Exercise 20.1 - Syndeia - Teamwork Cloud Capabilities

Objectives

The new learning objectives of this exercise are to create a repository connection to a Teamwork Cloud (TWC) repository with the Syndeia Standalone Client, view the repository including search, and create a reference connection.

Preparation

This exercise assumes the student has 

• Syndeia 3.4 Standalone Client with a valid license for use

• Syndeia TWC interface, correctly installed with a valid license for user

• Syndeia Cloud 3.4 installed with a valid user account, and

• A valid user account to a Teamwork Cloud repository

The user can use any TWC repository they have available.  Because the content of your TWC 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.

Background – Teamwork Cloud

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, Syndeia can extract and display some model information from the Teamwork Cloud repository. Figure 1 shows a view of this information in the Syndeia dashboard Repository Manager with labels identifying the Teamwork Cloud element types. Note the different icons. The label color coding indicates how the Teamwork Cloud element type is mapped to the Syndeia Cloud element types: Repository (green), Container (red), and Artifact (blue). 

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

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Figure 1 Repository Manager view of TWC repository 

Exercise

1. Launch the Syndeia Standalone Client Dashboard (see Exercise 1.1) and open the Repository Manager tab (Figure 2).
   
   

   Open

   

   Figure 2 Syndeia Dashboard, Repository Manager tab 
   
   

2. If no repository connection to Teamwork Cloud is available, right-click on Teamwork Cloud in the left column and select Add... Complete the form and click OK (Figure 3).
   
   

   Figure 3 Adding a Teamwork Cloud repository connection
   
   

3. If a Teamwork Cloud repository connection already appears under Teamwork Cloud, but you need to add your own access credential, right-click on the repository in the left column and select Update…. Complete username and password and click Update (Figure 4). 
   
   

   Figure 4 Updating Teamwork Cloud repository info
   
   

4. In the left column, select a Teamwork Cloud repository connection (Teamwork Cloud @ Intercax). Your repository should appear at the top of the right side. Expand it to show Projects, Branches, Models, Revisions, etc., as in Figure 5. See Background section for discussion of Teamwork Cloud artifact types. It may be necessary to right-click the repository and select Refresh before it can be expanded.
   
   

   Figure 5 Viewing Teamwork Cloud repository contents on Repository Manager tab
   
   

5. On the right border, click the button labeled Search Repository. In the Search Repository window under New Search, define the search criteria, for example: 
   
   

   1. Under Select Workspace, refresh the list and select a workspace, e.g. Sandbox.
      
      

   2. Select the type of artifact to be searched for: Project, Branch, Revision or Element. In Figure 6 we chose Element.
      
      

   3. Select Name contains or ID. If Name…, enter a text string to search for, e.g Test, and click Search. The search results are shown at the bottom of the window in Figure 6.
      
      

   4. Click outside the Search window to close it.
      
      

      Figure 6  Syndeia dashboard, Repository Manager tab, Search feature (search result highlighted in red)
      
      

6. To create a reference connection between a TWC element and an element in another repository, go to the Connection Manager tab, select and expand the TWC repository in one column and the second repository in the other. In our example in Figure 7, we have opened the TWC repository on the left and a Jama requirements repository on the right.
   
   

   1. Select Reference as the Connection Type in the center column.
      
      

   2. Create a reference connection by dragging an element in one column on top of an element in the other. Confirm that you want to create a reference connection. In our example, we dragged the FireUAS_Specification requirement in TWC onto the UAV Specification requirement in Jama.
      Note: In Syndeia release 3.4, it is not possible to create Model Transform inter-model connections to Teamwork Cloud. Some use cases of this type may be added in future releases.
      
      

      Figure 7  Syndeia dashboard, Connection Manager tab, creating reference connection
      
      

7. Having created the reference link, we can open the target (Jama UAV Specification) from the connection in the Connection Search tab. In Figure 8, we click Get All to load the latest connections and open the Aras part. 
   
   

   Figure 8  Syndeia dashboard, Connection Search tab, opening Jama requirement in browser from Syndeia connection
   
   

8. The reference link can be used to detect changes in a Teamwork Cloud versioned element from the Syndeia dashboard. 
   
   

   1. Load the TWC model into Cameo and edit the Teamwork Cloud element linked to in the previous step. Change some characteristic of the model element and commit a new version to Teamwork Cloud.
      
      

   2. In the Repository Manager or Connection Manager page on the Syndeia dashboard, right-click and refresh the Teamwork Cloud repository so that Syndeia Cloud reads the latest version.
      
      

   3. In the Connection Search tab of the Syndeia dashboard, click Get All to ensure that all connections are showing. Right-click the reference connection just created and select Compare Source and Target, as in Figure 9.
      
      

      Figure 9  Syndeia dashboard, Connection Search tab, comparing across reference connection
      
      

9. The result of the compare operation is displayed as red (Figure 10) in a difference table. The Comment field states 
   “Source artifact of this connection is FireUAS_Specification (version 20210…2358EDT)) but a newer version FireUAS_Specification (version 20210…4031EDT) is available. Target artifact of this connection is UAV Specification (version …) which is also the latest version”
   
   

   Figure 10  Syndeia dashboard, Comparison Result tab
   
   

10. The reference connection can be updated to point to the latest version of the Teamwork Cloud page by right-clicking on the connection in the Connection Search tab (Figure 9) or the Comparison Result tab (Figure 10) and selecting either Sync Source -> Target or Sync Target  -> Source. The result is the same for reference connections.