Limit references to concrete product types

In in-STEP BLUE relationships between products in the form of references are easily created. This enables, for example, connecting a requirement with systems that are stored in in-STEP BLUE. Requirements can also be connected with test cases that describe how the requirement should be tested. Learn how to limit references to concrete product types with a little trick.

Display of different references in in-STEP BLUE form

You are probably familiar with both possibilities of connecting requirements with systems and test cases. In the requirements form it looks like this:

A requirement with connected systems

And the connected test cases are, of course, found in the tab “Test cases”:

Requirement with connected test cases

In both cases, a category property of the type Product and the Cardinality 1..* is needed, so that multiple systems or test cases can be connected.

The settings of the required category properties

Referencing desired product types

But how can it be determined that the connected test cases can only be of the product type test case? Have a look for the Product type Requirements in the properties dialog. There, in the tab Further Settings, a property with the name Test Cases that is verified with a Product type (Test case) can be found.

Further properties of a requirement

This setting determines that only test cases that also have the Product type Test case can be connected with the requirement. Here, it is decisive that the property of the product type have the same name as the property of the product (here: test case). What is also important is that the Product properties have the Type Product, and the property of the Product Types the Type Product Type. According to whether the cardinality of a product type is 1 or 1…*, the referneces can be limited to one or more product types. If they are limited to a particular product type, then only the corresponding types will be offered.

And according to the settings, the corresponding product types will now be offered in the selection:

Allocate references depending on their defined product types

That’s a nice trick, isn’t it? If you have questions or suggestions about working with references, don’t hesitate to contact us. We are always very glad to speak to you, either at service@microtool.de or +49 (30) 467086-20.
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