Hello,

I like that you are putting the attachments that are placed in a folder into the document. I am wondering if it would be possible to instead of attaching the attachment at the folder level in a Requirement or Specification, connect it to a specific requirement or specification, or maybe both? Both would probably be nicest.

When I include an image to my current documentation, it relates to a particular requirement, or multiple requirements.

I think that if the attachment could be added where the requirement is defined, or an additional tab implemented when the requirement or specification is selected, then it would be easy for you to also place the attachment with the detailed requirement/specification in the generated document. That would be what is really needed for attachments.

One other attachment feature that would be of benifit: If an attachment has been added for requirement R, it would be best not to re-include it again for requirement Z. It would be sweet if you could pick from a list of existing attachments that are already included in the particular specification (or particular requirement). In the document a link could be added that could be clicked on to go to the place where the attachment is shown in the document.

I suppose the option to have the attachment show up every where it was referenced to in the document would be a nice feature as well.

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks.

Jim

Hi,
I suppose the simplest would be to implement an "attachment inheritance" mechanism.
You could add an attachment to any folder in the tree.
Any leaf in that tree would then inherit all the attachments of its parent folders.
I could show a new "inherited attachments" tab somewhere with the list of inherited attachments. clicking on one item in the list would redirect the user to the folder including this specific attachment.
What do you think of it?
Thanks,

Hello,

I am trying to visualize your suggestion.

So, the attachement would be added in the exact way it is currently done, right?

Then when you are working on a particular leaf under that folder, there would be an additional tab that would be visible called "Inherited Attachments".

Click on this tab and then you could select from the list of attachments that are in it's parent folder.

Then when the document is printed, the inherited attachment would be presented with the requirement.

That sounds good. Infact, if all attach ments for that project were available to pick and choose from, then one attachment could be referenced in a leaf that is in a parallel folder, or in any other folder in that document preventing the user from having to put the same attachment in two places if it is needed in two folders.

If the link was clicked on do you mean that it to bring you directly to the attachment, or would you have to look for it in the folder?

I will be looking forward to hearing from you again.

Jim

Yes that's the idea. I think the best would be to display the list of inherited attachments with their path and open directly the attachment. Ideally we should be able to go also to the parent folder hosting the inherited attachment (to delete it for example!).
Ok, I think this solution is pretty neat. I'll work on the design...
Thanks,

Sounds good, very useful feature. Would it also be possible to add, for each reference from (let's say) requirement to attachment, a (free-format) field where you can specify the location within the attachment? For example, "page 12, section 3.5". This would make retrieval much easier. (this of course also applies to attachment references from other sources, such as specifications, tests, defects, etc).

Theo

Hi,
This is already implemented (see http://xqual.blogspot.com/2009/10/xstud ... ments.html). I'll check how to implement the "additional info" thing...
Thanks,

Hi,

Evaluated the beta, good improvement! What I still miss (besides adding the "free text field" as discusses above), is actually checking which of the inherited documents do apply to the requirement/specification, and then maybe add the fancy "show all / only show checked" button for the inherited documents as in other parts of your software.

The reason for asking is that, on top-level folders, there can be many documents, each containing a whole lot of information regarding requirements, but each requirement typically only refers to one or two of such documents. It would be great that, per requirement, then by default, only those document that really apply would be visible (including the free text reference field).

Theo

Hello again!

Happy to say that I am testing the new version.

I see a small problem with this though.....

If I have an attachement to a folder, it will print in the report at the beginning of the folder's section as it did before. That is desireable.

but... If I attach it to a requirement, then they do not print at all in the report.

You probably forgot about that part of the request, (not that you also might be busy... ) I think it would be nice if it would show up in the report following the description of the requirement (or specification).

Once this is in place, I am gong to import my current requirements document in and see how it works with a full list of requirements and attachments.

Looking forward to trying that.

Oh, Note that what I am needing to do is attach only images or drawings, maybe a table from Excel saved as an image. These are importatnt to print in the report.

Theo is apparently looking at adding a whole document as an attachment while refering to a section in that document.

Having that whole attachment included in the document may be an undesireable thing, if you could do it at all. You may want to add one more field for the attachemnts that default to "Place in Report" or maybe "Include in Report" or something to that effect.

That field could be unchecked so that the report generator doesn't put that whole other document into the report, just the reference to the attachment would need to be noted.

What do you and Theo think about that?

Thanks!

Hi Jim/Theo,
Yep, forgot that part 8o ! will fix it in b2.
I guess your comments all make sense. I'll try to think about something flexible and will get back to you about it...
I need to find a smart way to avoid any potential issue when moving a folder (this scares me a little bit).
Thanks,

Hi all,

Jim, fully agree with the "include document in report / just include reference" checkbox. Good solution that facilitates both uses.


About the "moving folder issue", this can indeed be very nasty. One solution could be that references to documents can also reference to other folders than only parent folders, so the reference could be kept alive after moving.
I also read in another thread about introducing a seperate 'document folder tree' (not sure if i'm correct about this). One has then the freedom of structuring the documents as one likes, and also to refer to whichever document one likes, by looking up the document in a kind of browse dialog. Personal advantage of the latter is that the same document can be referenced by all parts of the software (not only requirements, but also specs, test cases, etc).

yeah... all this make perfectly sense. As soon as the 1.0 is released, I'll jump on it !
Thx for your feedbacks and ideas,