Imported Libraries

Importing a library enables you to share or reuse an existing set of entities in projects across your enterprise.

Overview

Importing a library enables you to share or reuse an existing set of entities in projects across your enterprise. You import a library by selecting a baseline in another library from which to import. You can import a library from the same project, or from a different project.

Editions: Imported libraries functionality is available for the ALM edition and OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering Edition. For information about editions and their functionality, see Editions and lifecycle. To find out which edition you are using, ask your site administrator.

When you import a library, the library is added to your libraries tree, and the library's entities are copied to the corresponding modules in your project. If the library includes associated entities, such as requirements that have test coverage, this relationship is also copied. In addition, any related entities outside of the library that the tests in the library need in order to run are also imported, such as called tests and test resources.

Note:

You cannot import a library from a Unicode project to an ASCII project.
Business Process Testing: After importing a library, do not change the content of either the existing source library from which a baseline is synchronized, or the target library to which a baseline is synchronized. This could result in a failure when synchronizing a baseline that includes Business Process Testing entities.

You can compare associated libraries at all stages of the application development lifecycle. For example, you can compare an imported library with the source library from which it was imported. When changes are made to entities in a library, you can synchronize libraries to update the entities in an associated library. Importing and synchronizing libraries requires appropriate user permissions. For details, see Share Libraries.

You can also share defects across multiple OpenText Application Quality Management projects. You share and synchronize defects using the ALM Synchronizer. For details, see Tools.

Imported Library Examples

The following examples demonstrate how you can use libraries.

Example	Description
Reuse requirements and tests for a new release	While developing a new application, you create a library that includes all the entities in your project that are relevant to the application. After work is complete, you release the new application. As you are about to begin work on the next version, you can import the library, and start making adjustments to requirements and tests to meet the needs of the new version.
Create a set of requirements, tests, and resources for use by multiple applications	Your project contains requirements in the Requirements module that are relevant to an application you are developing. The project also contains tests in the test plan module that you developed to test those requirements. In addition, you have created relationships between the requirements and tests, such as traceability and coverage. You can create a library that represents the application. Then import this library as a self-contained component of other applications.
Update imported libraries with changes made in the source library	A library in your project includes requirements and tests for a calculator application. Multiple other projects have imported the library, and are using the application's requirements and tests in other applications they are developing. The business analyst has revised some requirements for the calculator application. To update the imported libraries with these changes, you can synchronize the imported libraries with the source library.
Update a source library with developments in an imported library	A tester works with an imported library that contains a set of regression tests for the banking application currently in development. During testing, she develops new tests to test the added functionality in the new version of the banking application. When testing is complete, the tester wants to update the regression tests in the source library. The source library can be synchronized with the imported library to update the tests for future testing needs.

Library Synchronization

You can synchronize two associated libraries to update one library with changes made in another library. You can update an imported library with changes made in the source library. You can also update a source library with changes made in the imported library.

Note: You cannot synchronize a library in a Unicode project with a library in an ASCII project.

During synchronization, data from the other library's baseline is copied to your library. The following table summarizes how the entities in your library are updated:

Event in Source Library	Event in Your Library
An entity was added	The entity is added.
An entity was modified	The entity is updated. If the entity was modified in both libraries, the entity in your library is overwritten. Version Control: A new version is created.
An entity was deleted	A new folder is created and the deleted entity is moved to the new folder. The new folder is named `SYNC_OBSOLETE_<library_id>_<current_date>` and is located under the module's root folder.
An entity was moved	The entity and its children are moved.

Entities in a library must not be edited during synchronization. If entities in your library are being edited by another user during the synchronization process, synchronization cannot complete successfully.

Version Control: All entities in your library must be checked in before synchronization. If an entity in your library is checked out, synchronization cannot complete successfully.

After you synchronize libraries, a baseline is automatically created for the updated library. This baseline is the basis for comparing the libraries at any point in time and should not be deleted.

Library Verification

When you import a library, or synchronize libraries, the library is first verified. The verification process includes the following checks:

Requirement type check. Checks that your project contains the necessary requirement types. If the source library contains customized requirement types, your project must contain the same requirement types. For details on customized requirement types, see Customize requirement types.
Entities compatibility check. Checks that your project has the necessary extensions enabled. If the source project has an extension enabled, and the source library includes entities for that extension, your project must also have that extension enabled. For details on extensions, see Enable extensions for a project.
Library size check. Checks that the number of entities in the library does not exceed the maximum defined by the LIBRARY_FUSE configuration parameter in Site Administration. For details, see Set parameters at site level.