Revision as of 15:56, 9 September 2009

Artifact

The artifact is the fundamental object in OSEE. It represents any data object that is to be stored. Object data is stored in attributes. An artifact is defined by its artifact type. Artifact types can inherit from one another. All artifacts inherit from Artifact, a base class similar to the Object class in Java.

Examples include:

• a single requirement
• a user object
• a source file
• a document

Attributes

An attribute is a key/value pair representing a single data element. Attributes define an artifact's meta-data. Attributes are defined by its attribute type. An attribute type defines classes to handle how an attribute's value will be stored, search, and tagged. In addition, the attribute type defines the attribute value's data type.

An attribute base type (see below) is used to convert raw data into a native type or other object. The attribute's backing data is managed by an attribute data provider which transfers data between the client and the server, or can be extended to server data from outside the OSEE data store.

The default attribute Name is required for all artifacts. Other attribute types can be created and associated with any artifact type in the system.

Example: Artifact representing a User of an application may have attributes such as Phone, Address, City, etc...

Attribute Base Types

• String
  • Word Template Content
  • Word Whole Document
• Date
• Boolean
• Integer
• Floating Point
• Enumeration

Relations

A relation connects two or more artifact instances. A relation is defined by its relation type which specified what artifact type is allowed on the A side, what artifact type is allowed on the B side, and how many artifact instances are allowed on either side of the relation.

Branch

Changes to artifacts, attributes, and relations are managed by a transaction based version control system using fine grained change identification. These changes are managed under branches. By default, OSEE has two system branches:

1. System Root Branch - is the parent of all other branches in the system.
2. Common Branch - is used to store OSEE configuration information such as users, etc.. The Common Branch is a child of the System Root Branch.

Product data is defined in child branches of the System Root Branch.

A branch goes through the following states during its life-cycle: Created, Modified, Committed, Re-Baselined, Deleted.

Configure a New Project in OSEE

1. Create baseline branch
   1. From the Branch Manager's select parent branch -> open context menu -> select "branch" and enter new branch name
   2. From the Branch Manager's select new branch -> open context menu -> access control
      1. Add system administrators with Full Access
      2. Add Everyone with Read Access