Link direction

Link types help you define and customize the linking relationships between artifacts. Each link type has an Outgoing and an Incoming role.

You can set labels that explain the directional relationship of the link, for example Illustrates and Illustrated By. To set labels for the Incoming and Outgoing roles for link types, see Creating link types for requirements project.

When link types are displayed in the user interface, icons indicate the direction of the link type role.

Note: For OSLC link types, direction icons are only shown for IBM® Engineering Workflow Management, IBM Engineering Test Management, Rhapsody® Model Manager, and References links.

You can also filter or group artifacts according to the direction of the link type role in the Links Sidebar. From the filtering drop-down menu, select Link Type and select Show all, Show Outgoing, or Show Incoming to filter artifacts by the direction of its associated links. From the grouping drop-down menu, select Group by Link Type to group artifacts that have Incoming and Outgoing links.

For more details on cross-project or cross-component links for artifacts, see Linking artifacts in different projects or components.