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IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization - Method Composer 7.6

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Abstract

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization - Method Composer (MEC) 7.6 has been made generally available. MEC was previously known as Rational Method Composer (RMC).

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Table of Contents
Sections Description

The Change history section provides an overview on what is new in this release with a description of any new functions or enhancements when applicable.

The How critical is this fix section provides information related to the impact of this release to allow you to assess how your environment may be affected.

The Prerequisites section provides important information to review prior to the installation of this release.

The Download package section provides the link to obtain the download package for installation in your environment.

The Installation instructions section provides the installation instructions necessary to apply this release into your environment.

The Known side effects section contains a link to the known problems (open defects) identified at the time of this release.

Supporting Documentation
Document Description

Click to review the detailed system requirements information for a complete list of hardware requirements, supported operating systems, prerequisites and optional supported software, with component-level details and operating system restrictions.

IBM Knowledge Center provides an entry point to product documentation. You can view, browse, and search online information related to the product.

Click to review a complete list of the defects (APARs) resolved in this release including a list of resolved defects for the entire version family.

Find technical developer content and resources.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites include:

Floating/Token licensing

Method Composer ships with a trial license key that enables you to try the product for a period of 30 or 60 days. During the trial period, the product is fully functional. You will get a warning message when the trial period is about to expire. After the expiration date, the product will not function.

Setting up the license server

You must have administrative privileges on the machine that you want to import license key information in License Key Administrator.

  1. Install IBM Common Licensing 8.1.6
  2. Go to Start > All Programs > IBM Rational® > License Key Administrator and the License Key Administrator wizard opens.
  3. Select Import a License File, click Next.
  4. Browse and select a valid license file to import, click Import.
  5. In the Confirm Import window click Import.
  6. In the File imported successfully window, click OK.
  7. In the Restart License Server window, click Yes.

 

Enabling floating licenses

Method Composer supports Floating/Token licenses. You can configure a connection to one or more license servers to obtain access to floating/token license keys installed on a license server.

Before enabling floating license, you must obtain the license server connection information from your administrator.

  1. In the IBM Installation Manager, click Manage Licenses.
  2. Select a version of a package and then select Configure Floating license support. Click Next.
  3. Read and accept the license agreement and click Next.
  4. Select Enable floating license enforcement and click the + icon to add a the license server information.
  5. Select the Single Server option.
  6. In the Name field, enter the host name of the license server.
  7. In the Port field, enter the port number of the server.
  8. Click Test Connection to verify that you can successfully connect to the server.
  9. Click OK, then click Next.
  10. In the license usage summary page, verify the product and version, click Finish.

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Installation Instructions

To update Method Composer using IBM Installation Manager (On-line update):

See Upgrading Method Composer.

To download and install from PassPort Advantage:

  1. Sign in to Passport Advantage and download the zip file.
  2. Extract the zip file.
  3. Follow the instructions in Installing from the Launchpad Program.

To download and install from Jazz.net:

  1. Go to: https://jazz.net/downloads/method-composer/
  2. Click the desired release version.
  3. Follow the instructions on that page to download and install.

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Download Package

The following sections provide detailed information related to this release.

How critical is this fix?

Impact Assessment
Impact Description

Recommended

This release contains new features and fixes for client-reported and internally found defects.

Test Results

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Definitions

Regression: An error in the Maintenance Delivery Vehicle (MDV) that produces incorrect or unexpected behavior causing a supported feature to stop functioning as designed.
This includes:

  • Coding errors that cause a regression
  • Documentation or packaging problems that cause a regression
  • Errors reported in a new function delivered in a MDV that cause a regression

Incomplete: An error in the MDV has not regressed, but does not work as designed.
This includes:

  • Fixed APARs which did not solve the original problem but did not break anything new
  • APARs reporting documentation errors, such as readme errors, that cause problems applying an MDV but do not lead to a regression

Notes:
  • Regression and incomplete APARs are considered fix-in-error or MDV-in-error
  • Definitions above apply only to valid APARs that result in product fixes (APARs returned as working-as-designed are not assessed for being fix-in-error)
  • Issues in major releases due to new functionality do not apply in this definition

There are no known regressions to report.

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Problems Solved

Defects resolved

Click the Fix List link in the table of contents above to review a list of the APARS solved in this release.

Other defects corrected are:

1. Simple skin defects:

  • Synonyms duplicated on role pages
  • User-defined relationships duplicated on task pages.
  • Bullets not displaying correctly in regular rich text fields.
  • Checklists don't display custom opposite relationships
  • Work product descriptors are displayed in custom opposite relationships (they are now suppressed).

2. Knowledge center corrections to install instructions

3. Security fixes.

4. Other minor defects :

  • Synonyms duplicated on role pages
  • When creating a new plugin from a practice template, some icons display as red, which means it can't find the real  icon it should be using.
  • "Create plugin from existing plugin or package" is not working
  • Presentation name changes not being saved unless you change something else (like some rich text).
  • Team process perspective "new" element dialog is broken

Known Side Effects

Review the following list of known issues and open defects:

Web sites published with MEC Simple skin not displaying

Web sites published with the MEC Simple skin might not display if your browser language setting is set to a language other than English US. For example, English UK.  You can download a corrected skin.

Copy the unzipped contents to the user_home\MEC\Skins\<skin name> directory.

Default locations for the user_home folder are as follows:

Operating system Default location of the user_home folder
Microsoft Windows C:\Users\user_name
Linux /home/user_name


Note that the user_home\MEC\Skins folder is created the first time that you publish or browse a configuration by using Engineering Method Composer. The folder is initially populated with the skin that is used to publish or browse. Adding a new skin folder to this location makes the new skin available in the publishing options. See publishing configurations as websites.

Accepting changes from source control and other file changes

If file changes are made that affect your open library (such as accepting changes from source control), you must reopen your library. Otherwise MEC may overwrite those changes with cached information.

 

The Method Composer integration with Jazz source control

In some instances, there might be extra lock being acquired for files that do not need to be changed. One example is that when a content package is added to a method plug-in, some of the configuration files will be locked, too. This is harmless and users should just release all the locked files when delivering the changes in a change set.

 

User-defined types, custom relationships, and custom attributes

Support for user-defined types, for custom relationships is currently implemented for the authoring perspective and for publishing. The following areas are not currently supported for user-defined types, custom relationships, and custom attributes:

  • CSV file report
  • Package copy across plug-in
  • Using the plug-in creation wizard to copy a plug-in
  • The Tailoring perspective and other areas such as BIRT-based reporting

Publishing configuration error

Try to avoid using HTML comments in HTML table definition in your Method Composer contents, as this generates errors in the log files when publishing to Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF.
This is a known BIRT issue (https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=324612).

Sharing a project in Rational ClearCase

After sharing a project in Rational ClearCase, you might get error messages when trying to edit Method Composer contents. This is because the project is moved from Method Composer workspace to Rational ClearCase space after sharing.
The workaround for this issue is to reload the workspace library after sharing.

Installation Manager limitation for updating Practice library

When starting Method Composer for the first time, the default Practice library is loaded. This might cause Installation Manager not to be able to update this library in the future because of the time flag changes in some library files. It is recommended to make a backup of your Practice library and load that when launching Method Composer.

Uninstalling Method Composer

There is a menu option under Help > Manage Licenses > Uninstall that does not uninstall the product and must be ignored. To uninstall Method Composer, Use the Uninstall feature of IBM Installation Manager.

Search applet/application for file-based browsing

The Classic skins include a java applet-based search.  Current browsers no longer allow java applets to execute.

The MEC Simple skin includes a java application-based search.  This also has stopped working in recent browser releases.

If you require the search feature, you must host the published web site on a web server.

File-based browsing on Chrome

If using Google Chrome to browse a website published with the "MEC Simple" skin using file:// protocol, then you must launch Chrome with the switch "--allow-file-access-from-files".

File-based browsing on Firefox

If using Firefox to browse a website published with the "MEC Simple" skin using file:// protocol, you need to go to about:config and disable the restriction privacy.file_unique_origin.

File-based browsing on Internet Explorer

File based browsing on Internet Explorer only works with the Classic skins.  Web sites published with the "MEC Simple" skin can be browsed in Internet Explorer, but only if hosted on a web server, and not using file-based browsing.

Search on Android devices

Search does not work when using file-based browsing with Android devices.

Deploying web sites to Jazz (Liberty) Server

Search will work only if you deploy an unzipped war file. See Integrating with Engineering Workflow Management

Whitespace in MEC toolbar

Toolbar menu items are shifted to the right due to excessive whitespace.

Duplication configuration dropdown menu

Sometimes a duplicate non-functional select a configuration dropdown menu may appear.  This is due to a bug in the  underlying Eclipse framework, and will be fixed when MEC is upgraded to a newer version of Eclipse.

Shell-sharing and "switch workspace" menu is not supported

In previous versions of MEC, you could install MEC into an existing compatible Eclipse, such as the IBM Engineering Workflow Managment Eclipse Client.  This shell shared Eclipse would use the parameter "-product com.ibm.rmc.rcp.ui.75.ide".  You could also use this parameter in a standalone MEC installation to make a "switch workspace" menu option become available.  This parameter (and therefore shell-sharing and the switch workspace menu item) is not supported for this release.

 

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Change History

What's new

Method Composer 7.6 has been enhanced as follows:

Product rename

  • Rational Method Composer (RMC) is now Engineering Lifecycle Optimization – Method Composer (MEC).

Web-based method authoring with DOORs Next

  • You can now author method content using just your browser.  This feature requires IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next (DOORS Next).  You can then import method content from DOORS Next into MEC for publishing.  See the user's guide for details.

Updated Practices library

  • The practices library has been restructured.  Specifically:
    • All plug-ins are grouped under a topmost category of umf (unified method framework).
    • Systems engineering content and software engineering practices have been grouped separately under the "tech" category.
  • Additional and updated content to support:
    • Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®)
    • Agile ALM
    • Systems and Software Engineering
    • Aerospace and Defense (DO-178B/C, DoDAF)
    • Automotive Engineering (ISO-26262, HIS ASPICE)
    • Medical Devices
    • Electronic Design
  • General maintenance:
    • Updates to address Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) product renames.
    • Fixing and updating links to point to current materials.

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Click the link in the Download Options column:

Off
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  • Visit the IBM Support Portal to configure your support portal experience and review FAQs, lists of known problems, fixes, and a wealth of important support information.
     
  • Visit the IBM RFE Community to submit enhancement requests.
     
  • Visit the Jazz Community  to interact directly with the Method Composer development team and other community members, download product trials and betas and track development progress.
 
 

Helpful Hints For Obtaining Technical Assistance:

 

Before you contact IBM Technical Support, gather the background information that you need to describe the problem. When you describe a problem to an IBM support specialist, be as specific as possible and include all relevant background information so that the specialist can help you solve the problem efficiently. To save time, know the answers to these questions:


  • What software versions were you running when the problem occurred?
  • Do you have logs, traces, or messages that are related to the problem?
  • Can you reproduce the problem? If so, what steps do you take to reproduce it?
  • Is there a workaround for the problem? If so, be prepared to describe the workaround.
 

For more information contact  IBM Technical Support.

 


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Product Synonym

RMC;MEC;Method Composer;Rational Method Composer;Engineering Method Composer;Engineering Lifecycle Optimization - Method Composer;IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization - Method Composer

Document Information

Modified date:
29 April 2020

UID

ibm11284436

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