what's new in rational rhapsody 7.5 -...

What's new in Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1Closing software development and quality assurance gap fromconcept to code

Skill Level: Introductory

Paul Urban ([email protected])Senior Systems and Medical Devices Market ManagerIBM Corporation

03 Dec 2009

Learn about the new features in the IBM Rational® Rhapsody® 7.5.1 solution thatbroaden this leading embedded and realtime systems and software developmentenvironment, offering tools that help you quickly create, test, manage and deployyour applications. See how these features and integrations assist your efforts toimprove the specification, design, development, documentation and test of yoursystems and products using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) and theUnified Modeling Language (UML).

Overview Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1

The IBM® Rational® Rhapsody® 7.5.1 product release extends this developmentenvironment's systems engineering, software development, and testing capabilitieswith several new features and integrations that help improve the specification,design, development, documentation, and test of systems and products. Some ofthe new capabilities include:

• Manage quality using integrations with the IBM® Rational® QualityManager (RQM) solution and the IBM Rational Rhapsody TestConductorAdd On

• Develop automotive systems — from concept to code delivery — usingAUTOSAR

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• Leverage the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) to clarify complexsystems engineering projects

• Integrate information and generate documentation from multiple toolsusing the IBM® Rational® Publishing Engine™

• Customize C++ code generation to meet your coding standards

• Visually debug existing code more easily using animation

• Improve local language use with the Japanese language version of theRational Rhapsody environment

These new features, plus other enhancements, helps systems engineers andsoftware developers collaborate better, delivering high quality systems faster.

Full test life cycle using the Rational Quality Manager andRational TestConductor integration

Quality assurance teams are often brought into the development lifecycle too late –after requirements are set and errors introduced into the design. To remedy this,IBM has integrated the Rational Rhapsody TestConductor and the IBM® Rational®Quality Manager solutions so that they create a live test plan that spans the entireproduct life cycle, providing a consolidated view from requirements to final productdelivery. By bringing model-based tests into your overall testing suite, this integrationhelps you use the Rational Quality Manager solution to enhance your model-basedtesting inside a powerful generic framework. The integration works by using theRational Quality Manager solution to manage different kinds of tests, test executionsand tests results; the Rhapsody TestConductor tool uses the UML testing profile toautomatically specify the test architectures and test cases, executing the tests topinpoint design model failures. The Rational Quality Manager displays requirements,test cases, and other resources in one server-based document, helpinggeographically dispersed team members exchange information in realtime. Theintegration also helps enable risk-based testing, assisting QA teams as theyprioritize testing of specific features and functions based on their importance in theoverall project and likelihood or impact of failure. The ability to prioritize, combinedwith new reporting dashboards, offers product managers a more realistic view intoproduct performance against set business objectives to better ensure that yourproject stays successfully on track.

Figure 1: Manage Rational TestConductor tests with Rational Quality Manager

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Larger view of Figure 1.

Rational Publishing Engine integration

You can extract information from the Rational Rhapsody model for publishing withthe Rational Publishing Engine. The Rational Publishing Engine is an automateddocument generation solution designed to produce documentation from systems andsoftware engineering data. Such documentation is often subject to complex styleand format requirements imposed by internal standards groups, customers,suppliers, partners even government or industry regulatory bodies. The RationalPublishing Engine is optimized for ease-of-use, scalability, and can be used asanother option for report generation in addition to Rational Rhapsody, the RationalPublishing Engine provides extractors to products, including:

• IBM® Rational® DOORS®

• IBM® Rational® Tau®

• IBM® Rational® ClearCase®

• IBM® Rational® ClearQuest®

• IBM® Rational® Quality Manager

• IBM® Rational® Focal Point™

• IBM® Rational® TestManager

• IBM® Rational® RequisitePro®

• IBM® Rational® Requirements Composer

• third party tools such as REST enabled and XML data sources

Figure 2: Rational Rhapsody information can be included in Rational

ibm.com/developerWorks developerWorks®


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Publishing Engine templates


Systems engineering improvements

Systems engineers are turning to the Object Management Group's (OMG) SysMLlanguage to specify their designs and analyze complex requirements, using astandard language to collaborate and deliver cohesive specifications. The RationalRhapsody 7.5.1 solution provides refinements with SysML 1.1 that help improve thedisplay of information on block definition diagrams, internal block diagrams andactivity diagrams. In addition, systems engineers can take advantage of Eclipsesupport for the systems engineering editions of the Rational Rhapsody environment— which enables systems engineers to utilize the Rhapsody tool within the IBM®Rational® Team Concert environment.

Block definition diagram and internal block diagram improvements

You can now view attributes, operations, flow ports and ports inherited from superblocks on block definition and internal block diagrams and features dialog of thederived class. This is done through a check box in the display options dialog ondiagrams, or in the features dialog of a block or class. This feature also works for



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UML.

Figure 3: Viewing attributes and operations of super blocks and classes


You can also use the display option operation to show compartments for associationends and parts on block definition diagrams, internal block definition diagrams orUML class diagrams.

Figure 4: Display compartments with association ends and parts



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Improvements to the display of flow port information on diagrams are available in theRational Rhapsody 7.5.1 solution through the display options operation. A new tabfor flow ports is added to the features dialog of blocks.

Figure 5: Display flow port information in new tab



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When using SysML with the Rhapsody 7.5.1 environment, by default when you draga part onto another block that does not own it, a reference part is created withdashed lines. If you want to change the parent of the part, right click it and choosethe reparent operation. This behavior is controlled by the propertyGeneral:Graphics:AllowObjectReparenting. Setting this property to Truewill automatically reparent the part.

Figure 6: Reference properties appear as dashed lines





You can now display ports of a class or a block diagram on its internal block diagramframes.

Figure 7: Display ports on diagram frame

Activity diagram enhancements

Activity diagrams are improved in the Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 tool, specifying partson activity diagram swimlanes so that they represent internal behavior, showingparameters on activity diagram frames and displaying more information about pins.



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Figure 8: Swimlanes and activity partitions representing parts

Figure 9: Activity parameters on diagram frame


Figure 10: Display options for pins



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Callout notation for "allocation to" and "allocation from"

Representing allocation information is easily in a comment using the RationalRhapsody 7.5.1 solution. Two new properties are created for SysML with Rhapsodyfor comments: Model:Comment:IsCallOut andModel:Comment:CallOutCompartments. After you draw the allocationrelationships, create a comment. Set the property Model:Comment:IsCallOut ofthe comment to be True. Draw an anchor to the source or target of the allocationand the comment will become a "callout" showing the allocated from / to relationship.

Figure 11: Display allocation information in comment




Parametric diagram binding connector alignment

The Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 solution features improvements to the SysML bindingconnector on parametric diagrams capability so that you can set the compositionalcontext of attributes. The context is set by a dialog box, invoked by right clicking onthe attribute and selecting "Bind to context". In addition, three tags are added to thebinding connector:

• SourceContext: the context of the source end of the binding connector

• TargetContext: the context of the target end of the binding connector

• Value: the value shared by the source and the target ends (both need tohave the same value)May

Figure 12: Binding attribute to a context




Systems engineering with Eclipse and Rational Team Concert

The IBM® Rational® Rhapsody® Designer for Systems Engineers and the IBM®Rational® Rhapsody® Architect for Systems Engineers tools are now supportedwithin the Eclipse platform. A specialized modeling perspective for systemsengineers is available to provide a SysML and UML modeling environment tailoredfor systems engineers. Working within the Eclipse environment helps enablesystems engineers to take advantage of capabilities of Eclipse, such as being ableto perform team collaboration using Rational Team Concert.

MODAF service views

The Ministry of Defence Architecture Framework (MODAF) support in the RationalRhapsody DoDAF, MODAF and UPDM Add On solution is upgraded with theinclusion of service views, offering support for the MODAF 1.2 standard.

Embedded software development improvements

The Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 solution helps improve support for software developerstargeting embedded and real-time systems with customizable C++ code generationfor better control over generated code. In addition, the tool provides morecompliance with MISRA C++ standard in generated code and framework, andimproves animation of existing code to help validate it without minimal impact oncode. The latest refinements improve synchronizing model and code information




when roundtripping capabilities, too.

Visual debugging of existing code

Most development projects do not start from scratch, but attempt to use an existingcode base. To effectively leverage this code base, it is important to understand howit works and validate that it works properly. This is a challenge if the codedocumentation has not been maintained. The Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 producthelps you meet this challenge by improving the animation of reverse engineeredcode allowing you to add instrumentation for animation, validate the code and thenremove the instrumentation to return to the original code. This capability is enabledfor C and C++ code by applying the "codecCentric" settings to the model, and itoccurs automatically when reverse engineering code. You can enable animationfrom the configuration settings, or by context menu of a sequence diagram.

Roundtripping improvements

The Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 environment helps improve your ability to work in themodel or code and to synchronize any changes you make in either view. You cannow roundtrip the manually entered portion of a constructor's initializer for C++ code.Also, you are able to reorder the struct and union attributes in code and your modelwill maintain this order. Finally, you can add or remove namespaces in code, and themodel is updated to reflect these changes when you use C++ with the code centricsettings applied.

Generation of associations as references

Developers using C++ can specify that an association between two classes beimplemented as a reference, instead of a pointer, to provide greater control overgenerated application. A field is provided to specify the initial value of the reference.

Figure 13: Using references for associations





Code Generation Customization

The Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 solution provides you with the ability to furthercustomize C++ code e generation to help deliver applications meeting corporate andindustry mandated coding standards. The code generation process consists of twophases. The first phase is simplification, which transforms the model into a simplerversion. The writing phase follows, which translates the simplified model into code.By modifying properties to control the output, some customization of codegeneration could always be done in the Rhapsody tool. To make this an easierprocess, hooks are now provided to create helpers using standard Rhapsody API'sthat can manipulate the simplification phase to create a simplified model thattranslates into C++ code.

Figure 14: Define helpers to customize C++ code generation

AUTOSAR concept-to-code workflow

IBM Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 environment offers improved support for theAUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture) standard by adding a



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transition from the AUTOSAR software architecture to the behavioral softwaredesigned using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) — generating C code for theentire software component that integrates with the AUTOSAR RTE. The Rhapsodysolution helps enable a workflow where you can define and dynamically analyzeyour requirements in SysML so that it flows into the software architecture andbehavior designed using UML. From here you can generate your productionapplication C code, integrating it with the AUTOSAR RTE.

Figure 15: Model behavior targeting AUTOSAR


Improved MISRA C++ compliance

The Rational Rhapsody tool's code generation and framework is enhanced to



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support more guidelines recommended for MISRA C++, helping your teams createmore reliable and safer code.

AUTOSAR authoring using Eclipse

The Rhapsody 7.5.1 environment helps enable teams using the AUTOSARauthoring profile to leverage the Eclipse platform integration for authoring, importand export of ARXML files.

New event implementation using MicroC profile

A new implementation for events is provided when using the MicroC profile thatassists MISRA-C compliance of generated code C code when you are working in theRational Rhapsody Developer for C++, C and Java tool. A single reference type,RiCEvent, is used for all generated events and also holds a reference to the event'sdata (if any exists), and a dedicated type is generated only for events with data. Thememory management for generated events in the generated code and RiCEvent inthe MicroC framework is changed so that it no longer uses the RiCMemoryManager.Instead, each event is allocated an RiCEvent from the MicroC framework from adedicated, customizable, fixed size pool of RiCEvent reference types.

If you are working with an event with data, an additional customizable, fixed sizepool is generated to allocate your data part of the event.

Support active files with MicroC

The Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 toolset extends the support of the Extended ExecutionModel used with MicroC profile to include active files.

Framework Compilation for MicroC model

The Rational Rhapsody Developer for C tool helps optimize your application's buildprocess using the MicroC framework by only compiling the framework if there werechanges that require it to reduce the amount of time in the build process.

Improved hierarchical repository management

The Rhapsody solution is able to store model information in a flat or hierarchicalfashion where each package in the model is represented as a directory in the filesystems. The Rhapsody tool helps improve synchronization of the model andconfiguration management repository when renaming, moving, deleting, specifying apackage so that it is stored as a directory or converted to a package as a directory toflat structure. When these operations occur, an appropriate action is performed inthe configuration management repository to restructure it to reflect the RationalRhapsody model. This capability is available when using Rational ClearCase orIBM® Rational® Synergy™ 7.1 (or later) and the MSSCCI 2.1 (or later) products.Synchronization is enabled with the properties RenameDirectoryActivation,




MoveDirectoryActivation, DeleteDirectoryActivation, andStoreInSeparateDirectoryActivation under ConfigurationManagement:SCC.

Improvements for Ada development

The IBM® Rational® Rhapsody® in Ada™ tool includes new capabilities to modelstatic classes to help you develop safety critical applications through improvementsto the reverse engineering of existing code, and the creation of custom makefilesfeatures. A static class is an Ada package that contains only static attributes andoperations and this construct is supported for code generation, reverse engineeringand animation. Existing Ada code bases can be visualized in the modelingenvironment using reverse engineering of the code while preserving the originalsource code, assisting your process with better design understanding anddocumentation. The code can be used within the Rhapsody model and compiled andlinked into your Rhapsody project. Lastly, new features make it easier to create anew compiler environment with the ability to create new makefile templates tosupport the environment.

Improvements Rational Developer RulesComposer Add On

The Rational Developer RulesComposer Add On tool allows you to read modelsfrom IBM® Rational® Rose® MDL files, helping enable you to create a rule set thatcan transform a Rational Rose model. In addition, external file mapping rules areprovided that allow you to edit all generated files in the Rational Rhapsodyenvironment — even if the rule set customizes the filenames and project folder tree,creates more than two files per object to generate or customizes the make and mainfiles. The Rhapsody meta model in the Rhapsody Developer RulesComposer tool isupdated to include improvements on tag data stored in the model, such as:

• Multiplicity

• Value specification

• Literal specification

• Instance value

Enhancements to the Rhapsody family of products andcomplementary solutions

XMI customization and Rational Tau and Rational Statemate support

The IBM® Rational® Rhapsody® Developer RulesComposer Add On™ product nowincludes rule sets for XMI import and export features, helping you customize theimport and export functions of your model information. XMI Rule sets are includedfor the Rational Rhapsody, Rational Tau 4.3, and the IBM® Rational® Statemate®




4.6 solutions, helping enabling you to customize the exchange of informationbetween those tools or any other modeling tool that uses XMI. A Rational Rhapsodyinstallation is required to launch the export and import functions from the RationalTau or Rational Statemate solutions.

XMI support for SysML 1.1

The import and export of SysML 1.1 information is enhanced in the RationalRhapsody 7.5.1 solution to help improve exchange of behavioral flow ports, satisfyrelationships and viewpoints, benefitting you with a more effective exchange ofmodel information using SysML 1.1.

OMG Model Interchange Working Group (MIWG)

IBM is participating with other vendors in the (OMG's model interchange workinggroup) to help improve the interoperability and exchange of model informationbetween tools. The Rational Rhapsody solution's XMI support is validated at leastthrough MIWG test case 2 with some validation into test case 3.

Partial import and export of XMI

Frequently, your project development team wants to exchange only a subset of amodel. The XMI import and export capability now provides an option to import orexport only a portion of the model information, offering more flexibility and scalabilitywhen exchanging model information.

Rational ClearCase Remote Client

Support is now provided for using Rational ClearCase Remote Client when using theEclipse platform integration of Rational Rhapsody enabling developers leveragingthe development capabilities provided with Eclipse to perform team collaborationwith Rational ClearCase.

New help system

To provide a better user experience, the IBM Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 solution nowuses the IBM Rational help system. The help system provides a variety of ways tofind the information you need. The table of contents is organized into taskcategories. Browse each category to see the hierarchy of general tasks and theirsupporting child tasks, or use the powerful search and index functions to browseinformation by keyword. While working in the product, you can accesscontext-sensitive help by pressing F1. For more information about using the helpsystem, open the help and search for "Help system overview".

Figure 16: The new help system is easier to navigate



http://www.omgwiki.org/model-interchange/doku.php

http://www.omgwiki.org/model-interchange/doku.php



Japanese version of the Rhapsody environment

The IBM Rational Rhapsody model-driven development solution is available in aJapanese version with a Japanese language interface, with Japanese contextsensitive help and Japanese documentation tools. Additionally, an integration withthe IBM Rational Publishing Engine™ product allows generated documentation tocontain Japanese characters. Multi-byte support is enabled, by default, to allow youenter Japanese characters into the description and label fields of your Rhapsodymodel.

Multiple instances of Simulink block

The Rational Rhapsody toolset's interface with The MathWorks™ Simulink®environment is improved, allowing you to create multiple instances of the sameSimulink block object within the Rational Rhapsody model so that you can simulatemore complex architectures and controls.

Improved Rational SDL Suite interface



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The interface to the IBM® Rational SDL Suite™ is improved with capabilitiesdesigned to help you model protocols and architecture together, including:

• Support for SDL Suite models containing SDL packages

• Import user defined types (signal parameters)

• Support by pointer parameter (char*) data transfer

• Support RPC ( Remote Procedure Call)

• Support SDL threaded integration models

Improved Rational System Architect interface

The Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 solution offers an improved integration with the IBM®Rational® System Architect™ tool by enhancing the information import featurebetween the tools, so that it exchanges more information from high-level architecturemodeling into the Rhapsody environment. New capabilities include:

• Import of all diagrams

• Import multiple diagrams in one session

• Creation and population of diagrams automatically

• Import of all attributes

• Dynamic selection of import map

• Improved handling of duplicate elements

• Improved import wizard

Improved Siemens Teamcenter Integration

When you use the Siemens Teamcenter® product with Rational Rhapsodyenvironment, you can take advantage of improved support for import and export ofmore types including:

• Dependencies without stereotypes,

• Actions in activity diagrams and attributes of actions

• Action blocks along with sub-actions

• Object nodes in activity diagrams along with "State" attributes

• "ID" and "Specification" attributes of requirements

• Constraints along with "Specification" attributes of constraints




• Control flows and initial flows between actions in activity diagrams.

The following items are only exported from the Rhapsody solution to the Teamcenterproduct:

• "Represents" attribute of object node in activity diagram

• "Anchored Elements" attribute of constraints

• Export swimlanes in activity diagrams from Rhapsody with "Represents"attributes

Wind River Workbench 3.1 support

The IBM® Rational® Rhapsody® Developer™ 7.5.1 solution offers support for theWind River® Workbench 3.1 and Wind River VxWorks 6.7products. In addition,support has been dropped for Wind River Workbench 2.6 product.

Summary

The Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 solution provides an integrated product developmentenvironment that helps you improve your systems engineering and embeddedsoftware designs, from initial requirement analysis to design implementation andtest. You are able to manage quality as an integral part of the development process,assisting efforts for development and test to work together with an integrationbetween the Rational Rhapsody TestConductor and the IBM® Rational® QualityManager products. Systems engineers are able to use improved SysML 1.1capabilities to specify and manage designs more flexibly. Software developers canreuse and understand existing software, helping you deliver robust applications thatmeet safety standards and target automotive applications using improvedAUTOSAR features. The Rational Rhapsody 7.5.1 solution provides an integratedsystems engineering and embedded software delivery solution that helps facilitateteam collaboration, promotes quality and maintains design information consistency.




Resources

Learn

• Learn more about IBM Rational Rhapsody.

• Learn more about IBM Rational Quality Manager.

• Learn more about IBM Rational Publishing Engine.

• Explore the Rational Rational Rhapsody Information Center.

• See the IBM® Rational® Rhapsody® Information Center for Rhapsodydocumentation.

• Learn about other applications in the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform,including collaboration tools for parallel development and geographicallydispersed teams, plus specialized software for architecture management, assetmanagement, change and release management, integrated requirementsmanagement, process and portfolio management, and quality management.

• Visit the Rational software area on developerWorks for technical resources andbest practices for Rational Software Delivery Platform products.

• Explore Rational computer-based, Web-based, and instructor-led onlinecourses. Hone your skills and learn more about Rational tools with thesecourses, which range from introductory to advanced. The courses on thiscatalog are available for purchase through computer-based training orWeb-based training. Additionally, some "Getting Started" courses are availablefree of charge.

• Subscribe to the Rational Edge newsletter for articles on the concepts behindeffective software development.

• Subscribe to the IBM developerWorks newsletter, a weekly update on the bestof developerWorks tutorials, articles, downloads, community activities, webcastsand events.

• Browse the technology bookstore for books on these and other technical topics.

Get products and technologies

• Download a free 30-day trial version of Rational Rhapsody.

• Download trial versions of IBM Rational software.

• Download these IBM product evaluation versions and get your hands onapplication development tools and middleware products from DB2®, Lotus®,Tivoli®, and WebSphere®.

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• Join the Rhapsody forum to discuss topics related to Rhapsody, UML, SysML,and model-driven development for embedded, real-time or technical systemsand software development.

• Check out developerWorks blogs and get involved in the developerWorkscommunity.

About the author

Paul UrbanPaul Urban has developed systems, software, and hardware in the embedded andreal-time systems industry for more than 20 years. He is a senior marketing managerfor IBM systems and medical devices. He has worked with Rhapsody software since1995 in various roles, including as an application engineer, consultant, and productmarketer. Previously, Paul developed custom hardware for high-performancecomputing applications.

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