New ALM Template Features in CEE 5

ALM gets even better in CollabNet Enterprise Edition 5.0

Refining your software development process is an ongoing task. CEE 5.0 lowers the bar for who gets to participate and how they get to do it:

• Let your domain administrator import ALM project templates to your site without the help of a host administrator.
• Enable or disable ALM templates, add or remove Project Tracker artifact types and queries to a template from the convenience of the web browser.
• Undo an unwanted change. Every time you press Save when making changes to your Project Pages (for a project or a template) a Subversion revision number is assigned to it. Any such transaction can be updated or reverted using a Subversion client.
• Rearrange and rename portions of your process definition (Project Pages) without affecting existing references to them.
• Confidently link to other Project Pages using a permanent URL.

Communicate your process to your team by adding more context specific data to your Project Pages:

• Learn how the new CollabNet Enterprise Edition tools, such as Discussion Services, Project Wiki and CUBiT integration, can be used to assist your application lifecycle management by downloading CollabNet Baseline Process v1.3.0.
• Include Project Tracker query results inside Project Pages.
• Track Subversion activity inside Project Pages.

Domain admins can import ALM templates

In earlier CEE releases, only host administrators could import ALM templates. If your CEE site was managed by an operations group outside of your development organization, this could be a problem. CEE v5.0 lets domain administrators on your site import ALM project templates, such as the CollabNet Baseline Process v1.3.0, through the Administration section, without getting a host admin involved.

Click the image to take a closer look at the "Project templates" screen for domain administrators.

To import a project template:

1. Log in as a user with Domain Administration permission.
2. Click the Administration tab.
3. Click Project templates on the left nav bar.
4. Click the Import link.
5. Upload the project template archive (jar file).
6. Check the status of the import by clicking Status.

Update template properties through the UI

You no longer need to update template properties through a Subversion client. You can do that, but domain administrators can now activate or deactivate templates site-wide, or add global Project Tracker queries to the template, via the web browser.

Click the image to take a closer look at the "Project templates" screen for domain administrators.

To edit project template properties:

1. Log in as a user with a Domain Administration permission.
2. Click the Administration tab.
3. Click Project templates on the left nav bar.
4. Click View template properties for the desired template.
5. Click Edit template properties.
6. Make your updates and click Save changes.

Undo a change to multiple portions of a Project Page

With the on-screen editor for Project Pages, it's easy to change your process structure, templates, and project content. Nevertheless all of the changes you make to your Project Pages are reflected in your project's Subversion repository. By checking out a working copy of your project's trunk repository (trunk/www/cn-project-pages, to be exact) you can track these changes and, if necessary, revert (undo) any changes associated with a given web form submit action. In other words, every time you save any number of changes by clicking Save, the entire set of changes is saved as a single transaction in Subversion. You can track your changes by date, find out the Subversion revision assigned to that transaction and proceed with a Subversion client to undo the unwanted changes.

Click the images to take a closer look at the ViewVC view of the transactions committed for your Project Pages.

To undo changes to your Project Pages:

1. Log in as a user with Subversion read and write priviledges.
2. Navigate your way around ViewVC to find the questionable transaction. Relative path: /source/browse/your_project_name/trunk/www/cn-project-pages)
3. Use the name of the user that made the changes and the exact date to find the transaction number.
4. Check out the project's Subversion repository with a Subversion client, such as Subclipse or Tortoise or the svn command-line client.
5. Use Subversion's diff facility to learn more about the changes made.
6. Revert the changes committed for that revision. Say the revision is 3: you'll want to merge back the difference between revision 3 and revision 2:
• svn merge --revision 3:2 .
• Run svn diff if you'd like to see what will be reverted.
• Run svn commit to save the changes
7. Refresh your browser until the Changes pending message is gone

Be aware that the more changes made to your Project Pages after a questionable transaction, the higher the risk in reverting old changes. Trivial changes like changing a description, editing some HTML, etc, are fairly safe to undo at any time. We encourage you to study the changes you would be reverting to assess the risks involved.

Permalink for Project Pages

Now you can confidently link to other Project Pages by using a permanent URL. Every Project Page, subpage and free-form page gets assigned a unique and permanent identification number that can be used to construct a URL to it.

Click the image to take a closer look at a Project Page permanent identifier.To link to a Project Page by its permanent identifier:

1. Log in as a project owner and visit your project's home page.
   
2. Click Edit project pages.
3. Add a new page.
4. Go back to the project's home page.
5. Refresh your browser to make sure all pending changes are finalized.
6. Use either the project tabs or left navigation bar to visit the Project Page you added.
7. Copy the URL from your browser's navigation bar.
8. Use that URL anywhere you'd like to reference your Project Page.

These steps apply to subpages and free-form pages.

Render Project Tracker query results inside Project Pages

Your Project Pages can display any number of Project Tracker saved queries and your project members can see the results of those queries in real time, without leaving the page.

To embed Project Tracker queries to your Project Page:

1. Log in as a project owner.
2. Either a Project Page or visit an existing one.
3. Click Edit this page.
4. Click Add component to page.
5. Add a Project tracker query.
6. Save the changes to your Page.
7. Click Edit next to the new page component.
8. Select from the list of Queries to display. (If none is available, you must add saved queries to your project's Project Tracker.)

Results for your queries can now be rendered inside of your Project Page.
These steps apply to subpages and free-form pages.

Report on Subversion inside Project Pages

CollabNet Enterprise Edition 5.0 introduces reporting on Subversion activity. You can include point-in-time or trend reports on any of your Project Pages. Your project members can view up to date reports on the project's repository activity, file downloads and active users in designated Project Pages.

Click the image to take a closer look at Subversion reporting.

To add Subversion reporting to your Project Pages:

1. Log in as a project owner.
2. Create a Project Page or visit an existing one.
3. Click Edit this page.
4. Click Add component to page.
5. Add a Metrics page component (single or double).
6. Save the changes to your Page.
7. Click Edit next to the new page component.
8. Define your Subversion report and store it.

Your report will appear on the Project Page. These steps apply to subpages and free-form pages.