Tool Mentor: Adding Templates to Your RequisitePro Project

Purpose

This tool mentor describes how to add Microsoft © Word documents as templates in your Rational RequisitePro project.

Overview

Every new document in RequisitePro includes default formatting information. New documents are based on document types, which include a default file extension, requirement type, and an associated outline.

An outline is a reference document used to control the formatting of Microsoft Word documents in RequisitePro. This is useful for maintaining consistency across documents of the same type. An outline is selected while creating or editing a document type in RequisitePro, as described above. By referencing a Word template (.dot file), outlines can include formats, page layout information, attributes, attribute definitions, and system defaults.

An outline file is a simple, unformatted text file that contains a name and description of the outline and a reference to a Word template with a .dot file extension. This Word template contains the paragraph styles and other formatting information that will control the appearance of your RequisitePro document.

To add new templates to your RequisitePro project, do the following:

1. Create Microsoft Word template files
2. Create outline files
3. Install files in your RequisitePro project

1.   Create Microsoft Word Template Files

• Start Microsoft Word outside of RequisitePro 4.0.
• Open the file from which you want to create a template.
• Create a new template, which will be a file with the same name as the Word file you opened, but with the extension .dot. See the Microsoft Word documentation for more information about creating templates.

You can also use the template files provided with the Rational Unified Process. They can be found in your Rational Unified Process installation directory in the folder wordtmpl/templates.

For the business modeling workflow:

• A template for the Business Use-Case Specification (wordtmpl/templates/bm/Business Use-Case Specification.dot).
• A template for the Supplementary Business Specification (wordtmpl/templates/bm/Supplementary Business Specification.dot).

For the requirements workflow:

• A template for the Glossary document (wordtmpl/templates/req/glossary.dot).
• A template for the Vision document (wordtmpl/templates/req/vision.dot).
• A template for the Stakeholder Needs document (wordtmpl/templates/req/Stakeholder Needs.dot).
• A template for the Use-Case Specification (wordtmpl/templates/req/Use-Case Specification.dot).
• A template for the Supplementary Specification (wordtmpl/templates/bm/Supplementary Business Specification.dot).

2.   Create Outline Files

An outline file has a .def file extension and includes the following lines separated by carriage returns:

The .def and the .dot files must have the same name with different extensions, for example, usecase.def and usecase.dot. Both must be stored in the Outlines directory in your RequisitePro installation directory.

• In a text editor, create a new text file containing the following three lines of information, separated by carriage returns:
  • The outline's full name, up to 64 characters
  • A description of the outline, up to 256 characters
  • The Word template's DOS filename
    
• In the Outlines directory, save the text file, using the same file name as the template but with the extension .def.

For example, the usecase.def file includes three lines:

Use Case Specification

Rational supplied document used to specify a use case.

Usecase.dot 

3.   Install Files in Your RequisitePro Project 

Your Rational Unified Process (RUP) materials include templates for using RequisitePro in your use case development. Install and access these templates through the following simple steps:

1. Copy the .dot and .def files to the Outlines directory in your RequisitePro installation directory.
   Typically this is: C:\Program Files\Rational\RequisitePro 3.0\Outlines
2. On the RequisitePro Tool Palette, click Project, and then click Modify.
   The Properties dialog box appears.
3. Click the Document Types tab.
4. Select a document type and click the Edit button.
   The Document Type dialog box appears.
5. Select an outline from the Outline Name field.
6. Click OK to close the Document Type dialog box.
7. Click OK to close the Project dialog box.