Review Documents

Application Panes

ReqView presents structured information about the project and the current document in the left pane, a structured table view of the document in the center pane, and detailed information about the selected document object in the right panes.

The left panes show information about the project and the current document. The Project pane shows all the documents in the project and their status. To toggle it, click View and select Project Pane, or press CtrlAltP.

The Document pane shows the table of contents to help you navigate the document structure. To toggle it, click View and select Document Pane, or press CtrlAltT.

The right panes show details of the selected object. The Instructions pane displays help text related to the current document object, see Custom Attributes > Template Instructions for an example. To toggle it, click View and select Instructions Pane, or press CtrlAltI.

The Attributes pane lists the custom attributes of the current document object. To toggle it, click View and select Attributes Pane, or press CtrlAltA.

The Discussion pane shows discussion comments related to the current document object. To toggle it, click View and select Discussion Pane, or press CtrlAltD.

The Links pane shows traceability links related to the current document object grouped by link type. To toggle it, click View and select Links Pane, or press CtrlAltL.

The History pane shows the history of changes to the current document object. To toggle it, click View and select History Pane, or press CtrlAltH.

Requirements Table

The center pane shows the Requirements Table which combines a tree view of the current document structure and a table view with columns displaying additional information for each object. The Requirements Table displays the following columns and information:

• ID — unique requirement identifier
• Description — combined requirement section number, heading, text description, and attachments
• Custom Attributes — summary of custom attributes which are not displayed in separate columns
• Links — list of all outgoing and incoming links grouped by relationship type; you can follow each link by clicking on the object ID
• Discussion — comments related to the requirement
• custom attributes
• custom template columns

To refresh the table view, click View and select Refresh Table, or press F5.

Default View

When you open a project, the visible columns and their widths are set up for each document according to the Default View saved in the Project File or Project Folder.

You can customize the table view for each document:

• to display or hide table columns, click View and select Table Columns, click the button on the upper right-hand corner of the Requirements Table, and
• to reorder or resize columns, drag & drop a column header.

The current table view given by order, widths, and display status of all table columns is persistently saved and restored after each application restart.

To save your current document view to the Project File or Project Folder as the Default View, click Document, mouseover Default View, and select Set Default View. To save the project, click File and select Save.

To restore the Default View saved in the Project File or Project Folder, click Document, mouseover Default View, and select Restore Default View.

Status Icons

The ID column can display the following status icons:

Document Sections

A ReqView document is structured into numbered sections. A section number is automatically generated for an object either if the object has a heading attribute set or if the object has at least one child.

Tip: To assign a section number to an object with only text description, set the heading attribute to an empty space (“ ”).

To collapse or expand a selected document section, click the / icons on the right of the section name, or press CtrlSpace.

To collapse all document sections, click View and select Collapse All menu, or to expand them click View and select Expand All.

Attachments

Document objects can have image or file attachments. To open an attachment in your browser, click the attachment link in the Description column. If your browser cannot display the attachment, it will be automatically downloaded.

To show or hide an image attachment, right-click on the image and select Show Image or Hide Image in the context menu.

To show or hide all image attachments, click View, mouseover Image Attachments, and select Show All Images or Hide All Images. To automatically load images after opening a project, click Edit, select Preferences, and tick Show images.

Tip: Hiding image attachments in large documents or documents with a large number of attachments usually significantly improves application performance.

Go to Document Objects

To jump directly to an object with a specific ID, click Document and select Go To, or press CtrlG. In the Go To dialog, enter the object ID, including the document ID prefix if the object is from a different document.

Sort Document Objects

To sort the Requirements Table, click on a chosen column heading. If you click on the same column heading again, then you change the sort order. To reset to the default sorting with the natural document order, click on the Description column heading.

Note: You cannot sort by Custom Attributes and Links columns or columns corresponding to custom attributes of xhtml type.

Filter Document Objects

Enter a filter condition in the filter field that is displayed in the top right corner of the screen to filter the Requirements Table. You can quickly move to this field by pressing CtrlShiftF.

To activate or deactivate the current filter, click the icon, or press CtrlAltF.

Note: When the current filter is active, then the Requirements Table does not show the document hierarchy. For example, the Description column is not shown indented according to the section level.

Filter Logical Value

To filter all objects with a given value of a Boolean (bool) attribute, choose an attribute item from the filter suggestions list.

Examples:

• Deleted matches document objects marked as deleted
• Dirty matches document objects changed since the last time the project was saved

Filter Numeric Value

To filter all objects with a given value of a numeric (int, real and date) custom attribute, choose an attribute item from the filter suggestions list and enter one of these <, >, <=, >=, = conditions.

Examples:

• Story Points => 5 matches document objects with estimation set to at least 5 story points
• Costs < 1000 matches document objects with costs lower than $1000
• Deadline <= 2018-06-30 matches document objects with deadline set to 30 June 2018 or after

Filter Text Value

To filter all objects matching a given text condition in a text (int, real and date) attribute or in a Template Column, choose an attribute or template column item from the filter suggestions list, and choose a keyword from the list or enter a “substring” or a /regular expression/ condition.

Note: If you choose a keyword from the list without first specifying an attribute, the keyword is matched in all text attributes.

Examples:

• Text: traceability matches document objects with text descriptions containing the keyword “traceability”
• Text: “will” matches document objects with text descriptions containing the substring “will”
• Text: /\Wwill\W/ matches document objects with text descriptions containing the word “will” (case insensitive)
• Satisfies: “NEEDS-13” matches document objects containing the string “NEEDS-13” in the template column Satisfies

Filter Enumeration Value

To filter all objects with a given value of an enumeration (enum) custom attribute, choose attribute and then an enumeration value from the filter suggestions list.

Examples:

• Status: Implemented matches document objects with status set to “Implemented”
• Type: Functional Requirement matches document objects with type set to “Functional Requirement”

Filter Null Value

You can filter all objects with a null value of a numeric or text attribute. Choose attribute from the filter suggestions list and press Enter without entering a value.

Example:

• Text: is null matches document objects with null text attribute

Filter Section Number

To filter all objects from the given section, choose Section from the filter suggestion list and enter a section number.

Example:

• Section: 1.2 matches document objects in section 1.2 and its subsections

Filter Links

To filter all objects with outgoing or incoming links of a given type, choose link type or link type respectively from the filter suggestions list.

Similarly, you can filter all objects with a reference origin (see Inherited Links). Choose Origin or Copies item respectively from the filter suggestion list.

Optionally, to add condition that the given link type should have Suspect Link Flag set, choose Suspect from the filter suggestion list before a link type.

Examples:

• Satisfies matches document objects with at least one outgoing satisfaction traceability link
• Is Satisfied matches document objects with at least one incoming satisfaction traceability link
• Origin matches document objects which were copied with enabled Link to Origin option
• Copies matches document objects which were pasted with enabled Link to Origin option
• Suspect Satisfies matches document objects with at least one outgoing satisfaction traceability link with the suspect flag set

Filter History

To filter all objects with history of attribute changes, choose Changed from the filter suggestions list.

Afterwards, you can choose a specific attribute from the filter suggestions list and/or enter a date in YYYY-MM-DD format to filter objects that were modified on or after that date. Note: The word “since” is added automatically when you enter a valid date.

Examples:

• Changed matches document objects with an attribute change entry in their history
• Changed since 2019-06-30 matches document objects whose attributes changed on or after end of June 2019
• Changed Status matches document objects with a status attribute change in their history
• Changed Text since 2019-06-30 matches document objects whose text attribute changed on or after end of June 2019

Logical Operators

To filter a combination of several conditions, use AND, OR and NOT logical operators in disjunctive normal Form (DNF) according to the following rules:

• Filters can consist of one or more logical clauses joined by logical OR. The filter matches an object if any clause is valid for the object.
• Each logical clause can consist of one or more conditions joined by logical AND. A clause is valid for an object if all conditions are valid.
• Any logical condition can be negated by logical NOT operator.
• Each logical condition is valid if of the provided values match the condition criterion.

Example:

Let’s assume that we want to filter all document objects with attribute type set to “User Story” AND attribute status set to “Verified”.

Follow these steps:

1. Input “ty” string, choose Type attribute from the filter suggestions list, and press Enter to set the filter to Type .
2. Input “us” string, choose User Story from the filter suggestions list, and press Enter to set the filter to Type: User Story matching all objects with type attribute set to *User Story”. You can either extend the condition with a new value, close the condition for editing by pressing Enter, or delete the condition by pressing Backspace.
3. Press Enter to close the last condition for editing. The last condition can then only be deleted by pressing Backspace or you can start a new condition.
4. Input “sta” string and choose Status attribute from the filter suggestion list.
5. Input “ver” string and choose Verified from the filter suggestion list. The filter is set to Type: User Story Status: Verified matching all objects with type attribute set to “User Story” AND status set to “Verified”. You might extend the condition by choosing an additional status value to be filtered.
6. Press Enter to close the last condition for editing.
7. Press Enter to toggle the filter.

Example:

The following image shows a filter matching all user stories in which an editor can open or save, or an architect can create:

Search Documents

Search for a keyword using the search input field next to the filter. To focus this field, click Document and select Search, or press CtrlF. Navigate to the next or previous object containing the searched keyword by clicking on the icon on the right of the search input field or pressing F3 or ShiftF3 respectively.

Template Columns

Extend the Requirements Table with Template Columns to render a live, dynamic view on the current project data. For instance, you can define new columns to:

• display the value of a document object attribute, for example heading, text or a section number
• calculate an expression from document object attributes, for example a risk priority number (RPN)
• list linked objects across multiple traceability levels providing you with a powerful dynamic traceability view

To define a new Template Column, click Document and select Add Template Column… which opens the Template Column dialog.

Enter a column label displayed in the table header and a template definition using Handlebars syntax the same way as custom export templates. Note: Template Columns are rendered using document object context, therefore you can directly use document object attributes.

Press Check to validate the template definition. Its output is displayed for the current document object. Press OK to add the Template Column to the current table view.

Template Columns are persisted in the Default View in your Project File or Project Folder.

Edit or delete an existing Template Column by right-clicking on the column heading and selecting Edit Template Column or Delete Template Column:

Calculated Column

Let’s create a Template Column which calculates the risk priority number as a product of severity, probability, and determinability custom attributes for each Risk or Action object in the RISKS document of the ReqView Demo Project.

Template Column Definition:

{{#if (eval (eval type "==" "Risk") "||" (eval type "==" "Action"))}}
  {{eval (eval detectability "*" probability) "*" severity}}
{{/if}}

Template Column Output:

Traceability Column

Let’s create a Template Column which displays downstream traceability coverage of each top-level user story in the NEEDS document of the ReqView Demo Project by linked SRS requirements and their TESTS:

Template Column Definition:

{{#ifEqual type "User Story"}}
{{#ifHasInlinks "satisfaction"}}
<ul>
  {{#eachInlinkWith type="satisfaction"}}
  <li>
    {{docObjId}}: {{shortDescription  maxLength=40}}
    <ul>
    {{#ifHasInlinks "verification"}}
    {{#eachInlinkWith type="verification"}}
      <li>{{docObjId}}: {{shortDescription maxLength=40}}</li>
    {{/eachInlinkWith}}
    {{else}}
      <li><i class='icon-li icon-warning-sign'></i> Missing verification links</span></li>
    {{/ifHasInlinks}}
    </ul>
  </li>
  {{/eachInlinkWith}}
</ul>
{{else}}
<ul>
  <li><i class='icon-li icon-warning-sign'></i> Missing satisfaction links</li>
</ul>
{{/ifHasInlinks}}
{{/ifEqual}}

Template Column Output:

Switch Between Documents

Open one or more documents in the Project pane, you can then choose the displayed Requirements Table by clicking on the tabs showing the document IDs under the Requirements Table. Tip: Quickly switch to other open documents. Click Project and select Next Document or Project and select Previous Document**, or press CtrlShiftPgDn / CtrlShiftPgUp or Ctrl1, Ctrl2, …, Ctrl9.

Print a Document

To print the current document, click View and select Print, or press CtrlP.

In the Print Options dialog you can select if the displayed custom attribute columns will be compacted into the single Custom Attributes column, if printed data will be filtered and sorted the same way as the Requirements Table, and if section folding will be preserved. Click OK.

After confirming Print Options, the WebApp opens the browser Print dialog displaying a print preview. In this dialog you can select a target printer and further customize printed document by changing page orientation, margins, and add a custom header or footer:

In a Chrome browser, you can export the opened document into PDF format using Print dialog by setting “Save as PDF”. In a Mozilla browser, you must install the Save as PDF add-on first, and then select Save as PDF.

Copy to Other Applications

To copy the selected text from the ReqView UI to the system clipboard, press CtrlC:

You can also select one or more document objects and copy to the system clipboard a table containing information in the visible columns by clicking Edit and selecting Copy, clicking the toolbar button, or pressing CtrlC:

And then you can paste the data into other applications (MS Word, MS Excel or your email client) in HTML or CSV text format: