4.4. Settings

Figure 4.30 The settings dialog in MQC

4.4.1. Project name

With this setting a dedicated name can be defined for the MQC project. If left empty, the name “Default Project” is applied.

4.4.2. Project time frame

This setting is used to control the data to be shown for a project respectively the amount of data to be imported via API connectors.

Define the start date and end date of the project.

Data with a report date outside the configured project time frame is ignored. Configured milestones with a due date after the project end date are not visible.

If no start and end date is configured, all available data will be imported from a data location.

4.4.3. Revision granularity

This setting defines the degree of compactions of the revisions for which data exists to better visualize your trend visualizations. The revision granularity can be selected depending on your needs.

Figure 4.31 The default revision granularity is Days, but it might be useful to change it to CalendarWeeks or Months

4.4.4. Calendar locale

The calendar locale definition shows the culture information that was used during the creation of the current project.

The formatting of dates in dialogs and the date range selection in the toolbar are based on the calendar locale.

The locale is also respected in the calulation of revision names, when the revision granularity is set to calendar weeks (see Revisions).

Figure 4.32 Select the calendar locale

If an MQC project is shared between areas with different locales, the calendar locale, which was initially determined during the creation of the project, is kept. This allows a consistent view on data and quality.

4.4.5. Context Categories

Per default the usage of Context Categories is disabled, hence, all data is expected and shown for all artifacts. To apply the context category configuration, enable this setting.

With context categories enabled, for each artifact only expected data is shown in all visualizations (see Figure 4.33). All other data is excluded (white areas of the matrix). By this, you can easily distinguish between not expected data and data that is really missing. (see context categories in Artifacts)

Figure 4.33 Availability Heatmap showing expected data (Context Categories enabled).

Additionally, only expected data is used for calculating quality for an artifact.

4.4.6. Propagation of data

MQC offers the feature to propagate data, that is missing at certain revisions, by using data previously imported instead of importing the data again.

The propagation can be enabled for the whole project, or as propagation between milestones. (see Data Propagation)

4.4.7. Revisions without data

By default MQC hides all empty revisions, for which no data was imported.

This setting allows you to display these configured but empty revisions for all artifacts and measures within this project.

4.4.8. Diffs

The Diff View (see Diff View) shows the differences between revisions.

By default, this view compares each revision to its immediate previous revision. Additionally, users can select broader comparison ranges, such as Weeks, Months, Quarters, or Years to compare each revision against the last revision within that selected date range.

Users can select multiple diff bases. For example, enabling Months alongside Revisions.

The active diff base can be switched in the toolbar, allowing users to toggle between selected comparison modes quickly (see Diff Base).

Figure 4.34 Toolbar with Diff Base next to View

4.4.8.1. Milestones

The Diff View (see Diff View) shows the differences between revisions.

By selecting one or more milestone structures under “Diff for milestones”, an additional comparison is created that compares each revision to the last revision of the previous milestone of the selected structure.

The diff comparison base can be switched in the toolbar between the selected milestone structures (see Diff Base).

4.4.9. Monitoring

By default, MQC monitors all configured data locations for changes. The interval for the checks is set to 10 seconds. The next interval only starts after the current check has been completed.

Figure 4.35 Enable/disable the monitoring of the Data Locations and change the monitoring interval

If a change in a data location is detected, either the user is notified about the change or an automatic update of the imported data is triggered (see client-side automatic data refresh in Keep the project up to date).

To disable the monitoring, deselect the option.

Apart from that, the monitoring interval can also be adjusted. This is particularly useful if several data locations with large amounts of data contained are configured, where a check for updates would take longer than the configured interval.

4.4.10. Keep the project up to date

• by the server-side automation service

  MQC projects with this setting enabled and saved in the server library are updated periodically to fetch the latest data changes.

  Background server-side updates are only executed if new or changed data was detected. This ensures that all relevant projects are always kept up to date.

  See Update Projects (and export scheduled) for details on how to add a job to the “Automation Services” on the MQC Server to periodically check and update MQC projects.

• by a client-side automatic data refresh

  MQC projects open in the desktop client and web player use a background monitoring to detect changes in the data of the projects.

  While this setting is disabled, the user is informed of updates by a change in the Refresh Button and Data Import State. The user can then update the project by clicking on the “Refresh Data” button provided there.

  While this setting is enabled, any change detected in the data results in a directly executed update of the project in the client, while the user is interrupted in his work and has to wait until the project has been updated.

4.4.11. Data Details

If Data Details are not disabled, they are imported by the DataSource adapters that can read findings.

• Disabled

  Data Details are disabled.

  The DataSource Adapters do not import findings. The Data Details page and Data Details visualizations are not available.

• On Demand

  Data Details will not be imported by default, but can be loaded on demand later.

  The Data Details visualizations show ‘Not Loaded’ findings, while the List shows a warning message, if data details have not been imported.

  By clicking on the Configure Import button, the data details to be imported can be configured with the combination of artifacts, datasources and revisions.

Figure 4.36 Configure Data Details Import Dialog

• Last [Number] Revisions

  Data Details are imported and transformed for all artifacts for a number of the last revisions.

• All

  Data Details are imported and transformed for all artifacts and all revisions.

4.4.11.1. Relations

Findings might have relations to other findings.

These Relations are only visible in the Data Details List, when expanding a specific finding.

Figure 4.37 MTest Assessment Finding with Relations to Requirements and Testcases

Additionally the relations can be used in the Activity Configuration for the generation of Activities (see Activity generation).

Enabling the relations for data details impacts the runtime of the dataflow.

4.4.11.2. Missing

This setting is useful so see if expected findings are missing.

• Disabled

  Missing findings are not shown at all, there is no “Missing” state.

  Only if Findings have not been loaded, but might exist (On Demand / Last Revisions), “Not Loaded” findings are shown per Data Source.

Figure 4.38 Data Details without Missing

• per Data Source

  Missing findings are created and shown per Data Source.

  Because it is unknown which Finding Structure a missing finding might have, the finding structure is shown as “Unknown” in the Heatmap, Treemap and Structure Visualizations.

Figure 4.39 Data Details with Missing per Data Source

• per Finding Structure

  Missing findings are created and shown per Finding Structure.

  For each finding structure path and artifact, at least one finding is expected. Therefore, a missing finding is created per artifact and finding structure path, if no finding was imported for that artifact and that finding structure path.

  Warning: This option might impact the performance negatively, esp. for large project and some data sources.

Figure 4.40 Data Details with Missing per Finding Structure

4.4.11.3. Date Range

By checking “Show all data details for the selected date range”, the data details are no longer shown for the selected revision and the revision selection is no longer part of the data details page.

All data detail visualizations show all findings in the currently selected date range, everything by default.

This setting is useful if the data was configured as incremental and the findings are therefore also only imported incrementally.

4.4.12. Activity generation

By enabling this setting, activities are generated based on data details and activity configuration(s).

These activities are listed in a Activity List visualization on the data details page, which also allows to create work package(s).

The activity configuration is part of the Quality Model Source (see Managing Configurations and Quality Model).

The following data sources have activity configuration suggestions that can be added manually:

• MXAM

• TPT

• MTest

• CodeAnalyser

• JUnit

• Resharper

• Doc8

• DotCover

• ESLint

4.4.13. Visualization padding

With the visualization padding setting the page styles can be influenced.

This can be useful for different screen resolutions or just for user preference.

Figure 4.41 Visualization Padding: 15 (px), Default

Figure 4.42 Visualization Padding: 5 (px)