How to export Object history in IBM Rational DOORS

Answer

There are at least two possibilities to obtain and export the history of individual objects from a DOORS formal module.

Obtaining object history from the module Properties

1. Open a module and go to File, Properties and select the History tab.
2. On the bottom click "Export". The whole history of the module will be saved as a generic file.
3. Of course, if the module was baselined, only the history since the last baseline will be available from there. The previous history is to be found in the respective baseline.
4. The exported file is a tab separated data generic file that you can open in Notepad but also in Microsoft Excel.
5. It is recommended to use Microsoft Excel so you can sort the data according to your needs and select those records for every user. Subsequently you can create reports from this.

Obtaining object history using a DXL script from the DXL Reference Manual

1. Navigate to the DXL Reference Manual and search for History.
2. In the History section the very last script is called "History example program".
3. You will need to adjust that example to meet your needs.
   For example, if you want to obtain the history of an object, open a module, select the object and go to Tools, Edit DXL and run the following script (an adaptation of the script from the DXL Reference Manual):

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// history DXL Example                                                  

/*                                                                      

  Example history DXL program.                                          

  Generate a report of the current Module's                              

  history.                                                              

*/                                                                      

// print a brief report of the history record                            

void print(History h) {                                                  

    HistoryType ht = h.type                                              

    print h.author "\t" h.date "\t" ht "\t"                              

    if (ht == createType ||                                              

        ht == modifyType ||                                              

        ht == deleteType)  { // attribute type                          

        print h.typeName                                                

    } else if (ht == createAttr ||                                      

               ht == modifyAttr ||                                      

               ht == deleteAttr)  {                                      

      // attribute definition                                            

      print h.attrName                                                  

    } else if (ht == createObject ||                                    

               ht == clipCopyObject  ||                                  

               ht == modifyObject) { // object                          

        print h.absNo                                                    

        if (ht==modifyObject) {                                          

        // means an attribute has changed                                

            string oldV = h.oldValue                                    

            string newV = h.newValue                                    

           print " (" h.attrName ":" oldV " -> "                        

                 newV ")"                                                

        }                                                                

    }                                                                    

    print "\n"                                                          

}                                                                        

// Main program                                                          

History h                                                                

print "\nHistory for current Object\n\n"                                

for h in current Object do print h