Move requirements from R4J to DOORS

Billy Christie November 23, 2023

Does anybody know how I can move a spec from R4J to DOORS? I do not have R4J admin rights, and R4J just doesn't do what I need it to do.

I tried R4J export to CSV and it was a total mess. It even puts text from one requirement in a row above the requirement number.

Please don't suggest ReqIf. I have no ReqIf export in R4J and don't have admin rights to install that.

Even if I can get each req exported reliably somehow, I can script in DOORS to rebuild the specification.

I seriously cannot get my job done with R4J.

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Bernhard Doleschel (Ease Solutions)
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November 24, 2023

Hello @Billy Christie ,

I´m Bernhard from Ease Solutions, the vendor of R4J - Requirements Management for Jira.

We would like to understand your limitations with R4J and help you further, best is you contact us via our friendly service desk team. Which problems do you face and can be solved better by Doors?

Please see also my answer in your other tread Controlling a CSV export.

 

Best Regards,
Bernhard from Ease Solutions

Billy Christie November 24, 2023

No... to be honest... I just want to give up. I've used DOORS for about 20 years, R4J on a previous project for 3... and several other req management tools.

I cannot stand using R4J any longer... it is eating up time I don't have, not fulfilling what I need, and it is preventing me being productive in my job.

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Billy Christie November 23, 2023

PS. Please don't suggest ReqIf. I don't have ReqIf export on my R4J.

André Luiz Florentino
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November 19, 2024

Hi Billy... I'm just wondering if you ever got an definitive answer. I'm about to run a project using R4J that needs to be transferred to DOORS when its finished and I couldn't find an clear answer whether that's possible or not.

Bernhard Doleschel (Ease Solutions)
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November 19, 2024

Hello @André Luiz Florentino ,
you could export data from easeRequirements (formerly R4J) by ReqIF (beta feature). To enable it, please contact our service desk via support.easesolutions.com

Best Regards,

Bernhard from Ease Solutions

Billy Christie November 19, 2024

@Andre: No, I never got a clear answer. But, I solved it myself. I exported the R4J to Excel using the JIRA add-in in Excel (additional installation which had to be sourced by my company, approved, installed etc.), imported that to DOORS, then wrote a variety of DOORS DXL scripts to sort out the structure and rebuild the content. There wasn't an easy way to export the folder structure from R4J, so I included the "Requirement Path", then wrote a DOORS script to reconstruct the folder structure in DOORS. 

There were other issues to solve, e.g. the handling of tables... R4J treats tables as content of a req, which DOORS can do, but then it loses some of the essential features I needed, so I wrote another script which would construct DOORS tables (one object per cell) from the R4J format as it appears in Excel. (I'm not sure how well that would work with merged cells... but as my original content didn't use those, it wasn't a problem for me.)

Embedded images were another problem.... in theory, I can read the images directly from any source, including a website, directly into DOORS, but I couldn't find a pattern to determine where they were stored in R4J... so I ended up making an XML export, and deriving the image source from that (img src=).

I haven't tried the new ReqIF (beta feature) in R4J as it didn't exist at the time I had these problems and I can't find it in my R4J... I'm guessing it needs another add-in.

André Luiz Florentino
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November 20, 2024

@Billy Christie thanks a lot for the quick reply. I really appreciated it...😁

I'll keep all that in mind when building the requirements and its structure in R4J. I will also give a try in ReqIF.

@Bernhard Doleschel (Ease Solutions), you wrote that I should get in contact with the service desk, but before that I would like to know if this feature is an add-in with an additional cost or just a beta feature released upon demand for testing. Please, carify.

Billy Christie November 20, 2024

@André Luiz Florentino To be honest, if you have DOORS, just use that. R4J lacks a lot of the features I need for my job... I've been a systems engineer and architect for about 30 years now, and R4J might be OK for small scale, simple projects, but it doesn't do what I need.

If you really need to use it, I suggest creating a sandpit and exercising as many scenarios as you can... R4J has some really strange quirks that make it not so simple to exchange data with other platforms. E.g. it won't filter or search for the # character, even though that is not documented as a special character. Certain characters are banned in folder names, it has a habit of re-ordering issues... and a couple of weeks ago, when I imported content from an Excel sheet, several issues ended up in the wrong R4J project, even though they had all the same relevant settings as the others which ended up where they should be.... it was only by luck that I spotted them. Every time I move data one way or the other, I have found the need to re-export and run a cross-check to make sure it ends up where I want it, in the format I need; it's really time consuming for no added value. I often have to manually re-order issues... this is a longstanding, known problem in R4J for which there has so far not been a solution.

Bernhard Doleschel (Ease Solutions)
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November 22, 2024

Hi @André Luiz Florentino ,

Thank you for following up on this discussion. I’d like to provide some clarity about the ReqIF functionality in easeRequirements (formerly R4J):

The ReqIF feature is currently in beta and can be activated upon request via our service desk. At this stage, it does not involve additional costs, as it’s a feature under evaluation for real-world use cases. However, I understand that relying on a beta feature might raise some concerns.

Looking ahead, I’m pleased to share that the ReqIF functionality will become an official part of the easeRequirements Ultimate Edition starting in Q1 2025. This will provide a more seamless and reliable way to export data for tools like DOORS. With the official release, the free beta functionality will not more available in the standard edition. This ultimate edition extends the standard edition by a review process, linking support, baseline reuse and other upcoming various new features.  

In the meantime, if you’d like to explore the beta functionality or discuss specific project needs, our team would be happy to assist, please contact our service desk to schedule a call with me.

I also appreciate Billy’s shared insights about alternative export methods and challenges. Some of the quirks Billy mentioned are a combination of Jira and R4J behavior, we are continuously working on all improvements based on user feedback. Your use case is invaluable in helping us refine the tool.

Feel free to reach out if you have additional questions or need further assistance!

Best regards,
Bernhard Doleschel
Ease Solutions

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