Getting Started

So you have installed Xuse what next?

Extract the template project

Xuse comes with a template project that creates the appropriate directory structure and has example requirements and use-cases that will hopefully allow you to understand how a Xuse project is organised and allow you to experiment with the XML constructs.

  1. Navigate to a directory of your choice
  2. Create a new directory for your new requirements project and cd into this directory (Note this directory will be known as the PROJECT_BASEDIR for the remainder of this guide).
  3. type the following command (note: it may be necessary to replace the xuse command with xuse.sh when running on certain *nix environments)
    xuse xuse:new-project
  4. A new project structure will have been created. You will find a sample requirements repository under PROJECT_BASEDIR/src/requirements/xuse-requirements.xml. Several example use-cases can also be found under PROJECT_BASEDIR/src/use-cases in the relevant sub-directories.
  5. From the PROJECT_BASEDIR type the following command:
    xuse xuse:html
  6. This will generate the HTML documentation.
  7. Open up the HTML file at PROJECT_BASEDIR/target/docs/xuse/index.html and navigate through the examples.
  8. Congratulations Xuse is installed correctly.

Making your own changes

With any luck the install was pain free and you have now viewed the resulting HTML from the template project. The generation of the HTML may have seemed straightforward but how do you make your own changes to the model which are reflected in the HTML?

First things first: you need to edit the XML source files. Don't be afraid to make changes - as long as the XML is well formed# Xuse should still function. It also has a built in validation report that should alert you to any significant problems.

You could try copying an existing requirement to make a new one or copying a use-case to make a new one. Once you are satisfied with your changes you can see the effects by re-running the xuse:html command to re-generate the HTML output. Full details of the various Xuse XML data structures and more advanced options can be found in the user guide.

Creating and intial set of requirements

If you are in the process of workshopping or brainstorming your initial set of requirements you may find it more convenient to list these in a spreadsheet. If you follow the structure of the CSV format you can import the requirements into Xuse using the xuse:import-requirements command.

# - Well formed XML documents are defined by the XML Specification. To see whether your files are well formed simply drag and drop them on IE or another web browser. If they can display the XML the file is well formed.