Use libraries and baselines

Available for: Version 26.1 P1 and later

Use libraries and baselines to organize reusable project content, capture milestones, and track changes over time.

In this topic:

Overview

A library is a structured collection of project entities and their relationships, such as requirements, tests, and test resources.

A baseline is a snapshot of a library at a specific point in time. Baselines help you compare changes, review historical content, and share stable sets of entities.

Creating and managing libraries and baselines requires appropriate user permissions. For details, see Libraries Permission Levels.

Create a library

Define a hierarchical framework for your libraries by creating a library tree. Create folders and add libraries and baselines to the folders.

To create a library:

1. On the sidebar, under Management, select Libraries.

2. Create the folder structure for your libraries. To add a folder, click the New Folder button or right-click a folder and use the More actions menu to add a folder.

3. Add a library to a folder by clicking the Create Library button . Enter the library details and description.

4. In the Content tab, select content from the Requirements and Test Plan modules to include in the library. Select a folder to include it in the library. Contents of the selected folder are displayed in the right pane. In the Requirements tab, you can also select individual requirements.

   When selecting Test Plan module content , select an option for including tests in the library.

   Option	Details
   Tests in selected folders	Enables you to select folders in the tree to include in the library.
   Tests covering selected requirements	Includes only the tests that cover the requirements that are selected for the library. Note: Selecting this option clears any previous selection or filter defined in this tab.

5. (Optional) Apply filters to include only the entities that match your scope.

The library is added to the tree with a library icon.

Create a baseline

Create a baseline for a library to track changes made to entities in your project over time.

When you create a baseline for a library that includes tests, related entities needed for the test to run are also included, such as called tests and test resources. These related entities do not need to be defined in the library.

The baseline is created in a background process, and may take some time. You can continue working during baseline creation.

To create a baseline:

1. Select the target library and click the Create Baseline button. The verification process starts.

2. Provide a baseline name. Review the baseline creation log, and resolve any reported issues.
   
   The verification process also checks that the size of the library does not exceed the limit defined in Site Administration. For details, see the LIBRARY_FUSE parameter in the Site Configuration tab. For details on setting parameters, see Configure parameters and mail settings.

   Note: View the log before refreshing the display. Refreshing the display after the baseline is created, hides the View Log button and prevents further log viewing.

3. Refresh the view to display the new baseline. The baseline is added to the tree with a baseline icon .

Compare baselines

Compare two baselines in a library, or compare a baseline to the current entities in the library.

Changes made to Target Release and Target Cycle fields are not considered when determining whether an entity has been modified. If coverage or traceability between two entities was deleted and then added again, those entities are considered modified. Coverage of tests or requirements in the library by entities outside of the library is not considered when comparing baselines.

To compare two baselines:

1. In the Libraries module, select a baseline and click Compare. Choose one of the following:

• Select Baseline: Compares the baseline you selected with another baseline in the library. In the Select Baseline dialog box, select a baseline from the list.

• Current Entities: Compares the baseline you selected with the current entities in the library.

2. Use the sidebar to review results by module. Click the Comparison Settings button to control which fields are ignored or considered during the comparison. To view details of a selected entity stored in the baseline, click the Details button .

3. Use the Changes column to identify added, modified, moved, and absent entities in each module.

4. (Optional) Export comparison results to a .csv file by clicking the Export to CSV button .

View baseline history

Review baseline history for entities to see in which baselines they are included.

To view baseline history:

1. Select an entity in a supported module (Requirements or Test Plan).

2. Open History > Baselines to review stored versions.

3. To understand how the entity changed over time, select two versions and click Compare.

Share a library

Import libraries to reuse entity sets within a project or across projects.

You import a library by selecting a baseline from another library. If the library includes associated entities, such as requirements that have test coverage, this relationship is also copied.Related entities that are not part of the library but that are needed to run tests are also imported, including called tests and test resources. Test resources and business components are not supported.

Note: You cannot import a library from a Unicode project to an ASCII project.

Prerequisites

• To import libraries, you need the appropriate Library module user permissions, as well as Create and Update permissions for the entity types you are importing. For details, see Libraries Permission Levels.

• Verify that a baseline has been created for the library you want to import.

To import a library: 

1. In the Libraries module, select a folder and click the Import Library button .

2. Select a baseline from the current project or from a cross project. When importing from a different project, select the domain and the project. The description is populated with the description from the baseline.

   The library verification process starts.

3. Enter a name for the imported library and select the target root folder where the imported content will be placed. You can create a new folder if needed.

Library Verification

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

Check	Details
Requirement type	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	Checks that your project has the necessary extensions enabled. If the source library includes entities for an enabled extension, your project must also have the extension enabled. For details on extensions, see Manage projects.
Library size	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 Site Parameters.

If the verification process fails, the import cannot proceed.

See also

• Create releases and cycles
• Version control