Generating documents with Rational DOORS as a data source

After you finish creating the report template and populating it with data points, you can generate a report in various formats.

Before you begin

If you preview data from the Launcher application, the default baseline and view are used to retrieve the data.

You can extract Object Linking and Embedding (OLEs) from a Rational® DOORS® data source. See OLE objects.

Generating a document by using the add-in

If you have the Rational DOORS add-in installed, you can generate documents directly from the Rational DOORS user interface.

About this task

  • When a local document generation is started from the Rational Publishing Engine add-in through the user interface or the command line, a license is consumed on your computer. The license is checked out when the remote document generation begins. Then the license is checked in after the document generation is complete.
  • When a remote document generation is started from the Rational Publishing Engine add-in through the user interface or the command line, a license is consumed on the server. The license is checked out when the remote document generation begins. Then the license is checked in after the document generation is complete.
Note: You cannot access the Document Studio or Launcher user interfaces while you are using the Rational Publishing Engine add-in to publish a document.

Procedure

From either the Database view or Module view, click Publish.
  • When you click Publish from the Database view, you are prompted for template and document specification configurations as you would by clicking Document Specification > Generate > Configure and Generate Document in Rational Publishing Engine.
  • When you click Publish from the Module view, you can select a new document specification and add templates to it, or you can select an existing document specification that already has templates added to it. Then, if the template uses a Rational DOORS data source, Rational Publishing Engine configures the data source for you with the information from the open Module to generate the document. If any of the existing configuration information in the document specification does not match the information in the open Module, the existing information is overwritten with the information from the open Module. Finish is enabled when at least one template and one output format is selected.
    Important: For local document generation, Rational Publishing Engine can connect to a running Rational DOORS client, however, for remote document generation, that option is not available. If you are publishing using the remote generation engine from either the Database or the Module view, you must enter authentication credentials in the document specification before generating your document so that the remote Rational Publishing Engine service can instantiate a new Rational DOORS headless client to pull the report data.

Generating a document by using the Rational Publishing Engine document generation wizard

You can use the document generation wizard to configure the report requirements.

Procedure

  1. In either the Document Studio or the Launcher application, open the document generation wizard by clicking Document Specification > Generate > Configure and generate document.
  2. In the Templates section, the templates already listed in the document specification display. To add a template:
    1. Select the location of the templates to add:
      • From the central library: To select templates stored in the Central Management component
      • From local or remote file: To select a local or remote templates, you can either enter a URL to a template or click Browse to select a template.
    2. Select one or more template to add.
      • If you selected From the central library and selected templates from the Central Management component, click Add selected to add the templates to the document specification.
      • If you selected From local or remote file and entered a URL to an individual template, click Add URL to add the template to the document specification.
      • If you selected From local or remote file and browsed to add templates, when you click Open, the templates are added to the document specification.
    3. Optional: Repeat to add additional templates from other locations.
    4. Optional: Reorder the templates in the document specification by selecting a template and clicking Up or Down.
    5. Click Next. After you add a template, the data sources and variables that are specified in the template are also added to the wizard.
  3. In the Data sources section, configure each data source.
    Note:
    • If a default value exists for a data source or a default URI value has already been entered, the data source displays as configured and the default value is used in the output unless another value is selected.
    • If you move past the Data sources section and then click Back to make additional changes to a data source, the section always opens to the first data source in the list.
    1. Database: Enter the database name to connect to. By default, -data 36677@localhost is used. If -data is not specified, it is automatically appended for you. If no value is specified, Rational Publishing Engine retrieves the default value from the registry whenever possible.
    2. Path to doors.exe: Enter the full path to doors.exe. If the path is invalid or cannot be accessed, the wizard corrects the path for you when possible. Example: C:\Program Files\IBM\Rational\DOORS\version\bin\doors.exe
    3. Module URIView, and Baseline: You can type these values or click Discover to use a wizard to select from a list of values. If you choose to use the discovery wizard, click Next and complete one of the following steps:
      • Click Next to select values for the Module URI, View, and Baseline. If you click Next, in the Select a view from the DOORS database window, you can select from lists of modules, views, and baselines. Then click Finish.
      • Enter a Module URI. After a module URI is entered, Finish is enabled and you can click it to use the default values for view and baseline. To use a view and baseline different from the defaults, enter View and Baseline values to use instead and click Finish.
        Note: If you manually edit the Module URI value and enter an incorrect value, you might prevent the output from being generated. When you provide an incorrect or null value for View or Baseline, the output generates from the standard view of the current module version. The output generates, but the data might not be correct.
    4. User name: Enter the Rational DOORS account name.
    5. Password: Enter the Rational DOORS account password.
    6. Choose whether to use the Use running DOORS instance during document generation option:
      • If Rational DOORS is expected to be running from the location you specified for the Path to doors.exe field when you generate a document from this document specification, select the Use running DOORS instance during document generation option. Processing time can be faster when you use the running Rational DOORS instance.
      • If Rational DOORS is not expected to be running from the location you specified for the Path to doors.exe field when you generate a document from this document specification, clear the Use running DOORS instance during document generation option to start a new instance.
        Note: If the Remote services application is used, the doors_home and new_instance properties are always rewritten by the Remote services application. After the document specification is uploaded, Rational Publishing Engine rewrites the properties to match the server configuration.

    When incorrect values are replaced by Rational Publishing Engine in the wizard, the values are also updated in the Properties view for the data source and in the run time flag values.

  4. In the Variables section, configure each variable.
    Note:
    • If a default value exists for a variable, the variable displays as configured and the default value is used in the output unless another value is selected.
    • If you move past the Variables section and then click Back to make additional changes to a variable, the section always opens to the first variable in the list.
    1. From the drop-down menu, select one of the following options:
      • Manual configuration: To enter any value for the variable because no other configuration information exists for this variable in the configuration layer or Central Management component
      • From Configuration Layer: To select a value from the configuration metadata you entered for the variable in your template
      • Using variable values from the central library: To select a variable stored in the Central Management component
    2. Enter or select a value for the configuration.
    3. Click Next.
  5. In the Output section, select the output types to generate:
    • Microsoft Word
    • PDF
    • HTML
    • XSL-FO
    • Legacy PDF
    1. Optional: For the Save location, click Browse to select a path to save the file for each output type. You can edit the path to be a relative path from the document specification. If a save location for the output is not specified, the file is generated in a temporary location.
    2. Optional: For the Style sheet, click Browse to select a style sheet to use for each output type while generating the output.
    3. Optional: Microsoft Word output only: For the Macro, enter the name of the macro that is contained within the style sheet.
    4. Optional: To enter additional metadata or configure other document properties that are not included in the wizard, click Edit metadata properties.
    5. Click Next.
  6. Verify that the template and output information in the summary window is correct.
  7. Select which action to take when you click Finish:
    • Run the document generation: Generates the output types you specified.
    • Run the document generation and quit RPE: Generates the output types you specified and closes the Rational Publishing Engine application after you exit the Results window.
    • Save and close this wizard without generating the document: The document generation wizard is closed and the Launcher application remains open.
    Note: If you are using the document generation wizard from the Rational DOORS add-in, selecting Save and close this wizard without generating the document closes the wizard and the Launcher application.

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