I know that this is not strictly Cradle-related, but for some time I and many of our customers have been annoyed that Windows 10 wants to use Edge to open PDF files. Yes, you can set Acrobat Reader as the default application, but after a while, Windows ‘forgets’ this setting and starts to open PDF files in Edge again.
Thankfully, there really is a solution. Unfortunately, it involves editing the Windows registry…
But, the good news is that after I used this fix a couple of weeks ago, Windows has not reset Edge to open PDF files, and PDF files are still being opened in Acrobat, as I want them to be.
If you have not seen the permanent fix, please look here:
Closing the sidebar and the ‘Diagram Form Item details’ can leave more drawing area on your screen. Double clicking the ribbon will close this up too. Clicking the sidebar icons opens the sidebar once again or the ribbon title opens the ribbon. Performing all these actions will increase the drawing area to the maximum.
Model-based Systems Engineering represents systems engineering components in domains, gathering together the data and functions in a formalised manner. This helps with the exchange of data between different disciplines, stakeholders and customers within a common frame work. Element details are often represented as a symbol on a diagram.
A common systems modelling technique, for say the functional aspects, would be to show them in a multi-tier, time-sequenced, step-by-step flow diagram or eFFBD. The diagrammatic format makes it much easier to assimilate the whole concept.
Whilst our help offers good coverage of the modelling capabilities in Cradle. We understand getting to grips with the details of the tool can be complex. When you are working with a new diagram type for the first time, some of the symbols can look very similar. The palette on in the sidebar shows tootips, but hovering over each is not very efficient. If you are confused about which symbol is which, select ‘Draw‘ button from Tools ribbon. You will then see the name of each symbol alongside its icon.
Do you have something important that your users need to know? Rather than having to send an email, you can display messages on the Cradle login screen for all of your Cradle users to see. These are called “Login Messages”, and can communicate any number of things, for example:
A reminder of a confidentiality agreement that may be implicit in your use of Cradle
The dates and times for any planned server reboots, for example after installing updates to the operating system
Announcements of internal training courses
A daily joke(!)
Login Message
Setup
The message is written in UTF-8 and so can be in any language. The login message appears on the right hand side of the login dialog. You can optionally include a checkbox that users must select to confirm that they have read the message. A user cannot login until this checkbox has been selected. Users must select the checkbox every time that they login. See this blog post for more information.
The login message is stored in the file: login_message in the admin directory of the Cradle installation on your Cradle server:
This file contains notes which explain how to enter a message into the file, also includes examples. Any login_message files in an end users Cradle installation are ignored because the message is controlled on the server and displayed to all client machines.
Not all data in all projects should be visible to all users and roles. Hiding information in Cradle can be done in a number of ways.
Classification
A hierarchical access control is provided with Item Classifications. These Classification values restrict a user’s ability to see an item based on their clearance level. The values are a sequenced list, those users with a higher classification will be able to see items equal or at a lower classification than the level they hold. The classification is set on an item by item basis.
Classifications
Item Types
Entire item types can be hidden from users based on their skill. If you don’t want some users to see finance information, then ensure you create a finance item type. Create and assign a finances skill to this item type and then only give the skill to those who warrant it.
Read Only Items
The same mechanism that controls complete access to an item type can also be used to assign RO accessibility. Regardless of the item’s state (draft/baselined etc.) users are only allowed RO access based on the skill they possess.
Read Only Categories
You can protect certain bits of information within an item from alteration by setting a skill which prevents updates by those without the skill.
Frame Access Control
Frames are used to hold larger blocks of data within an item. These could be paragraphs of text, binary documents (such as a spreadsheet) or just a date. Access to individual frame types can be controlled by a skill. Users without the skill will either not see the frame at all or will see it Read Only.
Privileges
The privileges a user holds can control whether they can see information based on ownership. The normal pattern being users and the teams they belong to being able to see items owned by the users and their team. Access to information owned by teams to the side, above or below the current user is controlled by the User’s Privileges
Trees are a common way to explore the information in a database and controlling tree labels is important as:
• Any query’s results can be shown in Tree style • Trees are available for each item type from the Project sidebar • The Phase hierarchy can contain nodes that run queries whose result item are shown as nodes in the phase hierarchy tree
A default tree view can be set for individual items. This view is used to construct the text label whenever a tree node is added for an item of that type. Any frames, linked items, discussions are ignored.
As shown in the screenshot below, “REQ-1” in the DEMO project as the top level item, using the tree view you can see all items which are linked to REQ-1
Requirement hierarchy tree from a query
Cradle has a default for the labels of the nodes in these trees. This default uses an item’s Identity, Name, Key, Version and Draft attributes. This label may not be what you want to see, particularly if:
• Your items are auto-numbered, so the Identity is generated by Cradle and is not important to you, • If most of this type of item do not have anything in their Name attributes
You can control the contents of labels in tree nodes. To do this:
1. Login to WorkBench as a user who can modify the schema and can create project-wide views 2. Define a new view that lists the attributes that you want to appear in the labels. This view can include any attributes except calculations and frames. Only the first row in the view will be used. Save the view with Project scope, to ensure that everyone can use it. 3. Start Project Setup from the Project tab, set Options to Item Definitions and select the Item Types tab 4. Select the item type whose tree labels are to be set and choose your view from the Tree view: drop-down list 5. Save the schema and close Project Setup
Now when any user sees any items of this type in any tree, the labels for these tree nodes will only contain the information defined by the view.
Setting up tree labels for item types can be a very efficient tool when using Cradle to help your team save time when browsing through the tree nodes for items types, as this will only show the pre determined information the user is looking for.
Article Updated – 04/02/2019 – Added image and conclusion
If you want your reports to match you Corporate style, you can create your own Report Styles in Cradle. Although this example of the Vibrant Corporation takes it to the extreme!
Report Colour SettingsReports
You can save the style and apply it to each report generated throughout Cradle. This applies to HTML and RTF styles, plain text and CSV are not altered. See Cradle help for more details. Whether you are printing a list of items from the database, or the component parts of a data definition or a baseline summary, you can pick from the built in styles or create your own.
Running Reports
Reports can be run from within the Phase hierarchy (great if you need the same report running regularly) or directly through the Reports tool.
Updated : September 2020 -additional linksand screen shots
If you find the defaults give you too many reviewers for your Configuration Management Process, then create a new custom Workflow in Cradle.
The number of reviewers, the steps on accept or reject, steps based on the owner can all be altered in the Project Schema. Each item type can have a different process flow or they can follow the built in defaults.
As you may know, there are many opportunities to extend Cradle’s functionality, including using external commands. These commands can be triggered from user-defined start pages, or the user-defined phase hierarchy, or when you work with attributes inside items.
Commands can be made variable using Command Directives. Some of these can access the username, password and project code of the current user.
For example, the Command Directive $LOGIN is replaced by the string -login user,pwd,pcode where username is the current user’s Cradle username, pwd is the current user’s plain text password and pcode is the project code of the database that the current user is logged-in to.
The Command Directives $CUSER, $PASS and $PROJC are available for each of these components.
Because of the sensitivity of this information, you can control whether or not these Command Directives are active.
You do this using the file:
eci_config
Whis is found in the admin directory of the Cradle installation on the server (so the eci_config file that may exist in Cradle client installations on end users’ computers is ignored).
You can enable / disable various ‘sensitive’ Command Directives by editing this file in the Cradle installation on your ‘Cradle server’.
Note that many of the sensitive Command Directives are enabled by default, but $LOGIN is one of those that is not enabled!
Need to restrict what a user can set in a category?
All categories are set up in the Project Schema. Adding a verification test can be used to ensure only sensible values are added. The types of test that can be set are controlled by the type of data being represented in the category. For example, a date can be tested to be within range, a text category may have a Regex test.
