Frequently asked questions

General

What are SmarterWidgets?

SmarterWidgets are widgets for IBM DOORS Next and IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) made by SmarterProcess. Each widget automates one task that would otherwise take a lot of manual work, such as cleaning formatting, managing links, restructuring modules, archiving baselines or auditing users.

Which IBM products do they work with?

Most widgets work in IBM DOORS Next (IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next) 7.x. User Audit works on the ELM Mini Dashboard of any ELM application: Jazz Team Server, DOORS Next, Engineering Workflow Management, Engineering Test Management and Global Configuration Management. Publishing URLs prepares data sources for IBM Engineering Publishing.

Do users need to install anything?

No. Widgets run in the browser inside the ELM interface. Your administrator registers the widget catalog once on the server, and users add widgets from the standard Add Widget dialog.

Security and safety

Can a widget do more than I am allowed to do?

No. A widget acts with the permissions of the signed-in user and uses only the official IBM interfaces. If you cannot change an artifact yourself, the widget cannot change it either.

What if a widget changes something by mistake?

Every widget that changes data shows what it will change first and asks for confirmation. We recommend working in a DOORS Next change set: if you do not like the result, you discard the change set. In addition, the Excel change report lists every change with the value before and after.

Do widgets send data outside our ELM server?

No. Widgets talk to your own ELM server. There are two exceptions, and neither sends project data: Link Checker opens the web addresses found in your requirement texts to see whether they still work, and every widget checks whether a newer version of itself is available by downloading a small public version file.

Which widgets only read data?

Link Checker, Compare Data Models, Module Explorer, User Audit and Publishing URLs are read only: they never change anything in your projects. They are marked Read only in the catalog.

Using the widgets

Is there a limit on the number of artifacts?

Widgets that work on a module process every artifact of the module, without the 200-artifact limit that applies to selections in DOORS Next. Large modules are processed in batches, with progress and a Stop button.

Can I stop a running widget?

Yes. Every long run has a Stop button. The widget finishes the current step, stops, and tells you what was done and what was not.

How do I know about new versions?

The widget header shows a New Version Available label when an update exists, with a short list of what changed. The page of each widget in this documentation also shows what changed in its latest version.

Can SmarterProcess build a widget for our own process?

Yes. Many SmarterWidgets started as a solution for one customer. Contact us to discuss your needs.