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Rational Support encountered a case for IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC) where 400+ custom attributes in a project needed to be deleted. These attributes were removed from the presentation and from "Types and Attributes" in the process configuration, but they still show up in the Query Editor.
In this situation, how can the custom attributes be deleted permanently so they do not show up in the Query Editor or anywhere else? Unfortunately, there is not a way to permanently delete custom attributes from a RTC repository. This is applicable at least until RTC 4.0.6 versions.
There is a technote that has the details on this and the work around that you can use using the Eclipse client:
One of the options available is to archive the custom attributes and not include these when querying. However, in this example there was a request for a workaround for not being able to delete custom attributes. Again, the environment in this example had over 400 attributes to delete.
One of the workarounds being considered by the client was to create a duplicate project without the custom attributes. The client wanted to know if they can create a RTC project identical to an existing project with the same members, work items and work flows, but without the custom attributes. Additionally, they were not keen to create the project manually and having to recreate the work item types and work flows. Then they could export the existing work items and import them into the new project.
As an alternative, here are some possible steps you can take instead of deleting the custom attributes. However, I strongly recommend that these steps be tested first on a test set-up to verify if this meets the requirement behavior before trying this on a production system.
Export the existing process template from the initial project area.
Import it on a test server.
Modify the process template by removing the custom attributes and as well as removing these from the work item editor in the test server.
Save the process template.
Now create a new project area based on this modified process template.
From the initial project area, export the work items without the custom attributes and import them in this new project area, which is created in step 5.
This is an alternative which should retain the work flows, work items. However, this would not retain the work item history.
If you are using Rational Team Concert (RTC) 4.0.0.1 and an Oracle database, trying to load a plan with more than 1000 work items may fail.
Here are the symptoms and errors:
a. In the web client, it shows the below error:
*****
Error - [object Object]: CRJAZ0368I A SQL query failed to execute properly on the server stmt = select1.SOURCE_ITEM_ID, t1.TARGET_ITEM_ID, t1.NAME from JAZZDBUSER.LINK_CLOSURE_RELATION t1 where (t1.SOURCE_ITEM_ID in
*****
b. In the Eclipse client, it gives the warning that it has more than 1000 work items.
*****
The plan contains more than 1000 work items. Please split the plan by assigning work items to other iterations or team areas
*****
However, ignoring the warning still doesn’t help in loading the workitems on the planned items tab.
c. The complete error is as follows:
*****
com.ibm.team.repository.common.TeamRepositoryException: CRJAZ0586I Query is too complex (10695 parameters).
at com.ibm.team.links.service.internal.LinkService.findAuditableLinks(LinkService.java:824)
at com.ibm.team.links.service.internal.LinkService.findAuditableLinks(LinkService.java:625)
.
at com.ibm.team.apt.internal.ide.ui.editor.IterationPlanEditor$21.resolve(IterationPlanEditor.java:2510)
at com.ibm.team.apt.internal.ide.core.util.TeamFuture$DefaultResolver.resolve(TeamFuture.java:39)
at com.ibm.team.apt.internal.ide.core.util.TeamFuture$LoadJob.execute(TeamFuture.java:112)
at com.ibm.team.apt.internal.ide.core.util.TeamFuture$LoadJob.run(TeamFuture.java:91)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.jobs.Worker.run(Worker.java:54)
Caused by: java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: CRJAZ0586I Query is too complex (10695 parameters).
*****
==>
If the working environment is a combination of RTC 4.0.0.1 version and Oracle database only and this issue is encountered, one has come across a known defect.
In case you need a fix, a PMR needs to be raised with IBM Rational Client Support asking for a hot-fix, along with the mention of the existing hot-fixes installed, if any.
Consider this scenario: An Analyst removed and deleted certain artifacts within a IBM Rational Requirements Composer (RRC) module. These artifacts were linked to IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC) work items.
There was a need to know if there is a way to clean up these orphaned links in RTC, instead of going to the work items, clicking on the linked RRC artifacts and only then to realize that the artifact has been deleted in RRC.
Here is the message that is received when someone clicks on the dead RRC link from RTC work item:
--> There is no out-of-the-box procedure to clean up the deleted RRC links from within RTC work items. The options here are limited.
Note, however, that the OSLC Cleaner Utility is not supported, but rather made available as a sample. You can use it as-is or refactor the source.
--> However, if this is something analysts cannot live with and is a major hindrance with tool usage, you can contact IBM Support. We, in turn, can verify if there is any tool that can be provided to delete the orphaned links.
Here is one of the requirements that was put across one of the users, using IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC) tool:
**********
For audit purpose, there is a need to generate report with repository workspaces information created by different users in their local machines.
1) To see what components the user has loaded
2) How many files have been loaded.
This is the simple scenario, where user will create repository workspace in his windows machine and also load the components to the same windows machine. There is a need to get that repository workspace name and only the loaded component names rather than all components of the stream.
Is this possible? If not, what are the alternatives?
--> A Java program might have been written to get all repository workspace using WorkSpaceManager and IWorkspaceSearchCriteria,
then creating object for workspace connection class by passing workspace object and with connection object one is getting components.
However the problem here is when one gets the component from connection object, it gives the list of all components of the workspace rather than the information on what the user has loaded into the local system.
Is there a way to get the required data using java?
--> It is also about usage of API. Perhaps an API may have been developed, the program to get the repository workspaces created by users and the only thing to know is if there any method in API using which one can get loaded components details of workspace.
**********
Here are the details one can use, if there is such a requirement:
--> One can get the details on what components the user had loaded on a particular Stream from the Eclipse client GUI.
However, even this provides information of all components of the workspace rather than the information on what the user has loaded into the local system.
--> Since there is no official API, customers can use the CLI as much as possible. 'lscm status' might be one option.
--> There is a RepoUtil.getComponentsInSandbox() function that is called by the CLI's output gorp (JSONPrintUtil), which suggests that the CLI knows about it at some level, and and may return it in either the JSON output or the human-readable output.
Unfortunately, the CLI's source (including RepoUtil) is not shipped as part of the JPJC libraries. So one cannot expect to find it.
--> In the past users have been told that they can use internal classes if they are willing to explore, willing to accept that new versions may break them, and won't seek IBM's help when they are broken.
If one is willing to accept these caveats, then one can explore FileSystemCore.getSharingManager().allShares(), which will list all of
the share roots. One can walk those to see which component has items shared into the sandbox. Note that one will have to collate the workspace/component pairs.
With this, one gets an empty array of IShare when one runs FileSystemCore.getSharingManager().allShares(null).
--> However, the list of loaded component isn't available on the repository workspace, since it's only maintained on each client machine.
If one really want to do this, they will have to run the program on each dev box. The RTC repository doesn't know anything about sandboxes on the client machines. So it isn't possible to tell what components or files users have loaded into their sandboxes from the repository.
If one is looking for something on server side, these options won't work. This is raised as an RFE here:
So if the end goal is to generate a report with only loaded components at different users, there is no way to get such report except go to each individual machine and get the report.
There is a new video for the CLM products Rational Team Concert, Rational Quality Manager, and Rational Requirements Composer. The video demonstrations how you can gather and send diagnostic logs to support using IBM Support Assistent Lite. The video is available on IBM Education Assistant for Rational and the IBM Rational Support YouTube channel. Here are the links:
Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management
Video on IBM Education Assistant with a downloadable version is here.
Video on the IBM Rational Support YouTube channel is here.
Author: Chris Robinson
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One of the IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC) users, having an integration with Focal Point (FP) were planning to move the production database
to test. On refreshing the test database, as they had RTC-FP integration in production, the same links would be preserved in the artifacts in test.
They had a concern if these links will be preserved in RTC, even in the test area after refresh. Of course, they would edit the Friends connection,
to point to the Test.
Here are the steps that I suggested and one of which was successfully used by the customer to isolate production from test (step 2).
STEPS:
The RTC links will be preserved in the Test area after refresh.
If the plan is to have a Test environment without the RTC links (in test database) to point to the production data, there are 2 options one can choose from.
Server Rename.
Isolate the production and the test environment at network level.
Below are the details of each of these options:
1. Server Rename
-------------------------
Server rename is one of the approaches to achieve this. However, this has it's drawbacks and risks, explained in the links below:
This should definitely be the last approach one can take, after raising a Problem Management Record (PMR) with IBM Rational Support.
a. Server rename and the things to be aware before proceeding:
If one needs to isolate the Test environment from the production environment and avoid the server rename process, then this is
another way to go ahead with.
NOTE: One needs to make sure that there are no possibilities of communication exchange between the test and production servers at all.
a. First, ensure that production and test servers are isolated at the network level so that any communication attempt is blocked.
This is to make sure the Test environment should not insert or update anything on the production environment.
b. Install CLM applications, Websphere Application Server (WAS), database on the test server following the usual methods.
c. Restore the copy of production databases in the test server.
d. Ensure the password of the database user (which is used in the CLM applications to connect to the database) is different than in
production. This can be the DB instance user, if one has used so.
Now, one needs to tell the server on how to connect to the new databases (the ones which were restored in Test environment), where the password
is different.
To get the encrypted password:
f. Run the jts/setup till Step 3 - Configure Database and
look at the jts/teamserver.properties file (which should now be in the process of getting regenerated) for the encrypted password.
Copy it in a word editor. The property name to look for the password is
"com.ibm.team.repository.db.jdbc.password"
g. Copy over the entire .../server/config directory from the production server to the Test server and open each of the teamserver.properties
file and update the password as noted in the above step.
i. Create an entry for production server in /etc/hosts file of test server.
Start the application in WebSphere and test.
NOTE: It is best to test this when production environment is offline or down for maintenance to avoid any unforeseen problems.
At this stage, the Test environment can only be accessed from test server and not from any clients, as the DNS is unaware of the alias in
test server.
To access the Test Environment, users can put a similar entry in their respective machines /etc/hosts file to point it to the Test environment.
Here is an example requirement that one of my clients was looking for in IBM Rational Team Concert who asked: "Is it possible to select an enumeration value for an attribute and this in-turn based on the value selected, display text area in RTC?"
There is an attribute named 'Location' and the enumeration values for this attribute are 'USA, UK, India'. Now if the users select any of these enumeration values, say 'USA', they should get a field next to this selected enumeration value displaying a text, say 'Miami' or so a field where users can write the location manually.
Is this feature available in RTC 4.0.1, 4.0.2 or 4.0.3? At the time of writing this article, there is no straight forward way to achieve this requirement for the RTC versions mentioned.
--> This requirement can essentially be broken into 2 sub-requirements:
Attribute visibility
Attributes with values dependant on another value.
Here is a jazz.net article which should help one in customizing the requirement:
'Read-only control for Work Item attributes in Rational Team Concert 4.0' https://jazz.net/library/article/997/
--> However, there are a few RFE's which are in discussion for CLM 4.0.x, as mentioned below:
Here is another good lesson, among many that I happened to learn, while working with a customer using IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC). While this may not serve as a supported solution for the issue reported, perhaps it can serve as a pointer or guide on the types of things to look for.
Issue reported:
--------------------
A user starts IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC) Eclipse client and sees that his personal preferences were lost.
I asked user to send metadata.zip file located in the Eclipse workspace path. For example: C:\Users\Administrator\workspace\.metadata
Here were a few significant messages in the .metadata/.log file:
*****
!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.resources 4 567 2013-04-15 10:48:06.160
!MESSAGE Workspace restored, but some problems occurred.
!SUBENTRY 1 org.eclipse.core.resources 4 567 2013-04-15 10:48:06.160
!MESSAGE Could not read metadata for
'U:/RTC/'TEST'/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.re
sources/.projects/Abandon/.markers'.
!STACK 0
java.io.EOFException
at java.io.DataInputStream.readInt(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.MarkerReader.readVersionNumber(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.MarkerReader.read(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.MarkerManager.restoreFromSave(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.MarkerManager.restore(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.SaveManager.restoreMarkers(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.SaveManager.restore(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.SaveManager.startup(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.Workspace.startup(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.Workspace.open(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.resources.ResourcesPlugin.start(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl$1.run(Unknown Source)
*****
Based on the message, it was clear that the user was using a particular workspace and when he tried to launch Eclipse client using this, he sees that his personal preferences were lost.
He tried to start the Eclipse client fresh and saw this issue.
The user did not try to change the workspace of the RTC Eclipse Client prior to this.
I got a confirmation that the user had the default Eclipse installed with RTC client and did not have a separate installation of Eclipse. Just one instance of RTC Eclipse client.
I did verify the total physical RAM on the machine where the user saw this problem and they had enough RAM. (8 GB)
I wanted to verify the heap memory allocated to the Eclipse client, the details which were in the eclipse.ini file.
Example: For default RTC Eclipse client, the location is:
C:\Program Files\IBM\TeamConcert\eclipse.ini
I wanted to know the values for the entry "-vmargs -Xms100m -Xmx512m" here. They were using the default entry here for the heap memory allocation and was good enough. They had the room to increase this though, since the available physical RAM was 8 GB.
I asked the user to get the build details of the Eclipse client; Go to Help --> About Rational Team Concert. This lists the RTC version along with the build details.
Work-around/Resolution Steps:
After analyzing the .metadata\.log file and the errors in there, we found that for some reason the preferences were lost due to workspace
corruption. What caused this, I am not aware yet though.
Normally, here are the steps users should try in case of lost preferences and to avoid loss of preferences:
In the Eclipse client, navigate to File --> Switch Workspace --> Choose the current one in use; In the Workspace Launcher --> Copy Settings --> 'select' Workbench Layout; Then point to a new Workspace path and verify the outcome.
The RTC client is built on Eclipse and the user preferences are backed up, like in Eclipse client, by going to File --> Export --> General --> Preferences and saving this file.
In case of any corruption or loss of personal preferences, just import this file to restore the preferences.
Apart, all settings are stored in the .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings directory. The .metadata/.plugins directory might have many more directories with settings, but they are generally project specific.
So if you want to create a new Eclipse workspace and preserve all your settings, simply copy the .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings directory into your new workspace directory.
Lastly, it is also a good practice to do a full backup weekly, with corresponding incremental backups daily of the user's workspace. This provided, it's critical for the user to restore their complete previous workspace. Yes, backing up of the workspace is not a light procedure but a good practice, if there is a need.
I hope this gives some idea for users and the steps that can be taken, in case of a similar situation.
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There is a new video available on IBM Education Assistant for Rational, and the IBM Rational Support YouTube channel. This video covers the configuration of prefill for records linked between ClearQuest and Rational Team Concert with OSLC. This video is brought to you by Rational Client Support engineer, Raymond Pearse.
Rational ClearQuest and Rational Team Concert
Configure prefill for OSLC-linked records between ClearQuest and Rational Team Concert
Video on the Rational Support YouTube channel is here.
Author: Raymond Pearse
Your feedback helps us improve. You can find the feedback form on the category pages for your product and version. The feedback form is quick and easy. Leave comments and let us know if these demonstrations help you achieve your goals.
What is IBM Education Assistant? IBM Education Assistant is a collection of multimedia educational modules designed to help you gain a better understanding of IBM software products and use them more effectively to meet your business requirements.
Rational Team Concert has a simple set of defined roles to enable key solutions for your organization. With Rational Team Concert you simply acquire licenses to support the roles and solutions that you are interested in. This provides you with an unprecedented level of flexibility and cost efficiency to choose and use only what you are interested in to support your needs. Rational Team Concert allows you to implement individual components of RTC now and others later simply through licensing - and without your typical deployment and integration headaches and risks.
When you purchase a role-based license for IBM Rational Team Concert you will have read, write, and comment access to some or all of the capabilities of the Change and Configuration Management application. In addition, there are three types of Developer client access licenses.
Client access licenses
Types of client access licenses
Types of Developer client access licenses
Trial licenses
Client access licenses: When you install Rational Team Concert, you deploy the Change and Configuration Management application, in addition to the Jazz Team Server. You then use activation kits to install product client access licenses on the Jazz Team Server and assign these licenses to users so that they can access the capabilities provided by the Change and Configuration Management application.
With a role-based licensing scheme, when you purchase a client access license for a particular role you will have read, write, and comment access to some or all of the capabilities of the Change and Configuration Management application.
You install the client access license activation kits in the License Key Management section in the Administration page of the Jazz Team Server. You assign the licenses to users in the Client Access License Management section of Jazz User Administration. See Installing and managing license keys for instructions.
Types of client access licenses:
Role-based client access licenses: The roles in this table correspond to the client access licenses you can purchase for Rational Team Concert in this release. A role-based license will give you access (read; read and write; or read, write, and comment) to some or all of the capabilities in the Change and
Configuration Management application.
Legend: RW = read/write R = read only (and "comment" if user has RW access to Jazz Foundation)
Functional user licenses: When you install Rational Team Concert, you receive, in addition to the client access licenses above, the following functional client access licenses. These licenses are not for actual users. Instead, they are used as account IDs to set up connections to other capabilities. None of these licenses adds to the server user limit.
Developer Client Access Licenses: This matrix shows how support and the level of cross-server SCM capability afforded by a currently installed Developer client access license are affected by subsequently installed CALs.
Note: Only the Developer-10-C Client Access License is free For both the Developer-10-C and Developer for Work groups Client Access Licenses, the following restrictions apply. Only 1 activation kit can be installed per server Only 1 activation kit can be installed across any set of servers sharing the same floating license server
Trial licenses: When installing the server, there are two Installation Manager packages available for installation: Jazz Team Server and CCM Application installs the server components Rational Team Concert Required Base License Keys, including Trials installs the functional user licenses and the trial versions of the role-based licenses, For any deployment topology, you must install the Rational Team Concert Required Base License Keys, including Trials package on any machine with a Jazz Team Server that has one or more registered instances of the Change and Configuration Management application.
Once a Jazz Team Server is installed, you may install additional license keys in the License Key Management section in the Administration page of the Jazz Team Server
FAQs: To help resolve some common Jazz errors in your day to day activities without relying on anyone else, you may follow the technical documentation written by experts from Rational Licensing team below:
It's an RTC love-fest today! Hot off the reporting presses here in Rational Support, here are the top fifteen technotes used in March to help solve the Rational Team Concert PMRs you reported. As always, these are taken directly from our PMR reports and tabulated to help you solve the same issues which you may be encountering:
There are new videos available on IBM Education Assistant for Rational, including Rational Team Concert integration details for ClearQuest and Rational license key configuration topics.
Your feedback helps us improve. You can find the feedback form on the category pages for your product and version. The feedback form is quick and easy. Leave comments and let us know if these demonstrations help you achieve your goals.
What is IBM Education Assistant? IBM Education Assistant is a collection of multimedia educational modules designed to help you gain a better understanding of IBM software products and use them more effectively to meet your business requirements.
There are new videos available on IBM Education Assistant for Rational. There are several videos covering topics for the Rational CLM products and migrating users between Rational Change and Rational Directory Server. Check them out!
Your feedback helps us improve. You can find the feedback form on the category pages for your product and version. The feedback form is quick and easy. Leave comments and let us know if these demonstrations help you achieve your goals.
What is IBM Education Assistant? IBM Education Assistant is a collection of multimedia educational modules designed to help you gain a better understanding of IBM software products and use them more effectively to meet your business requirements.
While you should be able to get the list supported integrations with IBM Rational Team Concert in the System Requirements page for the particular version, did you also know there were great resources on integrating with Rational Team Concert with a number of other applications on the jazz.net site? Just check out this quick query to see how much content there really is: https://jazz.net/search_results.jsp?q=integrating+rtc#page=0&type=&q=integrating%2Brtc
But don't stop there, you can also use the jazz.net community for queries that both do and do not fall under IBM supported configurations for any Jazz based products. The Jazz.net community is supported by users of Jazz products, consultants, practitioners, Jazz developers, as well as our own technical support engineers, and is an open community for all to join and share their expertise! Moreover, there are even great resources on how to get the most out of the Jazz.net forums! If you've not started participating yet, consider this your invitation to join in the conversations, ask questions, and even provide your own expertise to help others. You'll find value no matter how you participate!
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