A component represents physical or
logical pieces of the system your team is working on. For example,
you might create a component for a physical piece called Handheld
Meter Reader or you might create a component for a logical
piece called Meter Reader Server. Each of these
components might have several configurations (streams and baselines).
The
component provides context to help you define a “family”
of configurations, including baselines. For example, this allows the
latest version of a test case for product A to link to the latest
version of a requirement for product A.
Before you begin
- You must have permission to create components.
- To create tags for components, you must have permission to create and rename tags.
Note: By default, Configuration Leads and Administrators have both of these permissions.
Procedure
- From the Home menu, click Global Configuration Management and select a
project. In the GCM application, click Create and Browse Components.
- On the Browse Components page, click Create
Component.
- Enter a component name. Add tags and a description, if you need them.
In the Tags field, enter a tag value and then click the
Tab or Space key. This defines the tag value for you
and other team members to set for components and global configurations. Use tags to search for
components and global configurations, to filter when you add a global configuration, and to group
and organize them in the Browse Components view. For details about organizing
components by using tags, see the related task.
Important: Avoid adding sensitive data such as customer names and
proprietary information to tags. It cannot be removed from the tags if you must scrub the GCM
data later.
After you create a component, a baseline is created automatically, and an initial stream is
created from the baseline.
- Click the stream to open it in the configuration editor.
View the initial baseline in the Attributes tab, under
Details, in the property called Created From.
- Optional: Create custom attribute values and links, if your team uses them.
- Click Edit at the top of the page.
- Add attributes in the Attributes tab or links in the
Links tab.
- Add custom attributes. In the Attributes tab, click Add
Attribute and then select the appropriate attribute. Depending on the type of attribute,
enter any required values. If you do not see the attribute that you need, create it in the
Manage Project Properties page, on the Attributes
tab.
- Add tags. Avoid including sensitive data in tag names as described in step 3.
- Add links. In the Links tab, click Add Link and
then select the link. Type a URL. If you do not see the link that you need, create it in the
Manage Project Properties page, on the Link Types
tab.
- Save your changes.
You can modify custom attribute values and links and add or remove custom attribute values and
links for the component. Learn about adopting changes made to attribute and link labels or values
after they were added to a component in About tags, attribute values, and links.
- Click the initial stream on the Streams tab. Now you can see the empty
stream.
What to do next
Use a stream to gather configurations from other Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM)
applications, such as Rational® Quality Manager, Rational
DOORS® Next Generation, and Rational Design Management. If you want to create another stream and there
is no other suitable baseline, you can create a stream from the initial baseline, as described in
step 3.
