# EPF Composer Release Notes

Release 1.0-M2

##

## Introduction

This is an updated version of EPF Composer. The main features added in this release include the following:

- Support for Linux platforms
- Several functional improvements and fixes

## System Requirements

### Hardware Requirements

- Intel(TM) Pentium® III 800 MHz or higher processor.
- 768 MB RAM minimum. More memory is recommended as it improves responsiveness.
- Disk space:

- 50 MB to install EPF Composer.

- Display resolution of 1024 x 768 x 256-color video resolution, or higher. High-color or true-color recommended

### Software Requirements

The following software must be installed before you install EPF Composer:

- One of the following operating systems:

- Windows® XP Professional with Service Packs 1 and 2
- Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4
- Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 WS
- SUSE Linux SLES 9 SP3

- One of the following browsers:

- Internet Explorer® 6.0 with Service Pack 1
- Internet Explorer 5.5 with Service Pack 2
- Mozilla 1.7.12
- Firefox 1.0.7 or 1.5

- Minimum SUN® JRE 1.4.2, or later, is recommended.

## New Features

The main new features in EPF Composer are described below.

### Export to Microsoft Project

You can now export a process to Microsoft Project. You can do this as follows:

1. Start EPF Composer and open the library containing the process you want to export.
2. Select File->Export. This starts the Export wizard.
3. Select Microsoft Project Template and click Next.
4. Choose the type of process to export - Capability Pattern or Delivery Process and select the process you want to export. If there is more than one Configuration associated with the process, select the configuration you want to use.
5. You can choose to publish the configuration at the same time by checking the "Publish the configuration files" checkbox. You can also choose to only export tasks and activities with the Planned attribute set to true. If you do not check this box, all activities and tasks in the selected process will be exported.
6. Provide a name for your exported template file and select a location for the file. Click Finish.
7. You can open the XML file that is exported using Microsoft Project 2003 or later. The XML file format is not officially supported in earlier versions.

### Synchronization of Processes to Method Elements

When a descriptor is created in a process, it has the same properties as its corresponding base element. If the base element is changed, the changes are not automatically reflected in corresponding descriptors. Synchronization allows you to update descriptors in a process with the latest version of the corresponding base method element. This makes it easier to keep processes up to date with changes made to method elements after they are used in processes.

Each descriptor has a new property, the "Synchronized with source" flag, which can be set if you want to synchronize the element with its base method element.

There is a new synchronization wizard that allows you to choose the properties to update in a descriptor from the corresponding base element.

To open the synchronization wizard, in the process editor, right-click on any breakdown element and select "Custom Synchronization". The wizard explains the feature and allows you to select which properties to update from the base element.

You can also update all elements by right-clicking on a breakdown element and selecting "Default Synchronization from Method Content".

The synchronization features are available for descriptors and activities. If you apply synchronization for an activity, all descriptors within the activity that have the "Synchronized with source" flag checked will be synchronized.

### Improvements to Diagrams

When an element in an extended Capability Pattern is suppressed in the Work Breakdown Structure, the element is removed from the corresponding diagrams. When elements are removed from a diagram, the resulting diagram may not be satisfactory. For example, you may have large empty spaces that seem inappropriate. You may also have nodes that are not connected to anything. You can manually modify these diagrams to improve their appearance. You won't be able to make connections to nodes that are extensions to other process elements (they appear with green italic text under the node). To enable the ability to connect to these nodes on your diagram, locate the node in the work breakdown structure (WBS) view. Choose 'Local Contribution' from this element's context menu.

It is now possible to associate a diagram produced in an external graphics tool with an element in a breakdown structure. To use this facility, in the process editor, right-click on an activity and select Diagrams>User Defined Diagrams. You can select which type of user defined diagram you want to use and select the diagram file.

You can now resize the nodes on an activity diagram to wrap the name of the node. On an activity diagram click on an activity or a task descriptor. A box with handles is displayed around the node. Use the handles on the side of the box to reduce or increase the width of the box. The name of the activity or task descriptor will wrap within the new size.

### Improvements to Guidance

A new type of guidance - estimating considerations has been added. The estimating considerations guidance allows you to add guidance around how to estimate effort for tasks and work products.

A guidance element can now have associated guidance elements. We now support adding guidance elements to other guidance elements using a new Guidance tab on the guidance element editor.

A Template can now have multiple file attachments.

### Support for Team Profiles

In a process, roles can now be organized into teams. You do this as follows:

1. On the Team Allocation view in the process editor, right-click on an activity. Select New Child or New Sibling, and then select Team Profile. The Team Profile will be added as a breakdown element and you can edit its information in the properties view.
2. Select a role descriptor and open the properties view. The Team tab allows you to assign the role to one or more teams.

You can use this feature to organize the roles in a process into teams and sub-teams. The make-up of teams can be different in different parts of a process.

### Improvements to Published Web Sites

The publication of process information has been improved as follows:

- The Work Breakdown Structure tab now shows a "consolidated view" of tasks with their roles and work products. The display is limited to 3 levels, so sometimes the tasks and roles may not be visible because they are too deep in the hierarchy to be seen. To see the deeper levels, hyperlink to a lower level.
- The Team Allocation tab now shows all roles 'rolled-up' to the selected activity with their associated work products and tasks.
- The Work Product Usage tab now shows all work products 'rolled-up' to the selected activity with their associated work products and tasks.
- Each of the above tab displays provide collapse / expand at the activity/task, role and work product.

These changes provide clearer information about the process and improve the information about roles and work products.

### Improved Navigation between Views and Elements

In the library view, you can navigate to variability elements for a base element. Right-click on an element and select "Open via Variability Elements". A select dialog is opened that lists the base element and all variability elements that are based on the selected element. You can then open an element by double-clicking on it. You can also do this from a variability element to find the base element.

The ability to link between the library view and other views has been enhanced as follows:

- While in the process editor, you can link from a descriptor to the base method element. Right-click on a descriptor in a breakdown and select "Show Linked Element in Library View". There is also a toolbar button that can be used instead of the context menu item.
- While in the configuration view, you can locate a method element in the library view. Right-click on a process element and select "Show in Library View".

In each case, the corresponding base method element is highlighted in the library view. There could be contributors to this element that add additional information, roles, or work products. You can use "Open via Variability Elements" described above to locate variability elements.

### A few other improvements

- There are now toolbar buttons in the process editor to move activities/tasks up or down.
- "Contributes to.." information is now on all tabs in editors.
- User can customize what columns to display in the process editors

## Known EPF Composer Issues

1. When using the new synchronization feature, after each synchronization operation on a capability pattern or delivery process, please save it before doing another synchronization operation. This is to prevent too many objects being stored in the undo command stack. Having too much in the undo command stack may cause too much memory consumption.
2. EPF Composer (EPF) is not designed for concurrent team authoring on the same instance of a method library. However, there is a whitepaper on "Using EPF with a Version Control System" available on the EPF project web site at:

http://www.eclipse.org/epf/

This explains how you can use a version control system to maintain your EPF Composer library.

3. If you use one of the following EPF 7.0.1 features in your content library, you may not be able open the library using EPF 7.0 tool.

A: Added more than one attachment to a template

B: Created team profile

C: Customized activity diagrams that contain suppressed activities or tasks. These diagrams will not have a desirable look when viewed using EPF 7.0, because the suppressed elements will reappear.

You must use EPF Composer to use a library with these features.

4. "Link with Editor" button does not locate Custom Categories, but will expand down to the "Custom Categories" UI folder in the Library View.
5. Editor text fields cannot be read in High contrast mode. When High Contrast mode is activated as EPF is running, text in non-rich-text fields becomes unreadable. This is an Eclipse platform bug. The workaround is to restart EPF.
6. If you make changes to a configuration that is used by an active process editor, the changes to the configuration are not automatically refreshed in the process editor. The workaround is to re-select the configuration again in the combo box in the toolbar or use refresh in the context menu or close and reopen the process editor.
7. Drag and drop a capability pattern or delivery process from library view to a rich-text editor may not create the desired method element link. To create a method element link to a capability pattern or delivery process, expand a rich-text editor, click on 'add link' button, select the desired link type, click Browse, navigate to the capability pattern or delivery process, expand it and select the first child of the capability pattern or delivery process.
8. Windows has a limited overall number of system handles. When the system runs out of system handles, EPF will not function properly. For example, double-clicking on a method element will not bring up the editor. You need to close EPF and close other applications to bring the available system handles to a reasonable level and start EPF again.
9. Changes made to the base Activity Diagram of an activity are not automatically reflected in any extensions of the activity. To see the changes, open the Activity Diagram of each activity that extends the modified one, right click on the background of the diagram and choose "Refresh from Base". This will update the diagram. Save the change.
10. In the Rich Text Editor, it is not possible to input accented characters that require 2 key combinations. For example, '`' and 'a' to produce 'à'. This is a limitation of the Eclipse SWT Browser widget that we use. See `https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=131017` for more info. Workarounds are:

- Use Alt key codes to enter the accented characters. For a listing of Alt key codes on Windows, see `http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codealt.html`.
- Type the accented characters in a non rich text field (like Brief Description), and cut and paste the characters onto the rich text field or editor.
- Expand the rich text field, select the HTML tab and enter the accented characters in the HTML source editor.

11. In the Rich Text Editor, formatting of text inside <pre>...</pre> may not be fully preserved.

## Version control support in EPF

ClearCase Remote Client (CCRC)

Install CCRC from ClearCase server

1. Menu Help / Software Updates / Find and Install…
2. Select Search for new features to install then click Next

3. Enter new remote update site for CCRC
   then click Finish

4. Select Rational ClearCase Remote Client for Eclipse then click Next

5. Follow the on-screen instructions to install CCRC to RMC

6. Click on Install All when you see the below screen

Click on Apply Changes when you see the following dialog box

CVS

Setting up