Rational Method Composer, Version 7.5.1 Release Information

Content

• About this release
• New in this release
• APARs fixed in this release
• System requirements
• Installation information
• Downloading practice libraries
• Converting your existing processes to configuration-free
• Floating/Token licensing
• Known limitations, problems, and workarounds
• Rational Asset Manager integration support
• Localization
• IBM Rational Software Support

© Copyright IBM Corporation 1987, 2010. All rights reserved. US Government Users Restricted Rights – Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

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About this release
This refresh pack includes new features, enhancements and fixes to the earlier version 7.5 release of Rational Method Composer.

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New in this release
Rational Method Composer v7.5.1 has been enhanced with the following new features.

• Updated platform support, including support for Windows 7, Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.6
• Updated integrations with Rational Asset Manager (RAM), Business Intelligence and Reporting Tool (BIRT) and ClearCase (CC) integrations
• New support for Eclipse-Synergy CCM integration
• New Rational Team Concert interoperability, including work item template export
• Ability to export Rational Method Composer content to Jazz Foundation and import process content from Jazz Foundation (Tech preview of Jazz Foundation web-based process description editors available on Jazz.net that permits team-based tailoring of method content)
• Improved re-use of process patterns via “Auto-Configuration” capability patterns
• Simplified process asset management via “Auto-Synchronized Descriptors” which remove the need for manual synchronization of process and method content
• Ability to define work product states for artifacts and assign states to task descriptor input and output work products
• Significant performance improvements for loading libraries, browsing, and publishing.
• New and updated enterprise, management and technical practices including measurement guidance and tool guidance for IBM Rational tools in support of measured improvement and Collaborative Lifecycle Management
• Support for CMMI planning and implementation
• New RUP configuration based on practices
• Support for Eclipse 3.5.2

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APARs fixed in this release
APARs that are fixed in this release are located in the Fixlist document at: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27016988

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System requirements
The following sections describe the specific installation requirements for this refresh pack.

For information about the hardware and software for Rational Method Composer, Version 7.5.x.x, see the detailed system requirements document at:
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27016998

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Installation information
For installation information including including upgrading to V7.5.1, see the Rational Method Composer information center: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/rmchelp/v7r5m1/index.jsp

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Downloading practice libraries
The Rational Method Composer v7.5.1 English practice library is included in the installation.

To download the NL versions of converted v7.5.0.1 practice libraries to v7.5.1, see http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24028541

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Converting your existing processes to configuration-free
There is a utility available for download to convert your existing library contents to configuration-free process. You can obtain the utility from the IBM support site at: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=2360&uid=swg24028453

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Floating/Token licensing
Rational 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 Rational License Key Administrator.

1. Install Rational Common License 8.1.0
2. Go to Start > IBM Rational > License Key Administrator 8.1.0. License Key Administrator wizard opens.
3. Select Import a Rational 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
Rational 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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Known limitations, problems, and workarounds
The following section lists the known problems in this release of Rational Method Composer and possible workarounds, if any.

Problems with installed 3rd party plug-ins
When installing 3rd party plug-ins like CCRC or SVN through the classic update manage (Help > Install Software) or 3rd party plug-ins like CCSCM through new extension location (Help > Manage Software Configuration), all the existing Rational Method Composer v7.5.1 feature patches can't be loaded and cause BIRT publishing and Diagram crook line issues. To solve the problem:

1. Shutdown Rational Method Composer.
2. Find and open the platform.xml file for editing In the Rational Method Composer installation directory (for example, c:\Program Files\IBM\RMC75\rmc\configuration\org.eclipse.update\platform.xml).
3. Search for "org.eclipse.birt.report.engine_2.5.2.v20100805.jar". You will find a site element that contains "org.eclipse.birt.report.engine_2.5.2.v20100805.jar" in its list attribute.
4. Replace the entire site with the following content:
   <site enabled="true" policy="USER-EXCLUDE" updateable="true" url="platform:/base/" />
5. Open a command prompt and change to the Rational Method Composer installation directory.
6. Run the following command to start the application: rmc.exe -clean

To verify that the feature patches are loaded correctly, click Help > About IBM Installation Manager > Installation Details > Plug-ins. Check the version of org.eclipse.birt.report.engine, it must be 2.5.2.v20100805.

Rational Method Composer floating and token licenses
IBM Installation Manager does not handle rollbacks with floating license using Rational Common Licensing v8.1.1 to a previous version that does not have the floating license capability. If you need to rollback to a previous release, you must disable your floating license before attempting to rollback.

Rational Method Composer and Rational Synergy integration
During the installation of Synergy plugin via Help -> Install Software, a duplicate conflict message is displayed. In addition, when upgrading a Rational Method Composer that includes the Rational Synergy integration, package update warnings are displayed. These warnings are harmless and can be ignored.

Conflict warning messages when installing or upgrading Rational ClearCase Remote Client (CCRC) from Rational Method Composer software update
During the installation of CCRC 7.1 plug-ins into Rational Method Composer 7.5.0.1, several conflict warning messages will be displayed about "Rational Common" plug-ins. These warning messages can be ignored as they are harmless and do not impact the CCRC integration functionalities.

Special character in tag file names
Tag file names include "[" character which is a restricted character in file names for Informix that is used by Rational Synergy. As a result, these tag files cannot be placed under Rational Synergy source control. See the following technote for more information about Rational Synergy restricted characters: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21326060
To add the .tag files under Rational Synergy source control, compress the initial .tag project and add it to Synergy. To modify the tags, reserve check out the zip file to ensure other resources are not working on the same file, extract and make the changes, re-compress and check back in to the source control.

Converting libraries to version 7.5.1
Library update requires modification of library data files. Before converting your existing libraries to version 7.5.1, ensure that the library files are not read-only.

Upgrading from previous releases
Rational Method Composer 7.5.1 introduces a number of changes to simplify method management. Some of these changes required architectural changes to the product. As a result, it is highly recommended to do a fresh installation of v7.5.1, rather than upgrading from v7.5 or v7.5.0.1. It is still possible to upgrade an existing installation. However, due to the architectural changes, there may be warning messages issued by Installation Manager if you try to roll back to a previous version following an upgrade.
Note: Rational Method Composer v7.5 and v7.5.0.1 libraries are compatible with v7.5.1. The old format library will be automatically migrated to the new format when opened with v7.5.1.

Exporting practices to Jazz Team Server
There is a new Export feature available in Rational Method Composer v7.5.1 that provides the ability to export a selection of practices to an XML file that can subsequently be imported to Jazz Team Server. If you want to try the import on the Jazz side and experiment with some early capabilities within the Jazz Team Server, you can do so by downloading and installing the following items from Jazz.net::

RQM Workbench for CLM 3.0 M11 build (includes JTS, RTC, RRC capabilities)

Jazz Process Authoring Application

Publishing configuration error
Publishing configuration of the RUP for small projects to Adobe PDF or Microsoft Word in ib.75.rup with configuration.rptlibrary generates an error message in the log file. This is a known BIRT issue (https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=324612).
Also try to avoid using HTML comments (<!-- -->) in HTML table definition in your Rational Method Composer contents, as this generates errors in the log files when publishing to Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF.

Sharing a project in Rational ClearCase
After sharing a project in Rational ClearCase, you might get error messages when trying to edit Rational Method Composer contents. This is because the project is moved from Rational 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 RUP and Practice libraries
When starting Rational Method Composer for the first time, the default RUP library and the Practice library are loaded. This might cause Installation Manager not to be able to update these libraries in the future because of the time flag changes in some library files. It is recommended to make a backup of your RUP and Practice libraries and load them when launching Rational Method Composer.

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

Search function of the published HTML sites on Firefox
Rational Method Composer uses Java applet for the search function on the published sites. On Linux, sometimes the Java applet is not enabled on Firefox and must manually be enabled.

For Firefox 1.5 to 3.5 on RHEL5 or SUSE10:

1. Install JRE 5.0 or above. Assume that the JRE is installed at /opt/JRE.
2. Go to the browser's plugin folder. On RHEL5u3, the plugin folder is /usr/lib/mozilla/plugin-wrapped. On SUSE10, the plugin folder is /usr/lib/browser-plug-ins.
3. Create a symbolic link to the java plugin at the browser's plugin folder:
   ln -vs $(find /opt/JRE/ -name libjavaplugin_oji.so)
4. To enable Java, start Firefox and type about:plugins to ensure the java plugin is installed. Then go to edit > preferences > content tab page, check "enable java".

For Firefox 3.6 and later:

1. Upgrade the JRE to 6.0_10 or later.
2. Use the following command to install the Java plugin:
   ln -vs $(find /opt/JRE/ -name libnpjp2.so)

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Rational Asset Manager integration support
This release of Rational Method Composer supports integration with Rational Asset Manager V7.5.

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Localization
In this release of Rational Method Composer, the user interface is translated in the following languages:

• Arabic (ar)
• Chinese (Simplified) (zh_CN)
• Chinese ( Traditional) (zh_TW)
• Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR)
• Danish (da)
• German (de)
• French (fr)
• Italian (it)
• Spanish (es)
• Japanese (ja)
• Korean (ko)
• Polish (po)
• Russian (ru)

In this release of Rational Method Composer, the online documentation is translated in the following languages:

• Arabic (ar)
• Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR)
• German (de)
• French (fr)
• Italian (it)
• Spanish (es)
• Japanese (ja)

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IBM Rational Software Support
IBM Rational Software Support provides you with technical assistance.
For contact information and guidelines or reference materials that you will need when you require support, read the IBM Software Support Handbook at: http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/guides/handbook.html

For product news, events, and other information, visit the product home page for Rational Method Composer at:
http://www.ibm.com/software/awdtools/rmc/support/

Before you contact IBM Rational Software Support, gather the background information that you will need to describe your problem. When describing a problem to an IBM software 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.