Objectives

The new learning objectives of this exercise are to create a repository connection to a Jama repository on the Syndeia Web Dashboard (SWD), view the repository including properties, relations and search, and create a reference connection.

Preparation

This exercise assumes the student has

·         Syndeia Cloud installed with a valid user account,

·         A valid user account to a Jama repository, and

·         A valid user account to a at least one other on-line repository, e.g. JIRA.

The user can use any Jama repository they have available.  Because the content of your Jama repository will be different, the specific examples in the following exercise instructions are only a guide and example for your actions. It is generally advisable to carry out these exercises in a non-production repository, a “sandbox”, set up for training and practice purposes.

See Video 1.9 for an introduction to the Syndeia Web Dashboard.

Background – Jama

As envisioned by Intercax, the Digital Thread is composed of inter-model connections between models in different repositories, which Syndeia creates and manages, and intra-model connections between elements in the same repository, which the individual tool creates and manages. As of the current Syndeia release, the Syndeia Web Dashboard can extract and display some model information from a Jama Connect repository. Figure 1 shows a tree view of this information, with labels identifying the Jama element types. Note the different icons. The label color coding indicates how the Jama element type is mapped to the Syndeia Cloud element types: Repository (green), Container (red), and Artifact (blue).

The Syndeia Jama integration supports a large number of standard Jama artifact types, only some of which are illustrated in Figure 1, as well as custom types. Similarly, the Relations table (Step 7) and the Digital Thread Explorer (Step 9 onwards) can display a wide variety of Jama relations between Artifacts, as well as inter-model connections. A partial list of supported Jama artifacts and relations is given in Table 1. The intra-model connections are not permanently part of the Syndeia Cloud graph; they are extracted and displayed as needed.

This information is important in formulating and interpreting Syndeia graph queries. A more complete diagram of the Jama data model as it is understood by Syndeia is available through the web dashboard help menu on the left.

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Figure 2 Tree view of Jama repository

Exercise

1. Log on to the Syndeia Cloud Web Dashboard (see Video 1.9) and click on the Repositories icon on the left border (Figure 3).
   
   

   Open

   

   Figure 3 SWD Repositories page (initial) – Repositories icon outlined in red
   
   

2. If no repository connection to Jama is available, select Jama in the left column, then click the + icon at the top of the column. Complete the form and click Create (Figure 4).
   
   

   Figure 4 Adding a Jama repository connection
   
   

3. If a Jama repository connection already appears under Jama, but you need to add your own access credential, select the Jama repository and click the Gear icon at the top of the column. Complete username and password and click Update (Figure 5).
   
   

   Figure 5 Updating Jama repository info
   
   

4. Your repository should load. Expand it to show Jama artifacts such as Components, Sets and Requirements, as in Figure 6. See Background section for discussion of Jama artifact types
   
   

   Figure 6 Viewing Jama repository contents on Repositories page
   
   

5. On the right border, there are three icons, labeled Details, Relations and Search. Select a Jama element in the Tree View column (Technical Requirements in our example) and click on the Details icon. A Detail list appears to the right as in Figure 7. Scroll down and review the attributes of the Jama element that are available to Syndeia in the current version, including name, type and externalKey, which is the unique identifier in the Jama repository. Click the Details icon again to close the list.
   
   

   Figure 7  SWD Repositories page, Details list (Details icon highlighted in red)
   
   

6. Click the Search icon on the right.
   
   

   1. In the Search window, select Search for projects or Search for items. If Projects is selected, fill in the Text contained in the name field and click Search.
      
      

   2. If Search for items is selected, select the Project to be searched from the pull-down menu
      
      

      1. Search item by ID searches by the attribute listed under otherInfo.itemID on the Details page
         
         

      2. Search item by document key searches by the attribute externalKey on the Details page
         
         

      3. Search items by text/type first requires the user to select an artifact type from the pull-down menu, then searches by a text string in the name or description. In our example, we entered Automobile for Project, Requirement for artifact type, and Maintenance for Text contained. The result(s) of the search are shown on the right, as in Figure 8.
         
         

   3. Note that right-clicking on a search result in the right column accesses multiple dashboard functions for that item.
      
      

   4. Click the Search icon again to close the Search window.
      
      

      Figure 8  SWD Repositories page, Search feature (Search icon and search result highlighted in red)
      
      

7. Select a Jama element in the Tree View column (Technical Requirements in our example) and click on the Relations icon on the right.
   
   

   1. In the Relations window (Figure 9), you will see a list of Inter-model relations, from the selected Jama item to other non-Jama models, and a list of Intra-model relations, from the selected Jama element to other Jama elements in the same Jama repository. In this example, there is one Inter-model relation, to a JIRA issue, and two intra-model connections to the component which contains it and a requirement it contains.
      
      

      Figure 9  SWD Repositories page, Relations lists (Relations and Add icons highlighted in red)
      
      

8. To create a reference connection between the selected Jama item and an element in another repository, click on the + (Add) icon highlighted in Figure 9. A Create Reference Relationships window will appear as in Figure 10.
   
   

   1. At the top, either select an existing Syndeia project to save the connection within (DZSB13 in our example) or create a new project. See Video 1.5 on creating Syndeia projects for further discussion.
      
      

   2. Under Select target artifact, choose the other repository to which the new connection will be made. In our example this is Confluence @ Intercax.
      
      

   3. If you have valid access to this repository, its contents will appear at the bottom of the window. Scroll down to the element that will be the target of the new connection and click the checkbox beside it. This is Confluence page Syndeia Plugin for MagicDraw – User Guide in our example.
      
      

   4. Each Syndeia connection has a directionality. The Select direction pull down menu higher up in the window allows the directionality to be set as desired before the connection is made.
      
      

   5. Click on the Create Reference Connection button at the bottom. The new connection should appear in the Inter-model list after the Reload icon is clicked.
      
      

   6. Click the Relations icon again to close the Relations window.
      
      Note: As of Syndeia 3.5, users cannot transform models from/to Jama Connect via the Syndeia Web Dashboard like they can do with Syndeia Client Dashboard (see the Cameo tutorials https://intercax.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SYN35/pages/2922158216 for more details). This and other related use cases will be addressed in future releases.
      
      

      Figure 10  SWD Create Reference Relationship window
      
      

9. The Digital Thread Explorer or DTE (Figure 11 - Figure 13) provides interactive visualization of inter-model and intra-model connections in a graph format. To launch DTE, right-click an item in the Tree View and choose Graph View. In our example, this is a Jama set, Technical Requirements. Initially, it appears as a single node in the Graph View, as in Figure 11.
   
   

   Figure 11  DTE, stage 1
   
   

10. Click on the node (it will show a black border when selected), right-click on it and choose Expand. If this element has any connections, they should appear as in Figure 12. In our example, the initial element has two intra-model connections to other Jama items (gold circles) and two inter-model connections, to a JIRA issue (blue) and a Confluence page (lavender).
    
    

    Figure 12  DTE, stage 2
    
    

11. If I right-click on one of the new nodes (Confluence page Syndeia Plug-in for MagicDraw - User Guide) and expand it, an additional edge and node is displayed (Figure 13), an inter-model connection to another JIRA issue (blue). This process can continue until all connections are displayed.
    
    

    Figure 13  DTE, stage 3
    
    

12. Jama items in either the Graph View or the Tree View offer direct access to that element in the Jama repository. If I right-click on Technical Requirements in the diagram in Figure 13 and choose More Details, my browser will open to the same element in Jama as in Figure 14 (I may be required to log-in to Jama first).
    
    

    Figure 14  Jama browser interface launched from Syndeia Web Dashboard