Education / IBM DOORS / Level 03
IBM DOORS expert course: DXL and integration
Three days of DXL programming, traceability automation and extending the interface, with an eye on what survives the move to DOORS Next and what has to be rewritten.
- Duration
- 3 days (flexible)
- Prerequisites
- Prior programming and DOORS use
- Version
- DOORS 9.7.2 and DOORS Next
- Group
- Small
- Format
- On site or live online
- Practice
- 70 % of the time writing code
- Language
- English, Spanish or French
- Materials
- Scripts commented in English
01 Who it is for
You have inherited scripts nobody dares to touch
Almost every team with years of DOORS behind it has a folder of DXL written by somebody who has left: reports that fire every Friday, checks that fail silently, and a custom menu half the department uses without knowing what it does underneath. The course teaches you to write new DXL and, above all, to read and refactor what is already in production.
Tool admin and tooling support
You maintain the automation the rest of engineering relies on and you answer when it stops working.
Process engineering
You automate requirements quality checks and recurring coverage reports.
Toolchain architecture
You are weighing up the move to DOORS Next and need to know what comes across and what gets left behind.
02 Structure
Three days with the editor open
Sessions are closed and built for each team, so how much weight each block gets is agreed with you when the dates are set. You write code from the first morning. The working case includes an inherited script with its bad decisions intact, which gets read, debugged and refactored across the course.
The language and the programming modelDay 1
The fundamentals of DXL and the way the language sees DOORS information, up to the point where you can read and debug somebody else's code with confidence. The afternoon works on a real inherited script.
Automation and extending the toolDay 2
Automating the traceability work and bringing it into the interface: checks that run on their own, recurring reports, and your own extensions inside the DOORS client.
Scale, integration and DOORS NextDay 3
What it takes for a script to hold up on a large database and to be maintainable by somebody else, and what happens to all that automation the day the programme considers moving to DOORS Next.
The detailed syllabus is sent on requestFull programme, lab briefs and attendee material. We send it to the training manager along with a proposed set of dates.
Request the syllabus03 Outcomes
What you will be able to write, debug and decide
Navigate the object model
Reach all the project information from code, including the language traps that make scripts fail silently.
Automate traceability
Let the tool work out coverage on its own and flag whatever breaks the project's rules.
Extend the interface
Add your own views, menus and dialogs to DOORS so the team has what it needs within reach.
Debug what fails silently
Find the cause when a script stops working without raising any error at all.
Write maintainable DXL
Produce code somebody else can still maintain in two years and that does not fall over on a large module.
Plan the migration
Know which part of your automation survives the move to DOORS Next and what has to be rethought from scratch.
DOORS Next is built on the Jazz platform and does not run DXL: any automation that depends on the language today has to be rethought on the REST API and OSLC. That inventory (which scripts have a direct equivalent, which get rewritten and which disappear because the platform already solves it) is the day-three deliverable, and it is usually the missing piece for estimating the migration. Reference: official IBM DOORS Next documentation. SIXE has been delivering IBM technology training for over fifteen years.
04 Learning path
Where this level sits
Back to the IBM DOORS training hub to compare the three levels.
05 Frequently asked
Before you sign your team up
01What level of programming is needed?
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Having programmed before in some structured language. DXL has a syntax close to C and the course assumes concepts such as variable, type, loop, function and scope. You do not need to be a professional developer, but you do need to have written code.
02Can it be taken without the advanced course?
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Yes, as long as you know DOORS well as a user: modules, attributes, views and links. Advanced is about administration and this one is about programming; they are parallel branches rather than consecutive ones.
03Can we bring our own scripts?
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That is what we recommend. For closed corporate training we use your inherited DXL as the case study: it gets read, debugged and refactored in class. The team leaves with improved code as well as the knowledge.
04How much of the course is DOORS Next?
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The final day. It covers the component and global configuration model, the absence of DXL on the Jazz platform, and working with the REST API and OSLC, closing with the inventory of which automation migrates and which has to be rewritten.
05Is it useful for preparing a DOORS Next migration?
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It is useful for sizing it from the automation side, which is usually the worst-estimated part. The full migration (data model, components, phased plan) we handle as a separate consulting project.
06Is the lab code handed over?
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Yes. Attendees take away every script from the course with comments, including the refactored version of the inherited script and the menu and dialog template to reuse.
Show us your DXL
Send us a couple of representative scripts and we will tune the labs to your real code before the course starts.
Or by phone: +34 91 198 02 43
