master document filtering not working

[Shadow]

I've currently created a master document (using EA 8.0) which contains 3 document artefacts and 2 model documents.  They all get concatenated together when i go to generate the master document.   This works fine...

The problem is when I generate the master document (F8) and choose to filter items (e.g. phase = 1.1; elements phase contains 1.1; etc..).  I am expecting those elements to be filtered from the document.
Unfortunately they are not being filtered  

However, I am able to generate filtered documents with the 2 model documents.  

Does this functionality only work for modal documents?

Would version 9.1 have fixed this issue?

Thanks in advanced.

[swordy]

Yeah, I'm having the same problem.

 

[Shadow]

Swordy, what version of EA are you using?  Are you using 8.0 or the latest one (i.e. 9.1)

This issue is causing me some pain.  It would be nice to get some clarity on whether there is a workaround for this or when it would be possibility fixed.

I'm currently putting together an enterprise approach to generating documentation for our Department based on an enterprise master template and this issue might be show stopper.

[swordy]

Shadow, I'm using EA 9.0.

I recently found out this issue when I wanted to generate a RTF Report and using 'Element Filter' function to filter the unnecessary elements (i.e. GUI Element).

I set up the project skeleton to have packages, sub-packages, elements, and so on. I put an Alias 'exclude' in the property of those elements that I didn't want to be shown in the RTF Report, then I set the Element Filter to only include all elements without Alias 'exclude'.

When I tested my filter, it filtered the 'exclude' elements that located right under my main package, but it didn't filter the 'exclude' elements that located under the sub-package.  

[Graham_Moir]

I think the issue may be the fact that each component in the overall document you're building has its own template, and so has its own set of options.  As you haven't set any filtering in these options you don't see any in the document produced.

So basically, when you use the filter after hitting F8, that only applies to the master document and gets overridden as each component document is processed.   What you have to do, I think, is set the filtering option for the template(s) that is/are being used by each of your (model) documents and save it/them.  Then when you produce the overall document from the Master Document the RTF generator will check those options in each individual template as it processes each embedded document.

[Shadow]

Thanks Graham,

Yes, this is true... I don't set any filtering options of the model templates.  I guess I could change these templates to filter on a specific phase which then would allow the Master Document to filter the results correctly; however, this would be only a very short term solution.

Stepping back a bit... it is my understanding that the purpose of a Master Document is to provide added flexibility and scope to organise Model Documents or Document Artefact within it.  It allows flexibility to generate a document with a corporate template with standard font, style, etc...  Filtering a Master Document should apply to its content supplied by its Model Documents.

Now let’s think of an Enterprise Solution where we have many projects.  We have created a number of Model Document Templates to be used by all projects E.g. a template for a User Cases, another template for User Interface, etc…

We have also created a couple of Master Documents that contains a number of these Model Documents.  Each project will have the same look and feel for when they generate the Master Document.

These templates are created so that our documents are consistent across each project.

Let’s look at the suggested solution
Each project is at different points of the development cycle and subsequently they have different project phases.  

If I wanted to filter the Master document based on the phase number; based on this suggestion; I would have to change the filter for each Model Document template that belongs under the Master Document.  

There is some work to achieve this but the bigger issue is that I have now comprised all the other projects that are using this Model Template.  The changes are now no longer consistent to state of other projects and will require continual changes as a result of other projects wanting to generate documents.

Final note
I believe that filtering on a Master Document should work on its own Model Documents and should not require Model Document filter changes to achieve this goal

[Graham_Moir]

Well I don't disagree with you that it would be useful to have a global filter setting like that,  but to play devil's advocate, the fact that you can determine what gets included at a more granular level is also very powerful.  

For example, at a particular stage in a project we have High-Level Requirements signed off and Detailed Requirements - traced back to the high-level ones - in Draft status.   Our Master Document definition documenting the detailed requirements has many model documents within it, but one of those pulls in the High-Level Requirements from their own package based on the "Approved" status and another model document pulls in the Detailed Requirements from a separate package based on status as well, where the status is different to the High-Level.  If there was only the global filter setting this woudn't be possible.

An alternative you may want to explore is using the model search to extract what you're interested in on a "global" basis, and then use that as input to the RTF generation.