Preferences

Set preferences to define default application behaviors.

Purpose

To access the Preferences window, click Window > Preferences. Change a setting in the Preferences and click Apply. Click OK to set the preference and close the window.

To restore the preferences to the default settings, click Restore Defaults.

Parameters

The following table describes each preference in the Method section that can impact EPF Composer.

Table 1. EPF Composer preferences
Setting Description
Method > Authoring Use this page to set the default path for the method library. You can also set the following preferences:
  • Discard unresolved references (off by default): The option can help you clean up your library and remove errors that are reported in the Problems view. However, you should analyze why these references were broken and be clear about your intention to remove them before you select this option.
  • Use new Extends semantics (off by default): If the option is not selected, Extends variability works as described in Method content variability. If the option is selected, semantic rules for Extends are available as specified in the OMG finalized SPEM 2.0 specification (Software and Systems Process Engineering Metamodel). See http://www.omg.org/issues/spem2-ftf.open.html#Issue11284 and http://www.omg.org/spec/SPEM/2.0/ for details.
  • History size for previous path choices (default is 10)
  • Enable method library validation (off by default): This option enables some additional commands in the EPF Composer user interface (for example, the Validate button in the Library view's toolbar as well as the context menu) that allow you to run validation operations on the method library for finding inconsistencies.
  • Show External ID fields in editors (off by default): When selected, one extra name field will be displayed in element’s form editor called External ID. The content of this field will be published as a second name with every element where it is applied to.
Method > Authoring > Library View Options Use this page to choose the default element link type when dragging an element from the Library or Configuration view into a rich text editor field. The choices are:
  • Method element (default)
  • Method element with type prefix
  • Method element with custom text
Method > Authoring > Process Editor

Use this page to show or hide columns in the Work Breakdown Structure, Team Allocation, and Work Product Usage tabs of the Process editor.

  • Use the menu, and the Add, Remove, Up and Down buttons to change the layout of all process editor tabs. These changes also impact how the tree structure is published to HTML. Only the columns that you select will be published in the order that you specify here.
  • You can also set the preference for switching to the process's default configuration when activating a Process editor. The default is to prompt the user.
  • Inherit suppression states (on by default): When applying a capability pattern to a process, this option decides if the applied pattern should have the same elements suppressed as the original pattern or if all element suppressions should be removed. Elements can be suppressed via the Properties view and through the context menu operations.
Method > Authoring > Process Editor > Breakdown Element Attributes

Use this page to specify the default values for some of the attributes of process elements created in the Process editor.

The following attributes are available for selection for Phase, Iteration, Activity, and Milestone:
  • Optional (off be default)
  • Multiple Occurrences (off by default)
  • Planned (on by default)
  • Event-Driven (off by default)
  • Ongoing (off by default)
  • Repeatable (off by default)
The following attributes are available for selection for Role, Task, and Work Product Descriptors:
  • Optional (off be default)
  • Multiple Occurrences (off by default)
  • Planned (off by default)
  • Event-Driven (off by default)
  • Ongoing (off by default)
  • Repeatable (off by default)
Method > Publishing/Browsing
Use this page the set the following preferences:
  • Default path: Set the default path for publishing Web sites.
  • Feedback URL: Set the default URL for Feedback that should be used for a new method configuration.
  • Include method content in descriptor pages: This option defines how the browsing perspective presents descriptor pages (default is false). See Publishing configurations as Web sites for details.
Method > Publishing/Browsing > Activity Diagrams Use this page to set the preferences for the following activity diagrams and activity detail diagrams:
  • Publish activity diagrams for unmodified activity extensions (off by default)
  • Publish activity detail diagrams that have not been created in process editor (off by default)
  • Number of tasks per row (default is 10)
See Publishing configurations as Web sites for details.
Method > Publishing/Browsing > Role Diagram The parameters of this page define the layout of the Role Diagram that is published with a role page.
Method > Publishing/Browsing > Supporting Plugins Supporting method plug-ins are method plug-ins which content will only be published if it is referenced by another method plug-in.
  • Include descriptor relationships to linked elements in supporting plugins (off by default): This option defines an exception of this rule for relationship from a descriptor to a method content element. The default is to not publish such elements.