ACM View
ACM View lets you query the ACM Query Facility and view the "where-used" or "components" information from the ACM component data.
Users can select an element or elements from the Project View, Element View or Search Map View for a given repository connection and directly invoke action for "components" or "where-used" queries. Users can also invoke a standalone wizard to query ACM data in a more general way, independently of the project.
The results of these queries are consequently displayed in ACM View, in a tree structure, in combination with tabular data. For greater clarity, this tabular data includes ACM meta information – for example, indirect references.
Users can also interact with the data that is displayed in ACM View. For example, a user can display selected elements or add them to a project, which gives benefit to the user when dealing with impact analysis and understanding how elements depend on each other.
ACM View also provides tools for filtering and sorting displayed data.
These actions are available from the contextual menu when the user selects an element in Project View, Element View or Search Map View.
- List Elements using this Component
- Performs the "where-used" ACM query for a selected element or elements. Returned data is displayed in ACM View.
- List Components of this Element
- Performs the "components" ACM query for a selected element or elements. Returned data is displayed in the ACM View.
In the Endevor System Explorer users can query listed members using this action:
- List Elements Using This Member
- Performs the "where-used" ACM query for the selected member or members. Returned data is displayed in ACM View.
- Impact Analysis Action
- This action triggers queries for all the elements that are included in the project. As a result, all the ACM data are updated, together with the impact analysis decorations. For more information on impact analysis, see the “Impact Analysis” section of this topic.
Allow users to perform filtering on returned data from ACM queries. To use filter options, follow these steps:
- In the top left section of the ACM View, click "quick access filter options". The filter fields display.
- Enter the filter text into the appropriate fields. The filter is immediately applied to the listed data in the View.
The user has the option to interact with the listed data in the ACM View:
- List Elements using this Component
- Performs the "where-used" ACM query for a selected element or elements. Returned data is displayed as a subsequent tree node of the selected element.
- List Components of this Element
- Performs the "components" ACM query for a selected element or elements. Returned data is displayed as a subsequent tree node of the selected element.
- Browse this member's dataset
- Lists the dataset of the member in the Endevor System Explorer, where users can review or interact with listed members.
- Add to Project
- This option is available on elements or components on the project map listed for the Project-invoked query (a query invoked from the selected Project View or Search Map View and Element View that is populated with data that is related to the selected project in the Project View).
There are a few visual aids to help you better understand and distinguish the type of data that is displayed. Within the ACM View there are two different types of icons, representing Endevor Element and Member. Additionally, based on the type of query ("where-used" or "Components") listed elements or members are decorated with an icon:
- Blue "up arrow" icon
- Lists components of this element type of query. This means that the decorated element is a component of its parent element in the displayed tree.
- Yellow "down arrow" icon
- Lists elements using this component type of query. This means that the decorated element "uses" its parent element in the displayed tree.
Info Bar
The top section of ACM View holds information about the requested query, specifically the used repository/project, the query type ("components"/"where-used") and the number of returned records.
In the top-left corner of ACM View, a user can invoke the ACM Query Dialog, which lets the user interact directly with the ACM Query facility for a given repository, and for specified elements, members, comments, or objects. The ACM Query facility resembles the core Endevor ACM query panel.
The following fields are available in the dialog window:
Repository
Allows users to select the repository for which the query will be submitted.
Exclude Group
The user can select which type of references will be excluded from the returned response:
- Circular references
- Specifies whether to exclude circular references. If checked, circular relationship records are excluded from the output data that is returned.
- Indirect references
- Specifies whether to exclude indirect references. If checked, indirect relationship records are excluded from the output data that is returned.
- Related references
- Specifies whether to exclude related references. If checked, related relationship records are excluded from the output data that is returned.
Element Query Type Tab
Element Query displays WHEre-used or COMponents-used information that is associated with the element at the inventory location that is specified. The inventory name specifications can be name-masked. The following fields are available:
- Element Name
- Specifies the name of the Element of the query.
- System
- Specifies the Endevor System of the query.
- Subsystem
- Specifies the Endevor Subsystem of the query.
- Environment
- Specifies the Endevor Environment of the query.
- Stage
- Specifies the Endevor Stage of the query.
- Type
- Specifies the Element Type of the query.
Query Options:
- Components used
- Directs ACMQ to provide "components used" information.
- Where-used
- Directs ACMQ to provide "where-used" information.
Member Query Type Tab
Member Query displays WHEre-used information for non-element PDS members that is referenced in element component lists.
- Member
- Specifies the name of the member for the query.
- DS Name
- Specifies an optional data set name that is used to limit which library the search covers. Name-masking of characters is not allowed, and beginning and ending quotes are not allowed.
Object/Comment Query Tab
- Object query
- Displays WHEre-used Object relationships that have been manually defined using the CONRELE utility in a processor. Use the Comment/Object field to specify the data. This field is case-sensitive.
- Comment query
- Displays WHEre-used Comment relationships that have been manually defined using the CONRELE utility in a processor. Use the Comment/Object field to specify the data. This field is case-sensitive.
- Object/Comment
- Specifies the name of the comment or object that the search covers. Name-masking of characters is not allowed. Beginning and ending quotes are optional. This field is case-sensitive.
Impact analysis in the context of the Endevor Eclipse plug-in provides a set of tools to help users better understand the scope and impact of the changes to elements. Users can directly use ACM queries to gather information at the same time as the plug-in tries to track all the elements in the project, and perform queries automatically, and evaluate potential impact. The aggregate information can be reviewed by the user, who can then make educated decisions.
Project View
The Endevor project was extended to support basic impact analysis on elements within the project. As a result, the plug-in can query all the elements automatically and present aggregated data to the user and perform basic evaluation.
An important step is the definition of the target location, which holds the version of elements against which the impact is evaluated.
Project View Visual Decorations
When the ACM data is refreshed, updated information about every element in the project displays in the right-hand portion of the element decoration. This information shows how many elements are directly affected by the change in this element. The impact is rated according to the following scale you can define on the Impact Analysis Properties page in the Project properties. Default values are:
| Impact Level | Number of Elements Affected |
|---|---|
| Low Impact | Fewer than 5 |
| Moderate Impact | 5 to 19 |
| High Impact | 20 and more |
- Automatic Data Refresh
- When checked, ACM data for the impact analysis is requested with each explicit project refresh.
- Medium Threshold
- The lowest number of affected elements that represents Moderate Impact.
- High Threshold
- The lowest number of affected elements that represents High Impact.
- Endevor Location
- The location of the version of elements against which the impact is evaluated.