Exercise 31.1- Syndeia - DS-CR Integration
- Debesh Roy Chowdhury
Objectives
The new learning objectives of this exercise are to create a repository connection to a DS-CR 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 3.6 installed with a valid user account,
A valid user account to a DS-CR repository, and
A valid user account to at least one other on-line repository, e.g. JIRA.
The user can use any DS-CR repository they have available. Because the content of your DS-CR 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 the videos in Part 1 under Tutorials – Syndeia Web Dashboard for a general introduction to the interface.
Background – DS-CR
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 3.6, the Syndeia Web Dashboard can extract and display some model information from the DS-CR repository. Figure 1 shows a tree view of this information, with labels identifying the DS-CR element types. The label color coding indicates how the DS-CR 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 DS-CR data model as it is understood by Syndeia is available through the web dashboard help menu on the left.
Exercise
Log on to the Syndeia Cloud Web Dashboard (see Video 1.2), click on the Digital Thread Projects icon on the left border, choose or create a project for the exercise (video 1.5) and click on the Workspace tab at the top of the Digital Thread Project dashboard (Figure 2). I am using project UAS01 in this example.
If no repository connection to DS-CR is available, hover over DS-CR in the left column, then click the + icon to its right. Complete the form. You may need to consult with your DS-CR admin for the proper information to access your repository, including your account credentials. When complete, click Test to check whether a connection has been made. A green checkmark indicates success; click Create to save (Figure 3).
If a DS-CR repository connection already appears under DS-CR, but you need to add your own access credential, hover over that DS-CR repository and click the Gear icon that appears to the right. Complete username and password and click Test and Update (Figure 4).
Select your repository and it should load on the right side. Expand it to show the contents of your Products folder, as in Figure 5. See Background section for discussion of DS-CR artifact types.
On the right border, there are three icons, labeled Details, Relations and Search. Select a DS-CR element in the Tree View column (Power_MAIN in our example) and click on the Details icon. A Detail list appears to the right as in Figure 6. Scroll down and review the attributes of the DS-CR element that are available to Syndeia 3.6, including name and externalKey, which is the unique part number in the DS-CR repository. Click the Details icon again to close the list.
Search has not been implemented for DS-CR in Syndeia 3.6.
Inter-model relations to a DS-CR elements can be displayed by clicking on the Relations icon. For our example, we will use the Power_Main board in the UAS01 model, where there are already two inter-model connections (Figure 7). As of Syndeia 3.6, intra-model relations are not displayed in the Relations table.
To create a new reference connection between the selected DS-CR item and an element in another repository, click on the + (Add) icon highlighted in Figure 7. A Create Reference Relationships window will appear as in Figure 8.
Under Select target artifact, choose the other repository to which the new connection will be made. In our example this is JIRA @ Intercax.
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 issue UAV-129 (Satellite Communication) in our example.
Each Syndeia connection has a directionality. The Select direction pull down menu at the bottom of the window allows the directionality to be set as desired before the connection is made.
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.
Click the Relations icon again to close the Relations window.
Note: In Syndeia release 3.6, 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.
Inter-model relations can be viewed in other ways. Figure 9 shows the relations table under the Explore tab for UAS01. Three relations appear.
The Digital Thread Explorer or DTE (Figure 10 - Figure 11) provides interactive visualization of relations in a graph format. To launch DTE, right-click an item in the Tree View and choose Graph View. In our example, this is the DS-CR item, Power_MAIN. Initially, it appears as a single node in the Graph View, as in Figure 10.
Click on double arrow icon at the bottom of the node. If this element has any connections, they should appear as in Figure 11. In our example, we see the same three inter-model connections that appeared in Figure 9.