Custom Properties and Categories

• General
• Object Types (for which custom properties can be created)
• Data Types (which are available in Cockpit)
• Management of Custom Properties and Categories
• Use of Custom Properties

General

Custom properties enable you to adapt ARCWAY Cockpit to your needs. These properties are attributes which can be added to different object types of ARCWAY Cockpit. The object type "stakeholder", for example, which is available in ARCWAY Cockpit can be extended for a character string "position", in which you can enter the position of the persons listed there.

You define such an additional object property by

• giving it a unique identifier (for identification)
  Note: Use the following IDs as a convention for translations:
  • translation_name_xy for a translation of the name attribute into language xy
  • translation_description_xy for a translation of the description attribute into language xy
  • translation_comment_xy for a translation of a comment into language xy
  where xy is a language abbreviation like "en" for english, "de" for german, "fr" for french and so on.
  Using this convention for model elements, ARCWAY Cockpit will provide the possibility to open a plan in a different language by right clicking on the plan in the project navigator.
• giving it a name (for the display)
• selecting a data type
• selecting the value range for data types with limited value range if applicable

For further breaking down an object type, categories can be defined, to which custom properties can be assigned. For example you can define one category for external and one for internal stakeholders in the object type "stakeholder". These stakeholders can be assigned different custom properties like a room number for internal and a file for an image for external stakeholders.

You define such a category by

• giving it a unique identifier (for identification)
• giving it a name (for the display)
• optionally giving it an icon

Custom propertiesand categories are each defined for an ARCWAY Cockpit project which means that every project has its own custom properties and categories. When custom properties and categories are to be used in several projects it is advisable to create a project template and to define those properties and categories which are consistently required.

The values of the custom properties can be set respectively modified in the property dialogs of the respective data objects for which the property was defined.

It is recommended to define the custom properties at the beginning of a project. Thus users are able to set useful values in ARCWAY Cockpit already when generating exemplars of the respective object types.

Object Types

The following list gives those object types for which the user can define properties in ARCWAY Cockpit:

• Project
• Folder
• Plan
• Unique Element
• Stakeholder
• Stakeholder Role
• Requirement
• Requirement Note
• Requirement Set
• Use Case*
• Use Case Set*
• Use Case Scenario*
• Action Step*
• Document Container**
• Issue
• Issue Note
• Issue Set

* - only with additional installation of Use Case Module

** - only with additional installation of Document Module

Data Types

The following list gives those data types which can be used in ARCWAY Cockpit for the definition of properties:

• Boolean
• Date
• File
• Integer
• Multi selection of an integer
• Multi selection of a character string
• Single selection of an integer
• Single selection of a character string
• String (single line)
• Text (multi line)

Management of Custom Properties and Categories

As custom properties and categories are project-specific they are managed in the project navigator in the properties of a project. Here they can be created, changed and deleted.

Related Topics:
Adding Custom Properties
Changing Custom Properties
Changing the Order of Custom Properties
Deleting Custom Properties

Adding Categories
Changing Categories
Changing the Order of Categories
Deleting Categories

Use of Custom Properties and Categories

The custom properties and categories can be opened either via the forms editor or the properties dialog via the context menu, depending on the object type.

If an object type supports categories, an option to choose an category will be displayed in the dialog or the forms editor. From there the always available default category and all user-defined categories can be selected.

If there are custom properties defined for an object type, then these can be edited on the corresponding page in the dialog or in the forms editor.
Should there be no custom properties defined, then the corresponding entry for the page in the dialog wont be displayed.