Import requirements (csv) with _other_ unique key than GUID?

[minastaros2]

Hi all,

I import requirements via csv from the ALM tool Polarion (the leading data base) which has its own IDs for each work item, for instance: "ABC-123". This ID will be mapped to the Alias field in EA to be visualised along with the requirement title in the diagrams.

After importing new requirements the first time, I manually enter/copy the EA-GUID back to Polarion to a special field (here: "External Reference"). This will be mapped to GUID on next import, so EA can identify the item and would update the requirement text instead of creating a new one.

so far, so good.

The only awkward thing is that I have to maintain two IDs which are basically redundant.

Is there a way that I can use another field (the Polarion-ID) as the unique key for imports to EA? So EA would use this key to find an existing requirement object instead of the GUID?

I am sure that with a script, everything can be done. But can I also tweak the official import functionality?

[qwerty]

The tweak is that Sparx delivers a script for csv import to do those things.

q.

[Geert Bellekens]

You can have a look at my VBA Excel importer. With very little tweaking you should be able to use the polarion ID as the identifier.
You just need to store it somewhere on the requirement (in a tagged value, the keywords field, ...) and then use it to determine whether you need to create a new one or update the existing one.

Geert

[Uffe]

Hello,

There is one thing you could try. When you export CSV from EA and specify "Preserve hierarchy", EA generates two columns CSV_KEY and CSV_PARENT_KEY. These are used to represent the project browser hierarchy. They're on the form CSVxxxxxxxx, where x are hex digits, and they're not used inside EA at all; they're completely unique to the CSV process.

So you could try writing the Polarion IDs into the CSV_KEY column. I've no idea whether that will work or whether EA will just put its ears back and refuse to cooperate, but it's worth a shot.

HTH,


/Uffe

[Uffe]

Or how's this -- Polarion is supposed to support OSLC, as is EA. Have you tried that approach, instead of CSV?

/Uffe

[minastaros2]

@Uffe:  haven't seen OSLC yet - I will check.
Concerning you answer from yesterday: I will give it a try but I doubt that it works - because it is said that CSV_KEY is not used inside EA except the import/export process, thus, the objects do not have a field for this (like GUID, Alias etc.) to preserve that information for the next import. However, that would be necessary to identify already existing objects.

I assume that a script would be a feasible short-term solution. But in the long term, I think that a professional solution which directly accesses the Polarion-DB and not only imports requirements but also exports diagrams would be the best (avoiding moving csv-files around at all). There might be plugins for that.

[Geert Bellekens]

A quick google reveals that there is indeed an add-in for Polarion
- http://extensions.polarion.com/extensions/167-eapo-professional-edition
- http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/products/3rdparty.html#eaPolarion

Geert