Reuse Method Content: Contribute to a Task

The goal of this exercise is to extend a Task by adding a contribution. By now you should start to see the general pattern with this variability mechanism. Recall that contributions append text in appropriate fields from one content package to another.

  1. Switch back to the Authoring perspective. authoring icon

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  2. Create a new Task in the Contribution Test content package.

     

    new task created under contribution test

     

  3. Use the following attributes for this task:

     

     

    contributing task

     

    4.  

  4. Click on the Steps tab and add two new steps named "Contributing Step 1" and "Contributing Step 2".

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  5. Click on the Description tab. In the Variability Relationship section select Contributes and then click the Select... button.
    6. The Select Dialog: Tasks window will appear.

     

  6. Select create_test_case and click OK. This will be the base element for our contribution.

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  7. Go back to the Steps tab and click the Order button. Now use the Up and Down buttons to reorder the steps. Note that you can now insert your new steps into the original sequence of steps inherrited from the base. This is a good example of the power of variability contributions.

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    re-ordering task steps

     

  8. Save the new task by closing the editor panel.

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  9. Switch to the Browsing perspective.

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  10. Expand the Disciplines folder, then the Disciplines subfolder, then the Test folder. Double-click on the Create Test Cases task. The Content panel now shows a preview of the generated page.

    11.  

    modified create test case task

     

    Note how the text we entered in Step 3 has been appended to the brief description and purpose fields on this generated page. Note also that the name and presentation name were not affected by the contribution.

     

  11. Look at the steps to see how your new material was contributed. You should see the text that you included in the contributing task displayed in the Create Test Cases task.

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  12. You can also try specifying additional Artifacts, Guidance, and Additional Performer Roles in the contributing task (using the Authoring perspective) and then view the result in the configuration view to see the behavior.

 

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