ReqTool

ReqTool is a model and a requirements editor for the Eclipse Capra framework. ReqTool is developed by rt-labs in cooperation with a research group at the software engineering deportment at University of Gothenburg. It is partly funded by Vinnova within the AMALTHEA4public project.

Capra is a traceability framework which enables applications to create and manage links between different forms of artifacts in Eclipse. ReqTool provides a concrete Capra model in the form of specification files. ReqTool specification files are XML files that are stored in Eclipse workspaces. They most importantly contain lists of requirements.

The following is a screen shot of the requirements editor and the requirements tree view.

Motivation

ReqTool demonstrate the capabilities of the Capra framework and the benefits of integrating a requirements tool with Capra and the Eclipse framework.

By using these frameworks the ReqTool editor can work with a wide variety of different kinds of artifacts, such as source code elements, Microsoft Word documents and test cases.

This can give software developers a convenient way to manage requirement, their links to other artifacts, and the status of tests for them. The convenience and overview that this provides can result in requirements with a higher quality and better control of the development process and the resulting software.

ReqTool is created because it is valuable with a simple, lightweight tool that is designed from scratch to take advantage of the functionality that Capra provides.

Functionality

Basic GUI and functionality of the ReqTool editor

• Create and edit requirements in a table based editor.

• Create links between artifacts and requirements by dragging and dropping Eclipse resources and other elements to the requirements editor.

Advanced features of the ReqTool editor

• Visualisation of the requirement tree in the Trace View.

• Validation and syntax highlighting of Gherkin style requirements and user story style requirements

  • Uses Gherkin parser from the Cucumber project.
  • Active in requirements editor, in the body field of requirement with the "Gherkin" type.

• Generation of Robot Framework tests from Gherkin requirements

  • Uses Gherkin parser from the Cucumber project.
  • Trigger command with a toolbar button or from context menu in the editor.

• Generation of specification documents in the Markdown file format

  • The generated files can easily be used to generated PDF or HTML documents with any of a large number of third-party tools.
  • Tricker with the Export -> ReqTool -> Specification Document command.

• Visualise test results in the requirements table

  • A context menu triggered command fetches test results from a build server, matches them against the artifacts linked in the table, and decorates the table to indicate test results.
  • The build server is configured in the Mylyn Builds view.
  • The Eclipse Mylyn API is to fetch test results.

Prerequisites and Dependencies

Build Tools

Either:

• Maven
• Eclipse, with plug-in development tools and modeling tools installed

Source Code Dependencies

ReqTool depends on the following software. If it doesn't exist in the Eclipse workspace it will be downloaded as part of the target platform resolution process in a normal build.

• Java 8
• The Eclipse Neon platform
• Eclipse Orbit
• The org.eclipse.capra.core Eclipse bundle.
• To link requirements to artifact the Capra handlers are needed.
• Eclipse Nebula NatTable

The Capra packages are included in the ReqTool update site.

Downloading, Building and Running

Installing pre-built version in existing Eclipse

An update site file is availible for download.

Downloading source code

Obtain a copy of the source code by cloning the ReqTool repository with the following Git command:

git clone <REPO_URL>

Building

The source code can be built using either with Maven Tycho, or from within the Eclipse using the PDE and modeling tooling.

• To build using Maven, run the command mvn verify from inside the com.rtlabs.reqtool.releng directory.

• To build from within Eclipse, first set the target platform file in com.rtlabs.reqtool.releng.target. The perform a normal build.

Capra as a Requirement

The needed Capra bundles are downloaded automatically as a part of the target platform.

If that fails, or to work with a modified version of Capra, its source code repository can be cloned, and its projects imported into the Eclipse workspace.

Running

• Run an Eclipse instance with the ReqTool bundles installed.

• Create a requirements model file using the New -> ReqTool -> Specification command. The file will open in the ReqTool requirements editor.

• To link an artifact with a requirement, simply drag-and-drop the artifact on the requirement in the ReqTool requirements editor.

• To delete any link, open the Trace View and select the arrow representing the link, then press the delete key.

WARNING: The Capra org.eclipse.capra.generic bundles must not be installed in the Eclipse instance running ReqTool. That is because Capra (at least up to version 0.7.0) can not handle multiple models running at once.

Future work

Features

• Export/import ReqIF
• GUI work: Better editing and navigation, fix bugs

Bugs, Defects and Limitations

• It is not possible to input newlines in the requirements body editor. The entry key commits the current text.
• Many other GUI and usability features...