Creating traceability documents from CLM applications using the POX profile

It is now easier than ever to create traceability documents from CLM applications. You can configure OSLC URLs to return Reportable REST representation data if a special header is included in the request using POX (Plain Old XML).

Before you begin

You must have Rational® Publishing Engine 2.1.0 or later and Rational solution for CLM 6.0.2 or later installed.

About this task

Previously, it was difficult to create traceability documents because some applications, for example Rational Quality Manager and Rational Team Concert™, use OSLC URLs, and Rational Publishing Engine requires reportable REST URLs. This complicated template design because the URLs had to be converted from OSLC to reportable REST. Sometimes the OSLC representation of an artifact does not contain enough information required for document generation, for example rich text.

The POX profile allows you to use OSLC URLs as if they were reportable REST APIs. You can use the POX profile in Rational Publishing Engine to request and receive reportable REST data directly by providing an extra header. You no longer have to convert the URLs or perform duplicate requests. The document generation service will return the additional XML in the presence of the header.

Example: Creating a traceability document from Rational DOORS Next Generation to Design Management

Procedure

  1. In Document Studio, add a Rational DOORS Next Generation schema.
  2. Create template elements to print the information from an artifact.
    DNG element
  3. Iterate the link information in the requirement.
    DNG link
  4. In Design Management, copy the artifact's URL by clicking the Show Permalink icon in the breadcrumb.
  5. In Document Studio, open the Add Data Source Schema wizard.
  6. (New) Paste the URL in the Schema field and append &metadata=schema to the end of the URL.
  7. (New) In the Extra headers field, select the POX profile header .
    Adding a DM schema with POX profile
  8. Click Next and then Finish.
  9. In your template, create template elements that follow the link back to Rational DOORS Next Generation. Open the Data Source Configuration in the Properties view and click the Dynamic configuration tab:
    1. (New) In the URI field, enter the href from Rational DOORS Next Generation.
    2. (New) In the Accept header field, enter application/xml.
    3. (New) In the Extra headers field, select the POX profile link. The Extra headers field tells the application to respond with reportable REST information even though an OSLC URL is used.
      Data source configuration for POX profile
  10. Create template elements to print the Design Management information.
    DM element
  11. Switch to RPE Launcher to generate the document.
  12. In the Document Specification view, right-click the Rational DOORS Next Generation data source and select Configure Data Source.
    1. URL: Enter the permalink URL from Rational DOORS Next Generation.
    2. If necessary, enter a user name and password.
    3. Authentication: Select OAuth.
    4. Accept header: Enter application/xml.
    5. (New) Extra headers: Select the POX profile link to request reportable REST data from Rational DOORS Next Generation.
  13. From the main toolbar, click Generate Document. In the Console view, you can see that Rational Publishing Engine requests data from Design Management and Rational DOORS Next Generation using the OSLC URLs. Design Management and Rational DOORS Next Generation redirect to the Reportable REST URLs. The output document contains the requirement from Rational DOORS Next Generation and the associated model data from Design Management.
    Result showing DNG data and DM data

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