User Interface

ReqEdit Online Documentation

User Interface

8 min read
last updated: 02/05/2024

Overview

The look and feel of the application is similar to any classic Windows application. It has a main menu at the top, function icon groups that can be rearranged, main content area and a status bar at the bottom.

At first run a quick action dashboard is shown.

ReqEdit start screen showing the dashboard

After opening a ReqIF file, the contents will be shown in the main user interface. If the ReqIF contains multiple specifications it will be displayed as color coded tabs.

ReqEdit showing a ReqIF file, from left to right: navigator panel, requirements and auto-backup panel

Specification tabs

Opening a ReqIF file will display all the specifications as tabs. Same color tabs are from a single ReqIF or ReqIF Archive file. The specification title is displayed as the tab title.

ReqEdit displaying specifications inside a ReqIF file in color coded tabs

Keeping the mouse over a tab will display more info of the specification like: file location, document id, and so on.

Rename/delete specifications

Right -click on the specification tab to rename or delete it.

Closing opened files

Close any tab by pressing the X of the tab or by pressing CTRL+W , if there are any unsaved changes a popup will ask to save the specification.

Closing all opened specifications of a ReqIF file by accessing File > Close All or by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+W, if there are any unsaved changes a popup will ask for confirmation.

Specification headlines are shown as a tree menu on the left panel. Numbering is added automatically to aid navigation. Clicking on the items will jump to the same requirement in the content area.

Show / Hide Navigator

Navigator can be toggled by clicking the pin icon.

ReqEdit navigator pane on the left showing requirements hierarchy as a tree menu

Requirement Numbering

Requirements with (ReqIF.ChapterName) headlines are shown in a tree menu structure, numbered by the position in the hierarchy. The numbering is automatically updated on each change of the requirements, new additions or deletions will affect this.

The levels of the menu represents sub items in the spec hierarchy. This is visible in the content as sub numbering of a main headline, all the content remains on a single level in the table.

ReqEdit displaying a specification where the same requirement is selected in the navigator and the content area

To show/hide Chapter Numbers check the box Show Chapter Numbers in the Settings/User settings.

User settings / Show Chapter Numbers box
Show/hide Chapter Numbers result view

Content

Requirements are shown in the middle as a table, where the Main Column is a multi content field and the other columns are the associated metadata.

The Object menu (Right-click)

Right clicking any object (row) in the content area, displays the context menu. Contains editing functions like: creating, cut-copy-pasting, deleting, restoring, purging objects. Hierarchical editing si possible by promote / demote menu items.

Manage relations between objects by the lower menu items: Add, Edit, Delete link or Go to link targets.

Get the object ReqIF ID using the Copy ReqIF ID menu item.

Object context menu displaying Insert submenu with requirement patterns. These patterns can be customized as needed.

Main Column

Main Column is the most important content of the specification. It has the default value of the combination of headline (ReqIF.ChapterName), description (ReqIF.Name), xhtml content (ReqIF.text). If all there attributes are present it will be displayed together in the same cell and the headline will have a number assigned to it.

The Main column content can be customized in the Document Settings panel. The attribute types supported are STRING or XHTML.

ReqEdit displaying a ReqIF file, main column is visible, highlighted is the column separator and a row separator

Resizing columns or rows

Drag the column header separator bars or the row separator bars to resize the grid.

Content editing

Double clicking on any object will enable the inline editor and activate the text formatting icon group. Right clicking the content will show a menu for adding attachments or tables and formatting the content.

To leave the inline editing click anywhere outside the yellow background.

Managing columns

Right clicking the column headers will display a menu, where the selected column or the other columns can be toggled visible or hidden.

If all the columns are hidden the View manager can reset the visibility back to a predefined state.

ReqEdit colum management by right clicking the column header row

Views

Views are visible column sets with optional custom sorting and filtering saved as presets. The view manager is located in the icon groups on the right side. The views are only for displaying the ReqIF contents in a more human friendly manner for large files with lots of metadata.

The view presets are not stored in a ReqIF file, they can be exported and later imported from the local hard drive.

ReqEdit displaying the view manager popup window

Backups

ReqEdit offers an auto-backup feature which will create a snapshot of the current state of the opened files. Default setting is to create a backup every 10 minutes and rotating 10 backup files (the last will be deleted to have a max of 10 backups).

The backup settings can be changed in the User Settings panel

Show / Hide Backups

Backups can be toggled by clicking the pin icon in the title of the panel

ReqEdit displaying a ReqIF file, highlighted is the auto-backup panel

Backup Snapshots

Backups can be locked so that it will not be deleted automatically on backup rotation.

Backup settings for a backup snapshot

File

ReqEdit File menu

New

Create a new ReqIF file .reqif (New File) or an archive with attachments as .reqifz. (New Archive)

ReqIF Archive supports attaching external images or files to any requirement. Creating a new archive will show a window asking for a filename.

ReqIF (.reqif)

No attachments

CTRL+N

ReqIF Archive (.reqifz)

Can have attachments

CTRL+SHIFT+N

A template list will popup will ask for a specific template to use for the new file. For more information on templates, please read the Templates section.

Template selector window

Open

By default, only xml, rif, reqif, zip, reqifz and ReqEdit encrypted files can be selected

Supported file types by ReqEdit

Add new document to current file

Adds a new specification document to the currently active ReqIF file. Use this to add more than one specification to a single file.

Save

Any change in the specifications will be displayed with asterisk * in the tab.

Changes to linked documents (e.g. Images or Word, Excel) will not be detected by the editor, a change needs to be made in the requirements in order to be able to Save

Save

Save the currently active file to disk

CTRL+S

Save As

Save the active file under a new name

Keep all UUIDs

CTRL+SHIFT+S

Save As for saving encrypted file

To encrypt a file choose ReqEdit Encrypted File (*reqenc, *.reqzip) as file type then click SAVE.

More about encryption of a file read here: ReqEdit File Encryption/Decryption

Save as template

Single document ReqIF files can be saved as a template and reused later

Close

Opened specifications can be hidden by clicking the X in the tab bar, if there are unsaved changes a popup will ask for confirmation. This is not removing the specification from the file.

Close All

Close all opened specifications, any unsaved change will notify the user. It will close all opened files.

Import

Start an import wizard for ReqIf 1.0.1 files

Export

Start an export wizard from ReqIF 1.0.1 to ReqIF compatibility mode or RIF 1.1 / RIF 1.1a arhive format.

Print

Print the current specification Main Column or all visible columns.

Connect

Requires ReqEdit file server

Will authenticate the current user and create a connection

Check out

Requires ReqEdit file server

Lock the file and download for editing (other users that have permission to the same file cannot download it)

Check in

Requires ReqEdit file server

Upload a file to the server. If the file was previously locked by the user it will become unlocked and can be edited by others as well.

Edit

Editing objects and contents

Object / Requirement level editing

Create before, after

Create child

Promote, demote

Delete (soft delete)

Restore deleted (soft deleted)

Purge (hard delete)

Cut/Copy/Paste

Content level editing

Table editing

Find

Replace

View

ReqEdit View menu

Attributes (columns) related

Filtering

ReqEdit can show a sub-set of the requirements based on special conditions of the attributes. Filters can be set and reset. Filters will not be saved inside ReqIF files.

Sorting

ReqEdit can sort the requirements based on multiple columns. It can be configured and then reset. The sorting is not saved inside the ReqIF file.

Show/Hide deleted requirement objects

Soft deleted objects will be marked for deletion but are not removed from a specification until PURGE is not pressed. The deleted objects can be shown or hidden

View definitions (views)

Views are a sub-set of the attributes that are displayed. The views are not saved inside the ReqIF. file Views can be exported and later imported.

The views can be imported and used on any specification as long as there are attributes with similar names.

Settings

ReqEdit settings menu

Expert users can fine tune ReqEdit for their specific use case, and configure lots of ReqIF settings

Document settings

Manage ReqIF file internal settings

Attribute Types

Attributes

Document attributes

Links

Configure Main Column display settings

Server settings

ReqEdit file server connection settings

Server user credentials

User settings

ReqEdit internal configuration

Interface language

Auto backup settings

Doors table display settings

Cache size

Dashboard startup
Date display format
XHTML Schema validation

Chapter Numbers showing

Add-ons

ReqEdit Add-ons menu

Displays all available add-ons which are active in the current license. Descriptions below.

Help

ReqEdit Help menu

Contains a user guide. Can display Information about the active license. Display keyboard shortcuts. Check for online updates. Display version information about the current ReqEdit release.

Add-ons

ReqEdit Ultimate comes with powerful addons that extends the base functionality.

Xml Editor

Look inside ReqIF files and check the xml code. The editor comes with a built in ReqIF validation function that will debug any invalid code. Read more here.

Excel importer

Turn your excel files into ReqIF files. Data exchange is more realiable and lossless if ReqIF is used. Read more here.

Compare / Merge tool

Will generate a comparison report that can be handed out as a signle html file. Read more here.

Weak-word Analysis

Weak words are words that are confusing for readers and should be avoided if possible. This tool provides a case insensitive whole word search for this purpose, optionally writing the results back in the ReqIF file. Read more here.

License Detach tool

Take ReqEdit out of the licensing environment. This power feature will enable users not to depend on the local licensing servers and to be able to work from anywhere. Read more here.

Expert knowledge

Tab title configuration

ReqEdit exposes some settings that can be configured for the tabs. The configuration file is located in AppData\Local\REQTEAM\ReqEdit\ReqEditSettings.xml

SettingValuesNotes
TabDocumentTextAlignLeft, RightAlignment of document title in the tab
TabDocumentWidth250pxwidth of the tabs in pixels

Keyboard shortcuts

Ctrl+OOpen file
Ctrl+NNew file
Ctrl+SSave file
Ctrl+Shift+SSave as
Ctrl+WClose file
Ctrl+Shift+WClose all file
Alt+F4Close application
Ctrl+DDelete Sorting
Ctrl+FFind text
Ctrl+HReplace text
Ctrl+EAdd new or edit filter
Ctrl+ADeactivate filter
Ctrl+QDelete filter
Alt+NAdd new object below
Alt+Shift+NAdd new child object
Ctrl+TabSwitch between open tabs
Ctrl+CCopy text information inside the cell
Ctrl+XCut text information inside the cell
Ctrl+VPaste text (remove all formatings)
Ctrl+Alt+SStart link
Ctrl+Alt+EEnd link
Ctrl+Alt+RReset start link
Ctrl+Alt+RReset start link
F1Open help
F2Open selected cell in edit mode
F3Check for update
F5License information
F6XML Editor
F8Document settings
F9Shortcut window
Shortcuts used in ReqEdit