Publication date: November 2021

This file provides information about ALM Synchronizer 16.00.

• What's New

• System Requirements

• Installation Instructions

• Notes and Limitations

• Multilingual Support

• Legal Notices

What's New

• Supported endpoints:

  • Atlassian Jira 8.13.x - 8.19.x

System Requirements and Technical Specifications

For information on system requirements, supported environments, and technical specifications, see ALM Synchronizer Technical Specifications.

Installation Instructions

For installation instructions, refer to the ALM Synchronizer Installation Guide.

Notes and Limitations

This section includes notes and limitations to consider when working with the ALM Synchronizer.

Localization

• Localized JIRA endpoints are not supported.

General

• ALM Synchronizer works with all editions of ALM, including Quality Center Enterprise edition.

  The usage of ALM Synchronizer or ALM Synchronizer Adapter SPI to develop an adapter for ALM is not supported.

• Logging in to Synchronizer. Synchronizer now includes a default administrator user, and the option of creating additional users. If you were working with a previous version of Synchronizer, you must log in the first time using the admin user. All existing links are visible by default to the admin user only.

• On Windows 7 machines, some graphics may not be displayed correctly.

• For best viewing, make sure Windows is set to display at 100%.

• When linking an Micro-Focus-ALM endpoint type, make sure to register the ALM client on both the Synchronizer client and server (if they are different) using the ALM Client Registration add-in from the Application Lifecycle Management Tools page.

• When linking an Micro-Focus-ALM-REST endpoint type, make sure to map the Detected By field.

• When importing a link or restoring a backup with external user mapping, make sure to copy the corresponding csv file to the <Synchronizer Server Home>\dat\Mappings directory.

• When running the Create Link wizard for Micro-Focus-ALM-REST endpoints via HTTPS, the Set Connection option fails to connect if you are using TLS 1.1 or 1.2.

  Workaround: Enter the endpoint fields manually.

• After synchronizing memo fields of ALM OTA endpoints, some line breaks may be omitted.

• After upgrading the Synchronizer, make sure to reimport the SSL certificates for JIRA and Micro-Focus-ALM-REST endpoints.

Installation

• During the Synchronizer server installation, if you try to install the PostgreSQL database on a computer where a PostgreSQL database is already installed, the installation fails.

• During the Synchronizer server installation, if you are prompted to restart your computer and you choose to restart, the Server Configuration Wizard does not run.

  Workaround: If prompted to restart your computer, choose to restart at a later time.

• During the Service Configuration stage of the Synchronizer server installation, the Server Configuration Wizard does not verify the user logon credentials that you supply. If you mistype or otherwise enter incorrect information, you can correct them after installation.

Synchronization

• General problems occur during synchronization, such as synchronization takes a very long time.

  Workaround: Work with ALM REST API for your ALM endpoint(s) instead of ALM Open Test Architecture (OTA) API.

• Synchronizer does not use an ALM license when connecting to ALM.

• Based on incompatibility issues between versions of the ALM Open Test Architecture (OTA) API, you cannot have synchronization links on the same Synchronizer server machine going to two Quality Center/ALM endpoints of different versions or patch levels. For example, the following are not permitted on the same Synchronizer server:

  • Example 1 - Link 1: RequisitePro and ALM 12.55;

    Link 2: RequisitePro and ALM 12.53.

  • Example 2 - Link 1: RequisitePro and ALM 12.53 patch 3;

    Link 2: RequisitePro and ALM 12.55 patch 1

  • Example 3 - One link with the following endpoints: ALM 12.55 patch 1 and ALM 12.55 patch 4

    while the following links can all exist on the same Synchronizer server:

  • Link 1: RequisitePro and ALM 12.55 patch 3

  • Link 2: ClearQuest and ALM 12.55 patch 3

  • Link 3: ALM 12.55 patch 3 and ALM 12.55 patch 3

• The Synchronizer client is not always automatically updated when changes are made by the Synchronizer server. This can affect the actions available to perform on a link. For example, when a task runs automatically on a link, the client is not updated to display that a task is running on the link.

  Workaround: Click the Refresh button to update the data.

• The Synchronizer client cannot connect to an ALM Platform server configured with basic IIS authentication. A link cannot be created between ALM and another endpoint. When an ALM client connects to an ALM Platform server running IIS, a logon dialog box is displayed for user and password information. When the Synchronizer client connects to the ALM Platform server running IIS, the logon dialog box is not displayed.

  Workaround: See this KB article.

• If you modify a record during synchronization and the record is due to be synchronized, data inconsistency issues may occur. If possible, schedule synchronization for non-working hours.

• Synchronization of the ALM Group requirement type is not supported. If you attempt to synchronize child requirements of a Group type requirement, an error occurs.

• Locked records in an endpoint are not synchronized even though the time stamp is updated.

  Workarounds: Do any of the following:

  • Modify the record and run an incremental synchronization task.

  • Reset the time stamp and run an incremental synchronization task.

  • Run a full synchronization task.

• The Synchronizer does not support workflow procedures while creating and updating requirements or defects.

• If a source record is locked during creation in the destination endpoint, a field mapped with the Synchronize back on create option set to 'Yes' is not synchronized until the record is manually updated in the destination endpoint.

  Workaround: Manually update the entity in the destination endpoint and run synchronization. The fields are updated and will continue to be synchronized during future synchronizations.

Field Mappings

• The following ALM fields are not available for mapping and are not displayed in the list of fields available for mapping between the endpoints:

  • Defect entity fields: Subject.

• This limitation applies when a field is mapped from ALM to an endpoint that does not have multibyte character support. If the field's value for a record in ALM is longer than the maximum length of the field in the other endpoint and contains non-English characters, the Synchronizer is unable to synchronize the record and writes an error message to the log file.

Attachment Mappings

• This issue applies when synchronizing entities with attachments. If the ALM user defined in the link does not have modify permissions for attachments, the entity is synchronized without the attachment and an error occurs.

  Workaround: The user defined in the link must have modify permissions for attachments in ALM.

• A change to an attachment's description is not considered a modification to the attachment and does not cause the attachment or its description to be synchronized. An attachment's description is synchronized only after creating or updating the attachment itself.

• This limitation occurs when you map the ALM attachments field to a field of type Attachment in another endpoint and then synchronize the attachments from the other endpoint to ALM. If you then map the ALM attachments field to a different field of type Attachment in the other endpoint, the attachments previously synchronized are not synchronized correctly and may be deleted.

Requirement Subtype Mapping

• This limitation occurs when you create a link between an ALM requirements endpoint and either a RequisitePro or TFS requirement endpoint, map the requirement subtypes, and then discard the changes. The Synchronizer client terminates.

  Workaround: Save the subtype mapping for the link before editing the link and discarding the changes.

Reports

• If you view a log file from a task run report and move between pages using the Previous and Next links, a memory leak may occur.

• Non-English characters may be displayed incorrectly in a Synchronizer report.

Filtering

• A maximum of 50 filters are available in the Synchronizer filter list for an endpoint.

• List fields containing more than 50 values are available for mapping in the Synchronizer without the list values.

• User list fields are available for mapping in the Synchronizer without the list values.

• Favorite views defined in the ALM Requirements Grid view are not displayed in the Synchronizer Filters tab.

  Workaround: Define filters in the Requirements Tree view.

• If you rename a filter that is selected for use in the Synchronizer, the filter appears twice in the Filters tab.

  Workaround: Clear the check box for the previous filter name and save the link settings.

Additional Notes and Limitations for Synchronization with Rational ClearQuest

• Microsoft Access. Synchronization with ClearQuest projects created in Microsoft Access is not supported.

• If the ClearQuest user defined for a link does not have create permissions for the ClearQuest project's entities, the Synchronizer cannot obtain the schema for the project and the link cannot be created.

  Workaround: The ClearQuest user defined for the link must have create permissions for the project's entities.

• This limitation occurs when changing a ClearQuest field and setting it as mandatory in the ClearQuest schema after a synchronization link between ALM and ClearQuest was created and enabled. If an empty value was mapped to this ClearQuest field, the synchronization still passes, even if the field is now mandatory in ClearQuest. A warning is added to the log file.

  Workaround: Edit this link and map the mandatory field to a valid value.

• Memo type fields in ALM are handled as fields of type String in ALM Synchronizer. Therefore, such ALM fields are synchronized into plain text in ClearQuest, even when the ALM field contains HTML elements.

• An attachment description in ALM with length greater than 50 characters is truncated when synchronized to ClearQuest.

• This limitation occurs when you map the ALM attachments field to a ClearQuest field of type Attachment and then synchronize ClearQuest attachments to ALM. If you then map the ALM attachments field to a different ClearQuest field of type Attachment, the attachments previously synchronized are not synchronized correctly and may be deleted.

• ClearQuest is a case-sensitive system, while ALM is not. This may result in errors when synchronizing data from ALM to ClearQuest.

  Workaround: Create matching value lists in the endpoints or map field values between the endpoints.

• This limitation applies when an integrity check on a link passes, and you later delete a field from ALM Project Customization that is included in the field mapping for the link. In such a case, future synchronizations pass successfully without warnings, but you may lose some data in the ClearQuest field mapped to the deleted field.

• ALM date fields do not support time elements (hours, minutes, and seconds). Therefore, when synchronizing a ClearQuest date field containing hours, minutes, and seconds with an ALM date field, these time elements are removed in the ALM record. Later, when the record is synchronized back to ClearQuest, the time elements are removed from the Clear Quest record because the Synchronizer identifies them as removed.

Additional Notes and Limitations for Synchronization with Rational RequisitePro

• Microsoft Access. Synchronization with RequisitePro projects created in Microsoft Access is not supported.

• If a create, update, or delete event is selected for a requirement type mapping, the user must have the corresponding create, update, or delete permissions for all requirement types in RequisitePro, including types that are not mapped. For example, if the create event is selected for one requirement type mapping in the Synchronizer, the user must have create permissions for all requirement types in RequisitePro, including types that are not mapped.

• If you change a mapped requirement type in ALM, an error occurs during synchronization and the change is not made in RequisitePro. The RequisitePro API does not support requirement type changes.

• Changes made to a requirement in RequisitePro are not updated in ALM if the requirement type was changed in ALM and the new requirement type has a different set of field mappings.

• Using the "|" symbol in a requirement type name, field name or field value may prevent the Synchronizer from loading the RequisitePro schema. This can prevent editing of the link or running Integrity Checks. If the symbol is part of a field value, it may also prevent creation or update of the record in ALM.

• This limitation applies when running a full synchronization on a link between ALM and RequisitePro. ALM folder data that has changed may be overwritten by RequisitePro data, even if the RequisitePro data is older.

• If you move a requirement to a different folder in RequisitePro, the requirement is not synchronized under the new folder in ALM when performing an incremental synchronization. This is because the record itself was not modified.

  Workaround: Modify a mapped field. The record is identified as modified and is synchronized.

• RequisitePro Real, Time, and Userlist type fields are defined as String type in Synchronizer field mappings.

• Memo type fields in ALM are handled as fields of type String in ALM Synchronizer. Therefore, such ALM fields are synchronized into plain text in RequisitePro, even when the ALM field contains HTML elements.

• This limitation applies if there are two or more RequisitePro views with the same name in a folder, and one of the views is Attribute Matrix. Due to RequisitePro API limitations, queries may fail to run, and synchronization is unsuccessful.

  Workaround: Each view used by the Synchronizer must have a unique name in the folder in which it is located.

• In RequisitePro, different folders can contain projects with identical names, for example, Folder1/Project1 and Folder2/Project1. In the Synchronizer, project names are case-sensitive and must be unique.

  Suppose you create a link for Folder1/Project1. Then you create a link for Folder2/Project1. In such a case, the Synchronizer may inadvertently use Project1 from Folder1 for the newly created link because the project name is identical to the project in the previously created link. This same error can occur if the project name is not typed correctly, for example, PROJECT1.

  Workaround: Make sure that each RequisitePro project has a unique name before synchronizing it with ALM. In this case, it is enough to change one letter in the project name to lower case or upper case, for example, Folder2/project1 or Folder3/prOject1.

• Due to a Windows limitation, the Synchronizer service cannot connect to a RequisitePro project that is stored on a mapped network drive (with a drive letter, such as G:) if the mapped drive requires a separate logon.

  Workaround: Change the paths for any mapped drives to UNC paths, or copy the required files (for example, drivers) locally and modify the path accordingly.

• In ALM, any folder requirement type must be named "Folder". Otherwise, the records for this requirement type cannot be synchronized.

• During an incremental synchronization from RequisitePro to ALM, the Synchronizer does not synchronize records for which the only change is the name or description of a folder.

  Workaround: Perform a full synchronization to synchronize these records.

• When changing a list item (for example, Medium is renamed to Fair), the requirements will not be synchronized. RequisitePro (versions 6.x and 7.x) does not update this change and therefore the Synchronizer is unable to detect the change.)

  Workaround: You must change the values of all the requirements. For example, suppose you want to change the Priority value from Medium to Fair. Perform the following steps in RequisitePro:

  1. Define a temporary item in the Priority list. For example, temp.

  2. Define a view of all the requirements in which their Priority value is set to Medium.

  3. Run the query.

  4. Mark all columns. All values should be Medium, according to the defined view.

  5. Right-click and choose Set Value. Set value to temp.

  6. Modify the Priority value in the RequisitePro schema. Change Medium to Fair.

  7. Rerun the query. Define the view to show all requirements in which the Priority value is set to temp.

  8. Right-click and choose Set Value. Set Priority value to Fair.

Additional Notes and Limitations for Synchronization with Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS)

• By default, a TFS work item has a 4MB limit for attachments. For information on increasing this size limit, refer to the Microsoft TFS documentation.

• After synchronizing between TFS and ALM, HTML memo fields are displayed with HTML tags in ALM.

• Images and image links are not supported in memo fields.

• TFS History field type is not supported.

• The TFS History field is not available for mapping and is not displayed in the list of fields available for mapping between the endpoints.

• Multi-value list fields are not supported for mapping between ALM and TFS. These are not default TFS fields, and are available only through customization. Multi value list fields are handled as String or List fields in mappings.

• Date fields that are calculated by TFS, such as Created Date or Closed Date, are read-only and cannot be modified by the Synchronizer.

• Some TFS fields, such as the Reason field, are based on the values of other fields. Synchronizing a different or illegal value to these fields results in errors.

• Some fields that are available in the TFS field schema displayed in the Synchronizer Field Mapping tab are not visible for all work item types in the TFS Team Explorer user interface. These fields are available in the TFS grid view.

• Mapping the TFS State field: Based on TFS workflow, specific values of the State field may cause other fields to become required fields in TFS. Note that these additional fields do not appear as required in the TFS field schema displayed in the Synchronizer Field Mapping tab. If the additional fields are not mapped and do not have default values, synchronization of the records fails. For example, suppose the ALM Status field is mapped to the TFS State field. During synchronization, the value Fixed is assigned to the State field. This causes the Proposed Fix field to become a required field. If the Proposed Fix field is not mapped, synchronization of the record fails.

• After running synchronization for a link, changing a requirement's type in ALM is not supported. On the next synchronization, an error occurs.

• When configuring TFS properties, the TFS folder name and folder description fields must be of type String or PlainText,

  • TFS 2010: These fields must be editable, and cannot have a predefined list of values.

  • TFS 2012: HTML fields are not supported. These fields are processed as plain text.

• TFS 2013/2015: After upgrading the Synchronizer, make sure to re-register the adapters (including the dll copy step for TFS 2015).

• TFS 2017: See this KB article.

Additional Notes and Limitations for Synchronization with Atlassian JIRA

General

• The Atlassian Cloud version of JIRA (JIRA on Demand) is supported, but HTTPS is required. For instructions, see "Configuring Secure Access for ALM Synchronizer" in the Micro Focus ALM Synchronizer Installation Guide.

• Basic authentication proxies are supported for HTTP only.

• ALM folders are not supported. Do not map requirements that are hierarchical.

Link creation

• Works with servers of supported JIRA versions only.

• Does not support password encryption mechanisms on authentication procedures.

• Supports synchronization of ALM defects and requirements only.

• ALM Synchronizer does not make any assumptions on entity types on JIRA. The administrator must manually select the entity type that matches the ALM defect or requirement.

Synchronization process

• When synchronizing requirements between ALM and JIRA using REST adapter, all mapped MEMO fields must contain values.

• JIRA’s subtask issues synchronization is available for requirement synchronization only, not defect synchronization.

• For the Memo field (multi-valued formatted text), the JIRA adapter recognizes only the description issue field. Other text fields are recognized as strings.

• Attaching more than one attachment to an issue with the same name can cause the synchronization process to be interrupted.

• If you map the JIRA issue fields that are non-required and single value, you must also map the empty value on ALM to a valid value from the list on JIRA to avoid synchronization errors.

• If JIRA issues have states marked as non-editable, the synchronization process can have issue field update problems. This is related to attachment managements also. To mitigate this limitation, see “Procedures to mitigate limitations” below.

• When synchronizing between ALM and JIRA, every mapped ALM single-value list field must have a default or a set value. An empty value is not allowed.

Procedures to mitigate JIRA limitations

• For JIRA filters (favorites) to be available in ALM Synchronizer, make sure that the JIRA filter explicitly contains the synchronized entity type (issue type) and the project name.

   : project = PDJ and issuetype = Bug and ....

• If a CAPTCHA is enabled for JIRA side, Synchronizer may not be able to work. Disable the CAPTCHA functionality according to the JIRA documentation: 

  https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/configuring-captcha-for-failed-logins-216957808.html

• To avoid problems on synchronization of JIRA issues in non-editable states, perform the following:

  1. In JIRA, go to Settings > Issues > Issue Attributes > Statuses as the project administrator.

  2. Select a non-editable status (for example, Closed) in the workflow used on the project under synchronization.

  3. Open the View Properties dialog of the selected status.

  4. Delete the jira.issue.editable property.

  Note: You can edit non-system workflows only, so if you are using a system workflow (such as a jira), create a copy, assign this workflow to the project, and then edit it as described above in steps 1-4.

Additional Notes and Limitations for Synchronization with IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC)

• Cloud RTC is not currently supported.

• When configuring creation filters for an ALM-RTC link, filters for all entity types (and not only those selected for the particular link) are available.

• Currently, parent-child relations are not supported for synchronizing from ALM to RTC and vice versa.

• All duration time units used by RTC are stored and synchronized in milliseconds.

• Comment synchronization is not supported in the current version of adapter.

• Synchronization of supported field types is available only. For details, refer to the Micro Focus ALM Synchronizer User Guide.

• ALM folders are not supported. Do not map requirements that are hierarchical.

Multilingual Support

• When using the Synchronizer on a non-English version of Windows, some of the text labels may be truncated. The functionality is not affected.

• ALM Synchronizer does not support Chinese characters for the Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) Work Item Name or Field Name in the TFS adapter.properties file.

• In non-standard language environments where the date format has been customized in the Synchronizer server machine, you cannot map RequisitePro Date fields to ALM Date fields.

  Workaround: Set the local date format to fit the Synchronizer's expected date format. For more information, see this KB article.

• When synchronizing from RequisitePro to ALM in Swedish or German operating systems, multiple values in multi-value lists may not synchronize correctly because on these Windows operating systems a semi-colon (;) is used as the default delimiter (separator character) instead of a comma (,).

  For example, instead of retrieving the selected values separated by a comma, ("1, 2, 3"), on these operating systems, the values are separated by a semi-colon ("1; 2; 3"). The incorrect delimiter causes a problem when parsing multi-value field values retrieved from the RequisitePro API.

  Workaround: In German and Swedish operating systems, set the delimiter to a comma instead of a semi-colon. To do this:

  1. Close all open applications.
  2. In Windows, choose Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options.
  3. In the Regional Options tab, click Customize.
  4. In the Numbers tab, select comma (,) as the List separator.
  5. Apply and close the dialog boxes.

  Note: These instructions may be slightly different on different operating systems.