Rational RequisitePro Release Notes
Version 2002.05.00

These release notes provide information critical to installing and using Rational RequisitePro, including supported platforms and known issues with this release. 

Copyright © 1995-2001 Rational Software Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Visual Basic, Microsoft SQL Server, and Visual SourceSafe are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Oracle, Oracle7, Oracle8 and SQL*Net are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. Rational, the Rational logo, RequisitePro, Rational Rose, SoDA, Clericals, and Clearest are trademarks or registered trademarks of Rational Software Corporation in the United States and in other countries. All other names are used for identification purposes only and are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Contents

Scope - Product Definition

Hardware/Software Information

Client Requirements

Enterprise Database Server Requirements

Application Server Support

Getting Started

Installation Information

Installation/Upgrade Issues

Product Documentation

Compatibility Issues

Compatible Applications

Let's Go Display

New and Changed Features

Enhanced RequisitePro Environment

Opening Existing Projects

New Project Template Structure

Querying by Document Position

New Quick Tour

Rational Developer Network Link

RequisitePro Extensibility Interface Changes

Guidelines and Restrictions on Using RequisitePro

Microsoft Word Issues

Offline Authoring

ClearCase UCM/Baseline Issues

ClearCase LT Issues

Data Transport Wizard

Numerical Attributes

Views and Queries

Requirement Metrics

Known Issues

Creating Projects

Using Microsoft Word-linked files in Word 2002

Saving Documents

Assigning Parent Requirements in Documents

Importing Requirements

Deleting Discussions

Internationalization Issues

Using Rose with RequisitePro

Using ClearQuest with RequisitePro

Contacting Technical Support

This document provides information about the 2002.05.00 release of Rational RequisitePro. The release number is listed in the About RequisitePro dialog box (Help > About RequisitePro).

For information regarding RequisiteWeb, including system requirements and known issues, refer to the Rational RequisiteWeb Installation and Configuration document (RequisiteWebInstall.html).

Before installing RequisitePro, be sure to read the following sections: Hardware/Software Information and Getting Started.

Refer to the following information for system and software requirements. This section provides basic information on the platforms supported and the hardware and software requirements for running RequisitePro. Refer to Compatibility Issues for more information.

Operating Systems:

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 2.
• Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition.
• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Workstation Service Pack 6a.
• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition.
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

Recommendations for Using Microsoft Office with the Above Operating Systems:

• With Windows NT 4.0, use Office 97.
• With Windows 98, use Office 2000.
• With Windows 2000, use Office 2000 or Office XP.
• With Windows XP Professional, use Office XP.

Processor:

500 MHz or greater.

Memory:

128 MB or greater.

Note: For using UCM to baseline RequisitePro projects, 256 MB is recommended for RequisitePro project administrators.

Disk Space: 400 MB.

Monitor:

• 800 X 600 X 256-color video resolution, or greater.
• High Color or True Color recommended.

Mouse/pointing device: Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device.

Word Processor:

• Microsoft Word 97 Service Release 2.
• Microsoft Word 2000 Service Release 2.
• Microsoft Word 2002
• See recommendations for Microsoft Office above.

Browser: To install any Rational Suite Solutions for Windows product, you must have Internet Explorer 5.01, Service Pack 2 or higher on your system.

Let's Go RequisitePro Document Viewing: Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.x or higher.

MDAC: Version 2.6.

Requirement Metrics Reporting:

• Microsoft Excel 97 Service Release 2.
• Microsoft Excel 2000 Service Release 2.
• Microsoft Excel 2002

LAN Support: Microsoft networks. (Novell networks are not supported.)

Automated License Key Requests: Internet connection required for automated license requests.

Oracle Client: Versions 7.3.4, 8.1.6, 8.1.7.

• Microsoft SQL Server: versions 7.0 or 2000.
• Oracle Server: versions 7.3.4, 8.1.6, 8.1.7. (In Oracle version 8.0.5, the ability to create a table based on a query that uses an "Order By" clause was not available. RequisitePro requires this clause.)

Note: If you are using a version 7.3.4 server, we recommend that you use a version 7.3.4 client.
• Memory: 128 MB minimum. For projects with approximately 50,000 requirements, 256 MB is recommended.

Note: Memory requirements will vary depending on the number of concurrent users, the amount of data being requested, and the size of the database.
RequisitePro does not require the installation of the Oracle Java Runtime components. Installing these takes approximately 50 MB of RAM.
• Disk Space recommended for a database or schema is 200 MB.

For more information on using Oracle or SQL Server, refer to Compatibility Issues.

MetaFrame 1.8 Service Pack 2 application server software by Citrix Systems, Inc. on Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 or 2 Terminal Services is required.

For full installation instructions, refer to the manual Rational RequisitePro Installation Guide. For information on upgrading Rational Suite or integrations with other Rational products, refer to the manual Rational Suite Installation Guide and the Rational Suite Release Notes.

Both installation guides are available on the Rational Solutions for Windows Online Documentation CD and the Rational Software documentation Web site: http://www.Rational.com/documentation/.

All users must use the same release of RequisitePro in order to access shared projects. We recommend all users uninstall previous versions of RequisitePro before installing this version.

Naming the Installation Directory

Avoid extra spaces in front of the installation directory name. If spaces are included, RequisitePro won't open, and a "Virtual Machine Stack Overflow" error occurs. (RATLC00016408)

If a project is in a version of RequisitePro earlier than version 4.0, you must first upgrade the project to RequisitePro 4.0 before using the Database Upgrade Wizard. Contact Technical Support for information.

If a RequisitePro project is associated with a Rational repository (rather than the more current structure of a Rational project, which can be created in Version 2001.03.00 or later), upgrading the project may cause irreparable harm to the Rational repository that you use with other Rational products. To protect your Rational repository, first upgrade your software and datastores to Version 2001A, then upgrade the software and datastores to the current version. For more information, see "Upgrading from Earlier Versions of Rational Suite" in the Rational Suite Installation Guide (available on the Rational Solutions for Windows Online Documentation CD and the Rational Software documentation Web site: http://www.Rational.com/documentation/). (RATLC00015819)

If you have an existing RequisitePro database in SQL Server, and your SQL Server software has been upgraded to version 7.0 or 2000 from a previous version, then you must run the following stored procedure in SQL Server to set the database compatibility level to 70 for SQL Server 7.0 or 80 for SQL Server 2000:

for example:

The above procedure is required to prevent SQL Server Syntax Errors in RequisitePro.

For more information, select SQL Server Setup under the Custom/Full installation option, and open the Configuring SQL Server for RequisitePro document (SQLSetup.html).

For Oracle database configuration, you must edit the create_reqpro.sql script as described in "Indicating Data and Index Files Directory" on page 21 of the Rational RequisitePro Installation Guide. However, you must also create the ORACLE_DATA and ORACLE_INDEX folders on your Oracle server before running the scripts. Be sure to include the full path to the new folders in the create_reqpro.sql script, as indicated in the installation guide instructions. (RATLC00016410)

RequisitePro setup creates a Start menu program group for RequisitePro with the following items: Let's Go RequisitePro, Online Help, Rational Administrator, Rational License Key Administrator, Rational RequisitePro, Rational Software Installed Product Information, Release Notes, Rational Extensibility Interface Help, RequisitePro Tutorial, Technical Support, and database configuration documentation (if installed). To start RequisitePro, select the Rational RequisitePro menu item.

Let's Go RequisitePro opens when RequisitePro is first launched. Use the Let's Go RequisitePro online help to access the RequisitePro Tutorial, the Quick Tour, these release notes, online help, project administration tips, white papers, the Rational Unified Process, and Web resources. Let's Go RequisitePro can also be launched from the RequisitePro Help menu.

In addition to online help, refer to the manual Rational RequisitePro User's Guide (available on the Rational Solutions for Windows Online Documentation CD and the Rational Software documentation Web site: http://www.Rational.com/documentation/).

RequisitePro is compatible with:

• Rational ClearCase and ClearCase LT, version 2002.05.00
• Rational TestManager, version 2002.05.00
• Rational Rose, version 2002.05.00
• Rational SoDA for Word, version 2002.05.00
• Rational ClearQuest, version 2002.05.00
• Rational Unified Process, version 2002.05.00
• Microsoft Project 98 and 2000

Note: Oracle and SQL Server versions are listed in the Hardware/Software requirements.

The graphical heading banners and icons in Let's Go RequisitePro may be distorted when displayed on PCs with the 256 Colors display setting. For clearer graphics, set your display properties to High Color (16 bit) or the True Color (24 or 32 bit) settings. (RMBU11573)

When you start RequisitePro, the Open Project dialog box appears, which enables you to select a project to work with or to create a new project. Click the Existing tab to select a project from your project list, or click the New tab to create a project.

The Explorer is RequisitePro's primary navigation window. In this window, project artifacts (documents, requirements, views, and packages) are displayed hierarchically in a tree browser. Project information is organized in packages, which are units of related artifacts. When you select an artifact, a description of it appears in the window below the Explorer.

You can use the Explorer to access, view, and edit your project artifacts. For example, you can double-click or right-click a view or a document to open it; you can select requirements and edit them; and you can drag and drop artifacts between packages. The Explorer reflects saved changes made to an open document, view, or requirement.

The Open Project dialog box lists all projects; those most recently opened are listed first. You can sort projects alphabetically by clicking the project heading.

This release of RequisitePro provides new project template structure intended to accelerate your organization's requirements management strategy. The Use-Case, Traditional, and Composite templates provide new organizational structure, queries, and documents in accordance with the principles of the Rational Unified Process. Each template contains a Glossary document and a Requirements Management Plan document, which save project managers time by providing base content common to most requirements management needs, including descriptions of project artifacts, common terms, and roles. These templates are intended to be modified, manipulated, customized, and enhanced as the project evolves.

When you are creating queries on the Location attribute, you can select the Sort by document position check box to sort the requirements in the view in the same order as in the document that contains them.

Quick Tour is a quick introduction to RequisitePro. It walks you through the basic tasks that you perform in a requirements project, such as how to create projects, documents, and requirements and how to set requirement attributes and establish traceability. You can open Quick Tour from the Let's Go RequisitePro help screen or from the Help menu.

The Rational Developer Network provides guidance to implement and deepen your knowledge on Rational tools and best practices. It includes immediate access to white papers, artifacts, code, discussions, training, and documentation. For more information, see http://www.rational.net.

From RequisitePro, you can open the Rational Developer Network by clicking Help > Rational on the Web > Rational Developer Network. Rational Developer Network is also available in Let's Go RequisitePro.

The Rational RequisitePro Extensibility Interface contains new classes, methods, and properties. For more information, see the RequisitePro Extensibility Interface online reference topic "About this Release".

Microsoft Word Issues

Avoid creating requirements inside text boxes. RequisitePro cannot access them properly.

Do not create requirements from text that contains the Wingdings font or other special characters at the beginning of the text string. (RATLC00016311)

• RequisitePro doesn't support Word customized macros. (RMBU10108)
• If you are using Word 2000 or 2002 and choose to clear the Trust all installed add-ins and templates check box on the Tools > Macro > Security dialog box, you must click Enable at the Microsoft Word message box each time you open the RequisitePro Word Workplace. (RMBU11361)

RequisitePro contains a Refresh Requirements command on the RequisitePro > Document menu that allows you to reset the style and color of all requirement text in a document in case you inadvertently change it. However, if you change the color of any requirement text using Word 2000 or 2002, the color cannot be reset using the Refresh Requirements command. To refresh requirement text color, save the document and then select the Refresh Requirements command. (RMBU5359)

If you include the following in the text of a requirement located in a document, you will not be able to edit the requirement text outside the document (even when the extended editing feature is enabled):

• OLE objects
• Fields (e.g., author, title, subject)
• Pictures (both inline and floating)
• Tables
• Annotations (comments, footnotes, bookmarks, hyperlinks)
• Subdocuments
• Lists containing more than a single item (including bulleted and numbered headings or other styles, both sequential and outline)

• If you experience problems with the RequisitePro menus when using offline documents, clean all temp files and delete normal.dot.
• In Word 2000 and 2002, you may need to adjust your macro security levels to use the New and Delete commands on the RequisitePro > Requirement menu in offline authoring. Word 2000 defaults to the highest level for macro security. This setting prevents the enabling of the RequisitePro offline authoring macros. Reset the macro security in Word 2000 to medium on the Security dialog box, which is available by clicking Tools > Macro > Security.

ClearCase UCM/Baseline Issues

• The time required for adding a RequisitePro project to source control is proportional to the number of requirement types, documents, and saved views in the project. Subsequent check-in operations will be faster. Performance may be slower on Windows XP operating systems. (RATLC00022222) (RMBU14374)
• If you are using full ClearCase, we recommend using dynamic views for faster performance.
• If you use Rational ClearQuest to manage UCM activities, and you place a RequisitePro project under configuration control, make sure that you do not set the UCM policy, "Check Assignment Before Work On." (The default is for the policy not to be set.) When you set the policy, you cannot work on an activity unless you are the owner of that activity. In the current implementation of UCM for RequisitePro, an entire team of workers share the same activity, so if the policy is set, only one person -- not the entire team -- can work in a RequisitePro project. (RATLC0006066)
• A project created from a baseline does not maintain the cross-project traceability links, discussions information, and associations with Rational ClearQuest and Rational Rose from the original baselined project. (RMBU13476)
• When opening a RequisitePro document in a project that was created from a baseline, you are notified the document was modified outside of RequisitePro. You can accept this message and then save the document. (RMBU14604)
• If you have deleted a document, the first time you run the Check In All procedure for a RequisitePro project, you receive an error message. You can ignore this message. (RATLC00016332)
• The UCM-RequisitePro integration does not work with a full ClearCase client and server that is configured for case sensitivity. (RATLC00016087)

• Archiving RequisitePro projects with ClearCase LT:
  When you create a snapshot view in ClearCase LT, initially there is no default activity for that view. An activity needs to be created before you archive a RequisitePro project. (RMBU18138)
• Creating a baseline of a RequisitePro project with ClearCase LT:
  To improve performance, consider the recommendations below.
  • Run the Check in All from the machine with the snapshot view storage location. Depending on your network configuration, this machine may also be the ClearCase LT server, or it could be a separate file server.
  • Keep the size of individual RequisitePro project documents below 1 MB.

If you have not opened a RequisitePro sample project (Learning Project, Learning_Business, or QuarterByte Savings Bank Example Project) and try to move the database or convert it to another database type using the Data Transport Wizard, you will receive an error message. If you want to experiment with changing the database type for a sample project, make sure you have opened the project at least once before you start the conversion. (RMBU14242)

RequisitePro does not support a digit-grouping symbol of any kind (i.e., a thousand separator, such as the comma in 2,350). You cannot enter attributes with this symbol. RequisitePro does not display numbers with this symbol. (RMBU6858)

• If you are using an Access database and you have slow performance with the Retain Hierarchy option in the views display or queries, upgrade the RequisitePro project to use Oracle or SQL Server. (RMBU15569)
• If a saved view includes a query with a user-defined date field parameter, the date is stored with the saved view in the date format that is set in your Control Panel/Regional Settings/Short Date Style. If you attempt to open a saved view on a PC that uses a different date format (such as dd/mm/yyyy), a run-time error occurs. (RATLC00014609)
• In RequisitePro projects that use a Microsoft Access database, you may experience a 5-to-10-second delay between entry of data and display of the modified data. This is due to defects in Microsoft MDAC components, which RequisitePro uses in querying data in Access databases. For example, if you create or modify a requirement, and then run a query for all requirements of that type, the new or modified requirement may not be displayed until after a delay. (RMBU2189)

• The Parent Change filter cannot always detect when a requirement is changed from a root requirement to a child requirement, and vice versa. (RMBU8472)
• Close Requirement Metrics before you close the RequisitePro project. (RMBU7302)

The following is a list of known issues that are expected to be fixed in a future release of RequisitePro. For information on issues related to Rational Suite or integrations with other Rational Products, see the Rational Suite Release Notes.

Avoid extra spaces in front of the project name when creating a project. If spaces are included at the beginning of a project name, RequisitePro can't find the project to open it. (RATLC00016425)

If you are using Word 2002 and your documents and linked files are both located on the same machine on the network, do not use spaces in file names or the paths. (RATLC00016337)

• If you change focus while a document is being saved, requirements may retain pending tags in the document. Use the Rebuild Tags command, and the requirement tags are displayed properly in the document. (RATLC00016406)
• Saving Documents as Microsoft Word Documents: After saving a RequisitePro document in Word format, be sure to close Microsoft Word and open the document in a new instance of Word to edit it. (RATLC00016315)

To avoid all problems when assigning parent requirements, save the document first. If you assign a child requirement to a parent requirement that has not been saved in a document, an error message appears and you must select the parent again. To avoid further problems, select the parent requirement from the Parent drop-down list in the Requirement Properties dialog box; don't select the choose parent option. (RATLC00016426)

If you cancel the Import Wizard on the Commit screen, you can only close RequisitePro through the Windows Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DELETE). (RATLC00020644)

When deleting the only discussion item in a discussions list, you may receive an error message. Accept the error message, and the discussion item is still deleted. (RATLC00016363)

• When creating RequisitePro schemas or databases on international operating systems, non-ASCII characters are not supported for passwords for SQL-Server- and Oracle-based projects. (RATLC00014648)
• On international systems, if you create a project from one of the RequisitePro project templates, you may not be able to move it to another database using the Data Transport Wizard. We recommend that you create the project directly in the targeted database, rather than attempt to move it after it is created. (RATLC00016229)
• When moving RequisitePro projects between databases, all characters in the database must be supported in the code page of the system from which the Data Transport Wizard is run. (RMBU12011)
• In some languages, Excel and other products use a separator other than a comma when saving data as comma-separated value (CSV) files. If your language uses semicolons, do the following: to import a CSV file created from Excel to RequisitePro, change the semicolon separators to commas for the requirements to import correctly. (RMBU11775)
• When running queries, if the decimal separator and thousand's separator are different from the default of the language, Visual Basic conversion routines fail. (RMBU11423)
• On German systems, using Insert > Picture (or the IncludePicture Microsoft Word field) in a requirement fails. Use Insert > Object (Link field) instead. (RATLC00016076)
• Non-Japanese double-byte characters do not appear properly in a Microsoft Word document after an export of requirements from an Attribute Matrix. To correct the problem, open the Word document, select all text and select a new font. (RMBU13808)
• Using the Microsoft Word highlight style option for importing requirements does not work for double-byte systems. (RATLC00016298)
• On Korean and simplified Chinese systems, requirements in may be concatenated after cut, paste, and Rebuild Tags operations. This applies to all projects created on systems other than Korean and simplified Chinese, including the Learning Project. (RMBU15540)
• On double-byte language systems, a square box may mark the end of each requirement in a Microsoft Word document. (RMBU6799)
• The Rational E-Mail Reader doesn't accept project names that use double-byte characters. Therefore, participation e-mail cannot be enabled for those projects. (RATLC00014629)
• If you are using the Rational E-mail Reader, non-ASCII characters, such as the Euro character, are not handled properly. (RMBU8286)
• To avoid problems with double-byte characters when replying to RequisitePro discussions, delete any double-byte reply prefixes that Outlook automatically attaches to the subject of a reply message. (RMBU8286)

• If a "remote server machine does not exist" error message occurs when creating a requirement from Rose, you can ignore the message. The requirement is still created. To avoid other error messages, close and reopen Rose. (RATLC00021744)
• The Rose RealTime-RequisitePro integration does not support the association of a Rose RealTime package with a RequisitePro project. Use case and model association is supported. (RATLC00016065)

For information on upgrading Rational Suite or the RequisitePro-ClearQuest integration, refer to the manual Rational Suite Installation Guide and the Rational Suite Release Notes. For information on configuring the integration, refer to the manual Rational Suite Administrator's Guide. (Both manuals are available in an electronic version on the Rational Solutions for Windows Online Documentation CD and on the Rational Software documentation Web site: http://www.Rational.com/documentation/.)

• When implementing the ClearQuest-RequisitePro integration in a ClearQuest MultiSite environment, each user must connect to only one master schema repository using the default (2002.05.00) alias. If the alias is modified to point to another site, the ClearQuest-RequisitePro integration will not work properly. (RATLC00015464)
• In the ASCQIsetup.bat file, the path and file name for the RequisitePro project must not exceed 255 characters. Be sure to use shorter file names if necessary. (RATLC00020807)
• After you have changed associations in ClearQuest, or deleted requirements, manually refresh any open views in RequisitePro (click the Refresh button) to make sure updated information appears in the Associate Enhancement Requests dialog box. From within ClearQuest, if you remove an association to a requirement, then change the RA Project reference and add another requirement for the new project in the same session, errors will result. Instead, delete the requirement and commit the changes before changing the project reference and adding a new requirement. (RMBU10897) (RMBU10862)
• When you are setting a ClearQuest query in the Query field of the Associate Enhancement Requests dialog box, you must choose a query that contains a ClearQuest ID in order for the integration with RequisitePro to work correctly. (RMBU10853)
• Using the ClearQuest-RequisitePro integration when you have selected multiple records in ClearQuest will cause errors. Use the ClearQuest-RequisitePro integration with one ClearQuest record at a time. (RATLC00014777)
• If using Microsoft Project: To successfully use the same Microsoft Project schedule with both RequisitePro and ClearQuest, do not select 'Text4, 'Text5' or 'Text6' for 'Assign Custom Fields' in the Rational ClearQuest Project Tracker. (RATLC00016402)

Telephone: 1-800-433-5444 or 408-863-5000 (outside the U.S. and Canada)
Fax: 408-863-4300
E-mail: support@rational.com
Web site: http://www.rational.com/support/

Join our user group! Rational maintains an open e-mail list "req_forum@rational.com" for customers to exchange ideas on using RequisitePro.

To subscribe to the mailing list, go to the following Web site:
http://www.rational.com/support/usergroups/