REQCHECKER™ Change Log

Ugrade limits

Increased maximum capacity to 100,000 requirements for text reports and 40,000 requirements for Excel and PDF reports.

Chocolatey

Deployment with Chocolatey is supported. You can deploy REQCHECKER™ with a single command, e.g. choco install reqchecker --pre.

Jira reader

Atlassian Jira Software is an open-source flexible project management web application. It can be used to record tickets defining the need for a software or system change. The Jira reader plugin extracts tickets from a Jira custom query and imports them as requirements. A .jira file stores the connection credentials and the link to the query.

New programming languages

REQCHECKER™ supports 8 additional programming languages or parameter files: Kotlin, Groovy, PHP, TypeScript, YAML, Objective-C, ASP, Swift.

Regular Expression for Linked attribute

REQCHECKER™ is able to accept sereval syntax for the tag LINKED. In particular, this function makes it easier to recognise references to requirements so that they are not misunderstood as statements.

Log filtered positions

REQCHECKER™ shows the list of positions effectively filtered in its log area. The user can better understand the effects of active filters on the analysed texts.

Modern GUI

The visual aspect of the man-machine interface is modernised. It’s nicer!

Decimal rate for partial coverage

The value of the rate for a partial coverage accept decimal value with a maximum of 3 digits after decimal point. E.g. <<REQ_01>> #P 0.5%. The partial coverage method with percentage can thus continue to be used when a requirement is implemented by more than 100 covers.

Extended wildcards

The wildcard syntax offers more features: character range, pattern list. It brings a gain in efficiency for users who are not familiar with regular expressions.

Upgrade Technical stack

Upgrade technical stack to get better performance and security.

Redmine reader

Redmine is an open-source flexible project management web application. It can be used to record tickets defining the need for a software or system change. The Redmine reader plugin extracts tickets from a Redmine custom query and imports them as requirements. A .redmine file stores the connection credentials and the link to the query.

Auto importation mode

This extraction mode allows to import sentences from a document without any particular structure and to automatically recognize those that are potentially requirements. With this mode, any document can be covered.

Requirement sort order for EXCEL reports

A new option Excel sorted by ID sorts requirements by ID in EXCEL reports (Enabled) or use the discovery order (Disabled).

Quick Properties

Add-in for Microsoft Word provides quick access to editing and inserting MS WORD custom properties.

Excel links improvement

Add-in for Microsoft Word supports links to a statement located in an EXCEL file.

Coverage Matrix improvements

Automatically set the numeric type for EXCEL columns whose value is a number.

Standalone Add-in for Microsoft Word

Minor improvements for Add-in for Microsoft Word: installation is independant from REQCHECKER™ ; upgrade does not require uninstallation

Google Docs reader

REQCHECKER™ is able to read Google Docs documents accessed from Google Drive.

Improvements for MS Word .doc reader

Now the reader works without the need to install Microsoft WORD on the computer. The read speed is greatly improved. The plugin supports more features: tracking of changes taken into account, images, hidden text not visible, custom chapter numbering.

Cross document rules

The Cross document rules check module allows you to control how requirements are covered in different documents, for example by ensuring that all high-level requirements are covered in both the software architecture AND the low-level requirements. This type of control is necessary to implement the V-cycle rules of IEC 62304, DO178C, ISO 26262, etc.

Default document mode improvement

The default mode assigned to a new document is improved: if the document can be read in "database" mode then this mode is assigned, otherwise the most used mode for documents with the same extension is assigned.

GUI improvements

Add a toolbar and the recent files list.

Check summary

The summary of all check errors is added to the Verification Table.

Authoring addin for Microsoft WORD

Requirement creation with template, custom attributes, automatic ID creation.

Full text search, including exact term search and error type filter.

Integrated requirement viewer including highlight of search results and dynamic navigation between documents.

Coverage creation with automatic version management.

See Word Add-In

Reader improvements

MS Word .docx reader: add support for text and table in a shape. Reduce duration of PDF report generation.

Default requirement attributes

Initial list of attributes for a new project has been improved.

Parser improvement

In case of conflict between two tags when one is included in the other (e.g. #P for partial coverage and #Priority for requirement priority), REQCHECKER™ selects the longest one.

Non blocking dynamic folder

When a dynamic folder is analyzed, the work does not stop on unsupported documents.

GUI Improvement

A slider is inserted to resize the message area at the bottom of the GUI.

Placeholders for report

Placeholders can be used for the report directory and file name.

Non-standard version

The menu Options > Non-standard version accepts requirement with a version that begins with a letter. If unchecked, the version must begin with a digit.

LEAF for empty heading

If a requirement is created from a document chapter and if this chapter is empty, then the associated requirement is set as LEAF. This avoids to cover useless chapters.

Heading support for ODT documents

Add support of heading and style name for OpenOffice documents (*.ODT OpenDocument format). Statement retrieval from Heading is now supported. Filtering by style name is now supported.

Basic markdown support

Add basic support for markdown documents as text files.

HTTPS Website

Add links to HTTPS website for online help, contact form, download page etc..

New help

Updated webhelp now available online and offline.

Linked requirement

Two requirements can be linked with the new tag LINKED. This new relationship helps on impact analysis. More...

Coverage Matrix improvements

Option Text in coverage matrix is replaced by Extended Coverage Matrix. It controls the display/hide of text, management rate, coverage rate, links and custom tags in the Matrix sheet. The requirement ID column in the matrix sheet of the Coverage Matrix contains hyperlinks that link to the requirement details in the Status sheet. More...

Verification Table improvement

When the Verification Table is updated, added rows are inserted in the same order than in the source document. More...

Markdown Report improvement

Markdown Report uses markdown structure. More...

TSE compatibility

Floating token system is compliant with Microsoft Terminal Services. More...

Update PIE colors

PIE colors can be customized. More....

New custom tag types

(REQCHECKER™ PRO only) Requirement custom tags (or attributes) can use the following new types:

• Multiline Text extracts a requirement tag on several lines. The text is read until the next known thing: next keyword, next chapter or next requirement.
• Cell Text extracts the tag keyword from a table cell and the tag value from the next cell. Reader plugins must support table recognition (for example: .pdf, .docx).

Reader improvements

The MS Word .docx and .doc reader plugin recognizes the bullet style (one level only). The MS Word .docx reader plugin recognizes table cells (one level only). The PDF reader plugin detects and ignores watermarks. Paragraph recognition is improved. (REQCHECKER™ PRO only)

Parser improvements

Accepts the dash character - as part of a requirement version.

Forces the first character of a requirement version to be a digit or an exception. This improves version parsing when there is no termination tag END VERSION. The exceptions are v, V and DELETED for compatibility with some existing projects.

Allows file ID to be 8 characters long when it is modified manually.

Requirement filtering by title

(REQCHECKER™ PRO only) This set of filters ignores (removes) requirements whose title matches one of the filters in the list. The filter value is case-sensitive. The filter value can use * (one or more characters) or ? (any character) wildcards to filter a position containing text. Default values for a new project ignore requirements containing dotted lines in a table of contents; this avoids the several statements error when the table of content refers to some requirement statements.

Text filtering by style name

(REQCHECKER™ PRO only) This set of filters ignores (removes) the text of the document whose style name matches one of the filters in the list. The filter value is case-sensitive. The filter value can use * (one or more characters) or ? (any character) wildcards to filter a position. Default values for a new project ignore the table of content styles; this avoids the several statements error when the table of content refers to some requirement statements.

Compatibility with REQTIFY

• The new title for requirement parsing option. When disabled, no title is read from requirement.
• The statement version tag and the coverage version tag can use the same keyword.
• The BEGIN COVER statement prefix (see Coverage GUI tab) can be written in the line or cell immediately preceding the REQUIREMENT ID.
• Comparison of requirement versions is not case-sensitive.

New Syntax+Full extraction mode in Data Source tab

This new extraction mode considers any part of the document as a requirement. It extracts requirements using syntax and all other paragraphs extracted too. This mode provides a way to extract text for checking and traceability.

New Limit text to first section option

If enabled and if END TEXT tag is defined, the extracted requirement text stops at the next section (next chapter or next sheet) or the next tag.

Check engine

The check engine runs several checks on requirement titles and text to increase consistency and ease of reading. French, German, and English are the languages supported. The language used by checks is selected dynamically to match the main language of the analyzed document. Combined with the Syntax+Full parsing option, a full document, including requirements (if any) and other paragraphs, can be reviewed. If a static or dynamic folder is used in the Data Sources tab, the check engine checks a batch of documents. All errors are listed in the Verification Table and the Coverage PDF Report. The requirements that are not compliant with rules have the VALIDATION_ERROR status. Each check component can be fully enabled / disabled.

Blacklist check component

Blacklist check component finds all ambiguous (most, often, at ... level) or forbidden (ASAP, TBC, TBD, etc.) terms and expressions. Detection may or may not be case-sensitive. Wildcards can be used to specify the forbidden expression, or advanced regular expression. Rules are executed in the declaration order. When part of the text does not comply with a rule, it will not be used for the next rules. Several predefined lists of expressions are available for French, German, and English.

Customize controls

Rules can be customized or extended to another language. (REQCHECKER™ PRO only)

Metrics check component

Metrics check component checks several metrics that make text hard to read or ambiguous: * Maximum Negation Count: checks the maximum number of negations included in a sentence. Sentences with too many negations are hard to read. * Maximum Sentence Length: checks the maximum number of words included in a sentence. Sentences which are too long are hard to understand. * Maximum Number of Conjunctions and Adverbs: too many coordination conjunctions (and, or, for, same for French and German, etc.), subordinate conjunctions (after, though, unless, same for French and German, etc.), link adverbs (furthermore, unlike, besides, same for French and German, etc.) and logical relation adverbs (because, since, in order that, same for French and German, etc.).

Deletion management for Verification Table

(REQCHECKER™ PRO only) The Verification Table separates the DELETED status, and requirement deletion from documents. Requirements with DELETED status appear in the Verification Table with the !DELETED! prefix displayed in the title and in the text. Requirements removed from documents appear with a strike-through the text and the (deleted) value in the Result column.

Feature

GUI Improvement: The New menu creates a new empty project.

Verification Table and Coverage Matrix improvement

New option Text in coverage matrix adds a column with the requirement text in the two tabs of Coverage Matrix. (REQCHECKER™ PRO only)

Automatic Impact Analysis

The software automatically creates a version for each requirement where no version is defined by the statement. The automatic version is a 6 characters length hash number. The hash is computed from the text and picture read from PDF and MS Word docx documents. The automatic version is not dependant from the following changes: case sensitive change, bullet modification, spaces.

Dynamic folders

The Add Folder button in Data sources tab now inserts either the files in batch mode, or lists the files at runtime. This works for folder and sub-folders. The advanced patterns allows filters like *.{cpp,h}.

Path update

The path of a file or a folder can be updated without changing other characteristics.

Regular expression conversion

When user switches from standard to advanced regular expression, the existing values are converted. Switch back to standard expression is not possible, then values are reset to default.

New export under Java enum format

This allows to reference requirements directly from Java language, for example as link in JavaDoc source code. (REQCHECKER™ PRO only)

Read comments for new languages

Python (.py, .pyw), Windows and Linux script files (.bat, .sh), C include files (.inc). (REQCHECKER™ PRO only)

PDF Improvement

Improved PDF chapter titles recognition: new numbering patterns

Leaf requirements

The new LEAF tag defines that the requirement is leaf. A leaf requirement is covered by default; it must not be explicitly covered. The default tag value is #Leaf and can be customized. Leaf requirement have a correct status in the reports. The status can be error if it is covered, has several statements etc. Example:

[REQ_02]The red light must be on if the sub-system raises an alert. <<DSC_0012>> #Partial <<DSC_0013>> #Leaf

Statement from heading numbers

Statement from heading numbers is available for MS Word 97 documents

Management rate

The management rate is the rate of requirement explicitly managed, excluding requirement with error. The coverage rate is the coverage rate excluding not applicable and not managed requirements. For example let 3 requirements covered, 1 explicitly not covered, 2 not applicable and 4 not yet managed, with a total of 10 requirements. The management rate is 60% (6/10) and the coverage rate is 75% (¾).

Coverage rate

Coverage rate can be detailed in percentage. The coverage rate is more accurate, especially if requirements are not unitary. For example:

<<REQ_0040>> #Partial 13% ... <<REQ_0040>> #Partial 30% ... <<REQ_0040>> #Partial 40% ... <<REQ_0040>> #NA 17%

Coverage PDF Report Improvement

Updated Coverage PDF Report with new look and rates

Performance improvement

Performance improvement about 20%

German language

Graphical user interface and tooltips are available in German

§beginning

Display §beginning for position found before the first encountered chapter in PDF or WORD documents.

§beginning

(REQCHECKER™ PRO only)

The text of a custom tag without end tag stops at the end of line (previous behaviour) or when another tag if read. This allows to write all tags on the same line.

Eclipse content assistance

(REQCHECKER™ PRO only)

C++ and Java developers can import the requirement definition and use the Eclipse IDE content assistant (CTRL+SPACE) to select the requirement and insert coverage.