CMS fat client

IMPORTANT NOTE: this page shall be reviewed and was not written respecting the reading conventions. Sorry for the inconvenient.

Standard Functionalities

Starting CMS and create/edit a workspace

To start CMS Fat Client and create new workspace or open an existing workspace, double click on itmSUITE icon appearing at the end of installation process.

Opening existing database

To open an existing database, choose menu item File > Open and select the file in navigation window:

After pressing Open button, CMS fat client will ask for a password, this is a password, which protects *.pft files from unauthorized use.

Then user login and password will be asked, these are parameters, which are used to authenticate CMS fat client user.

Saving database

To save vCMS database, use File > Save or File > Save as functionalities.

Note: these functionalities allow local save, which means that database is saved in a file on disk.

When saving a file for the first time, CMS fat client requires defining a password. It is possible to change it later by using File > Change Password function.

Project Explorer

Project Explorer Window

The Project Explorer window (opened by default with vCMS main window) allows browsing between folders (like in Windows environment). All the items are grouped in folders, enabling a comfortable navigation of the tree. Project Explorer has a set of function buttons, which affect the contents of data shown:

• Button Expand/Collapse allows expanding or collapsing Project Explorer tree.
• Button Models allows showing or hiding models in Project Explorer tree.
• Button Objects allows showing or hiding objects in Project Explorer tree, all objects are shown in single special node of tree Objects.
• Button Objects in own folders allows showing or hiding objects in Project Explorer tree, objects are shown in their folders.
• Button Unused objects only allows showing or hiding unused objects (objects, which don’t occur is any model) in Project Explorer tree, all unused objects are shown in single special node of tree Objects.
• Button Objects filtering sorting allows configuring object filter for Project Explorer tree, only objects matching filtering conditions will be shown in tree. Explained in Filtering.
• Button [button] allows configuring model filter for Project Explorer tree, only models matching filtering conditions will be shown in tree.

Project Explorer window can be switched in alternative mode by pressing button. In this case it will be hidden automatically and related tab will be shown:

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Moving mouse pointer over this tab will force Project Explorer to be shown. Pressing button will switch Project Explorer in usual mode:

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Filtering

As mentioned above, Project Explorer allows filtering objects and models shown in tree.

Object Filter

Object filtering window looks like the following:

On first tab user can specify simple object filtering criteria:

• The name of object, additionally match Whole word, Case-sensitive
• The text in Full name, Description, Remark or Attribute value
• Filter by Creator and Creation period (from/to)
• Filter by last update User and Modification period (from/to)
• Specify if object should have or not variants, by default it is set to any

On second tab user can specify advanced object filtering criteria:

• Select a set of models, where objects should occur. Only objects, which occur in assigned models will match a criteria
• Select a set of object types. Only objects of assigned object types will match a criteria

On third tab user can specify sorting parameters, different parameters can be selected in Primary and Secondary dropdowns, additionally the order is defined by the value of corresponding Sort by dropdown.

Model Filter

Model filter is the same as Object Filter with only difference in advanced filtering criteria. On second tab user can specify advanced object filtering criteria:

Here user can select a set of model types. Only models of assigned model types will match criteria.

Navigator View

Navigator View helps to filter, sort and group objects and models. It is available from menu item View > Navigator View, it looks like the following:

Initially it shows two tabs: Objects and Models. Objects tab shows all objects and Models tab shows all models. Calling context menu (right mouse click) on any tab of Navigator View it is possible to filter and sort objects or models, functionality is similar to described here Filtering. Additionally it allows grouping objects or models:

The result of this operation for Objects tab is as following:

Object list is represented as a tree of groups and contained objects. Groups are built based on criteria specified on previous screen. In our case it is an “Object name”, objects having equal names are contained by corresponding group. Similar functionality is available for models too:

Navigator View window can be switched in alternative mode by pressing button. In this case it will be hidden automatically and related tab will be shown:

Moving mouse pointer over this tab will force Navigator View to be shown. Pressing button will switch Navigator View in usual mode:

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Project Structure

The standard CMS Project structure is composed of:

• Style Templates – allows accessing a management screen for Style Templates by double-click on this node
• Attribute Templates – allows accessing a management screen for Attribute Templates by double-click on this node
• ROOT – it can be named differently, this is a project node
• Font Formats - allows accessing a management screen for Font Formats by double-click on this node
• Objects – can be shown or hidden, depending on buttons pressed in Project Explorer, contents of this node are explained above
• Folders – this is hierarchy of folders built by the users. Every folder can contain models and objects created by users.

Main Toolbar

When CMS is started, main toolbar is available:

The following functions are available from main toolbar:

• Local database contents can be inspected by clicking button
• Exporting data from Aris can be performed by clicking button
• Connect/disconnect to/from SQL server can be performed by clicking button
• Clicking button it is possible to save data in SQL database
• Clicking button it is to reload data from SQL database
• User management functionality is available by clicking button
• These two buttons allow to undo or redo last user activity
• These three buttons allow to create Folder, Model and Font Format correspondingly

Creating folders and models

Folders and models can be created directly from Project Explorer. User can call a context menu from any selected node of tree in Project Explorer. To do this, user should right-click any node and a set of available functions will be available:

Clicking folder node in tree, it is possible to access functions for creation of subfolder or model. Clicking project node in tree, it is possible to access functions for creation of folder or font format.

Creating a model

Before creating a new model, CMS prompts to select a type of model to be created:

Here user should pick a model type from the list of available model types. As well, user can specify the name of the new model and a folder for it.

Model Design View

To open a Model Design View user should double-click model in Project Explorer:

Main components:

• Project Explorer – explained here Project Explorer Window. Model Design View is opened, when user double-click model in tree.
• Attributes – shows attributes of currently selected item, it can be project, folder, model, object or relationship. Contents of attributes view changed each time user clicks one of mentioned items, either in Project Explorer or Model Design View. User can change attributes of selected item in this view.
• Navigation Map – shows zoomed view of whole model, helps to navigate quickly through a model.
• Objects Toolbar – shown on the left side of Model Design View. Here user can pick an object and place it on model. Toolbar has a set of buttons related to objects available for edited model. This way user creates new objects.
• Actions Tollbar – shown on the top of Model Design View. Here use can call various functions, which will be explained later.

Actions Toolbar

Actions toolbar looks like the following:

The following functions are available (from the left to right):

• Copy – allows copying selected objects and relationships in clipboard
• Paste – allows paste copied items
• Copy To… - this function allows to copy selected objects and relationship in clipboard as an image
• Cut – allows to cut selected items
• Center Horizontally - center selected objects horizontally
• Center Vertically – center selected objects vertically
• Send To Front – changes Z order of selected object(s), puts it in front
• Send To Back – changes Z order of selected object(s), puts it to back
• Align Horizontal-Vertical – aligns relationship, adds points to relationship if needed to achieve configuration defined by function icon
• Align Vertical-Horizontal – aligns relationship, adds points to relationship if needed to achieve configuration defined by function icon
• Horizontal Distribution – distribute selected objects horizontally
• Vertical Distribution - distribute selected object vertically
• Autoresize Objects – reorganizes text depending on shape of the objects
• Text Align (Left, Center, Right, Justify) – aligns text
• Print – allows to print model
• Print Preview – allows to call print preview
• Print View – shows pages of resulting printing document directly on model design view
• Print Options – allows to specify printing options
• Text – allows to put a text label on model design view
• Ellipse - allows to put an ellipse on model design view
• Rectangle - allows to put a rectange on model design view
• Line (Left, Horizontal, Vertical, Right) – allows to put a line on model design view

Renaming an object

User can double click object or press F2 key to rename selected object:

Text box allowing changing object name will be shown. When ready, user should press Enter key to allow renaming or Esc to cancel renaming operation.

Drawing a relationship

To draw relationship between two objects, user should drag one of object’s connection point and drop on target object. If more than one relationship type is avaialble for the objects being connected in this model, a pop-up window will be opened, so user can choose the most appropriate one (after drawing a relationship it is possibile to get its type looking at Attributes window or passing the mouse over it).

Manage appearances and layout

CMS allows to manage graphic properties and layout of every object.

Object appearance

User can manage objects size by dragging grey points,which available around selected object:

Alternatively, user can change the size of selected object with Ctrl + arrow keys. To change object’s look, user can call quick choice menu of selected object and run Appearance command, as a result, the following window will opened:

Here user can change:

• Fill color
• Line color, style and weight
• Show/hide shadow
• Number of connectors by side (default value is “1”), these are connection points, which can be a source of target point for relationships
• Scaling of the object
• Text alignment and font format (is is possible to choose between font formats defined at Project level)

Attribute placement

Clicking Tools > Attributes Placement CMS offers the possibility to define attributes placement and alignment for each object type:

Here is is possible to select an attribute of the object and define its position relative to object. If defined, corresponding attribute will shown on model design view for all objects of the same type:

CMS gives the possibility to manage object relative position and level with Align and Arrange functionalities.

Note: sometimes is useful to select more than one element. Commands to make multiple selections are the following:

• To select a whole model use right click on model background and choose Select All or alternatively use Ctrl+A command.
• To select different objects click on it while pressing Shift key.
• To select an area and all the objects inside it, click and drag the left mouse button to define a rectangle.

Relationship appearance

After drawing a connection, CMS allows to define points on it to manage angles. To add a new point, right click on a connection and choose Connection > Add point. Now it is possible to move the point dragging and dropping it with the mouse. To delete points use Connection > Delete point command:

To change relationship’s look, user can call quick choice menu of selected relationship and run Appearance command, as a result the following window will opened:

Here user can change:

• Line color, style and weight
• Text alignment and font format (is is possible to choose between font formats defined at Project level)

Connection ends

CMS offers, via Connection Ends Setup (command Connection ends after right-clicking in Project Explorer) the possibility to define connection ends for each connection type. In particular it is possible to choose between:

• No ends
• Left / Right open arrow
• Left / Right filled arrow
• Both open / filled arrow

Model appearance

To change model’s appearance, user can call quick choice menu of opened model (clicking on any unused area on the map, don’t click an object or relationship) and run Appearance command, as a result the following window will opened:

Here user can change:

• Background Color
• Align Objects To Text
• Hide Assignment Icons
• Show / Hide Grid and define its width

Definitions, Occurrences and Variants

General Concepts

When user draws an object into a model, CMS creates object definition in its database. When making a copy of the object, it is possible to choose between definition copy and occurrence copy:

• Making a definition copy, CMS creates a new object (then it adds a new definition in the database) with identical attribute values of the original ones. If user modifies one of the two objects, changes are not repeated on the other.
• Making an occurrence copy, CMS does not create a new object, but only a new occurrence that refers to the same definition. If you modify an attribute (e.g.: object name) both the occurrences change it, because they refer to the same definition.

So, each object has a definition in the CMS database and each definition can have different occurrences copies (in one or more models). A Variant is something similar to definition copy, because a model (or an object) and its variants have different definitions. The difference is that the original ones (called masters) and their copies (variants) maintain a particular link, useful for reporting and analysis. The most common use of variants is to map similar processes, having only differences in some phases or responsibilities.

Make Definition and Occurrence Copies

To make an occurrence copy of an object, use Copy function from Object quick choice menu. To paste object as occurrence copy, User can choose between Paste or Paste as > Occurrence copy. user must use Paste as > Definition copy to make a definition copy. CMS allows to make copies of models from Project Explorer window. If user chooses Paste as > Definition copy, he/she will get a new model with new definitions of all its objects:

An alternative way to make occurrence copies of an object is to use drag-n-drop functionality. User can just drag an object in Project Explorer and drop it on Model Design View. If the type of object is allowed for the model opened in Model Design View, new occurrence of object will be created immediately and it will appear on model.

Make a variant

To make a variant of a model, start from Model quick choice menu and choose Make Variant. The following window will appear:

Choosing New, CMS will create a new definition copy of the model. The window allows to define model name, to specify the model folder (first button) and choose if use existing objects (occurrence copies) or not (definition copies). Choosing Existing Model, CMS allows to define an existing model (second button allow to browse the database) as variant. To make a variant of object, user must call Object quick choice menu and choose Make Variant. user will be prompted to create new object or select existing. If new object is selected, CMS will prompt the name “Variant “ + name of master object, if created, all attributes of master object will be copied to the variant object.

Assignments

CMS allows to make links (assignments) between an object and an existing model. This is useful to draw models placed on different levels, to explain object details without generating confusion (see the following example).

To create an assignment, start from Occurrence quick choice menu, and choose Assignments > Create, and choose from Select Model Window the model. Symbol will appear under the object, for which the assignment has been created, double-click this symbol to open the linked model or the list of linked models. Other functionalities are: • Assignments > Open, to open a linked model, this is the same as double-click for the object • Assignments > Hide / Show, to hide / show symbol

Note: it is not allowed to link all model types to all object types. Permitted assignments are defined basing on their meaning (e.g.: “IT Function” object type can be linked to “IT Function Structure Diagram” or to “IT Function Tree” model types, but not to “Organizational Chart” or “Screen Model”).

Quick Choice Menus

CMS offers the possibility to access to the main functionalities with the following quick choice menus, appearing when right clicking on different elements.

Folder quick choice menu

This menu appears when right clicking on a folder from Project Explorer Window. Their functionalities are:

• New > Folder, to create a new folder
• New > Model, to create a new model
• Rename, to rename the folder (an alternative way is to use F2 key)
• Delete, to delete the folder and all its contents
• History, to see the history (authors, comments) of all changes occurred to the folder
• Copy, to copy the folder to the clipboard
• Paste, to paste a definition copy of all its contents
• Mark Read /Unread, to change folder read mark (see Mark Read / Unread)
• Search, to open Search Window (see Chapter Search)
• Refresh, to update the view with the last changes
• Attributes, to see folder attributes in Attribute window
• Connection ends, to manage connection layout (see Connection appearance)

Model quick choice menu

This Menu appears when right clicking on a folder from Project Explore Window. Their functionalities are:

• Rename, to rename the model (an alternative way is to use F2 key)
• Delete, to delete the model (it does not delete objects definitions)
• History, to see the history (authors, comments) of all changes occurred to the model
• Links, to show links to WS Groove (if there are)
• Contents, to open model content view
• Copy, to copy the model to the clipboard
• Paste, to paste a definition copy of the model
• Mark Read /Unread, to change model read mark (see Mark Read / Unread)
• Make Variant, to make a variant of the model (see Make a Variant)
• Explore, to open model design window (an alternative way is double click on model name)
• Refresh, to update the view with the last changes
• Attributes, to see model attributes in Attribute window
• Connection ends, to manage connection layout (see Connection appearance)
• Reports, to call one of two reports available for the model

Object quick choice menu

This menu appears when right clicking on an object from Project Explore Window. Their functionalities are:

• Rename, to rename the object (an alternative way is to use F2 key)
• Delete, to delete object definition and all its occurrences
• History, to see the history (authors, comments, etc.) of all changes occurred to the object
• Links, to show links to WS Groove (if there are)
• Copy, to copy the object to the clipboard
• Mark Read /Unread, to change object read mark (see Mark Read / Unread)
• Make Variant, to make a variant of the object (see Make a Variant)
• Localizer, to call Localizer functionality
• Refresh, to update the view with the last changes
• Attributes, to see object attributes in Attribute window
• Exploration Model, to call Exploration Model functionality
• Replace, to replace an object with other object
• Connection ends, to manage connection layout (see Connection appearance)
• Reports, to call one of two reports available for the object
• Attributes Copy, to copy object attributes

Occurrence quick choice menu

This menu appears when right clicking on an object occurrence, from Model Design Window. Their functionalities are:

• Explore, to open object contents window, showing all object assignments, relationships and variants
• Cut, to cut the occurrence
• Copy, to make a copy of the occurrence
• Delete, to delete the occurrence (if there are no other occurrences, a pop-up will ask you if you want to delete also object definition)
• Rename, to rename the object (alternative ways are double click or F2 key)
• Assignments, to manage assignments (see Assignments)
• Align, to manage objects relative position (see Object appearance)
• Arrange, to manage object relative level (see Object appearance)
• Move to a Folder, to call function (see Object Pending Transfer)
• Show related objects, to show all objects related to selected one
• Impact Analysis, to call Impact Analysis for the object
• Attributes, to see object attributes in Attribute window
• Replace, to replace the object with another one (of the same object type)
• Mark Read /Unread, to change object read mark (see Mark Read / Unread)
• Appearance, to manage object appearance (see Object appearance)
• Attributes Placement, to change attributes placement for the object
• Attribute Label Management, to manage custom attributes at object level
• Knowledge Pattern, to call a function (see Models\Symbols Knowledge Pattern)
• Exploration Model, to call function (see Exploration Model)
• Advanced Assignment, to create a variant of this mode, assigned to selected object
• Layout wizard, to call function (see Layout wizard)
• Reports, to call one of two reports available for the object
• Attributes Copy, to copy object attributes

Other Functionalities

Print a model

Call File > Print > Print Options or Print Options function from actions toolbar on model design view to configure model printing options:

Here it is possible to define the orientation of pages and the width and height of model in pages. To visualize print preview use button, to set up the printer and launch a print, use button from Model Design toolbar.

Browse between windows

CMS allows some commands and functionalities to provide an easy browsing between its windows. In particular:

• Button closes the window
• Clicking on window name, selected window goes to foreground
• Command Window > Windows allows to manage opened windows:

Additionally, it is possible to switch between opened views by using Ctrl+Tab keys. If pressed, user will see a window like this:

Pressing Tab key while Ctrl is pressed, it is possible to select next view; the name of selected view is reported in the bottom.

• Project Explorer window, Navigation Map window and Attributes window can be dragged and dropped all over the working area.

Copies and Changes

Some useful functions available while editing a model:

User should select one or many objects on screen with mouse selection of pick objects while Shift key is pressed. After that user should right-click one of selected objects and drag it, while dragging, user will see a picture similar to the one above. After dropping, popup menu will appear which allow calling the following functions:

• Move here – this allows just to move selected objects from their original positions to new positions highlighted with rectangles
• Create definition copies here – this function will create new objects, the copies of originally selected objects and create occurrences of new objects in this model, occurrences will be put in new location, highlighted with rectangles
• Create occurrences copies here – function similar to the previous one, but new objects will not be created and only new occurrences of originally selected objects will be created and put in location highlighted with rectangle
• Create variants – function is similar to “definition copies”, but additionally newly created objects will be variants of originally selected objects
• Cancel – do nothing

Replace

Replace function allows replacing one object with another. To do this, user should right-click target object in model design view or in Project Explorer and call “Replace” function:

If user has copied any other object prior to calling “Replace” function, CMS will prompt to replace target object with a copied one:

If user presses Yes button, target object will be replaced with copied one, if Cancel button is pressed, operation will be terminated, otherwise CMS will prompt to select object, which will replace target one:

Note. Only object of the same type can be selected. When suitable object is selected, CMS prompts two options for the user:

First option allows to replace single object, second allows to replace all occurrences of target object with selected one, finally it deletes target object.

Model Refresh

Each model has two attributes: • Refresh Status, can be managed by user, possible values “true” or “false” • Refresh Interval, read only if Refresh Status equals “false”, otherwise can be managed by user

The functionality is available in server mode only. If refresh status is true and model is opened for editing, system will perform synchronization with server each refresh interval.

Navigator Map

Navigator map is a specific graphical view, which helps to navigate through large models. This view is available only while designing a model; it can be turned on/off with menu item View > Navigator Map:

This view shows entire model, zoomed to the size of Navigation Map, additionally it shows currently visible part of model as blue rectangle. Dragging this rectangle with mouse it is possible to walk through main model view.

CMS allows to switch Navigator Map in alternative mode, so that it will be automatically hidden and shown when needed. User must press button. Navigator Map window will be hidden in this case and related tab will be shown on the right:

If user moves mouse pointer over this tab, Navigator Map window will appear again:

User must press button, to switch Navigator Map in usual mode, when it always present on screen and not hidden automatically. CMS allows to detach Navigator Map from its usual position (right up corner) and place it in desired position, like shown on screen below:

User should drag Navigation Map’s caption to change its position. As well, this view can be closed by pressing button on the right side of caption.

Object View

Object view is available from menu item View > Object View:

It can be shown or hidden, when shown it can be placed with drag-n-drop functionality elsewhere on screen. Object view helps to access detailed information about objects quickly. When editing model and object view is shown, user can click any object on model view, and in this case the details (contents) of selected object will be shown in object view:

The contents of object are shown on six tabs: • Occurrences, the list of object occurrences • Assignments, the list of assigned models • Master, the list of master objects, i.e. objects for which this object is a variant • Relationships, the list of object relationships • Variants, the list of object variants • Models, the list of models where object occurs

Content Views, Export To Excel

Every entity in CMS has some relations with other entities, for example, Folder has a set of Subfolders, and Model has a set of Objects which occur in it. Content view help to see relations between entities and navigate entities. Apart from it, content views allow exporting their contents in excel file. There are three types of content views:

• Folder View
• Model View
• Object View

Folder View

Folder content view is accessible by double-click on folder in Project Explorer. Folder content view looks like the following:

It shows the name and identifier (GUID) of the folder, below it has two tabs of related items:

• Models, this is a list of models belonging to a folder, as well it shows subfolders
• Objects, this is a list of objects belonging to a folder, as well it shows subfolders

Clicking items in lists, user will be able to see:

• Folder content view if clicked on folder item
• Model design window if clicked on model item
• Object content view if clicked on object item

It is possible to select one or many items in list by using mouse selection, or picking items while pressing Ctrl key, or using arrow key while pressing Shift key. When selection made, user can right-click on the list and call “Export to Excel” function:

In this case user will be prompted to specify excel file name:

Excel file will be saved on disk when pressed “Save” button. This function is common for all content views. Another function available for selected items is “Copy”. User can copy one or many items and paste them later. For objects it is possible to paste them as definition or occurrences copies, see Make Definition and Occurrence Copies. As well, lists of contained items are sortable, clicking list header it is possible to sort list in ascending or descending order.

Model View

Model content view is accessible by right-click on model in Project Explorer and call function “Contents”. Model content view looks like the following:

It shows the name, type and identifier (GUID) of the model, below it has four tabs of related items:

• Occurrences, this is a list of objects which occur in model
• Variants, this is a list of model variants
• Assignments, this is a list of objects, which the model is assigned to
• Master, this is a list of models, which the model is a variant of

Object View

Object content view is accessible by double-click on object in Project Explorer. Object content view looks like the following:

It shows the name, type and identifier (GUID) of the object, below it has six tabs of related items:

• Occurrences, this is a list of all object occurrences
• Assignments, this is a list of all object assignments
• Master, this is a list of objects, which the object is a variant of
• Relationships, this is a list of all object relationships
• Variants, this is a list of object variants
• Models, this is a list of models, which the object is related to. The difference between this list and Occurrences list, is that one object can occur few times in the same model, here user can see a distinct list of models where object occurs

Symbol Search Inspector

Symbol Search Inspector is a function of CMS, which helps to discover available objects in database. Especially it helps, when CMS is connected to SQL database, containing large amount of objects. In order to consume PC resources in optimal way, CMS loads objects from SQL database by demand. For example, when specific model is opening, CMS checks if all its objects are loaded and loads only those which are missing at the moment. Apart from automatical loading of objects, it is possible to search them in SQL database with help of Symbol Search Inspector and load them manually. Main difference between Symbol Search Inspector and usual Search functionalities is that Symbol Search Inspector allows for searching object in SQL database directly, without prior loading them in CMS. Symbol Search Inspector is accessible from menu item Tools > Symbol Search Inspector as shown below:

When clicked, the following window appears:

In order to search objects, text should be entered in “Symbol to search:” field and button “Search” pressed. Symbol Search Inspector will find all the objects, where specified text is present in object’s name as shown below:

Finally, Symbol Search Inspector shows the list of found objects, it allows walking through the list with help of Prev, Next buttons or selection of specific page in the list. As well it reports additional information:

• Current page, this is a number of currently viewed page
• Total pages, this is a number of pages in the list
• Total objects, this is a number of objects found by search criteria
• View limit, this is a number of objects shown on one page

Specific operations can be performed on list item(s). Operations are accessible with context menu; select one or many items in list (pressing “Shift” key) and right-click on selected items. The following operations are available for objects in list:

• Copy, allows to copy selected items in clipboard, later copied object can be pasted as occurrence or definition copy
• Load, allows to load objects from SQL database if they are not loaded yet
• Attributes, this operation is available only when single item selected, it shows object attributes in Attributes window, shown under the Project Explorer section, as shown below:

• Export to Excel, allows to export selected objects in excel file. When called, it prompts to specify file name as shown below and save exported data by pressing button Save:

Localizer

Localizer is a specific CMS function, which helps to quickly navigate objects.

Localizer Filter

When editing model, user can right-click (clicking on any unused area on the map, don’t click an object or relationship) and call Localizer from popup menu like shown on screen below:

In this case CMS will open a filtering window like shown on screen below:

User can specify filtering conditions here: Field Description Name text If specified, only objects having this text in its Names will be shown Whole word Related to “Name text”, if this option is checked, only objects with Names equal to “Name text” will be shown Case-sensitive Related to “Name text” and “Whole word”, if this option is checked, characters’ case will be considered during filtering Text in If specified, only objects having this text in some of its attributes will be shown, exact attributes are defined by the following four options Full name Search “Text in” “Full name” attribute Description Search “Text in” “Description” attribute Remark Search “Text in” “Remark” attribute User attributes Search “Text in” all User attributes Creator If checked, the name of creator will be considered. Only objects created by specified User will be shown Created From…To If checked, only objects created within specified period will be shown Last Update User If checked, the name of last update User will be considered. Only objects updated by specified User will be shown Updated From…To If checked, only objects updated within specified period will be shown Additionally an advanced tab is available:

Here user can select types of objects to be localized, if none specified, all types will be considered. Finally, when filtering conditions defined, user can press Ok button to see a list of filtered objects:

User can select one or more objects (pick items while pressing Ctrl or Shift keys) and press Localize button:

CMS will highlight selected objects on screen. Note. Function run from the model design view allows localizing only object of this model. So, it’s possible to localize only objects within current opened map (the one on which user call Localizer).

Localize from Search Results

Localizer is available through context menu of search results:

When called, it opens related model (also if it was closed) and position model so that localized object will be highlighted and shown in the center of screen.

If Localizer finds that object occurs in several models, it allows selecting only one specific model prior to navigating the object. For example, on screen below “Service Component” occurs in two models, before localizing this object, Localizer offers to select a model first:

Objects And Relationships Search

Search function allows searching objects and relationships in CMS. It is available from menu item Edit > Search or from popup menu of Project, Folder in Project Explorer or from popup menu of model design view:

Search form has three tabs:

• Name and Location
• Relationship
• Relationships by Attributes

Name and Location

User can specify searching criteria (keyword) for objects in this tab, available options are:

• In name – means searching “keyword” in object name
• In description – means searching “keyword” in object description
• In attributes – means searching “keyword” in object attribute values, if some attributes are selected, search will be scoped only by these attributes
• Created From/To – only objects satisfying this criteria will be matched
• Modified From/To – only objects satisfying this criteria will be matched
• Exact match – means that “keyword” should be equal to object name, description or attribute value, otherwise object will not be matched
• Case Sensitive Search – means that case is important for matching values, i.e. “Object” is not equal to “object”

After specifying searching criteria user should press “Search” button to get a result. Resulting list is similar to one described in Symbol Search Inspector.

Relationship

Relationship search allows finding routes between two objects. To start search user should specify source and target objects and press Search button:

CMS has found two routes for the specified objects. The following diagram shows how source and target objects are connected to each other:

“Source1” is linked with “Target1”, in turn; “Target1” is linked to “Target2”. These two routes are shown in resulting list.

Relationships by Attributes

This kind of search allows finding relationships by their attributes. User should specify “Text” to find and select attributes to be searched, then press “Search” button:

In this example, relationship between “Source1” and “Target1” objects has an attribute “Impact” with value “high”.

Layout Wizard

Layout Wizard is a function of CMS, which helps to apply different kind of layouts to the model in design time. This function is accessible from model design view. In order to be activated, context menu should be called for any object on model. Context menu is called for “GREEN” object on screen below; layout wizard will apply layouts relative to the selected object:

Available layouts are:

• None, this means that there is no layout will be applied, this helps to see initial layout on preview window

• Up -> Down, this kind of layout will put selected object on the top and distribute all connected objects below selected object

• Left -> Right, this kind of layout will put selected object on the left and distribute all connected objects on the right of selected object

• Tree view, this kind of layout will put selected object in the left top corner and distribute all connected objects on the right, below selected object to build a tree-like structure

• Radial, this kind of layout will put selected object in some place and distribute all connected objects around selected object to build a star-like structure. It is recommended to use this kind of layout if model has “one level” complexity, i.e. only central object is connected to others

Additionally, for all kinds of layout except of None, there are options to specify minimal borders and distances between objects. After pressing Ok button, selected layout will be applied to the model, after pressing Cancel no changes will be done to the model layout.

Exploration Model

Exploration Model is a function of CMS, which allows exploring existing models and generating new models for analysis purposes. Usually it is used to discover more details about objects, which are linked to each other. Exploration Model is accessible from popup menu of object on model design view, like shown on the screen below:

When selected, new wizard is started:

The wizard consists of five steps: • Model Properties • Models List • Symbol Types List • Relationship Types List • Preview

Model Properties

First wizard step allows configuring settings for generating a model, it looks like the following:

By default, CMS prompts settings for creation of new model; it allows specifying model name, model type and folder. Other possible options are described below:

• Field Description

Create an instant model If checked, new exploration model will be created in memory and not saved with other data. In this case, “Folder” and “Model name” are locked and cannot be specified Create it in the same model If checked, new exploration model will be created in the same model. In this case, “Folder”, “Model name” and “Model type” are locked and cannot be specified. New option appears - “Create definition copies”, explained below.

• Create definition copies

If checked, definition copies of objects must be created, otherwise – occurrence copies

• Folder

Allows to select a Folder for the newly created Model (in case “Create an instant model” is not checked)

• Model name

Allows to specify the name of newly created Model

• Model type

Allows to specify the type of newly created Model

• Number of Levels

Allows specifying the number of levels of objects to be explored. If object A is connected to object B and object B is connected to object C, in case of exploration of object A, object B is a 1st level object, object C is a 2nd level object.

• Exploring only relationships related to the occurrence in model

If selected, only objects, which occur in this Model are considered in exploration process

• Exploring only relationships related to all occurrences

If selected, objects, which occur in other Models are considered in exploration process too

• Auto Layout, None

If this option is not selected, no auto layout will be applied to the resulting Model and all options below are locked and cannot be specified

• Auto Layout, Up -> Down

If this option is not selected, “Up -> Down” auto layout will be applied to the resulting Model

• Auto Layout, Left -> Right

If this option is not selected, “Left -> Right” auto layout will be applied to the resulting Model

• Auto Layout, Tree view

If this option is not selected, “Tree view” auto layout will be applied to the resulting Model

• Auto Layout, Radial

If this option is not selected, “Radial” auto layout will be applied to the resulting Model

• Border X/Y, pixels

These options allow defining horizontal and vertical borders for the resulting Model, in pixels

• Interval X/Y, pixels

These options allow defining horizontal and vertical intervals between objects on resulting Model, in pixels

• Color of connection, Input

This option allows to define the color of Relationships, which are input Relationships for the explored Object

• Color of connection, Output

This option allows to define the color of Relationships, which are output Relationships for the explored Object

Folder can be selected in drop-down like shown below:

[picture]

This is a folder, where newly created model can be found later.

Create an instant model

This option allows generating temporary model, which is kept in memory and is not available anymore if closed. If this option is selected, user is not able to specify model name and folder:

Create it in the same model

This option allows exploring object in the same model; this means that explored (linked objects) will be shown on the same model. If this option is selected, user is not able to specify model name, model type and folder; as well “Exploring only relationships related to” block is locked too:

[picture]

New option is available in this case: “Create definition copies”. If checked, CMS will find linked objects during exploration and create copies of these objects. These copies will be present on exploration model and shown as explored objects.

Exploring only relationships related to

This block allows specifying if exploration process considers only object (occurrence of the object) from which it was started or from any occurrence of this object in any model. If “the occurrence in model” selected, next wizard step is skipped.

Auto layout

This block allows configuring the layout of exploration model. Layout properties are explained in Layout wizard. If selected layout is different from “None”, “Color of connection” block becomes available:

[picture]

Here user can specify the color of “Input” (relationships from explored objects to the source object) and “Output” (relationships from source object to explored objects) relationships. By default, CMS prompts to use default color of relationships, but if “default” checkbox is unchecked, user can pick a color:

Here, all input relationship will be of RED color and output - are GREEN:

Explored object is the one on the top.

Models List

This wizard step is present only if “all occurrences” option is selected in “Exploring only relationships related to” block of previous wizard step:

CMS lists all the models where source object occurs. User can check or uncheck models, depending on this, exploration process will consider or not occurrences of source object in models while exploring objects.

Symbol Types List

This wizard step allows filtering explored objects. CMS automatically lists types of objects, which will be explored, user can decide which of them should be excluded or included in exploration process:

Relationship Types List

This wizard step allows filtering explored relationships. CMS automatically lists types of relationships, which will be explored, user can decide which of them should be excluded or included in exploration process:

Preview

This wizard step allows see a preview of exploration model before its generation. Here user can decide to return to previous steps and correct settings, finish the process by pressing Generate button or cancel it by pressing Cancel button:

CMS generates new model when Generate button is pressed. Exploration process can be repeated on exploration model too.

Object Pending Transfer

This specific functionality allows transferring of objects from one folder to another with pending approval or rejection of operation. User can select one or many objects on model design view and call “Move to a Folder” from popup menu:

When called, user will be prompted to select of create new folder. This folder will be a target folder of transfer, all selected objects will be moved from their location to selected folder if operation approved later:

When button Ok is pressed, the transfer operation becomes pending and needs to be completed. When user closes model design view, CMS will prompt to complete pending transfer:

On this window user can check or uncheck one or many objects and confirm operation or leave it pending. If current user has “RWD” or “rwd” rights (as described in Folder Access and Privileges) on target folder, he/she will be able to confirm operation, if not - operation can be confirmed later by the user having appropriate rights. When user expands folder in Project Explorer and this folder has pending transfer operations, he/she will be prompted to accept operation:

Again, here it is possible to check or uncheck one or many object and accept transfer by pressing “Accept the selected objects transfer” button or leave it pending by pressing Cancel. To see all pending transfer operations, user can call menu item Tools > Objects Pending Transfer, the same window will be opened in this case.

User Management

User Management screen is opened when toolbar button is pressed. This function is available only for the user in role Manager and having Administrative Privileges. CMS doesn’t allow to remove last Manager with Administrative Privileges, this is needed to avoid situation when user management is not allowed to any of existing database users.

Finally, when required activities are performed, button OK should be pressed to accept changes, otherwise Cancel to discard them.

Create New User

New user can be created by pressing button Create New User. New window will be opened as shown below.

User Name should be specified, this name should be unique in scope of all users. Password and Confirm Password fields should be entered with the same values, minimum 6 characters allowed. User role should be specified, three Roles are available: • Manager – by default has “RWD” privileges • Participant - by default has “rwd” privileges • Guest – by default has “r” privileges, can work in read only mode Additionally, “Administration” privileges can be given to the user in role Manager and user can be immediately activated by checking “Active” check box.

Remove Existing User

It is possible to remove multiple users, in order to do this, one or more (while pressing “Shift” key) rows should be selected in Users list and button “Remove User(s)” should be pressed.

Modify Existing User

It is possible to modify user’s name, password, role and status by double click on row in Users list. Window similar to “New User” will be opened, allowing modifying values. Additionally it is possible to change status and role for multiple users, in order to do this, one or more (while pressing “Shift” key) rows should be selected in Users list and button “Activate/Deactivate” and/or “Change Role” should be pressed. Role will be changed from existing to the one selected in dropdown.

Folder Access and Privileges

Access to folders, based on specific privileges, can be configured for the selected user(s). Folders hierarchy is shown on the right pane of “Users” window. In order to give a specific privilege for the user, folder should be picked and specific privilege selected:

Currently available privileges are (r – read, w – write, d - delete): • “--“, user will not see this folder and its contents • “r”, user will see this folder, but will not be able to make any changes to the folder and its contents • “rwd”, user will see folder and will be able to make changes only for items created by this user • “RWD”, user will see folder and will be able to make any changes to the folder and its contents Additional option “Apply privileges to child folders” allow to automatically apply a privilege specified for the folder to its child folders, even to those which will be created in the future.

SQL Connecting And Synchronization

CMS allows to work with two kinds of databases: • Local, this kind of database is used when user opens *.pft file • SQL, this kind of database is used, when user connects to SQL database Note: before start using SQL database, this should be created by SQL server administrator. Supporting technical materials are supplied with CMS distribution package and installation guides.

Connect to SQL database

In order to connect to SQL database, the following toolbar button should be pressed. New wizard will be activated in this case:

Here user can do the following: • Connect to existing SQL database • Remove existing connection • Register and test new connection

Connect to existing SQL database

User should select an option “Select existing SQL Server”; in this case dropdown with list of existing SQL connections will be available. After selection of desired SQL connection, button Next should be pressed to move to the next step of wizard.

Remove existing connection

User should select an option “Select existing SQL Server”; in this case dropdown with list of existing SQL connections will be available. By selection of item in dropdown and pressing button, user will be asked for confirmation:

User should press Yes to remove existing SQL connection or No to cancel operation. If confirmed, existing SQL connection will be removed from dropdown and not available for selection anymore.

Register and test new connection

User should get parameters for new SQL connection from SQL server administrator. These parameters are: • The name of SQL server, this parameter should be entered in “Server Name:” field • The name of SQL database, this parameter should be entered in “Database:” field • Security options, if “Use Windows NT Integrated Security” option suggested by server administrator, it is enough to proceed, otherwise “Use a specific user name and password” option should be selected and “User Name”/“Password” provided by SQL server administrator should be entered in fields “User Name:”/“Password:” An example for registering new SQL connection is shown below:

In order to complete registration, the connection should be verified, press Test Connection button to do this. If connection parameters are valid, the following message should appear:

Press OK, after this you will be able to select newly created connection in dropdown as shown below:

Press Next button to proceed.

Manage CMS workspaces

Second wizard step allows creating, removing, modifying and selecting CMS workspace to work with. CMS workspace is a set of data, which is stored in SQL database. CMS workspaces are independent, but many workspaces can be stored in single SQL database and therefore accessed through single SQL connection. CMS workspace can be considered as separate *.pft file, but it is stored on SQL server and can be accessed by many users in the same time. On second wizard step user will see similar window:

Note: if you are connected to newly created SQL database, the list of workspaces (CMS database) will be empty.

Creating new workspace

User should press button to create new workspace. After that user will be prompted to enter new workspace name as shown below:

Button OK should be pressed to create specified workspace or Cancel to cancel operation. When workspace is created, it is enough to select it in list and press Finish button of second wizard step.

Modifying existing workspace

User can rename a workspace, to do this, workspace should be selected in list and button pressed. After this user will be prompted to enter new workspace name as shown below:

Button OK should be pressed to rename selected workspace or Cancel to cancel operation.

Removing existing workspace

User can remove a workspace, to do this, workspace should be selected in list and button pressed. After this user will be asked for confirmation as shown below:

User should press Yes to remove workspace or No to cancel operation. If Yes pressed, user will be prompted to enter “User Name” and “Password” of the user having Administrative Privileges in selected workspace:

Workspace will be removed when button Ok is pressed, if “User Name” and “Password” are valid.

Selecting workspace

User should select a workspace in list and press Finish button of second wizard step in order to complete connection to a workspace. Since single SQL database can contain many CMS workspaces, filtering functionality is available to filter the list of workspaces in order to help user in selecting required workspace:

User can specify “Database Name”, “Created By”, “Created from”, “Created to” and press button to filter the list of workspaces. When required workspace if found, user should select it in list and press Finish button to complete connection to a workspace, after this user will be prompted to enter “User Name” and “Password” of the user having privileges in selected workspace. When connected to a workspace, CMS will signal about it with different look of button  ; to disconnect from workspace it should be pressed again, in this case button look will be changed to .

SQL Synchronization

When connected to SQL database user can work with data in usual way, but few additional options available: • Save to SQL, button of main toolbar allows to save modifications in SQL database (only) • SQL Refresh, button of main toolbar allows refreshing CMS data, save own modifications and load modifications made by other users Note. User may save data into file (*.pft) also. It can be done calling File > Save or File > Save As functions from main menu.

Check-In

When CMS is connected to SQL database it doesn’t load all data from SQL database. It loads only folders’ hierarchy and models without related data. If user press button to show objects in Project Explorer, the list of objects will be empty until new objects added or model having occurrences is loaded from SQL:

To load model with details, user should open model design view, it can be done by double-click model in Project Explorer:

As a result, CMS loads data related to model from SQL database and checks in a model. Checked in model is shown with sign in Project Explorer. Other users, accessing SQL database, will see the model Checked-in, which means that it is being edited by other users:

Screen above demonstrates how other users see that “New Model” is checked in.

Check-Out

When user finishes working with model, he/she can close it as shown below:

At this moment CMS will ask for confirmation to save modifications:

If user presses Yes, all modifications are saved in SQL database and model is checked-out, i.e. marked with usual sign  :

Note. After saving data in SQL database user must disconnect from SQL (press button in toolbar) in order modifications to be applied. Other users will see the model with usual sign too, but for this they may have to press SQL Refresh button of main toolbar.

Style Templates

Style Template is a set of properties, which affect look of Symbols and Relationships.

Style Templates Management

Style Templates Management functionalities are available by double-click on “Style Templates” node in Project Explorer:

Or via menu Tools > Style Template Management:

Available operations on Style Templates are:

• Add – allows to create new Style Template
• Edit – allows editing of existing Style Template
• Delete – allows to delete existing Style Template (operation is not allowed for Default Style Template)
• Clone – allows to clone a Style Template
• Rename – allows to rename Style Template (Style Templates names should be different)
• Load – allows to load Style Template from a file (extension is *.pst)
• Save – allows to save Style Template to a file (extension is *.pst)

Style Templates Wizard

Style Templates Wizard runs on adding or editing of Style Template, it consists of seven steps described below:

• Style Template Description
• Models\Symbols Appearance
• Models\Symbols Appearance by Path Attribute
• Models\Symbols Attributes Placement
• Connection Appearance
• Models\Symbols Knowledge Pattern
• Relationship Knowledge Pattern

Style Template Description

On first wizard step it is allowed to specify the Name of Style Template, its Description and to mark it as Default Style Template (see Default Style Template). Option “Default” is available for the Style Templates which are not marked as Default Style Template.

Models\Symbols Appearance

On second wizard step it is allowed to specify the appearance of Symbols within Models. By default, every Symbol has a set of appearance attributes defined.

Uncheck “Default Values” in order to customize Symbol’s appearance attributes. Default appearance attributes are customized on the picture below (refer to Preview box).

Attributes available for customization are:

• Fill Color
• Border Line Color, Weight (Width) and Style (Solid, Dashed, Dotted)
• Shaded or not
• Symbol Text Settings (Vertical and Horizontal Alignment, Font Format)
• Connectors (Number of relationship connectors per Symbol side)
• Scaling (% of default Symbol’s width and height)

Models\Symbols Appearance by Path Attribute On third wizard step it is allowed to override default Symbols’ appearance depending on path attribute of the Symbol, rules defined here are activated if Symbol’s path is different from Model’s one. This step looks similar to previous one with a few differences:

• “Evidence if attribute path is different from model folder” flag. Check this flag to activate settings of this step for the item selected in left-hand tree
• Common settings for All Models and for All Symbols within model are available:

Example below shows how this feature affects resulting model appearance:

• The appearance of Application System Type of Access Diagram is defined is as following on the first Wizard step:

• The appearance of Application System Type of Access Diagram is defined is a following on the second Wizard step, please note, the rule is activated with “Evidence if attribute path is different from model folder”:

• The Access Diagram has three Symbols of Application System Type as shown on picture below, two of them “Inner type” and “Inner type 2” are located in the same folder with the model; their path attribute is “inner”. Apart from these two Symbols, the third one “Outer type” is located in the folder “Requirements”, its path is “Requirements”. Rule defined on previous screen is applied for “Outer type”:

Models\Symbols Attributes Placement

On fourth wizard step it is allowed to specify the placement of Attributes of Symbols within Models. By default, every Symbol has only “Name” attribute shown in the center of Symbol’s area:

Select Symbol in the left-hand tree, Symbol’s attributes will be listed next to tree and visual component allowing configuring attributes’ placement will be shown on the right:

In order to make a configuration, the following actions need to be performed:

• Select Attribute
• Check “Placement” to enable configuration of selected Attribute’s placement
• Select a position of attribute
• Select Attribute’s alignment (Left, Centered, Right)

Here is a sample of custom Attributes’ placement:

Connection Appearance

On fifth wizard step it is allowed to specify the appearance of Relationships. Here is an example, Relationship of type “is input for” between Cluster and Application System Type looks like thin black arrow in the model of type “Access Diagram”:

Let’s change the appearance of this Relationship:

The following actions need to be performed:

• Filter Relationships using Filtering block
• Select required Relationship (multiple selection is available as well)
• Uncheck “Default Appearance”
• Modify Relationship’s look

Resulting Relationship looks like the following:

Models\Symbols Knowledge Pattern

Knowledge Pattern or Conditional Formatting allows managing appearance of model symbols in very flexible way. The feature allows defining logical conditions or formulas for the symbol and its attributes. If specified conditions met, specific appearance will be applied to the symbol in model design view. Figure below shows wizard step, which allows managing Knowledge Patterns.

It is possible to define Conditions Sets for symbols scoped by models. Condition sets can be added, removed, edited or sorted (refer to Conditions Order below).

Condition Set Definition

Condition Set Definition dialog is shown below:

The aim of this function is to define logical formula, which can use attribute values as parts of formula and define symbol appearance for this Condition Set. First, user should select attribute in left-hand tree, as a result, “Condition” will be prompted for entering. Based on attribute type, different set of operations can be available in “Condition” drop down. Equal (=) or Not Equal (<>) will be prompted for text attributes, additional Greater (>), Greater Or Equal (>=), Less (<), Less Or Equal (<=) will be prompted for numeric and date attributes. Corresponding component will be prompted for entering “Condition” value as well: Calendar will appear for date attributes, Drop Down with two items “True” and “False” for checkboxes, List for ListBox attribute, simple text entering field for others. User should enter conditions for variable attributes as many as needed, later these conditions will become parts of the only formula of this Condition Set.

Building and Verifying Formula

Basic conditions will be added to the “Formula Engine” list. These conditions should be linked in single formula by using logical operators “And”, “Or” and brackets. The following set of buttons should be used for building formula:

First button allows to put selected “Condition” into formula list, others put corresponding operator or bracket into formula list. Formula list should be read from up to down order, for example:

Should be read as usual formula (left-to-right order): Name = “New” AND Creator = “system”. Use “Accept” button in order to check correctness of formula.

Conditions Order

It is possible to sort conditions with buttons and . Higher position of condition means higher priority of condition. This means that condition having higher priority will be applied to the symbol, of course if considered condition match symbol attributes. For example, condition set named “RED” will be applied rather than others, if symbol attributes are matched by “RED” and others:

Symbol Appearance

The last step is to define specific appearance for the symbol; this appearance will be applied if certain symbol and its attribute values will be matched by the formula.

Uncheck “Default Values” box in order to customize symbol’s look. Use “Preview” panel in order to verify final result.

Relationship Knowledge Pattern

Similar to Model\Symbol, Relationship’s appearance can be managed with Knowledge Pattern too. Figure below shows wizard step, which allows managing relationship Knowledge Pattern.

Filtering panel helps to select required relationships. Select relationship in the bottom list and start defining Condition Sets for it, the process is similar to described above: Condition Set Definition.

Relationship Appearance

As usual, the last step is to define specific appearance for the item; this appearance will be applied if certain item and its attribute values will be matched by the formula.

Uncheck “Default Appearance” box in order to customize relationship’s look.

Using Style Templates

Style Templates are a consolidated set of settings affecting look of Symbols and Relationships. Style Template can be assigned to the model or defined as a Default Style Template. Nevertheless Symbols’ and Relationships’ look, defined by the Style Template, can be overridden. Assigning Style Template to a Model Use quick choice menu while designing model in order to access function.

Model items’ appearance will be changed immediately after assigning new style template.

Default Style Template

Few style templates can be handled in the same time, but the only template can be marked as default Style Template. User can check “Default” box while running Style Template Wizard.

The meaning of Default Style Template is simple. Its rules are used in case all other rules are not applicable. All other rules are: Object level rules, Relationship level rules, Style Template level rules (Style Template assigned to model) etc…

Symbol Appearance and Attributes Placement

Use quick choice menu for Symbol while designing model in order to access Appearance and Attributes Placement functions. Functions are described in Models\Symbols Appearance and Models\Symbols Attributes Placement. Relationship Appearance and Attributes Placement Use quick choice menu for Relationship while designing model in order to access Appearance and Attributes Placement functions. Appearance Management function is described in Connection Appearance.

Attributes Placement function allows to define the placement of Relationship’s attributes and their alignment. By default, relationships have no attributes, but with help of Attributes Management functionalities it is possible to introduce attributes for Relationships:

Resulting Relationship will look like the following:

Object Knowledge Pattern

Knowledge Pattern can be defined on different levels. The one is described in Models\Symbols Knowledge Pattern. Here it goes about “Object” level, which has higher priority than “Style Template” level. This means that Knowledge Pattern defined on “Object” level will be applied to the object rather than “Style Template” level pattern. Use quick choice menu for object occurrence while designing model in order to access Object Knowledge Pattern function:

Relationship Knowledge Pattern

“Relationship” level pattern has higher priority than “Style Template” level pattern defined for relationship. This means that Knowledge Pattern defined on “Relationship” level will be applied to the relationship rather than “Style Template” level pattern. Use quick choice menu for relationship while designing model in order to access Relationship Knowledge Pattern function.

Attributes Management

Attribute Template is a set of properties, which defines custom attributes for Projects, Models, Folders, Objects and Relationships. As well, it allows specifying labels, sorting, validation rules and other properties for attributes.

Attribute Templates

Attribute Templates Management functionalities are available by double-clicks on “Attribute Templates” node in Project Explorer:

Or via menu Tools > Attribute Management > Attribute Template Management:

Available operations on Attribute Templates are:

• Add – allows to create new Attribute Template
• Edit – allows editing of existing Attribute Template
• Delete – allows to delete existing Attribute Template (operation is not allowed for Default Attribute Template)
• Clone – allows to clone an Attribute Template
• Rename – allows to rename Attribute Template (Attribute Templates names should be different)
• Load – allows to load Attribute Template from a file (extension is *.plt)
• Save – allows to save Attribute Template to a file (extension is *.plt)

Attribute Templates Wizard

Attribute Templates Wizard runs on adding or editing of Attribute Template, it consists of ten steps described below:

• Attribute Template Description
• Project Attributes
• Folder Attributes
• Model Attributes
• Object Attributes
• Relationship attributes
• Model Content View Attributes
• Folder Content View Attributes
• Object Search Content View Attributes
• Symbol Search Inspector Content View Attributes

Attribute Template Description

On first wizard step it is allowed to specify the Name of Attribute Template, its Description and to mark it as Default Style Template (see). Option “Default” is available for the Attribute Templates which are not marked as Default Attribute Template.

As well, this window allows opening a list of all attributes defined in this template, all attribute groups and attribute validators. Key attribute view is explained later.

Project Attributes

On second wizard step it is allowed to manage custom attributes of Projects. By default, every Project has a set of predefined attributes.

Available Project attributes are shown on left side tree; here system attributes (i.e. managed automatically) are marked with symbol “S”. Clicking tree items, user can:

• define a name (label) and description for attribute in “Values” section
• make attribute unavailable (uncheck “Is Available Attribute” check box, in this case small blue circle will not be present in tree on the left of attribute)
• select a validator for attribute (this is possible only for custom attributes)

Additionally, user can add new attributes and manage sorting of attributes.

Adding new attribute If button “Add Attribute” pressed, the following window will be shown:

Here user can:

• access a list of attributes by pressing “Choose” button in “Attribute” section
• access a list of attribute groups by pressing “Choose” button in “Group” section
• access a list of validators by pressing “Choose” button in “Validator” section
• specify the Name and Description of attribute

List of attributes List of attributes looks like the following:

Here user can:

• create new attribute by pressing
• edit existing attribute by pressing
• view existing attribute by pressing
• remove existing attribute by pressing

Note, editing and removing of existing attributes is allowed only for custom attributes added by user and not allowed for predefined attributes, which are available by default. Creating new attribute The following window is opened, when user presses button in attribute list window:

Here user can specify the name and description of attribute, its type and custom values for some types of attributes. As well, newly created attribute can be marked as available only for this attribute template by checking “Make attribute available only for this template”, otherwise it will appear in list of available attributes for other templates too. Available attribute types:

• Text
• Multiline text
• Rich text
• Number (integer)
• Number (float)
• Date
• Check box
• List box
• Drop down list

List box and Drop down list types allows specifying custom values in “Values” field of form. Available values should be separated with “;” like shown on screen below:

In this case it will be possible to select values specified here, when changing attribute value in “Attributes” window:

The difference between List box and Drop down list is that user can select few values for List box and only one for Drop down list. Note. CMS controls the values of List box and Drop down lists, even if user specifies values manually. In this case, if the value entered by the user doesn’t correspond to the values available, the following window will be shown:

After pressing OK button, the wrong value entered by the user will be discarded. The values of Drop down list and List box are case sensitive, so if user types “One” and legal value is “one”, CMS will discard wrong value. For List box, were user can specify few values as selected, manually entered value must be correctly provided by the user, for example, legal values of List box are: “one” and “two”. If user wants to provide a value, which means that both “one” and “two” selected, he/she must specify “one;two”, it will be accepted, any other variants will be rejected. Editing existing attribute When editing attribute, it is not possible to change its type or name, all other values can be changed. Remove existing attribute When removing existing attribute, CMS checks if this attribute is in use, in this case it asks for confirmation to complete the operation:

If confirmed, attribute will be removed from available attributes of any CMS entity (e.g. Project, Folder, Object etc…) and related values of this attribute will be removed too.

List of groups List of groups look like the following:

Here user can:

• create new group by pressing
• edit existing group by pressing
• view existing group by pressing
• remove existing group by pressing

Note, editing and removing of existing group is allowed only for custom groups added by user and not allowed for predefined groups, which are available by default. Creating new group The following window is opened, when user presses button in group list window:

Here user can specify the name and description of group. As well, newly created group can be marked as available only for this template by checking “Make group available only for this template”, otherwise it will appear in list of available groups for other templates too. If attribute is included in group, it will be shown in “Attributes” window, on screen below, custom attribute “TEXT” is defined for the project and assigned to custom group “Custom”:

Editing existing group When editing group, it is not possible to change its name and description. Remove existing group When removing existing group, CMS checks if this group is in use, in this case it asks for confirmation to complete the operation:

If confirmed, attributes contained by the group will be moved to “Common” group like shown on screen below:

List of validators List of validators look like the following:

Here user can:

• create new validator by pressing
• edit existing validator by pressing
• view existing validator by pressing
• remove existing validator by pressing

Creating new validator The following window is opened, when user presses button in validator list window:

Here user can specify the name and expression of validator. As well, newly created validator can be marked as available only for this template by checking “Make validator available only for this template”, otherwise it will appear in list of available validators for other templates too. Expression is build over “regular expressions”, pressing Help button it is possible to access notes about usage of regular expressions. If validator is assigned to attribute, CMS will check if value of attribute is valid every time it changes in “Attributes” window, on screen below, custom attribute “TEXT” is defined for the project and has a validator expression “\w+@\w+:

CMS says that value is not valid, since there any word characters should be specified after “@”:

Changing value to “444@o” and validation is passed successfully:

Editing existing validator When editing validator, it is not possible to change its name and expression. Remove existing validator When removing existing validator, CMS checks if this validator is in use, in this case it asks for confirmation to complete the operation:

If confirmed, attributes associated with validator will not have any validation rules.

Sorting attributes It is possible to sort attributes:

Order defined here will be used in attributes window, when editing attribute values of entity:

Sorting can be done in scope of group, user can sort attributes alphabetically by pressing or manually by pressing . As well, it is possible to move attribute from one group to another. To do this, user should select attribute and change group using drop down in “Change Attribute Group” section.

Folder attributes

On third wizard step it is allowed to manage custom attributes of Folders. By default, every Folder has a set of predefined attributes.

Available Folder attributes are shown on left side tree; here system attributes (i.e. managed automatically) are marked with symbol “S”. Clicking tree items, user can:

• define a name (label) and description for attribute in “Values” section
• make attribute unavailable (uncheck “Is Available Attribute” check box, in this case small blue circle will not be present in tree on the left of attribute)
• select a validator for attribute (this is possible only for custom attributes)

Additionally, user can add new attributes and manage sorting of attributes.

Model attributes

On fourth wizard step it is allowed to manage custom attributes of Models. By default, every Model has a set of predefined attributes.

Available Model attributes are shown on left side tree; here system attributes (i.e. managed automatically) are marked with symbol “S”. Clicking tree items, user can:

• define a name (label) and description for attribute in “Values” section
• make attribute unavailable (uncheck “Is Available Attribute” check box, in this case small blue circle will not be present in tree on the left of attribute)

• select a validator for attribute (this is possible only for custom attributes) Additionally, user can add new attributes and manage sorting of attributes.

Object attributes

On fifth wizard step it is allowed to manage custom attributes of Objects. By default, every Object has a set of predefined attributes.

Available Object attributes are shown on left side tree; here system attributes (i.e. managed automatically) are marked with symbol “S”. Clicking tree items, user can:

• define a name (label) and description for attribute in “Values” section
• make attribute unavailable (uncheck “Is Available Attribute” check box, in this case small blue circle will not be present in tree on the left of attribute)
• select a validator for attribute (this is possible only for custom attributes)

Additionally, user can add new attributes and manage sorting of attributes.

All Symbols Within specific model, user can click “All Symbols” node, in this case all possible attributes will be shown for all objects. In groups/attributes tree is it possible to see which attributes are available for all objects.

Key Attribute The only attribute of object can be assigned as key attribute. To do this, user should select an attribute and press “Save as Key Attribute” button, in this case previously assigned key attribute will become usual attribute and newly assigned attribute will become key attribute. Key attribute is marked with red star as shown on screen below:

With help of key attribute it is possible to manage visibility of other attributes depending on value of key attribute. Management screen is accessible by clicking “Key attribute view” window:

In our example, we define custom attribute – “List” for object of type “Database”. This attribute is of type “List box” and it has two values “common”, “system”. Originally, attributes of object “Database” look like the following:

Now, we specify to hide “common” attributes if the value of key attribute “List” is equal to “system” and hide “system” attributes if value is “common”, we put attribute values on the right pane, in this case “Set Attribute View” becomes available:

Selecting “common” value in right pane and pressing “Set Attribute View” button, the following window will appear:

Here we choose to hide “system” attributes and press “Save” button. We repeat operation for “system” value of attribute “Lists” and choose to hide “common” attributes in this case. Finally we open a model and click on “Database” object, attributes window appear, we set “List” to “common”:

System attributes are not visible now, let’s set “List” to “system”:

Now Common attributes are not visible. List box allows us to select few values, let’s select “common” and “system”:

As a result, both sections are visible now, “Common” and “System”, since key attribute “List” has both values.

Relationship attributes

On sixth wizard step it is allowed to manage custom attributes of Relationships. By default, every Relationship has a set of predefined attributes.

Available Relationship attributes are shown on left side tree. Clicking tree items, user can:

• define a name (label) and description for attribute in “Values” section
• make attribute unavailable (uncheck “Is Available Attribute” check box, in this case small blue circle will not be present in tree on the left of attribute)
• select a validator for attribute (this is possible only for custom attributes)

Additionally, user can add new attributes and manage sorting of attributes. Clicking “[All relationship type]” within model or “[All Models Relationship Type]” user can see a summary attributes of Relationships within specific scope.

Model Content View Attributes

On seventh wizard step it is allowed to manage custom attributes in model content views. By default, content view has four attributes: Name, Type, In folder, Identifier:

Attributes Type, In Folder, Identifier can be hidden, Name cannot be hidden. Other attributes can be added to this view; resulting set of attributes can be sorted. Available attributes are shown in the tree of groups/attributes. We add Full Name and List to content view, now let’s find our model in Project Explorer, right click on it and choose “Contents”:

Content view has attributes specified in attribute template.

Folder Content View Attributes

On eighth wizard step it is allowed to manage custom attributes in folder content views. By default, content view has four attributes: Name, Type, In folder, Identifier:

Attributes Type, In Folder, Identifier can be hidden, Name cannot be hidden. Other attributes can be added to this view; resulting set of attributes can be sorted. Available attributes are shown in the tree of groups/attributes. We add List to content view, now let’s find our folder in Project Explorer, double click on it and choose “Objects” tab:

Content view has attributes specified in attribute template.

Object Search Content View Attributes

On ninth wizard step it is allowed to manage custom attributes in object search content views. By default, content view has five attributes: Name, Type, In folder, Identifier, Model:

Attributes Type, In Folder, Identifier, Model can be hidden, Name cannot be hidden. Other attributes can be added to this view; resulting set of attributes can be sorted. Available attributes are shown in the tree of groups/attributes. We add List to content view, now let’s search objects, find project node in Project Explorer, right click on it and choose “Search”:

Resulting search content view has attributes specified in attribute template.

Symbol Search Inspector Content View Attributes

On tenth wizard step it is allowed to manage custom attributes in symbol search inspector content views. By default, content view has four attributes: Name, Project, In folder, Identifier:

Attributes Project, In Folder, Identifier can be hidden, Name cannot be hidden. Other attributes can be added to this view; resulting set of attributes can be sorted. Available attributes are shown in the tree of groups/attributes. We add List to content view, now let’s search objects, go to menu Tools > Symbol Search Inspector, type the name of symbol to search and press Search:

Resulting content view has attributes specified in attribute template.

Attribute Mapping

CMS has a set of functionalities, which cannot use custom attributes directly, these are:

• Importing/Exporting data from/to ARIS
• Text reports for objects, models, model attributes

In order to have these functionalities available, use can specify a mapping of custom attributes to the attributes expected by these functionalities.

Attribute Mapping Wizard

The wizard can be run by menu item: Tools > Attributes Management > Attribute Mapping. It consists of four steps describe below:

• Project Mapping
• Folder Mapping
• Model Mapping
• Object Mapping

Project Mapping

This wizard step looks like the following:

Currently there are no attributes can be mapped to Aris attributes for the Project entity.

Folder Mapping

This wizard step looks like the following:

By default CMS maps “Description/Definition” attribute of folder to corresponding Aris attribute, other custom folder attributes defined at Attribute Template level can be mapped to remaining Aris attributes.

Model Mapping

This wizard step looks like the following:

By default CMS maps “Description/Definition” attribute of model to corresponding Aris attribute and report attributes, other custom attributes defined at Attribute Template level can be mapped to remaining Aris, report attributes.

Object Mapping

This wizard step looks like the following:

By default CMS maps “Description/Definition” attribute of object to corresponding Aris attribute and report attributes, other custom attributes defined at Attribute Template level for every type of object can be mapped to remaining Aris, report attributes.

Fixed Models

User can define one or more model types to be unavailable for attribute management functionality. In this case, models will have fixed set of attributes. This can be done via menu item Tools > Attributes Management > Define Fixed Models:

Here user can see all available model types and those which have fixed attributes. Using “<” and “>” buttons it is possible to move model types from one list to another.

Metadata Editor

CMS allows to define own types of objects, models and related metadata. Based on this metadata user can design custom types of models. Metadata editor allows producing xml files, which describe custom metadata, these xml files are included in specific CMS plugins, which are runtime libraries. At start, CMS loads all plugins and contained definitions (models types etc..) can be used for designing models. Metadata editor is accessible by menu item: Tools > MetaData PlugIn Management. Here user can start defining new xml scheme or load existing. Initially, metadata editor looks like the following:

Available commands are: • Save, Save As – allows saving currently edited scheme to xml file. • Generate Constants.cs – this command should be used to produce output for the final step, creation of plugin (runtime library), which is ready for use as soon as compiled • Symbol Types – allows to access the list of symbol types, remove, edit, create new types • Object Types – allows to access the list of object types, remove, edit, create new types

Assignments

This section shows the list of available assignments. Assignment is an entity, which declares if a model of specific type can be assigned to an object of specific type. Assignments can be created, edited or removed:

Attributes

This section shows the list of available attributes for the model type being edited. Attributes can be added, edited, removed. As well, the list of attributes, which appear by clicking “Add” button allows creating new attributes:

Attribute Validators

This section shows the list of attribute validators for the model type being edited. Attribute validators can be added, edited, removed:

Symbols

This section shows the list of available symbols for the model type being edited. Symbols can be added, edited, removed. As well, the list of symbols, which appear by clicking “Add” button, allows creating new symbols:

The list of symbols allows creating new items, user can define look of new symbol by selecting one of possible shapes:

• Rectangle
• Triangle
• Ellipse
• Image

User can load image by pressing “Load image” button if selected share is “Image”.

Relationships

This section shows the list of available relationships for the model type being edited. Relationships can be added, edited, removed. As well, the list of relationships, which appear by clicking “Add” button, allows creating new relationships:

The list of relationships allows creating new items, user can define look of new relationship by specifying line color, style, weight and arrow type:

Additionally, user can define attributes for relationship.

Reporting Engine

Reporting Engine is available from menu item Tools > Reports > Reporting Engine:

It is a set of views, which allow defining data to be reported within specific context and building different filtering conditions. Additionally, Reporting Engine allows managing templates (predefined report settings, which can be saved and loaded), it is available from menu item: Tools > Reports > Reporting Engine > Report Template Management, see Templates. Available Reporting Engine views are:

• Symbol Entity View
• Occurrence Entity View
• Relationship Entity View
• RelOccurrence Entity View
• Folder Entity View
• Model Entity View

All views have similar functionalities; the only difference between them is data which can be filtered in reported. View looks like shown on the screen below:

Common functionalities

Every view has a set of functionalities:

• Export to Excel
• Export to XML
• Columns
• Sort order
• Filter
• Add attribute
• Load
• Save
• Templates
• Reporting View

Export to Excel

This command allows saving reported data into excel file. When called, CMS prompts to specify file name:

As soon as file name is specified and button “Save” pressed, reported data are saved on disk. Note. Before exporting to excel, user must Load data and see what will be exported, as well, the order of data in resulting excel file will not be the same as reported.

Export to XML

This command allows saving reported data into xml file. When called, CMS prompts to specify file name:

As soon as file name is specified and button Save pressed, reported data are saved on disk.

Columns

This command allows specifying data to be reported. Contents of window, which appear by pressing Columns button is different for every view:

Here user can select columns to be reported by clicking them on lists of attributes on every tab. Selected columns will be shown in the right pane. Additionally, it is possible to “select all”/”deselect all” attributes on every tab and sort selected attributes. After finishing selection of columns, button Save should be pressed. For example, in Symbol Entity View user can specify which columns of object must be shown in report, user must press Columns button and the following window will appear:

Here columns “Symbol Identifier”, “Symbol Name” and “Symbol Status” are selected to be shown in report. After pressing Save button, “Symbol view customizing” window is closed and User selection is saved. Initial view window is shown:

After pressing Load button on view, data is loaded and reported according to user selection made for columns:

Sort order

This command allows to specify sorting of data in selected columns, sorting can be “ascending”, “descending” or “none”, it can be specified for every selected column:

On this example, data will be sorted by “Last change date” first, in descending order, then by “Identifier” in ascending order.

Filter

This command allows specifying filtering conditions, which will be activated during data selection, filtering condition can be specified for every column:

How to build conditions is explained here: Models\Symbols Knowledge Pattern. For example, initial Symbol Entity View can look like:

Here user has selected columns “Symbol Identifier”, “Symbol Name” and “Symbol Status” to be shown in report. User has decided to filter this view and report only objects of type “IT Service”. For doing this user must press Filter button to define filtering condition:

For defining desired filtering condition, user must select “Symbol” tab and find “Type” attribute in the list of attributes, and then define a condition. Here user selected condition “=” (equal) and selected the value of “Type” attribute: “[ 72] IT Service”. Note. Depending on type of attribute CMS offers to specify a value for a condition. In this particular case, attribute “Type” has a predefined set of values, which is a list of all possible object types. After defining condition and pressing Add button, it becomes available in “FormulaEngine” list. This list shows all conditions defined in tab, these conditions can be used for building resulting formula.

User must press >>> button to put condition in formula, here user can create quite complex formulas with use of (, ), AND, OR operators and defining the order with Up/Down buttons. Finally, to validate a formula, button Accept must be pressed. If formula is validated successfully, corresponding confirmation window will be shown, after pressing OK and saving formula by pressing Save button, filtered data can be loaded in view:

As expected, only objects of type “IT Service” are shown.

Add attribute

This command allows adding custom attributes to the reported list, when button Add attribute pressed, user can check attributes, which will be added to resulting list:

Load

This command allows refreshing reported list. CMS doesn’t report data after every configuration activity of the user. User should specify columns, filtering, and sorting conditions first, then press “Load” to visualize resulting report.

Save

This command allows saving user settings as a template. This template can be used later; this allows avoiding specifying report properties every time and access predefined set of properties quickly, later. User should specify template name and description (optional) in order to save settings as template.

Templates

This command allows to access templates management screen. All templates are grouped by Reporting Engine views. Here user can add new template, edit existing, delete, clone and rename templates.

All templates are saved per user and not visible currently for other users. Note. If user has loaded a template and modified some settings, which are part of template, like “Columns”, “Filter”, “Sorting” and has not saved modifications, CMS will ask for confirmation if button Templates is pressed (user attempts to access Report Engine Templates Management functionalities without saving modifications to the currently loaded template):

If user presses OK, modifications to the currently loaded template will be discarded and Report Engine Templates Management window will be shown, otherwise user will return to the current view, were he can save modifications into existing template or new one.

Reporting View

Reporting view has some advanced functionalities:

• Grouping/Ungrouping
• Editing
• Sorting

Note. These functionalities don’t affect excel and xml files, which user gets when exporting data.

Grouping/Ungrouping In our example we selected Symbol Entity Report and specified the following columns to be included in report:

• Symbol (Identifier, Name, Type)
• Symbol Folder (Identifier, Name)
• Model (Identifier, Name, Type)

Every symbol (i.e. object) is independent from the model and linked to the model only if occurs in it (has an occurrence), but every symbol has parent folder (when symbol is created it is linked to folder automatically). So resulting report looks like the following:

We see some data and symbols are duplicated in first three columns, let’s group them by model. To do this, user should right click on any column related to model (Model Identifier, Name or Type) and select “Group” command, the result is:

Now list is grouped by Model Name. Model Name can be seen in general rows, other model specific columns are not present in the list, they can be seen if “more” link clicked and hidden if “less..” clicked. Data related to specific model is listed as sub rows of general row. Now we want to group data by Symbol Name, the result is:

Now we see only “Symbol Folder Identifier” and “Symbol Folder Name” columns in the list, other columns, model specific and symbol specific can be seen in sub rows of report, which represent a tree of records now. Boxes in the report header show current grouping settings. To ungroup data, user should right-click one of the boxes and select “Ungroup” command.

Editing User can edit values of columns directly in reporting view, to do this, user should click cell and Reporting Engine will prompt to enter a value of primary entity attribute or report that cell is read only. Every view has primary entity, for example, Model Entity View’s primary entity - Model. In this view, Reporting Engine allows to modify attributes of Models only.

Sorting User can sort columns on reporting view by clicking their header. Repeatable click will sort report in reverse order.

Symbol Entity View

The list of sections (tabs) which can be used in this view for selecting Columns and defining Filter:

• Symbol
• Symbol Folder
• Variant
• Variant Folder
• Related Symbol
• Related Symbol Folder
• Related Symbol Relationship
• Model
• Model Folder

Occurrence Entity View

The list of sections (tabs) which can be used in this view for selecting Columns and defining Filter:

• Occurrence
• Symbol
• Symbol Folder
• Model
• Model Folder
• Related Occurrence
• Related Occurrence Symbol
• Related Occurrence Symbol Folder
• RelOccurrence
• RelOccurrence Relationship

Relationship Entity View

The list of sections (tabs) which can be used in this view for selecting Columns and defining Filter:

• Relationship
• Source Symbol
• Source Symbol Folder
• Destination Symbol
• Destination Symbol Folder
• Model
• Model Folder

RelOccurrence Entity View

The list of sections (tabs) which can be used in this view for selecting Columns and defining Filter:

• RelOccurrence
• Relationship
• Source Occurrence
• Source Occurrence Symbol
• Source Occurrence Symbol Folder
• Destination Occurrence
• Destination Occurrence Symbol
• Destination Occurrence Symbol Folder
• Model
• Model Folder

Folder Entity View

The list of sections (tabs) which can be used in this view for selecting Columns and defining Filter:

• Folder
• Parent Folder

Model Entity View

The list of sections (tabs) which can be used in this view for selecting Columns and defining Filter:

• Model
• Model Folder
• Variant
• Variant Folder

Import From Excel

CMS supports functions for importing data from excel files. There are two possible ways to import data from excel files: • Import objects and attributes from excel • Advanced import from excel

Import objects and attributes from excel

This function is available from menu item Tools > Import object and attributes from excel. When called it prompts to select a folder or create a new one:

User should pick an existing folder in tree or press “New Folder” button to create new folder. New folder is created as a subfolder of selected one. For new folder user should specify name. After picking a folder, user should press Ok button to proceed to the next step. When folder is selected, new window will be opened:

Here user can select excel file to be imported by pressing button. When pressed, user is prompted to select a file:

When file is selected, CMS reads and validates it; all rows parsed successfully are marked green, those having errors marked red. On the screen below CMS shows that two objects with their attributes can be imported:

User should press Import button to complete operation. After that, imported objects with their attributes will be available in the folder selected at the beginning:

Excel file structure

User should prepare correct excel file before importing data. File has the following structure:

Here user should specify Model Type (marked red), Object Names (italic), Object Types (standard), Attributes (marked green) and their values (marked blue). Note. User should not specify a specific color for the text in excel file, here color is mentioned only for giving better understating of excel file structure. Model Type is defined for the model at the moment of its creation, later it can be seen from its contents or attributes, and model of type “CMDB” is shown below:

Available Object Types per model can be seen on model design view; tool bar on the left side of design area has a set of buttons for creation of objects:

Available Object Attributes can be seen in Attribute Template or Attributes window, when object is selected:

Advanced import from excel

This function is available from menu item Tools > Advanced import from Excel. Advanced import allows importing objects with attributes, relationships which occur in a model of specified type. When called it prompts to select a folder or create a new one:

User should pick an existing folder in tree or press “New Folder” button to create new folder. New folder is created as a subfolder of selected one. For new folder user should specify name. After picking a folder, user should press Ok button to proceed to the next step. When folder is selected, new window will be opened:

Here user can select excel file to be imported by pressing “Import file” button or specify a disk folder containing files to be imported by pressing “Import folder” button. When pressed, user is prompted to select a file or pick disk folder:

When file or folder is selected, CMS reads and validates excel file(s); if rows parsed successfully CMS reports “<import successful>”, otherwise reports errors in the area below the list of parsed rows. On the screen below CMS shows that parse operation is successful and data can be imported:

User should press Import button to complete operation. After that, imported data will be available in the folder selected at the beginning:

Excel file structure

User should prepare correct excel file before importing data. File has the following structure:

Here user should specify Model Type and Name, then the list of object with attributes and relationships. List has a row declaring Object columns and Relationship columns. Every Object column has first sub column for specifying the type and name of object, next sub columns specify names and values of attributes. Every Relationship column has first sub column for specifying the type of relationship, next sub column specify the direction of relationship: “sx-dx” means that source object on the left and destination on the right, “dx-sx” has opposite meaning.

Web Publisher

CMS allows exporting its data via web service, this data can be published on the Web. Two options possible here: • Sharepoint WebSite • ASP WebSite CMS supports full and partial publishing, which means that user can publish only few folders, models and not whole CMS database. Publishing functionality is available via menu item: Tools > Web Publisher. When parameters, described below, are specified, user should press Finish button to start publishing process. Dialog window will start process and show “estimated time left”. User can interrupt procedure by pressing Cancel button or wait until CMS will show a report about performed operation.

Publishing Settings

Before starting publishing procedure, user should specify publishing settings. Publishing form looks like the following: User should specify data to be published in the tree “Select objects for publishing”. This tree has the following structure: • Services • Services > Attributes • Project • Project > Attributes • Project > Folder • Project > Folder > Attributes • Project > Folder > Object Attributes • Project > Folder > SubForlder • Project > Folder > SubForlder > Attributes • Project > Folder > SubForlder > Object Attributes • Project > Folder > Model • Project > Folder > Model > Attributes • Project > Folder > Model > Object Attributes • And so on…

Services (Attributes)

Here user can specify which attributes of objects of type “IT Service” will be present in the list of objects on Sharepoint Website. Additionally user can reorder attributes with drag-n-drop functionality and specify width of attributes in “%”, by double click. Sharepoint Website supports these functionalities, any list of objects on the site can be marked as “IT Services only”, in this case, settings passed by CMS will be applied to such kind of list.

Entity (Attributes)

Node in the tree, like Project > Attributes, Folder > Attributes, declares which attributes of entity should be published, in our case, which Attributes of Project or Folder will be published.

Entity (Object Attributes)

Node in the tree, like Folder > Object Attributes declares which attributes of objects related to this folder should be published.

Space Name

Every publishing session exports data, which is related only to this session. When Website user browsing exported data, he usually selects a space first and then can see data exported (published) within selected space. Description can be provided to give a note to website user about published data.

Sharepoint Sites

Here user can specify one or many Sharepoint sites, separated with “;”. These are Sharepoint sites, where data will be published.

Publish Service URL

This is URL of publishing web service, it should be provided by the person who is responsible for deployment and configuration (administrative level).

Images Service URL

This is URL of web service (usually it is the same as publishing web service, but can differ), it should be provided by the person who is responsible for deployment and configuration (administrative level).

Credentials and proxy

Domain, username, password and proxy settings should be provided by the person who is responsible for deployment and configuration (administrative level).

Settings Management

It is possible to save publishing settings per user or per database. These settings can be used later, to avoid repeatable customization. When user has configured publishing settings, he/she can press Add as new Predefined Settings button to save them:

This new window appears, here user should specify name and check “Visible for all” in order to make settings available for other users or don’t check it for personal use only.

All predefined settings available for the user are listed in drop down in section “Predefined settings”:

Ones selected, all controls of publishing form will be populated with values accordingly. If user wants to remove settings, he/she can press “Remove” button. If user wants to change and update settings, he/she should make changes on publishing form and press “Update current predefined settings” button.

Application Settings

Application Settings are available through menu item File > Application Settings:

These are mainly values, which allow managing some limitations to achieve better performance, as well to manage other aspects. • Default file password, this option allows to specify default password, which is used to protect *.pft file (CMS database file format) • Symbol Search Inspector Management, this value defines number of items shown on single page in corresponding view • Object Count Undoable Limit, this option allows managing a limitation, which is applied for undo operation for removing objects, this option can prevent problems for PC having limited operative memory (RAM) • Object Load Limit, this option allows managing a limitation, which is applied for content views, this option can prevent problems for PC having limited operative memory (RAM) • Search Object Load Limit, this option is the same as previous, but is applied for search content view, this option can prevent problems for PC having limited operative memory (RAM) • Skip DB version checking (only for administrators), CMS controls compatibility between application and SQL database version, but sometimes it is required to skip this control. This option allows to avoid compatibility control and allowed for user with Administrative Privileges only

Impact Chains

Impact Chains functionality is available only in SQL (server) mode; refer to SQL Connecting And Synchronization. In order to start using Impact Chains user shall create a model of type “Impact Chain” as shown on picture below:

“Impact Chain” model is available if application is run with impact chain plugin contained in PFT.MDImpactChain.dll. System folder named “Impact Chains” is managed automatically; it cannot be removed; only models of type “Impact Chain” can be located in this folder and its subfolder:

“Impact Chains” folder is a usual folder in all other scenarios.

Impact Chain Model

The model of type “Impact Chain” allows using any kind of objects and the only relationship between objects, named – “impacts”:

“Impacts” relationship has few system attributes related to Impact Chains functionality: • Cluster Name, read only if “Is Cluster“ equals to false, otherwise can be managed by the user. Possible values are defined by the user. • Is Cluster, can be managed by the user, possible values “true” or “false”. • Performance Impact, read only if “Is Cluster“ equals to false, otherwise can be managed by the user. Possible values are 0..100% The meaning and usage scenarios of these attributes are explained in Impact Chains Usage. Each object has few system attributes related to Impact Chains functionality:

• Defined Status, can be managed by the user, possible values “UP” or “DOWN” • Depending Status, read only, possible values “UP” or “DOWN” • Result Status, read only, possible values “UP” or “DOWN” The meaning and usage scenarios of these attributes are explained in Impact Chains Usage.

Impact Chains Management

The list of ”Impact Chain” models is available through menu item Tools > Impact Chains Management:

Here user can create new “Impact Chain” models, which will be located in “Impact Chain” folder by default, edit or remove existing models and reset models. Reset command sets “Defined Status” of all model objects to “UP”.

Impact Chains Usage

Statuses of objects, connected with “impacts” relationship are managed according to the rules defined below. In order to activate impact chain process, at least one action, having “Impact Chain Calculation” task shall be activated, refer to Impact Chain Actions and Tasks.

Objects rules

• Result Status of object is “UP” in case both, Defined Status and Depending Status are “UP”; otherwise it is “DOWN”. As soon as Result Status of any object changes its value, the event “Object Result Status Updated” is raised, which can execute corresponding action if configured.

• Depending Status is calculated based on “impacts” relationships. Depending Status is always “UP” in case there are no incoming relationships for the object. Depending Status is “DOWN” in case incoming relationships have source objects with Result Status “DOWN” and these relationships are not clustered. Depending Status is “UP” in case all incoming relationships have source objects with Result Status “UP” and these relationships are not clustered. Depending Status is “UP” in case at least one incoming relationship have source object with Result Status “UP” and this relationship is clustered and has Performance Impact greater then 0%.

• Defined Status is set be the user, when changed, Depending Status and Result Status of object are calculated and updated.

Relationship rules

• It is not allowed to make a loop between objects with “impacts” relationship, otherwise it will not allow to calculate objects’ statuses.
• Relationships can be clustered or non-clustered. Clustered relationships have “Is Cluster” equal to true and “Cluster Name” set to the cluster the relationship belongs to. When defining “Cluster Name” user may select one of existing value or type new one and press Enter, in this case new cluster will be created.
• Non-clustered relationships have “Performance Impact” always equal to 100%.
• Clustered relationships, included in the same cluster, shall have summary “Performance Impact” not greater than 100%.
• Clustered relationships, included in the same cluster, shall have the same target object.

Impact Chain Actions and Tasks The list of actions is available through menu item Tools > Actions:

In order to activate impact chain process it is required to have at least one action, which shall be executed when “Object Result Status Updated” event occurs:

And this action shall include at least one task of type “Impact Chain Calculation”:

Impact Console

Impact Console is a window containing messages generated when Objects or Attributes are edited. Before using Impact Console it shall be configured and turned on. Only users having appropriate rights can configure and/or view Impact Console, these rights can be granted with user management functionalities:

Press this button in toolbar in order to manage user profiles:

Double-click user profile to access its details:

Here user may be granted for managing Impact Console settings, viewing Impact Console and defining Message Rules for the models.

Impact Console Settings

Impact Console settings are available through menu item Tools > Impact Console Settings:

Here user may define:

• Background color for the Impact Console
• Paging settings in the form N1, N2, .., Nm, All , where N1 < N2 < … < Nm and All is the last item, not mandatory
• The maximum number of messages available to view
• Sound alert, this shall be “wav” file, the sound will be played as soon as new messages appear in Impact Console

As well, user may activate Impact Console. If activated, system will start generating messages according to configured message rules.

Message Rules

Message rules allow defining which message will be generated to Impact Console and when:

For message rule user may define:

• Name of message rule
• Font format, which will be used when drawing message in console
• Message template, it is possible to insert object attributes in form ##AttributeName## inside message template, later it will be replaced with value of corresponding attribute; button “Accept” allows to validate message template
• Status, active/inactive; if message rule inactive, no message will be generated for this rule
• Trigger, this is a condition, which will be validated before generation of the message. If it is true, message will be generated:

Message rules may be defined at different levels:

• Attribute Template Management, user shall open wizard with menu item Tools > Attributes Management > Attribute Template Management and open Model/Object tab:

When object type and attribute selected, tab Messages is available on right pane. Here user may create/update/remove message rules. If defined, messages will be generated each time the object or attribute changed for the objects of selected object type and belonging to the selected model type.

• Model, user shall right-click on empty space of model design window and select Object Messages menu item to access message rules management functionality:

If defined, messages will be generated only for the objects belonging to the selected model.

• Object, user shall right-click on object and select Object Messages menu item to access message rules management functionality:

If defined, messages will be generated only for the selected object. In last two cases, Model and Object levels, message rules may be managed for available objects’ attributes:

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Impact Console View

Impact Console is available through menu item View > Impact Console:

It draws messages generated according to configured active message rules. Here user may:

• Change Impact Console refresh rate
• Update settings by pressing “Paging” button
• Freeze/Unfreeze console
• Right-click any message to perform the following activities:

 * Localize object
 * View object attributes
 * View history
 * Make exploration model
 * View message rule, the message is based on

Tracking

Tracking functionality can be used for auditing purposes, it is available only in SQL (server) mode; refer to SQL Connecting And Synchronization.

Configuration

Before using tracking functionality, user shall configure tracking rules. Tracking rules allow defining what shall be audited and can be configured for the following entities:

• Objects
• Models
• Folders
• Object Occurrences
• Relationships
• Relationship Occurrences

Corresponding menu items allow opening the list of tracking rules: Settings > Tracking > [entity name].

Tracking Rules

The list of tracking rules allows creating new rules, updating or removing existing ones. As well it allows to quickly filtering only active/inactive or all rules:

When creating/editing tracking rule, user may also define the condition for the rules to be executed and a set of fields to be remembered when modified (per event type, refer to Event Types):

Only active tracking rules are considered by tracking process, when corresponding event occurs on server. Tracking rule condition is tested on server in order to decide if the rule is applicable or not:

“Exclude” flag means that if condition is “True”, the rule is not applicable. As well it is possible to “Copy” condition and “Paste” it to another tracking rule of the same entity type. In case event type supports auditing of fields, user will be able to configure the set of fields:

Later, information about old and new values of fields will be linked to tracking record (refer to Tracking Console View).

Tracking Records

The list of tracking records is available for certain entities on their content windows, on tab “Tracking”:

The following entities have content windows:

• Object
• Model
• Folder

Tracking records of the other entities:

• Object Occurrence
• Relationship
• Relationship Occurrence

Are available via popup menu “Tracking”, which is accessible from the model, object or folder content windows (corresponding tab):

This is a limited version of Tracking Console, configured for specific entity.

Event Types

The following table depicts the event types available for tracking functionality, as well it shows for which entities event types are available and possibility to track changed fields per event type:

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Tracking Console

Tracking Console is a window containing tracking records generated when events occur and configured tracking rules are executed. Before using Tracking Console it shall be turned on. Only users having “Manager” role can view Tracking Console, this right can be granted with user management functionalities:

Press this button in toolbar in order to manage user profiles:

Double-click user profile to access its details:

Here user may be granted for viewing Tracking Console.

Tracking Console View

Tracking Console is available through menu item View > Tracking Console:

It draws tracking records generated according to configured active tracking rules. Here user may:

• Delete one or many selected records by pressing “Delete” button
• Delete all records by pressing “Delete All” button
• Filter records using “Quick Filter”
• Filter records using “Personal Filter”
• Click “Entity ID” column on any record to open corresponding entity’s content window
• Double-click record to see changed fields (if configured in tracking rule)

Quick Filter

By pressing “Toggle QuickFilter” button, user will see filtering options above list header and two new buttons:

• Apply QF – to apply quick filter
• Drop QF – to drop quick filter

If user presses “Toggle QuickFilter” again, filtering options and new buttons will be hidden.

Personal Filter

By pressing “Manage” button, user will see personal filter management screen:

Here user may do the following:

• Configure filtering criteria
• Save configured filter as new
• Update existing personal filter
• Reset screen by pressing “Reset” button
• Apply filter by pressing “Ok”

Personal filters are persisted on server and available per user. User may apply configured personal filters directly on tracking console view by selecting it in “Filter” drop-down: