In this section:

Introduction

CodeBeamer ALM is a popular browser-based platform for managing requirements. Parasoft DTP integrates with codeBeamer ALM, providing the following functionality:

• Ability to manually create bugs and tasks in codeBeamer ALM in from the Violations Explorer view.  
• Ability to manually create bugs and tasks in codeBeamer ALM from the Test Explorer view.
• Ability to send, view, and update Parasoft test results in codeBeamer work items (Sending Test Data to CodeBeamer).
• Traceability from codeBeamer requirements to tests, static analysis results, and code reviews (see Viewing the Traceability Report).

Requirements

The following requirements are only applicable if you are going to send test results to codeBeamer.

• Tests executed by the following Parasoft tools are supported:
  • C/C++test Professional, dotTEST, or Jtest 10.4.3 +
  • Selenic 2020.1 +
  • SOAtest 9.10.8 +
• You should have already created requirements in codeBeamer. 

Configuration

The configuration is performed by the Parasoft administrator and only needs to be set up once. Developers, testers, and other DTP end users should review the Usage section for instructions on how to use Parasoft with codeBeamer ALM. 

Connecting DTP to CodeBeamer ALM Server

1. Choose Report Center Settings from the settings (gear icon) drop-down menu.
2. Choose External Application and choose codeBeamer from the Application Type drop-down menu.
3. Enable the Enabled option.
4. Enter a name for your instance of codeBeamer ALM in the Name field. The name is required but does not affect the connection settings or render in any other interfaces.
5. Enter the URL for the codeBeamer server in the Application URL field. The URL should include the protocol, host, and port number. Do not include paths or parameters.
6. The Display URL field is rendered in DTP interfaces when links to your codeBeamer system are created. This URL should include additional paths that may be necessary to access codeBeamer in a browser. 
7. Enter login credentials in the Username and Password/API Tokens fields. The login must have sufficient privileges to create issues in the codeBeamer projects specified in the Project Associations section.
8. Click Test Connection to verify your settings and click Save.

Associating Parasoft Projects with CodeBeamer ALM Projects

Create links between Parasoft and codeBeamer projects so that defects created in the Violations or Test Explorer view are created in the correct project in codeBeamer. The association is also important when using the the Sending Test Data to External Application flow.

1. Click Create Project Association and choose a project from the DTP Project drop-down menu in the overlay. 
2. Enter the name of a codeBeamer project in the External Project field and click Create to save the association.

Click the trash icon to remove a project association. Deleting the project association does not remove links in DTP explorer views to defects in codeBeamer. If an association is deleted and recreated later, existing links between violations and codeBeamer issues will be reactivated. 

You can associate multiple projects in DTP with a project in codeBeamer, but you cannot associate the same DTP project with more than one codeBeamer project.

Enabling the Requirements Traceability Report

You can configure DTP to generate widgets and reports that help you demonstrate traceability between the requirements stored in codeBeamer and the test, static analysis, and build review data sent to DTP from Parasoft tools (C/C++test, dotTEST, Jtest).

If you want the Traceability Report to include code review and static analysis information, you must associate your source code files with requirements stored in codeBeamer. See Associating Requirements with Files for instructions on enabling this optional feature.

DTP interfaces that display and track traceability are enabled by deploying the External Application Traceability Report artifact shipped with the Traceability Pack. The Traceability Pack also includes the Sending Test Data to External Application flow, which automates part of the requirements traceability workflow. Refer to the Traceability Pack documentation for instructions on how to install the pack.  

Use DTP Extension Designer to deploy the External Application Traceability Report and the Sending Test Data to External Application flow to your environment. Verify that DTP is connected codeBeamer as described in the Connecting DTP to CodeBeamer ALM Server section before deploying the artifacts.

Installing the Traceability Pack

The first step is to install the Traceability Pack artifact. The artifact is a collection of configuration files and assets that enable traceability.  

1. Choose Extension Designer from the settings menu (gear icon).
   
2. Click the Configuration tab to open Artifact Manager.
3. Click Upload Artifact and browse for the traceability-pack-<version>.zip archive (also see Downloading and Installing Artifacts).
4. Click Install and a collection of assets and configuration files for enabling traceability will be installed.

Deploying the Traceability Report

Deploy the report components to your DTP environment after installing the Traceability Pack. 

1. Open Extension Designer and click on the Services tab.
2. Choose an existing service to deploy the artifact or create a new service in the DTP Workflows category. Refer to Working with Services for additional information on organizing services and artifacts.
   
3. If you are adding the artifact to an existing service, add a new Flow tab (see Working with Flows) and choose Import> Library> Workflows> Traceability Pack> External Application Traceability Report from the vertical ellipses menu.
   
   
4. Click inside the Flow tab to drop the nodes into the service and click Deploy. 

Deploying the External Application Traceability Report adds new widgets to Report Center, as well as a drill-down report. See Viewing the Traceability Report for instructions on adding the widgets and viewing the report.  

Deploying the Sending Test Data to External Application Flow

This artifact sends test data to codeBeamer when DTP Data Collector retrieves test results from a Parasoft tool. This artifact ships with the Traceability Pack, which must be installed as described in Installing the Traceability Pack before deploying the flow. 

1. Open Extension Designer and click on the Services tab.
2. Choose an existing service to deploy the artifact or create a new service in the DTP Workflows category. Refer to Working with Services for additional information on organizing services and artifacts.
3. If you are adding the artifact to an existing service, add a new Flow tab (see Working with Flows) and choose Import> Library> Workflows> Traceability Pack> Sending Test Data to External Application  from the vertical ellipses menu.
4. Click inside the Flow tab to drop the nodes into the service and click Deploy. 

Advanced Configuration

You can modify the ExternalAppsSettings.properties configuration file located in the <DTP_DATA_DIR>/conf directory to change the default behavior of the integration. DTP's out-of-the-box integration with codeBeamer is configured to use default or commonly-used fields and work item types. If you customized your codeBeamer system, however, then you can configure the following settings to align data in DTP with your custom configuration.  

Usage

After configuring the integration with codeBeamer ALM, developers, testers, and other users can leverage the functionality enabled by the integration.

Manually Creating Bugs and Tasks in CodeBeamer ALM

The Test Explorer and Violations Explorer views enable you to create bugs and tasks for any test and violation, respectively, regardless of status. Refer to the following sections for details on creating codeBeamer assets in explorer views:

• See Creating an Issue in a Third-party System for instructions on how to manually create bugs and tasks in codeBeamer ALM from the Violations Explorer view.
• See Creating an Issue in a Third-party System for instructions on how to manually create bugs and tasks in codeBeamer ALM from the Test Explorer view.

Sending Test Data to CodeBeamer 

The following diagram shows how you could implement an automated infrastructure for integrating Parasoft DTP and Parasoft test execution tools into your codeBeamer ALM environment:

1. Create items in codeBeamer trackers. The items will be associated with tests executed by Parasoft tools. You can create requirements (i.e., items in a System Requirement Specifications tracker) or test cases (i.e., items in a Test Cases tracker), for example.
2. In your test file, add the codeBeamer test case or requirement IDs using the @test or @req annotation. Refer to your Parasoft tool documentation for details on adding annotations.
   • Use the @test <codeBeamer test ID> annotation to associate tests with items in a codeBeamer Test Cases tracker.
   • Use the @req <codeBeamer System Requirements Specification ID> annotation to associate tests with items in a codeBeamer System Requirements Specifications tracker. 
   • You can get the work item ID from various parts of the codeBeamer interface, such as the URL:
      
3. Execute your tests as part of the CI process. You can also manually execute the tests from the IDE.
4. As part of the test execution, Parasoft test execution tools will tag the results with the filter and build IDs and send the data to DTP. You can verify the results in DTP by adding Test Widgets to your DTP dashboard and setting the filter and build ID. Developers can download the test execution data from DTP into their IDEs so that they can address any failed tests.
   

5. If you deployed the Sending Test Data to External Application flow (see Deploying the Sending Test Data to External Application Flow), then unit and functional testing results will automatically be sent to codeBeamer when Data Collector receives the data from the Parasoft tool. By default, the flow forwards unit and functional test results that were received by Data Collector for any project, but you can configure the flow to only send data for a specific project (see Sending Results from a Specific DTP Project). 
   You can also manually send a POST request to the DTP REST API endpoint to send results from the DTP database to codeBeamer. Pass the DTP filter and build IDs as URL parameters in the API call:

   curl -X POST -u <username>:<password> "http://<host>:<port>/grs/api/v1.7/linkedApps/configurations/1/syncTestCases?filterId=<filterID>&buildId=<buildID>"

   The filter and build IDs are available in the Test Explorer URL:
    

6. DTP will locate the test results that match the filterId and buildId parameters and send the data to the codeBeamer work items. 

   • When DTP locates results with an @test <ID>, it will search for items in Test Case trackers with a matching ID in codeBeamer and update the item. No action will be taken if the unit test case IDs do not exist in codeBeamer.  
   • When DTP locates results with an @req <ID>, it will search for items in System Requirements Specifications trackers with a matching ID in codeBeamer. If a match is found, Test Runs will be added to the Test Case associated with the requirement. If there are no Test Cases for the requirement ID, then Test Case will be created and a Test Run will be added.
   • An external-app-sync.log file will also be written to the the <DTP_INSTALL>/logs directory. This log file contains progress information about sending test results from DTP to codeBeamer. 

After DTP processes the report and sends results to codeBeamer, you should expect a response similar to the following:

{
   "createdTestSession": "DTPP-521",
    "created": [
        "DTPP-519, testName = testBagSumAdd"
    ],
    "updated": [
        "DTPP-519, testName = testBagSumAdd",
        "DTPP-518, testName = testBagSimpleAdd"
    ],
    "ignored": [
        "MAGD-567, testName = testBagNegate",
        "QAP-512, testName = testTryThis3",
        "QAP-512, testName = testTryThis4",
        "MAGD-567, testName = testBagMultiply"
    ]
}

Sending Results from a Specific DTP Project

If you are using the Sending Test Data to External Application flow to forward unit and functional test results, data will be sent to codeBeamer for all DTP projects by default. As a result, work items will be updated to include the tests collected for any DTP project that contain annotations matching codeBeamer IDs. You can configure the flow, however, to only send data for a specific project. 

1. Open Extension Designer and open the service where the Sending Test Data is deployed.
2. Drag a new switch node to the workspace.
   
3. Select and delete the connector line between the "DataCollectorProcessedEvent" node and the "Is dynamic analysis" node.
4. Drag a new connector from the "DataCollectorProcessedEvent" node to the switch node and from the switch node to the "Is dynamic analysis" node.
    

5. Double-click the node and specify the following string in the Property field:

    event.message.resultsSession.project

6. Specify the name of the DTP project in the string field.
7. (Optional) Provide a more descriptive name for the node.
   
8. Click Done to finish configuring the node and click Deploy.

When the flow executes, only test results for the specified DTP project will be sent to codeBeamer. 

Viewing Results in CodeBeamer

You will be able to view results in codeBeamer after sending the test data. The following image shows a System Requirement Specifications tracker in codeBeamer. The tracker contains several test cases.

You can drill down into a test case to view details, such as test runs for the test case.

Click on a test run to view execution details, including test file, build ID, and test author.

Viewing the Traceability Report

If the External Application Traceability Report has been deployed to your system (see Enabling the Requirements Traceability Report), you can add widgets to your dashboard to monitor traceability from requirements to tests, static analysis, code reviews for your project. The widgets also drill down to a report that includes additional details.

Adding and Configuring the Widgets

The widgets will appear in a separate Traceability category when adding widgets to your DTP dashboard. See Adding Widgets for general instructions on adding widgets.

You can configure the following settings:

Requirements Widget

This widget shows the number of requirements from the specified codeBeamer project.

Click on the widget to open the Requirement Traceability report.

Test Coverage Widget

This widget shows the percentage of requirements covered by tests against all requirements in the project.

Click the center of the widget to open the main Requirement Traceability report.

The colored-in segment represents the requirements covered by tests. Click on the segment to open the Requirement Traceability report filtered to the With Tests category.

Pie Widget

Unit testing, functional testing, static analysis, and peer reviews are common activities for verifying that requirements have been properly and thoroughly implemented. This widget shows the overall status of the project requirements in the context of those software quality activities. You can add a widget for each type of quality activity (tests, static analysis violations, reviews) to monitor the progress of requirements implementation for the project.

Mouse over a section of the chart to view details about quality activity type status. Click on the widget to open the Requirement Traceability report filtered by the selected type.

Requirements Implementation Status by Tests

Requirements Implementation Status by Violations

Requirements Implementation by Reviews

Understanding the Requirement Traceability Report

The report lists the codeBeamer requirements and data associated with them.

You can perform the following actions:

• Disable or enable the Show files/reviews option if you want to hide the Files and Reviews columns in the report. The Files and Reviews columns will only contain data if the requirements have been mapped to source files files (see Enabling the Requirements Traceability Report). Disabling the Files and Reviews columns on this screen hides the related tabs in the Requirement Details report.  
• Click on a link in the Key column to view the tracker in codeBeamer ALM.
• Click on a link in the Summary column or one of the Test columns to view the test-related information associated with the tracker in the codeBeamer Requirement Details Report.
• Click on a link in one of the Files columns to view the static analysis-related information associated with the tracker in the codeBeamer Requirement Details Report.
• Click on a link in one of the Reviews columns to view the change review-related information associated with the tracker in the codeBeamer Requirement Details Report.

Requirement Traceability Report by Type

Clicking on a section of the codeBeamer Requirements - Pie widget opens a version of the report that includes only the quality activity type selected in the widget. You can use the drop-down menus to switch type and status. You can also disable or enable the Show files/reviews option if you want to hide the Files and Reviews columns in the report. The Files and Reviews columns will only contain data if the requirements have been mapped to source files files (see Enabling the Requirements Traceability Report). Disabling the Files and Reviews columns on this screen hides the related tabs in the Requirement Details report.  

Understanding the Requirement Details Report

The codeBeamer Requirement Details report provides additional information about the files, static analysis findings, and tests associated with a specific codeBeamer requirement. You can open this report by clicking on a requirement in the codeBeamer Requirement Traceability report.

The first tab shows the results of the tests that were executed to verify the specific requirement. Click on a test name to view the test in the Test Explorer.

The second tab shows the files associated with the specific requirement, as well as the static analysis violation detected in the files. You can click the link the Violations column to view the violations in the Violations Explorer, which provides additional details about the violations.

This tab will only contain data if the requirements have been mapped to source files files (see Enabling the Requirements Traceability Report). If you did not map requirements to files, you can hide this tab by disabling the Show files/reviews option on the main traceability report page and reloading the details report.

If the files include any change reviews or review findings, they will be shown in the third tab with links to view them in the Change Explorer. 

This tab will only contain data if the requirements have been mapped to source files files (see Enabling the Requirements Traceability Report). If you did not map requirements to files, you can hide this tab by disabling the Show files/reviews option on the main traceability report page and reloading the details report.