How to Create Nested Tables

In our example, we will create a nested view from Requirements to TEST items. The process will be:

1. Run a query to display a list of the items in set B, these are TEST items in this case, and display as a table (right click and choose Table style or choose Table from the Style pulldown menu):
2. Define a new view for the TEST items when they are shown as linked items with appropriate attributes, so right click and choose View Details and modify the current view to include appropriate attributes:
   
3. Click Save As and save the new view with an appropriate scope, we will call it Tests – Xrefd in this example:
   
4. Now run a query to display a list of the items in set A, these are requirement items in our example, and display them as a table:
   
5. Define a new view for the view from the items in set A to the items in set B, from requirements to TEST items in this case, so right click and choose View Details and modify the current view to include the appropriate attributes:
   
6. Now add a new column to contain the linked items ( TEST items in this case) by selecting the column to the left of where the link items are to be shown:
   
7. Then add the new column by clicking the Add Column button:
   
8. Select the view cell in this new column:
   
9. In the View Details dialogue, select the Data pulldown list and set the content of this view cell to be Linked Items and the View Details dialogue reconfigures itself:
   
   We don’t want to show all items linked to the requirements, we only want the TEST items that are linked to the requirements, so change the Value pulldown list to Cross Referenced items of Type and set the To Type to be TEST items so that we will only show the TEST items that are linked to each requirement:
   
10. From the Navigation pulldown list choose a navigation that selects which of the TEST items linked to the requirements should be shown, and if you are not sure which navigation to use, then choose one of the standard navigations supplied by 3SL, Downwards, Upwards or Bidirectional. Bidirectional is guaranteed to always work, so if you are not sure, then choose this one.
11. Finally, from the View pulldown list choose the view to be used to show the linked TEST items, the Tests – Xrefd view that we created earlier:
    
12. Click Apply to show the view:
    
    If you satisfied with the view, then click Save As and save it with an appropriate name and scope, we will use Req – Test in our example:
    

This process has created a typical nested table. The same process can be used to create more complex nested tables. For example

• If we wanted a view that shows another set of items (such as GOALs) linked to the requirements and their TESTs, then we would run a query to show the GOALs and add a column into a view that contains:
  • Linked Items of type requirement
  • Using the view Req – Test
• If we wanted a view that shows indirect ( transitive) links from items in a set A to items in a set B, then we use a navigation in which the Follow xrefs transitively checkbox has been selected: