (that can be created specifically for the plug-in). The conditions under which the plug-in becomes accessible can also be configured – for example, a context menu plug-in might appear only when the context menu is called on files of a certain type.

In this article we'll plug into the Menu Bar, creating our own menu group.

Installing a plug-in in RSA

Like Eclipse, RSA has a unified system for installing plug-ins. Plug-ins are bundled together to form a Feature, and features can be installed directly into RSA from an Update Site.

Update Sites can be accessed from RSA from Help à Software Updates à Find and install…

We'll look into the problem of installing plug-ins in more detail after we've created our own plug-in that integrates with ClearQuest.

Integrating RSA and ClearQuest

There are at least two possible ways to integrate RSA and ClearQuest:

1. By using ClearQuest's COM interface.
2. By using a library of native functions through which ClearQuest itself functions.

In this article we'll examine only the latter. One of ClearQuest's clients is based on Eclipse, and it makes sense to reuse the work already done on integrating ClearQuest and Eclipse.

ClearQuest JNI

Before we begin building our plug-in, we'll need to get a hold of the library that will allow us to call ClearQuest's native functions from Java, through the Java Native Interface. This library is installed along with ClearQuest.

It's contained in a compiled Java archive - cqjni.jar, which can be found in ClearQuest's root directory (in Windows this directory defaults to C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearQuest).

One way to quickly access the classes in that jar is to add the archive to a project's build path, and specify the path to the natives (which is the same folder cqjni.jar is in). For normal applications this method works fine; however, when using it for plug-ins, there can be problems with testing (specifically, it's rather hard to get the native calls to work reliably in the Runtime Workbench), so we'll be using a different method in this article – we'll decompile cqjni.jar, and add the decompiled .java files to our project. Though the process is described below, please note that the source code for this article contains the decompiled classes, so you can skip this section if you wish.

There's a variety of decent java decompilers available on the internet. We'll be using jad – a console-based decompiler which is free for non-commercial use. Most of the other free decompilers (especially ones with only a graphical interface and no console counterpart) can't decompile several files at once, which is a major drawback in our case, because CQJNI consists of a large number of classes.

Jad can be downloaded from http://www.varaneckas.com/jad. After downloading and extracting it from the archive, it should be added to PATH (or you'll have to make sure it's accessible when working with it further).

Next, you'll need to extract all the .class files from the aforementioned cqjni.jar (any archive program that can extract .zip files can extract them from a .jar). From the folder with the extracted .class files, launch the following command in the console to decompile:

jad -d CQJNI -s .java *.class

As a result, the decompiled .java files will be in the CQJNI folder. There will be a few compile-time errors in the files, which we will fix manually after we add them to Eclipse.

Let's start out by creating a project which we will use to fix the classes and then verify that they work. Go to File à New à Other, Java Project, and call the project CQJNITest.

Next, let's import the decompiled classes into the project. From the context menu of the project, select Import, then File System (Picture 3).

Picture 3. Importing resources from the files system to RSA.

In the window that appears, select "Browse…", then find the folder with the decompiled CQJNI classes, and mark it in the import dialogue window. Change the "Into folder" field to "CQJNITest/com/rational/clearquest/cqjni" (Picture 4).

Picture 4. Configuring import parameters for the CQJNI classes

Now, click "Finish", and our project should have a package called "com.rational.clearquest.cqjni" added to it, which should contain the decompiled classes.

Now, let's fix them up so they don't have any compile errors. There should be two classes with errors: CPUCount and CQJNIBaseObj.

In CPUCount, in the only static method, remove everything after "return", and also add throws ClassNotFoundException to the method declaration.

There's another method with errors in CQJNIBaseObj - _mthclass$. It's exactly the same as the method we fixed in CPUCount, so just make the same modifications made to CPUCount, and we're done.

Now let's create a simple test to verify that everything is working correctly:

Developing a plug-in to integrate IBM Rational ClearQuest and Rational Software Architect

Implementation requirements

1. Open an IBM Rational ClearQuest session
2. Import an entity's state transition matrix
3. Visualize the state transition matrix as a UML diagram

Creating and configuring the plug-in

First, let's create our plug-in. Go to File à New à Other, and then select "Plug-in Project" (Picture 5).

Picture 5. The dialogue for creating a new project; select "Plug-in Project".

Picture 6. The window with plug-in templates; we're going to use a template that extends the Menu Bar.

All the other configurations aren't of particular interest to us right now, so from here you can simply click "Finish".

All the information about how the plug-in will embed itself into the environment is located in plugin.xml. Opening this file from RSA will take us to the Overview page of the plug-in (Picture 7).

Picture 7. General information about the plug-in, which is contained in the Overview tab of plugin.xml

If you go to the Extensions tab, you can see an overview of the plug-ins extension points, and the actions assigned to them (Picture 8).

Picture 8. The Extensions tab of plugin.xml. Displays extension points of the plug-in, and the actions performed when interacting with a certain extension point.

From this tab you can change the interface parameters – icons, labels, etc. Everything that can be changed from the graphic representation of the plugin.xml file that RSA shows can also be modified directly in xml, the syntax specification can be found in Eclipse's official reference [3].

В одной из двух закладок – plugin.xml или extensions – поменяем названия меню. У Sample Menu поменяем id на RSACQIntegrationMenu, а label – на RSA-CQ Integration Menu; sampleGroup поменяем на RSACQIntegrationGroup.

Let's change some basic parameters to personalize our plug-in. For Sample Menu, set the id to "RSACQIntegrationMenu", and the label to "RSA-CQ Integration Menu", and finally change sampleGroup to "RSACQIntegrationGroup".

Also, let's make the following changes to Sample Action:

Set the menubarPath field to "RSACQIntegrationMenu/RSACQIntegrationGroup", the toolbarPath field to "RSACQIntegrationMenu", the label field to "Import CQ States", and finally let's enter a Tooltip: "Imports a ClearQuest state transition matrix".

To verify that we've set everything up correctly, let's launch a Runtime Workbench with our plug-in by pressing F11 (if plugin.xml is opened in the Plug-in Development perspective, RSA will automatically decide to launch a Runtime Workbench with the opened plug-in. Otherwise, you'll probably need to set up a Run Configuration for an Eclipse Application).

Picture 9. A custom plug-in embedded into RSA's Menu Bar as a separate menu group with a single menu item.

In the RSA instance that appears, there should be a menu group called "RSA-CQ Integration Menu" that was added because of our plug-in being embedded into the Runtime Workbench, and it should contain a single menu item – "Import CQ States".

If you click that menu item, a dialogue window saying "Hello, Eclipse world" will appear, because that was the default behavior automatically assigned when we created the project, which we haven't changed yet. Our next step will be to configure our plug-in so that the "Import CQ States" button does what we need it to.

Connecting the plug-in to ClearQuest

Close the Runtime Workbench, we won't need it anymore for now. In the main project, open SampleAction.java. It's run() method contains the code responsible for opening the test window we saw earlier. You can delete run()'s contents, we'll be writing the code that connects to ClearQuest here.

To start off, let's add the decompiled CQJNI classes to our plug-in project. You can simply copy the entire package from the test project we created earlier.

Our goal is to get the states and transitions for an entity, and visualize them in UML. To do this, we'll need to:

1. Get the list of ClearQuest databases, choose one
2. Get the list of entities in the selected database, pick an entity
3. Get the list of states and transitions for the selected entity
4. Output the states and transitions as a UML diagram

To accomplish this, we'll need to create methods that provide the appropriate functionality. The source code that comes with the article covers all that functionality, so we'll only look at the main problems without going into too much detail.

Getting the list of ClearQuest databases

First we need to get the list of ClearQuest databases. In Windows, ClearQuest keeps that information in the registry. The exact location depends on ClearQuests version, which can also be retrieved from the registry. In this article we'll assume that the 7^th version of ClearQuest is being used (the code that comes with the article shows how to work with the 6^th version as well). To find out the version, the following console command can be executed:

Getting the list of schemas located in a ClearQuest database

After selecting a database from the list, we can get the list of schemas in that database using CQJNI. We've already tried to perform some simple interactions with ClearQuest, and the beginning in this case will be the same as last time:

Getting the list of entities in a ClearQuest database

Getting the list of entities is similar to getting the list of schemas. The main difference is that now we have to use a normal session with ClearQuest, not an admin session, so the login/password should be the ones used to enter the ClearQuest client. Also, in this case databaseName is the user database.

Getting the list of states and transitions for a ClearQuest entity

Once we have the list of entity names, we can get an Entity from CQ, and then we can get its list of states and transitions:

Visualizing a state machine in UML

Now we need to visualize the entity's imported state machine. We'll be using RSA's UML State Machine for this purpose. The source code provided with the article contains a class that creates a State Machine diagram, so just like with CQJNI, we'll only look into the main problems here.

To work with UML in RSA, we'll first need to define the diagram's structure, and then map that structure to a visual diagram.

For our purposes, we'll need to make a Use Case, then create a State Machine for that Use Case, then create a Region for that State Machine, and then add states and transitions to that Region. When creating a diagram for a State Machine, all the states and transitions added to the Region will be added to the diagram automatically (for most other diagram types, you'd need to explicitly map created UML elements to their diagram with a separate call).

It's best to ensure name uniqueness: otherwise, the editor will give out a warning. In the source code supplied with the article, when attempting to create a state or transition with a non-unique name, instead of creating that state/transition, the existing state/transition is returned.

To be able to create anything, we'll need a UML Model object. The model can be selected from the list of opened models, for example, which you can get by calling UMLModeler.getOpenedModels().

The model can also be opened by name, or you can simply create a new model:

Having a model object, you can create a Use Case in that model:

Note the UMLPackage.eINSTANCE.getUseCase()call – the UML element type being created is specified in this manner. UMLPackage.eINSTANCE contains methods to create most UML elements.

All the other elements we outlined are created similarly. You can look at the exact procedures for creating them in the source code supplied with the article.

To create a diagram for the created UseCase, RSA's UMLDiagramHelper utility class can be used

The final call visualizes the UseCase on the diagram.

Putting it all together

The article is supplied with source code that implements all the functionality discussed here. The ClearQuestIntegration class implements some convenience methods for accessing ClearQuest. CQUMLStateVisualizer can visualize an entity's state transition matrix as a UML diagram. Note that CQUMLStateVisualizer will only be able to create UML diagrams from a plug-in (or from a pluglet, but only once, as mentioned earlier).

To finish creating our plug-in, we need to return to the run() method inside SampleAction. Using the classes from the code supplied with the article, the method should look something like this:

After filling in the plug-ins run() method, we still need to package it so it can be effectively deployed. As mentioned earlier, we'll need to create a Feature and an Update Site for this purpose.

First, let's create a Feature. Go to в File à New à Other, and select "Feature Project" (Picture 10).

Picture 10. Creating a Feature Project.

Click "Next", enter a name for the Feature project ("RSACQImport", for example), and click "Next" again. In the menu that appears, you'll be prompted to choose which plug-ins will be a part of this Feature. In our case there should be only one plug-in: RSACQIntegration (Picture 11).

Picture 11. Selecting which plug-ins will be part of a feature. Our feature should contain the RSACQIntegration plug-in, which we created earlier.

After you've marked it, press "Finish".

Next we'll need an Update Site, which will allow us to install the Feature into RSA. To create an Update site, go to File à New à Other, then select "Update Site Project" (Picture 12).

Picture 12. Creating an Update Site Project.

The only configurable parameter an Update Site has during creation is its name; let's call it "RSACQImportSite".

After creating the project, a panel with the Update Site's properties should be open. The properties are kept in site.xml, and are displayed in RSA in a structured way that makes them easier to modify. To be able to install our plug-in through this Update Site, we need to add the Feature with the plug-in to the Update Site. From the properties panel, select Add Feature (Picture 13).

Picture 13. The Site Map tab of an Update Site. Features can be submitted to an Update Site from this tab, and all the features in the Update Site are listed here.

In the window that appears, select the Feature we created earlier (Picture 14).

Picture 14. Selecting features for an Update Site. We need to add the feature we created earlier, to make it accessible through this Update Site.

Finally, select Build All. Now the Update Site is ready, and we can install our plug-in from it.

To install the plug-in, go to Help à Software Updates à Find and Install, then select Search for new features to install, and click "Next" (Picture 15).

Picture 15. The main window for expanding RSA's plug-in configuration. From this window, you can choose to install new plug-ins, or update the ones already installed.

In the window that appears, select "New Local Site" (since the Update Site we created is currently kept on the local files system), then find the folder containing the Update Site with our plug-in (Picture 16). You can look up the location of the Update Site by selecting "Properties" from the context menu of the Update Site's project (you can copy it from there).

Picture 16. Adding a local Update Site to the list of Update Sites from which RSA can install and update plug-ins.

After you've selected the Update Site's folder, click OK. The Update Site will be added to the list; mark it (also make sure the other Update Sites are not marked, we don't need to install any other plug-ins right now), and click "Finish". A window will appear prompting you to select which plug-ins from the Update Site you wish to install. Right now there should be only one plug-in, which should be selected (Picture 17).

Picture 17. This window allows you to select which Features are to be installed from an Update Site. We need to install the Feature we created earlier, which contains our ClearQuest integration plug-in.

When you click "Next", you'll be taken to another window, which contains the license descriptions for the features being installed. We haven't filled out any license for our Feature, so the description will be empty (Picture 18).

Picture 18. The license agreement window for installing features. We haven't assigned any license to our Feature, so the license description is empty.

Choose to accept the terms of the license agreement, click "Next", and a window that allows you to choose the install destination for features will appear (Picture 19). You don't have to change it, so you can click "Finish" right away.

Picture 19. The plug-in install location configuration window.

Since we haven't signed our feature, a warning window will appear. You can ignore it, and click "Install All" (Picture 20).

Picture 20. A window with a warning about installing an unsigned feature.

After the installation process is complete, RSA will need to be restarted for the changed to take effect. After restarting, there should be a new entry in the Menu Bar – the one with our plug-in.

The code provided with the article imports the "Defect" entity from the SAMPL database (i.e. there's no interface to select another entity). Clicking on the menu item added by the plug-in creates a UML diagram that represents the entity's lifecycle, and opens a tab in RSA that shows the diagram (Picture 21).

Picture 21. ClearQuest's "Defect" entity's state transition matrix visualized as a UML diagram in RSA.

Conclusion

Practice shows that an automated method for creating diagrams of change management processes helps eliminate translation errors. It's especially important that automation saves a significant amount of time for specialists.

Resources

[2] http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/08/0826_makady/index.html

[3] http://help.eclipse.org/stable/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/reference/misc/plugin_manifest.html

[4] http://www.varaneckas.com/jad

• GanttChart for ClearQuest
• UML2ClearQuest

 More info

• 'UML2ClearQuest' Tansform UML diagrams into ClearQuest Designer state matrix
• GanttChart for ClearQuest. Ad hoc planning and operational management
• 'ProjectTracker' for MSP Server 2003 & 2007
• Project Tracker 2.5.1 New Version
• UML2ClearQuest presentation

 More articles

Tags: ALM, Application Lifecycle Management, architect, article, change, change request, chart, clearquest, CM, designer, development, functional, ibm, management, package, process, rational, rsa, software, solutions, state, uml, Add more tags...,

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CM-Consult products intended to provide business continuity are added to the international solutions catalogue IBM Global Solutions Directory . IBM Corporation adds to this directory the most significant solutions that are based on IBM technologies and have been successfully implemented for a number of customers.
GanttChart for ClearQuest is added to the IBM Global Solutions Directory with the ID 41151. GanttChart for ClearQuest is a plug-in for IBM Rational ClearQuest 7.0, 7.1 or later version. This plug-in is of interest for everybody who uses IBM Rational ClearQuest and who lacks for project management functionality. The module does not substitute the existing project management tools. It just adds operational slices into IBM Rational. For most users, the functions provided by the plug-in are enough for planning and operation management.

"Recently our solution ProjectTracker has been added to the  IBM Global Solutions Directory and now the turn of  GanttChart for ClearQuest has come. This solution was developed as a result of an effort of both our specialists and our clients. The idea to create such solution has emerged as a result of close cooperation with our customers and deep understanding of their business problems. In most companies we have cooperated with the planning horizon for tasks and works is measured in months and quarters, but not years. Project managers have often to modify work schedule, update it, establish priorities, and set responsible persons. ClearQuest is a powerful tool that simplifies this process, but it has its limits. In ClearQuest, planning and representation of tasks is performed in flat view, but all managers are used to using the Gantt chart for planning. Unfortunately, the standard ClearQuest package does not provide users with such opportunity. GanttChart for ClearQuest allows managers to save a lot of time while preparing plans of work/tasks and exercising operational control over the project. In absolute terms, a manager spends about 12-16 minutes on rescheduling the average group of connected tasks without using GanttChart. Using GanttChart for ClearQuest, the same operation takes 10-15 seconds. So, using GanttChart for ClearQuest results in increasing the manager’s efficiency and manageability of the whole project. We are greatly pleased to have gained recognition of our contribution from IBM Corporation", Alexander Novichkov , the general director of CM-Consult, sais. 

Tags: activity, ALM, Application Lifecycle Management, change request, chart, clearquest, diagram, gantt, ganttchart, ibm, plan, process, rational, software, solutions, state, Add more tags...,

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Our product  GanttChart for ClearQuest,  are now part of the IBM Global Solutions Directory, an online directory containing applications, tools and services from IBM and IBM business partners.
GanttChart for ClearQuest ID 41151

More info:

• GanttChart for ClearQuest have been published in IBM Global Solutions Directory
• CM-Consult Ltd announced the sale start of the innovative solution GanttChart for ClearQuest.
• GanttChart v 1.0 for ClearQuest. The module of the visualization of the ClearQuest tasks hierarchy a
• Visualization of the Change Request Hierarchy in IBM Rational Using the GanttChart
• GanttChart v 1.0 for ClearQuest video (with audio)
  

Tags: activity, ALM, Application Lifecycle Management, chart, clearquest, CM, diagram, gantt, ganttchart, ibm, rational, Add more tags...,

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CM-Consult Ltd and Rational-Tools project  announced the sale start of the innovative solution GanttChart for ClearQuest. he following special winter discounts are valid through the February 25th, 2010:

• 50% discount for 5 and more licenses purchase. The discount is applicable for all IBM business partners if used for their own projects. (request it on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with the partner status link).

• 25% discount for any number of licenses. Applicable only for the clients purchased ProjectTracker.
• 20% discount for 10+ licenses one-time purchase.

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We (http://www.cmcons.com) constantly implement IBM Rational tools, i.e. we face both features of the tools and their limitations in practice.
Here I will speak about probably the most important tool when it comes to support of change processes - IBM Rational ClearQuest. I will not tell you about the tool itself since there are special materials on this topic. I want only to point out that it controls all changes in a project, or rather all change requests (CR).
In ClearQuest, change requests can be of the following types:

    * Enhancement request – New requirements from a client.
    * Defect – Documented defect.
    * Task – Planned task, task for defect correction or task for enhancement request implementation.

See youtube video

Tags: activity, ALM, Application Lifecycle Management, article, change, change request, chart, clearquest, CM, diagram, gantt, management, Planing, process, rational, state, Add more tags...,

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CM-Consult Ltd and the Rational-Tools.com project (www.cmcons.com and www.rational-tools.info) announce the new release of the UML2ClearQuest 3.0 software.
UML2ClearQuest  is the specially designed solution that extends IBM Rational ClearQuest with the new capabilities. This solution provides the ability of the lifecycle creating and modifying for IBM Rational ClearQuest records types basing on UML-diagrams (up to UML 2.1). This solution is intended first of all for the managers of the IBM Rational ClearQuest system, who are occupied with the projecting and developing the schemes for this system in their company as well as for their customers.

Tags: activity, ALM, Application Lifecycle Management, change, change request, chart, clearquest, CM, designer, diagram, ibm, process, rational, rsa, staruml, uml, uml2clearquest, Add more tags...,

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The concept of this project is to identify and remotely satisfy market needs in the sphere of software development using IBM Rational tools.

Tags: ALM, Application Lifecycle Management, change request, chart, clearquest, consulting, designer, development, diagram, ibm, Maintenance, package, process, rational, service, software, state, uml, Add more tags...,

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