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Application Panes

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

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

The Document pane displays by default all document objects with heading set or with children. To hide document objects without children in the pane, click Edit, select Preferences, and tick Show only sections in Document pane.

The right panes show details of the selected object. The Instructions pane displays help text related to the current document object, see Instructions. To toggle it, click View, mouseover Right Panes, and select Instructions Pane. Or press CtrlAltI.

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

The Discussion pane shows discussion comments related to the current document object. To toggle it, click View, mouseover Right Panes, 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, mouseover Right Panes, 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, mouseover Right Panes, and select History Pane. Or press CtrlAltH.

UI of ReqView - Requirements management tool

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

Table Layout

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

You can customize the table layout for each document:

  • to display or hide table columns, click View and select Columns, or 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 layout 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 Layout, click View, mouseover Table Layout, and select Set Default Layout. To save the project, click File and select Save.

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

Status Icons

The ID column can display the following status icons:

IconDescriptionAppears when
Unsaved changeThe object was changed since the last time the current document was opened and has not yet been saved to a file.
CommentThe object is commented on.
AttachmentThe object has at least one attachment.
LinkThe object is linked with another requirement or object.
DeletedThe object is marked as deleted, but not yet purged (completely removed from the document). The object can be undeleted.
CutThe object is cut in the clipboard and will be moved on a paste operation.
CopiedThe object is copied in the clipboard and will be copied on a paste operation.

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 Space.

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

Template Columns

Extend the table view with Template Columns to display document object attributes, calculated expressions, or linked objects.

To define a new Template Column, click Document, mouseover Add Template Column and select Custom Template. In the Template Column dialog, enter a column label displayed in the table header and a template code. The dialog instantly displays preview of the template column for the currently selected document object. Press OK to add the Template Column to the current table view.

Add a new template column using code

For more information how to write template code see section Custom Export Using Templates. Note that Template Columns are rendered using document object context, therefore you can directly use document object attributes, for instance {{id}}, {{heading}}, or {{{text}}}.

To edit or delete an existing Template Column, right-click on the column heading and select Edit Template Column or Delete Template Column from the context menu:

Edit Template Column context menu

Template Columns are persisted in the Table Layout in your Project File or Project Folder.

Calculated Columns

Calculated columns display a text output using template expressions, template helpers and attribute values.

For example, let’s create RPN column calculating the Risk Priority Number as a product of severity, probability, and determinability attributes for each Risk or Action object in the RISKS document, see the Example Project.

Template of RPN Column:

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

Output of RPN Column:

Template column calculating Risk Priority Number (RPN)

Traceability Columns

Traceability columns display linked objects across one or more traceability levels in live Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) views. The easiest way, how to add a new traceability column, is to use Traceability Column Wizard and adjust the generated template according to your needs. If you need to have full control on the column output then write the template code.

For example, let’s create Downstream Traceability column displaying downstream traceability coverage of user needs in the NEEDS document by linked SW requirements in the SRS document and test cases in the TESTS document, see the Example Project:

Template of Downstream Traceability Column:

{{#ifEqual type "STORY"}}
{{#ifHasInlinks "satisfaction"}}
{{#eachInlinkWith type="satisfaction"}}
<p>&blacktriangleleft; <em>{{docObjId}}:</em> {{shortDescription maxLength=80}}
{{#ifHasInlinks "verification"}}
{{#eachInlinkWith type="verification"}}
<br>&emsp;&blacktriangleleft; <em>{{docObjId}}:</em> {{shortDescription maxLength=80}}
{{/eachInlinkWith}}
{{else}}
<br>&emsp;&#9888; Missing verification links
{{/ifHasInlinks}}
</p>
{{/eachInlinkWith}}
{{else}}
<p>&#9888; Missing satisfaction links</p>
{{/ifHasInlinks}}
{{/ifEqual}}

Output of Downstream Traceability Column:

Downstream Traceability Coverage referencing tests, indicating missing verification links

Note: Changed object attributes are automatically propagated to displayed traceability columns for directly linked objects only. For instance, if you change the heading of TESTS-21 then the traceability column Is Verified By for SW requirement SRS-53 displays the new heading value. However, the traceability column Downstream Traceability for user story NEEDS-58 still displays the old heading. Select the NEEDS document and press F5 to refresh the view and see the change of TESTS-21.

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: To switch to other open documents quickly, press CtrlShiftPgDn / CtrlShiftPgUp or Ctrl1, Ctrl2, ..., Ctrl9.

Work in Multiple Windows

You can review and edit the current project in multiple project windows to save time and improve your workflow:

  • View different documents from the same project at the same time
  • View linked requirements in other project windows
  • Edit requirements in multiple project windows
  • Copy & paste requirements between project windows
  • Create links between project windows
  • Compare the project with a baseline in another window

To edit the current project in another application window, click Project and select New Project Window. Windows showing the same project are identified by an index in square brackets in the window title. Move the new window to another display or place the project windows side-by-side:

Working on different documents of the same project in multiple windows

Changes done in any project window are propagated to other project windows automatically. However, some operations block other project windows to ensure data consistency. Saving can be done in any project window.

Closing a project opened in multiple windows will close it in all windows and will leave only the current window open.

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

Print options dialog: columns, sorting, folding, save as PDF

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:

Print document options

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.

You can share the URL link to a ReqView requirement by email or company chat, reference it in a document or a ticket, etc. Or, paste the URL link into the ReqView rich text editor to link requirements between ReqView projects.

Paste a ReqView URL into an email

To copy a URL link to the selected document object into the clipboard, click button in the toolbar or press CtrlK.

Then, paste the URL link to a chosen application. If the application supports pasting of HTML content (MS Word, web browser, most email clients, etc.) then the pasted URL link will show the document object ID (e.g. DEMO-SRS-62), otherwise (like in plain text editors) it will show the URL (e.g. reqview:open?projectId=DEMO#SRS-62).

The protocol (scheme) of the generated URLs is always reqview:. ReqView URL links are not pointing to websites on the internet but to project data stored by the ReqView application.

Note: Do not add http:// or https:// in front of ReqView URL links as that would make them not work.

You can click on a pasted URL link to navigate to the related document object in the ReqView application for Windows, Linux, or Mac. However, you need to enable the OS association with reqview: protocol by ReqView application first. Click Edit, click Preferences, and check Register file and protocol handlers option before using this feature. When this option is enabled, click on a ReqView URL link to start the ReqView application or focus one of its windows if it is already running.

If the referenced project is open in multiple project windows then the window that has the referenced document open is focused. Otherwise, the document is opened in a new tab in one of the windows. If the referenced project is not loaded in any ReqView window, choose the referenced project using the Open Project From URL dialog:

Open Project From URL

Tip: Paste URL Links to into ReqView rich text editor of an xhtml attribute to reference requirements from another ReqView project. See Traceability Between Projects.

Note: URL links cannot be handled by the ReqView web application.

Copy to Other Applications

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

Selected text to copy to the system clipboard

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:

Object copied to the system clipboard, indicator displayed bellow object ID

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

Object pasted in an email client
Updated for version 2.16.2