Objectives

The new learning objectives of this exercise are to create a repository connection to an Artifactory 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 3.4 installed with a valid user account,

·         A valid user account to an Artifactory repository, and

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

The user can use any Artifactory repository they have available. Because the content of that 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 – Artifactory

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 Syndeia release 3.4, the Syndeia Web Dashboard can extract and display some model information from the Artifactory repository. Figure 1 shows a tree view of this information, with labels identifying the Artifactory element types. The label color coding indicates how the Artifactory element type is mapped to the Syndeia Cloud element types: Repository (green), Container (red), and Artifact (blue). No Artifactory intra-model relations are recognized in this release.

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

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Figure 1 Tree view of Artifactory 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 2).
   
   

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   Figure 2 SWD Repositories page (initial) – Repositories icon outlined in red
   
   

2. If no repository connection to Artifactory is available, select Artifactory in the left column, then click the + icon at the top of the column. Complete the form and click Create (Figure 3).
   
   

   Figure 3 Adding a Artifactory repository connection
   
   

3. If an Artifactory repository connection already appears under Artifactory, but you need to add your own access credentials, select the Artifactory repository and click the Gear icon at the top of the column. Complete username and password and click Update (Figure 4).
   
   

   Figure 4 Updating Artifactory repository info
   
   

4. Your repository should load. Expand it to show Repositories, Folders and Files as in Figure 5. See Background section for discussion of Artifactory object types.
   
   

   Figure 5 Viewing Artifactory repository contents on Repositories page
   
   

5. On the right border, there are three icons, labeled Details, Relations and Search. Select an Artifactory object in the Tree View column (the CFD_4.0.pdf file in our example) and click on the Details icon. A Detail list appears to the right as in Figure 6. At the top of the list, two icons allow the list to be sorted alphabetically or by default order (shown here). Scroll down and review the attributes of the Artifactory object that are available to Syndeia 3.4, including name, type and externalKey. Click the Details icon again to close the list.
   
   

   Figure 6  SWD Repositories page, Details list (Details icon highlighted in red)
   
   

6. Click the Search icon on the right.
   
   

   1. In the Search window, select the type of artifact to be searched for from the Search for pull-down menu, fill in the Path field with the full path of the artifact (this would be the same as the externalKey property on the Details page) and click Search. In our example, we entered Artifact under Search for and Automotive_Engineering/ Analysis/CFD_4.0.pdf for Path. The result(s) of the search are shown on the right, as in Figure 7.
      
      

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

      Figure 7  SWD Repositories page, Search feature (Search icon and search result highlighted in red)
      
      

7. Select an Artifactory artifact in the Tree View column (CFD_4.0.pdf file in our example) and click on the Relations icon on the right.
   
   

   1. In the Relations window (Figure 8), you will see a list of Inter-model relations, from the selected Artifactory object to models in other repositories. As discussed in the Background section, Syndeia release 3.4 does not recognize any Intra-model relations within the Artifactory repository. In this example, there are three Inter-model relations, to a JIRA issue, a Zephyr Scale test case and a Zephyr Scale test plan.
      
      

      Figure 8  SWD Repositories page, Relations lists (Relations and Add icons highlighted in red)
      
      

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

   1. At the top, either select an existing Syndeia project to save the connection within (DZSB09 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 JIRA @ 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 JIRA issue Hello-2269 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: In Syndeia release 3.4, it is not possible to create Model Transform inter-model connections or intra-model connections through the SWD. Some of those use cases will be added in future releases.
      
      

      Figure 9  SWD Create Reference Relationship window
      
      

9. The Digital Thread Explorer or DTE (Figure 10 - Figure 12) 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 an Artifactory file CFD_4.0.pdf. Initially, it appears as a single node in the Graph View, as in Figure 10.
   
   

   Figure 10  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 11. In our example, the initial element had four inter-model connections to JIRA/Zephyr Scale (blue). The dashed outline on the Artifactory node represents a “merged node”, the combination of multiple versions of the same element into a single symbol. View Video 1.11 in the Syndeia Web Dashboard/Introduction section for more explanation.
    
    

    Figure 11  DTE, stage 2
    
    

11. If I right-click on one of the new nodes (JIRA Hello-2269) and expand it, an additional edge and node is displayed (Figure 12), an inter-model relation to a SysML 2.0 model element. This process can continue until all connections are displayed.
    
    

    Figure 12  DTE, stage 3