This chapter describes these features of rtsquery:
rtsquery main view
Tracker menus
Control bar
Query results area
Request form area
The RTS application main view windows all have the same parts, although their menus and request form areas may differ.
The main view for rtsquery is shown in Figure 3-1, with its menus and parts labeled. It contains:
a menu bar with five menus: File, Edit, Query, Views, and Help
a control bar for browsing, displaying, and performing operations on requests
a query results area containing requests matching the criteria of the most recent query and indicating accessed and modified requests
a request form containing detailed information
Up to five menus are provided in Tracker application windows: File, Edit, Query, Views, and Help. If the application has no auxiliary views, there is no Views menu.
The File menu (see Figure 3-2) provides these selections:
The Query menu (see Figure 3-4) lets you reuse query selection criteria rather than enter it in the request fields each time you want that combination. Its selections are:
The Views menu (see Figure 3-5) lets you display auxiliary views. The standard version of rtsquery provides one selection “rtsfiles.” Your particular configuration may have additional views.
| “rtsfiles” | displays the rtsfiles window (see Figure 3-6), which has three fields for entering file names: Found in: lets you enter or access problem files. Resolved in: lets you enter changed files. Fixed Releases: lets you enter final files. |
The Help menu (see Figure 3-7) is the same for all CASEVision tools from Silicon Graphics.
The control bar lets you perform queries on the request database, access individual requests, and perform operations on them. The control bar for rtsquery is shown in Figure 3-8. It contains:
the Modes menu for resetting the window to accept an operation
an <apply command> button for completing an operation. It displays the command for the current operation.
list controls for displaying the detailed information for requests in the query results area (see the next section, “Query Results Area”).
The Modes menu displays the commands that can be performed on requests in the database. These commands are enabled or disabled, according to your currently selected request (if any) and its state. For example, if no detail information is displayed, the system assumes that you are either going to inspect requests or submit new ones so that only the top four menu items (“Query,” “Display,” “SUBMIT_BUG,” and SUBMIT_RFE”) are enabled.
When you select a command from the Modes menu, the rest of the window changes according to the information displayed and the read/write permission on the fields. The buttons, Cancel and <apply command>, let you cancel or apply the currently selected command. They are enabled only when appropriate; for example, <apply command> is enabled only after you enter data in all required fields and move the cursor out of the last field.
In general, operations are performed in three steps:
Select the operation from the Modes menu.
Select or change the data necessary for the operation.
Complete the operation by clicking the <apply command> button or stop it by clicking Cancel.
The Modes menu provides two types of commands inspection commands and transition commands. The inspection commands “Query” and “Display” let you look up requests, in a list of summaries or individually in detail. The transition commands change either the status of the request or the fields in the report. Any field required for a specific transition will be highlighted, indicating that an entry is necessary. If no entry is made, then the command will be blocked from completion.
The Modes menu selections, shown in Figure 3-8, are:
All query results areas in Tracker applications have the same general characteristics (see Figure 3-9).
The number of requests in the current query is displayed at the top of the list area. The list itself displays information for identifying requests in the list. The vertical scroll bar displays different portions of the list; the horizontal scroll bar lets you display portions of request descriptions that are obscured from view. If you use any of the list controls to display a request in the form area, the list will scroll to the displayed request accordingly.
You can use the sort buttons to sort the list of requests according to one of the characteristics displayed. The list is sorted in ascending order, alphabetically or numerically, according to the chosen category.
 | Note: You cannot alter the sort order from the GUI. Items are always sorted in ascending order from the sort buttons. |
The standard version of rtsquery presents requests in the query results area in this format:
<request ID> <request state> <owner> <summary> |
The fields that appear in the request form area depend on which application you are using and if your configuration has been modified. In total, these fields represent all the potential user-accessible data belonging to a request.
All Tracker applications provide right-button menus to help edit the request fields. Holding down the right mouse button while the cursor is over a field displays a popup menu.
If there are no standard values for the field, the menu contains the items “Reuse” (for using the value from the last displayed request), “Clear” (for blanking out the field), and “Revert” (for returning to the saved value).
If predefined values are available for the field, they can be displayed from the cascading menu attached to the “Values” item. If the last item in the Values menu is an ellipsis (...), you can enter values other than the ones displayed. Fields with a large number of value options may display these options in the form of a scrolling list. Figure 3-10 shows a list of projects.
If the field allows lists, such as “Notify” in rtsquery, a menu like that in Figure 3-11 is displayed. “Format” has two options: “List,” a vertical presentation with a scroll bar, and “Text,” a linear presentation separated by commas. You can make entries only in text mode; the entries are made inside the parentheses, separated by commas. When in list mode, you can remove items from the list by choosing “Delete Selected.”
If the field allows long text descriptions, a menu displays as shown in Figure 3-12. “Edit...” lets you bring up your editor of choice to edit the text. While the editor window is up, the RTS field is in read-only mode.
Use one of the following to set your default editor:
If none of these are set, the editor defaults to vi.
Tracker provides a wide variety of date input formats. Dates can be supplied with as little information as the year or month, or specified to the nearest second.
Special formats allow dates to be supplied as a base time point plus or minus a time interval, and also as relative to the current year, month, day, hour or second. Date field values represent a point in time to the nearest second. They do not represent a time interval such as in six seconds or two days.
Date values are ordered from this starting point, the lowest value, and increasing toward later dates. Therefore, a date that occurs after a specified date will have a higher value. This lets you use comparison operators such as < (before) and > (after).
When you use dates in transitions, you enter a specific point in time. When you are using dates in queries, you can enter a range or condition as well as a specific time.
Tracker lets you enter dates in most of the standard formats available in UNIX. Table 3-1 provides examples of date value entries, along with the interpretation by Tracker. These examples assume a current date and time of Tue Jul 28 11:10:14 PDT 1992.
Date Input | Tracker Interpretation |
|---|---|
7/28/92 | Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 PDT 1992 |
July 28, 1992 | Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 PDT 1992 |
July 28 1992 | Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 PDT 1992 |
28-July-92 | Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 PDT 1992 |
July 28 10:00 1992 | Tue Jul 28 10:00:00 PDT 1992 |
10:00 July 28 1992 | Tue Jul 28 10:00:00 PDT 1992 |
July 28 | Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 PDT 1992 |
July 28 10PM | Tue Jul 28 22:00:00 PDT 1992 |
July 28 10PM EDT | Tue Jul 28 19:00:00 PDT 1992 |
July 1992 | Wed Jul 1 00:00:00 PDT 1992 |
July | Wed Jul 1 00:00:00 PDT 1992 |
1992 | Wed Jan 1 00:00:00 PST 1992 |
10PM | Tue Jul 28 22:00:00 PDT 1992 |
10:30:59 PM | Tue Jul 28 22:30:59 PDT 1992 |
In addition to entering the specific date and time, you can also use these expressions:
Table 3-2 lists some current expressions of the date (assuming the date used in the previous example, Tue Jul 28 11:10:14 PDT 1992).
Table 3-2. Current Date Expressions
Date Input | Tracker Interpretation |
|---|---|
today | Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 PDT 1992—Beginning of current day. Equivalent to this day. |
now | Tue Jul 28 11:10:14 PDT 1992—Current time to the nearest second. |
this year | Wed Jan 1 00:00:00 PST 1992—Beginning of current year. |
this month | Wed Jul 1 00:00:00 PDT 1992—Beginning of current month. |
today + 30:00:00:00 | Thu Aug 27 00:00:00 PDT 1992—30 days from today. |
July 28 - 72:00:00 | Sat Jul 25 00:00:00 PDT 1992—72 hours before July 28th of the current year. |
When you are performing queries involving dates, you often need multiple dates rather than a specific date. These entries are useful in queries:
an expression with the operators <, <=, =, >=, >, and <> (> means after the date and < means before).
the current expressions mentioned above, such as this year or this month.
an implied interval such as a day, month, or year. Tracker performs the query according to the specificity of the date unit entered.
an expression with a base time plus or minus a time interval.
This is a list of the standard fields in rtsquery, which is a superset of the other applications: