Capabilities and limitations of ClearCase UCM integrations with ClearQuest

Answer

Over the course of many releases, ClearCase has introduced a variety of integrations with various change management (CM) systems, such as ClearQuest and Rational Team Concert. The implementations of these integrations were always dependent on the CM system and the ClearCase context: GUIs, command line interfaces, integrated with Eclipse, the ClearCase local client (CCLC; the "thick" client, which supports dynamic and snapshot views), and the ClearCase remote client (CCRC, which supports automatic and Web views). Further, the integrations are differentiated by the ClearCase configuration management model: Unified Change Management (UCM) or base ClearCase.

The Change Management Integration (CMI) architecture was introduced in 2013. It is a robust implementation in the core of ClearCase that provides a uniform and extensible integration across all ClearCase contexts and both configuration management models.

• CMI supports the GUIs and command line interfaces of CCLC and CCRC.
• It supports both base ClearCase and UCM. Further, it allows multiple CM systems to be used in a single ClearCase UCM project context.
• As of ClearCase versions 8.0.1.8 and 8.0.0.15, CMI be configured for ClearQuest, Rational Team Concert, and Jira.
• It provides security for customers who require smart card authentication.

CMI was designed to accommodate the realities of a loosely coupled integration. The older UCM-CCLC integration, in particular, created the illusion that ClearCase and ClearQuest were tightly coupled. However, separate transactions--one for ClearCase and one for ClearQuest--are required to complete an integrated operation, which means that the operations may only partially succeed and leave ClearCase and ClearQuest data in inconsistent states. CMI logs partial failures and supports replaying failed operations to restore consistency.

As a result of the different design goals, CMI provides features not possible with the older integrations and does not provide some of the features of the older integrations. However, bear in mind that features available only in the older integrations are supported in sharply limited contexts that may not be adaptable to evolving business requirements.

The table that follows compares the capabilities and limitations of the following ClearCase integrations with ClearQuest.

• ClearCase UCM with locally installed ClearQuest, referred to as the local client integration.
  NOTE: this integration is not supported in V9.0 and later releases
• ClearCase UCM with ClearQuest Web, referred to as the web client integration.
• ClearCase Change Management Interface (CMI) configured for ClearQuest, referred to as the CMI integration.

Feature	Local client integration	Web client integration	CMI integration	Notes
Uses remote OSLC Change Management (CM) interface on CM server	No	Yes	Yes
Requires local ClearQuest client	Yes	No	No	.
Is configurable on UCM stream	No	No	Yes
Is configurable on UCM project	Yes	Yes	No
Is configurable on base ClearCase branch type	No	No	Yes
Supports base ClearCase	No	No	Yes
Supports record creation from ClearCase	Yes	Yes, for ClearTeam Explorer; no, for other ClearCase interfaces	No	The local client integration enables you to use the cleartool mkactivity command to create a new ClearQuest record.
Hides activity creation	Yes	Yes	No	The local and web integrations intentionally restrict you to using only ClearQuest records as your activities.
Supports ClearTeam Explorer	No	Yes	Some	Using the web integration, you can perform a WorkOn operation, run queries, and find activities. CMI supports ClearTeam Explorer but does not make use of its built-in ClearQuest functionality (that is, ClearQuest nodes in the Navigator pane).
Supports rcleartool	No	No	No
Can perform StartWork operations from ClearQuest	Yes	Yes	No	From the local client integration, you can set the record/activity as the current one. The web client integration opens a ClearCase browser (that is, one of the "Explorers" or xclearcase) for you to select a view.
Displays ClearQuest records instead of activities	Yes	Yes	No	The local and web client integrations do not display UCM activities. Work is performed on the record and the linked activity is hidden.
Can link activities to records	Yes	Yes	Yes	The local and web integrations match the IDs and Headlines of the record to the corresponding activity. They also populate the record with the stream, VOB, and view information. CMI creates only links between the activity and the record.
Unsets activities from view after delivery	Yes	Yes	No, but a ClearCase trigger can be used to effect an equivalent operation for CMI
Supports ClearQuest server side connection to CC	Yes	Yes	No	Some customization in the local and web client integrations, in the form of BASIC or Perl scripts, is supported. Some of the ClearQuest defaults call back to ClearCase as well, but they can do whatever the administrator configures them to do. This is part of the ClearQuest UCM package and allows ClearQuest to control the policies governing the local and web client integrations.
Supports ClearQuest UCM Package (fields controlled)	Yes	Yes	No	Several fields on the ClearQuest records that use the UCM Package (which is required for for both the local and web client integrations) are not user-modifiable. Queries are populated against these fields. There is a tab on the ClearQuest form reserved for the package (Unified Change Management) that contains the UCM Project, Stream, View, and the Change Set, which is fetched from ClearCase and not stored locally in ClearQuest.
Supports policies	Yes	Yes	Some	Most of the ClearQuest integration policies are for performing ClearQuest actions that are specified in the scripts, either before or after some ClearCase operation: WorkOn, deliver, or chactivity
Provides policy administration GUI	Yes	Yes	No	The local and web client integrations support changing policies using the Project Explorer GUI. This also includes which record types are allowed. You can view the policies from either integration in the project record. They are modifiable by the local client integration, but not by the web client integration.
Can query for records to use	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supports custom static queries (none of the integrations support custom dynamic queries)	Yes	Yes, for ClearTeam Explorer; no for other ClearCase interfaces	Yes, extensive	The local client integration supports modification of UCMCustomQuery1. For CMI, a query must be specified (there is no default).
Supports state transitions	Yes	Yes	Yes	The local and web client integrations support enforced state transitions as well as some optional transitions that are configured by policy. CMI supports state transitions for both UCM and base ClearCase.
Supports custom state transitions	No	No	Yes, extensive	CMI supports customizable state transitions, but they are not configured by default. Because the UCM package strictly controls the record types, it is not possible to customize state transitions.
Supports ClearCase triggers for restricting configuration	Yes	Yes	Yes	Configuration of the local and web client integrations can be restricted with triggers on chproject and mkproject operations. For CMI, configuration can be restricted with triggers on mkcmprovider and rmprovider.
Supports configuration inheritance	No	No	Yes	With CMI, a child streams inherits the parent's configuration, unless CMI is explicitly configured on the child stream.
Supports proxy servers	No	Yes	No	The web client integration supports proxy servers through the Windows and Unix/Linux native GUIs and ClearTeam Explorer.
Supports ClearTeam Explorer ClearQuest proxy servers	No	Yes	No	The web client integration uses the cq-db-mapfile to support both a back-end proxy and a proxy for the ClearQuest Change Management API through ClearTeam Explorer.
Supports ClearQuest Multisite	Yes	Yes	No	Some policies in the local and web client integrations allow you to change the mastership of a record to the ClearQuest replica that is associated with the ClearCase replica that masters the linked activity. You cannot change mastership if the ClearQuest record is not locally mastered.
Supports ClearCase Multisite	Yes	Yes	Yes	In a ClearCase MultiSite deployment, you must create the CMI attribute types to have shared mastership and you must specify the VOB's mkcmprovider configuration at the site that masters the replica object of interest. The site must also master the branch types or streams that are to be configured. Tasks on the ClearCase side are VOB objects and are replicated. Both base ClearCase and UCM are supported.
Supports multiple Change Management (CM) server connections	No	No	Yes, except for a configuration of ClearTeam Explorer with the Rational Team Concert Bridge
Supports other task providers	No	No	Yes	CMI can also be configured for Rational Team Concert and JIRA.
Checks credentials on registration	Yes	Yes	No	CMI maps user credentials but does not verify them (intentionally).
Provides GUI for crmregister operations	Yes	No	No
Supports smart card authentication	No	No	Yes
Supports discordance repair	Yes	Yes	Yes
Logs errors	No	No	Yes
Supports replay	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supports atomic checkin operations	No	No	Yes
Supports Cadence Virtuoso integration	No	No	Yes
Supports automatic views	No	Yes	Yes
Supports ClearCase MultiSite and ClearQuest MultiSite used together	No	No	Yes
Supports migration from (perl-based) Base CC integration	No	No	Yes	CMI supports full migration (except any custom perl scripts) of all existing links from the perl-based integration to CMI.