Create Containment links between Requirements in Excel

Feature Suggestions
,
1

I am exporting a requirements diagram to Excel, to add some requirements in Excel, and then import the new requirements back to VP.

It works by adding columns in the Excel sheet.

However, one thing I can not get to work is adding containment links between the requirements. I have created requirements in VP with a containment link between them. In Excel, this is visible through the “Parent User ID”, “Parent ID” and “Parent Name” columns. I.e., the contained Requirement has as Parent User ID the User ID of the containing Requirement, and similar for Parent ID and Parent Name.

However, then I create a new Requirement (in Excel) to be contained in the same Requirement as the already existing one, by copying the values for the above mentioned columns to the new requirement I created in Excel. When I then import the Excel sheet back to VP, I do not get a containment link between the requirements, instead the new requirement is “on top” of the containing requirement, and I can see on the ID of the new requirement that it indeed is contained. However, if I move the new requirement (anywhere), the containment vanishes (i.e. the ID changes). And there is never any containment link between the requirements.

Am I doing this wrong, or is it not possible to do what I am trying to do? Would it be possible to add that possibility?

2

Hi Borisk,

Thank you for your post. I have forwarded your case to our engineers for further studies and will keep you posted on any updates.

Best regards,
Jick Yeung

3

Hi Boris,

We have made a fix related to your use case. First, please update your installation to the latest patch build (16_3_20210720ay or higher). The steps are written in the article below:

After that, perform the steps below:

  1. When you export Excel, select Model type per sheet for Export style.

    image
    image886×242 11.2 KB

  2. Create your requirements. Pay attention to the following items:

  • No need to enter “ID” (the first column)

  • Enter the “Parent User ID” (e.g. REQ001)

    image
    image1016×171 10.3 KB

  • NO NEED to enter “Diagram ID” and “Diagram Name”.

  • Enter the “Parent ID”. This is the ID of the parent ID. You can find the ID from the ID column, which is also the first column. If you try to type the value into the cell, be careful. The value is a string value. Instead of entering a number directly into the cell, add ’ before the number. E.g. '2

image

  1. Save the Excel and re-import it into Visual Paradigm.

  2. Right-click on the parent requirement in your diagram and select Visualize Related Elements… from the popup menu.

    image
    image711×589 24.8 KB

  3. Select the containment and click Visualize.
    image

Result:
image

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Jick Yeung.

4

Hi Jick,

Thanks for the swift update. My Visual Paradigm installation does not have access to the Internet, is it still possible to get the latest patch update? In any case, the workflow you outlined satisfies my needs, so even if I can’t get get patch update it will hopefully work in the next official release.

Best regards,
Boris

5

Hi Boris,

We have made a special update package for you. You may follow the steps below to update.

  1. Visit the following URL and download the zip of update package
    ownCloud

  2. Unzip the file to a folder

  3. Run the VP Update program inside the bin folder under the VP installation directory

  4. Select the option Internal Update Server

  5. Enter the folder path of the extracted content

  6. Check on Check Update and then complete the update process.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Jick Yeung

6

Hi Jick,

Thanks for the update file. I have verified that I can now create containment links, using the method you described.

7

My pleasure. :slight_smile: